09/03/2017 Midlands Today


09/03/2017

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The Chancellor, Philip Hammond, has been in the Midlands today,

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as more details were announced about the so-called

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The aim is to invest in areas such as skills and transport, to help

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One area which will benefit is in Coventry.

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Our reporter Kevin Reide is there now.

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Kevin, I understand a new apprentice centre is to be built there?

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Yes, Mary this is the Warwick maunufacturing Group

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at Warwick University and before too long this will be home

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to a new purpose built centre entirely for apprentices.

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Costing ?11 million it will draw together the best

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in manufacturing expertise and facilities and is just one

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of a number of measures being made to create the so called

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We've heard of the Northern Powerhouse and now for us

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here is the so called Midlands Engine.

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The Chancellor Phillip Hammond who was in Dudley

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local authorities from the Welsh border to Lincolnshire and promising

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investment: At present ?392 million has been allocated, those to benefit

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include The Black Country with 25 million to ease

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this is not a one-off. This is part of a programme to galvanise this

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economy. In Coventry and Warwickshire,

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11 million for the apprentice centre at Warwick University,

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and in Hereford, 8 million for a new hi-tech university to train

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the next generation of engineers. But one opposition politician says

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it should not just be about helping businesses,

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spending on infrastructure and apprenticeships,

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but about improving education The initiative is welcome but it

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does not recognise the scale of the issue presented to it. I am meeting

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head teachers across the borough to discuss the problem is that they are

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having with funding in schools and the barriers that that puts up to

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giving children the best possible start in life.

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10 million people now live under the area covered

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by the Midlands Engine, that's currently 13 per cent

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of the UK's annual output, which the government believes

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And there has been criticism from accountants

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Ernst Young who say by their calculations the Government

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is spending more on the so called Northern Powerhouse,

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but the chancellor has denied this saying there are further

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And while I'm here I must tell you Warwick University's Art Centre

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just a few hundred yards from where I am is also to benefit

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from a ?2 million cultural grant all as part of this

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There's a spring in the step here with all the daffodils behind me.

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More babies die before their first birthday here in the West Midlands,

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Health professionals are trying to reduce the numbers of deaths

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Maternity services are being overhauled

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and in Birmingham, Finnish-style baby boxes are being handed out

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to expectant parents for their babies to sleep in.

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But for some, help has come too late.

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It contains images some viewers might find distressing.

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Everything about her was perfect, just perfect.

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Callie lived for barely half an hour.

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But for three whole days, while she was in a special

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cold cot in hospital, her parents Matt and Krystal

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I'd, for the longest time, waited to hold a baby.

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Delivered by emergency C-section last June,

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Callie died from an intra-uterine infection, the doctors said.

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Matt and Krystal think that may not be the full story.

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They're still in shock, their world upside down,

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The West Midlands has the worst infant mortality

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rate in the country, 6.1 per thousand live births.

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That's 6 out of 1,000 babies not making it to their first birthday.

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When you compare it to the rest of the country you see

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The next worst region is East Midlands with 4.6,

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and in the South East the rate is three.

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But if you look in more detail, you can see some shocking anomalies.

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that's almost 1 in 100 babies in the city not surviving.

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Birmingham is 7.9, even Warwickshire and Worcestershire

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are way above the national average scoring around 5.

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No wonder that expectant mums were queueing up in Hall Green this

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In Finland, where they've been handed out

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by the state since the 30s, they're credited with reducing

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infant mortality from over 60 per thousand live births

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18,500 boxes will be distributed as part of a wider strategy to cut

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infant deaths in the Birmingham area by 20%. An audit is to be carried

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out into the deaths of all babies over the past few years. You use the

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information, what was the Mumbles McQuade, that she smoked, as she had

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a book an appointment, all of that information will gather.

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Callie will be among those babies whose stories are reviewed.

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Her parents say infant mortality rates for Birmingham are shameful,

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and that there needs to be more openness about the subject.

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It has to change, to change the rates as well.

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They're now thinking of setting up a charity in Callie's name,

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West Midlands Police have confirmed the identities of the two people

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who died in a stabbing incident in Wolverhampton.

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Melvin James fatally stabbed his sister Ann-Marie,

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Their mother suffered serious stab wounds and remains in

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The Independent Police Complaints Commission has launched an enquiry

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into how the West Midlands Force handled the incident.

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The Communist Party of Britain is to field a candidate

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in May's election for the Mayor of the West Midlands.

