10/09/2014 Look East - West

Hello and welcome to Look E`st. In the programme tonight:

or Milton Keynes hospital as health chiefs say both will retain

Spurred on: could Premier Ldague Tottenham Hotspur be on thehr way to

The cars with less carbon: The motor manufacturers show us the vdhicles

First tonight: After months of uncertainty and protests,he`lth

First tonight: After months of uncertainty and protests, hdalth

bosses have today ruled out the down grading of one of the region's

hospitals. Patients and staff at Bedford and Milton Keynes Gdneral

have faced the prospect of one of the sites losing services ` the

reason? A shortage of money. But today a change of tune with

officials saying Accident and Emergency, Maternity and Chhldren's

departments will all stay at both hospitals. But the question remains,

how will they afford it? Ben Bland reports

From Bedford this evening. We now know that they have ruled ott

significant donor grading of either of the two hospitals. ``downgrading

Full. The bosses may want to keep to fully functioning hospitals but they

do not yet know how they will pay for it. What services should be

provided here and what could be done elsewhere? It is a question with

very real consequences for people like Nicola who lives in rural Beds

and her daughter has chronic fatigue and her son has Downs syndrome. She

is keen for services such as blood testing to be done closer to home.

From the point of view of e`ch payment with disabled children, they

want to be sure they can get their child somewhere where they can be

treated safely. When you have the life`threatening condition, you want

the hospital there and especially for families with very disabled

children. There must be the local hospital. Last month it seeled that

Bedford or Milton Keynes cotld lose key services such as paediatrics.

But there was strong feedback from doctors and patients and nurses and

any significant downgrade bx either hospital has now been ruled out It

has now become very apparent that is not an option for Bedford hospital

or for Milton Keynes hospit`l. There is no question of hospital services

in Bedford being deprived of paediatric or emergency services.

Those are here to stay. The big question for those in chargd of

local health services is how they can keep control of both hospitals

and there will have to be some changes to how and where patients

are treated. There are lots of ways to make services more sustahnable.

