06/09/2011 East Midlands Today

This is East Midlands Today with Anne Davies and me, Dominic Heale.

Tonight: on the eve of a crucial inquiry into Bombardier's lost

contract, the Government's accused of an "act of vandalism".

As Bombardier's supplies a struggle, Whitehall is accused of turning its

back on a world-class business. will potentially destroy it and it

is tragic and it is a vandalism. Also tonight, Y Kate and Gerry

McCann want to have their say at the phone hacking inquiry.

Plus the other victims of 9/11, the East Midlands soldiers fighting the

war on terror. I still expect him to come bounding through the door

and it is something I will never get used to.

And ploughing on, have allow farmers cope with the longest dry

Welcome to Tuesday's programme. First tonight, the local businesses

losing out because of Bombardier's failure to win the Thameslink rail

contract. Many fear they'll suffer from the

knock-on effect of reduced sales and lower spending in the Derby

area. One supplier's told us it's going to wipe out their plans to

create new jobs. All this comes on the eve of a

much-anticipated hearing into how the contract came to be awarded to

the German firm Siemens. Mike O'Sullivan can tell us more from

Derby. Good evening, Mike. Good evening. Workers from

Bombardier will be heading down to London on a specially chartered

train tomorrow morning to a select committee of MPs, he will be asking

tough questions about why the Thameslink trains are due to be

built near Dusseldorf instead of Derby. Today, there was more

evidence from the City about how it could suffer from the loss of that

big rail contract. A small engineering fear -- firm at

the heart of the �34 billion -- part of the Bombardier supply chain.

They make lots of things for trains here, the metal strips that hold

down the seeds, grab handles, even the desolation display boards that

you see in front of May. But the loss of the 1.4 billion pound

Thameslink contract at Bombardier means there will be less of work

around. The supply firm employs 45 people. Plans to create another 30

jobs now look like being wiped out. We would have expected to have

taken on another 25-30 staff to cater for the work that we would

have accepted -- expected to have won with Thameslink. These are

still jobs requiring not only existing skills but also training

of staff for the future as well. That won't happen now? If the

decision is not reversed, those 30 jobs will not exist. There are also

concerns from firms not connected with the rail industry. After

Bombardier announced 1,400 job losses. Shown in a survey of

businesses in Derby, by a chamber of commerce. 92% said that

Thameslink contract should have stayed in the UK. 67% say the loss

will mean reduced sales. 61% say they will need to lower spending in

the local economy. The chamber is accusing the Government of ignoring

a world class train maker, risking an important part of manufacturing

in the UK. The Government has done nothing to protect it at all and

the decision it has taken well actually potentially destroy it at,

and that is tragic and it is vandalism. The supply firm has been

around for 50 years. It hopes to be around for another 50, but it is

not sure if Bombardier will be in the City as well.

So a big day tomorrow, who will be on the train to London?

Dominic, a real cross-section of campaigners who all want the

Government to overturn that decision on the Thames TEC

contracts. The workers and management here will be joined by

union representatives, or representatives from the Derby and

Derbyshire Rail Forum that represents the supply its affirm we

had a bad, councillors from all of the main parties in Derby City

Council, and some of the campaigners will be protesting

outside the Houses of Parliament as the select committee goes on.

What will actually happen in the Select Committee?

First up, you could say it would be the case against the Government. It

will be Bombardier themselves appearing first, then an two

academics who have been critical of the way the Government had given

the contract to Siemens, and the Government has said they cannot

reconsider. Then Siemens, the arch rival of Bombardier, they will give

evidence. Next up is the EU's Director General for the internal

market. How the EU rules have been interpreted by the Department for

transfer it is a big controversy. - - transport. Bennett is the star

witness, Philip Hammond, the Transport Secretary -- then it is.

What sort of evidence are we talking about?

