:00:16. > :00:26.Welcome to BBC London News. So what more did the Chancellor
:00:27. > :00:33.promise for London in his fifth budget? Amongst the measures
:00:34. > :00:35.affecting people in the capital was an offer for "funding for
:00:36. > :00:38.regeneration of some of the worse condition housing estates". Money
:00:39. > :00:41.for a new air ambulance for London, and investment was promised to ease
:00:42. > :00:44.the housing crisis. Brent Cross will be regenerated and Barking Riverside
:00:45. > :00:47.will also benefit with scope for 11,000 new homes. But critics claim
:00:48. > :00:50.that without money for new rail links no one will want to move
:00:51. > :00:54.there. Here's our Political Editor Tim Donovan.
:00:55. > :00:58.It's flat and it is large and it available, hugging the Thames in
:00:59. > :01:02.east London. There's planning permission for 11,000 homes on the
:01:03. > :01:05.Barking Riverside site. So far a few hundred have been built, a few
:01:06. > :01:07.hundred more are in the pipeline, but the process has been stalling.
:01:08. > :01:12.For those who live here already, the promise was for facilities and
:01:13. > :01:15.transport links to follow. There isn't that much infrastructure
:01:16. > :01:18.available for the school, for community purposes, for the
:01:19. > :01:22.transport links. If you see the buses going in and out at the rush
:01:23. > :01:25.hour, they're full and you are trying to put this place on a map
:01:26. > :01:28.and people would move here and we would have a bigger and stronger
:01:29. > :01:35.community. And we especially need a station. What she and others want is
:01:36. > :01:41.trains overground and a new rail link from Barking to a new station
:01:42. > :01:44.near their homes. So what did the Chancellor indicate today? In the
:01:45. > :01:47.Commons there was a mention. In the south`east where the pressure is
:01:48. > :01:52.greatest, we are going to build new homes in Barking Riverside. The
:01:53. > :01:55.detail of the Budget documents said the Chancellor would work with the
:01:56. > :02:01.mayor to develop proposals. That's not enough says the local council.
:02:02. > :02:03.Very disappointed there's no guarantee and commitment to the
:02:04. > :02:06.investment of ?180 million to deliver the extension of the Barking
:02:07. > :02:10.London over to Barking Riverside. In terms of looking at it, that was the
:02:11. > :02:13.similar position back in the Autumn Statement and we would've hoped the
:02:14. > :02:15.Chancellor and the Treasury would have looked at the options now,
:02:16. > :02:21.analysed and assessed the business case and delivered on the ?180
:02:22. > :02:26.million. Here we have a ready`made solution. Unlocking the potential of
:02:27. > :02:30.this place has become a priority for London's mayor. The Greater London
:02:31. > :02:33.authority jointly owns the land. To the Mayor's critics his is belated
:02:34. > :02:38.recognition in this area's importance. They say he's wasted a
:02:39. > :02:41.few years. And they point out that Ken Livingstone before him had
:02:42. > :02:43.wanted to extend the Docklands Light Railway out here, have three new
:02:44. > :02:52.stations, but Boris Johnson scrapped those plans. The DLR option was too
:02:53. > :02:56.expensive, said the mayor. Some put it at ?750 million, compared to 180
:02:57. > :03:01.for his alternative. Today he claimed it was only a matter of time
:03:02. > :03:05.before the Chancellor approved it. He will sign the check as soon as we
:03:06. > :03:11.are in a position, reasonably to spend the money. From now on what
:03:12. > :03:18.we've got to do, we've got to get the planning, Transport and Works
:03:19. > :03:21.Act in the next couple of years. So discussions continue as to who
:03:22. > :03:31.should pay what, and here they'll only believe it when they see it.
:03:32. > :03:36.Well Tim's here now. So did this budget provide clear signs of
:03:37. > :03:43.investment in more housing? Intentions, yes. But there is a gap
:03:44. > :03:48.in the budget and there is an awful lot to do and agreements to be
:03:49. > :03:54.signed between the Chancellor and the mayor. It is an important site,
:03:55. > :03:58.there is another one, Brent Cross announced. For him to get affordable
:03:59. > :04:06.housing targets, or closer to his targets, and in the case of Barking,
:04:07. > :04:08.he owns the land. Is it possible talk of rivalry between the mayor
:04:09. > :04:13.and the Chancellor as they think about their next political move?
