26/12/2013 East Midlands Today

throughout the evening on the BBC News Channel. We are back with

Now the news in the East Midlands, I'm Jo Healey, good evening. An

estimated quarter of a million shoppers were searching for Boxing

Day bargains today in our biggest retail centres. Queues formed early

in Derby, Leicester and Nottingham, and some shops were predicting their

busiest trading day of the year, as John Hess reports.

Looking for a bargain, this was Nottingham's Victoria Centre, as

shoppers showed little post`Christmas retail fatigue in

hunting for that deal. Is it worth coming into the sales? Gasquet.

There are lots of things in the shops that are not online. `` yeah.

We are from New Zealand and we are by all of our winter clothes. We

reckon we have saved 50%. And it could be even busier tomorrow, as

more shops start their sales. In Derby, 0 0

more shops start their sales. In Derby, they were queueing in the

cold in the hope of a hot bargain. Just hoping to pick up a few things

and get a good press. We didn't buy it just for the sake of it! We do

need these things. I am tight all year round normally! We were

predicting 85,000 shoppers through the door and it is more like 90,000.

So is 0 the door and it is more like 90,000.

So is this an indication that the retail sector is showing signs of

recovery? There are green shoots and it looks more positive and feels

more positive now within retail, so I am hoping for a good year.

Tonight, we tell experts are number crunching today's figures and there

is a collective sense of relief, because compared to this time last

year, Boxing Day sales are up. `` retail experts.

Police are investigating a fire which destroyed a cafe and shisha

bar in Derby. Fire crews spent two hours tackling the flames, which

engulfed the Riverside Cafe in the Chester Green area of the city. The

alarm was raised in the early hours of Christmas Day and the cause isn't

yet known. More than 100 young people are now

volunteering at one of our hospital Trusts. The teenagers, who are from

six different schools, work at the Royal Derby and London Road

Community Hospitals. Nursing staff say their help is invaluable, as

Angelina Socci reports. These students have been

volunteering for the past year at the Royal Derby Hospital. For two

hours a week, they talk to patients, 0

hours a week, they talk to patients, take part in activities

with them and help with meals. To start with, I was really nervous as

I did not want to do anything wrong, but after a month, already

started to enjoy it. I think I am interested in 0

started to enjoy it. I think I am interested in going 0

started to enjoy it. I think I am interested in going into something

in health care and it is really good experience to talk to the patients

and have that interaction you don't necessarily get in your day`to`day

life. But it is not just the volunteers who are benefiting. They

are finding it very beneficial they have somebody to just chat with them

and they are getting a better insight into a younger person's life

as well, from the point of view of the patients. Sometimes our

priorities have to be more nursing tasks. At volunteers come along and

they can help us with the everyday things that we really enjoy doing

but cannot do for as long as we would like. `` at. And recently,

nurses and volunteers have recently had their work recognised for their

compassionate care. Onto football, and the results from

today's games. Let's take a look at the weather

now, with Sara. Good evening. We will start to see

the wind strengthening as we head to the evening across the East

Midlands. This is due to a deep area of low pressure which has been

developing out in the Atlantic and is now starting to work its way in,

increasing winds and pushing through this band of rain as well. It will

be heavy at times but will pick up a bit as it travels eastwards. The

wind is the main feature, reaching galeforce through the early part of

tomorrow and remaining very strong as we head 0

tomorrow and remaining very strong as we head into the afternoon. There

will be further blustery showers through the daytime with a bit of

brightness in between and although there is a small amount of rain

around on Saturday, the rest of the weekend is not bad.

That it for now. I'll be back at 10.15pm with more from the East

Midlands. Have a good evening. Hello there, most of us have had a

quiet Boxing Day, mostly dry, chilly, lingering mist, light winds.

That is all about to change. The next storm arriving on our doorstep

right now, over night tonight will see wet and