Browse content similar to 07/12/2011. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Welcome to South East Today, I'm Rob Smith. | :00:01. | :00:04. | |
And I'm Polly Evans. Tonight's top stories: | :00:04. | :00:06. | |
"I still miss my daughter," the mother of Hastings heroin victim | :00:06. | :00:10. | |
Amy Pickard says she still has questions at the end of an inquest | :00:10. | :00:20. | |
:00:20. | :00:22. | ||
into her death. I loved Amy then, and I love her more and more each | :00:22. | :00:27. | |
day. And I miss her. Miss her so much. | :00:27. | :00:29. | |
Plans for a new Thames Crossing linking Kent with Essex are | :00:29. | :00:32. | |
condemned as shockingly ill-advised by a campaign group. We are live | :00:32. | :00:35. | |
with the details at the Dartford Crossing. | :00:35. | :00:38. | |
Also in tonight's programme: An invitation to tend the grave of | :00:38. | :00:41. | |
someone else's loved one, inspired by a Kent woman's mission to keep | :00:41. | :00:46. | |
her grandmother's memory alive. Rarer than a Siberian tiger - the | :00:46. | :00:54. | |
farm animals being kept alive by a dedicated Sussex insurance broker. | :00:54. | :00:58. | |
And fighting for the top spot - the Kent soldiers battling it out to be | :00:58. | :01:08. | |
:01:08. | :01:18. | ||
named as the best platoon in memory Amy Pickard lived more than eight | :01:18. | :01:22. | |
years after she was found unconscious in a public toilet in | :01:22. | :01:26. | |
Hastings following a Hove the does -- an overdose of heroin but died | :01:26. | :01:30. | |
weeks after moving to a new care home. Today an inquest ruled an | :01:30. | :01:34. | |
electrical malfunction in her heart was the cause of her death. | :01:34. | :01:38. | |
Her mother has used the case to graphically warn others of the | :01:38. | :01:42. | |
dangers of Class A drugs. She was 17 and heavily pregnant when she | :01:42. | :01:46. | |
took the drugs into 1001. But tonight she says she still have | :01:46. | :01:51. | |
questions over how Amy died -- in 2001. | :01:51. | :01:55. | |
Amy Pickard was 17 when she was found collapsed from a heroin | :01:55. | :02:04. | |
overdose. She lived until 2000 and -- until 2009. Today, the inquest | :02:04. | :02:10. | |
said she died as a result of a arrhythmia. Her life would never | :02:10. | :02:15. | |
have been the same, but she had spirit and fought for almost eight | :02:15. | :02:19. | |
years. Every week, her condition was improving and we planned to | :02:19. | :02:25. | |
bring her home by the end of the year. I loved Amy then, and I love | :02:25. | :02:30. | |
her more and more each day. And I miss her. Miss her so much. Thank | :02:30. | :02:37. | |
you so stop at today's inquest, Amy's mother heard pain for me | :02:37. | :02:40. | |
information about the night her daughter overdosed on heroin. | :02:40. | :02:44. | |
seems an acquaintance offered reducing boyfriend injected the | :02:44. | :02:48. | |
substance into her veins. There was no evidence she was an habitual | :02:48. | :02:53. | |
user. The coroner recorded a verdict of death by non dependant | :02:53. | :03:02. | |
use of drugs. Come on, Amy, yes. Amy had taken the drugs with a 22- | :03:02. | :03:08. | |
year-old boy friend and the father of her unborn child. The baby died | :03:08. | :03:12. | |
days later and he died from a heroin overdose in the same toilet | :03:12. | :03:15. | |
block later in the same year. Although he had smoked cannabis | :03:15. | :03:20. | |
since he was 11, Amy was not a rated a user. Let me know if | :03:20. | :03:28. | |
anything is going on, please. not a regular drug user. Her mother, | :03:28. | :03:32. | |
Salma, has used her tragedy to deter others from the use of | :03:32. | :03:36. | |
illegal drugs. She released photographs and has hit out at | :03:36. | :03:41. | |
computer games that appear to glorify the buying and -- and | :03:41. | :03:47. | |
