:00:00. > :00:00.teachers working in a country with such a poor record. They 8 on
:00:00. > :00:12.Tomorrow's tube strike will still go ahead, as last`ditch talks between
:00:13. > :00:21.unions and transport bosses break down. These cuts are coming in
:00:22. > :00:24.unless we do something about it. To sit back and do nothing and allow
:00:25. > :00:29.the companies to tell us what we are doing, we might as well say, what is
:00:30. > :00:31.the point in being in a trade union? But the Mayor accuses the
:00:32. > :00:37.unions of holding Londoners to ransom. It is up to their leadership
:00:38. > :00:39.to stop a pointless piece of industrial action. We'll have the
:00:40. > :00:43.latest on tomorrow's strike. Also tonight: The row over plans to place
:00:44. > :00:47.a Muslim child with a white lesbian couple.
:00:48. > :00:50.Social services review the case. Plus, calls to curb overseas
:00:51. > :01:06.investment in London's housing market as foreigners continue to
:01:07. > :01:09.cash in on the property boom. Good evening and welcome to the
:01:10. > :01:12.programme. Tomorrow's 48`hour tube strike is set to go ahead after
:01:13. > :01:18.talks between unions and transport bosses broke down earlier without
:01:19. > :01:21.agreement. Both sides attacked the other for failing to back down in
:01:22. > :01:26.the ongoing dispute over plans to close ticket offices and the loss of
:01:27. > :01:28.jobs. The majority of underground lines will operate during the
:01:29. > :01:31.walk`out, but with many stations closed, passengers are being warned
:01:32. > :01:36.of considerable disruption to their journeys. Let's get more details
:01:37. > :01:45.from our Transport Correspondent, Tom Edwards, who's at Warren Street
:01:46. > :01:51.station. Yes, talks collapsed at about four
:01:52. > :01:57.o'clock. Both sides said they made reasonable concessions, but this is
:01:58. > :02:01.not now looking good for commuters. Over a week of talks here at the
:02:02. > :02:06.conciliation service ACAS, and still no progress. At the moment, the
:02:07. > :02:11.48`hour tube strike is on. Across the road, toasters have gone up
:02:12. > :02:17.warning commuters of considerable disruption. I have experienced what
:02:18. > :02:21.it is like when you can't get the machine to work or there is no one
:02:22. > :02:28.to ask. So you have sympathy with the strike? I do. I understand, but
:02:29. > :02:31.it will cause disruption. I know it is very inconvenient for a lot of
:02:32. > :02:38.people, what you have to make your point. The last time commuters faced
:02:39. > :02:41.this level of disruption was four years ago, in a dispute over
:02:42. > :02:47.reducing ticket office opening hours. This time, it is over closing
:02:48. > :02:56.all ticket offices and cutting 950 jobs. The LU says it will seek to
:02:57. > :03:00.avoid compulsory redundancies and it wants staff on the gate lines .
:03:01. > :03:04.London Underground has also outlined how many services it hopes to run on
:03:05. > :03:08.Wednesday and Thursday. The number of trains per hour will be
:03:09. > :03:12.drastically reduced, and they will not stop at some stations. Some
:03:13. > :03:18.lines will not even run into the centre of town. Services will start
:03:19. > :03:21.to be affected from tomorrow night. On Wednesday and Thursday, there
:03:22. > :03:26.will be a limited tube service, but only between seven in the morning
:03:27. > :03:30.and 11 at night. There will be no service on the Waterloo City line,
:03:31. > :03:40.although the DLR and the overground will run normally. And 100 extra
:03:41. > :03:45.buses will be on the road. They are the ones advertising. They are
:03:46. > :03:52.saying to people, go on holiday. The RMT's Bob Crow defended a holiday he
:03:53. > :03:55.has just taken, featured in some national newspapers, calling stories
:03:56. > :03:59.about it covers. They will suspend the strikes, say the unions, if the
:04:00. > :04:02.mayor is prepared to suspend the job losses.
