20/02/2014 BBC London News

And that is all from us for this evening. Now on BBC One,

Good evening and welcome to BBC London News.

The Mayor is being asked to explain why the extension of his bike hire

scheme to south`west London is being done at tax payers' expense. It's

emerged that no money is coming from the sponsors, Barclays, even though

they get exclusive naming rights. Opposition groups claim the bank is

in effect getting at least ?10 million worth of free advertising.

Our political editor, Tim Donovan, reports.

This was just before Christmas, another milestone, extending the bar

`` bike to south`west London. If you assume the sponsors were helping to

pay for it, think again. Thanks to a document unearthed under the Freedom

of Information Act, we can see that the mayor's original intention was

to get an extra ?10 million from Barclays bank to pay for this. But

with a bank now pulling out of a hole sponsorship deal, the money has

not and will not be paid. The new document makes clear that Barclays

bank were expected to provide ?10 million in cash for the expansion,

and actually they have provided nothing. Under the original deal,

Berkeley agreed to pay up to 25 million over five years to fund

stage one in central London and stage to in east London. ``

Barclays. The mayor claimed he had secured ?25 million more from

Barclays for the following three years to secure further expansion,

but in fact he hadn't secured the money, meaning the south`west

extension has gone ahead without ?10 million from Barclays. The fact that

a big company like Barclays bank can get out of paying money that was

Juana sponsorship deal while they are advertising is absolutely

shocking. London's council taxpayers have ended up funding the expansion

and low and behold, Barclays have still got their branding over the

bikes. Transport for London said there was not extra money from

Barclays because it had made a commercial decision not to extend

its sponsorship. But, as the statement added, they do:

The mayor's office had nothing to add today. There is a little under

18 months to find a new sponsor. A mafia boss who's been on the run

in London for 20 years has begun his fight against extradition. Domenico

Rancadore had been living with his family in Uxbridge under the assumed

name of Marc Skinner. He faces a seven`year prison sentence in Italy.

Our home affairs correspondent, Guy Smith, reports.

It waits above in Uxbridge in a very normal looking house. `` a quiet

house. It is the last place to find a member of the Mafia. Italian

police say the family of Domenico Rancadore was involved in extortion,

and drug trafficking. He loved `` lived a double life here than in 20

years. Neighbours say he was easy`going but security conscious.

He always seemed very friendly. Thinking about him now, when he did

move in, he built up the trees and put the big date at the front. We

all thought he was Spanish. But his quiet suburban life ended here last

August when Metropolitan police officers arrested him put up his Fat

`` part had finally caught up with him. It is the past rooted here in

Sicily. As a former teacher, he was known as the professor. He was

acquitted twice in the Italian courts, but in 1999 was convicted in

his absence of being a Mafia associate and sentenced to seven

years. Now he faces extradition and being separated from his wife. But

Domenico Rancadore's British lawyer says he has been misrepresented. He

deliberately left Italy because he did not want to be a member of the

Mafia. He did not want to be associated with the Mafia. Since he

has returned to the UK committee has lived a blame free life. He is

fighting extradition partly because of poor conditions in Italy but in

prisons, where he now faces seven years. `` Italy's prisons.

London has the worst air quality of any European capital, and today the

European Commission launched legal proceedings against the UK for

failing to deal with air pollution. The Commission says high levels of

nitrogen dioxide can lead to serious illness and premature death.

Victoria Graham reports. Cars, motorbikes, lorries and

buses. Part of everyday life in a busy city, not least here in London,

where battling pollution levels is a headache. Although you can't see it,

it is all around us, particularly on a busy high street like this one.

Although they are by no means the only culprit, Wandsworth Council

found that buses significantly contributed to harmful nitrogen

dioxide. So the mayor replaced some of the old buses with clean new

ones. As it helped? They were part of the answer for Putney as they

will be for the rest of London. Three quarters of London's Maine

Road 's are actually well above the EU limits. That means there is

premature deaths for over 4000 people in London every year. The

gamut is facing fines in the millions for not lowering targets to

lower levels. That could be passed on to local councils. The price is

also higher for people like Adrianne. That is something that I

do notice, in a polluted area. I do notice I get the tight chest. The

government says it is investing heavily in transport measures to

improve air quality around busy roads, and are working with the

European commission to make sure this happens as soon as possible.

The first deadline to lower this toxic gas has been and gone. Current

plans estimate that for London, compliance with EU standards will

only be achieved by 2025. That's it from me. Do have a very

good night. Now, though, it's over to Sara, who's got the forecast for

you. good night. Now, though,

A chilly night to come through the night. Generally try, a couple of

showers at the moment, but mostly we start with some dry weather

tomorrow. You can see some showers tried to make their way in from the

West. By the afternoon, they are starting to make progress. Top

temperature of 10 Celsius. The shells get going through the evening

tomorrow. Some places will avoid them. `` the showers. Largely drying

out into Saturday. Saturday is a really nice day in prospect. A lot

of sunshine around and feeling quite pleasant. We have the forecast for

you in just the second. But here is the outlook. On Sunday, we have grey

skies and a bit of drizzle, too. Good evening. You may have had the

latest from the Met Office about the rainfall we have had this winter,

the wettest winter on record. It is sometimes difficult to visualise the

numbers. Let me explain how much rain we had. If you think about a

stretch of land across the UK, we had about half a metre