Browse content similar to 01/04/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Dan, thank you. That's all from us. Now, | :00:00. | :00:13. | |
Good evening. The mayor of Tower Hamlets, accused of diverting public | :00:14. | :00:18. | |
grants for electoral gain, has hit back at the BBC claiming the | :00:19. | :00:21. | |
allegations are driven by racism and Islamophobia. Last night's Panorama | :00:22. | :00:26. | |
found that Lutfur Rahman, the Bangladeshi mayor of Tower Hamlets, | :00:27. | :00:28. | |
has more than doubled funding for Bengali and Somali`run charities and | :00:29. | :00:37. | |
cut funding for other organisations. Mr Rahman categorically denies that | :00:38. | :00:40. | |
this was done in return for support in a forthcoming election. Alex | :00:41. | :00:45. | |
Bushill reports. It is a borough whose politics has long been mired | :00:46. | :00:48. | |
in controversy and today its mayor and the BBC exchanged allegations of | :00:49. | :00:53. | |
cronyism and racism. I shall work for you and each and every member of | :00:54. | :00:59. | |
Tower Hamlets. Lutfur Rahman is the independent mayor who stands accused | :01:00. | :01:01. | |
by Panorama of favouring Bengali and Somali charities with council | :01:02. | :01:04. | |
funding, rising by 140% from ?1.5 million to ?3.6 million. While other | :01:05. | :01:13. | |
organisations saw their's drop by 25%. Not so say one of the biggest | :01:14. | :01:20. | |
beneficiaries, Saint Peter's Bengali Association. It runs this lunch club | :01:21. | :01:24. | |
and its manager told us they've been favoured by councils of all | :01:25. | :01:28. | |
political persuasions. Not just this mayor. Before him, Labour was here. | :01:29. | :01:32. | |
They fund us. Before them, the Lib Dems were here. They fund us. I | :01:33. | :01:37. | |
think it's racist what they are saying because he's Bangladeshi. | :01:38. | :01:42. | |
They think he only gives only to the Bangladeshi. What about the white | :01:43. | :01:46. | |
organisations? He gives to everyone. This charity worker has lived in the | :01:47. | :01:50. | |
borough for over 30 years. He worries if he speaks out his | :01:51. | :01:52. | |
organisation will have its funding cut further. And told me the process | :01:53. | :01:56. | |
of applying is now unaccountable and confusing. There was no comment from | :01:57. | :01:59. | |
Tower Hamlets Town Hall today. The mayor refusing to be interviewed. | :02:00. | :02:01. | |
Instead he released a statement saying the picture painted by | :02:02. | :02:04. | |
Panorama bore no resemblance to any auditor inspection which has been | :02:05. | :02:09. | |
carried out. He said actually, far from favouring the Bengal or Somali | :02:10. | :02:11. | |
community, they receive less than half the amount of grants that they | :02:12. | :02:15. | |
should as a proportion of the overall population of the borough. | :02:16. | :02:20. | |
He went on to accuse the BBC of Islamaphobia and campaigning on | :02:21. | :02:22. | |
behalf of his opponents in next month's local and mayoral elections. | :02:23. | :02:29. | |
Last night the BBC apologised unreservedly after a list of secret | :02:30. | :02:32. | |
sources from the documentary were leaked to him by one of the | :02:33. | :02:34. | |
researchers. Nonetheless, the programme makers defended their | :02:35. | :02:39. | |
journalism. We have checked our figures on a number of occasions and | :02:40. | :02:45. | |
we are satisfied they are robust. And, in the course of time, they | :02:46. | :02:48. | |
will be presented to the Department of Communities of local government | :02:49. | :02:51. | |
and no doubt the Secretary of State's own experts will decide | :02:52. | :02:56. | |
whether they are right or wrong. Tonight, the local MP and Labour | :02:57. | :03:00. | |
politician weighed in as well. I think it's irresponsible for the | :03:01. | :03:03. | |
mayor of Tower Hamlets to go around making accusations of racism. He's | :03:04. | :03:08. | |
done it to the Labour Party. He's done it now to the BBC. He's going | :03:09. | :03:12. | |
to run out of people that he doesn't consider racist. The Government has | :03:13. | :03:16. | |
said it will look at Panorama's claims and confirmed it could send | :03:17. | :03:19. | |
inspectors into the borough to investigate. Thousands of people | :03:20. | :03:27. | |
whose homes were flooded over the winter will have access to | :03:28. | :03:29. | |
Government funding from today to help protect their properties. | :03:30. | :03:32. | |
Homeowners can get up to ?5,000 as part of the scheme on top of any | :03:33. | :03:37. | |
money they get from insurers. Alice Bhandhukravi reports. Maggie Hill | :03:38. | :03:43. | |
has her work cut out. Since her home in Old Windsor was flooded, the | :03:44. | :03:46. | |
