07/02/2014 Midlands Today

it is bad. When is it going to end?

Hello and welcome to Midlands Today. The headlines tonight...

Floodwaters rising, more rain on the way ` emergency services are on

stand`by for a challenging weekend. I think it is the calm before the

storm. What is coming down the river at the moment is what fell the other

evening. But when and where will that rain

be? I'll have the latest as the storms keep coming.

We'll have a full report on flooding from around the region. Also

tonight... Giving blood ` the new technique

that could revolutionise the whole system. If you could freeze blood

when there is an access, that would be ideal. `` a surplus.

Not a laughing matter ` a Birmingham comedy club sues the popular TV show

Glee Club for using its name. And from this to global pop

superstar. I am in Stoke on Trent for the start of Robbie Williams'

fan Festival. Good evening. The floods are

continuing to cause problems across the Midlands and more heavy rain's

due later tonight. There are currently 31 flood warnings in place

and 39 alerts. Barriers have been put up in Shrewsbury, Ironbridge,

and Bewdley. Our reporter, Ben Godfrey, is near the River Severn in

Worcester tonight. How's the city coping there, Ben?

The Severn is high here and rising, but it's not expected to reach 2007

levels. But it is of some concern. The racecourse and cricket ground

are completely underwater but overall the Midlands has escaped the

worst, especially when compared to Somerset and Devon. The emergency

services in our region have still been very busy, though. Today, I

spent time with the fire service in Worcestershire to see the sort of

incidents they're dealing with. On the outskirts of Bromsgrove, this

taxi has made its final journey. For Hereford and Worcester Fire and

Rescue Service, this is the third call`out within 24 hours to drivers

trapped in floodwater. In this case, a swollen ford.

It was a taxi driver who called the emergency services as his vehicle

was filling up with water. They rescued him and two this Lisbon in

the vehicle who were on their way to Birmingham airport. Did you see the

sign? Yes, but the water was too much, it rose to quickly. You can

see the tyre of the vehicle but you did he do go into deep `` but you do

not need to go into deep for the intake to be filled. The River

Severn is also rising again. Flood barriers are in place at Bewdley in

Worcestershire, Shrewsbury and here in Ironbridge in Shropshire. We will

see this rise by another 1.5 metres. The waters around Tewkesbury are

also high, these pictures were taken from a helicopter by a Midlands

Today viewer. At the moment, the flood defences are keeping the

Severn at bay. There's no undue concern. Even so, Worcester Fire

station is fully equipped to respond to river incidents. We have two

boats. They are available for immediate response. The crews are

trained to deal with these. We have Worcester and Hereford and others.

The message is clear from the emergency services ` follow safety

advice, use common sense and don't place yourself in danger. Tonight,

large areas of farmland on the water and we are just a month away from

the National Hunt Festival. Dan Pallett's been to find out how the

organisers are coping. Welcome to Cheltenham on Sea. It has

been wet, very wet. With the festival just under four weeks away,

they have a close eye on the weather. The Clerk of the Course has

his own weather centre in the middle of the course. It is pretty

saturated but I think we would be able to race on it today despite

overnight rainfall. It is not too windy today. Wednesday was a real

shocker here. We recorded wind speeds in excess of 50 mph, which is

as high as we have had. There is extra pressure to put the Cheltenham

Festival on foot of it brings money into this region but is also a

flagship for the entire industry and that is set to support 20,000 jobs

across the country and is worth almost ?3.5 billion to the British

economy. And they dealt with much everything hip or the glass chin,

the course only survived template is below freezing due to frost covers.

Two years ago, the lack of water was a problem. The show must go on.

Construction is under way for the tented village with 60 workers on

site everyday. Wind can cause problems here. We have to judge the

weather for so many different circumstances, for the horses, for

the people here. With temporary structures, there is a higher risk.

Hopefully it will be a success this year. They will move the rails to

run on fresh ground and they will do everything they can to get the

festival underway. A tough task ahead.

West Midlands Ambulance Service says it will have more vehicles on duty

for what looks like a wash`out weekend. Why is whether so bad?

Rebecca Wood is here with the answers.

Well, this is all happening because the jet stream is stuck over us. It

is continuing to push cold air over the Atlantic. On top of that, we

have got problems with the rain that we have been seeing. The Met Office

has brought in some... They have been looking at the statistics and

they have seen that we have five months of rain since December the

12th. On top of that, we have had 23 days of rain in January. On top of

that, it has been the windiest December we have seen since 1969.

With no sign of the jet stream moving, it will just continue to

stay this way for the next few days. I will have the full forecast later.

Thank you. And for all the latest information

on the flooding and how it's affecting where you live, there are

regular travel and weather updates on your local radio station.

Coming up later in the programme... Avoiding student ghettoes ` plans to

restrict the number and location of shared houses in Worcester.

