24/07/2014 Midlands Today


24/07/2014

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has been hit by a missile in northern Gaza. That's all from

:00:00.:00:00.

Success for Oldbury's Jodie Stimpson, as she takes the first

:00:00.:00:09.

We'll be live at the Black Country club where it all started for

:00:10.:00:25.

The family of a Worcestershire helicopter pilot who was killed

:00:26.:00:28.

in the North Sea call for an independent review of the crash.

:00:29.:00:33.

I want to see proper road `` proper, regular checks, with

:00:34.:00:39.

penalties, finds. A bus company says sorry

:00:40.:00:45.

after a teenage dwarf is repeatedly told he's not allowed onboard with

:00:46.:00:47.

his special bike. A hundred years on, the new BBC

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radio drama from Birmingham charting And the mercury's been bubbling `

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temperatures were destined to hit the heights today,

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but did we get there? She was overlooked for the Olympics

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in London two years ago, but tonight Jodie Stimpson is the toast

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of the Black Country after becoming England's first gold medallist

:01:13.:01:16.

at the Commonwealth Games. The serious action had only been

:01:17.:01:19.

under way for four hours in Glasgow when the 25`year`old triathlete

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from Oldbury struck gold. And to complete a Midlands double,

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Vicky Holland from Newent in A moment she'd spent

:01:27.:01:29.

her life striving for. The anthem confirmed that

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Jodie Stimpson is the Commonwealth This is like all year, and I have

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got to thank so many people who got me through.

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Jodie's 25, and this a gold medal a long time in the making.

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She took up triathlon aged eight, and began competing aged nine.

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She became a full`time athlete but funding was hard, and a building

:02:16.:02:20.

Her main aim was to compete at London 2012.

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But she was controversially omitted from the team, with the selectors

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So today, she was determined to make it count.

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Jodie was up with the pace through the swim, she

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And after setting the tempo for the run, she kicked for home.

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She dashed for glory, beating Canada's Kirsten Sweetland

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into second with Vicky Holland from Newent in Gloucestershire

:03:00.:03:01.

There are so many of my family here, which is awesome.

:03:02.:03:18.

It's been an emotional day ` but one that Jodie Stimpson will

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Well, Dan is in the Black Country for us where the next generation

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of Jodies are in training ` I should imagine there's great

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Wellcome to Oldbury, this is the club night for the swimming and

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triathlon club junior section. Everyone I have spoken to, because

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one of the owner has won gold. Jodie's family house is just through

:03:50.:03:55.

the trees. Mark, you are the triathlon coach, how proud you of

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her? It is great. Inspirational to the children and everyone in the

:04:02.:04:07.

club. Encourages everyone when someone does so well. How quickly

:04:08.:04:14.

did you realise she was a talent? The first time I saw her. But raw

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talent takes you so far, it is determination and hard work that has

:04:20.:04:22.

got her where she is. What does it into your club? It is

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nice to say to the young children, some `` something to look up to.

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Especially because of the younger club children being into swimming,

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and that was Jodie's weaker side when she was young. And she is

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coming back and taking part in a race. A week on Sunday, there is a

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celebration of the Commonwealth Games, and she is going to come and

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take part. There is no cycling, and the distances are not too big. Half

:05:00.:05:05.

the distance of what she did today, and a short distance, a 400 swim and

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2.5 kilometre run. How many people get the chance to compete against

:05:16.:05:19.

their heroes? That is in two weeks' time.

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And we'll return to Dan later in the programme to find out how other

:05:23.:05:25.

competitors from the region have been faring on Day One in Glasgow.

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Good to have you with us here on Midlands Today.

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Plenty more to come tonight, including:

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Our beautiful countryside ` how our meadows are being

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Major stories stay open late in Birmingham in preparation for Eid.

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The family of a pilot from Worcestershire,

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whose helicopter crashed into the North Sea five years ago,

:05:50.:05:51.

have called for an independent review into the accident.

:05:52.:05:54.

