09/03/2017 Look East (West)

Hello, welcome to look East tonight. Why a little will have to go a long

way. The men convicted of selling Turkey as halal lamb. The

four-year-old boys stuck under ultraviolet light for 20 hours a

day. I am with double Olympic Gold Medallist Max Whitlock who is

gearing up for the world Championships later this year.

Hello, first, the government says it'll invest millions of pounds

to boost the economy in our region following yesterday's Budget.

It's part of a ?392 million package for the so-called

'Midlands Engine' - an attempt to improve connectivity,

Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire will get

?59 million of that over the next four years.

It'll be spent on improving roads, creating jobs and developing skills.

But many of our councils aren't happy, including

Northamptonshire County Council, where Kate Bradbrook

The council leader was joined from -- by others from across our region.

They gave me their reaction to the government announcement. They said

they were pleased but it was not enough money.

The venue, Silverstone racing Circuit, the subject roads and

As council and business leaders met to discuss

improvements, the Chancellor Philip Hammond announced ?59 million in

funding for Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire and Bucks as part of

8 million will go towards completing the Northhampton, north-west relief

The bid we needed was considerably more than 59

I appreciate the situation the government is in, they can

only give us a certain amount of money and the money announced today

It will allow us to get on with the planning

of the route but when it comes to actually constructing the northern

ring road around Northampton, we will need multimillions to be put to

The funding will set the wheels in motion for the M1 -

A6 link road north of Luton which will receive ?22 million.

The town will also benefit from a ?4 million

If you look round the whole area, they have

area around the cultural state -- quarter, the plan is to do up that

entire area and make it a cultural quarter for the town.

While some argue our share of the cash could

be greater, others say it will make a big difference.

This comes on top of ?206 million of investment into the

A further 59 million will enable us to work on

the infrastructure which is needed to benefit communities and it is of

According to the Chancellor there will be more government investment

This is not a one-off, this is part of a programme

to galvanise this economy to allow it to achieve its full potential and

make the greatest possible contribution to Britain's future.

That is what council leaders here are hoping for.

Our political reporter Tom Barton is with me now -

Tom, it seems strange that this Midlands investment

Absolutely, Britain is practically in London. Because of local

enterprise partnerships, government funding for the Midlands and spread

over a huge area. It goes as far north as Sheffield. Although we over

to the Welsh border in the West and all the way to the Lincolnshire

coast in the opposite direction. Just as from the previous Chancellor

we heard about the northern powerhouse, it seems that Philip

Hammond's priority is this Midlands engine. Those parts of a region

which find themselves in that area could well find more money coming

their way. But in a budget which has seen very little money for the rest

of the East of England, other parts of our region could find themselves

feeling a little short-changed tonight. Thank you very much. There

is more in the budget later in the programme.

Two men from Peterborough have been found guilty of conspiring to commit

fraud by telling businesses they were selling them halal lamb

Mahmudur Rohman and Kamal Rahman imported

They sold it to dozens of customers for almost double the price,

making a profit of hundreds of thousands of pounds.

These two men today found guilty of committing fraud on an industrial

They pocketed up to half a million pounds.

It was in a flat above this parade of shops that they ran their

Throughout 2013 until the end of October 2014, he bought

hundreds of tonnes of Turkey then resold

it to outlets across the

Not only was it not lamb, it was also not halal.

So eating it was deeply offensive for

For people, they felt angry, they know, it is not my fault.

We supply to restaurants, they are still with us but they even

The company imported the turkey from Germany.

As it was vacuum packed it was not easy to tell the difference,

especially as the company used fake certificates to con customers into

believing it was a certified halal meat business when it was not.

This scam only came to light after extra

checks were carried out following

A courier was sampled and to everyone's amazement

the analyst said it was nothing but Turkey.

The reaction was to check again, it cannot be turkey but it

It started from there and a referral to the dude food Trading

-- the Synod Trading Standards team. The investigation then was started.

This butcher shop sells both halal and non-halal meat

and says this case highlights the importance of knowing where your

We are very strict on traceability here.

