18/04/2014 BBC London News

on the BBC News Channel. I'll be back with the late news at 10pm

Now, the news where you are. Goodbye.

The mayor of one of five London boroughs, criticised by the

government for spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on free

newspapers, has said he has no intention of getting rid of the

paper in his area. Sir Robin Wales, the directly elected Mayor of

Newham, argues it's good value for money and popular with residents.

The Communities and Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles has

threatened to shut the council publications, accusing them of

peddling propaganda using t`x payers money. Richard Slee reports.

The Newham Mag is published every two weeks, and is delivered free of

charge to 100,000 residents in East London. It's also one of thd

magazines produced by Labour`controlled councils targeted

by Eric Pickles as propaganda on the rates, because of the frequdncy of

their publication. In a statement, Mr Pickles said:

But the Mayor of Newham says his

magazine is a vital local sdrvice, and he won't scrap it.

If we did away with this we would have to do hundreds and hundreds of

different leaflets, people wouldn't necessarily read them. When we asked

people, 75% are telling us they get a lot of information from it. Since

we produced it, we've gone from 41% saying they're well`informed to 75%.

So people are telling us, thank you, we want to know what's going on in

our community. Sir Robin also rejects crithcism

that free council papers ard driving local newspapers out of bushness.

But the shop owner here says that these days he doesn't sell lany

local papers. Most of the ptblishers say the free magazines and papers

like this do take away their advertising revenue.

Most of the Newham residents we spoke to said they do read the free

magazine and they would miss it What do you think of it? It's not

too bad. It's good informathon. I like to have a read. It is

interesting to know what's going on. The five councils ` Newham,

Greenwich, Hackney, Waltham Forest and Tower Hamlets ` have two weeks

to justify their publications, and explain why legal proceedings should

not be taken against them. Designer handbags worth thotsands of

pounds each have been stolen during a ram`raid at the Chanel store in

West London. Thieves drove ` stolen car through a window at the front of

the shop in Brompton Road, hn the early hours of this morning. Police

say no`one was hurt during the raid, and has urged anyone with

information to come forward. Concerns have been raised over the

Environment Agency's decision to grant a new licence to a wood

recycling company at a wastd site in Hertfordshire, where a largd fire

broke out in 2012. Protestors claim the new company has links to the

former operators who were fhned for breaching safety rules. The

Environment Agency insists there are no operational links between the two

companies, and the site will be strictly monitored.

For the fifth year in a row, Trafalgar Square has been

transformed into the Jerusalem of two millenniums ago. An 80`strong

cast from Surrey's Wintersh`ll Players and livestock have performed

the Passion of Christ. The group's epic performances of the life of

Jesus started as humble plaxs in a barn in the grounds of the

Wintershall estate, but thex now attract a 20,000 strong crowd

annually in central London. Tarah Welsh reports. It might be one of

the oldest stories but thousands came along to see it brought the

life. It is rare to see a crowd of this

size sitting quietly in the centre of London, but for 90 minutds young

and old seemed focussed on the action.

Which graphically tells the Bible story.

He is killed, murdered. Crucified. Now I think one has to show that, as

unpleasant as it was. Otherwise you could argue it is almost a blasphemy

if you pull punches. This started as a Nativity play in a barn 23 years

ago, but no the players perform all over the world. It is wonderful I

am be bibbing to see famili`r face, we have been here four years and

seen old friends coming. Now we are getting more people from an broad

that are coming to celebratd here. James is a professional actor, the

rest are volunteers. There `re 7 cast members and that is not

including Chester the donkex. I got him out of field. He was like, I am

ready, let's go. Off to London. Today being Good Friday, it is a

good time and a good place to be. Very moving, touching, I I shed a

few tears. It seems this is one story that continues to movd people.

And now the latest Easter wdather. So far so good for the start of the

Easter weekend. Although out of sun and in the breeze it felt chilly and

through the night it will ttrn cold and the clearing sky, there will be

a widespread ground frost developing, particularly in more

rural spots. Sunny spells tomorrow, because there will be patchx cloud,

and there will be one or two hit`and`miss showers popping up late

morning, lunchtime into the first part of the aftertyphoon. There is a

nagging breeze with a chill, when the sun disappears behind the

clouds. Top temperatures rotnd 4 C. Still expecting some rain come to in

on Sunday, with the freshenhng wind and cloud and a risk of a fdw

showers on Easter Monday. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

And that is all from me for now I will be back at 10.15, for now have

a very good evening. Today we have seen temperatures

rising if Scotland but again tonight, with the clear skies and

light wind temperatures will fall sharply, and for many of us, we are

looking at a touch of frost. The satellite picture tells a story

nicely. This belt of cloud is sitting in the far north-west of

Scotland, we have had this cloud bubbling up across eastern areas and

with the northerly wind it has felt cold in East Anglia. That cloud is

going to melt away, we will get an easterly breeze picking the cloud

back in again later in the night in eastern areas and we still have this

cloud and rain in the far north west of Scotland, but for most we will

have clear sky, light wind, Ness are the temperatures in towns and city,

spin it round into the countryside, you can see it is colder, close to

freezing, it could be down to minus three or four in Scotland. Saturday,

that band of cloud and rain isn t moving anywhere. We will see the

breeze dragging in more cloud into eastern areas in the morning,

pushing into