11/01/2018 BBC News at One

Patients are dying in

hospital corridors -

the stark warning from A&E doctors

to the Prime Minister.

Almost 70 heads of department

in England and Wales have written

to Theresa May saying conditions

are at times intolerable

despite the best efforts of staff.

I think I was trolley

number 12 and two more

people came in after me.

Then they said they can't take any

more trolleys so the ambulance

was having to wait outside.

Also this lunchtime:

Eliminate all avoidable plastic

waste within 25 years says

says the Prime Minister,

as she announces a new government

drive on the environment.

A woman has appeared in court

charged with murder,

after police found a body buried

in a garden in Greater Manchester.

Searching for survivors -

17 people are still missing

after the mudslides

and flash floods in southern

California that left 17 dead.

And how former England captain

Rio Ferdinand put Prince William

on the spot over Harry's wedding.

Coming up in sport...

Britain's Johanna Konta faces

a testing opening match

in the Austalian Open next week

against American Madison Brengle.

Good afternoon and welcome

to the BBC news at One.

Doctors have warned

the Prime Minister that patients

are dying in the corridors

of accident and emergency units

in England and Wales.

The heads of 68 A&E departments have

written to Theresa May saying

that the current level of safety

compromise is at times intolerable

despite the best efforts of staff.

And they say that thousands

of patients are waiting for hours

in ambulances because hospitals

don't have enough space.

Our health correspondent

Catherine Burns reports.

Is that the one that you want?

Yeah.

Rosie Dawson was in severe pain

when she went to A&E last week.

She had a gynaecological problem

and was bleeding heavily,

but the hospital was so busy

that she was examined

on a trolley in a busy corridor.

I think I was trolley number 12

and there were trolleys

going all the way up.

You can't see to someone's dignity,

you can't ensure they are having

a private conversation and that

if they break down in tears,

which I think I did,

I think I'm pretty sure that I cried

as well, but you can't look

into anybody's kind of right

to privacy or anything like that.

Today doctors from almost

half the A&E units

in England and Wales

have

written to the Prime Minister,

saying that plans for the winter had

failed to deliver anywhere

near what was needed.

They talk about patients dying

in hospital corridors under

intolerable conditions.

In terms of these winter pressures

that we see the NHS under,

there have been a number of measures

that we have taken that have helped.

For example, for the first time

ever, urgent GP appointments

being available throughout

the Christmas period.

But still, figures from NHS England

show that at some point last week,

just 3% of hospital trusts

in England had enough beds free

to provide safe care.

They are supposed to have no more

than 85% of beds occupied,

but on Thursday, just four out

of 137 trusts were below that safe

level. To add to this, more

statistics showing

that the symbol was the worst month

for A&E waiting times

since records began in 2004.

3,000 patients in England

were not seen within

the four-hour waiting target.

And so, a warning that this

is a watershed moment for the NHS.

We have now clearly reached

the point where the NHS cannot meet

the standards of care that we would,

all of us in the NHS,

ministers included, want to provide.

So the key question is,

do we abandon those standards,

and none of us in the NHS will do

that, or does the Government make

the decisions it needs to make

about the long-term funding and it

needs to make those

decisions quickly.

Authorities in Wales and Northern

Ireland say they are under pressure

too and A&E waiting times in

Scotland hit their worst ever levels

at the end of December.

The message from health

care professionals is

that despite staff's best efforts,

the NHS is chronically underfunded

and the Government must act soon.

Catherine Burns, BBC News.

Let's speak to our health editor.

This letter is quite a moment, it

really is quite a letter from people

at the front line of all of this.

That's right, we have had a series

of warnings from Royal colleges

representing doctors and a warning

from NHS providers, which you heard

there just now about the watershed

moment. These are front-line senior

doctors employed by trusts who have

taken it upon themselves to get

together a letter which they say

represents the views of staff that

they work with because they are so

concerned. They have sent it to the

Prime Minister. The fact that they

are at the front line in emergency

departments are saying there are

very serious concerns about safety,

that some people are dying

prematurely because they are having

to be managed in corridors, I think

is very significant. And they are

saying whatever the Prime Minister

has been saying in recent days,

there was not in their view enough

preparation or planning for winter.

