03/02/2014 BBC London News

teachers working in a country with such a poor record. They 8 on

Tomorrow's tube strike will still go ahead, as last`ditch talks between

unions and transport bosses break down. These cuts are coming in

unless we do something about it. To sit back and do nothing and allow

the companies to tell us what we are doing, we might as well say, what is

the point in being in a trade union? But the Mayor accuses the

unions of holding Londoners to ransom. It is up to their leadership

to stop a pointless piece of industrial action. We'll have the

latest on tomorrow's strike. Also tonight: The row over plans to place

a Muslim child with a white lesbian couple.

Social services review the case. Plus, calls to curb overseas

investment in London's housing market as foreigners continue to

cash in on the property boom. Good evening and welcome to the

programme. Tomorrow's 48`hour tube strike is set to go ahead after

talks between unions and transport bosses broke down earlier without

agreement. Both sides attacked the other for failing to back down in

the ongoing dispute over plans to close ticket offices and the loss of

jobs. The majority of underground lines will operate during the

walk`out, but with many stations closed, passengers are being warned

of considerable disruption to their journeys. Let's get more details

from our Transport Correspondent, Tom Edwards, who's at Warren Street

station. Yes, talks collapsed at about four

o'clock. Both sides said they made reasonable concessions, but this is

not now looking good for commuters. Over a week of talks here at the

conciliation service ACAS, and still no progress. At the moment, the

48`hour tube strike is on. Across the road, toasters have gone up

warning commuters of considerable disruption. I have experienced what

it is like when you can't get the machine to work or there is no one

to ask. So you have sympathy with the strike? I do. I understand, but

it will cause disruption. I know it is very inconvenient for a lot of

people, what you have to make your point. The last time commuters faced

this level of disruption was four years ago, in a dispute over

reducing ticket office opening hours. This time, it is over closing

all ticket offices and cutting 950 jobs. The LU says it will seek to

avoid compulsory redundancies and it wants staff on the gate lines .

London Underground has also outlined how many services it hopes to run on

Wednesday and Thursday. The number of trains per hour will be

drastically reduced, and they will not stop at some stations. Some

lines will not even run into the centre of town. Services will start

to be affected from tomorrow night. On Wednesday and Thursday, there

will be a limited tube service, but only between seven in the morning

and 11 at night. There will be no service on the Waterloo City line,

although the DLR and the overground will run normally. And 100 extra

buses will be on the road. They are the ones advertising. They are

saying to people, go on holiday. The RMT's Bob Crow defended a holiday he

has just taken, featured in some national newspapers, calling stories

about it covers. They will suspend the strikes, say the unions, if the

mayor is prepared to suspend the job losses.

Isn't the fear from the unions' point of view that the same thing

will happen again as happened in 2010, when you had all these

strikes, and the changes were still steam`rolled through. Isn't that

your concern? At the end of the day, these cuts are coming in unless

we do something about it . To sit back and do nothing and allow the

company to tell us what we are doing, we might as well say, what is

the point of being in a trade union? Londoners already have the highest

fares in the world, and they are going to be getting a second service

going forward. Our members are not renowned for their militancy, but

they are absolutely angry, not just because of the scale of the cuts,

but the effect it will have on passengers. Business groups say the

strike will cost London's economy millions. Time is now running out to

resolve this dispute. So that is the unions. What have

transport bosses said? They say the strike is unnecessary, so will the

mayor intervened? He has been speaking to our political

correspondent. As I hope everybody knows in this argument, the reason

why there should not be a strike tomorrow is that there are no

compote Surrey redundancies. It is a very good package `` there are no

compulsory redundancies. I hope Bob Crow and his guys will get round the

table, do the right thing for Londoners, there are millions of

people who depend on the tube, and let's get it running tomorrow. The

RMT said they will call off the strike if you suspend the job cuts.

