10/01/2012 East Midlands Today

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

Heale. Our top story tonight: The police investigate a complaint

of racist chanting at a football ground. A video appears to show

Nottingham Forest fans aiming insults at Leicester City.

Also tonight, a group of Muslim men go on trial, accused of inciting

hatred against homosexuals. Plus, the East Midlands gets a new

major trauma centre and they expect to save an extra 60 lives a year.

And from Wollaton Hall to Waybe Manor. Find out why staff here are

hoping the new movie will attract Good evening, welcome to the

programme. First tonight, the police say reports of racist

chanting at an FA Cup game between Nottingham Forest and Leicester

City are being investigated as a hate crime. It follows the posting

online of a video clip filmed inside the ground. The chanting's

been discussed widely on BBC local radio in the two cities and on

social media. Mike O'Sullivan has this report.

It was always going to be a passionate game. 8,000 Leicester

City supporters packed inside Nottingham Forest ground for an FA

Cup tie on Saturday. But during the game, this is what some Nottingham

Forest fans chanted at their rivals from Leicester. You used to be

English! Your not any more! You used to be English! Your not any

more! The video was posted online and it was widely discussed today

on BBC local radio in the two cities. Some said it was racist.

Some said it was banter. Leicester has a large and established Asian

community and the owners of Leicester City itself off from

Thailand. I showed the video to people in Leicester. I don't think

it's right at all, to be honest. It is wrong. It is not as if Leicester

is not a city where Bobby you have mixed people. It is just banter. It

has been going on for years and years! I have got black family

members and... It does hurt to hear it. I think it is racist banter, if

that is any help. I don't think it helps anybody but I think he should

be stopped. In a statement, a It doesn't seem to me to be a

directly racist chant. It is aimed at national identity. It could be

interpreted as -- as racism and it might be so but it shows you how

complex the range of identities are in football today. Tonight, both

teams said they were backing the police investigation. Both clubs

say they are committed to working to eradicate racism and

discrimination of. With me now, our sports editor,

Mark Shardlow. Mark, you have been to a lot of football matches over

the years. How widespread is this kind of thing across our region?

Firstly, all our sports clubs have done a lot to eliminate the

extremes of a sporting behaviour, be that language used inside the

ground and discrimination of average of sorts. I think the

chanting his good-natured and often funny. But you have to be prepared

at a football ground to go and expect an amount of chanting that

some people would find offensive. Why would fans behave this way?

Mostly, it is tribal. It is one set of supporters against another.

Mostly to get under the skin, to rile them, to nickel them. And I've

been sometimes it does go over the line. The law has progressed and

help police over the years, because now participating in an offensive

chant or a racist chant inside a football ground is an offence and a

person convicted would likely be banned from watching football

internationally for its period of years, if not for life. Thank you.

A court has been hearing how a group of Muslim men tried to stir

up hatred against homosexuals by distributing threatening leaflets.

One of the leaflets, which was handed out near a mosque in Derby,

called for gay people to be executed. Another referred to

homosexuality as a vile and cancerous disease. It's the first

case to be brought on the grounds of stirring up hatred due to sexual

orientation. Here's our chief news reporter, Quentin Rayner.

The leaflets distributed outside this mosque in Derby after Friday

prayers and later pushed through letterboxes in nearby streets

represented a hate crime, the prosecution said. They contained

horrid, threatening literature designed to stir up hostile

feelings against homosexual people. A taxi driver is accused of

organising the distribution in protest at a Gay Pride parade --

parade in 2010. Along with the other defendants, all five admitted

distributing the leaflets. The jury was told the first leaflet stated

that homosexuality was the root of all problems and immoral. The

second was titled "God and bores you", an acronym of the word gay.

But then, a third leaflet was given out, called "death penalty". It

featured a hanging mannequin and said homosexuals should be executed

by burning, stoning or hanging. The police said this was a clear

incitement to hatred of homosexuals people. At a fourth leaflet said,

gay today, paedo tomorrow". A man in court said he had never seen

anything so disgraceful. It made him feel sick and threatened. The

men told the police that death penalty leaflets just express what

Muslim -- Islam says about homosexuality. But the judge said

it was not good enough to say that you were just expressing your

religious beliefs. The trial is expected to last two weeks.

The Government has approved plans for a new high-speed rail network

between London and Birmingham which should eventually pass through the

East Midlands. The first phase of HS2 will cost �17 billion. By 2032,

an extra line will be added, linking the region to Leeds.