They say the solution lies in more

money for social care to help

discharge patients from hospitals.

It has to be said the 68 signature

is don't represent all hospitals in

England and Wales. I understand some

senior doctors were asked to sign it

but didn't, but it is an interesting

view of how people see things on the

front line. The Department of Health

is making clear there are a lot more

A&E consultants than they're worth

in 2010, more money has been made

available over the next couple of

years, but the new debate is getting

going over the long-term and

short-term future of the NHS in

terms of funding and social care.

Hugh Pym, thank you.

If you want to find out

how your local hospital

is performing you can use the BBC's

NHS Tracker at

www.bbc.co.uk/nhstracker.

The Prime Minister has pledged

to eliminate avoidable plastic waste

within 25 years as part

of a far-reaching plan

to improve Britain's environment.

She has urged supermarkets

to introduce aisles where

shoppers can buy products

with no plastic packaging.

A small charge for disposable

plastic bags will also be

extended to all shops,

not just big retailers.

Theresa May called plastic waste

"one of the great environmental

scourges of our time".

But environmentalists have

criticised the plans

saying they lack urgency,

detail and bite.

Here's our environment

analyst, Roger Harrabin.

There's huge public anxiety

about plastic litter, since David

Attenborough's Blue Planet series

revealed sea creatures eating

plastic waste.

The Prime Minister's surfing

that wave of concern -

aiming for votes from young people

who care deeply about the

environment they will inherit.

While the water in our

rivers and beaches

are cleaner than ever before,

around the world 8 million tonnes of

plastic makes its way

into the oceans each year.

But is Mrs May being

ambitious enough?

She said all avoidable

plastic waste should be

stopped by 2042.

That is 25 years from now.

Environmentalists are not impressed.

We don't think it's urgent

enough, we don't think

it's robust enough and we don't

think it's detailed enough.

The oceans, which are

bearing the brunt

of our addiction to throwaway

plastic, can't wait

25 years for pollution.

25 years for solutions.

But plastics form just part

of the the Government's 25-year

plan for the environment

launched today.

The environment is something

personal to each of us.

But it is also something

which collectively we

hold in trust for

the next generation.

And we have a responsibility

to protect and enhance it.

But it's a crowded

island we live on.

Woodlands, like here

at Lodge Hill in Kent, have

been decimated over the decades.

This is the UK's prime

site for nightingales,

but the local council wants to build

much-needed

houses on part of it.

If housing development was to go

ahead at Lodge Hill, it

would constitute the biggest

destruction of one of our finest

wildlife sites for 25 years.

And at a time when

the government has

clearly expressed a commitment to

restoring nature, it seems madness

to conceive, let alone to consent

to such a development.

A walk in the woods is good

for your mental

and physical health.

The government's acknowledged that.

It wants to increase

woodland cover, especially

near where people live.

It wants to bring back wild flower

meadows and improve

rare habitats like heathlands.

But the pressure's

on for development.

We have a housing target

we have to meet of 29,500

between now and 2035 -

huge demand in Medway

and in North Kent for housing,

affordable housing and a

whole housing mix, and those houses

have to go somewhere.

There's pressure on

the natural world from

road-building too.

The Department for Transport

can't foresee a time

when new roads won't be needed.

The rail line HS2 will damage

many ancient woodlands.

And the farmers' union

is demanding that all prime

agricultural land is kept for

farming, not wildlife,

to maximise food output.

But the Government's plan

for nature will attempt to

bring some nature back to farmland

and replenish depleted soils.

Environmentalists welcome

the Government's plans to restore

Britain's nature, but the problem

they say that is so far

it is just a plan.

To really convince them,

ministers would need to introduce

legislation and there

seems no sign of that.

Our assistant political editor

Norman Smith is at the wetlands

Centre in south-west London weather

Prime Minister gave her speech this

morning. So the Prime Minister's

first big speech of the year, why

the environment why now?