:04:03. > :04:05.Isn't the fear from the unions' point of view that the same thing
:04:06. > :04:10.will happen again as happened in 2010, when you had all these
:04:11. > :04:16.strikes, and the changes were still steam`rolled through. Isn't that
:04:17. > :04:20.your concern? At the end of the day, these cuts are coming in unless
:04:21. > :04:24.we do something about it . To sit back and do nothing and allow the
:04:25. > :04:31.company to tell us what we are doing, we might as well say, what is
:04:32. > :04:34.the point of being in a trade union? Londoners already have the highest
:04:35. > :04:40.fares in the world, and they are going to be getting a second service
:04:41. > :04:46.going forward. Our members are not renowned for their militancy, but
:04:47. > :04:50.they are absolutely angry, not just because of the scale of the cuts,
:04:51. > :04:54.but the effect it will have on passengers. Business groups say the
:04:55. > :05:01.strike will cost London's economy millions. Time is now running out to
:05:02. > :05:07.resolve this dispute. So that is the unions. What have
:05:08. > :05:10.transport bosses said? They say the strike is unnecessary, so will the
:05:11. > :05:16.mayor intervened? He has been speaking to our political
:05:17. > :05:20.correspondent. As I hope everybody knows in this argument, the reason
:05:21. > :05:26.why there should not be a strike tomorrow is that there are no
:05:27. > :05:29.compote Surrey redundancies. It is a very good package `` there are no
:05:30. > :05:33.compulsory redundancies. I hope Bob Crow and his guys will get round the
:05:34. > :05:38.table, do the right thing for Londoners, there are millions of
:05:39. > :05:42.people who depend on the tube, and let's get it running tomorrow. The
:05:43. > :05:50.RMT said they will call off the strike if you suspend the job cuts.
:05:51. > :05:55.That sounds like a fair enough of. `` offer. There are no compulsory
:05:56. > :05:58.redundancies. My door is open. We will prepare a municipal cup of
:05:59. > :06:04.coffee for Bob Crow. There will not even be any pinna coladas at City
:06:05. > :06:08.Hall, but we will put on the maximum hospitality we can within our tight
:06:09. > :06:11.budgets. If he will call off the strike, and just have a conversation
:06:12. > :06:19.about the incredible things that are going to come forward for the tube
:06:20. > :06:23.and London. If you are asking for the RMT to suspend their action, why
:06:24. > :06:29.not suspend your redundancies? There are no compulsory redundancies, so
:06:30. > :06:33.it is nonsensical. You are not going to suspend the job losses? If the
:06:34. > :06:38.strike goes ahead, which I hope it won't, there is no realistic way it
:06:39. > :06:45.will make any difference to the programme of changes that we have in
:06:46. > :06:49.view. The story has changed. We now have much more flexible systems, and
:06:50. > :06:55.we would be totally nuts to ignore the benefits of change. We are
:06:56. > :07:01.trying to use the savings we make with old`fashioned, plate`glass
:07:02. > :07:05.ticket offices, to invest in better signalling, more trains, a 24 hour
:07:06. > :07:09.service, which will be greatly to the benefit not just of passengers,
:07:10. > :07:13.but the staff as well. That is a long way of saying you are not
:07:14. > :07:18.backing down, isn't it? That is correct, but my door is open. There
:07:19. > :07:23.are no compulsory redundancies involved in this programme. The
:07:24. > :07:30.right thing to do now for the RMT and the TSSA is to call off this
:07:31. > :07:34.pointless industrial action. I am told that no further talks are
:07:35. > :07:38.planned for tomorrow. TfL are briefing tonight that 450 staff have
:07:39. > :07:42.come forward for voluntary redundancy. That gives you an
:07:43. > :07:47.impression of where we are when it comes to industrial relations. They
:07:48. > :07:51.are not good at all. Every avenue has now been exhausted in this
:07:52. > :07:54.dispute. And a reminder that during the
:07:55. > :08:06.strike, BBC London 94.9 will have the very latest travel news.
:08:07. > :08:09.Coming up later in the programme: The calls to dredge the River
:08:10. > :08:19.Thames, as homeowners in Surrey face more flooding.