24`year`old Richard Menzies from Droitwich was one of 16 men who

:05:55.:05:58.

died when the Super Puma helicopter they were flying in crashed

:05:59.:06:01.

In November 2011, the Air Accidents Investigation Branch found that the

:06:02.:06:14.

aircraft suffered a "catastrophic failure" of its main rotor gearbox.

:06:15.:06:21.

16 months later the Crown Office said the helicopter

:06:22.:06:23.

operators wouldn't be prosecuted, because failings couldn't be proved

:06:24.:06:25.

Last March, a fatal accident inquiry found the tragedy might

:06:26.:06:28.

have been avoided if proper maintenance had been carried out.

:06:29.:06:31.

Today the Worcestershire Coroner agreed with those findings.

:06:32.:06:33.

It should have been a routine journey, but instead the Super Puma

:06:34.:06:42.

helicopter plunged into the sea, leaving 16 families devastated.

:06:43.:06:48.

Richard Menzies, who was co`piloting the aircraft, died instantly.

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After today?s inquest, his father Andrew says the family?s

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The coroner's powers are fairly limited what he can do given that

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Richard's death was in Scotland. But Richard's father says he is

:07:12.:07:30.

worried about the safety of the I am concerned on three levels, the

:07:31.:07:43.

complacency of the operators, the lack of transparency, and inadequate

:07:44.:07:46.

regulation. What would you like to see happen? I would like to see an

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independent judge look at the evidence and satisfy the families

:07:53.:08:00.

that the right decision was made. As a father, I miss him terribly. He

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would probably be now a captain flying helicopters, probably wanting

:08:06.:08:12.

to do their sea rescue which is what he wanted to specialise in.

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The helicopter's operators, Bond Offshore,

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have accepted they made mistakes and say lessons have been learned.

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Richard's father hopes tighter regulations could help stop it

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I say it out of a genuine concern, that Super Puma helicopters still

:08:29.:08:37.

keep dropping out of the sky. For the first time, retailers

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in Birmingham city centre are The Muslim holiday marks the end

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of Ramadan, Tonight many stores will stay open

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until ten o'clock, so people can break their fast

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and shop ahead of Eid on Monday. Live now to Amy Cole who's

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in Birmingham city centre ` It is just starting to pick up,

:08:58.:09:14.

at 9pm. The big consumer drive got at 9pm. The big consumer drive got

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under way and hour and a half ago, and some local businesses are

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concerned that the city centre is now cashing in.

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The city centre was already pretty packed this afternoon, but the

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number of shoppers is expected to swell over the next few hours.

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For the first time major stores are extending their opening hours so

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that people can buy their goods in time for Eid celebrations on Monday.

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Some retailers say they're already seeing an upsurge in trade.

:09:47.:09:49.

We have seen our menswear business grow by almost 50% in the days and

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weeks coming up to Eid. So we know there is a huge appetite for our

:09:59.:10:00.

products and services at this special time.

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Also noticing the demand is Selfridges,

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It is tonight they are expecting the most amount of shoppers here. There

:10:06.:10:18.

will be lots of interest in the store, such as Arabic calligraphers.

:10:19.:10:23.

And for this evening only, the store has created a shisha

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The children can stay out `` up late. I come from Dubai, so there

:10:27.:10:41.

shops opening late for Eid is not so unusual. I'm not sure why it has not

:10:42.:10:42.

done before. Atia Hussain owns a clothes shop

:10:43.:10:48.

in Ladypool Road. For years she's stayed open late

:10:49.:10:51.

in the run up to Eid, but is now worried about competition

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from the city centre. People used to come to Asian shops

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and think because it is Eid we can go to Asian areas, but nowadays they

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are saying because machete `` the city centres are open they are going

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there. For retailers, tonight is

:11:13.:11:15.

a gamble they hope will pay off. I am joined now by a spokeswoman

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from retail Birmingham. Why has this not been done before?

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Many of the retailers have always had activity for Eid, we can bring

:11:34.:11:38.

all the stores together and collectively put on an event such as

:11:39.:11:44.

tonight. We hope it is one we can continue in the future.