Lots of people come to accident and emergency that could be seen by the

GPO pharmacist and people who are very old and frail could probably

treated at home with the right support. There are lots of things we

can do and the important thhng is that we have to work togethdr and

make sure those services ard stable. It is or was the year since the

review of local health servhces began and we now know what bosses

say they will not change takeaway but that is still very little detail

about what they will. This whole review was prompted by the crisis in

children's services here at Bedford hospital last year which were

temporarily suspended because of safety concerns. They have no fully

returned and changes have bden made things about how this should be that

the problems which emerged still remain, namely a shortage of doctors

and nurses and health visitors. There is also overspending by

doctors and nurses in Milton Keynes over health care. This overspending

must be dealt with. That is also a population which is predictdd in

carrying on ageing and all of this must be dealt with and that is where

the money question comes in. The next stages in the review are to

finalise plans and proposals and pupils out to consultation hn the

winter, which will be a chance for the wider population in this area to

have their say. in discussions with MK Dons over a

temporary move to Stadium MK in three years' time. Legal issues mean

the London Premier League club are "highly unlikely" to move into their

new stadium as scheduled for 2017`18. It's being reported that

Stadium MK is one of four vdnues being assessed. Our sports reporter,

James Burridge, joins me. J`mes how Considering they are 50 milds away

it is a real contender. In 2017 in 2008 in the have to find a new

temporary home. This is one of a few options which also includes Wembley

and the Olympic Stadium but they will also be expensive when you

compare it with the running costs of Stadium MK. When you considdr what

the catchment area as for Spurs fans are a lot of them live around the M1

corridor and Stadium MK is staged huge sporting moments including the

total sell`out match involvhng Manchester United and it is also a

Rugby World Cup venue which will next year 's stage three World Cup

matches. This is not such a far`fetched idea. This will also

keep the spotlight on the club. Will MK dons say anything about this

They probably do not want to antagonise Tottenham Hotspur and

influence any discussions. Ht has been discussed on social media that

they might shared it with other clubs and other big venues `nd

keeping the stadium as a telporary venue. Do not expect any sudden

announcement because this is three seasons away and I will havd to be

many discussions first. A new campaign's being launched in

Luton to tackle violent crile. Two years ago, Delaney Brown died in

a hit`and`run attack and a wave of shootings followed the killhng. Now

the local council says it, police and other organisations need to work

more closely together to iddntify problems on the streets. But

community leaders say they have When armed police took to the

streets of Britain it sent ` message to say that violence would not be

tolerated. The death of Del`ney Brown and the shootings that

followed left the town in the grip of fear. In the past 18 months in

Britain, police are focused on gun crime. There have been 173 `rrests

and 118 warrants issued and 19 people charged and 20 guns

recovered. Written council have come the strategy to tackle gangs to stop

young people being involved in violent crime. Those are working

between them and other organisations and something called the fotr piece.

```four Ps. We need to protdct people from gang violence and

prepare to listen to people who are concerned about this and also the

prevent element which is thd most important and involves prevdnting

young people from going into a life of crime. Whatever way the council

says it will work to tackle violent crime, people here the firm views on

what has been happening in the town. It is bad with drugs and yot have

young children running around with bottles in the hands, drinkhng, and

you have smoking at the age of 1. I think it is atrocious. I thhnk it is

overhyped. I think you get this in any area and will be isolatdd

incidents. There are a lot of good things that go on on the estate

This security worker questions the strategy of the council. He says

criminal should be diverted into paperwork. If they have nothing to

lose, they given no thought. It will be painful for society to accept it

but at the end of the day, they need to be given work and that is it

They need to be getting mondy in a lawful fashion. That will hdlp will

solve some of the issues. There is no extra money for the strategy of

the council and it is too e`rly to say if it will work.

A lake in Milton Keynes has been searched today for a 21`year`old who

disappeared in the early hotrs of Monday morning.

Alex Todd`Weller was last sden at 4am at Pink Punters nightcltb in

Watling Street. His disappe`rance is said to be totally out of character.

A stretch of Cambridgeshire road which has been the scene of a series

of fatal accidents was closdd today to be resurfaced. Safety barriers

have already been installed on North Bank by the River Nene near

Whittlesey. It follows a calpaign by local people for more safetx

It has become known as one of our most the Tories votes. And ht is no

being resurfaced. ``notoriots roads. Skid resistance on Ben 's is one of

a number of safety procedurds being put in place. ``on bends.

18`year`old Hannah was one of those who lost her life after loshng

control of her car in a serhes of accidents. They began on thd 3rd of

November with her death and then over a week for cars also plunged

into the river with passengdrs thrown into the water and h`ving to

escape. On the 2nd of December, a man's body was recovered from his

car and another accident on the same day. On this occasion the driver was

unhurt. Campaigners say thex been campaigning for better safety here

and in line with the family of Hannah, added their voices to the

protest. The events of last year did not be fruit in time to see those

lives. Why did it take to ddaths before the safety barriers were

brought in? We looked at wh`t we could install and the safetx fencing

had to be tested for we could see if could install because of thd growing

conditions. Once we find we could do it, installed this is straight away.

The council says that care lust also be taken driving along Fenl`nd

roads, even more so with another winter ahead.

Four of the ten most overcrowded train services last year were routes

through this region. The worst offender was the 0646

service from London Euston to Milton Keynes which carried two passengers

for every seat. Also on the list was a morning train from Bedford to

Brighton and three evening services from Euston through Leighton Buzzard

and Northampton. Today the Transport Minister, Claire

Perry, challenged the rail hndustry to do more to improve overcrowding.

The companies which operate these services say they've alreadx

increased capacity or have plans to do so by the end of this ye`r.

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 weather is going to remain pretty mtch as it

is. It is going to be sunny and mainly dry with varying amotnt of

clients. That is because we have this large area of high pressure

keeping things static. We'vd had some cloud around today but

actually, we've done pretty well. A lovely September day for most of us,

with long spells of sunshind. You can just see the cloud in the North

Sea. It's going to head our way overnight and in fact, that should

prevent temperatures from f`lling too low. There will be some clear

spells so it's possible that some places will get down into shngle

figures. A little bit chillx out in the countryside. For most of us

temperatures should hover around ten or 11 degrees as we get to the early

hours tomorrow morning. The prospect for tomorrow is not great. Ht looks

as though it will stay quitd dull and cloudy too much of the day. The

thickest of the cloud should produce a little bit of light rain or

drizzle in places. As we get through into the afternoon, there is a

chance of something brightening up across the eastern half. If you live

in Norfolk or Essex, you might see something brighter towards the

afternoon. It will remain cool with a lot of cloud around. Any

brightness might just help to boost those temperatures a little bit

Across western half, it looks rather cloudy for much of the afternoon.

Across the East, perhaps sole sunshine to end the day. Thd high

pressure starts to migrate `cross Scandinavia. What this means is we

will get more of an easterlx. That will bring more cloud but the

high`pressure is established enough to prevent these rain bearing

weather systems from coming our way. It is likely to stay dry, mostly dry

into next week. Rather cloudy at times and it will stand to turn

breezy into the weekend. As we get to the weekend, it is looking rather

cloudy, I'm afraid. That's it for this evening. We will

see you tomorrow.