12/03/2012 Look East - East

The first hosepipe ban in 20 years for much of the region. The details

on how it will affect you. Hello and welcome to the programme. Also

tonight: An explosion rips apart this house in the Fens. The reason?

Metal thieves. Ruddy saves the day and salvages a point for Norwich.

And the struggle to get on the housing ladder. We have one

Hello. First tonight, after months of speculation it's official. A

hosepipe ban will kick in across large parts of the East from April

5th. So who will be affected? Basically customers who are

supplied by the big two. Anglian Water, which stretches from

Northamptonshire in the West to the coast of Norfolk in the East. And

Veolia Central, the old Three Valleys Water, which covers a large

part of West Essex, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire. At the moment

Cambridge Water, Essex and Suffolk and Veolia East have stopped short

of an outright ban, but they are urging customers to limit the water

they use. Nikki Jenkins reports now from Grafham Water. Under grey, but

dry skies, Grafham Water looks deaccept tifrly full and it is.

are about 69% full. But our aim is to use this resource and make sure

we can use it across the region. We're going to move more water from

here to other areas. Other reservoirs are well down and

Anglian will need to pump treated water from here to Northampton and

Milton Keynes. Today the environment minister praised the

east for being well prepared. drainage boards have filled up

their dykes with water and for this time of year, they're unusually

high. That is part of making sure we build resilience in this dry

part of the country. Over the last two years the region has had 35

centimetres less rain than normal. Last month saw only a third of the

expected rain. But what you see is not the full story. It what is is

happening under the ground that is happening and ground water levels

at near historic lows. Forget 76, the region is drier than at any

time since 1921 and this will be the first house pipe ban in 0 years.

Veolia will introduce its ban on 5th April. It won't be April. We

may introduce them in May or June, depending on how wet March and

April is. Until then we won't know where we stand. The last hosepipe

ban was in place for more than a year. No one know how long it will

take levels to recover this time. Peter Simpson is the Managing

Director of Anglian Water. He's at Grafham now. I thought you were

hopeful you could get through summer without a ban. So why are

you doing it? Well it is important that we react to the fact that we

have had two very dry winters. What we're focused on is that we may

have a third dry winter and we need to make sure we do everything we

can this period now to ensure we have water supplies for next summer.

The last time we spoke, you said you were selling 13% of your water.

So shouldn't you stop doing that before you impose a ban? Well there

is a lot of co-operation between water companies. We're identifying

opportunities to bring water into the region from our neighbours in

Severn Trent and one scheme that we're looking it to bring water

from Yorkshire into the area to reduce the amount of water we

export. So we're maximising the use of the interconnectivety is an

important opportunity and we will look at that to think about the

impact on next summer. How come some companies are not introducing

a ban and some are? Well as you probably can't see, because it is

dark here, but Grafham is full and you could see customer here are

fine. But what we're doing is transferring water from full

reservoirs to areas which are under more stress. So the reality is

different parts are affected differently. We're trying to Ba

thrans resource across the entire area. The last time we had a ban, I

remember the companies put up a helicopter, a spy in the sky, how

will you police it. Will you have a helicopter? A ban is trying to send

a signal to customer that we want them to take their part of this and

be efficient. We're driving our leakage levers low and the hosepipe

ban is a signal. It would be impossible to police every single

person. What we're expecting people is to apply common-sense and just

think about how they are using their water. We had some heavy rain

last week. We had a month's worth in a day. If we got that again

would you still have the ban? The reality is we're coming to the

end of the recharge season now. So a lot of rain that falls in the

summer won't make that much difference to the surface or ground

waters. Once we're at the end of the recharge season the rain has

much less impact than between October and March. And the message

from you is don't use it, or you will lose it. Thank you for being

with us. How will the hosepipe ban affect you? We'd love to hear your

thoughts and stories. You can get in touch by phone, e-mail, or via

the Look East Facebook page. A manhunt is underway in Milton

Keynes after a woman was abducted and raped. She got into what she

thought was a taxi early on Saturday morning. The driver then

took her to an industrial estate where the attack happened. It

should have been a normal Friday night out. But it ended with a

woman saying she'd been raped. The woman had been out for a night in

Milton Keynes. Most of the town's pub and clubs are based or around

this building. She was looking for a taxi home and made her way to the

estate and put out her hand and a car stopped. Because she thought it

was a taxi she got in. But some time later, the a -- the driver

attack here. In 2004 a came bripbt student was murdered after getting

into a car with its driver saying he was a taxy. And then a man

picked up a woman at Bedford station and said he was the cab she

was waited for before assaulting her. If I was going out and got a

taxi, I would rather go to a taxi rank or get a black taxi, than get

in a random car that may say something. But life shouldn't be

like that. It does put me off. Now I'm driving, I don't like to go out

and drive. But I would. If I had to get a taxi on my own, I would stay

on the phone. But you need to be safe. Ask the taxi driver for

identification. They should be, it should be on display. There should

be a photograph of the driver, his number will be there and his name.

