04/11/2011 East Midlands Today

This is East Midlands Today with Dominic Heale and me, Kylie

Pentelow. Our top story tonight:

Could BMI fall victim to a dogfight between the world's airline giants?

The owner of BA launches a bid for British Midland and its valuable

airport landing slots. For BA, this is a master joke, an

amazing deal because it entrances their position further -- a master

stroke because it entrenches their position.

Also, as a family of seven flee a devastating house fire, a man is

arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.

Plus, our jobs really going begging? We reveal the number of

vacancies in our region. And connected at last, how a

village was transformed just a week Good evening, welcome to Friday's

programme. First this evening, its name is an

East Midlands icon. But tonight there are fears it could disappear

forever from our skies. British Airways wants to take over

loss-making British Midland. If it does, there are fears tonight that

dozens or even hundreds of jobs from this region could go.

Of course, BMI has been German- controlled for three years, but

could it now vanish altogether? Mike O'Sullivan is at BMI's HQ in

Castle Donington. Good evening from East Midlands

airport. An airport that has been associated with the British Midland

group for decades, built by Sir Michael Bishop as a strong,

independent band before being sold to the German carrier Lufthansa a

few years ago. These days it is losing money but British Airways

still wants to buy it. There are concerns for jobs and the future of

well-known names like BMI Baby. It calls itself the no-frills

airline with tiny fairs. But what BMI Baby really fit into the

British Airways family? British Airways admits its primary interest

is getting its hands on BMI Baby's sister companies, BMI International

and BMI regional. One expert believes a change in ownership

could result in job losses here in the East Midlands. BMI employers

thousands of people in the East Midlands and indeed across the UK,

and what this decision does is throw on certain light on many

people's futures. The impressive Donington Hall is the headquarters

of BMI, a company that prides itself on a high reputation for

quality among business travellers. BMI Baby's offices are based near

Midlands Airport -- East Midlands Airport, but with the BMI group

making a big loss last year, the current air loan at -- the current

owner, Lufthansa, has decided to sell. What British Airways wants

his BMI's lucrative slots at Heathrow. We are excited about the

prospect it gives for growth in the UK, for expanding the network will

operate out of Heathrow and providing critical connectivity to

the emerging markets in Asia. Tonight, the British Airways group

said it would decide how it would deal with BMI Baby after the

takeover, which could be in April next year.

Tonight the British Airways group said it was to only to say what

effect there would be on jobs but there are concerned. I am joined by

Colin Whyat from the GMB union. What is the reaction from workers

at the BMI group? It is to shock, in particular at the head office at

Donington Hall, where the news came out today. What are the chances of

BMI Baby being sold off? You cannot see a full-in sized airline like

that being part of a giant like British Airways? At the time being,

we are not sure, but we are looking into whatever is going to happen.

We want to fight for our members' jobs and we hope BMI Baby will

remain in the East Midlands. have concerns about highly skilled

workers in the BMI Baby group based at East Midlands airport? On the

back of the dreadful news in Derby about Bombardier, there are

hundreds of skilled men at the BMI Baby maintenance department who I

am sure will be concerned about their jobs as we move forward with

this. Thank you very much, Colin Whyat.

That I asked Lufthansa whether it had been reviewing BMI for a while

before deciding to sell, it said it has. I asked them, had they made a

mistake in the first phase in buying the BMI group? That is a

question the spokeswoman refused to answer.

Thank you. A man has been arrested on

suspicion of attempted murder following a house fire. A family of

seven, including a newborn baby, had to flee their burning home in

the early hours. Neighbours have described how they

helped to raise the alarm. From Derby, Simon Hare reports.

Sniffing out the clues, fire and police investigators examine

material at the scene of a house fire. The family home on Buchan

Street in Derby was left gutted. The alarm was raised by neighbours

in the early hours of this morning. I was in the House, about to go to

bed, and then looked through the window and saw some -- saw smoke

coming out from a neighbour's place. I got, they can't be cooking. I ran

downstairs, I shouted, fire! Fire! And the neighbours came out. People

had left before we arrived and we could not be certain that everybody

had escaped, and right through the incident of probably 20 to 30

minutes we still thought the tension in there was a person in

the Olding. It later emerged the teenage boy had already jumped to

safety from an upstairs window, breaking his wrist. I told him not

to jump until I got to him, but he saw the fire and smoke and jumped,

and then I picked him up off the floor and took him into my house so

he was warm. It has been a very serious fire, it has totally booted

the living room, the kitchen, and there is extensive heat and smoke

damage through the rest of the house. This morning fire

investigators brought in dead dog, which can detect traces of

flammable liquids. -- brought in their dog. Several items of

interest were found and have been taken for further testing. Then

police arrested a 39-year-old man on suspicion of attempted murder.

