14/01/2014 Look East - East

Australia. More about the weather where you are on-line.

Hello. Tonight, two rival plans for recycling plant in Norfolk go head

to head. We speak to the man behind the new vision. We are extremely

confident that we can deliver what we have contracted to do. And we

hear from some of the critics. You're saying it is unproven. It is

unproven technology as far as we know. Individual components have

been done, but nothing has been put together like this that I'm aware

of. Also: The mammoth task to clear up this awful mess left behind by

December's tidal surge gets underway.

What Charlie got for his 18th birthday ` his very own pub to run.

And how do penguins climb? A mystery story from the Antarctic.

First tonight, the row over a plan to build a waste incinerator in

King's Lynn is getting even more complicated. Now a rival company

says it can build a better alternative for half the price.

We've still yet to hear whether this scheme from Cory Wheelabrator will

get the go`ahead. The government has delayed making a final decision. But

it remains highly controversial. Now a rival plan from a company called

Material Works. No planning application yet. No precise location

either. But plenty of backing from politicians who think it's a better

bet than the original. The aim, simple enough. To stop so

much of Norfolk's waste ending up in landfill. The local opposition to

the incinerator scheme was never in doubt. This the withdrawal of a ?169

million government grant, County Council is opted to go ahead with

the project. Many argue they could not afford not to. But in the battle

against black bag waste, there is a new kid on the block. The company

behind this alternative recycling plant says it has secured ?100

million of funding, and will apply for planning permission within two

to three months. Claims the plan will initially processed 30,000

tonnes of black bag waste per year, along with 40,000 tonnes of food,

commercial and industrial waste. The waste will be converted into a range

of construction materials. The company says the development would

create up to 200 jobs, and claims it has funding for up to three further

plant in Norfolk. There is no other plant anywhere in the world using

this exact mix of technologies. No, but I have an extrusion plant

working using residues of plastics, fibres and minerals. I have

reference to anaerobic digesters, which are used all across Europe and

further afield, and we have our development facilities, which we

have been running in Chester for seven years. Say you are very

confident? There is a lot to do. I am excited. It is a hard hill to

climb, but we are very confident that we are going to deliver this

now. Are you sceptical about the whole idea? We welcome any genuine

recycling process but Norfolk, but I'm yet to see any evidence or

information about the proposal in any detail. You are saying it is

unproven? It is unproven as far as we know yes. Certain components have

been done, but nothing has been brought together like this. Norfolk

County Council believes is chosen project could save ?30 million over

the life of the contract. The coalition now running the council

says unlike its rival, the incinerator scheme is shovel ready.

It has urged Eric Pickles to make a speedy decision on planning grounds.

It says the issue should not be confused by alternative technologies

that may never reach fruition. Labour set the known, I spoke to the

local MP Henry Bellingham, and I put that point to him. Isn't there a

danger of being confused by alternative technologies which may

never reach fruition? I think that they are completely wrong on that.

There are two really important points to bear in mind. Firstly, the

incinerator cost per tonne is huge. Nearly ?110 per tonne. We know there

will be alternative technologies that will come through relatively

soon, maybe in two or three years. King's Lynn council has signed a

contract with a company called Material Works, will actually add

value to both residual waste stream and manufacture plastic products.

They will charge the council about ?65 per tonne. That will take all

the waste from the west of the County. Suffolk hasn't incinerator

with spare capacity. They would like to take some waste a lower price.

But this was an idea which started with a Tory County Council, so you

have Tory against Tory. yes, and that has always been the case. What

we're talking about is old technology. When the incinerator was

first mooted as an idea for dealing with Norfolk's waste, it may have

been the right technology at the time. I personally believe it was

never going to be in the right place, and I have has been sceptical

about incineration. Do you think people have reacted to this because

they don't want an incinerator, and if you go to Suffolk, that one

wasn't controversial at all? To be fair, the one in Suffolk is not

upwind of a conurbation. Suffolk County Council engaged with the

public properly, have proper meetings, where open with people,

and transparent. None of these things have happened in Norfolk.