Well, they are going to hear oral evidence and then after that, they

might decide to launch a full inquiry into the country's rail

procurement process. If that happens, they could make

recommendations to the Government. The Government doesn't have to

stick by them but they do have to respond within 60 days. The

committee could recommend changes to the way the country plays the

game in these big rail contracts, especially when faced with foreign

competition. It might not tell people in the short term facing

voluntary redundancy or forced redundancy, but what the people in

Derby want to hear is that the Government is prepared to

reconsider this big rail contract. We shall see. Thank you.

Next tonight: then Kate and Gerry McCann have offered to be core

participants in the Leveson Inquiry. The couple don't believe their

phones were hacked, but they're happy to contribute to the wider

inquiry about press standards. Their press spokesman Clarence

Mitchell has already spoken to police about suspicions that his

mobile phone was hacked. Our political correspondent Ross

Hawkins was in court this morning. I spoke to him a little earlier

from our Westminster studio and started by asking what a core

participant actually is. Basically, it is people who believe

they could be central to this issue. Central to the inquiry which is

going on at the moment, looking into all sorts of things, including

not just phone hacking, and it is worth saying that the McCanns did

not believe their own phones were tapped, but much broader issues.

Notably, how the press and broadcast media deal with the

public. They think they can make a contribution to that debate. They

obviously have a unique perspective through what they have had to

undergo and they are going to try and contribute to this inquiry.

What do they want to achieve? What is in their interests are to do it?

In short, nobody contributing necessarily get anything out a bid,

particularly in the first year which will look at the broad issues

of the structure of the press, how it deals with politicians and the

public. You speak to a great deal of money people who have had

dealings with the media, the newspapers, not media people who

suddenly find themselves in the eye of a newspaper storm and they talk

about a tough and difficult times. There are a great many people, the

McCann's included, who want to make sure their experience of that sort

of time is reflected in the evidence given to the judge leading

this inquiry. You mentioned a year, that would

suggest this inquiry will go on for some time.

What the Prime Minister wants is in a year Rossouw to have a report

back, and quite a wide range of issues -- or so. To do with the

structures and the ethics of the way the press works and how it

deals with people. Beyond that, there is another a whole set of

work about what went wrong at News Of The World, and there will be

major limitations on what can be done with that until the police

have finished their investigations. We will leave it there, thank you

very much. Still to come, the sporting passion

that unites a father and a daughter. Yes, after years of supporting

triathletes Hollie Avil, her dad has been inspired to take up the

Police have identified the body of man found in a canal in Nottingham.

The body was found by a member of the public at 6:30 this morning at

Wilford Street in the Meadows. His family have asked for his name not

to be released. Officers say they're not treating the death as

suspicious. A 15-year-old boy will appear in

court again next week after being charged with stabbing a man in

Derby last weekend. The 22-year-old was assaulted outside an off

licence. He suffered stab wounds and remains in a stable condition

in hospital after the incident on Sunnyhill Avenue on Saturday night.

The 15-year-old was arrested the next day.

Everyone knows these are tough economic times - confirmed by a

rise in the most recent unemployment figures - so any

glimmer of hope is to be welcomed. So here is one. On its first

anniversary, a free careers service says it's advised more than 60,000

people in the East Midlands and many people have now found jobs.

Quentin Rayner met one of them. 21-year-old Lauren Buchanan is a

success story. She has recently been given a permanent job as a

purchase Clarke at the cash and carry in Nottingham, a city with

one of the highest Adam Parr rate in the country. I did the same at

another country. -- unemployment rates. They couldn't offer me the

hours I wanted to look after my son. She got in touch with Next Step, a

free step for adults, online face- to-face or on the telephone. It

advises about the way to get jobs, polishing CVs and improving

interview techniques. I thought an interview was one person, but

obviously sometimes you can have a panel of people all firing

questions at you and you don't know what to say. So they help me deal

with that. We need to find a few suppliers and play some orders.

Lauren was lucky and got the second job she went for, despite the tough

times, perseverance paid off. In its first year, Next Step has

offered career advice to more than 60,000 adults in the East Midlands.