Police are appealing for anyone who saw anything suspicious in the area

last night to get in touch. This is East Midlands Today. Still

to come: The lowest rainfall in more than a

century. In just six months, you can see

just how much our rivers have dried The Greek crisis continues tonight,

and the instability around the massively indebted nation is now

having a direct impact in the East Midlands.

One exporter in the region says the financial turmoil came close to

costing him one million euros and it has threatened his business.

Here is our political editor, John Hess.

I am on the but in sheer and Derbyshire border. Athens is over

1,500 miles away -- on the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire

border. But events they have had an impact here. Sid Pepper shows me

the power station that his firm was helping to build in Greece until

the early stages of the euro crisis gripped Athens. At one stage I was

over one million euros outstanding and was so full six months, which

was hurtful. His firm, Arrow Max Structures, employees 22 staff in

the former Cold -- Coll community where jobs are at a premium.

would not have dealt directly with the Greek government, we were

walking -- working for an American corporation who preferred to walk

away and terminate the contract. The people are difficult to work

with, there were violent strikes while I was over there, we used to

have the docks going on strike at short notice with no payback for

the costs incurred. And there is a warning that the you resent crisis

that started in Greece could hit many businesses closer to home. --

the eurozone crisis. There will be less demand for British products

and services because they will be in a recession, perhaps, and

perhaps a long-term a session. there and answered? Things are grim

and worrying and I would say to everybody in the East Midlands, be

aware you are potentially affected by this and think about what you

want to do with your cash and your assets, don't have any money owed

to you by Greeks or Italians right now. If today's G20 deal welds at

the eurozone together, exporters like Sid Pepper will breathe a sigh

of relief tonight. A man has been jailed for the

manslaughter of a cricket fan who was attacked in Nottingham city

centre. 28-year-old James Hodgkinson was attacked outside

Yates's Wine Lodge in the Old Market Square in July. He had

travelled from London to watch the Test match between England and

India. Today, 19-year-old Jacob Dunne was sent to prison for 30

months. An agency which provides care

workers has been warned that it is failing to protect the safety and

welfare of people it is supposed to be helping. Lifeways Community Care

in Oadby, in Leicestershire, has been told to make urgent

improvements in relation to the management of medicines and

supporting workers, or face further action. The agency says it has

reviewed its guidelines and training.

More on jobs now. It is often said there just aren't any jobs out

there. Well, we have collated the job vacancy figures in our region

to see how true that is. In September, there were, in fact,

16,310 job vacancies in this region's jobcentres. In Leicester,

for example, 2,000 jobs on offer. A similar number in Nottingham. In

Derby, threatened with losing the trainmaker Bombardier, jobcentres

have 1,257 vacancies. The picture varies elsewhere. In Charnwood, for

example, there are 761 vacancies. In the Grantham and Stamford areas,

790. But that is not the end of the story. Chris Lawton is from

Nottingham Trent University's business school.

When times are good, vacancies in the JobCentre are about a third of

all vacancies because of the other ways that employers can advertise.

It would be reasonable to expect that JobCentre vacancies are now

still about a third, but we really don't know.

So there could be 50,000 vacancies. Can read say what kind of jobs

could be out there? Yes, we can. Here is a chart showing just that.

Manufacturing, a traditional East Midlands strength, that only

accounts for just under a third of the jobcentre vacancies. The

remainder are either skilled trade or service sector jobs, for

instance in banks, shops, offices, call centres. But do jobseekers

have the right skills? I think vacancies are few and far between,

people need to have specific skills for their jobs. It is important

that the students coming out have the skills to match the jobs that

are out there. One time, we had manufacturing jobs. People were

skilled in machinery, printing, that sort of thing. That sort of

thing we need more of, really. think there are a lot of over

skilled people with qualifications who cannot get the jobs. Some of

the jobs out there are basic menial jobs and a lot of people are

applying, so it is difficult all round, to be honest.

This is the September unemployment figure for our region - 130,700. So

clearly there are plenty of people, in theory, who could fill those

empty posts. Looking at the vacancies data, the

sorts of jobs being advertised as vacant are the kind being

advertised for quite some time. They tend to be in the health

service, things like care assistants, elsewhere in the

services, domestic cleaners or clerical assistants. They tend to

be low-skilled but our jobs that require those softer communication,

customer service skills that might well be more lacking in people who

have been unemployed for quite some time.

