06/03/2017 Look East (West)

1500 employee use and thousands more in the supply chain, what the

Vauxhall deal beans for Luton. Hybrid taxis to help improve

pollution levels. And I'm here with your weather for the week ahead and

a rather mixed forecast. First tonight, what the Vauxhall

deal might mean for Luton. As you may have seen,

the French car manufacturer PSA, the company behind

Peugeot and Citroen, has agreed to buy Vauxhall and Opel

in a deal worth almost It has national and

international ramifications, but more directly, it will affect

the 1,500 people who work for Vauxhall in Luton

and the thousands of employees At shift changeover in Vauxhall this

lunchtime, many staff had still not been told that they were now

employees of the French car giant The commitment to continue

production in Luton has been assured until 2024

but beyond that the PSA chairman said today that its future depends

on improving Their future is in their hands,

based on their ability to give themselves the level

of performance that will ensure the We know we've got a good

workforce, hopefully they will take that on board,

that's all we can say. I looked over when Peugeot took over

other plants and didn't go Today was reassuring in

that they say they are going to keep our contracts until at least 2025,

if they stick to that, everyone will The plant is 1 of the most

productive in Europe. But 2000 jobs were

lost in Luton when Vauxhall stopped making

cars here 15 years ago. see the van plant going

down the same road, we need to preserve the jobs

here and there is no reason flexible workforce, why

wouldn't we continue here? There has to be serious

concerns when there's a big announcement like this,

we are reassured that they are saying they want to invest

in the brand and make sure the iconic brand of Vauxhall

continues, for our part, we were watching with government

and working with Vauxhall and trade unions

to make sure that Vauxhall is a The plant's future will depend

on the kind of savings that the new owners PSA want to make

and on the Brexit While there was cautious

optimism here, there are many businesses around Luton that depend

on Vauxhall, they are now facing Earlier I spoke to Gavin Shuker,

the MP for Luton South. I asked him for his reaction

to the news of the deal. This is a good first step

in the future of Vauxhall here in Luton because we now know

what the ownership is going to be. But no one should be under any

false conceptions here, we need to work hard to secure

the future jobs both here at the plant, this is 1

of the most efficient and most productive parts of General Motors

and will be in the newly formed company, but with the risks

of Brexit and the possibility of a very hard Brexit,

we know we are going to work hard to make sure the government delivers

on its commitments as well as PSA. What commitments would you like

the government to deliver on? The government has decided it

will push for a hard Brexit, and currently push for

some protections here we know there will be tariffs, taxes

on vans going into the continent and parts coming back in,

that would be disastrous. There are 8 years left

on the current contract in Luton, what do you think will

happen after that? 8 years is a long way away,

but in automotive terms, We need a decision on a new van in 5

years' time, the good news is we will probably have an idea of

what the future shape of Britain's relationship with Europe will be,

but in the short-term, GM lost money on its operations

in Europe in the last 16 years, continuously - under new ownership

they would be crazy to get rid of 1 of the parts of this business

that is making money, PSA have given reassurances

today over the future of jobs, are you satisfied

with what they have said? I'm thankful for their interjections

that guarantee the future of this plant, it makes good business sense,

but probably the bigger part of this story is now Britain's

relationship with the EU, which is why we need

the government to do its bit. The new combined authority

for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough has officially come

into being today. It means the local authority

will have more control over spending as powers are devolved

from Westminster. Our reporter Waseem Mirza has been

looking at the details. This new combined authority will

have more control over spending, a decision has been made to set aside

?20,000,000 over the next 30 years, this will be put into a new

investment fund to boost growth. Not all of it will be available from day

1. The government has agreed to provide the authority with an

additional ?70,000,000,000 over 5 years, ring fenced for Cambridge to

help it meet its housing needs. The new authority has gained special

powers of the planning and control over ?100,000,000 housing and

infrastructure budget. What about transport? Cambridgeshire is home to

argue with the busiest truck route, they will be a larger pot to keep

things moving, not only on roads put on public transport. All this and

more will be in the hands of a new Maher overseeing this combined

authority, elected in May. Thank you.

One of the region's councils is bidding to become the first local

authority outside London to ban diesel taxis.

Air pollution levels in Cambridge have begun to drop.

But diesel emissions in the city centre continue to grow.

Now the council wants to phase out the most polluting cars.

As part of the BBC's So-I-Can-Breathe week,

Mousumi Bakshi has been to see one firm already

It's the first fare of the day for Abdul

It is one of the electric cars that crisscross the congested streets

of Cambridge - running costs have dropped with fuel

You save a lot of money by driving an electric car,

my fuel costs are a lot lower now, and you do get better economy

There are just a handful of charge points of the county

and while the current generation of electric cars can only

travel so far on 1 charge, the technology

suits short taxi rides in a city can to terms

Some of our market research and experience is that people do ask

for them and there are people very aware of the need to be greener,

so we can get requests for them, we are looking to increase the Fleet

Cambridge is now on the cusp of a clean energy revolution,

with the City Council is bidding for government funding for up to 40

But access in this medieval city is proving to be a problem.

Putting street furniture into a historic city has issues

with it, we have chosen locations that are fairly uncontroversial

for the 1st few locations in car parks, stations,

where aesthetically it won't be an issue.

While air quality in Cambridge is broadly improving,

nitrogen dioxide levels remain higher than the national average,

at certain points in the city centre, and that has

This mother of 2 had too many school runs in the most

If the City Council gets its way, all of us will be booking low

emission caps in Cambridge within the decade.

The push now is to convince the rest of the population to drive electric

so we can all breathe in cleaner air.

At its peak, 80 firefighters were called to Asda on Wigmore Lane in

Luton. 2 people were treated for Luton. 2 people were treated for

injuries but nobody seriously hurt. The store was evacuated and people

billion flats nearby were also told to leave their homes. We are back

tomorrow morning. Good night. Time but the weather.

Apart from an isolated showers but that should be fine and dry with

clear spells. Temperatures can drop a few degrees lower than these

values, close to freezing. For everyone, cold start the day with

this weather front pushing towards us. Tuesday on the whole be fine and

dry with spells of the trial, probably more cloud around tomorrow.

The sunshine may turn hazy, light winds, we finished the day fine and

dry, after dark we expect the cloud thicken up and the crane and weather

front pushing eastwards. It may take a while for those with a front to

Wednesday, likely to get off to a cloudy start with our bricks of

rain. Eventually it should clear after the and should become dry and

brighter. Thursday, a lot of uncertainty, this weather front

pushing towards us, at the moment looking largely fine and dry. Friday

itself looking cloudy with some rain at times.

some blustery showers around. That's the London forecast and now for the

National forecast, over to Nick Miller.

North-west France and Plymouth were miles apart weather-wise. This

southern flank in north-west France there was a wind gusts of 120 mph

which we just dodged. That area of low pressure continues to move

quickly south-eastwards so that by tomorrow it is in Italy on its

southern flank, stormy in Sardinia and around it strong winds blowing

through south-east France. We've got a little bump in the ice bars with

lighter winds, a brief ridge of high pressure, things briefly settled

going into tomorrow, overnight there are some showers around moving

through western Scotland and north-west England and the Midlands,

clearing Wales, one or two in the east, the North Sea tip of high