And they won't mind giving it over? Absolutely. What have they got to

hide? The police say women shouldn't be alarmed, but advise

them to be vigilant. While the information is in its early stages,

they're appealing for anyone with information to come forward. Metal

thieves are being blamed for an explosion which destroyed a

bungalow in Cambridgeshire. It's believed a gas pipe had been torn

out. Experts warn such thefts are becoming more common. And it's only

a matter of time before someone is killed. The police say it was sheer

luck that no one died or was seriously injured. Bung alow

reduced to rubble in the explosion. I was woken at 1am with a loud bang

and then we saw blue lights. Ran to the front of the house and the

whole place was in flames. It is lucky it went off at 1 o'clock in

the morning, not 8 o'clock. People would have been injured. Neighbours

went to help the couple who live in the adjoining bung alow.

Firefighters managed to stop the flames, but their home has been

damaged. This explosion, well it was awful and he came out and said,

quick, the room is falling to bits. It's all gone into my bed ram.

I caught fire, I thought we ought to get out. It was so frightening.

The house is owned by a housing association and had been empty for

system time and was being renovated the police have said that copper

pipes had been reported stolen from the house. They and fire

investigators are assuming a gas pipe was damaged or removed. It is

becoming an issue in the area. People that are doing these thefts

have got no consideration for the damage they're going to leave

behind and in this case, fortunately it didn't result in

serious injury. I thought it was a bomb. But it was scary. It was

scary. An investigation is now underway into the explosion. Later

in the programme: All the football from the weekend and the struggle

to get on the housing ladder - one BT has apologised to about 200

people in Suffolk who have been getting phone calls for other

people, but none for themselves. The trouble started in an

underground cable after the heavy rain last week. Debbie Tubby has

been to Oulton Broad to meet some of the people living with a

permanently crossed line. Hello? I can ring out on my phone. But I

can't sech calls. Stephen relies on his phone for his plumbing business.

He can dial out and receive calls, but they're not his. They're

someone else's. We have got several wrong number and we thought it was

fun y and talked to other people and realised several people were

affected. So everyone had the wrong number. Stephen uses his land line

to phone his own mobile phone. And it is not his telephone number. It

is David's, who lives two streets away. I get a beep and that is it.?

His daughter har has tried to phone from Canada. We didn't receive

anything, but Stephen across the road, he did receive all our

recorded messages. And he Pazed them on to us. The fault was caused

by water getting into an underground cable. In a statement,

BT said it apologises and they are trying to refair fault, which does

include crossed lines. -- repair the fault. They are keen to get the

problem fixed. Three cannabis growing operations in Essex have

been shut down following dawn raids. A farm at Woodham Mortimer near

Maldon was one of four addresses raided by the police. They also

targeted an industrial unit and two homes. A 50-year-old man has been

arrested. A man has been charged after two mobile phones were thrown

into the grounds of Chelmsford Prison. The police have been aware

of an on going problem of items being thrown to inmates from

neighbouring streets. The 49-year- old from Romford is due in court

next week. A former council tip near Ipswich has been closed,

because not enough people were prepared to pay to dump their

rubbish. A private company took over the site at Bramford six

months ago, but despite introducing a charge, managers say they

couldn't make it pay. Gaye was one of the last people to use the

centre and paid �6 to get rid of some guaranteed rubbish. But not

enough did the same. The company who took over the site from the

council was losing �3,000 a month and has said enough is enough.

make the money on the valuable recyclables and don't cover the

cost now. So we have had to call a day on it. It is a six month trial

that we did with the local parish and we wanted to provide the

service and it didn't work out. ford's problem was a council tip in

Ipswich doesn't charge. Won't you pay? Not �6 for lilt amount I have

got. But hole elors are unhappy that the experiment didn't work and

they have to travel and queue at other sites. The council was wrong.