:08:20. > :08:26.It's emerged that 50 investigations are already underway in the capital
:08:27. > :08:29.into child exploitation. The figure was revealed as the Met Police
:08:30. > :08:32.launched a campaign to bring those who exploit and abuse children to
:08:33. > :08:35.justice. One victim who was in her early teens when she was targeted
:08:36. > :08:47.has been speaking to our reporter, Sarah Harris.
:08:48. > :08:52.I just felt, like, alone. She does not want to appear on camera, but
:08:53. > :08:56.her voice is her own. At 12 years old, she was targeted by a man who
:08:57. > :09:01.bought her presence, made her feel special and then sexually abused her
:09:02. > :09:07.for three years. He was eventually brought to justice. There were times
:09:08. > :09:11.when I would pass out, like, in a drunken, drug induced stupor. I
:09:12. > :09:15.genuinely wished I would not wake up. I used to tell my mum on regular
:09:16. > :09:21.basis, I just want to be dead. I don't want to be here any more. I
:09:22. > :09:25.felt despair like there would be no other way out other than in a box.
:09:26. > :09:28.At City Hall today, the Met led a campaign, bringing together their
:09:29. > :09:32.officers with social workers and children's charities to raise
:09:33. > :09:35.awareness of a problem they say is hidden, but not uncommon in the
:09:36. > :09:40.capital. There is a real issue to be tackled in London. If you look at
:09:41. > :09:44.the test work we have done over the last six months before the roll`out
:09:45. > :09:48.of the new standard today, we have worked with a few boroughs across
:09:49. > :09:55.London. That has generated referrals of about 500 young people who were
:09:56. > :09:59.at risk from sexual exportation. Of those 500, it has generated 50 cases
:10:00. > :10:03.requiring investigation. In some cases, teenagers become vulnerable
:10:04. > :10:08.when they start missing school. They often don't want to report offenders
:10:09. > :10:11.because they believe they are being well looked after with presence.
:10:12. > :10:14.That is why so many organisations are coming together to try to
:10:15. > :10:19.protect them in London. In all of the tragic cases we have seen in
:10:20. > :10:24.other parts of the country, it has been about not putting pieces of
:10:25. > :10:27.information together, sometimes pieces of information that don't
:10:28. > :10:31.look much in themselves, but if you knew what else was going on in the
:10:32. > :10:35.young person's life, it would paint the right picture. The testimony of
:10:36. > :10:37.the young woman we heard from, talking about her terrible
:10:38. > :10:43.experiences during her childhood, will be shown to police officers,
:10:44. > :10:46.especially those on the front line and in police stations across
:10:47. > :10:50.London. It is hoped that her bravery in coming forward will help to bring
:10:51. > :10:53.those who commit this crime to justice.
:10:54. > :10:56.Police investigating the murder of a sex worker in Earls Court have
:10:57. > :11:00.issued a picture of the man they would like to trace in connection
:11:01. > :11:03.with her death. Maria Duque`Tunjano, who lived in Streatham, was found
:11:04. > :11:11.dead on Friday with a severe head injury. Detectives are looking to
:11:12. > :11:13.locate Robert Richard Fraser, who is also known as Robert Aleem and Shia
:11:14. > :11:17.Robert Jackson. Passengers won't be able to use cash
:11:18. > :11:20.on buses from this summer. They'll have to use Oyster Cards or
:11:21. > :11:24."contactless" credit and debit cards instead. Transport for London says
:11:25. > :11:30.the measures will save ?130 million, which will be reinvested in the
:11:31. > :11:33.network. More now on the floods, and the
:11:34. > :11:36.Thames Barrier was closed again today as flooding continued to
:11:37. > :11:40.threaten properties along parts of the river. Homeowners in Surrey are
:11:41. > :11:51.facing further flood damage, with some calling for the Thames to be
:11:52. > :11:56.dredged. Gareth Furby reports. In Sunbury today, the river was
:11:57. > :12:03.flowing at close to a jogging pace. But what matters to people fearing
:12:04. > :12:06.more floods is its level. The lock gauge showed up about one in
