07/11/2013 Look East - West

Chancellor George Osborne made the announcement during a visit today.

Welcome to Look East. A vote of confidence in

Northamptonshire. The business secretary helps to raise the profile

as the county gets a multi`million`pound investment. It

is a good place to do business and the government is going to support

people 's skills. That and the rest of the top stories with James

Burridge. A desperate plea for a pensioner to

return home. The biggest online retailer gears up

for the seasonal onslaught. And is this the new way to travel

around Milton Keynes. A heartland of successful with this

industry. The verdict of the Business Secretary Vince Cable as he

visited Northamptonshire today. It comes after the county's Enterprise

Partnership announced plans to pump ?100 million into the local economy

by 2020. The money will promote Northamptonshire for new businesses,

as well as help encourage existing firms to expand. In a moment we ll

hear from the Business Secretary, but first this report from Stuart

Ratcliffe. A new shoe factory, a new university

and now plans for a multi`million`pound. Vince Cable

came to see why Cosworth and other as Mrs showed that Northamptonshire

is a company on the up. We are celebrating 50 years next year so

there is the Cosworth brand, heritage, experience,

infrastructure, the supply chain, it is a platform for growth. Motorsport

and high`tech engineering Art big business in Northamptonshire. ``

are. The self`proclaimed motorsport county showed the Business Secretary

their new university technical college at Silverstone. We try to

tilt high performing work ready young people. All of our students

come wearing a business suit rather than a uniform. It is not just a big

businesses which seem to be attracted to the county. This gin

distillery near Kettering was set up 11 months ago and it is a decision

they not regretting. Geographically we are at the centre of the country

so anywhere in two hours, so business links. Or so

demographically, as we are in the heart of the country, there is a

cross`section, every demographic. `` also demographically. It is small

companies like this that the Northamptonshire Enterprise

Partnership would like to attract more of. Today they were in London

to explain to potential investors that the county is open for

business. We have had a strong and developing 2013. We are at the

forefront of economic recovery in the UK, we have seen very positive

activity over the past 12 months, so lots of things happening all over

the County. Alongside growth remains pocket of deprivation and youth

unemployment. But the Business Secretary and Northamptonshire

Enterprise Partnership believe they have put in place the opportunities

to give the county `` move the county and its workforce forward.

The Business Secretary Vince Cable was in Northamptonshire to boost the

county's profile. He spoke to Look East during his visit to Cosworth

Engineering in Northampton. I began by asking him why people should

invest in the county. Just to warn you, there are some camera flashes

during this interview. I think the message is that this is

an `` the UK is a good place to do business, Northamptonshire is a good

place, there are supportive local councils, local Enterprise

Partnerships, this is the heartland of successful British industry will

stop quite a few of the firms are in the automotive section, booming in

Britain. The government is going to get behind companies that invest

here, support their skills and technology. Is the process simple

enough? It is not simple. We are turning around a problem that

originates in many years of neglect of the manufacturing industry in

Britain. We are trying to rebuild the skills base, the expansion of

apprenticeships. Turning this around is not easy but there are some

superb companies and it gives us a good base to build on. You have been

to Silverstone, to motorsport Valley. You have seen" the technical

college. I read that you are concerned about the lack of female

engineers at the moment. In the long`running what Britain

desperately needs is a new generation of young engineers. There

is enormous job shortages coming up, not just traditional engineering,

chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, we are talking about

software and information technology. There is a big shortage. We are

improving the supply of that, more people going off to college and

doing advanced apprenticeships that there is a big shortage of young

women. About one in 20 engineering apprenticeships are women, one in

ten graduate engineers. We are ignoring half the population and the

problem starts fairly early on in secondary schools where pitchers are

established about what engineering means and we have to do a real job

to persuade young women that this is a career for them as well. Is there

an image problem with engineering when it comes to women trying to ``

wanting to get into the industry? There clearly is an image problem.

It may go back to stereotypes from childhood, it maybe a picture of

old`fashioned factories, dirty, noisy and unpleasant to work on

which is not how modern manufacturing is. The kind of things

we introduce our kids to quite subconsciously, where the boy gets a

Lego set and the girl gets a dolls house. Those attitudes are planted

early on but it has caused a real problem because we are behind the

rest of Europe, almost bottom of the league table of European countries

in terms of getting women into engineering and we have to rectify

that. The Business Secretary Vince Cable.

