28/01/2013 Midlands Today

Hello and welcome to Midlands Today, with Sarah Falkland and Giles

Latcham. The headlines tonight:

The second stage of HS2 brings protests but supporters say it

makes business sense. And all you people of Birmingham, it will be

the best connected City at in the UK. They all are going to have

their lives wrecked by it. Also on tonight's programme:

After two deaths, fire safety advice for tramps and squatters.

Fed up of hearing Birmingham slated? Perhaps you could be a

Brummie ambassador. We do not expect special treatment... And a

new week with a new set of problems to put up with. No snow but plenty

Good evening. There were winners and losers today as the Government

spelled out plans to go Birmingham at the heart of the country's high-

speed rail network. Two new lines will slash journey times to Leeds

and Manchester. They will link to the HS2 flying to London. People

who found out only today that the new routes will be close to their

homes are already planning protests. The Transport Minister says the

routes will make Birmingham the best connected city in the country.

For the second time in three years, homeowners and visitors are tonight

facing up to the fact they will be affected by a chest to. The Brits

announced today mean more blight and more misery. -- affected I

think. James runs a riding stable. He is already close to the original

HS2 line. Now he and his horses are just yards away from theTo Leeds.

The access will be difficult in and out of the stables. Elsewhere,

lives are in number. This couple are desperate to sell but the

proximity of HS2 to establish a house has meant a little interest

from buyers. Concerned about our future. We can't actually have any

plans in life. Our life is permanently on hold. But according

to Government ministers, while some might lose out, others will be

winners, with predictions of improved growth and prosperity.

the country it shows the commitment to build the infrastructure for the

21st century. For Birmingham it will mean jobs during construction,

new, permanent jobs. And for Birmingham it will be the best

connected city in the UK. Journey times between Birmingham and the

Behind me the site of the proposed Birmingham City Centre HS2 centre.

There has already been quite a bit of regeneration here. Manchester,

Leeds are hoping that when HS2 arrives, that will continue. And

Birmingham Chamber of Commerce says there is more Choosing To Die than

just regeneration. It brings the cities closer and that shows more

business gets done. -- and there is more to the HS2 than just

regeneration. The Government plans a hybrid bill which could pave the

way for high-speed lines to be built in two faces, London to

Birmingham by 2026 and then Leeds and Manchester six years later.

The route that HS2 will take for Staffordshire was revealed at 7am

this morning and for many it has come as an unpleasant surprise. The

high-speed line will skirt around Stafford but the nearby village of

Hopton will have high-speed trains on the doorstep. Further north at

Madeley near Newcastle-under-Lyme, trains will hurtle through at up to

2025mph. And with no HS2 stops in the county, will staff the Czech

get all of the pain and none of the gain?

In the village of Hopton near Stafford, families greeted news

they are on the HS2 route with shock. June Brown-Bullivant chose

her home because of its stunning views across the Staffordshire

countryside, but HS2 is likely to change the view from here. It may

not be in my lifetime when it is built but we will fight for future

people who will be living here. Staffordshire will be effective

from north to south by this route. The line is expected to pass close

to the County Showground here, one of many parts of the landscape like

to do be affected. Amongst those areas will be Madeley, near

Newcastle-under-Lyme, also close to the planned rigged. At the village

centre there was scepticism about the benefits of the high-speed link

to rural communities like this one. We get the pain but none of the

game. Who are they spending the money for? Not for us. It could

take a lot more traffic than it does. The West Coast Mainline. So

what is the need to have something like that? I good sooner the money

be spent on other things. I feel really sorry for people who are

going to have their lives completely wrecked by it, but this

is progress. The rich north from Birmingham to Manchester will cut

through swathes of Staffordshire countryside. The Conservative-led

county council says the environmental impact will be

significant. Communities will be affected. Houses will be worth 50%

less overnight. The Winnie to work with those homeowners.

Staffordshire has long had an association with the railways, but

passengers here will not have a high-speed station, and there are

many who feel economic benefits of the route will be distant.

I transport correspondent joins us now from the stables in

Warwickshire which we saw earlier in his report, threatened by a HS2.

The devil is in the detail with these routes published today?

least. These stables are affected by not one but two and HS2 lines

and the hat to relocate. But what compensation will be available to

those who find themselves affected? To find the answers, I am joined

from an estate agent. Tell me what compensation is available

immediately to people who find themselves affected? Right now, the

scheme is threefold. For those within 60 metres of the line, there

is the advance purchase scheme where they get a 10% loss of

payment on its top of the value of their property. 60 metres out, 120

metres out is on a trooper this -- purchase scheme, but they only get

the value of their property. And beyond 120 metres is the

exceptional hardship scheme. that is pretty hard to claim?