A revolutionary way to preserve blood has been discovered by

researchers at the University of Warwick. Currently, all donated

blood has to be used within a month of being collected or it goes off

and has to be thrown away. But now scientists at Warwick say they've

found a way to freeze and keep blood for as long as doctors want. Here's

our Science Correspondent, David Gregory`Kumar.

Blood. You can't operate without it. But donated and refrigerated blood

only lasts just over a month before reaching it's "use`by" date. And

that means the available supply varies. At certain times of the

year, at times such as Christmas or during the Olympics, there is a

dramatic reduction in the number of donations. In the UK typically, for

some blood groups, we only have five days' stock. It does not take much

of a fluctuation to have erratic effect on the amount of blood we can

actually use in hospital. If you could freeze blood in times where

there is a surplus, that would be ideal. So why not freeze blood and

keep it for longer? Well, we're about to freeze these red blood

cells. Watching using a microscope, you see all movement stops as the

sample reaches `20 degrees Celsius and freezes. But as we warm things

up... The melting ice crystals tear the red blood cells to pieces and

you're left with unusable mush. Now scientists at the University of

Warwick have found a way to avoid turning blood into useless pink goo.

With our method, we looked at the process of freezing. We had a

polymer that we can add and very low concentrations, we add it to the

blood cells and then freezing directly. They are ready to go for

cows were patient prop `` they are ready for transportation. The

polymer interferes with the ice crystals and stops them tearing the

blood cells apart during thawing. It might be useful for people with rare

blood groups because they can donate blood when they want, they can store

it in a freezer and then if they needed later in life for an oration,

it can be thawed out. `` and operation. Large`scale trials of

this technology could begin in 12 to 18 months.

And you can read more about this discovery and find a link to the

research on David's blog. A Birmingham`based comedy club has

successfully sued the makers of the popular TV high school musical drama

Glee. The Glee Club took Rupert Murdoch's Fox Corporation to the

High Court for infringing its UK Trade Mark. Our reporter, Bob

Hockenhull, is outside the venue in the city centre now. Sounds like a

David`and`Goliath story, Bob. As we have heard, the High Court has

rolled that the TV show infringed the trademark which the club here

had had established for some years. With me is the owner, Mark Tughan.

You must be delighted. How did you feel the TV programme was harming

you? It manifested itself in so many ways, whether that was our social

media pages being utterly swamped by fans of the show, whether it was

comics who were tweeting and promoting their appearances at the

club being swamped by negative comments and whether it was a big

to`do with the TV show. There was an growing mass of evidence of customer

confusion. We would turn up at freshers fair is to promote Parish

of this and be met with hostility from the students. When we got to

ask them why they `` why that was, they thought we were related to the

TV show! Everybody is entitled to appeal, that is part of the legal

process but this is a very strong judgement in our favour. One cannot

revisit... I beg your have to leave it there. Congratulations. I know

you have Lee Evans hit a knight who will help you celebrate. `` here

tonight. Warwickshire County Council has

agreed cuts to its budget of ?92 million over the next four years.

Most services provided by the local authority will be affected, although

there'll be no library closures and school crossing patrols will remain

as they are. About 600 staff will go in a phased programme of job cuts.

Council tax will also rise for the first time in four years.

West Midlands Police are examining CCTV footage to try to track down

those responsible for putting a pig's head on a patrol car. Officers

were attending the Bull Ring shopping centre in Birmingham when

the animal's head was put on the bonnet. The prank's been condemned

by the Police Federation. I am sure there will be a small

minority of individuals who will find amusement from doing that. From

my point of view and our members' point of view, they have a tough

enough job as it is out there. At the time, they were dealing with a

real incident. Senior Government and opposition MPs

are urging West Midlands Police to examine all available evidence in

the hope of securing convictions for the Birmingham pub bombings. 40

years after the attacks, there are also calls for a full`scale public

inquiry. Our Political Editor, Patrick Burns, has more on this. Is

there the slightest hope, so long after the event, of making any real

progress on this? I have been talking to a campaign

group made up of the relatives of some of the people who died in those

bombings. They say that the public enquiry could help but they also

saving should be a sense of outrage that the people behind these

atrocities have never been caught. If we do not fight today to get

these perpetrators caught and sentenced, then who is to say it

will not happen in the future. Who is to say that people will not come

to Birmingham or any other city and create mass murder and for them to

continue to have their liberty? Nobody is looking for them. How can

we claim to live in a democratic society where we allow that to

happen? There has been no reply so far. It is not top of the political

agenda. I have put that to the Northern Ireland minister and to the

current MP, Jeremy Wright, who said they will take it up with them

leaders. I put it to Jeremy Wright that in contrast to Hillsborough and

bloody Sunday, there is a difference. There is a prodigal

difference. This is something that happened 40 years ago. To honour new

evidence will be challenging. If it is there to be found, it should be

looked for. You still feel the pain is trying to heat up something that

has lain: For so long. There could be some intense media interest

around this. The 40th anniversary is this November. Thank you.