:12:07. > :12:12.overnight, and Sunbury local resident Kevin measures the levels
:12:13. > :12:18.using the ladder on a children's trampoline. We did have a complete
:12:19. > :12:22.garden visible. In the last two days, it has come up by another two
:12:23. > :12:27.feet. At the height of the flood, the level was up to here. Now it is
:12:28. > :12:31.nearly up the first step of the ladder again. It means he is
:12:32. > :12:35.expecting further floods, and moving more property from his house, which
:12:36. > :12:40.insurers say will now have to be rebuilt on stilts. Just over a day
:12:41. > :12:45.ago, I would have been able to stand here on dry land, and it is still
:12:46. > :12:49.coming in. In Chertsey as well, there is talk of rising river
:12:50. > :12:54.levels, and boat builder Karl Douglas is now putting up a small
:12:55. > :13:02.dam inside his workshop to stop it flooding again. He also claims a
:13:03. > :13:06.decision to stop dredging on the Thames may have reduced the River's
:13:07. > :13:10.capacity and made flooding more likely. They discontinued dredging
:13:11. > :13:14.and sold the dredging fleet about 20 years ago. Dredging will take a
:13:15. > :13:18.small amount off the bottom of the river, which makes a very big
:13:19. > :13:23.difference to the carrying capacity of that river. Getting rid of 15%
:13:24. > :13:27.more water would have saved an awful lot of the flooding in this area.
:13:28. > :13:35.Since they have not dredged it for 30 years, in 2003, it was meant to
:13:36. > :13:41.be a one in 100 year flood. 2014, 2013, we are flooded again. The
:13:42. > :13:45.Environment Agency says it has a duty to maintain navigable depths on
:13:46. > :13:50.the River Thames, not to dredge for flood risk management purposes. It
:13:51. > :13:55.adds that this would not be sustainable, because rivers tend to
:13:56. > :14:01.silt up again relatively quickly. But it is a discussion that may
:14:02. > :14:04.continue now that river levels appear to be rising on some parts of
:14:05. > :14:07.the Thames once again. The adoption of a child has been put
:14:08. > :14:10.on hold after members of the Somali community in north west London
:14:11. > :14:14.protested against her being adopted by a non`Muslim, lesbian couple.
:14:15. > :14:18.Social services in Harrow are now reviewing the case following a
:14:19. > :14:28.demonstration at the weekend. Alice Bhandhukravi is in in Harrow
:14:29. > :14:32.tonight. Yes, this case centres around a
:14:33. > :14:35.three`year`old girl from the Somali community who has been put up for
:14:36. > :14:40.adoption because her mother has some mental health problem and has been
:14:41. > :14:44.deemed unfit to bring her up. To give you the context of the
:14:45. > :14:47.situation of adoption in the capital, the government has been
:14:48. > :14:52.trying to make the process easier and faster for all those involved,
:14:53. > :15:00.particularly the children. We know that in London, in March 2012, 605
:15:01. > :15:05.children were waiting to be adopted, on the list. We also know
:15:06. > :15:11.that black children wait an average 50% longer than other children to be
:15:12. > :15:15.adopted. The Victoria Climbie foundation, which is supporting the
:15:16. > :15:20.biological family of the girl being adopted, they say their problem is
:15:21. > :15:23.not with the adoption in itself or with the sexual orientation of the
:15:24. > :15:28.adoptive family. They say their problem is with the process. They
:15:29. > :15:31.said they don't believe the process has been followed properly, and they
:15:32. > :15:39.are calling for a review into the case. This family were told that the
:15:40. > :15:42.people they had brought forward had failed the assessment. There was no
:15:43. > :15:48.explanation at all. This family were told basically that the council
:15:49. > :15:52.could not find any other Muslim men within this community. Since this
:15:53. > :15:58.case has been out, we have got people calling us from outside,
:15:59. > :16:06.showing interest in adopting this child. I am joined now by the leader
:16:07. > :16:12.of Harrow Council, Susan Hall. Are you satisfied that all avenues have
:16:13. > :16:18.been explored in this case, all avenues for adoptive families? Yes.