You have to prove that you have tried to sell your property through

every means you possibly can and you need to sell it right now. If

you are in financial difficulty, you need to move because of a job,

health, you have to be in exceptional hardship. But general

compensation is not really available until compulsory purchase

orders come out after the high brick purchase bill -- hybrid Bill

passes through Parliament? That is right. Not even until the spring

will you be able to start considering compulsory purchase,

let alone moving on to the hardship except us. How bad is the blight? I

have heard some properties have been devalued by up to �100,000.

Those properties sitting near to the line, you would get a full

market value. The extraordinary hardship scheme, you will get the

full value. But in between, there is an argument for people to be put

off from buying. We are talking about a railway line that could be

20 years away. We would like to know what you

think of the proposed new route for HS2. Please get in touch with us.

We will read out some comments later.

Coming up, the perils of Twitter. Another Premier League footballer

is heading for trouble because of Homeless people sleeping rough are

being offered smoke alarms and fire safety advice when they are seeking

shelter in abandoned buildings. It is the first scheme of its kind in

the country and follows a number of fires where people have been killed

or injured. You have to be careful... In a dark

and damp squat, starting a fire may seem a good way to stay warm.

to put his cigarettes in the ashtray. West Midlands firefighter

Ian Sturmey has joined outreach workers in Birmingham. He knows it

is not just home owners who need fire safety checks. I can see her

at least five. There are two and others in the bedroom. They are bad

hat -- habits. In 2010 two homeless men died in a fire in Birmingham

and it prompted a response on the streets. It was hurried because

they were issuing information about the tattoos on the bodies so that

people could identify them. -- it was horrid. The truth is that no

one knows the exact figure of homeless people in the West

Midlands, because many are hiding away for their own protection. The

concern is that many of these sanctuaries are in fact derelict

death traps. The firefighters have -- this charity, SIFA Fireside, has

been working with the homeless for 30 years. They are going to light a

fire to keep warm, which is our worst nightmare. This 19-year-old

has been in and out of prison. He calls this disused toilet block his

home. Keep away from the blankets with fire and put all of the

rubbish into bags. I as another squat is found, the team build

trust slowly. They give some more fire safety advice. They hope they

are saving lives. There will be a full report on the

held being offered to rough sleepers particularly with the

current weather. That is on Inside Out tonight.

The family of a kayaker from Worcestershire who died after being

pulled from a swollen stream in North Yorkshire say he died taking

part in the sport he loved. Matthew Baird-Parker, 36 from Kidderminster,

got into difficulties near Richmond yesterday. He was taken to hospital

by air ambulance but later died. A pensioner has died a fortnight

after she was mugged on her doorstep. Carole Mudie, 68, had her

back stolen and broke her hip when she was pushed outside her home

near Kings Norton in Birmingham. She died in hospital on Tuesday.

Police have launched a manslaughter investigation and are appealing for

witnesses. Flood defences have been put up in

several places along the River Severn tonight. There are currently

21 flood warnings and also flood alerts in the region. The apparent

agency will erect barriers in Ironbridge this evening. I have

already gone up in Shrewsbury and Bewdley. It is another flood, the

third in three months. We have a lot of rain water upstream and that

melt water as well, combining together is causing the floods down

here. So we are getting ourselves ready, getting the barriers in

place and we are expecting a peak in Bewdley here probably tomorrow

evening and it will come up to the barriers.

Birmingham is considering introducing a Brummie History Week

and appointing "Brummie ambassadors" In order to improve

the second City's image and bring its hundreds of communities closer

together. 21st century Birmingham is changing fast and a report says

it is people coming from Eastern Europe and the white working class

people who feel most alienated. It is almost impossible to define

what it means to be a Brummie. The Soho Road in Handsworth is typical

because so many different cultures exist side by side. Some

communities feel overlooked altogether. A report says Eastern

Europeans feel like ghosts. whinny to ensure there is no

community left behind. We need to work with the refugee communities

but also the white working-class communities who have shaped

Birmingham. This is one of the most distinctive places I know in

Birmingham, the outdoor fruit and veg market. One suggestion of the

report is that there should be many more like this all over the city,

not just selling food but how make products as well so that Birmingham

can be showcased across the world. But even in a place where every

community comes together, the term Brummie is an alien one. Where are

you from? From Dublin. I am Irish. How long have you lived here?

