20/04/2012 BBC London News

Tonight on BBC London News. Nearly half of A&E departments are to

close in north west London as part of NHS re-organisation plans.

think people would be horrified at the thought these hospitals are

being paired together with one of them are to be downgraded, and it

to lose the A&E facilities would be a disaster. Health bosses say

concentrating care on fewer sites will be better for patients. Also

tonight. Another allegation of racism against the Met. This time

by a London firefighter. I think anyone who sees this story will

wonder how a fire fighter who is off duty going to the assistance of

police could have been treated in such a manner. Plus, transport's

looming large as a mayoral election battleground. We examine the

arguments. I didn't think it would ever go up on Buckingham Palace. I

thought it would be in a picture gallery. And the young artists

providing inspiration for the Jubilee artwork at Buckingham

Good evening and welcome to the programme. Nearly half of the

accident and emergency units in hospitals in North West London are

to close. Four of the nine will go under plans to save money and re-

organise health care in the area. Health bosses say concentrating

care on fewer sites will be better for patients. But critics have

warned that shutting emergency units could put lives at risk.

Here's our Political Correspondent, Karl Mercer.

North West London has nine a major hospital at the moment, all within

an accident and emergency department but they won't have for

much longer. Things are about to change dramatically for this part

of the capital. This is the current map of what goes where but the NHS

wants to change it. Mark Spencer, in charge of it, says it will

deliver better care to patients in more specialised centres. We have

looked at this very hard and we need to concentrate services onto

fewer sites so we can produce high quality care. It means across

north-west London we're closing accident and emergency departments

and putting them on five sites from the current nine site at the moment.

Two hospitals will definitely keep their a in thes but then there are

hard choices. -- accident and emergency departments. Either West

Middlesex or Ealing will lose the a indeed, as the Hammersmith and

Paddington, Chelsea and Westminster and Charing Cross will also lose it.

Central Middlesex will also go. It's a controversial plan which

will see much local opposition. have some serious concerns closing

that many accident and emergency departments will have a huge impact

on the residents. We are not sure the case has been made well enough

to have a change that large effectively. The question is, how

do we get there from here? It's a time of chaotic reorganisation in

the health service, planning is falling apart, north-west London

hospitals alone have to save over �120 million between now and 2014.

A final shortlist will go out to public consultation in the summer.

Karl is with me now. When is this all likely to happen? Yes, the NHS

decision-makers at decide what they want to happen but they have got to

have a big public consultation starting on June 28th and it will

run for a few months and then the whole process of closing down these

departments will take a lot longer. Before they do this, they have got

to make sure that the GP practices, the primary care sector is actually

up and running so people have some way to go. Three or four years down

the line before we see the changes. Thanks very much indeed. Lots more

to come including: On their marks. We're with the runners as they get

ready to pound the capital's London has been described as a safe

haven for corrupt politicians and businessmen who owe millions of

pounds to the Egyptian state. BBC London has discovered that two

former Egyptian ministers wanted by interpol are believed to be living

in the capital. Alex Bushill reports.

This man, sentenced to 30 years in prison in Egypt for money

But seen here living a life of leisure on our streets. This

footage was taken by an Egyptian who says it was in Knightsbridge.

Many worry, the next time he is spotted, it will end in violence.

The Egyptian community are very angry to see these people walking

around with freedom. Allowed to walk around with freedom. He was

met by are nicely brought-up doctor but we can't guarantee he will meet

people like this all the time. is thought to have fled to London.

The former Trade and Industry Minister may have joined him. What

we do know for sure is since the scenes last year, �85 million of

Egyptian assets have been frozen by the British government. But now the

Egyptian government is suing the British government saying for not

doing enough to help them at repatriate the money. For the

shadow justice minister it is symptomatic of a wider issue.

about possibly billions of pounds are essential to the Egyptian

economy and one wonders why the British government thinks it's

acceptable for that to be sequestered in London, property,

bank accounts, or wherever, and not returned it to where it should be,

to the Egyptian people. The British government says they are co-

operating with the Egyptian authorities. The Home Office

refused to comment on matters of extradition until an arrest has

been made. The Metropolitan Police is facing

another allegation of racism. A black firefighter claims a group of

police officers assaulted and tasered him because of his race.