selling of drugs. In 2007, Amy's conditions seemed to improve when | :03:47. | :03:52. | |
she was part of a medical trial. Her progress was documented by a | :03:52. | :03:58. | |
BBC film crew as she showed signs of awareness. Two years later, she | :03:58. | :04:04. | |
died. Jon Hunt is live in Hastings for us. | :04:04. | :04:08. | |
Amis survived for eight-and-a-half years but died within days of being | :04:08. | :04:12. | |
transferred to a new care home. Did the inquest shed light on how that | :04:12. | :04:17. | |
came to be? The inquest heard that on the night that Amy died, the | :04:17. | :04:22. | |
staff at the Merry House care home were struggling with a heating | :04:22. | :04:27. | |
system and one of the nurses said temperatures had reached 29 Celsius. | :04:27. | :04:31. | |
Also, we heard staff at the Kehoe had, for health and safety reasons, | :04:31. | :04:35. | |
stopped performing a function of the care plan which involved | :04:35. | :04:39. | |
turning Amy on her front so secretions in her away could be | :04:39. | :04:45. | |
expelled. We also heard that when nurses found her body in 2009 she | :04:45. | :04:49. | |
was slumped forward towards her pillow, which raised questions over | :04:49. | :04:54. | |
whether there was a possibility she might have suffocated, but the | :04:54. | :04:56. | |
coroner ultimately came to the conclusion that none of those | :04:56. | :05:00. | |
factors were to blame and it was simply that her heart had stopped | :05:00. | :05:04. | |
working, and electrical malfunction caused by that profound brain | :05:04. | :05:12. | |
damage she had been fighting for so many year. | :05:12. | :05:15. | |
"Shockingly ill-advised". That is the reaction from the environmental | :05:15. | :05:18. | |
group Protect Kent to Government plans to build a new Lower Thames | :05:18. | :05:20. | |
Crossing linking Kent and Essex to ease traffic congestion at Dartford. | :05:20. | :05:23. | |
The Chancellor indicated in his autumn statement that work on the | :05:23. | :05:26. | |
project will now begin, but Protect Kent are starting a protest to stop | :05:26. | :05:29. | |
the plans before they get going. Simon Jones is at the existing | :05:29. | :05:36. | |
Dartford crossing now. Given that these campaigners accept | :05:36. | :05:42. | |
that traffic is a problem there, what are they proposing instead? | :05:43. | :05:47. | |
Protect Kent sa you do not need any crossing, they say get rid of that | :05:47. | :05:52. | |
holes here and the traffic will run much more smoothly. -- get rid of | :05:52. | :05:57. | |
that wholes. They say the government would concrete over the | :05:57. | :06:01. | |
countryside to give the economy a boost. | :06:01. | :06:05. | |
Bumper-to-bumper tonight, choking the economy and environment, | :06:05. | :06:08. | |
critics say. But the environmental effect of a brand new crossing | :06:08. | :06:16. | |
could be even worse according to environmental campaigners. | :06:16. | :06:25. | |
There are three options being looked at, one is expanding the | :06:25. | :06:30. | |
existing crossing, the second is a new one. The third, a crossing east | :06:30. | :06:36. | |
of Gravesend. Many motorists say, get on with it. Like all motorists, | :06:36. | :06:42. | |
I hate traffic queues. My philosophy is, the quickest way | :06:42. | :06:50. | |
from to B. Coming from Gravesend takes normally 10-15 minutes, it is | :06:51. | :06:57. | |
one hour today. It is a good idea. But the best idea is to take the | :06:57. | :07:02. | |
toll out. Kent County Council says a new crossing is vital for growth. | :07:02. | :07:06. | |
It cannot be very environmentally friendly having hundreds of | :07:06. | :07:09. | |
thousands of heavy goods vehicles waiting in queues and traffic jams | :07:10. | :07:13. | |
to get through the existing Thames Crossing. I think if we get the | :07:13. | :07:18. | |
location right, it will free up traffic flow and it will be | :07:18. | :07:24. | |
