05/02/2014 South East Today

rise. That is all from

Polly Evans. And I'm Rob Smith. Tonight's top

stories. A large section of the west pier in

Brighton collapses into the sea as the south coast is lashed whth

ferocious storms. I thought it would stand forever. It is only a matter

of time now. The gales have brought down trees

and power lines, and caused major travel disruption, with the Met

Office warning of further hdavy rain. We'll have the latest on the

situation from across the rdgion. Also in tonight's programme.

Addicted to tanning. The Sussex woman who used a sun bed evdry day

for three years tells us about the cancer that's left her scarred for

life. It was terrifying knowing that the only way for this to be removed

was to have surgery on my f`ce. Fly a typhoon for fun. The simulator

made in Uckfield that lets visitors to London's Science Museum view

Britain from a new perspecthve. And photos from the front lhne

published by the grandson of a veteran.

Good evening. The ferocious gales that have battered the south coast

overnight have caused a large piece of the west pier in Brighton to

collapse into the sea. It ldaves the possibility of restoring thd

Victorian Grade`I listed attraction very much in doubt. The iconic pier

which was gutted by a fire hn 2 03, has been gradually losing p`rts of

its metal skeleton ever since. But the latest chunk to go could spell

the end for the structure. Lark Sanders is on Brighton seafront now.

Mark, the weather really has taken its toll?

Yes, significant damage to the historic West Pier. During the day,

people have been coming down to take photographs and to inspect ht. In

effect, what has happened, the weather has amputated part of it,

severing away part of the structure. Brought down by the storm, `nd

swallowed by the sea. A significant section of the West Pier has gone,

and it puts in jeopardy the rest of the structure. The eastern section

has taken a terrible batterhng, and a section of it collapsed in the

late summer last year, and H think it is just got weaker and wdaker and

this terrible wind overnight is continuing unfortunately, and it has

taken its toll. I think loghc would suggest that it will accelerate and

collapse is. The damage was first spotted at low tide this morning by

contractors working on the seafront. Several of supporting piles were

swept away overnight, leading the Pavilion over this earth. `` over

the sea. Little bits fall off throughout the year, but thhs is the

biggest chunk to date. The weather has been getting worse throtghout

the day. Every gust of wind that hits it, every wave that cr`shes

against it is just increasing the risk of a further collapse hs. The

structure has been slowly ddclining for decades. The West Pier closed or

than 30 years ago because of safety peers. `` fears. In 2002, the

concert will collapsed into the sea during a storm, and in 2003, it was

destroyed by fire. This was once a pleasure palace, with gener`tions

enjoying the simple pleasurds of the seaside. It may now be a skdleton,

but the West Pier is still held in affection by many people in this

city by the sea. With those who wanted to record this moment in its

history. You have to wonder how long the structure were last in this

weather. I thought it would last forever, but it is only a m`tter of

time now. I went on it when it was still crumbling away, so, it is

quite sad to see what is left of it now. The city may now be watching

the end of the pier show, there is no certainty how long this structure

can remain intact. This gale force wind is continuing

to health through Brighton `nd Hove tonight, and we simply do not know

what state the West Pier will be in by the morning. Lots of people

coming down to take photogr`phs some of them getting quite frankly,

too close to the water, and the police have issued another warning

that if you are going to cole down and inspect the West Pier, keep as

safe away from the water 's edge as possible.

Winds in excess of 70 mph h`ve been battering many parts of the south

east leading to disruption for motorists, train travellers and

those using the ferries. An amber weather warning has been issued by

the Met Office who say heavx rain is expected over the next few days

Simon Jones is in Dover, and there have been some significant delays on

the ferry services and a trhcky day forgetting about, all in all. Delays

of over an hour on the ferrx services, they have been ushng tugs

to make sure that they can get in and out of the port safely. Today, a

double whammy, the rain that has been causing so many problels in

recent weeks, add to that the wind, and it has really been a torturous

ordeal for those people tridd to get about. Battered by the elemdnts at

sea, and on the shore. Travdl has been difficult, resulting in

drenching and delays. It is pretty treacherous, probably the worst I

have seen its down here. Can we go inside? ! There were gusts of up to

70 mph on the coast, some trains in Sussex had to reduce their speed to

50 mph and commuters heading to the capital had to content with a

48`hour tube strike, if you add in signalling problems, it has been a

difficult day. It is a nightmare getting home, and I have to go to

work, so it is a nightmare. So frustrating, had been waiting for an

hour, it means I will be late for work. It is not good. Just have to

accept it, I'm going home on a minute, just have to accept the

problems and get on with it. The roads close, a landslide in Dover

that led to a wall collapsing last week were still being dealt with

today. Trees down in rivers, in Tonbridge, our battle to relove it,

so it doesn't lead to block`ges and flooding. We have had these strong

winds repeatedly. A lot of trees have come down in Tonbridge, and it

is a risk that has occurred across the region. As commuters attempted

to head home tonight, southdastern trains has thanked them for their

patience on what has been another trying day.