However, local critics say it would have been more effective to

electrify the Midland mainline. Police have named a Turkish man

found dead at a Leicester takeaway and say they're treating his death

as murder. The body of 50-year-old Dogan Dogan, who ran Aladdin's

Pizza on Linton Street, was found on Sunday afternoon. He'd suffered

serious injuries. A postmortem examination has been carried out

but police say they're waiting for the results of further tests. Extra

officers are to patrol the area. Still to come on the programme, a

baby rocket. World super biker Leon Haslam gets to grips with a new

challenge. But will baby daughter Ava slow him down on the circuit?

Plus, a whole new generation of bookworms. Today, new library opens

its doors and it is a hit. Next, there appears to be no

respite for council staff hoping for job security in 2012.

Conservative-run Leicestershire County Council says it needs to

lose 500 more jobs. That's on top of 1,000 posts already earmarked

for the axe. There's been anger from union officials and claims

that some of the cash support from government has been misspent.

Here's our political editor, John Hess.

It's that time of year when our local councils prepare their

Today, it was Leicestershire's turn. It's already cut 500 jobs - that's

towards its original target of losing 1,000 posts over the next

few years. Today, it said it needed to axe an additional 500 jobs.

That's part of savings totalling �98 million. Leicestershire's

council tax remains frozen for the second year but that doesn't

Yes, the Conservative group is making great play of this freezing

of council tax, but what we will see now is a massive increase in

charges for services, so if you rely on council services and need

those services, you will have to pay more for them in the future.

The Chancellor, George Osborne, has given local authorities extra cash

this year to avoid council tax increases. Leicestershire's

Conservative leadership decided to use the money, some �6 million, to

pay for super-fast broadband for more remote rural areas of the

county. Labour is questioning the priorities. In tough times, we have

to set really difficult priorities and I cannot see that broadband is

a... Which is a commercial service, can be a priority when we have

elderly people suffering. Tory leader David Parsons dismisses

such talk. Services to the vulnerable will be maintained. But

what about that �6 million for broadband? I defend that. If we

have good broadband in Leicestershire, we regenerate the

economy and that is very important to us. We have large tracts of

rural areas in Leicestershire that have appalling broadband at the

moment we are certainly trying to improve that.

School transport, care services, funding for police support officers.

Just three areas that will feel the cash squeeze. Leicestershire's also

looking at its museums. They, too, will be under the financial

microscope later this year. The Office of Fair Trading is to

investigate the takeover of Nottingham's Broadmarsh Centre by

the owners of the Victoria Centre. Former owners Westfield completed

the sale of the Broadmarsh to Capital Shopping Centres late last

year. It is thought the takeover cost more than �70 million. Since

then, the city council has been calling for reassurances that

planned improvements will still go ahead.

Police are questioning a man after a security guard was attacked and

robbed in Leicestershire. It happened yesterday at Great Glen

near Leicester. Officers say two men approached a guard as he was

delivering cash on Glen Rise. They attacked him with a baseball bat

before stealing money. His helmet was smashed but he wasn't badly

hurt. Officers are appealing for witnesses.

An inquest has heard there were missed opportunities in the way

agencies dealt with a vulnerable family in Leicester. Joy Small and

her two children were killed by Aram Aziz, who then hanged himself

in Watermead Country Park. Victoria Hicks reports.

Good evening. We had today that the woman was well-liked and her

children were considered happy and well cared for, but because of her

relationship with the man convicted, there was long contact with the law

and the police. But even with hindsight, nothing could have

prevented their deaths. Today's hearing said there had been a

history of domestic violence in her relationship. He had threatened to

kill her before if he found her with another man had had been

convicted of battering and given a harassment order by police. In

February last year, it was heard that he had hanged himself in a

local park. The coroner delivered a verdict of suicide. He had left a

note asking for his body to be handled in the tradition of Islam.

Officers then found the woman and her two children in their flat,

dead. The hearing had a serious case re was carried out into the

contact agencies had with this vulnerable family. -- a Serious

Case Review. It was found there was a problem with the sharing of

information between agencies. Many of them did not know that she was

back in contact with him. It found that in hindsight, however, nothing

could have been done to prevent their deaths. It is OK finding

things that are wrong for in an inquest but it is totally wrong. We

should have had a different outcome today. We should have had little

kids going to school, things like that. We are not having it.

coroner today recorded a verdict of unlawful killings into the deaths

of the woman and her two children. The question of how they died still

remains unanswered. We heard today that she had injuries consistent

with being suffocated but the pathologists could not say for

certain how all three had died. Tragically, at the time of her

death, she had been taking part in a programme for survivors of

domestic violence. Tragically, she did not live to finish the course.