We know exactly where the meat comes from.

All our beef is traceable back to the farm.

The Halal meat is all traceable back to the source.

In total, 116,000 kg of Turkey was falsely sold.

Today the judge told the men their crime was a serious

They will be sentenced at Leicester Crown Court later this

Cereal farmers in our region say they have been badly hit

after a major grain merchant went into administration.

Cambridgeshire Wellgrain stopped trading at the end of last month.

Many farmers are still owed thousands of pounds.

And have no idea if they'll get any of it back.

The clean-up operation after a storm doors continues at this

Cambridgeshire farm but another band of bad news is blowing in. -- storm

tourists. Cambridgeshire well Green has seemingly out of the blue gone

into administration. The biggest problem is that there has been

nothing spoken about until last Friday. From the 22nd of February

until Friday, just born where nothing was said. It was just

rumours. The company's list of creditors stands at around 300, only

two are secured and should get their money back. Most are farmers who

could lose thousands of pounds. At Christmas has grain store was full

of wheat, it all went to well-being, some of it has been paid for but the

last two loads which went on 21st of February are unlikely to bring any

return. It is not like the flooding weather was pure physical impact

where insurance could be a lot of farmers to help them and alleviate

the problems, here that is insurance available. We'll have to bear the

brunt of this. It will be significant, members were expecting

that income to come into their business to help cash flow at a time

when cash flows are tight, that money was going to be important. Not

knowing when it will arrive is clearly destabilising. No one seems

to know what went wrong but today was quiet at the HQ. The

administrators say they are exploring whether the business has

The NFU has a helpline to offer advice if you've been affected.

Last October we brought you the story of Mica and Rav.

A homeless couple in their 20s sleeping rough

Five months on they've now been given a place to stay

Mike Cartwright went back to see them in their new home.

Nowhere to go, a young couple who have slipped through

The car is their home in the cold months of winter.

They have been living, eating and sleeping there.

Wheels now swapped for walls, a warm flat and a roof

for these young people, now have a temporary home.

It is just living like normal people should be

living in our own space, free to come and go,

not have to worry about going back to a car.

Don't have to worry about a cup of tea, bed and bath and things.

It really makes you appreciate the smallest things, like food and

It takes every little aspect of life into account.

Referred here by the Council, benefits help pay their rent.

The address means they can possibly apply for jobs.

Our job is to get them from dependent to

independent so they can stay here for two years

but after that we are moving them all into more

To do that, you have to learn the skills,

how to budget, how to pay your rent, electricity, council tax,

I can see people and they say you are looking so much better, so

Not being dragged down by a situation like that, it

When we were living living in the car, it was soul destroying.

In a few months we have been here, she has had quite

a few interviews and she had a temporary job.

I have just passed a course to start in construction so I

am just waiting for a call-back to start working.

We can save up for a place and move on from there.

On the region's streets, other youngsters are

sleeping rough but now they have a safe place

An official report into the crash of an airship in Bedfordshire

last summer says it was caused by the giant Airlander

climbing too high - after its moorings snagged

Nobody was injured in the crash landing at Cardington in August.

Airlander's owners say it is now fit to return to the skies,

Time to hand you over to Stewart and Susie for the rest of look East.