I feel so. We fought that case and we fought long and hard and

basically couldn't make the point. But I believe the council's wrong.

Suffolk County Council said a charity run site in Newmarket and

this private centre are profitable. It says it is committed to

providing the right solution for each area. The veteran singer Sir

Tom Jones is to stage another concert at Newmarket racecourse

this year. The 71-year-old's star appearance there last summer was a

sell out. Now he's been booked for a second open air concert on August

10th. Sport now and Tom Williams is here with all the football and a

little bit of athletics. Norwich City are edging closer to safety in

the Premier League. They drew 1-1 draw with Wigan yesterday,

surrendering an advantage. But they're up to 12th with a 14-point

cushion over the bottom three. Ten games to go. The manager says he

games to go. The manager says he won't relax until they're safe. A

win for Norwich would have moved them into the top eight and three

points closer to safety and with Wigan's dismal record, they were

expecting big fans. Within ten minutes Norwich led 1-0. Hoolahan

scoring. Wigan have struggled Tor score this season, but Moses fuend

Rodallega who could only find the keeper. Norwich had a shout for a

penalty, but ball to hand said the referee. In the second half, Holt

caused problems, but couldn't score. Wigan came to life, only Ruddy

keeping Norwich on terms. But Moses used his pace to cut through the

defence and round Ruddy. At 1-1, both sides could have won. But the

Norwich No 1 perform well. Neither side could win it. Wigan are a good

side and I knew it would be one of the hardest games of season.

Everyone would expect us to win. But if you can't win a game, make

sure you don't lose it. We may have won it at the death. The keeper

made some great saves, but we're on 36 points and have done very well.

In the Championship, Paul Jewell felt the pitch at the KC Stadium

was abysmal so a point wasn't a bad return. Especially as Hull went 2-0

up on Saturday. Robbie Brady's deflected shot put them ahead.

Robert Koren doubled the lead. But the game changed on a penalty. A

foul on Tommy Smith. Grant Leadbitter scored. And the goal of

the game came from Leadbitter three minutes later. 2-2. He struck it

well, the keep we are will be disappointed, but it was a good

strike and even taking the penalty, showed he has bottle and I thought

second half we were the better team. Just one defeat in eight for

Colchester in League One, but a goalless draw at Wycombe didn't

help their play-off push. Steven Gillespie had the best chance. The

U's are eight points off the top six. Southend, who've today

extended Jack Sampson's loan, are clinging on to their automatic

promotion spot - just. But the manager said their 2-2 draw felt

like a defeat. Accrington ahead. Luke Prosser and Elliot Benyon put

the Blues 2-1 up before Accrington, who had a man sent off, equalised

in the last minute. Southend are third. At the World Indoor

Athletics Championships, Andrew Osagie from Harlow won bronze in

the men's 800 metres. Great finish, stealing third on the line. Robbie

Grabarz from Cambridgeshire came sixth in the high jump. His

clearance of 2.31 metres just two centimetres short of the winning

jump. And on Late Kick Off tonight, the team will take a closer look at

some of the off-the-pitch issues affecting our footballers. Ipswich

and Southend have certainly had quite public disciplinary problems

this season. You put 16 men toogt in a hotel, over night, they're

in a hotel, over night, they're children. And I don't care whether

it was in my day or today. When you get to the bottom leagues, if

they're still on 3,000 pound a week. That is a lot of money to control.

More on that in Late Kick Off Next tonight the government's

latest efforts to kick-start the housing market. But will they work

here in the east? There is no doubt we've got a problem in this region.

Last year 5,000 new people were accepted as being homeless. That's

an increase of more than a quarter on the previous year. The number of

families waiting for social housing is now 160,000 - up 69% over the

last 10 years. And the Home Builders Federation claims we need

to build 32,000 homes every year for the next 20 years to meet

demand. At the moment we're building fewer than half that

number. In a moment, the couple struggling to get on the housing

ladder. But first this from our Political Correspondent, Andrew

Sinclair. This Rose Wood Park, they are building 248 new homes here,

most for the private market. A handful will be low cost housing.

