06/01/2014 Inside Out London

Hello, I'm Matthew Wright, and a very Happy New Year to you ` I hope

you had a great festive season. Welcome back to Inside Out London.

Here's what's coming up on tonight's show:

Dining out ` but how clean are the west Raupbts we eat in? There were

about 13 mouse droppings on the floor. `` Restaurants we eat in?

It's a disease we thought we had eliminated. But could London be

facing another TB epidemic? Unlike the rest of Western Europe where TB

rates have been declining, in the UK, they have been increasing almost

every year for the last 25 years. And the race to save the famous

spire of one of Sir Christopher Wren's greatest churches. It is

quite serious erosion. The stone has been falling for years. We are

conserving all this stonework by removing the loose material and

replacing each of these capitals on this level.

When it comes to dining out, we are spoilt for choice here in London.

Did you know that most restaurants are given a rating between zero and

five based on how clean they are? Shockingly, one in six of the

capital's food outlets from the smallest kebab shop, right to the

biggest Michelin`starred eatery, are failing to meet basic hygiene

standards. There is growing pressures on owners to display their

rating on the restaurant door so customers know how clean their food

preparation really is. With 50,000 food outlets to inspect,

London's team of environmental health officers have their work cut

out. You going to walk around with us? Yeah? Why are you using a brick?

You can't leave it out here all night. All night. You can't. Around

a million people a day pass through Westminster. There are about 5,000

restaurants and takeaways. The challenge is making sure hygiene is

up to scratch. Meet one of Westminster's most experienced

inspectors. When I go in there today, I would like to think it

would be gleaming, but we shall see. What do you use for soap? She is

paying a visit to this Chinese restaurant. It has a zero hygiene

rating which means it requires major improvements. The owner has been

told to clean up or be shut down, but has the advice been taken? This

on the floor, is this to catch mice? Yes. Have you caught any mice on it?

No. No mice caught. It is very rare. OK. We shall see. There's about 13

mouse droppings on the floor and the chopping board was sitting on these

mouse droppings, therefore spreading the bacteria on to the chopping

board. And on to the food you eat. It is not going well? No. As a

result of today's inspection, the restaurant's rating goes to a one.

It is not just the cheaper end of the market that is the problem.

Awards, reviews and pricery menus are no guarantee of high ratings

down in the kitchen. We need to get away from the idea that it is kebab

shops and takeaways that achieve low scores. This man is the Service

Manager for Westminster Environmental Health. The front of

house decoration is a poor meeter. Despite the pricey menu here, it has

a rating of just two for hygiene. Perhaps most shocking is this

restaurant at The Berkeley. It was rated one out of five for hygiene.

Today, environmental health officers are inspecting Bombay Kebab. It has

a hygiene rating of zero. I inspected maybe six or eight months

ago. He did have a mouse infestation. The place was dirty and

it was quite poor structurally. Hopefully, he will have cleaned up.

We will have to see. Hi. From the environmental health? How long have

you had that? And this one? All of them? Look at these. Oh. Dirty

cloths, poor hygiene, a broken fridge, no toilet and illegal gas

cylinders. It is not looking good for the owner. Last night I say you

make the food, clean up but I came now, nobody clean. Should he be

serving the public in a premises like this using dirty cloths? It not

being very clean? We won't be closing him today. I will ask him to

stop what he is doing now, have a good clean up and maybe he can sort

his temperatures out and maybe he can start again if I come back

tomorrow and see everything is OK. Under the current system, anyone who

provides food, whether it is a restaurant, a grocery shop, even a

children's nursery providing food, all of them are given a rating from

zero to five. That's based on food preparation and hygiene. This woman

was one of the brains behind the current hygiene rating system. The

top of the grading system is a five. If you see a five, you know the

inspector has checked the business and they are very happy with how it

is performing. If it is a zero, there is a lot of work to be done.

What was your hope that this system would achieve? The inspector sees

many things that the consumer doesn't know about. The consumer

really deserves to know when standards are good and when they are

not so good. As a by`product what we want is that consumers demand

excellent standards and drive them up. What is that smell? Rat

droppings, just the general smell of them. There's about ten there.

