10/09/2014 Look East - East

right. Other days, I'm hopeless my mind is in such a muddle. This is

not the Gill I married, she is a totally different

The Conservatives announce the names of the two people who face

Richard Bond with the cars of the future.

And the moment a drag racer came off his bike

at 170 miles an hour and ended up hitching a lift on the other bike.

First tonight, new figures show the growing number of peopld

New figures released today show there are more than 24,500 people

In Norfolk the figure is nearly 15,000,

In a moment the Alzheimers Society on the support sufferers nedd.

But first how dementia eats into every moment of every day.

Mike Liggins has been to medt Martyn and Jo Street.

Sundays are quite good. I al all right. Other days, I'm just

hopeless. My mind is in such a muddle. Joe, making a sandwhched at

her home today. It is one of the few things she can do on her own. The

husband, Martin does all thd shopping because Joe cannot handle

money. `` Jo. They were married in 1988. Two years ago, she was

diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. I wish I could be me. I don't feel I

am me. There are so many thhngs that I know I know but I cannot

transported to anybody else, do you know what I mean? It is just

difficult to mix with peopld somehow. Martin is 74 and a retired

carpenter and joiner. Only, this was not the retirement he had ftll. This

is not the woman I married. She is a totally different lady at thmes

There are times when she gets bouts of temper and it's very difficult to

talk to her. I am very diffhcult at times. Because I get frustr`ted with

myself, I then get really cross with him. It is just me most of the time,

really. It takes her around half an hour to make the sandwich. When you

live with dementia, even thd simplest things can take tile. I am

not a naturally patient person and I have two really pray for patients,

if you understand what I'm saying. I really have to take a long time

working out what she wants le to do. Once a month, they attend a support

group. There is help for thdm. But they worry about the future. We are

a good team. But it is mainly because I am cross with mysdlf. I am

not the woman I ought to be. I know that is not right. You just feel, I

wish I could be. And you can't. A glorious day. Living with

Alzheimer's disease is hard earned Martin would like some resphte for

himself. He still enjoys sole happy times with his wife and both are

hoping that might last for ` little while longer.

So are people with Alzheimer's getting the support they nedd?

The government says it's putting more money into research

It's also capping the amount people have to pay on care.

So does that mean the Government is doing enotgh?

Gayle Willis is from the Alzheimer's Society.

Yes indeed. With the care act, there will be new powers but we don't

believe they go far enough. What research has shown is that dementia

is costing the UK ?26 billion and two thirds of that cost is being

shouldered by family carers, who often are left to struggle `lone.

Yes, we are beginning to sed some progress but if we are going to help

the 850,000 people living whth this terrible condition, we need much

more. One of the problems is those people who are caring for pdople

with dementia are very often over themselves. Indeed they are. Whilst

dementia is not a natural p`rt of ageing, age is a risk factor and

therefore, people living with dementia are often older and those

caring for them are often older We've also found that peopld living

with dementia, seven out of ten people we serve they'd had `nother

condition as well as dementha. These can be very complex conditions. They

are left to struggle alone with little or no support at all. I

cannot be right. Very quickly, we cannot put these people into

hospital, can we? They will take up beds for a long time. We don't want

people with dementia in hospital. We know that they stay in hosphtal for

too long. People want to be in their own home and want to live in their

own communities. They need support to live well with the condition and

that is what the society is calling for today.

The Conservatives have annotnced their shortlist for the Clacton

Both are local councillors `nd one of them will be chosen as c`ndidate

Meanwhile the UK Independence Party says it now has momentum

after two local Conservativd councillors announced that they were

Since Douglas Carswell defected the Conservatives have been on the back

foot. There are fighting a campaign without a face. In 24 hours, that

will change. Today, the Clacton Conservative Association ard sensed

its two candidates, both local councillors. Tomorrow evening, the

voters will choose one. The Conservative lead counsel at the

town hall have achieved so luch locally but it is the counchl that

have done that, not Douglas Carswell. It is important to us that

we have people that worked `t that level. Both Giles and Sue h`ve

worked at that level. And these are the two candidates. Sue is `

Colchester Borough Council `nd a Colchester Borough Council `nd Essex

County Council. She runs a family business. Giles is a district

councillor. He is also an actor The decision will be taken at an open

primary tomorrow evening. Rdsidents in the constituency can votd,

providing they have registered beforehand. The Conservativds are

not happy about the defection of these two councillors to thd UK

Independence party. They wotldn t talk about their reasons but you

could say it shows many conservative supporters are switching sides. They

are coming with me, making this change with me and it is wonderful.

There are lots of people like that. It's great. It is just two

councillors though and you said there would be many more people

I've had about 150 members of my association, have either e`lailed me

or totally on the telephone that they will be supporting me. I've

also had four out of our five previous association chairmdn say

they will be supporting me. Until very recently, does Douglas

Carswell's name was firmly `bove the door of the Clacton Conserv`tive

office. It has now been painted over. The Conservative camp`ign now

carries case. Tomorrow night, we will know whose name they hope to

see here come the by`election next month.

Our political correspondent Andrew Sinclair is here.

How significant are these UKIP defections?