You are

right, it might seem surprising in

the sense Mrs May has never been

noted for her views on the

environment, particularly given the

current how all around the NHS, that

she has chosen her first big speech

on the green agenda. Partly they

believe it will be popular, there is

a sense in Government that people

are increasingly exasperated by the

sheer volume of plastic packaging we

have to put up with. Everything from

the proverbial coffee cup to fruit

and veg safely wrapped in

cellophane, to every time you order

something online incomes in blankets

of packaging, and a desire to change

that. Secondly the political climate

has changed. When David Cameron

tried to pursue a green agenda he

ran into ferocious opposition from

many other Conservatives, certainly

many Conservative supporting

newspapers. Now they have done an

about turn and they are fully behind

the green agenda. Lastly there is a

desire to talk about something other

than Brexit. The non-Brexit domestic

agenda, and in particular one that

appeals to younger voters. Research

has shown that one of the issues

that concern is most younger voters

is, yes, the environment. Norman

Smith in south-east London, thank

you.

Christmas sales figures

for retailers have presented

a mixed bag this season.

Marks & Spencer sales fell over

the key Christmas period,

while Tesco reported

record festive trade.

A number of major retailers have

alluded to difficulties

in the market and tough trading

conditions.

Our Business Correspondent

Emma Simpson reports now

on the winners and losers.

It worked out all right in the end,

didn't it?

It did too for Britain's

biggest retailer. Despite problems

with their turkeys, Tesco's

Christmas sales were up. Food has

long been a bright spot for Marks &

Spencer, their premium product, but

this Christmas quarter sales went

into reverse.

There is food

inflation and we also buy a lot of

food over Christmas because of

entertaining and just eating, so it

is very disappointing that marks and

Spencer hasn't matched the rest of

the grocers and I think it's a lot

to do with its competition producing

very good premium ranges at low

prices so it is up against a

challenging market, and its clothing

hasn't been doing well either.

Christmas feels like a long time ago

now. For retailers, it can be make

or break. On the high street it's

been incredibly

been incredibly challenging.

Consumers have less money to spend.

House of Fraser has been really

feeling the pressure. It has seen

another fall in sales today, but as

ever there are winners and losers

and this one is in the winner 's

camp.

There is demand there, you

just have to find it and create the

conditions in which people want

things and that comes down to having

fabulous products. It means being

brilliant in terms of experience

people get in your shops has never

been more important, and it means

you have to get outstanding at

online shops and that is something

we work very hard to do.

In

Nottingham shoppers seem to be

careful in parting with their cash.

I had a budget and we tried to stick

to it as far as possible.

I did it

all online because I didn't want to

be in the rush of everyone.

I

normally look at deals with pop-up,

normally on Facebook or a certain

site will be doing e-mails and then

I have a look.

No surprise then that

online accounted for a quarter of

non-food shopping last month. A

small but fast-growing retailer,

Boohoo, expects growth of 90% this

year. That is something they can

only dream of on the high street.

The sales are on, after a quarter

that has been far from Golden, and

this year could be just as tough as

the last one.

A woman has appeared in court

charged with murder,

after police found a body buried

in a garden in Greater Manchester.

Barbara Coombes, who's 63,

is also charged with preventing

the lawful and decent burial

of a body, and with fraud.

Let's speak to our

correspondent, Judith Moritz.

This was a short hearing, just three

minutes or so and Barbara Coombes,

wearing glasses and a fleece jumper,

spoke to confirm her personal

details. She is charged with

murdering

murdering Kenneth Coombes in 2006

and she is accused of burying his

body and writing official letters

and pretending to be his care to

claim money. It is understood

Kenneth Coombes is her father. Her

neighbours this week were asked by

police whether they remember him, he

would have been in his late 80s, in

2005. The police say at the weekend

that a 63-year-old went into a

police station and told officers she

had killed a man some years ago and

she had buried him in the garden. A

forensic search began and human

remains were recovered from Barbara

Coombes's garden. They have not been

officially identified. The results

of a postmortem have not been

released. Barbara Coombes has been

charged with murder and she will

reappear before a court tomorrow

morning. The charges will be

presented to her again.

Thank you.

Our top story this lunchtime...

A&E doctors warn the Prime Minister

that patients are dying

in corridors because conditions

are at times intolerable.

And coming up...

Why the video blogger, who's watched

by millions around the world,

is now being punished by YouTube.

Coming up in sport...

England's One-Day captain

Eoin Morgan impresses ahead

of their series against Australia,

with a five-wicket win over

a Cricket Australia 11.