Lots of unemployed people, but lots of job vacancies, too. Business

chiefs have told us in the past people lack skills and sometimes

the right work ethic. But the reality seems even more complex

than that. A care home worker from

Loughborough who was jailed for nine months for abusing two

pensioners has had her sentence cut. 38-year-old Dawn Heaney was

sentenced at Leicester Crown Court in August after being convicted of

two counts of ill treatment of a person lacking mental capacity. The

offences happened while she was working at Wymeswold Court, near

Loughborough, in 2009. Today, the Court of Appeal cut her jail term

by three months. A man from Derbyshire thought to be

the oldest in Britain turned 109 today. Earlier this week, Reverend

Reg Dean celebrated his birthday with friends and family, as well as

his old choir. Born in 1902, Reg has said he now wants to go on to

become the oldest man in the world. Happy birthday, Reg.

Next, the lack of rain. Some rivers in the region are getting so low

that they have dried up altogether. The Environment Agency is worried

there may not even be enough water in some rivers for fish to breed.

James Roberson reports. It is ironic that on the day we

want to look at dried-up rivers, it is pouring down. But all of that

rain still amounts to a puddle in a dried-up river. It is a worry for

the Environment Agency's fisheries expect. It should be a raging

torrent at this time of year. It should have returned to its normal

state and be flowing quite merrily. Simon is familiar with this river.

Every year he and his colleagues, using electric loops to stun the

fish, move them from this stretch. The river dries off in the summer,

so there is no water left on the surface for a short length of river.

This year, the removal took place earlier than usual because the

spring had been exceptionally dry. This morning, Simon took me for a

walk along what should have been a riverbank. There is no current.

fact, the river, so full of water and fish in May, is still empty for

nearly four kilometres upstream from here. This has been the driest

12 months in the Midlands on record. The problem for the fish is that

the best areas are in the dry area, so normally the fish would be

getting ready to spawn, and if the river does not come back in the

next couple of weeks, they will miss out on that. It is a great

concern and the impact of felt elsewhere as well as here. We have

other rivers that are dry, and it is a problem for all of the

wildlife that lives along the river. While the agency is working with

farmers and water companies to limit what they take from rivers,

it also says we must think of water as an increasingly precious

resource for all of us, not just these fish.

And a full weather forecast is coming up. As is this: Welcome to

the 21st century. Does a week on the internet really

changed life in the country? The village that reckons it does.

First tonight, no new manager at Leicester City yet. But we do

understand the Thai owners do know who they want now. They have, at

least, a number one target. Natalie Jackson guides us through the

thinking at the King Power. It is 10 days now since Sven-Goran

Eriksson left Leicester City, but there is still no new manager. Why

do you think it is taking so long? Probably because they have want to

make the right decision. There is so much left in this season, we

don't want to make another appointment later on. We want to

get into the Premier League, let's make the decision that takes us up

Lahm. That man could be Nigel Pearson. My sources are telling me

the former Leicester manager is the number-one target. That could

explain the delay, because he is in a job at Hull City. I have got no

control over what happens anywhere else. Not interested in talking

about anything outside of Oz. there has been no contact? Not as

far as I am concerned. 10 days ago, Nigel Pearson was 33-1 with the

bookies. Tonight, he is eight-13. You cannot get a bet on him. He is

a favourite with in the pub. I love my job as a person and a manager.

Whether he comes back, that is up to the club to ask and him to

decide. I have no views about who is coming. If you love him, though,

you would love to see him back? love lots of people! I love my wife,

she is not going to be the manager! There are rumours flying about, but

I don't know. Whoever it will be, I will find out when I shake his hand.

Could Nigel Pearson returned to take over from Sven-Goran Eriksson?

Tonight, sources in hole say they are expecting an approach from

Leicester. But no deal done yet. We shall wait

and see. On to Forest, whose manager Steve

Cotterill faces an emotional weekend. He is taking his Reds team

to Portsmouth, the club he left just a few weeks ago. Speaking of

comebacks, one name that has been missing from the Forest team sheet

for almost a year is striker Dexter Blackstock. But all that is about

to change. He is back in training after recovering from an horrific

injury. Angela has been to see him. It was a tackle that could have

ended his career forever. I was not sure exactly where it was, whether

it was a broken leg or ligament damage, but I knew it was Serie us.

Painful to watch, more painful to bear -- I knew it was serious.

car was from surgery to repair the actual ligament. -- this scarf.

This one is where they took the hamstring. Then they went on to my

other leg. It is amazing what they can give. It has meant an entire

year watching from the sideline. always believed I could come back.

I believed I could come back stronger and probably fitter and

faster than when I left. But it has not always been in easy. With the

play-offs, knowing that I could not help the team, that was difficult.