environment because it. But it could see the carpeted against the | :07:24. | :07:28. | |
environmental campaigners if it gets the go-ahead. | :07:28. | :07:31. | |
Apologies for the loss of sound and part of my report but the | :07:31. | :07:35. | |
government told us it believes a new crossing is vital. They are | :07:35. | :07:38. | |
looking at the technical details of the three they have proposed an say | :07:39. | :07:42. | |
there will be a consultation by 2013, and then it could be built | :07:42. | :07:46. | |
within 10 years. The question, where is the money going to come | :07:46. | :07:50. | |
from? The government says it needs to come from private sources. | :07:50. | :07:53. | |
In a moment, the political row brewing over plans to expand | :07:53. | :08:03. | |
:08:03. | :08:03. | ||
Brighton's Amex stadium by another A Kent newspaper has printed its | :08:03. | :08:09. | |
final edition after more than 150 years. The owners of the East Kent | :08:09. | :08:12. | |
Gazette have shut it down, along with its sister publications the | :08:12. | :08:15. | |
Medway News and the Sheppey Gazette, after plans to sell the titles | :08:15. | :08:17. | |
ended in failure. With regional newspapers in many | :08:17. | :08:20. | |
areas struggling to stay in business, the closure means a loss | :08:20. | :08:23. | |
of 38 jobs in Kent and leaves 68,000 readers without their local | :08:23. | :08:33. | |
:08:33. | :08:34. | ||
paper. Robin Gibson reports. The final edition is on the street | :08:34. | :08:38. | |
and these journalists have made their last deadline. There were a | :08:38. | :08:44. | |
few tears when we archived the last page, the last front page. This | :08:44. | :08:50. | |
paper has had a splendid history, it has been a wonderful paper of | :08:50. | :08:53. | |
record and it is a shocking, shocking day for newspapers in | :08:53. | :08:58. | |
general. There have been papers produced in this series since the | :08:58. | :09:02. | |
1850s when papers were the sole source of news. But in the digital | :09:02. | :09:07. | |
age, it is impossible to compete. think people were genuinely shocked | :09:07. | :09:11. | |
by the speed at which this happened, and that think it suddenly made | :09:11. | :09:15. | |
them realise just what a local newspaper means to them. It is the | :09:15. | :09:19. | |
old scenario, you don't know what you have got until it's gone, and | :09:19. | :09:22. | |
the comments we have had from readers have been in those lines. | :09:22. | :09:27. | |
What will we do on a Wednesday without the Gazette? It is the loss | :09:27. | :09:31. | |
of a local business, the loss of local jobs, with all of the issues | :09:31. | :09:36. | |
that presents, but the readership of a paper is a community, a sort | :09:36. | :09:40. | |
of family. Do they feel something wider is going? Have they lost a | :09:40. | :09:46. | |
voice? I like the paper because I live on my own, so the newspaper is | :09:46. | :09:53. | |
a godsend. It is a sign of the Times, I'm afraid. More advertising | :09:53. | :10:01. | |
in it, not enough news. Everyone knows if someone is in that paper. | :10:01. | :10:05. | |
I don't read it, it doesn't bother me in the slightest. It has been | :10:05. | :10:09. | |
good for the town and local area, good for local news. Anything that | :10:09. | :10:13. | |
goes that has been going for a long time like that, it is sad, isn't | :10:13. | :10:19. | |
it? So what has gone? The series has a history dating back over 150 | :10:19. | :10:25. | |
years. Its readership of 68,000 has lost their local newspaper. 38 | :10:25. | :10:31. | |
staff have lost their jobs. Local papers are in trouble. | :10:31. | :10:34. | |
advertising model that has subsidised local newspapers for the | :10:34. | :10:38. | |
last 200 years has changed dramatically. The three pillars of | :10:38. | :10:42. | |
advertising, jobs, motors and property, have moved online and | :10:42. | :10:47. | |