In California, rescue teams

are searching for 17 people

who are still missing

after the flash floods

and mud slides on Tuesday.

17 people are known to have died

when a torrent of mud, carrying

boulders the size of small cars,

smashed through the

town of Montecito.

Over 100 homes have been destroyed.

The area in Santa Barbara County was

only just recovering from the recent

devastating wildfires.

Our North American correspondent,

James Cook, is there.

In Montecito, they are still combing

the ruins, looking for survivors.

But with every hour that

passes, hope fades.

The surge of mud and debris

was just too powerful.

It consumed everything before it,

turning homes to matchwood.

We had, you know, between us,

a dear friend that didn't make it.

He lives upstream.

And that was brutal.

They got blown right

out of the house.

His wife is still alive.

The kids are traumatised, of course.

It came really close.

It came right up to our hedges.

Thank God that it didn't take

out our homes or our car

and our children are safe.

But, yeah, our neighbours

weren't as fortunate.

More than 500 firefighters and other

rescue teams have been

working around the clock,

hoping beyond hope that they

can still save lives.

I have been a firefighter

for 26 years.

Yeah, for most people that

are here on this incident, we have

never seen an event like this.

Parts of the town are still cut off,

but some residents have been

returning to inspect the damage.

The house being gone

is just a house, you know.

It's just some clothes in a house.

But in a neighbourhood this small,

every single name that turns

up is someone's dad,

someone's cousin, someone's teacher,

and that's got to be

the worst part of it all,

I think.

I'm just happy for

everyone that makes it.

The sky lit up because some

buildings had blown up.

The gas mains, it turns out.

Here is all this fire coming

down, and fire going up,

and here is all this rain coming

down, and you wonder,

what's happening?

I mean, it was an

incredible experience.

That was the bunny that

I missed catching.

Oh, my gosh.

I was in the kitchen,

trying to get out through the back

when we saw the wall

of water coming.

I couldn't reach her.

We had our dog.

Grabbed our dog.

We grabbed our dog by the collar

but missed the cats and the cat

and the bunny and the water hit

and knocked out...

Went through our house,

took everything.

But somehow, in the cage...

The firefighters found her

and we found this on top of our car.

I thought I would find a dead bunny

in it, but she was alive.

Amazing.

The mudslide didn't just

claim lives, it paralysed

this part of California.

This is the main motorway along

the Pacific coast, the 101 Freeway.

Police say it will not be open

until Monday at the earliest.

The trauma will last much longer.

James Cook, BBC News, Montecito.

Let's speak to the CBS

correspondent, Carter Evans,

who's in Montecito.

The middle of the night there now,

our rescue workers still hoping to

find people alive?

They are still

hoping to find people alive right

now, this is still a rescue effort,

not a recovery effort. James talk to

people talking about being blown out

of their homes. I want to try to

explain the scale of this. The

pictures really do not do it

justice. This happened at about 4am,

people were asleep. Everyone says

they heard rumbling and a mudslide

hits the wall of the home, it is not

just mugged, rocks and boulders like

this one, but this is a small

boulder. A lot of the rocks and

boulders were the size of small

cars. Just imagine what that would

be like. The best way I can think of

to describe it is imagine if you

took a home and put it on a giant

bowling alley and you took the huge

boulders, dozens, perhaps hundreds,

and tossed them at the house, that

is what happened here.

Extraordinary

pictures from Montecito in southern

California, thank you for joining

us.

Universal Credit is the biggest

welfare reform in decades.

But teachers and charities

are warning that the new benefit

could cause chaos in the provision

of free school meals in England.

They believe that plans to link

eligibility for the free meals

to household earnings,

which often fluctuate,

will also undermine the core

principal of the universal credit

that work always pays.

Our social affairs correspondent,

Michael Buchanan, reports.

Breakfast time at a south London

School, a handy aid to working

families and those struggling to get

by. Around half the pupils here get

free school meals, a by-product of

getting certain benefits. But

Universal Credit which families can

move on and off when earnings change

could make it hard for the school to

know who is eligible.