Edric Kennedy-Macfoy says he was arrested when he tried to help six

officers during a disturbance in Harrow. First of all, what

happened? Edric Kennedy-Macfoy claims he was driving when he

spotted somebody throwing a rock against a police van. He says he

approached a group of officers who were dealing with a balance

disturbance outside the party but says, when he tried to talk to them,

he was insulted, dragged out of his car, and then arrested. Edric

Kennedy-Macfoy is a part-time model, fire man, but was off duty at the

time and also has been trained as a police officer. He believes the way

he was treated was down to the colour of his skin. So after being

tasered he was then arrested? charged with obstructing a police

officer but was found not guilty. We spoke to his solicitor earlier

today. The situation my client has had to suffer has been horrific.

Not just in terms of the force used upon him during his arrest, and

subsequently being locked up in a police cell for many hours, but

then having to face prosecution where, if he had been found guilty,

it would have ruined his life. is just the latest in a series of

allegations against the Met, isn't it? That's right, there are now 12

allegations being investigated by Scotland Yard and the IPCC of

racism by officers. This is the 10th case to be referred in just

three weeks to the watchdog. Commissioner bird Hogan Alice said

he would be driving racism out of the force and said he would get

tough on any officers who are racists. Thank you very much indeed.

Three teenagers have been jailed for 18 years each for stabbing a

15-year-old boy to death at Victoria tube station in London.

Sofyen Belamouadden was stabbed nine times in March 2010 after

fights between two rival schools. The judge called it a ferocious and

merciless attack. It's been one of the biggest

battlegrounds of the mayoral election so far. Transport. Ken

Livingstone says he'll cut transport fares by 7%. The Labour

candidate says it's affordable and costed. His opponents say it isn't.

Our Transport Correspondent Tom Edwards investigates.

In the war of words on fares. Of claim and counter claim. Of who can

do what. Caught in the middle is the commuter. I do think it is

expensive for what it is. On this issue we can compare. On average,

fares in Ken Livingstone's second term went up 23%. Under Boris

Johnson they went up by 28%. If re- elected, Boris Johnson's own

business plan says fares will continue to go up at inflation plus

2%. That's he says in part to pay for the billions being invested in

tube upgrades and Crossrail. But it's also because, under him, the

Government reduced the subsidy to Transport for London by �2.2

billion. Critics say today's farepayers are paying for

tomorrow's infrastructure and yesterdays lack of investment. So

what happens if you cut fares? UN cometh TfL receives has to be

equal to its outgoings so if you have less income because you reduce

fares, you have less money to spend unless you get an additional grant

outside, from central government. Ken Livingstone says he can drop

fares by 7% without affecting services or investment in

infrastructure These TfL accounts show one of the fare surpluses that

Ken Livingstone says he can use. In the last quarter it's �337 million.

But TfL says �277 million of it has already gone. It claims it's been

used to restructure the debt of Tubelines. The failing maintenance

consortium which Boris Johnson decided to take over. Tfl claim

lower interest rates will save money in the long-term. Ken

Livingstone says that could have been used to cut fares and not

reduce debt. TfL have told me these surpluses are automatically carried

over into the capital infrastructure budget and they are

already allocated but they do admit they have an an allocated surplus

every year of about �30 million. If Ken Livingstone was elected as

mayor, they say they would sit down with him and say, yes, we can

implement this cut but it's going to cost �1.1 billion which means

cuts elsewhere. What's also important is Ken Livingstone says

the surpluses don't affect the capital budget for rebuilding as

there's been a underspend over the last four years. �1.2 billion.

Which they get by combining these underspends. Tfl though claims the

figure rolls over from one year into the next and you can't add

them together. The actual figure is �440 million, about a third of

Livingstone's claim, and again it's already allocated. This is an

independent organisation called Full Fact. It says there are

surpluses, here in blue, but they aren't enough to fund big fare cuts

seen in red. It is clear that there is, sometimes, some spare money

which isn't expected and isn't already budgeted for and allocated

to other things. The problem is, that amount of money in the past

hasn't been enough to fund what Ken Livingstone says he wants to do, so

if he is confident there is going to be enough spare money to fund

his fare cuts, he needs to explain why he so confident and why that

money isn't already budgeted for. Also it would be extremely

difficult to cut overland train fares without government's say so.

This is also about trust and mayoral priorities and who voters

believe can deliver their promises. The senior Conservative, Michael

Portillo, says he won't be voting for the Conservative candidate for

Mayor, Boris Johnson. Mr Portillo said he couldn't support a

candidate who wouldn't back a third runway at Heathrow. Boris Johnson

wants to see an island airport built in the Thames Estuary instead.