67 years. But you do not consider yourself a Brummie? Oh, no expat --

oh, no,! A never heard of for me. In this museum in the jewellery

Quarter, one of the city's most ardent ambassador's says Birmingham

must take more pride in itself. need to reach out further afield

from Birmingham but we also need to do it in a way that is not

apologising for what we are and who we are but saying, this is what we

are. This is what we have done for this country. That is a neat way to

sum up what the report says, it is time to take pride in being a

Phil Mackie is with us now. What are the city council going to do

with their findings in this? That they are going to discuss said. We

know Birmingham is struggling for money, they need to do things they

can afford, a history week, supporting ambassadors, like the

Olympics, a welcome pack for immigrants. That will not cost a

large, but they might do something to bring those desperate

communities into the fold. The big change is the attitude, they need

to try and think about representing those other communities, eastern

Europeans, we don't see them on the council, or the police. The white

working class also seems to have been lost.

Anything else surprising about what was found? The most surprising

thing is how honest and frank it has been. We always talk about

Birmingham as being integrated and multicultural, you see that in the

city centre. The report says once you get back out into the local

communities people live quite isolated from each other, and that

is what the report is hoping to do, get people back together and make

them proud of the city. Our top storey, high-speed rail is

welcomed by business, but many homeowners save their lives will be

devastated. Your detailed weather forecast to

come shortly: Also in tonight's programme. We reveal the part

Birmingham university scientists played in helping Jamaica's

athletes win Olympic glory. And who are they? Long lost photos found in

Worcester and the secrets they reveal about the city's history.

Competition among elite athletes is so intense that the difference

between winning and losing can come down to the tiniest detail. So when

the Jamaican Athletics team won more medals than they'd anticipated

at last year's Olympics - was it due, in part, to scientists at

Birmingham University? Maybe so because the Jamaicans spent three

weeks ahead of the games at the University's high tech sports

science department. The Men's 110m hurdles final at

London 2012. For young Jamaican athlete Hansel Parchment just being

in the final is a result. But Hansel has spent the Olympic build-

up training at the University of Birmingham. The sprinting technique

was one of the top ones. He is very young, and his starting technique

is not quite up to scratch, so we worked on that. We worked on the

placement of the starting blocks. And that hard work paid off. Hansel

Parchment won an unexpected bronze medal. And that's thanks in part to

the high-tech sports science available here at the University.

All of this was top secret of course. The running track is behind

those hedges, and when the Jamaicans noticed that one of the

security cameras was taking in the start line, they asked for it to be

removed, politely! This secrecy means the researchers won't discuss

superstars like Bolt or Blake, but the relationship with the

University will continue in the run up to Rio and it's not the

superstar sprinters that the scientists here say have most medal

potential. The women can also improve tremendously, there is

potentially more room for improvement in the women's team ban

in the men's team. -- ban. could see a revolution in the

fortune of Jamaican athletics, powered by Birmingham know how.

Fascinating. Perhaps they might have a few tips to pass on to our

footballers? Here with sport - Dan Pallett.

Every football manager has learned to fear the dreaded vote of

confidence. And this afternoon, it duly arrived from Randy Lerner. In

a statement, the Aston Villa chairman also mentioned his

frustration that nothing has yet materialised in the transfer market.

And he's not the only one backing In 64 AD Emperor Nero was accused

of fiddling whilst Rome burned. Any comparisons with Nigel Kennedy and

his beloved Aston Villa are purely coincidental. For the second cup-

tie in four days, they took the tie in four days, they took the

lead against lower league opponents, and blew it. Darren Bent's early

goal wasn't enough to beat Millwall, who twice exposed Villa's defensive

frailties to complete a miserable frailties to complete a miserable

week for Paul Lambert. I can only do my best for this club, there is

no chance to be walking away from it. I don't think you can blame

managers, Martin O'Neill was forced to leave, then Gerrard the AA left

the club. -- Houllier. We have had a lot of great managers. This

morning, all eyes turned towards tomorrow's vital relegation scrap

against fellow strugglers Newcastle. Whilst they've spent 20 million

pounds on five new Frenchmen. Paul Lambert has discussed several

players with his chairman, but signed no-one. His -- is the

chairman willing to spend the money? Them is not a lot of money.

You can only play the hand you are dealt with. This afternoon Randy

Lerner pledged his backing for the In April, Nigel Kennedy's UK tour

is called Bach Meets Fats Waller. In August, he's hoping it's not

Barnsley Meets Aston Villa, in the With Stoke City losing 1-0 to

Manchester City we no longer retain an interest in FA Cup. Birmingham

City were our only winners at the City were our only winners at the

weekend. They beat Burnley 2-1. Curtis Davies put them ahead with a

first half header. They were pegged back by a penalty but Marlon King's

late volley gave them their first win since Boxing Day. They now

climb above Wolves in the Championship after Wolves lost 2-1

at home to Blackpool thanks in part to this defensive mix-up. And Leon

Clarke was on the mark again as Coventry City drew 2-2 at Preston.