It would be

very complicated for the school and

we would find it hard to monitor and

follow. Parents would not

understand. One week we are asking

for money, the following month, we

are not. It is confusing for the

school, parents, not a good way of

doing it.

The school has invested

heavily in giving children healthy

food, currently all families who get

Universal Credit can get free school

meals. The Department for Education

plans to restrict provision. In

future, and the families whose

earnings are less than £7,400 a year

before benefits will qualify -- when

the families. The school has a

complete commitment to healthy

eating, it has its own garden for

growing vegetables, it has even got

chickens for fresh eggs. What

campaigners say is that the

consultation was an opportunity for

the Government to reassess free

school meals, to see them not as a

cost but as an investment in the

future and to help tackle in

particular the growing problem of

childhood obesity. As Universal

Credit is rolled out across the

country, ministers say it is an

affordable to give all families on

the benefit free school meals, it

would cost about £600 million. They

say their plans will see 50,000 more

children getting free food than

currently do so, but charities take

a different view of the planned

restrictions.

There is evidence it

increases attainment, concentration

in the afternoon, and for most of

the children in poverty, it can mean

the difference between getting a

nutritious meal in that day and not

getting anything at all.

A

consultation on these plans for

England ends today, similar

restrictions have been announced for

Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Whatever the benefits of free school

meals, the cost of extending

provision is decided policy. Michael

Buchanan, BBC News, south London.

The trial of ex-football coach

Barry Bennell on charges of child

sexual offences has heard

from a former youth footballer

who says he was abused

by Bennell as they travelled

to and from training

at Manchester City.

The former coach, who's now

known as Richard Jones,

denies 48 charges of

child sexual abuse.

Our sports correspondent,

David Ornstein, has been

hearing the evidence

at Liverpool Crown Court.

This is the second day of evidence

against Bennell who has been

described by the prosecution as a

predatory paedophile. The witness

that spoke today, as you said, he

received lifts to and from

Manchester City training after being

scouted by Bennell and he said the

abuse started in Bennell's car and

happened 98% of the time that he was

in the car and it allegedly

escalated at Bennell's house, after

watching horror movies which were

said to be used as a scare tactic by

Boeing. He said he was abused over

100 times in his bed and 50-100

times in his living room -- by

Bennell. When they were alone, the

abuse wasn't a serious sexual abuse,

it is alleged. I will never forget

the first time, I was crying in

pain, I felt it lasted for hours,

but maybe two, three minutes. He may

have stopped because I was crying so

much. The abuse is said to have

continued at Butlins and also a

haunted house. After the lunch

break, this witness will be

cross-examined and the trial

continues. It is expected to last

for eight weeks.

David, thank you.

Two men are on the run in France

after taking part in a

smash-and-grab raid

on the Ritz Hotel in Paris.

Three other members of the gang

were caught at the scene,

but the pair who escaped made off

with an estimated £3.5

million worth of jewels,

as Dan Johnson reports.

A large police response outside

the Paris Ritz after a gang,

armed with axes, carried out

a violent raid.

It isn't just the Christmas

lights that sparkle here.

There are jewels on display to match

the wealth of the guests

at one of the world's

most exclusive hotels.

The robbers arrived in Place Vendome

on scooters at around six

in the evening local time,

smashing windows on the ground

floor of the hotel.

It is estimated they took jewels

worth 4 million euros.

But police officers interrupted

the raid and arrested

three of the five men.

Paris has seen this before.

In October, 2016, US reality TV star

Kim Kardashian had a gun put

to her head as a gang stole

10 million euros-worth

of her jewellery.

Only one piece was never seen again.

-- ever seen again.

It is not clear how much

was recovered from this latest raid.

Police are still searching for two

of the men involved.

Don Johnson, BBC News.

Video bloggers, or vloggers

as they're known,

can do big business online on sites

such as YouTube.

Some of the most famous post videos

which are watched by millions

and millions of people

around the world.

But now YouTube has cut some

business ties with the video blogger

Logan Paul, after he was heavily

criticised for posting a video

appearing to show the body

of a suicide victim.

This report from our

correspondent, Chi Chi Izundu.

# Girl, what you trying to do?

# Because I don't have a clue...#

He's one of the most popular video

bloggers on YouTube.

15 million subscribers

watch his comedy vlogs.