54% were aged between 25 and 49. 76% were out of work. So what is

the success rate in finding a job? We have contacted 20,000 so far and

around 20 -- 10,000 have gone into learning all volunteer

opportunities and a further 3,000- 4,000 people got into work. There

is a good deal of jobs that they, more than people think. Lauren may

be in charge of checking paperwork at the moment but she already has

her sights set on becoming a buyer. Next, the lives turned upside down

by the 9/11 attacks in New York. The atrocity almost ten years ago

prompted the war in Afghanistan, where Vicki Holmes from Clifton in

Nottingham, lost her son, Kieron Hill.

He's one of 20 East Midlands soldiers who've been killed in

Helmand Province. She's been speaking to our Social Affairs

We had got the Radio 1, we were in the kiosk in the petrol station on.

-- radio on. It was big news. Little did I know a few years down

the line, it would be devastating me as well. If it wasn't for the

bombings, Patrick wouldn't be out in cannot stand and Kieren would

have been here today. -- Afghanistan. He was only 12 when

the twin towers came down and was looking forward to joining the army

cadets. This was in seven years later when he passed his lance-

corporal exams, a teenager preparing to fight in Afghanistan

for a second time. I was just worried sick, basic impulse of he

had nightmares and things like that, so I knew how it affected him --

basic it. I just thought it would be the same, he would come back the

second time. But he didn't come back alive, he was killed by a

Taliban bomb. His coffin was brought back to Nottingham so he

could be buried with full military honours. He has said to have one of

his friend's mothers that he would be on it to come back in a coffin

with the Union Jack draped over it. Bash on it. So he did believe in

everything he was fighting for, but for me, it was not worth it. I have

lost too much. It has changed my life completely. I still expect him

to come bounding through the door. It is something I will never get

used to. Never. I will never get used to the fact he is not coming

home again. I think to myself, has he died for nothing? Things are

still happening they were hoping to stop, so has he died for nothing,

because things have not been solved?

That's Vicki Holmes speaking to our Social Affairs Correspondent,

Jeremy Ball, who's with us now. Jeremy, obviously, military

families are affected so very deeply by the war on terror. On a

much lesser known, what about the rest of us?

I think the most obvious effects RFU travel by plane, you will have

seen all of the extra security -- are iffy. The chances are you will

have bought some of these little Bagster put your toothpaste and

potions in. -- backs are to putt. Last year, you might remember this.

When the freight terminal got caught up in an al-Qaeda plot last

year. They found a bomb in a printer cartridge, in a parcel from

Yemen. That was being sent to the United States but it was security

services here that dealt with it. It is not only air travel that has

been involved. No, for all of our police forces,

terrorism has become an X -- increasingly expensive priority.

There have been high-profile arrests in this region and they

have had to protect Muslim communities against the backlash

and we will hear tomorrow how they walked a tightrope between keeping

those communities on side and all of us safe.

Still to come on the programme: Remember the scorcher of 1976?

Well, the last seven months have been the driest since then. So how

have farmers coped? We'll be finding out later.

And we may have been lacking the rain over the past few months but

we are certainly not lacking in the wind department. I will have a

fault when the forecast later. In other news, police said they are

growing increasingly concerned about a 46-year-old man missing

from home since yesterday. David field left his home in Sheffield on

Monday morning but he never arrived at work in Nottingham. His car was

found in the park and ride at Phoenix Park.

Here's an interesting statistic. Nearly a third of all accidents on

the road are work-related. And here's another. One in three

company drivers has an accident each year.

The stats come from researchers at the Department of Transport. Now a

safety organisation in Leicestershire is calling on

employers to do more to protect workers when they get behind the

wheel. Tiredness, distractions and time

pressures. The three main causes of accidents on the road. Now the

Institution of Occupational Safety and Health is calling on employers

to do more to protect their staff. Unfortunately, it is still very,

and that companies will pressure drivers to go from A to be very

promptly and will ring them on route to ask where they are, get

there quickly, and people need to think again, because the risks are

out weighed by the benefits. This is why. Research suggests one-third

of traffic accidents are work- related. That amounts to 14 deaths

and 160 serious injuries per week. One in 10 people killed or

seriously injured in the East Midlands were in a goods vehicle.