:11:45.:11:50.

Events such as these in terms of planning, it has taken almost 20 map

:11:51.:11:56.

`` 12 months to put together. One independent store owner told us

:11:57.:11:59.

she is quite worried that shoppers will be attracted away, when

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traditionally they have always gone to more of the Asian areas. Our

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remote is trying to push the hair and beauty offer for women, so a lot

:12:09.:12:16.

of customers will stoke low for the traditional areas. `` still do. It

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is not to detract sales from any area, but to add to the offer that

:12:25.:12:30.

is already available. Eid is an important festival, is it

:12:31.:12:35.

on a par with Christmas? It is on par with Christmas in terms of

:12:36.:12:38.

trade. How will you be celebrating Eid on

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Monday? I will probably be out shopping and spending time with the

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family. There will be plenty to do over the

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next few days, and the shops really will be staying open much later as

:12:52.:12:53.

well. A teenage dwarf was asked to "

:12:54.:12:59.

prove he was disabled" when he tried 17`year`old Kain Francis has now

:13:00.:13:02.

been refused travel five times in the last two weeks because

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of the disability bike he uses to It's a disability aid that helps him

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get around. But over the last weeks, it has led

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to him being refused to travel. They said, we do not want you on the bus.

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He wouldn't let me speak, he went let me say it is my disabled aid.

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And he asked if it had stabilisers on it.

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The teenager from Kingstanding in Birmingham has dwarfism.

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Last night he was refused travel twice in 20 minutes. In one case,

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the driver astonishingly asked him to prove he was actually disabled.

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He was telling me how I could prove I was disabled, and I said, can you

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not see I am disabled? It has escalated into something much

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bigger, where my young nephew Kain has been I think verbally assaulted

:14:18.:14:23.

on a bus or a driver. Kain's family have already had a

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written apology for the first incident, but as we found out this

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afternoon, the problems are still continuing. This is a disabled bike.

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You are refusing me to get on? It is now happening almost every

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time I go on the bus. It is terrible. It is embarrassing as

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well. We took the footage to show the bus

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company. We are sorry for the inconvenience and the upset it has

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caused. We didn't realise the anomaly quick enough and didn't

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quite understand what was causing this issue, but now we have realised

:15:01.:15:07.

it we have acted very quickly, we have given a letter to him today

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which he can show to every driver. Kain and his family are hoping he

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will not be left waiting for a lift home again.

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Drug`resistant superbugs have been found in a Warwickshire river.

:15:20.:15:22.

Scientists at the University of Warwick made the discovery

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a mile downstream of a sewage treatment plant on the River Sowe.

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The study claims processing human, farm

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and industrial waste all together in one place makes it easier

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for bacteria to become resistant to a wide range of antibiotics.

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This river might look ordinary, but scientists have discovered it is

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harbouring and invisible enemy, superbugs.

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You could be colonised by very resistant bacteria, and those

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resistant bacteria and then sitting in Europe died, and then you have a

:16:05.:16:17.

risk they might cause infection. Scientists also found human gut

:16:18.:16:21.

bacteria which had developed a resistance to an antibiotic used to

:16:22.:16:27.

treat severe infections. Back at the laboratory one of the

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scientists analysing the results says it is an important discovery.

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It is a four`time super resistant strains have been found in UK

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rivers. `` it is the first time. Severn Trent insists drinking water

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is safe, but would like to see more research. We are aware that

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antibiotics are in our sewage treatment processes, and we are keen

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to work with other organisations to really understand where they come

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from and how we can remove them to make sure they do not have an impact

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in the `` on the environment. But don't you know enough at this stage

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to take immediate action? I don't think so. If other authorities were

:17:12.:17:18.

to advise us to do something differently, we would take our

:17:19.:17:23.

environmental responsibilities very seriously and we would make any

:17:24.:17:28.

necessary changes. Doctor Wellington says work due to

:17:29.:17:31.

be published later this year is expected to see `` show a similar

:17:32.:17:36.

story on samples found in the River Thames.