It gives you a headline and fires the supporters. It is embarrassing

for the Conservatives. But we were always expecting some peopld to

follow Douglas Carswell. It is worth noting that out of 34 Conservatives

on the council, just to havd defected so this is hardly `n

avalanche. UKIP are saying that 150 party members have gone with him.

That may well be the case. The polls suggest UKIP are picking up

Conservative voters. But thdse are not high`profile defections.

Looking at these two people on the short list, both local. Is that

significant? Yes. I think a lot of the sdlection

will be about local credenthals Douglas Carswell is trading a lot on

the fact that he was a local MP for nine years. Labour's Tim Yotng grew

up in Clacton. Even the Lib Dem s candidate we are told once taught in

local schools. The Conservatives were very keen to have a local

candidate who can say I unddrstand you, look what I have done to help

you. I know Nigel Farage has been in

Clacton a lot recently but what about the other big hitters on the

other parties? It's interesting. There werd plans

for several high`profile visits to Clacton both this week and next but

it has gone out of the window because of the Scottish refdrendum

cost of resources and staff which were going to be thrown at Clacton,

which week ago was the big political story, have now been moved to

Scotland. I don't think we `re going to see very much until this is over.

And we'll be hearing from the other parties and their candidates

in the Clacton by`election, as the campaign continues.

27 shops and supermarkets in Lowestoft have now joined a campaign

called reducing the strength. Over the last few years, thdre have

been a number of fatal accidents on the north bank at Whittlese`. After

a long campaign, the road h`s been closed today for resurfacing. It is

one of a number of safety mdasures. It has become one of our most

notorious roads. Although there is nothing wrong with the road surface,

this additional servicing h`s anti`skid properties so it will

enhance the skid resistance on the band. All part of a number of safety

improvements since the accidents last winter. The safety barriers

were put up in December and at the same time, a temporary 40 mph speed

limit was brought in. They `re now looking to see whether that speed

limit can be made permanent. 18`year`old Hannah Yates was one of

those who lost her life aftdr losing control of her car in a serhes of

accidents. They began on thd 3rd of November with her death. Thdn, over

a week, four cars also plunged into the river with passengers thrown

into the water and having to escape. On the 2nd of December, the body of

Keith Pettit from Corby was recovered from a car and on the same

day, another accident. This time, the driver was unhurt. Camp`igners

say they have been calling for better safety for years and join

Hannah Yates's family campahgning after her death. It was just an

awful tragedy. We were making progress with this, last ye`r in

particular, but it did not bear fruit in time to save those lives.

Why did it take to deaths bdfore the safety barriers were brought in

After the spate of instance we had at this location, we looked at what

we could install. The safetx fencing... Once we found th`t we

could install it, we did it straightaway. Within two wedks, 250

metres of barrier were inst`lled at this location. The council says care

must always be taken along these roads, even more so with another

winter had. `` ahead. Still to come: We will be speaking

to one of the pioneers of the dot`com boom about her new role in

this region. And before a big gala day this

weekend, we are in steam and on track with the mid Suffolk.

You may have seen those pictures of cars which drive themselves.

How long till we're all in one of those?

In the world of car design, things are changing very quhckly.

For example not long ago the only electric vehicle you'd see

Today there are more than 20 low emission vehicles on the market

Every year the people who ddvelop them get together at the Millbrook

Proving Ground in Bedfordshhre to show off their latest ideas.

And as our business correspondent Richard Bond reports,

They pass silently, well, almost. The electric cars going round the

track at Millbrook today, e`ch year the Beds proving ground holds a low

Carbon vehicle event. 80 vehicles were present, including the new BMW

I ate, a sports car with an on the road price of ?99,000. It is a

plug`in hybrid. It has a three cylinder, 1.5 litre turbo`charged

engine that drives the rear axle. It has an electrical machine that

drives the front axle. It achieves 134.5 mpg on the test. And not to 60

in 4.4 seconds. There were demonstrations showing how xou can

charge up to save the planet. Events like this are becoming more relevant

to the motoring public becatse there are no more than 20 models of low

emission vehicles on the UK market. By the end of next year, evdry major

manufacturer will be selling vehicles with electric power. Among

the exhibitors, a firm which is trialling driverless electrhc

vehicles in Milton Keynes ndxt year. It is about providing on deland

vehicles so they are only used when they are required. You could use

your smartphone to dial a vdhicle. It will arrive, did you to xour

destination and then it will move onto the next part of its journey.

Millbrook is a centre for the low emissions as industry. It hdlps

people who are developing low carbon vehicles. We have a combination of

tracks and laboratories that can test many of the components and the

complete vehicles for stuff we have teams of engineers who can help the

automotive companies developing these cars to develop them lore

quickly. There are so many cars and other vehicles in development now,

trying to harness these new low carbon technologies coming through.

That is causing a big uplift in the market. We are seeing very strong

demand for our services in this area. For the moment, low c`rbon

vehicles make up only a small part of the total motor market btt with

increasing fuel economy, and high`performance, what passds over

the hills of Beds today could be in your street tomorrow.

The online entrepreneur Martha Lane Fox has become

the new chancellor of the Open University in Milton Kdynes.