they cost nothing. It is the day the paper made its own headline. | :10:47. | :10:55. | |
The last headline. That was Robin Gibson reporting and | :10:55. | :11:00. | |
he is live for us now. What is the impact on local democracy when | :11:00. | :11:06. | |
local newspapers for old reds it in providing news, they are providing | :11:06. | :11:10. | |
a public service. They are a proving ground for | :11:10. | :11:13. | |
journalists to get to know the community at grassroots level. The | :11:13. | :11:18. | |
argument runs that if stories do not pan out to the wider media, it | :11:18. | :11:21. | |
could be good news for people who do not want to subject themselves | :11:21. | :11:25. | |
to public scrutiny and bad news for voters, particularly at local | :11:25. | :11:28. | |
election time when they want to make an informed judgment about | :11:28. | :11:31. | |
what is best for them. Thank you. | :11:31. | :11:33. | |
When Jenny Barsby-Robinson's grandparents died, she was | :11:33. | :11:36. | |
determined their grave should be kept well-tended. But a 200-mile | :11:36. | :11:39. | |
round trip from Kent to the churchyard in Suffolk made that | :11:39. | :11:43. | |
increasingly difficult. So she came up with a plan - a | :11:43. | :11:46. | |
website to link those in similar situations so they could help each | :11:46. | :11:56. | |
:11:56. | :11:56. | ||
other out. Sara Smith has more. Kevin Webster tens the grave of | :11:56. | :11:59. | |
much loved Grand parents in Bury St Edmunds, but they are not her grand | :11:59. | :12:02. | |
parents, she does it to help someone out who lives more than 100 | :12:02. | :12:07. | |
miles away. It gives the opportunity for people who do not | :12:07. | :12:11. | |
live anywhere near the area to be able to come and know that their | :12:11. | :12:15. | |
graves are being cared for by volunteers. It was such a struggle | :12:15. | :12:20. | |
to find someone to look after her grandparents grave that Jenny | :12:20. | :12:23. | |
Barsby-Robinson set up a website. People are so to attend grades | :12:23. | :12:27. | |
close to them and ask others in different parts of the country to | :12:27. | :12:31. | |
do the same for their loved ones. To know that my grandparents grave | :12:31. | :12:35. | |
is being looked after and cared for means a great deal. I might feel | :12:35. | :12:40. | |
them around me all the time but to know that everybody can see these | :12:40. | :12:45. | |
people were loved and we still love them is important. Those who sign | :12:45. | :12:51. | |
up can offer to place a wreath one senior or water flowers every week. | :12:51. | :12:54. | |
I think it will give a sense of comfort to many families who are | :12:54. | :12:59. | |
unable to get a cemetery's or churchyards to attend to graves and | :12:59. | :13:03. | |
know that it will be maintained by having fresh flowers put on it, or | :13:03. | :13:09. | |
the grass cut. At this cemetery, Reg Bailey attends his wife's grave | :13:09. | :13:14. | |
each week. He could not bear the thought of it being neglected. | :13:14. | :13:18. | |
fortunate I could get down, but some of these graves, nobody comes | :13:18. | :13:23. | |
down at all, whether they have got a reason, they cannot get down, | :13:23. | :13:28. | |
they are disabled, things like that. It is a great idea. As more people | :13:28. | :13:32. | |
signed up, Jenny hopes no one will be left worrying that the grave of | :13:32. | :13:42. | |
a loved one many miles away will be left to decay. | :13:42. | :13:44. | |
The Immigration Minister and Ashford MP Damian Green is warning | :13:44. | :13:47. | |
shoppers to be vigilant about the dangers of buying counterfeit goods | :13:47. | :13:50. | |
in the run-up to Christmas. It comes just days after Trading | :13:50. | :13:53. | |
Standards officers in Kent seized 9,500 dangerous toys at the Port of | :13:53. | :13:55. | |