Norfolk County Council managed to antagonise the entire western part

of the county. The council says it will save money. The council are

quite wrong, because we have now got overwhelming evidence that there are

other alternatives that are more cost`effective and they are coming

in at well under ?100 per tonne, the cost of Cory Wheelabrator's

incinerator. You will understand that looking in from the outside,

there's that like a complete mess. Of course it is a complete mess. If

only the County Council had listened to me and others, indeed, in King's

Lynn, there is not one single large company, NGO Charity, no

organisation that actually supports the incinerator. So why did not the

County Council listen to the people in the West, and also people who

voted in the referendum on a staggering 62% turnout, 92% of

people, who voted no. That is local democracy. Thank you very much.

The East Coast tidal surge was six weeks ago now, but the impact is

still being felt across the region. Among those still affected, many

golf courses. We'll have a report from Hunstanton in a moment. But

first, a massive clear`up operation began today on a seven mile stretch

around the coast between Hemsby and Gorleston. Our Environment Reporter

Richard Daniel was there. On this beach, huge trucks come and

go. Tonnes of rubbish dumped by the North Sea surge stretch as far as

the eye can see. An eyesore, but also rich pickings for beach code

is. We haven't seen anything like this along here for... Well, in my

lifetime, certainly. Just the sheer volume, and the power of the sea is

absolutely phenomenal. In places, it is four feet deep. On scrap the

beach alone, they reckon they have 75 lorry loads to clear. There is

quite literally everything and anything amongst this mess. We have

installation from buildings, polystyrene, would, word. The amount

of mess they have got to clean up here is quite staggering. Great

Yarmouth council doesn't yet know how long it will take to clear all

seven miles of its coastline. Nor does it know how much it will cost.

It hopes the government will pay. We've got everything here. There is

a spade. A light bulb. The lot. The trouble with this waste is, it is

vegetation and everything else in it. Yes, there are so much in it.

Broken glass, wood, also said things which could be a danger to the

public. We are treating it all as waste and removing it off the beach.

Poor access means the waste is being carted several miles down the beach.

From there, it will be loaded onto lorries and taken to a landfill

site. The hope is that any few weeks, the borough's beaches will be

spent on spam. `` spec and spam, ready for the Easter rush of

visitors. Anybody who plays golf will know

that some of the best courses in Britain are scattered around our

coastline. Some are built on the top of cliffs which are crumbling. Some

are built much nearer to the sea, and have found themselves being

forced to pump thousands of gallons of water off their land. This report

from Tom Williams in Hunstanton. Over a month has passed, and still

golfers on this scores are working around the problem and each other.

The tidal surge cut the course into. Pumping sea water weight is a daily

chore. This pattern was about a third of the wit originally, and

level from drastic grass, so when we came in the morning, it was about

five or six feet deep. Probably about 600 tonnes of sand have gone

back in. 600 tonnes. That is 70 trailer loads of sand, and countless

man hours cleaning up. Parts of the course were closed for a fortnight.

Repair bills run into thousands of pounds. We don't think we had too

much warning about it, and so we went expecting anything like what

happened. I came down at first light today, came up here, and saw what a

mess everything was. It was a fright. We didn't expect that. The

sea had sort of cut a swathe through the road between the eighth and

ninth holes, taking the sleepers, which were part of the road, up the

road. This whole here behind us was completely covered in water. There

were six holes affected by the tidal surge. Here on the 10th fairway,

they have pumped seven and a half million gallons of water from the

fairway. Here in the bunker, still evidence of the damage done.

Hunstanton think they got off lightly. A few miles down the coast,

Brancaster was hit even harder. Water damage to the course,

machinery huts and pro shop ripped apart. At Aldeburgh in Suffolk, the

river course almost unrecognisable. 25% of the playing area is out of

action. My first thought is, we might have to hire some rowing boats

and we might be a law to charge the public to go rolling on the golf

course! But seriously speaking, we knew that we would have a problem,

and we do have one, and subsequently we we need to solve it in months,

not years. They will take time to recover. The tidal surge has left

its mark, and golf clubs are left counting the cost.