Nottingham is to become the NHS's major trauma centre for the entire

East Midlands. Doctors reckon they can save an extra 60 lives a year.

It'll be the first service of its kind outside London, concentrating

expertise to deal with some of the most serious injuries for patients

involved in car accidents, shootings and stabbings, as our

health correspondent, Rob Sissons, reports.

It is one of the largest hospitals in the UK. Another job of the

Queen's Medical Centre is about to get even bigger. If you suffer

serious multiple, life-threatening injuries, they call it made a

trauma, anywhere in the East Midlands, the plan is to always

bring you here rather than your nearest A&E. Major, is a phrase we

used to describe the most severely injured patients, those who have a

one in 10 chance of not surviving. -- major trauma. This man had an

accident with a quad bike and lost and eye. He says it is lucky he did

not lose his life. He owes it to the trauma specialists at Queen's.

I smashed my face, my jaw, my liver, my lungs. The black poles are tears

in his liver. -- Black holes. have packed the area with

compression to stop it bleeding. They want to concentrate expertise

on trauma injuries, making sure patients get to the right place at

the right time. At the moment, they treat 300 major cases a year. That

is expected to increase to 900 ear, but the great news is, they say

they can save an extra 60 lives every year in the East Midlands. It

is likely more patients will be flown in from further afield. But

there is no way for the air ambulances to land on site. They

have to complete the journey by road at the minute. We are

exploring all opportunities to improve the access for helicopters

to the Queen's campus. The original cover will be phased in over the

next three years. Next tonight, do you, or does

anyone you know, still go to the library? Do you buy books instead,

or download them, or not bother reading at all? Here's what some of

you in Nottingham told us. We buy books online. We all have a Kendal

and we buy books online. So you don't go to the library? No.

sometimes use it for her work and things that Amy is doing. I read at

home. You don't go to libraries? I am not massively into reading.

buy them from bookstalls. I do read. But you don't use the library is?

No. I use computers, borrow the books... I would rather pay and

owned the book rather than rented for a few days. It is then yours,

about right. -- rather than rent it. So, evidence there of quite a

change in our reading habits. But despite all that, Nottinghamshire

County Council is investing millions in its libraries. Today it

opened its biggest so far, in Mansfield, and Jo Healey was there.

It cost �3.4 million and it is so not like it was in my day! You can

read the newspaper, you can log on, you can even entertain your

children. And you don't have to be quiet. But what do people think

about it? It says you going out and buying books. You can change them

every week. For them to enjoy books and get so much out of them, it is

fantastic. For my age and upwards, some young ones to come in to study,

but mostly they have iPad, iPhones and apps. It is good she has got

somewhere to come out as well. But but in this day of apps, is money

spent on libraries will spend? think so. We invested �8 million in

Worksop library and we have just spent 3 million on Mansfield

library and you are here for the opening. We believe they are the

heart of the community. So they will not be closing any libraries.

Instead, they are encouraging the bookworms of the future.

Still to come on the programmem, the stately home hoping for a bit

of Gotham City gold dust. Nottingham's Wollaton Hall will

soon be seen on cinema screens across the globe in its new guise

as Wayne Manor, home to the caped Any superheroes in sport apart from

the man presenting? Very nice of you to say that! I am going to take

that away and enjoy it all evening. A quick bit of football news first.

It looks almost certain that defender Sean St Ledger is on his

way out of Leicester City. A deal's been agreed with Ipswich. But other

clubs are interested him. St Ledger was one of the high-profile

arrivals over the summer but hasn't made the expected splash at the

King Power Stadium. Leicester Tigers are putting the

finishing touches to their preparations for the biggest game

of the season. They're playing at Ulster on Friday night in the

Heineken Cup. It's a game that's likely to determine their fate in

this year's European competition. It is huge. We have to win if we

have got any ambition to be top of the pool. We have to win and it is

as simple as that. There's just seven weeks till the

start of the new World Superbike season. Derbyshire's Leon Haslam

will be hoping to improve on his fifth place in 2011. Leon's just

become a father and says it's made him even more determined to succeed,

as Jeremy Nicholas reports. Ava is just a month old. She

doesn't know it yet but her dad is one of a stars of World Superbike.

