:00:15. > :00:20.Good evening. Electric cars, hired by the hour, are the latest idea to
:00:21. > :00:23.get Londoners around the capital, in an environmentally friendly way. The
:00:24. > :00:26.idea ` effectively a four wheel equivalent of the "Boris bike" ` has
:00:27. > :00:34.proved popular in Paris and is being funded by a French billionaire. Nick
:00:35. > :00:37.Beake reports. This is how they sell them in France
:00:38. > :00:55.` clean, fast and flexible electric cars zipping around the capital.
:00:56. > :00:59.Zero noise, zero order. `` zero smell. The trouble is, back in
:01:00. > :01:01.London, there's been zero uptake in many places for these greenest of
:01:02. > :01:04.cars. But this French billionaire says his new hire scheme can finally
:01:05. > :01:07.make us love electric. Today's electric cars are only for VIPs, a
:01:08. > :01:11.happy few, because it's very expensive car. Our proposal is to
:01:12. > :01:13.offer to all the citizens a cheap formula which is complementary of
:01:14. > :01:19.public transport. He's promised 100 of these will be on our streets by
:01:20. > :01:22.this time next year. Like the Boris Bike, you find your vehicle online
:01:23. > :01:26.and you're away. It works out at about ?10 an hour. There's also a
:01:27. > :01:30.monthly subscription of ?5 to ?10 or an on`the`day fee, which has not yet
:01:31. > :01:34.been revealed. Lots of people might like the idea of an electric car but
:01:35. > :01:38.many are put off by the cost and, also, the way you're restricted by
:01:39. > :01:45.the battery life. So, just how many Londoners will go for this Parisian
:01:46. > :01:47.import? From this summer, the French investors will take over the running
:01:48. > :01:52.of the charging points London already has and create thousands
:01:53. > :01:56.more. They hope they can succeed where City Hall has stalled. In
:01:57. > :02:01.2009, the mayor pledged 25,000 charging points in London. The
:02:02. > :02:07.following year, that was dropped to 7,500. Today, just 1,400 have been
:02:08. > :02:15.installed and latest figures show only 27% were actually being used.
:02:16. > :02:18.The key question we have to ask ourselves is, "is the current Source
:02:19. > :02:22.London system good enough?". In my opinion it is absolutely not. There
:02:23. > :02:25.aren't enough charging points, the technology is second`rate, and it's
:02:26. > :02:29.just not serving the needs of the consumer. And that's holding back
:02:30. > :02:32.the development of electric cars on our streets. So this initiative, on
:02:33. > :02:35.paper at least, looks very promising. So 100 of these may be
:02:36. > :02:38.zooming to London over the next year but there's still a long road to
:02:39. > :02:46.travel to arrive at Boris Johnson's vision of 100,000 electric cars in
:02:47. > :02:49.the capital. Thames Water has apologised to
:02:50. > :02:51.people living on the Thames whose homes were recently flooded `
:02:52. > :02:56.admitting its infrastructure wasn't able to cope. Tonight, they met
:02:57. > :02:58.flood victims together with officials from the Environment
:02:59. > :03:05.Agency at a public meeting in Wraysbury. Alice Bhandhukravi has
:03:06. > :03:11.been at the meeting. I understand the meeting has only just ended.
:03:12. > :03:16.That's right. The last people are filing out of the room. It was
:03:17. > :03:20.completely packed. No shortage of people attending, very keen to
:03:21. > :03:23.listen to what the Environment Agency and Thames Water had to say.
:03:24. > :03:28.The main bone of contention was around the Jubilee river and a
:03:29. > :03:31.feeling that people here were sacrificed for the sake of people
:03:32. > :03:36.living in Windsor and Maidenhead, further upstream. The Environment
:03:37. > :03:41.Agency argued that Wraysbury would have flooded anyway, a point that
:03:42. > :03:44.many people disagreed with. Further downstream it may be, but
:03:45. > :03:48.the main channel cannot cope with the volume of water. But that is the
:03:49. > :03:56.same volume of water as would have been progressing down the... No,
:03:57. > :04:05.it's not! No, it's not! Order! Order! Order!
:04:06. > :04:11.They were handing out leaflets like this to join a campaign group to
:04:12. > :04:14.press for lasting reform to help prevent these kinds of floods.