Meanwhile the Chancellor George Osborne was also in the region today

and said he was behind plans to improve the A14. The Chancellor said

he was aware of the importance of the road and was keen to hear the

concerns of local people, especially regarding plans to toll a stretch of

the A14. But he did come up against some protestors as he arrived for a

business conference in Norfolk. I hear loud and clear there are a lot

of people worried about the tolls. I am here to listen to people on the

A14. Whatever decision we make we want that road improved because it

is so important for this part of the world and the whole of Britain. The

A14 is a top priority. Whether or not we proceed with tolls, we are in

listening mode. The family of a pensioner who has

disappeared from his home in Luton are appealing for anyone who may

have seen anything to urgently get in touch. Andrew Goldsboro, who s

78, walked out of his home on Sunday night and hasn't been seen since.

Police say he is vulnerable and that his disappearance is completely out

of character. This report from Emma Baugh.

Andrew Goldsboro was described as a loving father and husband. Dad is a

really caring man. We can't believe he would walk off without something

having had to him, mentally or whatever. We would be devastated. We

have mainly filled our time with searching for him. He was a very

popular, well`known person so a lot of people have been calling to see

if they could help. Andrew Goldsboro went missing on Sunday night, simply

walking out of his house on Luton's Compton Avenue. His wife Bernadette

went looking for him but found nothing. This is illegal rave

railway station on the same street as the family house. Police are

checking CCTV and have been knocking on homes nearby because they believe

this is the main area he may have been seen. We are deeply concerned

for him. He has known this area for a long time but his behaviour is

extremely out of character, his friends and relatives are very

concerned for his well back `` his well`being. When you are in shock

and you don't have answers, you drift from despair and severe worry

to kind of trying to pull yourself up and talking about good stuff

about him and how great he is. We are trying to keep him in the

present and we have every belief that he is out there.

Police are appealing for witnesses to the apparent abduction of a man

in Stevenage. The man was approached by four men who police say forced

him into a car parked in King George close. A silver Alfa remain to stop

a short while later in grace way. `` Alfa Romeo.

The March`based firm Fengrain has hosted its first conference looking

at the challenges facing the farming industry. Growers met at the East of

England showground to examine new farming methods and discuss how

arable land in this region can be put to best use. It comes in the

face of increasing consumer demand from the developing world for

Western food products. A great part of the world is richer,

they are beginning to eat more like us, but we in Europe and Britain are

eating as if there are two or three planets. This is literally

unsustainable, so we need to think carefully about what we do when we

grow grain. What is it for? Why are we feeding it to animals? To get

cheap meat all of the time? It is stupid, actually.

A health centre in Milton Keynes is facing moving into a brand`new

building, with no furniture, after a disagreement over funding. The

patients' group in Wolverton said money had been promised by the

Primary Care Trust before it was abolished earlier this year. Louise

Hubball reports. It has taken nearly eight months to

build but at the last minute it seemed this state`of`the`art health

centre will open its doors next week without any furniture. It seems

crazy in this day and age, we have a beautiful new building. To think we

will effectively be saying, come along, have an appointment, bring a

chair, seems crazy. This is the current health Centre, in desperate

need of repair. The patient group are having to assess which items of

furniture could be transferred to the new centre next door. They say

it has happened because the primary care trust pledged money for

furnishings before it was disbanded and was replaced by a new body in

April. You can't clean that. Now they are being told by NHS England

no funds are available. Huge amounts of public money have been spent on

this building. The situation in the old building, as you will have

seen, is shockingly bad and people are desperate for a new building

that really respects this community. The health centre is now left to

foot the furniture bill of ?120 000 themselves. The local MP says that

is unacceptable. I e`mailed NHS England two weeks ago and still no

reply. I am clear in my mind that they made a pledge to equip this

place. The health centre has now been forced to buy waiting room

furniture but echoes of the short notice it may not be delivered in

time for the opening next Friday. `` because of the short notice.

And this afternoon a spokesperson for NHS England told Look East they

offered to allocate the funds necessary to complete the project,

on a loan basis. They say they're working to resolve the issues so

that patient care is not affected. First capital connect has removed

plastic covers from emergency alarms on their trains after passengers in

Cambridge could not get them off during an incident. People had to be

led to safety after overhead cables crashed through a window. Passengers

were unable to activate the alarms and had to activate an emergency

door handle to stop the train. The Northamptonshire Sports Awards

take place tonight in Kettering Six sportsmen and women have been short

listed for the Sports Personality of the Year award. They include

Northampton Saints' forward Samu Manoa, Northants Cricket's James

Middlebrook and 17`year`old golfing prodigy Charley Hull from Burton

Latimer. She celebrated her debut season on the Women's European Tour

by finishing second five times and became the youngest golfer event in

the history of the Solheim Cup. County councillors took a final vote

on its future this morning. They say the Deanes School at Thundersley is

not attracting enough pupils. A final report by council officers

said the school was not viable. Still to come, we are the biggest

online retailer Amazon as they prepare for the Christmas rush.