:16:19. > :16:22.We have scoured the country for an exact match to the cultural basis of
:16:23. > :16:26.the child, and unfortunately, there was not want to be had. At the end
:16:27. > :16:30.of the day, we must remember that this child must be given a safe,
:16:31. > :16:34.loving family home . That is what we will endeavour to make sure of. But
:16:35. > :16:38.of course you can understand the biological family's wish for the
:16:39. > :16:43.child to have a community she is familiar with. They say they have
:16:44. > :16:48.put forward four blood relatives who, for unknown reasons, have not
:16:49. > :16:54.passed the test, and four other blood relatives who have not even
:16:55. > :16:58.been assessed. Well, I believe just recently that more people have come
:16:59. > :17:03.forward, and that is a good thing. I am hoping that one thing this event
:17:04. > :17:07.shows us is that we do need more people on the register to be adopted
:17:08. > :17:11.parents from different backgrounds. There is nothing the council or
:17:12. > :17:15.government can do about it. It is communities themselves. The they
:17:16. > :17:18.want their children to be looked after by adoptive parents on their
:17:19. > :17:23.own culture, then please come forward as an adoptive parent. What
:17:24. > :17:28.will happen next? You have put this case on hold. It has been put on
:17:29. > :17:32.hold so we can hear what the community has to say. As you
:17:33. > :17:35.mentioned, more people have come forward to be adoptive parents,
:17:36. > :17:44.which is good. Whether they are appropriate, we don't know. Still to
:17:45. > :17:52.come... Britain's first Davis Cup win over
:17:53. > :17:55.America since the 30s. How Londoner James Ward, with some help from Andy
:17:56. > :18:02.Murray, made a little tennis history.
:18:03. > :18:12.And we hear from the man putting London on the sound map.
:18:13. > :18:19.Next, should overseas investors be restricted from buying up properties
:18:20. > :18:22.in London? One leading think tank says it's needed to rein in rampant
:18:23. > :18:25.house price inflation. Recent figures show property prices in the
:18:26. > :18:31.capital have risen by nearly 12% compared to the previous year. As
:18:32. > :18:34.Mark Jordan reports, foreign buyers, particularly the Chinese, are drawn
:18:35. > :18:47.to developments along the Crossrail route. For about a year, Jez has
:18:48. > :18:53.been trying to buy a home in East London. She is so desperate to avoid
:18:54. > :18:58.the mass viewings and sealed bids, she has taken to leafleting homes
:18:59. > :19:05.herself. I will be 30. I do not want to pay off someone else's mortgage,
:19:06. > :19:12.I want to pay my own mortgage. I am looking in forest gate, which is an
:19:13. > :19:15.area which is up and coming. The multi`billion pound crossrail route
:19:16. > :19:22.will be coming here, cutting journey times to Central London from about
:19:23. > :19:32.an hour to 15 minutes. She will also face competition from overseas. It
:19:33. > :19:36.is very much on the radar. Perhaps a proverb for the 21st century is, he
:19:37. > :19:47.who buys make a new subway station makes lots of money. Until 1979,
:19:48. > :19:57.Hong Kong had no subway. Now it has 152 stations. The Chinese get
:19:58. > :20:02.crossrail. It is the single biggest driver. In Asia, they just the
:20:03. > :20:08.opportunity. They know there is an end product and that is driving the
:20:09. > :20:15.market, no doubt about it. They are looking at maps and buying along the
:20:16. > :22:37.line? Absolutely. This industry wants to buy a ?1 million home. You
:22:38. > :22:42.know It is great to have this team spirit running through everybody.