That sounds like a fair enough of. `` offer. There are no compulsory

redundancies. My door is open. We will prepare a municipal cup of

coffee for Bob Crow. There will not even be any pinna coladas at City

Hall, but we will put on the maximum hospitality we can within our tight

budgets. If he will call off the strike, and just have a conversation

about the incredible things that are going to come forward for the tube

and London. If you are asking for the RMT to suspend their action, why

not suspend your redundancies? There are no compulsory redundancies, so

it is nonsensical. You are not going to suspend the job losses? If the

strike goes ahead, which I hope it won't, there is no realistic way it

will make any difference to the programme of changes that we have in

view. The story has changed. We now have much more flexible systems, and

we would be totally nuts to ignore the benefits of change. We are

trying to use the savings we make with old`fashioned, plate`glass

ticket offices, to invest in better signalling, more trains, a 24 hour

service, which will be greatly to the benefit not just of passengers,

but the staff as well. That is a long way of saying you are not

backing down, isn't it? That is correct, but my door is open. There

are no compulsory redundancies involved in this programme. The

right thing to do now for the RMT and the TSSA is to call off this

pointless industrial action. I am told that no further talks are

planned for tomorrow. TfL are briefing tonight that 450 staff have

come forward for voluntary redundancy. That gives you an

impression of where we are when it comes to industrial relations. They

are not good at all. Every avenue has now been exhausted in this

dispute. And a reminder that during the

strike, BBC London 94.9 will have the very latest travel news.

Coming up later in the programme: The calls to dredge the River

Thames, as homeowners in Surrey face more flooding.

It's emerged that 50 investigations are already underway in the capital

into child exploitation. The figure was revealed as the Met Police

launched a campaign to bring those who exploit and abuse children to

justice. One victim who was in her early teens when she was targeted

has been speaking to our reporter, Sarah Harris.

I just felt, like, alone. She does not want to appear on camera, but

her voice is her own. At 12 years old, she was targeted by a man who

bought her presence, made her feel special and then sexually abused her

for three years. He was eventually brought to justice. There were times

when I would pass out, like, in a drunken, drug induced stupor. I

genuinely wished I would not wake up. I used to tell my mum on regular

basis, I just want to be dead. I don't want to be here any more. I

felt despair like there would be no other way out other than in a box.

At City Hall today, the Met led a campaign, bringing together their

officers with social workers and children's charities to raise

awareness of a problem they say is hidden, but not uncommon in the

capital. There is a real issue to be tackled in London. If you look at

the test work we have done over the last six months before the roll`out

of the new standard today, we have worked with a few boroughs across

London. That has generated referrals of about 500 young people who were

at risk from sexual exportation. Of those 500, it has generated 50 cases

requiring investigation. In some cases, teenagers become vulnerable

when they start missing school. They often don't want to report offenders

because they believe they are being well looked after with presence.

That is why so many organisations are coming together to try to

protect them in London. In all of the tragic cases we have seen in

other parts of the country, it has been about not putting pieces of

information together, sometimes pieces of information that don't

look much in themselves, but if you knew what else was going on in the

young person's life, it would paint the right picture. The testimony of

the young woman we heard from, talking about her terrible

experiences during her childhood, will be shown to police officers,

especially those on the front line and in police stations across

London. It is hoped that her bravery in coming forward will help to bring

those who commit this crime to justice.