But last night, YouTube said

it was cutting some business ties

with Logan Paul over a video

he posted at the end of last month.

The video, which we can't show,

featured the dead body of a man

who appeared to have

taken his own life.

It had been viewed millions of times

before Logan removed

it from his channel.

In a statement, YouTube acknowledged

it had taken a long time to respond,

but that it also had been listening

to comments and criticisms.

It added that it recognised

the actions of one

creator could affect

the whole community and it said it

would soon announce steps to make

sure any similar videos

were never circulated again.

I have made a severe and continuous

lapse of my judgment and I don't

expect to be forgiven.

I'm simply here to apologise.

YouTube said that they would

put on hold projects

with the 22-year-old

and that they would no

longer feature his channel

on the Google Preferred programme.

Effectively, lowering his

advertising profile with top brands.

Logan Paul isn't the only

one being criticised.

Anger is being directed

towards YouTube with questions like,

why they didn't take down

the offending post initially

in the first place, why it took them

so long to even issue a statement

in response, and why his channel

is still up on their platform,

allowing him to make

money from advertising.

At 22 years old, I bought my first

house for $6.5 million...

Last year, Forbes magazine estimated

Logan Paul's wealth at

just over £9 million.

But with YouTube's sanction,

it's still not clear whether that

will shrink considerably.

Chi Chi Izundu, BBC News.

And finally, the former England

captain Rio Ferdinand has managed

to put Prince William on the spot

over Prince Harry's wedding.

They were doing some filming

for a mental health charity

when Rio Ferdinand asked exactly

what he would be doing on 19th May.

There is the matter of a small

wedding that will happen

this year and, of course,

your brother, we're very,

very happy for him.

It's a big decision.

Are we going to Wembley

or are we going...?

You've touched on something

there, Rio, yeah.

I'm still working it out.

Will see what I can do.

I think, you know, having that

person there, I think it's kind

of apt you are talking about a best

man project, so to speak.

That relationship that you have...

He hasn't asked me yet.

LAUGHTER.

It could be a sensitive issue.

He hasn't asked him yet! I suspect

that might happen quite soon.

Time for a look at the weather.

Nice to see some sunshine.

Let us hope for some on the 19th of

June as well. It is not sunny

everywhere. This is in the Highlands

with the snowcapped mountains in the

background. Always a but with the

British weather, grey weather once

again, Scarborough, many eastern

areas under the cloud, raining quite

steadily in south-eastern parts of

England. Sunshine further west.

Stubborn fog for Northern Ireland,

some parts of East Anglia. Through

the night, it will thicken up. The

brightness lasts for the next few

hours, but where we get the

brightness, we get fog overnight. In

eastern areas, with the weather

front getting weaker, a few breaks

and fog here. In the countryside,

like last night, down towards

freezing. Freezing fog for the drive

tomorrow. Some hope of it lifting

earlier than in recent days for

Northern Ireland, stiffening breeze

through the day. A good Delos and

gender start across Scotland, albeit

rather cold, with the fog -- a good

deal of sunshine to start. Down

towards the West Country, Central

and southern England, Wales. But it

will not be football. A few drizzly

showers around. Quite a bit of cloud

tomorrow -- but it will not be for

all. This is the change. By the end

of play tomorrow. Friday night, it

will turn quite wet for Northern

Ireland. That will alleviate fog

problems. Quite bank on Saturday.

Showers ahead of it, a lot of cloud,

some brightness, as the weather

front starts to weaken and narrow.

Temperatures on a par with what we

are seeing at the moment. Hopefully

not as much of the fog over the

weekend because we have more breeze

but it does not stop it being rather

cloudy. The first weather front is

swapped by the next one coming in on

Sunday. A lot of cloud, dry weather,

but it signifies a change. The spell

of heavy rain, gale force winds

Sunday night into on Monday going

east. Behind it, a blast of cold

air. It will feel bitter, Dale,

severe gales. The risk of some snow.

Just to reiterate once again, the

main issue will be the fog this

evening and overnight.

A reminder of our main

story this lunchtime.

A&E doctors issue a stark warning

to the Prime Minister that

conditions in their departments

are at times intolerable,

And patients are dying in corridors.