23/02/2017 Look East (West)

In Look East tonight: A school roof collapses leaving a young girl

Storm Doris brings railways and roads to a standstill.

Ans a danger to women - a judge's words for Ian Stewart

as he jails him for life for killing Roston writer Helen Bailey.

A school girl was left with life-threatening

injuries after the ceiling of her school hall collapsed.

It happened this afternoon at Southwood School in Milton Keynes.

Let's go to the newsroom where Mousumi Bakshi has the latest.

Yes, a distressing end to the school day.

Officers from Thames Valley we understand were called

to Southwood Middle School at around 3.30 this afternoon.

There, they found two children who'd been struck by a section

of ceiling that had collapsed in the sports hall.

One child was treated for minor injuries,

the other rushed to hospital with what is being described as life

Now we don't know the ages of the children, but Southwood

teaches pupils aged between 7 and 11.

The ceiling we know was an internal one and according to police,

it is possible that the collapse was caused by the severe

Health and Safety officers have confirmed that the building is safe

and the school will be open tomorrow.

A spokesman for Southwood has said: "We are co-operating fully

"with the relevant authorities in this investigation.

"Our thoughts are of course with this child and her family at this

Meanwhile, Storm Doris has been causing havoc

Strong winds battered overhead cables, bringing

And there's been disruption on the roads too,

with lorries overturning and blocking major routes.

A mad crush to board one of the first trains to leave

Cambridge station this evening, this one bound for Ely.

Commuters had been waiting for hours, as Storm Doris wreaked

Unfortunately it took me nearly eight and a half hours

There do not seem to be any replacement bus services,

I have been waiting five hours and all I have seen

It was similar across the region as hundreds waited in vain

for trains that never arrived at Luton.

Damaged overhead power cables at St Albans delaying trains

And it was the same picture in Peterborough.

Empty platforms, with East Coast mainline running just

Very frustrating because I have a long way to travel,

I've got to go way back up north, so a long way to go.

The main reason for the disruption today is objects such as trees

falling down and falling on overhead power cables, which we need

And when that happens our priority is the safety of passengers

and workforce and that means going through very concise

processes to get the railway operational again.

As well as the long rail delays there were lucky escapes.

The driver of this lorry escaped with minor injuries

One of several problems on the region's roads.

Gusts of up to 60 mph which caused lots of issues on the roads

with debris and trees being blown onto the roads and high sided

In Cambridge a man was pulled from under a fallen tree.

My foreman said, there is a bloke underneath there.

Ran across the road and he was on his knees,

caught hold of him and pulled him out and asked him

He said, yeah, I am fine, I just need to sit down and calm down.

And I said, you need to buy yourself a lottery ticket.

Sporting events have also been affected.

No racing today at Huntingdon, abandoned over concerns

And in Northampton the clear up finally begins.

Traffic disrupted as part of this wall was brought down.

But tonight all eyes are on the trains.

Services in and out of London have resumed, but the knock on effects

The fiance of the Hertfordshire children's author, Helen Bailey,

has been sentenced to life imprisonment for her murder.

Ian Stewart, who didn't attend court, was told that he'll have

Yesterday a jury convicted him of drugging and killing Miss Bailey

and hiding her body in a cesspit at their home in Royston

Sentencing him at St Albans Crown Court, the judge told Stewart

that it was "difficult to imagine a more heinous crime".

The head of the French car group PSA in talks to buy Vauxhall has

The proposed deal, which could be signed within weeks,

has prompted fears about the future of two thousand workers

Prime Minister Theresa May yesterday spoke on the phone to the PSA boss

Carlos Tavares to reiterate the UK Government's commitment

Another of our councils has agreed big cuts - and a tax rise.

Northamptonshire County Council says it needs to save ?58 million

over the next year - at the same time as coping with

A chance to get together and share experiences but this dementia cafe

hasn't just seen its budget sliced but cut altogether, while other day

The people who are doing these cuts don't realise what it's

The budget for children's centres is being cut by more than 60%,

I would be very isolated if it wasn't for the children's centre,

especially when my little one was younger, when she was a baby,

because I had a little bit of postnatal depression.

So I think it would be terrible if they cut the budget.

Despite members of the public speaking against the plans,

today's meeting approved not only the cuts but a council

Opposition councillors say it could have been avoided.

Demand is rising and one of the issues around the budget

is the fact that they have traditionally mis-forecast that

demand and that is why they are always scrabbling around

each year, trying to keep up with things.

They have concentrated far too much on keeping an artificially low

council tax at the expense of the vulnerable and those who rely

This is the County Council's new, slightly delayed headquarters.

Along with a major restructure of the authority, it's all meant

to help deal with a significantly increasing demand for services.

Last month, the number of children in care moved over 1,000

In the next two years, the county's population is to grow

by more than 33,000, and the demand for adult social care

The growth in Northamptonshire is some of the highest in the country.

We have an ageing population and, at the same time,

And we have to live within our means.

I think a lady actually said this morning, one of our speakers,

Protesters worried about the cuts didn't stop today's decision but,

with none of the options for our councils looking

easy, the placards may be back out in future.

Well, to give us an idea of how Northamptonshire compares

to the rest of the region, here's our Political

Last year, the government allowed councils with responsibility

for social care to add 2% to bills to pay for the ballooning

But they left it to councils to decide how much they want to charge.

All of our councils opted to charge 3% except for Cambridgeshire,

On average, these councils are putting up bills

So what does that mean in pounds and pence?

Well, in areas which have both county and district councils,

most of your council tax is paid to the larger County Council.

The biggest increase in these areas will be in Hertfordshire,

which is adding just under ?60 per year to average Band D bills.

While the smallest increase, of ?23, is in Cambridgeshire.

Bills in these areas are likely to go up by more than that

as district councils may also increase their share of council tax.

In areas with unitary authorities, where there is just one

council, rises are higher because the councils

The biggest rise in these areas is in Bedford,

which is adding just over ?64 to annual bills.

While the smallest increase in in Peterborough,

What, then, does all this mean for councils?

Well, across our region, county and unitary authorities

will collect an extra ?47 million this year.

But given the increasing demand for many services,

council leaders are warning it's not big enough.

That is all from me but for the latest on the troubled construction

in the morning tune into your local radio station -- travel disruption.

Storm Doris brought gale force winds across the region today

but the low-pressure weather system associated with the storm has moved

out into the North Sea and the winds will continue to to ease

through the evening and night and already they are easing

Some patchy rain around and the odd isolated shower through the night

with temperatures dropping quite considerably compared

Risk of a touch of frost and some icy patches.

We start tomorrow on a much chillier note but much calmer conditions.

A largely dry day with good spells of sunshine

A light to moderate west to and north-westerly wind.

It looks to be staying fine in the afternoon

The national weather is coming up but here is the outlook.

Milder for the weekend with the chance rain.

Good evening. It was quite a day for some of us. We get these sort of

storms every couple of years also. Difficult to give an exact number,

but it was certainly a nasty one. It's now moving into Holland,

Germany, south of Denmark, and it continues to blow itself out. The

winds around coasts were not particularly spectacular, but the

inland winds were unusual, 62 mph in