Police investigating the murder of a sex worker in Earls Court have

issued a picture of the man they would like to trace in connection

with her death. Maria Duque`Tunjano, who lived in Streatham, was found

dead on Friday with a severe head injury. Detectives are looking to

locate Robert Richard Fraser, who is also known as Robert Aleem and Shia

Robert Jackson. Passengers won't be able to use cash

on buses from this summer. They'll have to use Oyster Cards or

"contactless" credit and debit cards instead. Transport for London says

the measures will save ?130 million, which will be reinvested in the

network. More now on the floods, and the

Thames Barrier was closed again today as flooding continued to

threaten properties along parts of the river. Homeowners in Surrey are

facing further flood damage, with some calling for the Thames to be

dredged. Gareth Furby reports. In Sunbury today, the river was

flowing at close to a jogging pace. But what matters to people fearing

more floods is its level. The lock gauge showed up about one in

overnight, and Sunbury local resident Kevin measures the levels

using the ladder on a children's trampoline. We did have a complete

garden visible. In the last two days, it has come up by another two

feet. At the height of the flood, the level was up to here. Now it is

nearly up the first step of the ladder again. It means he is

expecting further floods, and moving more property from his house, which

insurers say will now have to be rebuilt on stilts. Just over a day

ago, I would have been able to stand here on dry land, and it is still

coming in. In Chertsey as well, there is talk of rising river

levels, and boat builder Karl Douglas is now putting up a small

dam inside his workshop to stop it flooding again. He also claims a

decision to stop dredging on the Thames may have reduced the River's

capacity and made flooding more likely. They discontinued dredging

and sold the dredging fleet about 20 years ago. Dredging will take a

small amount off the bottom of the river, which makes a very big

difference to the carrying capacity of that river. Getting rid of 15%

more water would have saved an awful lot of the flooding in this area.

Since they have not dredged it for 30 years, in 2003, it was meant to

be a one in 100 year flood. 2014, 2013, we are flooded again. The

Environment Agency says it has a duty to maintain navigable depths on

the River Thames, not to dredge for flood risk management purposes. It

adds that this would not be sustainable, because rivers tend to

silt up again relatively quickly. But it is a discussion that may

continue now that river levels appear to be rising on some parts of

the Thames once again. The adoption of a child has been put

on hold after members of the Somali community in north west London

protested against her being adopted by a non`Muslim, lesbian couple.

Social services in Harrow are now reviewing the case following a

demonstration at the weekend. Alice Bhandhukravi is in in Harrow

tonight. Yes, this case centres around a

three`year`old girl from the Somali community who has been put up for

adoption because her mother has some mental health problem and has been

deemed unfit to bring her up. To give you the context of the

situation of adoption in the capital, the government has been

trying to make the process easier and faster for all those involved,

particularly the children. We know that in London, in March 2012, 605

children were waiting to be adopted, on the list. We also know

that black children wait an average 50% longer than other children to be

adopted. The Victoria Climbie foundation, which is supporting the

biological family of the girl being adopted, they say their problem is

not with the adoption in itself or with the sexual orientation of the

adoptive family. They say their problem is with the process. They

said they don't believe the process has been followed properly, and they

are calling for a review into the case. This family were told that the

people they had brought forward had failed the assessment. There was no

explanation at all. This family were told basically that the council

could not find any other Muslim men within this community. Since this

case has been out, we have got people calling us from outside,

showing interest in adopting this child. I am joined now by the leader

of Harrow Council, Susan Hall. Are you satisfied that all avenues have

been explored in this case, all avenues for adoptive families? Yes.

We have scoured the country for an exact match to the cultural basis of

the child, and unfortunately, there was not want to be had. At the end

of the day, we must remember that this child must be given a safe,

loving family home . That is what we will endeavour to make sure of. But

of course you can understand the biological family's wish for the

child to have a community she is familiar with. They say they have

put forward four blood relatives who, for unknown reasons, have not

passed the test, and four other blood relatives who have not even

been assessed. Well, I believe just recently that more people have come

forward, and that is a good thing. I am hoping that one thing this event

shows us is that we do need more people on the register to be adopted

parents from different backgrounds. There is nothing the council or

government can do about it. It is communities themselves. The they

want their children to be looked after by adoptive parents on their

own culture, then please come forward as an adoptive parent. What

will happen next? You have put this case on hold. It has been put on

hold so we can hear what the community has to say. As you

mentioned, more people have come forward to be adoptive parents,

which is good. Whether they are appropriate, we don't know. Still to

come... Britain's first Davis Cup win over

America since the 30s. How Londoner James Ward, with some help from Andy

Murray, made a little tennis history.

And we hear from the man putting London on the sound map.