entire ground floor has had to be stripped and she has had to move | :03:47. | :03:52. | |
out. This was the kitchen. You can see everything is gone. Cupboards, | :03:53. | :03:57. | |
walls, all the units. And that's likely to be expensive, so she will | :03:58. | :04:00. | |
be taking up the Government offer of a grant. I can't say it wouldn't | :04:01. | :04:04. | |
help, but I don't know how far it will go. It's an enormously | :04:05. | :04:09. | |
expensive operation. The whole place had to be gutted on the ground | :04:10. | :04:12. | |
floor. And the plasterboard taken off in rooms it affected. The | :04:13. | :04:18. | |
remnants of the flooding here are as visible as much outdoors as in, from | :04:19. | :04:23. | |
sandbags to sodden lawns. Leonard and June, whose floor had to be | :04:24. | :04:27. | |
replaced, will also be hoping for some financial help. We haven't | :04:28. | :04:31. | |
fully realised how much we need because we haven't finished. So any | :04:32. | :04:37. | |
help is likely to be good for you? Yeah. The carpet was ?1,000. The | :04:38. | :04:43. | |
Abbots, like other homeowners and businesses, will have to apply for | :04:44. | :04:46. | |
the repair and renew grant through their local council. There is a very | :04:47. | :04:51. | |
simple online application form that they fill in and they present to us | :04:52. | :04:54. | |
what their plan is for a resilience or resistance measure and then we | :04:55. | :04:57. | |
processed that application and then we recover the money from the | :04:58. | :05:03. | |
government. We've already had 13 applications as of an hour ago for | :05:04. | :05:06. | |
something which only went live today. So no shortage of applicants | :05:07. | :05:12. | |
in this borough. Maggie is getting a little help from their friends, and | :05:13. | :05:15. | |
hopefully, a little bit of cash from her council. I am nervous but I have | :05:16. | :05:20. | |
to look forward and hope that things get better soon. Maggie Hill in Old | :05:21. | :05:27. | |
Windsor there. Let's cross to Tarah Welsh, who's in Marlow tonight. Just | :05:28. | :05:39. | |
clarify the details of this scheme? Many areas including this one were | :05:40. | :05:44. | |
affected by those winter floods, but these grants are more about | :05:45. | :05:48. | |
prevention rather than cure. So they will pay for things like flood | :05:49. | :05:52. | |
reducing measures, and that could mean installing a barrier in your | :05:53. | :05:55. | |
driveway or moving your sockets to a higher, safer level. People can | :05:56. | :06:02. | |
claim back for work already done, so who is eligible? Any homeowner or | :06:03. | :06:06. | |
business that was flooded between the 1st of December and yesterday. | :06:07. | :06:09. | |
The government as people don't have to keep that ?5,000 for themselves, | :06:10. | :06:14. | |
communities can invest in something for the entire area. Ultimately, | :06:15. | :06:17. | |
local authorities will administer that money hopefully being some | :06:18. | :06:21. | |
comfort to those affected by the floods. Thank you. More on that | :06:22. | :06:29. | |
story on the BBC News website. It's a very goodnight from me. I'll hand | :06:30. | :06:31. | |
you over to Wendy for the weather. All the warmth has been brought by | :06:32. | :06:41. | |
southeasterly wind but the pollution has as well and tomorrow, across the | :06:42. | :06:45. | |
Home Counties and London, the read it you can see on the map are | :06:46. | :06:50. | |
showing the high pollution levels. Come Thursday, subtle change in the | :06:51. | :06:53. | |
wind direction becomes less of a problem. As we go through the rest | :06:54. | :06:58. | |
of this evening and overnight, there will be some cloud around. One or | :06:59. | :07:03. | |
two showers, but for most of the night, it will be dry with clear | :07:04. | :07:07. | |
skies and the warmth continues into the night as many places settle in | :07:08. | :07:11. | |
double figures. We start tomorrow with some sunshine. It will turn | :07:12. | :07:14. | |
progressively more hazy as we go through the day. The wind will be | :07:15. | :07:20. | |
liked. It will feel warm again thanks to the southeasterly | :07:21. | :07:22. | |
direction. Temperatures will get into the mid to high teens once | :07:23. | :07:30. | |
again. London, 21`22. 102 showers in the afternoon. The outlook, rather | :07:31. | :07:32. | |
cloudy with some rain on Thursday. Good evening. Before we get to the | :07:33. | :07:43. | |
weather details, little bit about the pollution which we have been | :07:44. | :07:46. | |
talking about in the weather reports over the last couple of days. The | :07:47. | :07:52. | |
pollution levels actually during the course of Wednesday, tomorrow, | :07:53. | :07:53. |