Michael Portillo is the first senior Tory to publicly admit he

won't back the current Mayor. you tell us who you're going to

vote for in the London mayoral elections? Well, I will be looking

for a candidate who endorses a third runway for Heathrow airport

because I think it's fundamentally important to the capital and I

can't understand any candidate presenting themselves without that

commitment. It won't be Mr Johnson? Correct.

And for more on the mayoral election, including a run-down of

what all the candidates are standing for, visit our website.

The address is on your screen now. More now on the case of the London

couple who were accused and then acquitted of killing their four-

month old baby. Rohan Wray and his wife Channa Al-Alas have called for

an inquiry into the two London hospitals responsible for his care,

after it was established baby Jayden had had severe rickets. It

comes after senior doctors at one of the hospitals, Great Ormond St,

had raised concerns about the hospital's radiology department.

Our Political Editor Tim Donovan is here. Tim, a difficult case, but

further questions about Great Ormond Street? This court judgment

today says Great Ormond Street radiologist's missed the signs of

rickets it also says how difficult it can be to pick them up from

surveys, but it follows on from former senior radiologist's telling

us this week how Great Ormond Street had withdrawn from

downgraded child protection work and lost specialist expertise and

Christine Hall, a national authority in child abuse, described

to us how things went wrong a few years ago. Everybody would do

everything in the department. So, dumbing-down everybody's level of

expertise and, if I may say so at the same time, compromising patient

care. Could this have had an impact in the Jayden Wray case? It's not

possible to say that definitely, specifically, but Great Ormond

Street lost a team of muscular skeletal radiologist's highly-

trained it to do this work, differentiating between child abuse

and genetic bone conditions. Dr Karen at Rosenthal was the last one

to lead two years ago and she has concerns. Obviously, the Department

haven't got that necessary expertise, so they would easily

miss fractures, injuries and a non- accidental injury. And also, on the

other hand, they may over die Gounod's child abuse. What happens

from here? Great Ormond Street insists child protection work is a

core part of General radiological work at the hospital and have a

national experts but with calls from the family today for an

inquiry, coming after concerns over the BPD, Sir Peter Bottomley

raising questions of another radiologist as we, the pressure is

Still to come tonight. How Buckingham Palace was turned into a

moving art work as part of the Queen's Jubilee celebrations.

this is where it all ends, but how work will it get, running the

marathon on Sunday? I will have the weekend forecast for you, later in

the programme. On Sunday once again the capital

gives its streets up to one of the greatest races on earth, the London

Marathon. Mark Bright is here. You have been to meet a runner who is

very close to your heart? certainly have. Thousands of people

start on the start line, some for charity, some for good causes, but

I went to see a man whose voice I know very well at a place I know

very well. Behind every football club is an

army of people, groundsman, stewards and of course this guy.

And the pride of south London, Crystal Palace! I'm a stadium

announcer. All the music around the stadium, it's all picked by me and

played by me and announcing that teams and goalscorers, that sort of

thing. I am the voice of Selhurst Park. In goal No. One, Julian

Speroni. Two, Nathanael Clyde. it is not his full-time job. During

the week Michael Rankine works in a bank. This weekend he is taking on

a new task, the London Marathon. Michael is running for Bliss. SOUND

PROBLEMS. It means a lot to me because my daughter was born three

weeks early, she was nearly three now. She was born four weeks

premature. She had breathing difficulties. Everyone knows how

tough the courses and Michael is counting on seeing friendly faces

along the way. I have members of family coming down, a lot of

friends have said they will come a long as well. We will see how many

of them do turn up and make it there but I think it will make a

big difference on the day. I am ready to do it. I will get round.

He may not be a professional runner but he hopes this Sunday he will

swoop past the finishing line in true IBO style.

Not that I have any experience myself, but there will be lots of

people gearing up for Sunday now? Yes, absolutely, where the runners

go to register that the ExCel Centre, they get their Goody back.

Sara has a guest there. Who is it? I will tease you for the guest.