Appleby back at 1030. And the four-year-old

with a rare condition, who has to spend 20 hours a day

under UV lights. The Chancellor delivered his budget

yesterday and I think it's fair In fact, the head teacher

of his old secondary school in Essex Carole Herman says Philip Hammond

is neglecting the type of school She says schools face an 8% real

terms cut in their funding and she has made redundancies

already because of We talk to our students about having

aspirations, supporting those, you also can start here and become

Chancellor of the Exchequer, but sadly Philip Hammond has not

remembered that schools need funding in order to do the accident things

they do. There was extra money for education

announced in the budget, but much of it is earmarked

for new schools. Many of those are expected

to become grammars. Norwich is one of the places

being tipped for a grammar school. Dame Rachel de Souza is the head

of the Inspiration Trust chain You have been said to be reported to

be interested in setting up a grammar in Norwich. It is critical

we do not fall out looking at new ideas that could help our students

in Norwich, in this region do better, so we will explore it and

encourage everyone to explore it also. We were one of the first into

the free School movements and three, four years on, our sixth form

College is sending students to Cambridge, Oxford. Do you think

grammar schools are the answer to social mobility? The answer is a

great academic and well rounded education and every child should be

entitled to that, but there are different ways we can deliver that

and I think if grammar schools, if it is setup properly, it could be an

answer to speeding up improvements. We need to. Look at the results, we

are improving in this region but not quickly enough. What about the kids

that do not end up going to a grammar school? We're not going back

20 years. All the information we have are about the old system where

people either went to grammars or secondary moderns. That is not

coming back at all. If this legislation is passed, you are

talking about a small number of grammar schools and like any policy,

it means thinking about how could it benefit Norwich's Norfolk's

children. You already run a chain of academies. Shouldn't the money be

going to the schools that currently exist rather than building new ones?

There is a huge need for new school places. Is there enough money going

to the schools they run at the moment? If you look at the last 40

years, spending in education has doubled. Yes, it is getting tighter

now but that is what inspiration trusts, our 13 schools work together

to make efficiencies. We made ?600,000 efficiencies on the back of

their spending. We can work really hard to make sure all that money

goes to the front line and we do better. It is great education, great

teachers, while train teachers, fantastic subject knowledge that

will help our children achieve. How we do it is a different question. It

sounds like this is a debate will go on and we will talk to you again.

Thank you. the big story from the budget is

the increase in National Insurance who's been self-employed

for about 20 years. and says he's been let

down by the Chancellor. It is the cost. It will go. I will

have to pass that cost on to my customers and at this time, people

don't want to pay more if they do not need to. It is an added cost as

a business to me personally. What did you think when you heard about

the changes? Cheated, annoyed. Basically you vote for someone, you

get told something a year or so down the line, they change their mind,

they lie to you. We have all been cheated. Thousands, millions of

self-employed people. This will affect a lot of people. Millions of

people like myself, we go out, we work hard and we work hard for what

we have got so why are we being penalised? If I had Theresa May in

front of me now, I would ask, why me? Why is it us?

and today, one of our Conservative MPs described the proposed

to hard-working white van men and women.

He said he will try to get it stopped.

Our political correspondent Andrew Sinclair is outside a van

He is Steven McParland, the MP for the village and he has formed when

it comes to getting the government to change its mind over unpopular

budget decisions. He is one of a small number of Tory MPs to say they

cannot support what was announced yesterday. They need to drop this,

it will not have the support from people like myself. They aren't

panels are the backbone of this economy, they are opening those

small businesses, employing apprentices. We have to get behind

them. At the moment, he is in the minority. Most Conservative MPs are

saying this is a fairness issue. Self-employed people access the same

services as employees so why should they pay less tax? It is a tax rise

but the self-employed now see they must pay the same contributions and

that is reasonable. There's been an outcry

in the papers today, but how much opposition

is there really? The government says 60% of

self-employed people will not be affected by this and those who are

only pay an extra 60p a week and more. I took part in a phone in this

morning and we were contacted by several self-employed people who

said this is not a big deal, we do not mind paying extra so the

government will be hoping that is what happens but this row is not

just about self-employed people, there is the perception that the

government has broken a manifesto promise.

If you know any four-year-old boys, you will know it's very

hard to keep them still, so imagine if your four-year-old had

to stay in an area the size of a single bed for 20

That's what life's like for Ishmail Ali from Luton.

He's one of only 100 people across the world who has a liver

disease called lifetime jaundice and he needs to stay

under ultra-violet lights to manage his condition.

Four-year-old Ishmail has spent almost his entire life like this.

A rare liver condition called Crigler-Najjar means he eats,

phototherapy lights for a minimum of 20 hours a day.