:04:14. > :04:23.People think it could affect things like that. Was it an expected to
:04:24. > :04:29.invest in another air ambulance? Yes, a second air ambulance. It is
:04:30. > :04:33.going to fill in for the one that is there now, when it is being
:04:34. > :04:42.maintained. But it is for one year only so far. The service is much
:04:43. > :04:45.appreciated and well needed. A cyclist who hit a pothole and
:04:46. > :04:47.fractured his skull has been awarded nearly ?70,000 at the High Court.
:04:48. > :04:50.Alan Curtis took Hertfordshire County Council to court. He went
:04:51. > :04:53.over the handlebars of his bike while swerving to avoid a pothole
:04:54. > :04:57.leaving him, his injuries left him with hearing and memory problems.
:04:58. > :04:59.Richard Slee has more. They spent most of Sunday working on
:05:00. > :05:01.the arm. There's two plates in there. Alan Curtis is still
:05:02. > :05:05.suffering the effects of his accident four and a half years after
:05:06. > :05:08.it happened. He also has hearing and memory loss. But says if he wasn't
:05:09. > :05:13.wearing his helmet, it could have been much worse. I must have landed
:05:14. > :05:17.on the left side of my head and the helmet took the impact. Completely
:05:18. > :05:20.cracked, in fact there is a whole lump missing from that, but it did
:05:21. > :05:26.its job. Alan was in training for a charity bike ride when he hit a
:05:27. > :05:31.pothole here. The road surface was repaired a long time ago but the
:05:32. > :05:33.basis of Alan's claim is that the council failed in its legal
:05:34. > :05:40.obligation to look after the road properly. And at the High Court this
:05:41. > :05:43.afternoon, a judge agreed. In awarding Alan ?69,000 in damages,
:05:44. > :05:47.the judge said the pothole was a category one defect that should have
:05:48. > :05:50.been repaired and that there was a breach of duty when the road was
:05:51. > :05:59.inspected by council officials just a few months earlier. I have
:06:00. > :06:04.suffered permanent injuries and they are a little bit life changing. I do
:06:05. > :06:09.think that someone had to be held account for that. I think it's
:06:10. > :06:14.appropriate the council have been found negligent. Alan's solicitor
:06:15. > :06:19.said this judgement is good news for London's cyclists. This is a case
:06:20. > :06:22.that will make the authorities sit up and take notice of the
:06:23. > :06:26.obligations they have under the Highways Act 1980. In a statement
:06:27. > :06:31.Hertfordshire County Council said simply, it was disappointed with the
:06:32. > :06:35.judgement. No doubt it will soon be helping to spend some of the ?200
:06:36. > :06:44.million for pothole repair that was announced in today's budget.
:06:45. > :06:45.That's all from the late team. We're back in Breakfast tomorrow, but
:06:46. > :06:57.here's the weather. There is a change on the way. After
:06:58. > :07:03.the rain on Thursday night it will turn colder. We will see it clouding
:07:04. > :07:07.over as the night goes on. A breeze blowing as well and it will be
:07:08. > :07:11.pretty frost free. Five or six degrees and a bit of cloud to start
:07:12. > :07:16.tomorrow. It looks like it will thin and break with brightness through
:07:17. > :07:20.the morning. The wind will be picking up and it will become gusty
:07:21. > :07:25.as the day goes on, it clearly as the rain draws closer. It will get
:07:26. > :07:31.to London at five or six o'clock in the evening. As it goes through the
:07:32. > :07:32.night it will be heavy in places. This is the
:07:33. > :07:34.night it will be heavy in places. This is the outlook: Bright enough
:07:35. > :07:35.for Friday and the weekend but much colder and some of the showers could
:07:36. > :07:58.have a wintry nature. Cloud coming in from the Atlantic.
:07:59. > :08:02.When it moves through we will get cooler conditions with lively
:08:03. > :08:08.showers. But mild overnight with the south-westerly breeze dragging cloud
:08:09. > :08:12.across England and Wales. As you can see the heaviest rain and strongest
:08:13. > :08:16.winds overnight are confined to Scotland and northern Ireland. Wet
:08:17. > :08:21.and windy here but it is an mild night with the cloud cover and
:08:22. > :08:26.breeze. But, a miserable start to the day in Scotland. Wet and windy,
:08:27. > :08:32.gusty wind through the central lowlands in the morning. Up to 60
:08:33. > :08:34.miles an hour and maybe more than that over some of the hills. Not
:08:35. > :08:37.pleasant in the morning rush-hour and not pleasant in Northern Ireland
:08:38. > :08:39.either. In England and Wales,