There is an element of haulage companies out there that are

struggling to make a living up. Thankfully, I don't believe we are

in that, but in terms of pushing drivers, making them drive harder

and longer. I can understand the pressures on the industry, the cost

of fuel and the cost of vehicles and the margins. But companies like

foxes fit their optic lorries with the latest sake -- safety

technology to help protect their drivers. Why have adapted cruise

control which monitors the speed of the vehicle in front and it will

adjust this vehicle's speed to compensate. If the vehicle in front

stops suddenly, it will momentarily apply the brakes in this vehicle.

We also have acted Lane control, this black box, and it monitors the

white lines on a dual-carriageway or a motorway and will alert the

driver fired a buzzer if he treats out of his lane. They are now

calling for all serious work related driving accidents to be

reported to the Health and Safety Executive, so companies are more

accountable. Next tonight, would you or your

company like to run two of Nottinghamshire's best-known

tourist attractions? The County Council is looking for

entrepreneurs and private investors to help manage a new visitor centre

for Sherwood Forest and the water sports centre at Holme Pierrepont.

Geoff Maskell has the details. Running a facility like the

National Watersports Centre isn't always plain sailing. It is two

years since the county council took over managing Holme Pierrepont from

Sport England. When they did, it was making an annual loss of �1.2

million. That has now been cut by a third. We have it -- invested a

significant amount of money, around �400,000, and into a campsite as

well and we are seeing returns on that investment. What the centre

needs is some transformational change, some significant capital

investment. That is where the private sector could come in. The

council insists the two sides are not for sale, they want a part that,

not a buyer. Sherwood Forest needs a centre. It is tired and old and

needs an investor. We need people who can work with us. It is not

about selling them off, we want them viable, enjoyable experiences

for the public of Nottinghamshire. The legend says Robin had kept

Sherwood Forest save for ordinary people -- Robin Hood. Councillors

say today they want access to the public maintained and don't oppose

private sector involvement but insist both sides must remain in

public ownership -- but sides. It will go to Cabinet next week before

being discussed by the full council. If there are any chocolate

factories they want us to run, we are up for that.

Yes, volunteers here-and-now. Time for the sport now, with Colin.

Nottingham hurdler Andy Turner says winning a bronze medal at the World

Championships has given him a huge pre-Olympic boost. It was a

controversial third place - awarded after the original winner was

disqualified - but as Turner arrived back from South Korea and

met his family at the airport, he wasn't worrying about that.

Chris Loader confident. My last three championships, I have taken

medals away. -- loads of confidence. I am looking forward to London. I

have a lot of work to do but I am confident things can go well.

Well, Turner's reached the top - but life as a parent to a young top

athlete is often one of sacrifices. It's a life of ferrying your child

around the country, often at unearthly hours, as they try to

reach the elite. Of course, it has its rewards. Hollie Avil is a

former World Junior Triathlon Champion. And now, as she trains

for London 2012, she's inspired her dad so much that he's taken up the

Triathlon. Give-and-take, a mile swim, 20 mile ride and six-mile run

and one of the fastest sports and growing in the UK. Hollie Avil

loves it and now, so does her dad. I will get the towels. Since she

was eight, Mark was the taxi. For 10 years, his life revolved around

his daughter's training. Then she left home. Dad got me into

triathlon and he wasn't doing it himself at the time but in the back

of my mind, I thought he would start to give it a go. It is in

sight left home and he has had more time on his hands to train. --

since I left. Yes, I got used to getting up at 4:30am to take care

to the Lakes and the swimming pool to swim and suddenly she went off

to love pre-university and I was still getting up at 4:30am, so I

thought I would be useful learning to swim properly -- Loughborough

University. Sunday morning, holly and a bad compete for the first

time together. An open water swim over a mile -- Hollie and her dad.