Football and Norwich and Ipswich will try and join Southend in the

fourth round of the FA Cup tonight. Both face third round replays, with

Norwich travelling to Fulham and Ipswich heading to League One side

Preston. Still to come: Signs of growth at

Stansted Airport. Our correspondent Richard Bond on what that means for

the economy. And why climate change means

penguins are heading for higher ground to breed. But how on earth do

they get there? Such a good question! I can't wait

to find out. New figures out today show that spending on temporary

doctors to fill hospital vacancies in Accident and Emergency has risen

by more than 75% in three years. This is much higher than the

national average of 60%. The numbers come from the Labour Party after a

Freedom of Information Act request. They show that in this region,

hospitals are spending on so`called locums has gone up from ?7 million

pounds to more than 13 million. The details now from Jenny Kirk.

Thank you. Not all of our hospitals ` including The Lister, Basildon and

the James Paget actually replied to the FOI request, so that headline

figure of 75% could be higher or lower. However, of the 17 that did

respond, those with the greatest rises are in the west of our region.

Kettering General has seen by far the biggest increase. Its spending

on emergency locums has more than quadrupled. In a statement, the

hospital's medical director said that in that time the pressure on

A has increased by more than 10% and admits they're "struggling to

fill posts with staff", blaming the problem on "the national shortage of

A staff." The Luton and Dunstable has more than tripled its spending

on locums, as in the last three years, the number of people using

A has risen by a fifth. They say that they "have recently recruited

more doctors to permanent posts" which should make a difference to

next year's figures. And the third biggest rise in the region is at

Milton Keynes Hospital, which has more than doubled its spend. Now

these locums can earn more than staff doctors, up to ?1,500 a shift,

and the Shadow Health Secretary says we're paying more for less. I'm not

sure we get the best care when we have A departments staffed by

temporary doctors. They don't have the same commitment to those

hospitals. They are not their day in, day out, like full`time doctors.

We end up paying more for a worse service. The President of the

College of Emergency Medicine has called it a "workforce crisis", as

recruitment and retention are a big problem for A departments.

However, the government has announced plans to tackle the

shortage by creating extra training places. And two of our hospitals,

Peterborough and the Norfolk and Norwich, are bucking the trend.

They've actually decreased their spending on temporary emergency

doctors. The Norfolk and Norwich has cut its locum bill by a fifth.