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Success for Jodie Stimpson from Oldbury in the Black Country,

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as she takes the first gold of the Commonwealth Games.

:17:47.:17:50.

An even hotter day today ` Shefali's ready with your detailed

:17:51.:17:53.

A hundred years on, the new radio drama, stretching over

:17:54.:17:58.

all four years, charting events here at home during the First World War.

:17:59.:18:10.

From today, millions of wildflowers are being

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planted in urban areas across Birmingham and the Black Country.

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Our reporter Nicola Beckford has been at one of the sites in Sedgley

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Conservationists spent the morning here cutting and packing Harry, to

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recreate new wildlife meadows. `` hay. They are building on similar

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work carried out last year. This is one of very few such meadows left in

:18:41.:18:52.

England. We want to expand their populations and bring them into the

:18:53.:18:54.

city where people can have contact with that wildlife.

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The operation is to be done in one day to make sure the seeds reached

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the destination will still fresh. This is one of the areas where the

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new Meadow will be grown. The land has been preprepared to receive the

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freshly cut hay. Almost 30 days `` Wales have been

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harvested and delivered to ten sites across the region, but these

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volunteers wanted to work quickly, as if the hay gets too hot, the

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seeds will die. The organisers feel confident

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however that the new Meadow will grow.

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We should eventually get some orchids coming up, which should look

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really pretty and make the area much better than the brown grass you can

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see here. This year's work will establish an

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even bigger network of meadows. Rural idyll is within an urban

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environment. `` idols. Back to the Commonwealth Games

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action now, and Gold medallist Jodie Stimpson's not the region's

:19:59.:20:00.

only competitor in action today. Let's rejoin Dan in Oldbury

:20:01.:20:03.

for news of the others. So, Dan, who have we got to

:20:04.:20:05.

look out for this evening? The kids behind take part in

:20:06.:20:14.

cycling, which is where lots of other medals have been one today.

:20:15.:20:20.

First of all Helen Scott, from down the road, she is the pilot in her

:20:21.:20:26.

event and she writes with Sophie Thornhill. They won the two hates

:20:27.:20:31.

and won the final. They are expressly proud to win gold. `` the

:20:32.:20:42.

two seats. `` the two heats. It is info `` it is fantastic that even

:20:43.:20:47.

one of our events is in. Maybe next time another of our events might be

:20:48.:20:57.

put in as well. The team sprint once over this

:20:58.:21:00.

afternoon, but they were beaten by New Zealand.

:21:01.:21:07.

`` won silver. Andy Tennant from Wolverhampton has been in the team

:21:08.:21:10.

pursuit, riding alongside Bradley Wiggins.

:21:11.:21:15.

They also won a silver. Jess varnish from Bromsgrove,

:21:16.:21:21.

discoloured at the London 2012 Olympics, was in the 500 metres time

:21:22.:21:29.

trial today. She won bronze. Who have we got to look out for this

:21:30.:21:32.

evening? The number one event to look out for

:21:33.:21:36.

is the men's 200 metres breaststroke. Adam Piti from

:21:37.:21:42.

Uttoxeter is through, also Michael Jamieson.

:21:43.:21:48.

We have already had these medallists, it is day one of the

:21:49.:21:52.

Commonwealth Games, plenty to look forward to this evening and for the

:21:53.:21:54.

rest of the Games. The story of life on the Home Front

:21:55.:21:57.

during World War I is being It's being recorded in Birmingham,

:21:58.:22:01.

and it's an ambitious drama serial which will be broadcast over four

:22:02.:22:06.

years with 600 episodes. More now

:22:07.:22:08.

from our arts reporter Satnam Rana. The Great War ` usually remembered

:22:09.:22:17.

as a soldier's conflict. Over 8.5 million men served

:22:18.:22:20.

between 1914 and 18. But now Radio 4's new ambitious

:22:21.:22:25.

drama Home Front is telling Actors play out their words, and

:22:26.:22:50.

sound effects are added in the production suite.

