28/03/2014 Midlands Today

Good evening. The family of a Redditch woman who died aftdr

falling into a diabetic com` say they're angry that one of the nurses

on duty has not been struck off They're now planning to appdal

against the Nursing and Midwifery Council's ruling, in the case of the

nurse who failed to monitor Margaret Pitt's blood sugar readings

correctly. Here's our Health Correspondent Michele Paduano.

It's never far from their mhnds A mother, wife and grandmother died

needlessly simply because hdr blood sugar wasn't properly monitored My

mum died a long time before she was due. This is such a massive thing

happening in my life, 20, 30, 4 years, if I am still around, it will

still be. 55`year`old Margaret Pitt was looking forward to retirement

when she appeared on To Buy or Not To Buy. But the insulin depdndent

diabetic was failed by staff at the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch. At

her inquest the fact Sister Jackie Charman didn't retest her blood

sugars before bed time was considered a gross failing. The

nurse who worked at the Alexandra Hospital has been given a fhve year

caution by the Nursing and Widwifery Council. The Nursing and Midwifery

Council were told this was the first time Sister Charman had appdared

before them. Although the fdeling of the hospital was serious, it

amounted to one case. Sister Charman told the panel that she had

effectively retired from nursing. The family is outraged. It hs not a

good enough decision. Yes, she will be very unlikely to get a job.

Hopefully, by naming and sh`ming her publicly, . I remain concerned is to

appeal the decision. Samantha Pitt still believes that her mother would

still be here if Sister Charman had done her job.

A year ago the government brought in changes to housing benefit designed

to cut the welfare bill and reduce the "under occupation" of social

housing, freeing up properthes for larger families. A BBC survdy of

local authorities and housing associations across the reghon has

revealed just over 58,000 pdople here have been affected by the

reforms. That's a quarter of those who receive housing benefit in the

West Midlands. Nearly 14,000 tenants were reported to have accounts which

have gone into arrears for the first time. And just under 2,000 have

moved house. Here's BBC Stoke's Political Reporter Phil McC`nn.

Before last April, bedrooms had never been worth so much to Mark. He

has three in his flat near Newcastle`under`Lyme, and over the

last year they've led to his Housing Benefit being cut by 25%. `` 16 .

But he wants somewhere for his children to sleep when they stay

with him at weekends. It was a massive struggle. ?11 39 a week does

not sound a lot, but when you have got food in your cupboards or

fridge, you have got to savd, which comes first? People say rent, but I

have got to feed myself and my children. One in ten social housing

tenants in the Midlands is `ffected by the reforms, with thousands of

people being told they have too many bedrooms under the government's new

size criteria, which is oftdn referred to as the bedroom tax. A

number of other people have also been having to pay a portion of

their council tax for the fhrst time. 45% of council tenants in

Sandwell who are affected bx the reforms have fallen behind with

their rent since last April. The figure's a third in Stoke`on`Trent,

and a quarter in Wolverhampton. And one housing association has served

over 400 of its tenants with eviction notices. One of thd main

reasons for the reforms was to free`up spare bedrooms. But only 6%

of people have relocated as a result. Partly because of a shortage

of smaller homes. So housing associations are building more. Like

this development in Staffordshire. They have helped eased `` e`se what

is a potential crisis situation In order to help, as part of

preparation that we were dohng, we needed to consider what altdrnative

accommodation there was. Thd reforms have caused some of those affected

the budget better and changd their priorities. It was a case of move to

one bedroom and not accommodate your kids, or steamer you are, struggle,

and you get to keep your kids `` stay where you are. Pay or lose

everything, you're forced into that situation. The fact is lots of

households have not been affected at all. The government says thd new

system is fairer and providds more of an incentive for people to find

work or increase their hours. And there'll be more on this story

in this weekend's Sunday Politics, which is at the slightly later time

of 11.15am on BBC One following coverage of the Malaysian Grand

Prix. Three men have been jailed for

almost 30 years after policd seized cocaine valued at more than ?4

million in the Black Countrx. Amrik Sanghera and Kamaljit Chahal from

Sandwell were seen buying the cocaine in February last ye`r.

Satwinder Sandhu from Birmingham owned the business used to process

the drugs. A woman who drove four miles the

wrong way up the M5 while drunk has been banned from driving for three

years. 27`year`old Katy Homdr from Halesowen was stopped by police last

December. CCTV footage shows her car travelling into the path of oncoming

traffic. She also received ` suspended prison sentence and was

ordered to do 180 hours of community service.

Finally a dozen Gentoo pengtins are now settling in to their new home in

Birmingham, as the result of a successful international brdeding

programme. The colony has bden moved to the UK from New Zealand. The

National Sea Life Centre in Birmingham has spent ?2.5 mhllion

creating a specially cooled home for them, which will be kept at a

constant eight degrees. Oncd the group number got up to 12, they

started running around and having fun, straight into the water,

swimming around. We're really happy, they could not ask for a

better introduction. That's all from me. Midlands Today

will be back with more news just after 1pm tomorrow afternoon. I ll

leave you with the weather with Rebecca Wood. Have a good wdekend.

after 1pm Good evening, a milder weekdnd on

the cards and better condithons Pooling in milder air of thd

continent, it will feel much warmer, the sun is coming ott as

well. Overnight tonight we have seen the last of those showers, `nd

behind that it is dry. Plenty of cloud around, helping temperatures a

little bit, milder air keephng us up at around five, six Celsius. We

start off tomorrow, it will be a dry start, it will be quite clotdy to

begin with, but the sun will start to burn through that. Hazy sunshine

around through the day, much warmer than it has been recently.

Temperatures in the mid`to high teens. Quite a breezy day to come.

Sunday as well is looking vdry similar, temperatures continuing to

rise, plenty of sunshine about as well. The National forecast is on

the way. I will leave you whth an outlook for

forward on Saturday night. Now here is Nick Miller with the national

forecast. Hello. The clocks go forward this

weekend, marking the beginning of British summertime, BST. It has

nothing to do with the weather. As the clocks changed last year we were

coming out of