Dover. The Border Agency campaign is urging consumers not to be | :13:55. | :14:02. | |
tricked into thinking they are getting a bargain. | :14:02. | :14:05. | |
A row has broken out over plans to expand Brighton and Hove Albion's | :14:06. | :14:15. | |
:14:16. | :14:22. | ||
Amex stadium in Falmer. Are you OK? Just having a cost! -- a cough. The | :14:22. | :14:24. | |
heated exchange took place on the social network Twitter between | :14:24. | :14:27. | |
Green councillor Jason Kitcat and the former leader of Brighton and | :14:27. | :14:32. | |
Hove city council Lord Steve Bassam. It has made me cry! | :14:32. | :14:36. | |
The two locked horns over proposals for an extra 8,000 seats at the new | :14:36. | :14:38. | |
stadium. Lord Bassam is accusing the Green council of scuppering | :14:38. | :14:41. | |
expansion "by the back door". Lynda Hardy explains. | :14:41. | :14:46. | |
Here is what the debate is about, the expansion of the Albion's new | :14:46. | :14:50. | |
Amex stadium, with plans to build extra 1,000 parking spaces and | :14:50. | :14:55. | |
community centre near by, parking that might have helped football | :14:55. | :14:59. | |
fans at the weekend. Having those extra spaces would be an important | :14:59. | :15:03. | |
part of the club's application to increase capacity at the stadium by | :15:03. | :15:09. | |
a further -- by a further 8,000. On Twitter, the former Labour leader | :15:09. | :15:13. | |
of Brighton council accuses the Green Councillor Jason Kitcat and | :15:13. | :15:17. | |
current Green council of trying to block the expansion plans by | :15:17. | :15:22. | |
stopping the extra parking space is being built. Lord Bassam says, I | :15:22. | :15:27. | |
sense a climbdown or U-turn and a bit of panic if, by exposing or | :15:27. | :15:31. | |
hidden agenda, we get a result. Happy for that. Jason Kitcat | :15:31. | :15:36. | |
replies, we have concerns about locations. We were never against | :15:36. | :15:42. | |
the stadium in principle, though you like to suggest it was so. Lord | :15:42. | :15:45. | |
Basson replies, we need fan power to get them to backtrack on this | :15:45. | :15:50. | |
daft decision. Brighton and Hove Albion has been a major success | :15:50. | :15:55. | |
story, it has a new stadium, it wants to expand -- expand capacity | :15:55. | :16:01. | |
by 40% and if the car park spaces are blocked, it means the option of | :16:01. | :16:05. | |
expanding the stadium is much more difficult and complicated. | :16:05. | :16:08. | |
stadium's original application had provision for parking in some areas | :16:09. | :16:14. | |
which did not workout, some at the Falmer Academy who decided not to | :16:14. | :16:17. | |
provided, and less spaces at the university campus as well, so they | :16:17. | :16:21. | |
are looking and we are working with them to find alternative ways to | :16:21. | :16:26. | |
deal with its. Fans say expansion is needed at this dim. It has been | :16:26. | :16:30. | |
a sell-out pretty much every league game this season and there is a | :16:30. | :16:34. | |
waiting list of about 2000 people already. This debate comes before | :16:34. | :16:40. | |
any plans for more seats have been submitted. The club hope to do that | :16:40. | :16:45. | |
before the end of the year. We can join Lynda Hardy in Brighton | :16:45. | :16:50. | |
now. Despite the talk of parking, the club can boast it is one of the | :16:50. | :16:57. | |
greenest in the country when it comes to transporting fans? | :16:57. | :17:01. | |
Clearly we have got some problems with the sound, as well as me | :17:01. | :17:04. | |
coughing this evening! Let's move on to the headlines, then. | :17:04. | :17:11. | |
Our top story tonight: At the end of an inquest into the death of a | :17:11. | :17:14. | |
teenager who slipped into a coma after taking heroin, her mother | :17:14. | :17:19. | |
says she still has answers -- still has questions over her death. | :17:19. | :17:23. | |