She is now have competing for Ironman events. In the last two

years, Mark has lost four stone and it needs a whole new wardrobe.

Hollie won the race at a stroll but she has London 2012 on the radar.

Dad came in Sidath dad was first to congratulate her. Well done, you.

That was a surprise. Thanks, Dad! In Beijing, I didn't qualify until

the end of May 2080 so I have been patient and just enjoying racing

and hopefully I will be on top form by the end of this year -- 2008.

Hollie has moved back to Loughborough to train full-time and

if she does make it to London, that will be there at the sidelines,

swimming, biking and running all the way.

If he ever overtakes the, he might enjoy it. -- her.

Just a couple of quick bits of news to finish. Derby County's Chief

Executive has told us that the club will have to move players on before

they can sign any more. Nine players arrived during the summer -

and Tom Glick says any more would unbalance the books.

In cricket, fast bowler Charlie Shrek is leaving Nottinghamshire to

join Kent. Shrek, who was twice player of the year, is keen to get

regular first team cricket. There you are, you are up to date.

I love Hollie's bad. Fantastic. On a grey and windy day

today, it is strange to report that 2011 has a lot in common with a

scorching summer of 1976. I don't remember it! Figures out

today show that across the Midlands, we have had the driest January to

August period for 35 years. So now that this year's harvest is

complete, we sent Mark Heathcote out to a Nottinghamshire farm to

see how they are coping. Peter farms 80 her tears of land.

He has been here for 50 years -- hectors. This year, it has been

strange. The we have had a year of great variation. Will we had a very

harsh winter, and that was followed by a very dry spring which took us

into a drought situation in this region in the East Midlands, and

then through harvest combat it has been a mixed bag of weather forced

up recently, farmers could only stand and watch.

Bash recently, farmers could only stand and watch as they feared

crops would rot in the ground. This year, they could not hardest at all.

It was a hardest of catch it while you can, it was sunshine one moment,

you could get its quality, and the next minute it was raining and we

were back into the shed, so a lot of ground had to go through an

expensive drying system to get it fit. This year has seen the price

of oil seed rape go up by 15%. Barley prices have fallen and wheat

crops have also dropped by 15% on average. The same farming... They

say in farming, no two years are the same at this is the year to

prove all of that. From what I could tell, we are ready for

another harsh winter. Add that is probably what none of us wanted to

hear -- and that. I have read that, another harsh

winter on the way. As if they can tell!

You are supposed to be able to tell by the berries. Sally will know.

You can't expect me to be an expert on that. I was picking blackberries

yesterday so signs of autumn on the yesterday so signs of autumn on the

way and today has felt autumnal. Windy with share was blowing

through. They are fizzling out but the strong winds continuing --

showers. Thank you for this lovely picture of the sunset. If you have

got any photos of the wind, that would be great -- when the photos.

Between January and August, it has been the driest across the East

Midlands since 1976. You have been complaining we have had of rubbish

summer, maybe that it has not been as rubbish as you thought, we are

not lacking in the wind department. Plenty of strong winds, these

isobars squeezing together as they circle around the area of low

pressure. We have seen one or two share was blowing our way through

the day but they are starting to fizzle out nicely -- showers. One

or two isolated showers, over the Peak District, but most places dry

with clear spells. Temperatures not too bad, a little cooler than last

night, 12C as your minimum temperature. We will start with a

much brighter note on Wednesday, sunny spells through the day but

with the chance of an occasional shower into the afternoon. Many

areas getting away with a dry day. We will see rain spreading in later

on in the evening, temperatures around 18 or 19C, but the wind will

not ease off until Wednesday evening. That eases off but we get

further rain starting to spread in and that makes Thursday a rather

wet looking day, even though the wind would be quite as strong. Then

we seem to see a little return of summer come Friday. Although it

will be quite blustery, it will be will be quite blustery, it will be

quite warm, with temperatures into the low twenties.