This is the Expo, where there is lots going on, you can get your

shorts and shirts, trainers, a treadmill. I don't think this man

comes with it. You can have a chat with the marathon expert, Iwan

Thomas, a former 400 metres record holder. What is your top tip?

tip? As snow while -- a slow mile at the beginning is faster than a

slow mile at the end. I am promising myself steady at the

beginning because towards the end it is tough. What time are you

aiming for? I would love to go about 3.56, last year I had a

nightmare, for 0.24. Under four would be nice. This is the last

London race for David Bedford, the former 10,000 metre world record

holder. What has he done for this race? This is Dave Bedford, what we

see around us. He has built it into the best marathon in the world. He

is iconic. To look at now, he is a real character with his glasses and

moustache. I think we all owe David Bedford a lot because he has made

this marathon so special. Iwan, good look on the weekend. I am

going to check this guy is not running at the weekend and he can

perhaps slowdown if he is. Back to you guys in the studio. Sorry about

the signal problems. The runners, they have been warned about Olympic

test events going on. The runners might be in for a surprise as they

run through Woolwich because the Olympic test event is taking place,

the shooting. The organisers have said they might be in for some loud

bangs in the area as they run past the Royal Artillery Barracks.

work very closely with London Marathon and we will open up the

roads so runners will run through the middle of the site and we

warned them in advance that there may be a few cracks going off on a

shotgun races. At the City we can host major events in different

sports happening different -- happening in the same place. Good

luck to everyone running on Sunday. If you want to watch it, it is on

Good luck to Chelsea have Steen, who were in the final tonight in

the Stamford Bridge first leg. -- youth team. Buckingham Palace has

never looked like this before. 200,000 children have been

contributing towards a special image which was projected on to the

Palace last night as part of this year's Jubilee celebrations. The

image is a self portrait of the schoolchildren, which put together

depicts the face of the Queen. Sarah Harris has been to meet them.

The image projected onto the front of Buckingham Palace may be of the

Queen in her Diamond Jubilee year but on closer inspection it is made

up of thousands of self portraits by school children. Alice, from

Dulwich, is one of them and can't believe her art work is getting

such recognition so early in her career. I did not think it would

ever go up on the palace. I thought it would be in Dulwich Picture

Gallery. It is really exciting. fact you six at this school or had

a go at sketching an image of themselves and Aaron was keen to

capture his best side. I think it is amazing and to it doesn't look

better than real life but I think I did good. The arts project is

supported by the Prince of Wales, who met some of these South London

children with his daughter-in-law last month. The idea is to get as

many young people as possible engaged with the arts, although

some think a portrait of Her Majesty herself may be a bit beyond

them just yet. I am not sure, I think it would be quite hard. I am

not sure if I would be able to, but maybe. REPORTER: Why do you think

it would be hard? Because she wears loads of jury so there would be

lots of detail to do. We were delighted. We had been warned that

we might get lots and lots of little stick people straight line

legs and little circles for heads, so we had faith in the nation's

children that they would be more adventurous than that but the Raper

-- but they repaid that faith. The diversity and quality is

extraordinary. Buckingham Palace will be lit up tonight and tomorrow

night. Time for a check on the weather was

Peter, who is out on the marathon finish line along the Mall. We can

see puddles behind you. What is it looking like a Sunday? Yes, that is

the big question. Sara was there with the anticipation before it

starts, I am here on the Mall, where the agony should turn into

ecstasy for most of those runners. This weekend we can expect more

showers. The nights are still going to be chilly. If you are running

the London Marathon, expect to get wet. I think there will be some

showers somewhere along the 26 and a bit miles course but 14 Celsius

is quite a good temperature to be running a marathon in and BBC

London will be there with the fun runners and the fundraisers on

radio and also online. It is going to be pretty cold on Sunday morning.

Here is a little tip from the weatherman. Take us through always

space blanket with you to keep you warm while you are waiting to get

going -- -- eight throw await space blanket. Temperatures getting into

double figures early afternoon, peaking at 14 or 15 Celsius mid- to

late afternoon but watch out for showers, temperatures really will

dip quite a bit look. The showers got going again today. This evening

the thundery ones should gradually fade away. We will be left with a

few showers overnight but mainly light and well scattered. In

between them, clear spells, cold enough for a touch of frost on the

grass and perhaps Mr and fog first thing tomorrow but that will clear

out of the weight -- mist. The sun will start to warm things up. As

soon as that happens the shares will start to come down and by the

afternoon some of them could be heavy and thundery -- showers. Top

temperatures 13 or 14 Celsius. We have looked at London on Sunday.

For the rest of us on Sunday, sunshine and showers. The outlook

after the showery weather, here is good news for all those marathon

runners. The wet and windy weather on Monday, you won't have to train