Pip has discovered some rat droppings in an outside toilet. And

dead cockroaches in the kitchen of a newly`opened chicken shop. I think

they are dead. Yes. Two dead cockroaches. This new owner has a

hygiene rating of two, but is adamant he is going to improve to

get a five. He gave me the time, three months. Three months, 100% I

shall get a five, yeah. The hygiene ratings scheme has one major flaw `

food outlets aren't obliged to display their ratings. They would,

I'm sure, make them improve. They have to get that three and above. It

would make our jobs easier. Back at Bombay Kebab, Mr Caan's time is up

and Pip's not happy. I said yesterday to buy clean cloths, you

are still using these. Now, it is time to take more photos. I was

expecting it to be spotless when I came here but it's not. No, no.

100%, I get it clean. You told me that yesterday. I have given you 24

hours. Look, this is my list. Thorough deep`clean, cross. Cleaning

cloths, cross. It's serious now. I have spent too much time coming here

giving you advice. What will happen now is I will invite you to an

interview. Pip has no choice but to take formal action and prosecute Mr

Caan. How do you know about the hygiene standards of each

restaurant? You have to use this food and Ards agency app. You tap in

the name of the restaurant and it comes up with the rating `` Food

Standards Agency app. It gives you the information and right now this

is about the only way of finding out. Jenny Morris believes putting

ratings on a website isn't enough. Who looks on a website before they

go out to eat? The best way is on the door, right in front of you

before you make your choice about where to eat. Last time it was

inspected this premises was given a one for hygiene. But new managers

have turned it around from this to this. Chopping boards, all separate.

All clean. Sarah, you have done your assessment. What is the news? Done

the inspection. I think you will be a five. Thank you! Thank you. I tell

my colleagues. That is a good reaction. Good news for these guys,

but how is it looking back at Bombay Kebab a month on? Everything

covered. This one is a new one. You have soap, microwave. Are you hoping

that they won't prosecute now that you have cleaned up? Clearly, it is

good for me and for customers also. You make hard work, you make the

money. You make the clean, you make the business. It is simple. The fear

of prosecution was enough to transform this kitchen. Bombay Kebab

has a hygiene score of one, not zero. But the council still plans to

take formal action. Next time you are eating out, look out for that

hygiene rating. If it is not on the door, ask why.

Still to come: How one of London's most famous church spires went from

this to this. Outbreaks of tuberculosis or TB are

something many of us associate with the poverty and squalor of Victorian

times. But this killer disease is now making a comeback in the capital

with some areas experiencing infection rates higher than those

found in many poor African countries, and even more worryingly,

new strains are developing resistance to all known medications.

So, are the authorities doing enough to put the lid on a potential

epidemic that could leave thousands dead? Marc Ashdown investigates. For

the past two months 62`year`old Alex has been held in isolation a the

University College Hospital. He has a highly infectious mutation of TB

that is drug resistant and may prove fatal. The strain I have got, they

have run out of drugs to treat me with. That's how bad it is. Alex has

multidrug resistant tuberculosis which is a disease of the lungs.

Occasionally we are unable to get rid of drug resistant TB from

patients because the bacteria don't respond to the medications that we

have available. Cases of TB are far from rare in the capital. During the

past year 3500 Londoners have been diagnosed with the disease. In fact,

in boroughs like Newham, infection rates are identical to countries

like Nigeria and Ghana. In the UK, TB rates have been increasing almost

every year for the last 25 years. In a city like London, TB is a public

health problem because it is an airborne disease. It wants to set`up

shop in a new host and therefore, it gets into your body by just inhaling

the air around you. Untreated tuberculosis in some people can

cause more and more destruction of the lungs and can spread to other

organs and can kill people. During the Victorian era, TB killed one fwh

four `` one in four Londoners. New drugs in the middle of the 20th

century provided a cure. Science's latest weapon against some forms of

tuberculosis. Scientists have identified a frightening phenomenon,

the drugs have stopped working. About one in ten cases are resistant

to one of the drugs. The number of drug resistant tb cases is rising so

rapidly there is concern London's hospitals may soon be unable to

cope. We are starting to see a problem in the United Kingdom and in

London because of the limited number of beds. So TV a TB patient, you

want to put them in a high security room. It will take a handful of

patients and the rooms will be full. Caring for patients like Alex places

huge financial pressure on the NHS. Patients with multidrug resistant TB

use a lot of resources because of the length of time they spend in

hospital, because of the medications they need. The drug costs ?50,000 to

?100,000 and takes two years treatment. This unit is trying to

reduce the pressure on London's hospitals. The purpose is to isolate

carriers of the disease before they ineffect others `` infect others. We

are effectively a small detective agency. It is targeted screening. So

we are going to these little corners, these little pockets where

we know TB is likely to be present. For decades, scientists have worked

on the basis that TB is being imported into the UK from abroad. In

London, we have got people who travel overseas, we have got

visitors and migrants from overseas and that's where a lot of the TB is.