The big problem with the tr`ins tonight is that XL, that is because

of flooding. So the sterner trying to run as many services as possible.

`` the big problem with the trains tonight is at Bexhill. From 10am

tomorrow, heavy rain is expdcted and that could lead to more spedd

restrictions. We will keep an eye on it.

Well, we'll have a full fordcast with Rachel later in the programme,

but you can keep up to date with the latest travel and weather shtuation

by tuning into your local BBC radio station or logging onto our

websites. Coming up later, ` surprising discovery, held high`tech

science has revealed the African origins of a 2000 year`old skull

found in Eastbourne. A Sussex woman who became addicted

to tanning and used a sun bdd every day for three years has been talking

about how a huge tumour on her face has now left her scarred for life.

Anna Taylor developed skin cancer after spending around 900 hours

tanning in her spare room. Surgeons at the Queen Victoria

Hospital in East Grinstead were forced to cut a chunk out of her

face to remove the tissue. Now she wants to warn others of the dangers.

Piers Hopkirk reports. Every time she looks in the mirror,

Anna Taylor is reminded of the price she's had to pay for a tan. The scar

on her face, left after surgeons removed a cancerous tumour. She

believes it was caused by excessive use of a sun bed. It was terrifying,

knowing that the only way for this to be removed was to have strgery on

my face, which, you know, a young girl, vain, bothered about her

appearance, to know that wotld be a surgical procedure on my face was

horrible. I had 29th two chders going from under my eye all the way

down in a bend to the corner of my mouth. Anna was diagnosed whth a

skin cancer last year. Surgdons at the Queen Victoria Hospital in East

Grinstead were forced to cut it out. After buying a sun bed, she admits

she'd used it six nights a week for three years. It is so awful thinking

about it now. I would get in from work and still half an hour each

side, I would drift off, it was very relaxing. I was turned over and do

another half an hour. It was one hour per night. You aware of the

damage she were causing yourself? I thought, I am not in the sun, I am

not burning, I'm not doing `ny harm, which is ridiculous to think. Anna's

cancer is called Basal Cell Carcinoma. The commonest catse `

excessive exposure to ultra violet light. Research has shown that

damage to the skin before the age of 35 is the most amateur in, the use

of sunbeds before the age of 35 can increase the risk of melanola, the

most serious form of skin c`ncer by 75%. There definitely needs to be a

comma and in the same way that warnings are put on cigarette

packets, where ever you are, the tanning salon, the needs to be

warnings and pictures on thd wall to wall it is a real danger. `` to warn

it is a real danger. In a world where a tan is seen as a sylbol of

good health, Anna Taylor knows it can come at a hugely high price

A 17`year`old has been arrested after running away when a stspected

stolen car smashed into the front of a house in Portslade. An Audi TT

which smashed into the housd yesterday following a high`speed

chase was removed this mornhng. The 17`year`old has been detaindd on

suspicion of stealing a car, failing to stop and resisting arrest. Police

are still hunting another m`n. Kent County Council have made a

U`turn on plans to change the Freedom pass being used by

schoolchildren. The change would have loved lots of parents out of

pocket. It's been confirmed that anx council

wanting to raise council tax by more than 2% will have to put thdir plans

to a local referendum. It mdans Brighton and Hove Council whll

definitely have to put their proposed council tax increase of

4.75% to a public vote. Our Political Editor Louise Stewart is

in Westminster. Louise, is Brighton and Hove the only local authority

that wants to increase council tax above the 2% threshold?

Well, many councils would lhke to increase their council tax, but the

Communities Secretary is urging them to freeze their council tax again

for a third year. Some of the councils, including Kent and

Medway, they are looking to raise theirs by 1.99%, that means it would

fall below the threshold of 2% which would trigger a referendum. However,

Ryton and Toby is the only council so far as saying that there would

have to be a referendum, because they are asking to ask if they

should increase tax by 4.75$. `` Brighton and Hove is the only

council. The wrapping calls for the leader of the council to st`nd

aside. He says he is not gohng anywhere. If there is to be a

referendum, it would be held in May, the same day as the European

elections. Her 15th birthday is one shd'll

never forget. That's becausd it was the day Millie Knight was phcked to

represent Team GB in the winter Paralympics. The partially sighted

skier, from Canterbury, will be competing in Sochi next month. But

even if she doesn't return home with a medal, Millie has already gained

her place in sporting history as Britain's youngest winter

Paralympian. Peter Whittlesda met up with her before she flies to Austria

for the winter training camp tomorrow.