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Graham Stevenson, who's originally from Coventry,

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His policies include nationalising the M6 toll road

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and introducing a living wage of ?10 an hour.

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An annual award for the world's best female cricketer is to be named

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The former England captain, from Wolverhampton, died

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She played 22 tests and 23 one day internationals for her country.

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The International Cricket Council made the announcement at the launch

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of the Women's World Cup which takes place in England this summer.

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It's a story worthy of the Famous Five.

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A book lover, browsing through second hand

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shops in Hay on Wye - who buys a book for a pound.

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But she got more than she bargained for.

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Leafing through it, she discovered a handwritten note

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from the famous children's author, Enid Blyton.

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As Lindsay Doyle reports, the note was stuck to the inside cover

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of a copy of George Eliot's Silas Marner.

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Once upon a time in a little town on the edge of Herefordshire,

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a town known as the Book Town, there was a little book

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which held a secret, which was discovered

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I was literally browsing the shelves, and

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I don't know what drew me to this one apart from the fact

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but I picked it up and opened the front cover and there was

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this little piece of paper inside and as I opened it

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I instantly recognised the signature as Enid Blyton's signature.

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Glued inside a copy of George Eliot's Silas Marner

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is what appears to be a letter from one of the most famous

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It is written to Mary congratulating her on winning one of "my prizes".

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The name written inside Silas Marner is of a Mary

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Gillian and Imogen don't have to wait for the next Enid Blyton

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They can read it as it comes off the typewriter,

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for their mother, Mrs Darren Waters, is Enid Blyton.

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This was only ?1 this book, it was in the bargain book shelf thing.

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And so I hid it behind the shelf and we both ran back to our hotel

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room and I grabbed my purse and ran back down to the stall and found it

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again and kind of held onto it as if my life depended on it!

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Lashings of luck, but rather rotten for the bookstall!

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When I first heard I thought, oh, boy, that's a real mistake.

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And then I thought, when I had time to think

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about it, I thought, well, no, it's a great story and I'm

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really pleased for her and I'm glad she's happy to keep her purchase.

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During the 50s and 60s schoolchildren were invited

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A winning composition would win a classic novel,

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like Silas Marner, and also a letter from a children's author.

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Enid Blyton's signature is one of most famous literary history, and

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it's not surprising. She would write 10,000 words a day, she published

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753 books, 600 million of which were sold worldwide. Hundreds and

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hundreds of letters. They tell me what looks they like and what they

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will read next, and the books they like best of all.

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That's all from me, I'll be back with Midlands Today

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I'll leave you with the forecast from Rebecca.

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Good evening. It certainly was a pleasant day today. Lots of lovely

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sunshine. Temperatures managed to make it up to the mid teens. As we

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head towards tomorrow things are going to change. It will be a cloudy

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day, thick enough at times to get some drizzle. But it will largely

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dry. Still dry out there tonight, with some clear spells. Temperatures

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initially falling away but starting to recover with an area of cloud

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working its way in from the west. Temperatures holding up between

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5-9dC. Tomorrow, I pressure still in charge, but steadily it is being

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pushed out of the way. We can see that warm front up against it so

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that will give us the cloud. We're still in that air. Cloudy day with

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some drizzle, but some brighter spells to the Lee of high ground and

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where we get those, temperatures back up into the mid-teens once

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again. The national forecast is coming up but I will leave you

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day. On Sunday, cloudier, maybe spots of rain.

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Good evening, in the spring sunshine we saw temperatures as high as 17.5

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Celsius. Not as warm or Sonning on Friday. Still a lot of dry, settled

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weather in the forecast for the next few days. This was the sunset

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captured by one of our Weather Watchers. Clear skies there. We have

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had increasing amounts of cloud moving in from the West. Through the

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remainder of tonight we will continue to see that cloud across

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the south-west of England, the Channel Isles, weaving in across

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Wales, Northern Ireland and western Scotland. Bringing with it some

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outbreaks of drizzly rain, particularly around the coast and

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the hills. Further east, clear skies and the coldest temperatures. We are

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likely to see frost across eastern parts of Scotland by Friday morning.

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The west of Scotland will see the cloud moving in, bringing spots of

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light, drizzly rain. A similar picture for Northern Ireland. Fairly

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cloudy and grey. A bit of hill fog here and there. Into the north of

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England as well. The central and eastern parts

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