So great is the demand they expect them all to be occupied by the

summer. But the industry said this is not enough. With we don't build

more homes the problems will get worse and the social housing

waiting list will get longer, the average price of housing will go up

and it will be difficult for first time buyers. Say they the biggest

need is in Colchester and Bedfordshire. But nearly every part

isn't building enough homes. People stay at home with their parents

longer and live on friends' sofa and we're seeing street

homelessness come back. That is a sign that the system is cracking.

Cathy and Daryl have moved into their new home after three years on

the council waiting list. weren't being picky where we went,

but every where we bidded only there was people in front of us and

it was a constant frustration. Government does want to see more

homes built. Today the Prime Minister launched a scheme that

will underwrite first time mortgages and he is giving money to

councils who build new homes and changing the planning laws. But

some worry it will lead to more building in the countryside.

don't dispute the fi,, was -- - but it -- we don't dispute the figures,

but it is important we build in the right places. We need it for health

and well being of people and so it is important, because when it's

gone, it's gone. The Government said it is committed to sustainable

development, but says there is a need for more homes. For many of

those would be first time buyers, it is the size of the deposit that

is the obstacle. 20% can translate into thousands. Today a new

guarantee scheme was launch Tods kick start the market. The idea

comes from the Government and it is backed by the industry. Under the

scheme some people can get a 95% mork. At e- mortgage. At this

restaurants they pride themselves on using good local row deuce. The

chef is at the sharp end of another local phenomenon, high property

prices. At 32, he has been living with his parents for three years,

attempting to save up for a leap on to the properties ladder. Now Steve

and his his girlfriend, law a ra, working at a hotel, but study to be

a archaeologist, are moving in to a new flat. Their joint income is

around �40,000 a year, but they having to rent. With renting, you

make -- can't make the house the home you need F you buy it, you can

do it like you want. Renting, it is not your home and you don't feel

that sense of satisfaction, until the day where we hopefully will

purchase a house in the future. What about this scheme, what do you

think of that It sounds like a great idea. If we had to put only

5% on a depoz sits on the flat we're going to move into, that

would be great news and would take us probably half the amount of time.

The scheme aims to help 100,000 people buy a new build home. It

will target home movers and first time buyers. At one estate agent

buy-to-let business has been brisk, but the high deposit demands have

hit hard. It has caused hardship for first and second time buyers.

First time buyers are finding it difficult. As always with such

schemes, the devil may be in the detail. But with the average age of

first time buyers approaching 37 the Government says the scheme is

just what the market needs. And we'll have more on housing on

tomorrow night's programme. If we need thousands more houses, where

are they all going to go? Another subject where we'd welcome your

stories. If you contact us, please don't Fer get to leave a telephone

number. Now the weather. -- don't number. Now the weather. -- don't

forget. Well going back to our lead story on the drought. There is no

sign of any rain and the dry conditions will continue through

the week. We have a large area of high pressure that is sitting right

over the UK. It is having the effect of blocking these weather

systems from bringing us any rain and setting us into a holding

pattern of weather. We will see that the conditions will be quite

similar. It is bringing light winds and that has broughted sunshine and

brightness, without the wind to mix the air up and we have found the

foggy conditions from first thing that lifted into low level cloud

and meant skies were overcast for much of the day. Those misty

condition will return again tonight. Widespread across the region. But

temperatures not too low. Tonight the winds will stay light and be

variable in direction. But in term of our values, perhaps a low of

four drug. -- four Celsius. Once more it will be a misty start

tomorrow. A lot of cloud around and the jury's out on how much that

cloud is going to thin and break. Where we find that cloud stays

thick through the day, temperatures will probably not get higher than

single first. So perhaps a high of seven for those areas. Where we get

a break we could find temperatures up to 12 Celsius. That is 54

Fahrenheit and again light and variable winds. And through the

afternoon it will stay dry, perhaps some breaks in the cloud and

perhaps a bit of brightness and sunshine. So lacking ahead to the

rest of the week. For Thursday the high pressure repositions itself

and by Thursday it is much further to the east and it moves south and

that may draw in some drier air and the better chance of breaking up

the cloud and seeing some sunshine. On Friday, the high pressure moves

well away and these systems cowl in from the west and start to try and

bring us some wet weather. But they look pretty weak and it is going to

turn things cloudy. So the next five days are dry, a mild one,

where we keep the cloudy conditions, it may be chilly. But with the

sunshine it doesn't take much to warm thing up and get the

temperatures up to perhaps 16 Celsius. So light winds, and lows