And the cars of the future for the pavements of Milton Keynes.

A vast new port has begun operating today in Essex. London Gateway can

take ships carrying 22,000 containers. To make the super`port,

they dredged a channel 100 miles out into the North Sea. So what does

that mean for Felixstowe, currently the busiest container port in

Britain? Unloading today, London Gateway's first paying customer, a

cargo ship from South Africa carrying wine, fruit and car parts.

The first scheduled vessel to dock at the region's new super port.

London Gateway is a ?1.5 billion investment by DP world on the north

bank of the Thames. Only its first phase open today but when complete

it will be able to unload sex of the biggest container ships at the same

time. It is a threat to Felixstowe up the coast, but so far none of

Felixstowe's customers have been persuaded to move. You have to

remember we are not the finished article yet. We could only handle

one ship at a time so we have to make sure we don't bite off more

than we can chew. We have 1 million containers on our doorstep. We have

15 million consumers living within 50 miles of us. We have your's

biggest logistics park here was that the proposition you have here in the

UK market is unique. Goods entering Britain through Felixstowe travel to

warehouses in the Midlands and are then distributed throughout the UK.

London Gateway will allow ships direct access to the south`east.

London Gateway is known to have been targeting Felixstowe's customers. It

really wants to sign up one of the big Asian shipping lines, but for

now they seem to be sticking with what they know and trust here at the

`` here at fixed though. Much rests on them continuing to do so. Nearly

10,000 jobs depend on fixed though, including 15 at this local Hollier.

Felixstowe will remain a premier port, that won't change. London

Gateway will bring something new to the region and the East Coast and I

think that is fantastic. I'm sure fixed though will cope with the

additional competition. Felixstowe have superb facilities, many years

of experience, superb road and rail links, the best hub for UK ports.

Felixstowe declined to comment. Sources within the industry say the

big shipping lines are waiting to see how London Gateway's first few

months ago. If it works well, some business will be shifted at

Felixstowe's edition close to the main giving roots of Europe counts

for a lot. Every year we hear about the number

of people being employed to make sure our Christmas presents reach us

in time. Usually it's the Royal Mail, but right now the online

retailer Amazon is at it as well. Little else will be very busy soon.

So what happens after you fill your basket and proceed to checkout? Anna

Todd has been inside the company's distribution centre in Peterborough.

Chances are everything on your Christmas list is in here, 100

million items under one roof. Amazon people don't work in years but in

peaks, and Christmases, when daily orders go from thousands to

millions. Unit is a big increase. There are trolleys everywhere, there

are thousands of people standing there. December the 3rd last year

became known as cyber Monday with orders for over 3.5 million items,

packed at a rate of 41 per second. Trucks leaving every two minutes and

ten seconds, hardly surprising they need over 1000 extra staff to help

out. But there has been criticism of how the company treats its seasonal

tents. We don't take someone on and then drop them, from the moment they

start in peak they go through until the end of peak. We have had some

complaints they get taken on over Christmas and then dropped like a

stone, what would you say? I would say that may have been through a

couple of years ago before we had more sophisticated recruiting

systems, so there were a couple of instances, but we have more

submitted planning and we can be very exact. We didn't have that

issue last Christmas and don't expect to have it this year. So what

happens when you place your order? A scanner at a sat`nav did a paper to

a tower. They locate your product and that is delivered to the backing

team, who thought it in a box and send it off to the address. What I

find weird on this corridor is the randomness in everything. You have

take children's headphones next to baby ointment next to a Harry Potter

box set, but this is because not only is there amazing human

technology, but by putting things different next to each other, there

is less room to ever. `` less room for mistakes. There are no zero are

contracts for staff. Amazon says it's best of machine is not only

slick but fair. That is a great fight. `` a great fact.

When it comes to public transport, lots of us go by bus and train every

day. But how about jumping into a space age pod that drives itself?