:22:51.:22:57.

Recorded at BBC Birmingham's radio astronomers studio, it is set in

:22:58.:23:03.

Folkestone, and will also take us to Newcastle and Devon.

:23:04.:23:11.

There were 40 million people who did not go to war, but who were

:23:12.:23:15.

dedicated to the information from the front. If we could represent a

:23:16.:23:23.

tiny proportion of those stories, that would be brilliant. I know you

:23:24.:23:32.

mean well, but it is not realistic. One of these stories is told through

:23:33.:23:37.

Isabel, a self`taught driver from a well`off family and ends up buying

:23:38.:23:45.

an ambulance. Women with funds what `` went out and bought their own

:23:46.:23:50.

ambulances and supplies. They literally got behind the wheel of a

:23:51.:23:55.

car and learned to drive. And then I get very excited about buying

:23:56.:24:01.

surgical bandages and then going across to France.

:24:02.:24:13.

The stories are fictional, but each one has a historical fact hidden

:24:14.:24:17.

within it. To find out what that is, tune in at mid`day on fourth August.

:24:18.:24:26.

Exactly 100 years to the day Great Britain declared war on Germany.

:24:27.:24:33.

You can find out more about the new show Home Front on the BBC website.

:24:34.:24:37.

Now let's find out more about this scorching weather.

:24:38.:24:41.

There were a few people today flustered by the heat, because it

:24:42.:24:55.

was hotter than yesterday by 1 degrees for most parts, finishing

:24:56.:24:59.

numbers were 28 Celsius for Birmingham.

:25:00.:25:06.

29 Celsius in neighbouring Wales, and hottest race was worth it,

:25:07.:25:13.

making it the hottest day of the year so far. `` the hottest place

:25:14.:25:17.

was Dorset. There will be a drop of around nine

:25:18.:25:29.

to 10 degrees by Sunday, but this cooler air is coming in as a result

:25:30.:25:35.

of this home from `` this front. The cooler conditions will probably

:25:36.:25:38.

persist into the middle of next week. Not to say they will not rise

:25:39.:25:43.

before that, they could well do, but we also have some fairly prolific

:25:44.:25:51.

showers breaking out. They could become widespread by the

:25:52.:25:57.

end of the weekend. If you haven't been out there to enjoy the

:25:58.:26:02.

sunshine, you could `` you should do the litmus test now because it is

:26:03.:26:04.

cooling down to something more comfortable. Then we are into clear

:26:05.:26:10.

skies for tonight. It is dry across all parts as well, we may see the

:26:11.:26:18.

odd shower breaking out, but then those will fade away very quickly.

:26:19.:26:23.

Temperatures falling to a minimum of 15 to 16 Celsius, possibly even 17,

:26:24.:26:31.

so a very sticky night. For tomorrow, slightly cooler

:26:32.:26:36.

conditions. We have more cloud drifting in from the east, due to a

:26:37.:26:42.

slight change in the wind direction, temperatures perhaps will not reach

:26:43.:26:49.

the giddy heights of today's values. That breeze is slightly lighter at

:26:50.:26:54.

around nine miles per hour. As for tomorrow night we could see the odd

:26:55.:26:58.

shower breaking out, very light ones however. Predominantly dry, with

:26:59.:27:04.

clear spells. Saturday dry until those showers are.

:27:05.:27:07.

`` arrive. A UN shelter in Gaza is hit

:27:08.:27:12.

by an Israeli missile ? 15 people And Jodie Stimpson from Oldbury

:27:13.:27:16.

in the Black Country wins the triathlon and takes the first

:27:17.:27:20.

gold of the Commonwealth Games. Well, when did we start funding

:27:21.:27:22.

projects in Gaza? How do you know people

:27:23.:28:00.

are telling the truth? Well, when did we start funding

:28:01.:28:02.

projects in Gaza? I should never have done this.

:28:03.:28:11.

I should never have agreed to this.

:28:12.:28:15.

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