And Patrick will be back with Sunday Politics on Sunday morning at 11am,

here on BBC One. Our top story tonight... With

floodwaters rising and more rain on the way, emergency services are

braced for a challenging weekend. The rather bleak forecast to come

shortly from Rebecca. Also in tonight's programme...

How a world champion kickboxer's putting her weight behind a bid to

have her sport officially recognised and land much`needed funding.

And He's The One! Celebrating Robbie Williams' 40th birthday on the

street in the Potteries where he used to live. Plus an exhibition of

previously unseen family pictures. The number of shared houses in

Worcester will be regulated under proposals by the city council to

prevent certain areas becoming student ghettos. The policy was

adopted by Warwick District Council in parts of Leamington Spa in

November last year. Birmingham City Council is considering similar

restrictions in Selly Oak, Selly Park, Edgbaston and Harborne. Cath

Mackie reports. This man pays ?80 a week for his

room in a student house. It is next to the University, where he is

studying for a sports science degree. It is expensive, especially

being a student on a limited budget. It is helpful living a five`minute

walk from the campus. Sam is one of around 10,000 students. The number

of people choosing to study here is growing by 40% in eight years. They

need somewhere to live that is affordable. Hence the rise in homes

of multiple occupancy. The city council wants it controlled. The

character of the area changes. One thing is perfectly clear. HMOs play

an important role in the stock. It is the ideal form of housing for

many people but we need to make sure there is a balance. They are about

to consult the public to `` on imposing a cap on the number of

shared houses. There has to be some control over it. I can understand

why people do not want it. The council say it is not just about

anti`social behaviour but other issues about parking. I can see

their fears that the issue is on the behaviour and the way these

properties are conducted. Our concerns is that changing the

planning laws will not make any difference to this. The university

says it wants to drive up the quality of student accommodation and

welcomes the council's decision. Dan's here with the sport and, as we

saw in your report earlier, Cheltenham racecourse seems to

managing with the heavy rain so far, but it's not such good news for

football and rugby this weekend? Other racecourses are not coping as

well as Cheltenham. Tomorrow's racing at Uttoxeter is

off due to waterlogging and Warwick will inspect at 7am tomorrow.

In rugby, Moseley's home game planned for this evening against

Cornish Pirates is off. And the football's affected, too. In

the conference, Kidderminster versus Cambridge is off and there's no game

for Wolves in League One. The Stevengage pitch is waterlogged.

But, in the Championship, Birmingham's game away to Charlton

was declared to be on after a pitch inspection this afternoon.

Earlier, shares in the Blues' parent company, Birmingham International

Holdings, slumped in value by 34% on the Hong Kong Stock Market. But

manager Lee Clark says his only concern is tomorrow's match. I have

to take a note of what is being said and issues that are being drawn up

but the football side of it is my only concern. I have always been a

manager who does not get involved in the financial side of it.

Kick boxing has more than 100,000 participants across Great Britain,

including the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg. But it's still not

officially recognised as a sport. That means even elite athletes are

unable to attract Lottery funding to help fund their training. Now a

world champion from Birmingham is leading the charge to change all

that, as Nick Clitheroe reports. When Hailey Hutton first entered a

kick boxing gym at the age of seven, she was a shy young girl hiding

behind her mum. 15 years later, she's a world champion, having

lifted the title in Italy last October. It has been great overall

for confidence building. I would not even stand at the front of the class

and now I teach my own classes. The progress I have made is amazing.

Neil Kelly has coached Hailey from the very first day. He's immensely

proud of her achievements in the ring but also what she's done for

the image of women in the sport. It is a male dominated sport, kick

boxing. The ladies are starting to make a name for themselves. She is

the first one to really breakthrough in our gym and go right to the top.

All of the younger girls look up to Hayley is a role model. It is nice

that the younger generation to me as a role model. It is nice to know

that I have inspired some younger women and girls to get involved in

it. And that could all help British kick boxing's campaign to gain

official recognition from Sport England opening up access to Lottery

funding and driving up the number of competitors. The discipline

instilled by kick boxing has also helped Hailey with her education.

She's currently studying graphic design at Solihull College, even

though combining her two passions isn't always easy. I do find it

difficult to do the two because I am soaked passionate about both. `` so

passionate about both. The college is encouraging me. I am starting to

find a balance. But it's in the gym where she feels really at home, so

Bob could be taking plenty more punishment for a long time yet. One

determined young woman. I think I will give that one a miss!