He has dedicated himself to his recovery, in the gym four hours

every day, amount spent in America for we have, and the work is paying

off. -- for rehabilitation. Hopefully I will be up for

selection, the sooner I can get back the better, but I will not

take unnecessary risk. There have been changes at the top, but their

new boss has nothing but praise for how he has handled himself. I have

seen him, morning and afternoon, working his socks off and he will

get everything he deserves from now on in his like. We hope there is a

lot more luck round the corner for him than he has had in the last 12

month. For now, he will settle for a return to the game be lowered.

see that hard work paying off, to go back on the pitch, to get back

out on the pitch in front of the home fans.

He really has never stopped supporting his team-mates, as well.

Also in action are Derby County. Still suffering their injury woes,

they have a trip to Peterborough to contend with. Notts County host

League One strugglers Wycombe Wanderers at Meadow Lane.

Commentary on all the weekend's games is on your BBC local radio

station. If you can't be there, it's the next best thing. And catch

the goals here on BBC One over the weekend.

In other news, a local twist in cricket's match-fixing saga. Former

Leicestershire captain and England wicket-keeper Paul Nixon has

claimed he was once offered "millions of pounds" to throw a

match in England. Nixon says he was being asked to fix a Leicestershire

T20 game. He says he turned the approach down, spoke to the anti-

corruption team and went about his work as normal. But the story

reveals that the match-fixing problem is probably not limited to

the sub-continent. Just up the road from the

cricketers, rugby's Leicester Tigers welcome Martin

Castrogiovanni and Louis Deacon back for their first Premiership

starts of the season. The visitors are London Irish, as Tigers work to

catch the clubs who raced away from them during the World Cup.

Nottingham are in rugby action, too, away to former Premiership side

Leeds on Sunday. Nottingham Panthers go to Cardiff

Devils tomorrow night before welcoming Fife Flyers to the Arena

on Sunday. Fife have struggled back in the top flight, but have even

more history than the Panthers. Eight years of it, to be precise.

And it is their first League visit for 15 years. A bit of history

being made and we should expect a few Nottingham goals.

Finally tonight, a village in Rutland is at the forefront of a

rural internet breakthrough. Hambleton, on the shores of Rutland

Water, has had a state-of-the-art fibre optic connection installed,

which has vastly improved broadband speeds. Paul Bradshaw went along to

find out more. The web, famously, his worldwide,

but this is Hambleton, standing on a finger of land on Rutland Water.

It is an unlikely place for a digital revolution, but that is

exactly what is happening here. Because it is fibre, end to end,

from where you connect in your house all the way out to the

internet, it is much more reliable and predictable and does not fade

in the afternoons or when it starts to rain. Despite the government go-

ahead to roll out super-fast broadband in Rutland, the locals

have found the money for the upgrade themselves, and the

landlord at the local pub says it has made a difference to try it.

has improved our business significantly. We have businessmen

who will stay, they can work on their computers. This is the way it

is going now. People who stay away for a couple of nights want to

bring their computer to keep in contact with business. The network

speed here is 63 megabytes per second, faster than Japan. The

locals are thrilled. 60 houses in the village, over 40 have taken the

service, 40 people with smiles on their face. I have friends in South

America us, so I can be on Skype to them -- in South America. I have

relatives in Australia as well. do a bit of work from home so it

has made everything a lot easier now. No drop-outs, everything is

there straighter weight. beneath this sleepy road in Rutland

is a soup of it -- information superhighway helping those off the

beaten track get online. Welcome to our world. Junk mail,

crashes, viruses! And you are on Twitter as well!

Yes, you can follow me now. I just press the button and hope it

works! We have had a damp day across the

East Midlands, and the good news is it will turn mainly dry over the

weekend, which is good news. Make what you will of this, Steve Adams

took this photo of a red sky at night last night over Kimberley in

Nottinghamshire. It started raining early on this morning so I would

not put too much stock in what the If we take a closer look, we have

this big clump of showers, working their way through. One or two heavy

ones, some rumbles of thunder in there, too, but they will fizzle

out through the evening. Staying mainly cloudy overnight. If you

have a bonfire tonight, it could be fairly damp. As we go into the

weekend, there will be sold bob in places, low cloud for the rest of

us, but that will break up through the date -- there will be some fog

in places. This rain is part of a front working towards us, it might

just make it into areas like Rutland, but at the moment the

forecast suggests those areas will be staying dry. Into Bonfire Night

proper, you can see that is the warm front that has tried to work

its way towards us. It fails, as things stand, and hopefully that

will be the case as we go through Bonfire Night. If you are setting

up a bonfire, check underneath before you like them in case there

are any hedgehogs hibernating underneath. Into Sunday, you can

see it is staying dry again, a little on the breezy side and

cloudier, too, but keeping under this high pressure as we start next

week. Behind will block the low for now, anyway.