Such is the concern about the levels of the disease coming from abroad

that some imBrants have `` immigrants have to under go

screening tests in their original countries before being allowed into

the UK. A leading expert leaves the measures are inadequate. New

entrants to the UK, they under go what is known as preentry chest

x`ray screening. The x`ray doesn't pick up people that's carrying a

silent infection. They are without symptoms, but they are at risk of

developing full blown TB. The professor devised a new test th

does identify carriers of lay tent TB. He is calling for all immigrants

to be rescreened after arriving here. We can detect that silent

infection through new blood tests. So what we have here now is a golden

opportunity to delink immigration and tuberculosis in the UK. But

immigration is only part of the story. Our city is the breeding

ground for dangerous new strains of TB. It is becoming increasingly

difficult to differentiate between TB as an imported disease and TB as

a disease that's transmitted in this capital. Those at risk include the

elderly and people with long`term and diseases and children. The unit

has come to help another at risk group, the homeless. It is estimated

that every TB carrier infects 15 others a year, but persuading people

to be tested for TB is a challenge. Alex initially refused to be

screened. They had to push me into it. I was going to go home. I didn't

go through it and I went. It is just as well did go. She showed me the

spots. In hospital, TB patients receive specialised round`the`clock

care, but if they are discharged a dedication is not continued, their

disease may become incurable. Multidrug resistant TB can be

created by the patient not adhering to the full course of treatment. If

they take their tab lets for a bit and stop and restart, this can cause

the bacteria to develop resistance. It is such a problem amongst the

homeless community because it is difficult to sustain a course of

treatment if you are living on a park bench somewhere. Sadly it

happens, people are leaving hospitals with a carrier bagful of

TB medication. No effort into the on ward care. During the last major

epidemic of TB in the UK, the Government launched an all out war

against the disease. 37 mobile x`ray units, the biggest fleet ever... It

was the most ambitious x`ray programme. Thousands were diagnosed

and traetds `` treated, reducing the treat of TB. There were dozens of

mobile TB units trying to eradicate TB from our streets. Today, this is

the only one. We are struggling to cope. It is a busy service. It

screens up to 10,000 people a year, but there is need for more. At the

moment, the pathogen is winning. 1500 people died from b TB in ``

from TB in London in the past ten years, doctors believe the figure

could triple over the next decade. They are looking to New York as an

example of how screening on a wide scale can combat the disease. We

have had almost 4,000 cases a year in New York. A population is similar

to London, about eight million people. New York, last year, treated

650 cases. New York has controlled TB. We asked the Department of

Health why the Government has failed to control the disease in London. In

a statement they told us: A TB control board has been set`up

in London with the aim of reducing TB by 50%. Public Health England

made TB one of its priorities, and will publish a strategy in the

spring aiming to reduce cases. Back at University College Hospital,

there is some good news for Alex. We are making good progress. Hopefully,

it will be soon that we know you are no longer infectious. Alex may be

discharged, but he will have to remain on a course of drugs with

painful side`effects for at least another 18 months. As infection

rates rise, there are fears unless efforts to tackle the disease are

stepped up, our city will soon be facing an epidemic of drug resistant

TB. The plastic sheeting that for almost

a year has cloaked one of London's most historic landmarks from view

has been removed. Designed by Sir Christopher Wren the spire at St

Bride's Church in Fleet Street had been crumbling away. It had a

refurbishment and Lucinda Lambton has been checking up on its historic

restoration. Fleet Street once the home of the

British newspaper industry with reminders of past journalistic

events. There is one building that's living up to its original purpose,

350 years after it was built. It can be reached by walking down this

stone passageway. This is St Bride's Church. The

journalists' church. A beacon of beauty designed by our most

acclaimed artected `` architect, Sir Christopher Wren. Wren was the

greatest architect this country has ever produced without question. He

is the nearest thing this country has had to a Leonardo da Vinci. Paul

Finch's campaign to raise the it ?2.5 million to maintain this

masterpiece. Half a city of city churches, he was involved and this

is one of them. St Bride's feature is its spire. Much of last year, it

was swathed in plastic sheeting as builders got to grips with the

repairs. The scaffolding providing a rare opportunity to see this work of

art closely. Wow. On a hazy day, last summer, I was able to climb

right to the top with John Smith. 226 feet up. The tallest spire that

Wren designed in the City of London. Here surely is one of the most

magnificent views, it is not one that is able to be enjoyed by

everyone in London every day. Here is the weathervane and there is St

Paul's Cathedral, Wren's greatest masterpiece of all. And charmingly

the spire provided the inspiration for the modern tiered wedding cake.