Amy Pickard spent eight years needing round-the-clock care after | :17:23. | :17:25. | |
she was found collapsed in a toilet cubicle. | :17:25. | :17:28. | |
Also in tonight's programme: Hoping to avoid a mud bath - why | :17:28. | :17:31. | |
Maidstone United are opting to play on a plastic pitch. | :17:31. | :17:34. | |
And the Kent soldiers fighting to be in the top platoon in memory of | :17:34. | :17:44. | |
:17:44. | :17:45. | ||
Princess Diana. By day, he is a busy London | :17:45. | :17:49. | |
businessman working in insurance. But Roland Horton, with his wife | :17:49. | :17:52. | |
Jane, devotes his spare time to a running a smallholding in Sussex | :17:52. | :17:58. | |
for rare breeds of farm animals. It is not just attracting customers, | :17:58. | :18:00. | |
but also keeping breeds alive, maintaining genetic diversity for | :18:00. | :18:04. | |
our food of the future. At least one breed of farm animal is made | :18:04. | :18:07. | |
extinct every month across the world. In the last century, 26 | :18:07. | :18:12. | |
breeds of livestock and many more breeds of chicken disappeared. | :18:12. | :18:14. | |
Among those that are still struggling are the black Norfolk | :18:15. | :18:18. | |
turkey and Soay sheep, both of which are on the Hortons' farm. Our | :18:18. | :18:25. | |
environment correspondent Yvette Austin has this report. | :18:25. | :18:29. | |
For Roman and Jane Horton, living the good life is their hobby. When | :18:29. | :18:33. | |
they are not at work, they look after their animals, which are | :18:33. | :18:37. | |
special because pretty much all of them are rare breeds. It started | :18:37. | :18:43. | |
with six chickens, and we now have about 100 so it keeps us quite busy. | :18:43. | :18:49. | |
These are the blacks are six chickens here. In the 1920s, a | :18:49. | :18:52. | |
Sussex hen came to he failed and as we live in the locality we thought | :18:52. | :18:57. | |
it would be lovely to keep them going. They are a rare breed, yes. | :18:57. | :19:02. | |
It is difficult to get hold of good breeding stock and bloodlines. You | :19:02. | :19:06. | |
need to make sure you are looking at local shows to see what birds | :19:06. | :19:11. | |
are available. From chickens in the beginning, Turkey's Nynex and the | :19:12. | :19:16. | |
smallholding group. They are not full Christmas, they are breeding | :19:16. | :19:19. | |
flock. If he were to buy a commercial bird for the table it | :19:19. | :19:24. | |
would be about �40. If you were to buy one of mine, it would be about | :19:24. | :19:32. | |
�70. But we are trying to keep the breed alive. They take a third | :19:32. | :19:36. | |
longer to mature than commercial birds, but they say the flavour, as | :19:36. | :19:42. | |
a result, is far better. Similarly with the ship. Soay sheep lambs are | :19:42. | :19:47. | |
smaller, but it is argued the sheep are tastier. Soay sheep are the | :19:47. | :19:51. | |
most primitive in the country. We have been farming them since the | :19:51. | :19:56. | |
Bronze Age. It is genetic diversity. Where do you think the Commercial | :19:56. | :20:02. | |
Farmers'' sheep came from? It came from sheep like these. And the pigs | :20:02. | :20:06. | |
are a perfect example of the point of the project's. These are amongst | :20:06. | :20:11. | |
the rarest pigs in the country. They are rarer than the Siberian | :20:11. | :20:17. | |
tiger. There are 800 Siberian tigers, 400 of these. The World | :20:17. | :20:21. | |
Wildlife Fund is trying to save the Siberian tiger, and it is up to | :20:21. | :20:26. | |
people like myself to look after the pigs. Whilst some of the | :20:26. | :20:30. | |
animals here do reach the table, the idea is to keep the breeds | :20:30. | :20:34. | |
going. Eventually they may be needed to cross into commercial | :20:34. | :20:44. | |
:20:44. | :20:51. | ||
animal production for our future We have dosed you up, haven't we? | :20:51. | :20:54. | |