Because he's missing an enzyme in his liver to

break down what we call jaundice, he hasn't got that at all, so

unfortunately because it builds up, it's like a toxin in the blood and

as a toxin, if it goes to the brain, first thing they've said is it

will go past the ears etc, he will become deaf,

he will get some sort of brain damage, maybe permanent.

He has to be cooped up in his medical phototherapy bed.

He absolutely hates it, especially

sister, so he just wants to run around like a normal four-year-old

boy and just run around the house and play around with her, but it is

The family have a carer that comes for six hours a

week, but they're hoping to raise money through a crowdfunding page

Our little sister, the seven-year-old, she's

not getting any quality of life either because she says, you know,

we're basically spending all the time with him, in and out of

hospital, so we don't ever get to play with her so if

someone can be with him, we can at least get a bit of a break,

a little bit of a rest and then be able to

concentrate on caring for him even more.

It is very likely that Ishmail will spend the rest of his life

Frustrating for an energetic and cheeky little boy, but his family

say they will do everything they can to make sure he has the best quality

The double Olympic gold medallist Max Whitlock is taking a six-month

break from competition to get ready for the World Gymnastics

The 24-year-old will continue to train full-time

at the South Essex Club in Basildon, but says he needs time away

from competing to practice new, more difficult routines.

He's been speaking exclusively to our sports reporter Tom Williams.

He is already on top of the world. At just 24, Britain's greatest ever

gymnast. Good. Really nice. But there is always room for

improvement. After winning double gold, Max Whitlock needs time away

to get better. My target is to go on for another eight years, definitely

four years, everything is striving towards Tokyo but eight years is my

dream to stay in the sport. I need to take care of my body now to do

that and I do want to go into competitions with the routines I had

last year. I want to be new and improved. To achieve that he says he

needs to work smarter. He will still train full-time but behind closed

doors, devising exciting new routines, here's hoping one daring

move will be named after him. Is there a lot more to come from you? I

hope so. With the new skills I am preparing. I cannot stand still and

sit there and be happy with those results. People underneath me will

start to try and chase me. Max became Britain's first ever Olympic

gymnastics champion at last summer's games and winning gold on Pall Mall

and the floor. He will miss the World Cup event in London plus the

British and European Championships. He has come from such a high in Rio

so number one, level out, make sure his head is back in the game. We

don't want to just go and participate and get back to the

grind. We want to try to raise the level. He has become one of British

sport most famous faces. Last month he was at Buckingham Palace. What is

it like being referred to as Max Whitlock and be? Very weird but very

nice as war. To go there and be awarded by the Queen, I was so

nervous but that was truly an amazing day. He has six months to

perfect his new routine before the pressure is back on performing in

front of the world. Such a good bloke. Some weather.

Spring was in the air today. Some beautiful sunshine across the

region. Temperatures hit 16 degrees. But we have clear skies across the

region at the moment, that will translate into quite a chilly

evening and temperatures will drop away further than they did last

night. Lows of around two or three Celsius. By the end of the night,

more cloud coming in from the West so temperatures should recover.

Still a fresh start tomorrow. The pressure pattern shows high pressure

still holding on. This weather system coming the west but for us in

the East, it should not spoil things too much. Some good spells of

sunshine for the morning. The sunshine will turn hazy and in

Western counties, it will cloud over for the afternoon. But not before

temperatures have got to around ten or 11 degrees. It is possible

temperatures could be higher. The wind coming from a southerly

direction and today we had that chilly north-westerly, so not a bad

day of work but as the cloud increases, perhaps the few spots of

light rain. And looking beyond for the weekend, it is looking a little

unsettled. At Len Tingle weather systems coming our way so we could

expect Saturday to be the better date in terms of dryness. Maybe

cloudy at times but some sunshine around. Sunday will be uncertain.

That weather system moving in and it will bring rain and make things feel

a little bit cooler. The outlook- cooling down to start next week and

some fairly settled weather on the way for the beginning of next week.

That is all from us. Have a very good evening. Good night.