I have travelled all around the world from a very an age. Now Leon

is a father himself, will it make him more cautious as a rider?

If you don't even think of the dangers in most races. If you do,

you should not be raising! He is now cracking up his fitness

schedule before testing begins on his BMW ahead of the first race of

the new season. Being in your dad can be tiring, especially when

you're in the gym six days a week. He is retired when he turns up in

the morning and he has not had a great deal of sleep. But when he

gets going, he is back to being Leon. It puts you in good spirits

through the winter months when you off the bike. If as if having a new

baby is not enough to be thinking about, his wife and he are having a

new house built in the grounds of his dad's farm in Derby. How will

this affect Leon? He needs more sleep to be a world champ? He is

not getting much at the minute because I am making the most of him

being home. But we are having a trailer made so over a race weekend

at... She is crying out! That is what babies do! We will have

somewhere to go. Now he is a dad, will he become more sensible?

chance! You don't even have to finish the question! It has made

him more Gerham. People say that you change as a razor when you have

had children. -- it has made him more driven. His first race of the

season as a new dad is in Australia. Finally from me, good luck to Great

Britain's male gymnasts, who will be trying to seal Olympic

qualification this evening. The team, which includes

Leicestershire's Ruslan Panteleymov, need to finish in top four of the

Olympic Test Event at the 02 Arena. We should bear by about 9:30pm this

evening whether they have done it. -- we should know.

Last summer there was huge excitement as the stars of the

Batman blockbuster The Dark Knight Rises filmed scenes at one of

Nottingham's stately homes. The crew transformed Wollaton Hall into

Wayne Manor, and now staff are hoping the film will attract new

visitors to the city. Geeta Pendse went to have a look around.

It was the talk of the summer as the stars and crew of the new

Batman movie descended on Wollaton Hall. Now, as the first trailer has

hit the cinemas, this Nottingham attraction is about to go

international. -- as the first trailers. He is a hero. A war hero.

This is peacetime. We were down in the basement, in the kitchen, in

the parlour, in the entrants, and also here in the garden. -- in the

entrance. It is a great opportunity to sell the city and we will have

people coming from all over the world here to see it. It is exactly

what we want people to come and visit. It is coming, Mr Wayne.

course, for a cash-strapped council, Hollywood money comes in handy. As

well as paying to film here, the production company also spent

�100,000 to renovate the hall and turn it into Wayne Manor. If before

we came, everything was repainted and the salon areas at the back,

quite a bit of work. For this day and age, the budget has been quite

big and it has been incredible. hope it will have as big an impact

as the Robin Hood film a few years ago. We have had a few films here.

It has become a real centre for having films, here in Nottingham.

We hope we will get lots more. then become something else

entirely... A legend, Mr Wayne. Those behind Wollaton Hall will

also hope it becomes legendary. That looks very interesting.

And next week there's a special opportunity to take a look at

Wollaton Hall by night. As part of the BBC's Stargazing Live programme,

the BBC is putting on a Star Party There'll be astronomers talking

about the night skies, plus planetarium shows and activities

for families. There's more details The weather has been rubbish for

star-gazing so far this year but things might be on the turn. A my

Yes. Good news for star-gazing at the beginning of next week and we

will keep you posted. This evening and overnight, we keep the cloud

and we keep on the mild side. Firstly, thank you to Brian for

this photo. It was taken at the weekend just as the sun decided to

break through the cloud. He says he will be going back to the park

again. We have had high pressure sitting to the south of us and that

will be moving in over the next few days, turning things more settled

over the weekend. But overnight tonight, we have this bringing rain

across our patch, but for most, a dry, cloudy night. We start to see

the cloud increasing over the next few hours and it will start to

increase. We then have the rain pushing in a cross Derbyshire and

North Nottinghamshire. For most, however, it is a dry night, but

very cloudy. Minimum temperatures of seven, a degrees. Just to remind

you, that is the temperature we would expect in the daytime. --

seven, eight degrees. On Wednesday, we will see the rain clearing,

giving us a mostly dry day again, with occasional breaks in the cloud.

But on the whole, a very cloudy picture. All change comes on

Thursday and you will wake up with a lot of cloud around. It will be

dry, but gradually, we will see this cold front sinking south, and

behind it, that temperatures will drop. Take your scarves to work

with you because you will need them on the way home. We are expecting a

frost overnight on Thursday with a cor night to come. Friday, some

lovely sunshine, but five degrees your top temperature. And a harsh