He is feeling better now! It was all about teamwork, physical | :20:54. | :20:57. | |
fitness and military skills in Folkestone today, when 400 soldiers | :20:57. | :20:59. | |
took part in an inter-platoon competition. | :20:59. | :21:01. | |
Some 400 soldiers of the 2nd Battalion The Princess of Wales's | :21:01. | :21:04. | |
Royal Regiment are taking part in the Spencer Trophy in memory of | :21:04. | :21:08. | |
Princess Diana. It is no easy task - the competition lasts for four | :21:08. | :21:18. | |
:21:18. | :21:18. | ||
days. Peter Whittlesea reports. It is as close to reality as | :21:18. | :21:23. | |
possible. The soldiers have been attacked by unarmed men. Because of | :21:23. | :21:30. | |
that, they can't shoot. Instead, the situation has to be contained. | :21:30. | :21:34. | |
This is all part up and up into platoon competition which prepares | :21:34. | :21:39. | |
troops for everyday combat situations. You have to decide what | :21:39. | :21:44. | |
is going to be behind the dock. If you have a family with a mother and | :21:44. | :21:47. | |
her children and you threw a grenade in every door, all you do | :21:47. | :21:51. | |
is lose a battle against Hearts and minds because you are killing the | :21:51. | :21:56. | |
people in the area. The decision for a soldier when he comes up to a | :21:56. | :22:01. | |
door, what will be behind it? on a tour of duty, that stark | :22:01. | :22:06. | |
decision has to be made daily. This scenario based training allows | :22:06. | :22:10. | |
soldiers to learn from their mistakes without the obvious real- | :22:10. | :22:16. | |
life consequences. Also, this is a competition, so everything is being | :22:16. | :22:23. | |
marked. The best platoon wins the coveted Spencer Trophy. It is | :22:23. | :22:27. | |
really in line with what we do one operations, quite relevant to what | :22:27. | :22:31. | |
we are do ring. We have won it before as a petition and it would | :22:31. | :22:36. | |
be nice to get it again, which is why we have so many of our guys | :22:36. | :22:38. | |
left in the competition, because we are pushing hard because everybody | :22:38. | :22:43. | |
wants to when it. It is not all about combat. Here, they have to | :22:43. | :22:49. | |
assess and treat casualties. Because the trophy was given to the | :22:49. | :22:54. | |
regiment by Earl Spencer after Lady Diana's death, the rent -- the | :22:54. | :22:59. | |
winning petition has a real sense of honour and pride. -- the winning | :22:59. | :23:09. | |
platinum. 30 years ago they were heralded as | :23:09. | :23:12. | |
the way forward, a grand innovation brought in to avoid the traditional | :23:12. | :23:15. | |
winter problem of more mud than grass on football grounds. But | :23:15. | :23:17. | |
synthetic pitches soon fell out of favour and were banned. | :23:17. | :23:20. | |
Despite that, Maidstone United believe it is the only way smaller | :23:20. | :23:23. | |
clubs can prosper, and will soon become the first club in the | :23:23. | :23:26. | |
country to have a purpose-built plastic pitch, as Neil Bell reports. | :23:26. | :23:30. | |
They promise to deliver free- flowing football for the benefit of | :23:30. | :23:33. | |
all. It was believed synthetic pitches would become the norm, | :23:33. | :23:37. | |
bringing an end to the mudbath that players and spectators had endured | :23:37. | :23:47. | |
:23:47. | :23:48. | ||
After almost two decades away, Maidstone United will soon be back, | :23:48. | :23:53. | |
but not playing on soil. The new ground will be based around a | :23:53. | :23:57. | |
synthetic pitch. We had to inject some financial and commercial | :23:57. | :24:02. | |
reality into this before we started and part of that comes by the | :24:02. | :24:06. | |
laying off an artificial surface. We have children's teams, | :24:06. | :24:10. | |
disability teams, the youth and reserve teams, they will all use | :24:10. | :24:14. | |