:22:43. > :22:51.These guys deserve a lot of credit. This victory marks another
:22:52. > :23:03.career`high for a Londoner. The team will play Italy in April. Now, it is
:23:04. > :23:09.fair to say that it is an unusual holiday `` copy. Archivist Ian Roz
:23:10. > :23:12.has spent thousands of hours recording noises across the street,
:23:13. > :23:16.some that Londoners would not normally get to experience. He has
:23:17. > :23:28.now compiled it into an online collection of the sounds of the cap
:23:29. > :23:33.will, past and present. Mind the Gap. What do you think when
:23:34. > :23:38.you think of noise in the capital? Traffic, sirens, construction work?
:23:39. > :23:46.Well, one man has spent five years putting together a collection of
:23:47. > :23:48.noises from London. This is a stationary steam engine that once
:23:49. > :23:55.upon a time helped raise Tower Bridge when tall ships wanted to go
:23:56. > :23:59.through. It is the sounds of the machinery, of a past age of
:24:00. > :24:11.engineering. I find it quite intriguing. He has collected
:24:12. > :24:17.thousands of recordings and put them on his website. I was taken aback by
:24:18. > :24:21.how popular it was. My website yearly collapsed with the volume of
:24:22. > :24:26.visitors. Tens of thousands came to listen and look at it. He has made
:24:27. > :24:31.recordings along every waterway in London, each one telling a different
:24:32. > :24:36.story. This is a mixture of different sounds. You have the Wear
:24:37. > :24:45.in the north and a lot building work in the south. You may hear the train
:24:46. > :24:48.is riding past on the track. He hopes his own recordings paint it
:24:49. > :24:59.permanent picture of the capital for centuries to come. On that night, ``
:25:00. > :25:04.note, time for the sound of the weather.
:25:05. > :25:11.A nice couple of days. We have enjoyed scenes like this to end the
:25:12. > :25:14.day. It will be a stormy spell that we see in the middle part of the
:25:15. > :25:21.week. We will get to that in a minute. This evening it'll be dry
:25:22. > :25:25.and fine but it will not remain so entirely through the night. We will
:25:26. > :25:32.stop to see bits and pieces of that through parts of Surrey, Berkshire
:25:33. > :25:35.at about 11pm, midnight. Not much of that rain. It looks like it will
:25:36. > :25:41.break up as it crosses the country. One or two heavy bursts. The second
:25:42. > :25:47.part of the night is dry and clear as well. Damages will fall back. It
:25:48. > :25:51.will be a chilly start to the day tomorrow. `` temperatures will fall
:25:52. > :25:57.back. There will be some thunder and hail. The breeze is still strong.
:25:58. > :26:03.Ever increasing gradually throughout the day. In the afternoon, there
:26:04. > :26:06.will be sunshine. It will be noticeably windy as we end the day.
:26:07. > :26:12.That is because of this little fella. A low pressure this them,
:26:13. > :26:20.quite a deep one. It will spin some rain towards us with gusty winds.
:26:21. > :26:24.The next one will come through that `` in the latter part of the day.
:26:25. > :26:29.There is a weather warning for strong winds. We could be getting
:26:30. > :26:33.50, 60 miles an hour gusts in London and the Home Counties in the rainy
:26:34. > :26:38.spells. It will calm down a bit on Thursday. One or two further
:26:39. > :26:44.showers. There might be more rain overnight and into Friday. We need
:26:45. > :26:48.to watch that as well. Just re`capping the main headlines. The
:26:49. > :26:52.Government wants a longer school day, more exams and tougher
:26:53. > :26:55.discipline for pupils in England 's state schools. Michael Gove wants to
:26:56. > :27:00.bring standards closer to those in private schools. With one in three
:27:01. > :27:04.breast cancer patients over 70, health campaigners want elderly
:27:05. > :27:09.women to keep getting checks. At the moment, screening automatically
:27:10. > :27:13.stops and 70 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. A 48 hour tube
:27:14. > :27:18.strike starting tomorrow evening will go ahead after last`ditch talks
:27:19. > :27:21.between the unions and transport bosses ended without agreement. I
:27:22. > :27:26.will be back with the latest for you during the Ten O'Clock News. From
:27:27. > :27:28.here, thanks for watching and you have a lovely evening. Goodbye.