And a proud moment for Solihull's Jon Eley at the Winter Olymics

today. The speed skater carried the British flag at the ceremony in

Sochi. He's 29 and this is his third Olympics. He is already described as

an absolute privilege and something he will treasure for the rest of his

life. We will not see him in action until a week tomorrow. When the

first of our athletes competing? Tomorrow in the biathlon. She was

born in Coventry. Looking further forward, on Monday, we have

Charlotte Gilmartin, from Redditch, she is on the short track speed

skating. Lots to look forward to. I expected weather is than ours X .

Hundreds of fans from all across the world are arriving in Stoke`on`Trent

for a weekend of celebration to mark Robbie Williams' 40th Birthday. From

bus tours to football, museums to Robbie`oke, events are going on

across the city to honour one of its most famous sons. Ben Sidwell's

there now. The fans must be very excited, Ben.

You could say that. Welcome to the potteries Museum in Stoke`on`Trent.

A Brit award, the Ivor Novello, a platinum disc and a special Robbie

Williams exhibition. A lot of stuff that has never been seen before in

public. That is why people are coming to the city this weekend. I

happy to meet a view the fans. `` I have been to meet a view of the

fans. Last year, I saw Robbie ten times. This is my prized possession

because Robbie signed it for me. And this is my little Robbie.

Zoe Hankey from Newcastle Under Lyme is a bit of a Robbie Williams fan.

My Robbie friends think I am perfectly normal but the word

obsessed has been used a a few times. But if you think Zoe's a big

fan, you should meet her friend. The highlight of my fandom is when I was

on stage in Manchester with him last year. Hayley, who's from London, and

Zoe are just two of the hundreds coming to Stoke`on`Trent for the

Robbie Williams Fan Fest this weekend. But there is a serious

side, too. All the events and celebrations are raising money for

the Donna Louise Children's Hopsice, of which Robbie himself is a patron.

People pay attention when he says this is a great cause and we

supported. People do listen and it gives us that global reach. It is

important to us because people get to know about the work we do and how

report and it is to fund this work. That is amazing. I want one of

those! Being super fans, Zoe and Hayley managed to get a sneak

preview at the exhibition. For the rest of us, it opens tomorrow.

Let us meet someone who knows Robbie at than anyone else, his mum. What

do you make of all of this, all for your little boy question book it is

wonderful. They are pushing the boat out. Robert is over the moon about

it. I should say Robbie! You are right, he is my little boy because

it has that by's heart in him. He is delighted at the fact it will make

some difference with Stoke because he loves it. We all do. We all love

Stoke`on`Trent and it is important to us that it is is recognised as a

lovely place. It is only a few days before he turns 40. Are you planning

your own celebrations? Not entirely on my own, I will be with my little

boy. Have a fantastic time in Los Angeles and this weekend as well

because there are hundreds and hundreds of fans literally from

across the world and the events are going on all weekend. If you come to

the city, you will find out what is going on.

Thank you. I hope you made the most of the

sunshine today, because I don't think we'll be seeing it again for

quite a while. Will we, Rebecca? It is there to say there is more in

the way of wind and rain to come over this weekend will . We have a

band of rain sitting over Ahsan to `` and through tomorrow we will have

heavier showers. The rain will start to coming out in the next few hours.

We could see six hours of rain overnight, ten or 15 millimetres.

Not huge totals but it is falling on saturated ground, so it is adding to

the problem. It will slowly clear away. Behind that, the air will be

called. Temperatures will be down to around three degrees. The wind was

strengthened through tomorrow. It will not be too bad tomorrow. Dry

and bright through the morning but then we see the showers working in.

At times, they will be heavy and blustery. Some hail as thunder could

be thrown in for good measure. By midday, the wind could be up to 50

mast power. Temperatures range between seven and eight degrees but

it will not feel that warm. The showers are endless. They continue

through tomorrow night. They will band together at times, so by the

time you get to Sunday, we could see some very big rainfall totals. At

times, we will see a few breaks and temperatures around four or five

Celsius as we get into Sunday. Things that get better. It is a

gradual process. The wind will ease but there will be put into your

brain around. We could get some brightness through the day on

Sunday. Behind that, the air is turning much colder. Why the time we

get through to Monday morning, `` by the time we get through to Monday

morning, it will stay unsettled. Tonight's headlines from the BBC...

As the floodwaters continued to rise in the south`west, concerns that

more people may need to be evacuated. The Somerset Levels are

bearing the brunt. In the Midlands, Molesey crews are

on stand`by as more rain is forecast. There are 31 flood

warnings and 39 alerts. That was the Midlands Today. I'll be

back at 10pm. Have a great evening. Goodbye.

It's your job to keep law and order, isn't it?

It must be exciting being a policewoman. It has its moments.