this as a focal point for the community. But that decision could | :24:14. | :24:18. | |
mean Maidstone never regain their place in the Football League, not | :24:18. | :24:22. | |
that the long-suffering reporters - - supporters are too bothered about | :24:22. | :24:29. | |
that. I have been waiting for the past 20 years, said it is a bit of | :24:29. | :24:35. | |
a bind to have to travel for a home match 30 miles away. I used to be a | :24:35. | :24:39. | |
runner in my younger days and you see how synthetic tracks have | :24:39. | :24:44. | |
improved athletics. The standard of football has got to improve. | :24:44. | :24:47. | |
footballing authorities still need convincing. Clubs like Preston, | :24:47. | :24:51. | |
Luton and QPR tried them in the 80s but bounce, roll and injuries led | :24:51. | :24:56. | |
to them being banned. That could be about to change. This type of pitch | :24:56. | :25:00. | |
is ideal in terms of the number of teams, the number of youngsters, | :25:00. | :25:07. | |
those coming through, the pitch can be used regularly. Unlikely though | :25:07. | :25:13. | |
it may seem, Maidstone are confident they will be here playing | :25:13. | :25:17. | |
on their artificial pitch in time for next season. | :25:17. | :25:21. | |
It has been a lovely day, but the weather is at sixes and sevens, | :25:21. | :25:26. | |
isn't it? Yes, and we have a big temperature | :25:26. | :25:30. | |
look to go through in the next 24 hours. It will be mild tomorrow and | :25:30. | :25:35. | |
then cold again, in fact, very cold. Cold enough that if we were to get | :25:35. | :25:39. | |
some precipitation towards the end of the week, it would fall as nodes. | :25:39. | :25:49. | |
But we are not do anything just yet The best way to visualise the | :25:49. | :25:52. | |
changes over the next 36 hours is to see the pressure chart. At the | :25:52. | :25:57. | |
moment we have got clear skies, said it is very cold, but through | :25:57. | :26:00. | |
tomorrow we have a warm front coming through which will bring | :26:00. | :26:04. | |
temperatures several degrees higher than at the moment, but quickly | :26:04. | :26:07. | |
following that is a cold front bringing rain and then the colder | :26:07. | :26:11. | |
air that will sit with us on Friday and Saturday daytime, with | :26:11. | :26:15. | |
temperatures not much higher, about three or four degrees, so it is | :26:15. | :26:20. | |
getting colder than over the last few days. It will certainly be | :26:20. | :26:23. | |
chilly through this evening but with those clear skies and the | :26:23. | :26:28. | |
lasting behalf of the night, I think temperatures should not get | :26:28. | :26:34. | |
much lower than two or three degrees. Some of us will see a | :26:34. | :26:37. | |
little bit of frost but it will tend to become a little bit milder | :26:37. | :26:42. | |
towards the end of the night when the cloud arrives. Once that had | :26:42. | :26:46. | |
arrives it will be with us through tomorrow, the winds picking up | :26:46. | :26:50. | |
stronger than today, we could see gusts at 50 miles an hour and the | :26:50. | :26:54. | |
cloud so thick it could give outbreaks of rain as well. Not the | :26:54. | :26:58. | |
pretty, sunny day that we had today at all. In fact, it gets worse and | :26:58. | :27:02. | |
the worst of that wet weather will probably be in rush-hour tomorrow | :27:03. | :27:07. | |
evening, and that is when the strongest winds will be. From 5pm | :27:07. | :27:13. | |
until 8pm, the strongest rain and winds. We are left them on Friday | :27:14. | :27:18. | |
with some beautiful sunny skies but it will feel very cold indeed. So | :27:19. | :27:22. | |
although we have got some milder air through tomorrow, it is not | :27:22. | :27:26. | |
much consolation because it comes hand in hand with rain and very | :27:26. | :27:32. | |
strong winds. Colder by the weekend. Website tomorrow is the date is | :27:32. | :27:36. |