Thank you very much. The government says this was a problem that started

when the Labour Party was in power. But I spoke to the Health Minister

and Suffolk MP Dr Dan Poulter earlier, and put it to him that the

situation had got a lot worse under the Coalition. It does take six

years to train and A consultant, and the challenge is for us now as a

government to address that. We're now seeing more junior doctors

beginning to fill training places and begin the process of becoming a

consultant, but the long`term workforce planning, I'm afraid, was

not there, and this was something that was the responsibility of the

previous government. It takes six years to train a consultant. That

long`term workforce planning was not in place, and the long`term thinking

was not there, and we are paying the price for that. But this is a

chronic problem, particularly in A Do we need to pay the permanent

staff more to work in a neat cos of the pressures they face? That would

still be cheaper than hiring locums. The first thing is to get more

junior doctors to choose acute training, something that has really

happened. We have seen a 100% fill rate of that training, and that

speciality training, this year. We also have to make sure that A is

more sustainable as a career, so looking at the consultant contract,

properly recognising the fact that A doctors have to work a lot of

nights, a lot of weekends, and have a very tough job. Properly

incentivising that in the contract, looking at the important issue of

the worklife balance or things we're looking at with our contract

negotiations with the DNA. I spoke to you last year about the number of

local nurses being hired by the NHS. We know how the NHS is reliant

on foreign doctors and nurses. More at being trained up, but maybe not

enough? We have actually seen a record number of doctors coming out

of training, and there are over 5000 more doctors now working in the NHS

under this government than they're worth before, so there are more

people historically going into training under the previous comment

on this one, and we have seen new medical schools opening in the last

decade. There is also a responsibility for local health care

trusts to get this right, because as you have indicated, the unacceptable

variation in the use of locum staff, and we need to see hospitals

tackling this issue more seriously, and playing and looking to employ

more permanent staff generally. That is something they need to take on

board. Temporary staff are not good for patient care, and it is

short`changing patients. Dr Dan Poulter speaking earlier this

afternoon. There was another sign today the

economy is getting stronger. Stansted Airport says last month was

its best December since 2009, with 1.3 million passengers. It's also

had a full year of growth for the first time since 2007. Our business

correspondent Richard Bond is here. What should we read into these

figures? For Stansted, I think the figures are encouraging, because the

airport has had a rotten time since the recession. Passenger numbers

have plummeted from 24 million in 2007 to 17 million in 2012, and they

have been bumping along through while. As you say, this is the first

year of full growth since 2007. They have a new owner. At that make any

difference? Possibly, yes. Manchester Airport's group is

determined to grow the airport and add new routes. They have signed

long`term agreements for growth with Ryanair and EasyJet, which is

probably a smart move. They are getting on with ?80 million worth of

improvements to the terminal. But last month, they were knocked back

when Stanton was left off the short list for a new runway by the

airports commission. Why does it matter to the region whether

Stansted is growing or not? Stansted is a great barometer of how our

economy is doing generally in the east. If Stansted is declining, it

is a fair bet our economy is struggling. If it is growing, the

opposite usually applies. Also bear in mind that Stansted is the largest

single site employer in the east, with 10,000 staff. We will look very

closely at what happens this year. Thank you very much.

A new landlord will take over at a village pub in Suffolk this weekend.

But he can't do it before then ` because he isn't old enough. He has

to wait until he's 18. That will make Charlie Watts the youngest

publican in the country. Kevin Burch is at The Cherry Tree in Yaxley now.

Kevin. Yes, they always say you know when

you're getting old because police officers lured young. Well, what

about pub landlord? In my day, they were normally older, quite imposing.

They did not need to ring the bell, they just used to glare at you. But

today, well, things have changed. The Cherry Tree at Yaxley has been a

vital part of this community for generations, and now the latest

chapter in its history is about to be written, courtesy of Charlie

Watts. He will take on the role of host at one minute past midnight on

Saturday. Going from not waking up early and going to bed as late as I

want to getting up early and going to bed when I shut the pub is hard,

and getting into that routine is going to be hard work, but I'm going

to have to buckle down and get used to it, I think. You enjoy your life

ends at the moment? Senator yes! Charlie originally had his heart set

on being a police officer, but when he weighed up his job options for

the future, this opportunity seemed too good to turn down. He has been

pulling pints anyway since he was 17, under the watchful eyes of his

landlord parents. But while pad takes a break from the trade, mum

will still be on hand. She runs the Post office side of the business.

What could this do to the mother son relationship? It can only make it

better! Absolutely can only make it better. We work well together, we

work as a team. When we Arabs dead in the flat, I'm his mum, down here,

we are a team. How does it feel to have that title in the country? That

is quite cool. It is very exciting. All my friends alike, that is cruel.

What is the best quality a good landlord needs to have? A sense of

humour. Have is if you're stepping into dance shoes? A lot of people

have told really big shoes to fill, but if I can do at 50% as good as he

did, I will be making a good job of it. In most pubs, age can be a

barrier, but now it could be the teenager serving, not supping, who

gets the quizzical glances. Back here in the pub, this is Andy,

whose boots he has two Phil. Hello, Andy. At the moment, everything

Charlie does has to be approved by mum and dad. Come the weekend, he

can go crazy. Well, not crazy, but he can do that. He won't need me to

tell him that running a pub is tough these days. Running a country pub is

incredibly difficult. He knows he has his work cut out. Let's be

honest, if you run a honest, if you run a pub, you have

to make it pay. Fingers crossed he has the energy and time to make it

work. But from here in the pub, back to the studio. Thank you much.

Good luck to him. They're not known for athleticism.