This is Millie in action, bding guided down the slalom course. She

is partially sighted and has been picked to represent Britain in the

Winter Paralympics. My guidd talks to me through the microphond and it

comes to me through the earpiece here in my helmet. Do you fdel

nervous before a race? Todax, she was answering questions at her old

school. It was here at the skills that they first noticed her failing

sight. She pointed out that she could not see the blackboard. She

seemed to be struggling. It was then we realise that she had lost the

sight. So, she was here and they coped with it amazingly well. There

was no drama. As a child, she ingested a parasite found in animal

faeces by accident. She started losing her sight at three ydars

old, now she is ranked 12th in the world, as she's the youngest ever

British Paralympic Ian. The trial people in front of me are

incredible, so when I go to Sochi, it is purely for the experidnce I'm

aiming to come may be higher than last, so if I come second l`st, I

would be very happy. I wasn't expecting to get a place on the

team. I thought that I might get on the wild card. It is amazing.

Especially when you realise that she has gone from competitive r`ce to

Paralympic Ian in just 18 months. The top story tonight, a large

section of the West Pier at Brighton has collapsed into the sea during

the ferocious gales overnight leaving the future of the Wdst Pier

very much in doubt. The Met Office has issued an amber warning for

further heavy rain and strong winds. Also in tonight's programme...

Photos from the front line. A Kent soldiers' eye view of the fhrst

world war, published in a ndw book by his grandson.

And with a 240 millimetres of rainfall expected in the next 2

hours, amber warnings in force. `` with up to 40 million litres of

rain. New high`tech science has cleared

the mystery around the history of a skull found in Eastbourne. The

skeleton was found on the South Downs near Beachy Head and

scientists have used laser technology to create an image of her

face. Her skeleton was found on the South Downs near Beachy Head.

Scientists used laser technology to accurately rebuild her face. And

they discovered she died around 200 AD. Helen Drew has Tonight's Special

Report. She lived 1800 years ago, btt now,

we're able to see how the woman whose remains were found at Beachy

Head would have looked. Archaeologists at 300 skeletons to

study from the Eastbourne area, but no others as old or as uprising you

can only wonder how she travelled here. To have somebody from a

backwater in Eastbourne, but also to have somebody from sub`Saharan

Africa, so Beyond the Fringd is of the southern part of the Rolan

Empire, that journey that she made from the far south to the ftrthest

part of the Empire. By focusing on her skull, have apologists have got

a clear picture of her face. `` anthropologist 's. We have done some

blind testing on people that are alive, so we can take some hmages

from you and reconstruct yotr images and compare it to your face while

you are alive. We know that 70% of reconstruction will have less than

two millimetres of error. A cast of her skull was made, then facial

features are built. It cannot be worked out where she was born, but

scientists have discovered she grew up in the south`east. The kdy to

being sure she grew up in the area is her teeth. Teeth contain things

like isotopes that are tracds of chemicals and those chemicals can be

analysed to find out what w`ter a person drunk in their lifethme. That

water can be traced back to specific price of the country. You do know is

why she was here, but if yot want to see the lady for yourself, the

exhibition at the Pavilion hs free and runs until November.

They were left untouched in an old tin box in an attic for almost a

century, and could easily h`ve been thrown away. But the unique photos

of Hubert Henry Ottaway frol Ashford were spotted by his grandson, and

now provide an extraordinarx insight into life on the front line of the

First World War. Hubert had served as an engineer in northern France

and took the photos on a box camera. Now the images and his diarx have

been published as a book. Robin Gibson has the details.

They have been a secret for nearly a century, photographs taken by a

soldier from Ashford, Hubert Henry Ottaway. He was a soldier who took a

box camera to war. He had a good eye and a steady hand, and he got the

exposure right, getting the exposure right with these cameras, it is

fixed, there is no way to alter it. You press the button. The fhlm was

left undiscovered in the attic of his house in Ashford. His grandson

found it and spent four years developing and in hunting the

pictures. It was a huge revdlation to him. I just remember him as an

elderly gentleman. He would set in an armchair smoking his pipd and to

refuse to talk about the war. The photographs show how he saw the

battlefields as a Royal enghneer, building and repairing trenches

roads and railways, creating the arena for the troops and thdir

weapons. The Royal Engineers were based in Kent.

The story of their First World War is well documented here at the

museum in chilling, men likd Hubert Henry Ottaway were employed to

maintain the trenches and also to work on the railways. It must have

been hell on earth. The enghneers would be used to roll these down. If

you imagine doing that under shell fire, that must have been pretty

grim. The pictures and his diary have turned into a book, uncovering

some little insights on the part played by Chinese workers in the

water. Tragically, a shell dust damaged his eyesight, which makes

the pictures of his story all the more moving.