Coventry City drew 2-2 at Preston. The Sky Blues are 7th in league one.

Dan, what's all this about one of our Premier League footballers

getting into trouble on Twitter? Yes that's West Bromwich Albion

striker Peter Odemwingie. He spent an hour and a half on Saturday

night tweeting about his row with the club. He wants to move to

Queens Park Rangers but they've turned down two bids for him and

rejected a transfer request. What did he say in these tweets?

Well some of them were a little bizarre talking about bananas,

Satan and Guinness. But most were replying to criticism from fans.

Here's an example where he told one man who said the club should let

him rot in the reserves that it was "not wise for the club", he was

"ready for anything" and it was a matter of principle. The club says

they'll deal with it internally and that's likely to mean a big fine.

Odemwingie isn't the first footballer to get in trouble on

Twitter is he? No and I'm sure he won't be the

last either. For example Ashley Cole was fined 90,000 pounds by the

FA for abusing them on Twitter and Manchester United defender Rio

Ferdinand had to pay 45,000 pounds A pile of 1950's photographs found

in a drawer are helping tell the story of an almost forgotten part

of Worcester. The people in the photos lived in a place called

George's Yard and the National Trust's appealing for help to fill

in the gaps in their story. VJ day 1945. The end of the Second

World War. The country celebrates, as does a five year old girl in

Worcester. I was born here at George's yard in 1945. But all that

survives of Chris Evan's childhood home are her memories. This would

have been your door? Yes, there was no running water, no toilets, it

was cold in those bedrooms! Used to go to bed with three cardigans on.

Ten houses were built in Georges Yard in the 1820s. They were behind

one of Worcester's oldest houses, Greyfriars which dates from the

15th century and is now run by the National Trust. During a recent

spring clean they discovered photos of the last people to live in

George's Yard before the site was bulldozed in 1954. We thought that

we didn't know much about this, who lived here, why the houses where

hair, what do they look like? All of these questions. So who are the

people in the photos? Well Chris can name a few - and the National

Trust is now appealing for help to identify the rest. It is really

nice that they have found them. These memories will disappear, and

we will have nobody to last, and think what are they all about? It

is part of the heritage. The hope now is that more people will get in

touch, with an exhibition planned in September.

Snow may have disappeared gut a lot of rain around. Here with the

of rain around. Here with the forecast is Shefali.

If it isn't snow that's causing us problems, it's the rain. We're

likely to see more localised flooding this week with further

warnings for more heavy rain - this particular one coming into effect

from midnight tonight and it's for heavy rain through the course of

tomorrow. This is the front that brought us today's rain. This is

the system that's going to usher in tomorrow's. Now although the winds

are strengthening from the Southwest as those tightening

isobars indicate, we are in a this warn sector tomorrow and it is

going to be unseasonably mild tomorrow with temperatures well up

into double figures. -- warns. Right now though - most of today's

rain has cleared off to the East - we're left with the legacy of a few

showers - just grazing parts of the East and South of the region. After

that - some clearer spells for a time before the cloud thickens up

from the South ahead of tomorrow's rain. But quite a mild night albeit

occasionally breezy. Temperatures falling to 6-7. So through the

morning and afternoon then - heavy pulses of rain spreading

Northeastwards - but that should tend to ease through the afternoon.

And although it could be gusty in the rain. Temperatures are well

above average tomorrow - into the low teens in some parts and you

really will feel considering we down to freezing just a week ago.

So tomorrow night - the rain peps up again as another front just

clips the Southern half of the - so quite wet followed by blustery

showers and sunshine on both Wednesday and Thursday.

Let's recap tonight's top stories: New High Speed Rail connections

north from Birmingham will make the country more competitive says the

Government. Those affected by HS2 question the case for the new lines

running through Warwickshire and Staffordshire. Back to our top

story - on the second phase of HS2 and Jaspreet on Twitter says "I

love convenience so HS2 sounds great, but I don't live in the

homes it plans to slice through. Must be awful having to leave

home." Luke Carry on Facebook believes HS2 is "a good thing,

considering how long other countries have had equivalent

transport systems. We are well behind." But Sue Cartwright wants

the money invested in "hospitals not railways. We already have

existing railways and HS2 will probably be exclusively used for

government employees!" John Harrison emailed in and argues "to

spend so much money on one project in a time of austerity, for so

little benefit to the population as a whole is nothing less than