Well, that's how you'll be able to get around in Milton Keynes in two

years' time. The Government's given ?1.5 million to the project. Milton

Keynes will be the first place in the country to test out these

driverless vehicles. Is this the future of public transport? Holds

that can carry two people shuttling back and forth. Jump in and the pod

will drive itself to where you want to go. Let's say you've just arrived

at the train station. Using software on your phone, you can summon a pod

and paid for it. Then, you will be able to travel about a mile into

Milton Keynes to businesses and shopping centres. From here you can

take a bus or a taxi, but will people travel by pod? It is a good

idea, I guess it is eco`friendly. Would you use it? I think so. No,

because I would rather walk. I would be safer. I love technology so I

would be up for it. Away from the cars, powered by Eckersley, the

polls will travel along the medieval ways. You can check e`mails and

catch up on news while special centres mini review away from

obstacles in your path. Will they be nervous? Will be nervous? Weatherby

issues about children running around? How do we make sure everyone

is comfortable? That is part of the pilot process, testing how people

deal with the new technology and new opportunities. Can we be confident

it is safe? In the US, Google cars have already clocked up 300,000

miles. The first trial pods will have drivers but by 2017, 100 are

planned here, all driverless. A lot of technologies that the pod will

have, you can start to see current day cards in different forms, so

satellite navigation, adaptive cruise control that can work out

where the cars in front are, even self parking. By 2015 they will have

arrived. Milton Keynes, testing new ways we get around.

Looks good, doesn't it? I would like my car to do that.

The Suffolk artist Marc Brown goes for a swim in the sea most mornings.

But last year, Marc went swimming every morning, and every morning he

took a photo of himself. Now he has turned all those photographs into a

video which is being shown at an exhibition in Southwold. Mike

Liggins, who very rarely swims in the sea, has been to find out more.

The beach at Southwold, and artist Marc Brown strips off for a dip in

the sea. He was born in the town and the coastal landscape is what he

paints but swimming in November, I was cold watching. But he loves it.

Perfect! What the light? Wonderful. So wonderful that last year, Marc

went into the sea every day and took a further grab. Now put together as

a 30 minute film, the result is men's `` mesmerising. The film is on

show at the gallery he shares with his fiancee, I say on show because

you wouldn't want to take a coach party to this exhibition. It is a

small space but the film is worth seeing. Is it art? I wouldn't put

the Tiger of art on it. It is more a personal project for me. I would

call it an experiment. This is what Marc Brown paints, coastal

landscapes with a photo realist element. His studio is an old squash

court where he spends hours blaring each painting and yes, he does use

photography for research. I need to rely on photographic material such

as birds, birds in flight. Can't get them to sit that long, so things

like that. Marc now plans to sell his video to

help raise money for breakthrough breast Cancer. His mother died as a

result of breast cancer. She would have been proud of her son's

experiment, a little eccentric perhaps but also rather wonderful.

You shivered just watching him go when. I know! Amazing photos,

though. Tonight, a nice forecast? Well... A few changes and

amendments. though. Tonight, a nice forecast?

Well... A few changes and But today everything went to plan, the rain

cleared away to the south`east, drier sky is falling behind, that

the guest cloud producing a queue showers and that the guest in the

West could produce some in the next few hours. Then the showers by away

and that cloud tends to clear, and we are left with largely cloudless

skies for much of the night, and that means it is a chilly one with a

touch of ground frost in places These are the lows in built`up

areas, rural spots around to reading breeze, with light safety Southwest

Lee winds. Tomorrow there is a bit of a change because it looks like

this area of rain could come up from the south and in fact part of our

region, so this is how it looks but it is still subject to change, so

keep your ice and ears on your local forecast, so it looks like chilly,

bright start to the day, then we will see clouds increase and we

expect rain to start pushing in from the side. We expected to be here

around 2pm. Temperatures tomorrow around ten or 11 degrees with life

south`westerly winds. This is the track of the rain, this is what we

think will happen in the afternoon, some of this heavy and thundering,

perhaps 20 millimetres in places, and that could mean an awful

rush`hour home for some of us although not everybody, and then

that rain to clear away and we should see dry sky is behind for

everybody. On Saturday, it looks like sunny spells and showers, but

it now looks like for a time some of those showers could merge to give a

longer a spell of rain, and Remembrance Sunday, yesterday I

talked about rain turning up but it now looks like that rain has told by

12 hours and Remembrance Sunday will be chilly but bright sunshine and

Monday looks miserable, blustery weather rain which could stay with

us for most of the day. Chilly nights on Friday and Saturday,

ground frost and possibly icy patches of though it is a small

chance. Just before I go, it is barometer night, so in the north of

the region, around 1006 millibars and in the south, 1007. That is all

from us. Enjoy your evening. The night. `` good night.