Next, should overseas investors be restricted from buying up properties

in London? One leading think tank says it's needed to rein in rampant

house price inflation. Recent figures show property prices in the

capital have risen by nearly 12% compared to the previous year. As

Mark Jordan reports, foreign buyers, particularly the Chinese, are drawn

to developments along the Crossrail route. For about a year, Jez has

been trying to buy a home in East London. She is so desperate to avoid

the mass viewings and sealed bids, she has taken to leafleting homes

herself. I will be 30. I do not want to pay off someone else's mortgage,

I want to pay my own mortgage. I am looking in forest gate, which is an

area which is up and coming. The multi`billion pound crossrail route

will be coming here, cutting journey times to Central London from about

an hour to 15 minutes. She will also face competition from overseas. It

is very much on the radar. Perhaps a proverb for the 21st century is, he

who buys make a new subway station makes lots of money. Until 1979,

Hong Kong had no subway. Now it has 152 stations. The Chinese get

crossrail. It is the single biggest driver. In Asia, they just the

opportunity. They know there is an end product and that is driving the

market, no doubt about it. They are looking at maps and buying along the

line? Absolutely. This industry wants to buy a ?1 million home. You

know It is great to have this team spirit running through everybody.

These guys deserve a lot of credit. This victory marks another

career`high for a Londoner. The team will play Italy in April. Now, it is

fair to say that it is an unusual holiday `` copy. Archivist Ian Roz

has spent thousands of hours recording noises across the street,

some that Londoners would not normally get to experience. He has

now compiled it into an online collection of the sounds of the cap

will, past and present. Mind the Gap. What do you think when

you think of noise in the capital? Traffic, sirens, construction work?

Well, one man has spent five years putting together a collection of

noises from London. This is a stationary steam engine that once

upon a time helped raise Tower Bridge when tall ships wanted to go

through. It is the sounds of the machinery, of a past age of

engineering. I find it quite intriguing. He has collected

thousands of recordings and put them on his website. I was taken aback by

how popular it was. My website yearly collapsed with the volume of

visitors. Tens of thousands came to listen and look at it. He has made

recordings along every waterway in London, each one telling a different

story. This is a mixture of different sounds. You have the Wear

in the north and a lot building work in the south. You may hear the train

is riding past on the track. He hopes his own recordings paint it

permanent picture of the capital for centuries to come. On that night, ``

note, time for the sound of the weather.

A nice couple of days. We have enjoyed scenes like this to end the

day. It will be a stormy spell that we see in the middle part of the

week. We will get to that in a minute. This evening it'll be dry

and fine but it will not remain so entirely through the night. We will

stop to see bits and pieces of that through parts of Surrey, Berkshire

at about 11pm, midnight. Not much of that rain. It looks like it will

break up as it crosses the country. One or two heavy bursts. The second

part of the night is dry and clear as well. Damages will fall back. It

will be a chilly start to the day tomorrow. `` temperatures will fall

back. There will be some thunder and hail. The breeze is still strong.

Ever increasing gradually throughout the day. In the afternoon, there

will be sunshine. It will be noticeably windy as we end the day.

That is because of this little fella. A low pressure this them,

quite a deep one. It will spin some rain towards us with gusty winds.

The next one will come through that `` in the latter part of the day.

There is a weather warning for strong winds. We could be getting

50, 60 miles an hour gusts in London and the Home Counties in the rainy

spells. It will calm down a bit on Thursday. One or two further

showers. There might be more rain overnight and into Friday. We need

to watch that as well. Just re`capping the main headlines. The

Government wants a longer school day, more exams and tougher

discipline for pupils in England 's state schools. Michael Gove wants to

bring standards closer to those in private schools. With one in three

breast cancer patients over 70, health campaigners want elderly

women to keep getting checks. At the moment, screening automatically

stops and 70 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. A 48 hour tube

strike starting tomorrow evening will go ahead after last`ditch talks

between the unions and transport bosses ended without agreement. I

will be back with the latest for you during the Ten O'Clock News. From

here, thanks for watching and you have a lovely evening. Goodbye.