There is a baker in Fleet Street, he had a reputation to maintain, his

daughter was marrying and he had to design a cake for the child like no

other cake. He looked at St Bride's and took his inspiration here and

that's how the story of the wedding cake began. I love that. It is

marvellous. What wasn't so marvellous was the state of the

stone work battered by over three centuries of London's weather. It is

quite serious. The stone has been falling from the tower for years.

That one has come away already. We are conserving the stone work and

replacing at least one or two of each of these capitals on this

level. Just as Wren would have designed it. So it will be a model

for future generations to replace the others if the money ever runs to

it. The spire is lucky to have survived at all. One night in

December 1940, the nave of the church was all but detroud in a ``

destroyed in a German bombing raid. Most of Wren's original fabric was

destroyed, happily not the spire. Why not the spire? Because that

wedding cake structure allowed flames to go through rather than

consuming it, the church was gutted. It was in a dreadful condition.

The Queen and Prince Philip some to St Bride's... Following rebuilding,

St Bride's was officially reopened by the Queen in 1957. But quality

building materials were in short supply after the war and much of the

work was sadly botched. We are looking at one of the eight

magnificent, huge eight foot high urns around the top of the tower and

they have been stuck together with hard comment which `` cement. You

can see how pieces of the stone have broken away. You can see the edge of

the cement repair that caused that. One unintended consequence of the

bombing can be seen not on the spire, but beneath the church. The

destruction reopened the sealed crypt and led to the discovery of

hundreds of bodies. They are providing researchers with a

fascinating insight into the lives of Wren's Georgian contemporaries.

We have 227 individuals, but when they were revealed, they were all in

lead coffins. A lot of the individuals had a lot of soft

tissues and they were reburied straightaway. You mean flesh? Yes.

They would have looked like you and I. Quite something to look on the

faces that lived all those years ago. We can look at one here. I feel

like we are prying a bit. It is a window into the past. They are your

old friends by now? Yes, they are my old friends. Let's look to see

what's in this box? That's your lower jaw. That's nice and complete.

We have the cranium here which has got some wonderful red hair. Have

you any idea who this is? We have number 18. If we look on our list it

is George Brown Reigns and he was 17 years old when he died and he died

in 1718. Look a face in the past with trembling eyelashes. And

flaming red hair. Extraordinary. After months of repair and

restoration the spire has been revealed once again. The original

worn stone work restored alongside the stone carving. It is wonderful

to see the spire in something like its original condition looking as

white as the day it was built and really a symbol still on the city's

skyline. So St Bride's is set fair to safely soar over the people of

London for many, many years to come. As a former Fleet Street hack I have

had a long and personal connection with the journalists' church and it

is great to see the spire back to its former glory. Let's have a look

at what's coming up on next week's programme:

We ask are councils using illegal parking ticket targets to make money

from innocent motorists? This seems to be councils directing the staff

to go out and do the opposite. It gives the wrong incentive and seems

to be wholly wrong. We meet the artists helping Luton

overcome years of negative press. When I sit and I live in Luton and

you look around you, all you hear is extremism and tensions and quickly

I'm drawing to using my art to paint a different picture. We reveal the

secret world of the capital's urban food foragers. Look what we have

managed to find. Several different types of mushroom. This is

horseradish. We have leaves you can use in salad and two bags of apples.

That's all from this week's Inside Out London. If you have missed out,

just head to the iplayer and click on London. Thanks very much for

watching. I will see again next week.

Hello, I'm Ellie Crisell with your 90 second update.

There are more spending cuts on the way. The Chancellor says ?25 billion

worth of savings need to be made after the next election. At least

half of it is likely to come from the welfare budget. Full details at

ten. Parts of the UK have been hit by

more storms. The Welsh coast was among the areas hardest hit, with

more bad weather to come. Your local forecast in a moment.

How did Jimmy Savile evade justice for decades? That's what dozens of

his victims are demanding to know. They are calling for a single

enquiry rather than multiple investigations.

Doing 60 mph with his hands behind his head. That's what this driver

was caught doing near Whitby. He was banned from driving for a year and

ordered to do community service. Theo Walcott will miss the World Cup

in Brazil this summer. It's after the Arsenal and England player was

injured at the weekend. He's been ruled out for at least six months.