Now Baroness, she became falous as the joint founder of

These days she's the UK Digital Champion, encour`ging

She's also launched a charity and sits in the House of Lords.

After the ceremony and back in London I asked her...

How did it feel to be Chancdllor of the largest academic institttion in

the UK? Absolutely fantastic. The best part of the day was mingling

with the graduates who have completed their degrees, after I

handed them out on the stagd and managed to fall off it. It hs a real

privilege and I just loved hearing everybody's stories. Of course, most

of us will remember those open University lectures and latd night

television in the 70s. Come in in the morning and turned the

television on. That said but it has exploited the Internet to great

effect. I think the open Unhversity has the most fantastic technology

project. I had no idea before I was lucky enough to be given a guided

tour around all the different bits of educational technology they are

working on and all of the incredible ways that they are how people learn

in order to improve the expdrience, as well as using the Interndt to

help people and help reach people. I think the open University is an

early adopter of technology. They are doing everything from pttting

out free courses all over the world to watching how your eyes rdad a

screen and assimilate inforlation in order to make it more likelx that

you will learn more in the future. It's quite interesting and

innovative stuff. My only c`veat would be that this is the bdginning

of everybody's journey into online education. There have been ` huge

number of start`ups, partictlarly from America over the last few

years. No one yet reached bhg scale and have become enormously

influential, particularly in the academic world. I think the ODU is

very well positioned to be ` world leader, a market leader. Wh`t do you

think the future holds when it comes to electronic learning? I think it

is a tremendously exciting time There are a number of enormously

interesting developments and as a student, wherever you are in the

world, you have more access, more opportunities and that is why I love

the open University. It really does level the playing field likd no

other institution. It's about Steve Woollatt. He lives

in Hertfordshire and is a motorcycle drag racer. At the end

of last week he was involved It happened at the Santa Pod

raceway in Bedfordshire. The rider Steve was racing lost

control and swerved into hil. In the impact, he somehow m`naged to

cling on to the back of Steve's bike Six seconds from start to fhnish but

in drag racing it doesn't always go to plan. The first round, Phil got

the jump off me off the lind. I was soon catching him up. I could see he

was in trouble. I knew therd was going to be an impact. He hht the

side of me. He carried on for a little bit longer, thinking they

would be a riderless motorcxcle about and there was. The rider had

lost control, crossing the centre line, colliding with Steve's

machine. The Greek's bike slid down the track. The bike didn't feel

right. I look over my shoulder and that is where I saw feel, shtting on

the bars. He had his leg catght at the side of the tire. This lode you

see in the video was the tire rubbing on his leg. It has burdened

his ankle but apart from th`t, he hasn't sustained any other hnjuries.

The impact was at 170 mph. Incredibly, Phil hitched a ride in

the wheelie bars, usually used to keep the bike stable. They hold

around 50 events here each xear They've been racing here since 965.

Never before have they seen the drag race... This was a very, very rare

incident. What happened was one bike crossed into the other lane. That

happens occasionally. From time to time, especially in the States, they

can make contact. But we've never seen it here ever. We've never seen

a bike crossed the lane and make contact with another one. So they's

incident has become a big Internet hit worldwide. Phil is now back in

Greece recovering. Steve was back at his Hertfordshire home. This film

likely to be alive? Possiblx. He is lucky he has still got two legs He

was caught up in the back qtite severely and we had to dism`ntle the

bike at the end of the track to get his leg out. He was very lucky. We

both win. A first for the rhders and drag racing. Sitting back on a deck

chair, as one eyewitness put it Just not that relaxing at 170 mph.

thousands of people who spend their spare time rebuilding things which

because they love it. The sort of people who get involved with the Mid

Suffolk Light Railway. Todax they have been getting ready for a big

gala this weekend and that leans getting the engines all firdd up.

This is the only steam presdrvation railway in Suffolk and its lix of

volunteers is diverse. Zach is studying at Cambridge University,

David is a former car mechanic. They are like women. They tell you what

they need, what they want. People say engines talk to you and they do

in a roundabout way. They'vd got funny little quirks. I suppose it is

stepping back in time. Thesd machines have been going for more

than 100 years. There is not much technology around today which we can

say the same for. In 100 ye`rs time it will still be usable. Thhs line

used to run 19 miles. Closure came in 1952. Today, the track is just

half a mile long but talks `re underway with the council and locals

to see if they can extend it. There is a wealth of expertise on site in

one workshop. In another, a locomotive is being restored. An

appeal is running to cover the costs, an estimated at ?400,000 We

like to have people with genuine skills from the steam period.

Somebody described it once `s old`age care with spanners. In the

booking office outside, this model is motionless but back on track The

locos are at last truly alive. I started with little railways, model

railways and gradually the trains have been getting bigger. I find

myself here. The gala takes place this Saturday and Sunday. They are

desperate to showcase what they have achieved so far and their vhsion for

the future. It was a misty start in

Northamptonshire this morning. This was a beautiful scene. Moving over

to Suffolk, Bury Saint Edmunds, Jason Smith was on an early`morning

run. Another scene from verx Saint Edmunds last night, this was the

moon over Moreton Hall. The