:04:15. > :04:17.Judging from this evening's meeting, there will be no shortage of people
:04:18. > :04:20.signing up. A councillor in Tower Hamlets has
:04:21. > :04:25.apologised after he likened some of his political opponents to Oswald
:04:26. > :04:29.Mosley's 1930s Fascist party. The comment was made at a meeting, which
:04:30. > :04:33.appeared to get out of control. Here's our political correspondent
:04:34. > :04:36.Karl Mercer. Have a look, have a look, have a
:04:37. > :04:41.look! There's not much escaping Naseem. This is what you call a
:04:42. > :04:44.salesman. And everywhere you looked in Whitechapel Market this
:04:45. > :04:48.afternoon, there was selling going on. For now, it's all about the
:04:49. > :04:52.price of goods. But in two months, Tower Hamlets goes to the polls like
:04:53. > :04:55.the rest of London in local borough elections. History tells us that
:04:56. > :05:01.elections in Tower Hamlets can get... Well, just a little bit
:05:02. > :05:05.messy. This time, it seems to have started early with accusations of
:05:06. > :05:11.racism at a recent budget meeting. The white elite do not want talented
:05:12. > :05:14.Bengalis to speak. The bad`tempered meeting got worse. And despite the
:05:15. > :05:17.current chair of the Labour group, Councillor Jackson, dismissing the
:05:18. > :05:23.people of Tower Hamlets as nothing more than curry people in an e`mail
:05:24. > :05:29.in 2010... The borough is not about curry. It's about heritage, about
:05:30. > :05:32.culture, about diversity. And there was more to follow. Let me say one
:05:33. > :05:36.thing to you. Oswald Mosley had the Blackshirts in the '30s. John Biggs
:05:37. > :05:43.has the black cardigans. Councillor Choudhury, that was more than
:05:44. > :05:49.offensive. SHOUTING
:05:50. > :05:51.Can you lot shut up? Councillor Choudhury later apologised for those
:05:52. > :05:56.remarks after it emerged that Councillor Jackson was wearing black
:05:57. > :06:01.because she was in mourning. Anwar Khan, though, says he stands by his
:06:02. > :06:04.remarks. People want a debate and Labour, because of their might and
:06:05. > :06:08.the numbers they have in council, want to stifle debate. Which is
:06:09. > :06:12.quite unpopular, because people have elected you to go and speak. John
:06:13. > :06:15.Biggs is Labour's candidate to be mayor of Tower Hamlets in May's
:06:16. > :06:19.election. He is standing against the current mayor Lutfur Rahman, who
:06:20. > :06:21.used to be a Labour Party member. It will be hard`fought, possibly
:06:22. > :06:26.bitter, if past history is anything to go by. The way that you can offer
:06:27. > :06:29.leadership in this borough, regardless of whether you're Labour,
:06:30. > :06:32.Tory or wherever else, is by working to bring people together. Not by
:06:33. > :06:37.throwing allegations of a personal nature and tearing people apart.
:06:38. > :06:38.Please! Despite that, no`one expects this row to be the last before
:06:39. > :06:47.election time. That's it from me. So let me hand
:06:48. > :06:51.you over to Wendy for the weather forecast.
:06:52. > :07:00.Thank you. I think we'll have a couple of mornings that are even
:07:01. > :07:04.foggy than this one. Tonight's fog warrants a warning from the Met
:07:05. > :07:08.Office. We could be down to 200 metres visibility through the night.
:07:09. > :07:11.It's already forming and there will be dense patches into the early
:07:12. > :07:14.hours of the morning. Where you don't get a fog, you'll have a
:07:15. > :07:19.frost. Temperatures close to freezing. There could be disruption
:07:20. > :07:23.to transport tomorrow morning before the fog lifts into cloud and breaks
:07:24. > :07:26.away to give us sunshine into the afternoon and then the temperature
:07:27. > :07:31.will cover very nicely `` recover nicely. The outlook is similar on
:07:32. > :07:32.Friday but fog less of a problem over the
:07:33. > :07:38.Friday but fog less of a problem over the weekend.
:07:39. > :07:45.Good evening. Step outside in the morning and it feels a bit fresh.
:07:46. > :07:49.Reassure yourself, it could be a lot worse. Exactly a year ago it was
:07:50. > :07:54.extraordinarily cold and snowy. These were some of the scenes. This
:07:55. > :07:57.march is very different. A very pleasant in the sunshine, once the
:07:58. > :08:01.fog has cleared. The fog is re-forming again right now. Nasty
:08:02. > :08:05.patches developing through the night, becoming widespread across
:08:06. > :08:10.England and Wales. In the north-west, rain across Scotland.
:08:11. > :08:18.Temperatures well below these values. We have a yellow warning in
:08:19. > :08:21.force from the Met Office for fog. Could be very difficult patches
:08:22. > :08:26.around and disruption is certainly possible. Check your BBC local radio
:08:27. > :08:30.station in the morning. These are the areas we think will be worst
:08:31. > :08:34.affected. The Thames Valley, the Somerset Levels, the Severn Valley,
:08:35. > :08:38.the Trent Valley and up towards Merseyside. It went before the
:08:39. > :08:42.everywhere but the risk is there. Fewer patches further north but more
:08:43. > :08:44.cloud across Scotland, particularly in the West, where it will be a
:08:45. > :08:45.dreary, damp