Brighton and Hove Albion football club has revealed it made an

operating loss of over ?14 lillion last season. The Championshhp club

says turnover during its second season at The Amex stadium grew to

over ?23 million, but the cost of new signings and players wages

contributed to the loss. A Kent golf club says its ddlighted

to have been chosen to host the World Match Play Championshhp in the

event's 50th year. The tournament returns to England for the first

time since 2007 this October. The London Club near Brands Hatch will

host the five`day event, whhch has total prize money of ?1.8 mhllion.

Perhaps I will enter a `` Nhcola Slater!

Ever since Tom Cruise took to the skies as Lt Pete Maverick Mhtchell

in Top Gun, many of us have dreamt of becoming a fighter pilot. Now

thanks to a company in East Sussex, you can now experience the next best

thing. Metropolis Entertainment ne`r

Uckfield have teamed up with the RAF to film, from the cockpit, the

flight of a Typhoon fighter jet which reaches speeds of up to 1 400

miles an hour. Charlie Rose reports. Engines are started. If your idea of

fun is to sit in a confined space as you are thrown about this gty at

supersonic speed, now this hs your chance to see what it is like. ``

thrown around the skies. With a sharp turns, it was really bumpy. It

was really fun because it w`s like you were really flying in rdal life.

You went over the fields and the rivers, I thought that was really

nice and pretty. The speed hs now a steady, 450 knots. As well `s

stunning views, there are qtite a few twists and turns. We sat in the

back`seat of a training mission that they were doing, we had a one`day

facility, and we fit it in `round what they were doing will stop we

had one trip on the back`se`t with a cameraman and got some stunning

footage flying very low over the Welsh valleys and the Lake District.

Pulling down, leaving 40,000 to 10,000. Dropping 40,000 feet sounds

quite frightening, any health warnings involved? There is a slight

warning from the pilot saying what you can and cannot do. You do get

rolled around as you would hf you're in a Eurofighter Typhoon, btt nobody

has had any heart attacks wd have been here. Top gun was the lovie

that inspired a generation of wannabe fighter pilots, and now can

the REF and this simulator do the same today Chris Knights `` the RAF.

Better to be in a similar age than other in the era! It looks like

fun. Now, the weather. Good morning, very wet for tomorrow,

I'm afraid. This low`pressure for the first part of tomorrow

afternoon. Very wet and staxing wet in the next couple of days.

Tomorrow, 40 to 50 millimetres of rainfall, that is two inches. There

is amber warning which will be valid until midnight Saturday, so hand in

hand with that, the tension travel disruption, further flooding and

large waves on the south co`st. If you have any concerns, you can go to

the Environment Agency webshte. Earlier, we saw the showers, and a

persistent band of rain, and that as some strong winds with it, gusting

to up to 70 mph. The averagd wind speed is 30 mph. Temperaturds of

eight or nine degrees, feelhng sick of a goofy colder than that.

Tonight, temperatures will dase down. Dry towards early morning

Lots of cloud cover, but because of unsettled weather, a relatively mild

night with temperatures of seven degrees. Mostly dry starting

tomorrow. Cloud cover will thicken up and it would be increasingly

unsettled. In the next 24 hours 30 to 40 millimetres of rainfall, up to

50 millimetres in places. The wind will ease off, but still 20 mph

Eight or nine degrees and fdeling significantly colder. Staying wet

through tomorrow night with temperatures not really changing

from daytime values. Six or seven degrees. Very wet on Friday to start

the day, eventually the rain will move to the east and behind it, some

heavy showers. Some hailstones and the odd bit of thunder. Dam`ges of

10 degrees. Try during Frid`y afternoon, then another system

moving from the West. 15 to 20 million litres of rainfall. That is

out of the way, behind it, to bridges is a 10 degrees. ``

temperatures of 10 degrees. Heavy and persistent rainfall.

Surely it will run out of r`in at some stage!

That is that from us for thhs evening.

Ian Palmer will be here with the late bulletin we will both see you

again tomorrow, goodbye. NICK CLEGG: Are you in,

or are you out? That's the real question at stake at

the European elections on May 2 nd. even though that would wreck

the recovery and destroy jobs. The Conservatives are now

openly flirting with exit, and the Labour Party, well, they

just don't have the courage they wouldn't lift a finger

to help keep Britain in the EU So I'm asking you

to vote for the Liberal Democrats, in for the sake of British

prosperity and jobs. I'm in because we set

the global standards 95% of everything we use, we eat we

heat ourselves in, comes in by sea.