In fact, they struggle to walk at all. But now scientists in Cambridge

have discovered emperor penguins are somehow climbing 30 metres to reach

safe breeding ground. The population in Antarctica `

precious, pompous, a little portly, but with a problem of epic

proportions. As their breeding ground belts, the Emperor Penguin

has set its sights higher `30 metres of those cliffs. That is like

climbing King 's College Chapel in Cambridge, for stacking up five

double`decker buses, or doing three Tom Daly high dives one after the

other. How do they get there? Nobody knows. You think they can go onto

ice shills because of their nature. They waddle, sometimes they slide on

their bellies, but they are not the most agile things. We are unsure how

they get up and down. They may climb or they may flop onto snowdrifts. It

is something we're going to have to find out. Satellite imagery

collected by the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge looked set for

colonies, all of whom have left their usual breeding ground for the

heady heights of the ice shelf. But the for food is exhausting, a 30

kilometre or 18 mile waddle for every meal. Some of these ice

shelves are to 100 feet high, or higher. They often move several

miles inland onto the ice shelves to make sure they are not too close to

the edge, and they sometimes fall off. It must take an enormous effort

for them to go backwards and forwards each day to their foraging

grounds from their colony location. So is this migration a worrying

develop that? The Penguins are less reliant on the sea ice is self, and

that can only be a good thing, because it means they are less

susceptible to climate change. However, going onto the shelves will

have a cost to them. It is windy, further to their foraging grounds,

so we need to assess what the benefits or the costs are for this

new breeding behaviour. Later this year, scientists will be in

Antarctica solving the mystery of how these clumsy flightless bird

gets a very high. Handsome things. Staying with snow

and before the weather take a look at these pictures. This was Norfolk

exactly a year ago tomorrow. Don't we remember it? Schools were

closed, huge problems for commuters, 63 crashes on the roads.

Lots of skidding. What a difference a year makes. Alex.

If thank you. Yes, it is hard to imagine, because it has been chilly

today, but on the whole, January has been wet, windy and mild. There is

more wet and mild coming our way tonight. This is the pressure

pattern. This is a warm front. Behind it is milder air, but ahead

of it, we are recording temperatures as low as two Celsius, so possibly a

touch of frost between now and midnight as temperatures get close

to freezing. But the rain band starts to push eastwards during the

evening and overnight. It will be mainly light and patchy, but there

could be some heavy downpours. Temperatures at around ten o'clock

will be two to five Celsius, and as that rain band head eastwards, they

will left. But the wind will freshen as well, and there could be some

heavy bursts of rain. By five o'clock, these are the sort of

temperatures we can expect `5 or six degrees. The winds are moderate

southerly. We start tomorrow feeling much milder, but there will be

patchy rain around, and much of tomorrow will be rather cloudy.

Particular through the morning, when they will be some outbreaks of

rain, dry interludes, and perhaps something brighter, but some showers

follow one behind for the after noon. Those temperatures, 10

Celsius, 50 Fahrenheit, very much a mild cabbage for the time of year.

Six or seven degrees. Winds still quite breezy tomorrow. Moderate

south to south`westerly. Still the risk of further showers through the

afternoon. Then the next weather front starts to bring as overnight

rain tomorrow. We will continue to see a unsettled weather, because low

pressure will be very much the dominant feature of our weather.

This is Thursday and Friday's whether pressure pattern. Certainly

for Thursday, the chance of some fairly sharp showers around, and

then a spell of perhaps more heavy and persistent rain arriving on

Friday. So, into tomorrow, expect a milder day. Don't expect it to be

really bright, though. There will be cloud and patchy rain around, and

the risk of showers. It stays quite breezy through the week. Ringing of

the overnight Bridges, you can see they become milder for a few nights.

Some rain arrives on the next weather front for Wednesday night.

It will be around on Thursday, but it introduces slightly cooler and,

at Mass for Thursday, so although they will be patchy rain on

Thursday, it will become brighter with sunshine and showers around. On

Friday, it looks very unsettled. We may start to dry, but rain pushes

them, and it will become more persistent and heavy in places. At

the moment, it looks like Saturday into the weekend will be unsettled

with rain. Then, we start to bring back clearer conditions overnight on

Saturday, so that means we are back into the territory of frosts. Thank

you very much. That is all from us for this evening. Have a very good

evening. Goodbye.