02/01/2014 East Midlands Today

Campaigners say prices are rising three times faster than wages. That

is all from BBC This is East Midlands Today with

Geeta Pendse and, me, Dominic Heale. Tonight ` a deadly December for road

crashes. Welcome to our first full programme

of 2014. First tonight ` the police are

warning that some drivers are courting death and injury, after a

terrible month on our region's roads. Seventeen people lost their

lives in crashes in December. There's no one single cause for the

carnage, although two forces have told us they've seen an increase in

drinking and driving. Our Social Affairs 0

drinking and driving. Our Social Affairs Correspondent, Jeremy Ball,

is at Nottingham's roads policing unit tonight. Giddy Jeremy Hunt. ``

and evening. Driving's become much safer over the

last few years. But here in Nottinghamshire `` it's been a

dreadful December. Twleve people lost their lives on the roads. There

were another five fatalities in neighbouring Derbyshire and

Leicestershire. And the police think most of those crashes were

completely avoidable. The mangled wreckage of another

crashed car ` every piece of metal, the mark of a human tragedy, someone

who has died or been seriously injured, and, sometimes, a driver

who is facing jail for a serious traffic offence. We've got a large

motorway network going through the county. Chris Brown is in charge of

keeping the roads of Leicestershire and Rutland safe. He thinks many

people are still taking too many risks. I'd say the majority of

accidents are avoidable. If people take responsibility 0

accidents are avoidable. If people take responsibility to drive

carefully, don't drink and drive ` you can make that choice. Don't

speed. Put your seat belt on. Don't answer the phone, or make a phone

call while you're driving. Your concentration will drop, and you've

got more chance of having an accident. If you take all of that

into account, you've got more chance of getting home safely tonight. It's

drink` driving that is one of the biggest problems. Every year, there

is a Christmas campaign, but many still choose to ignore it.

Leicestershire police caught 108 drink drivers last month ` that's up

from 95 the year before. Derbyshire's figures haven't been

released yet. But the numbers rose in Nottinghamshire, too ` 124

drivers failed breath tests last month, compared with 102 in the

previous December. Andy Hall is in charge of the Nottinghamshire Police

team that is investigating 12 deaths on the road last month. It's a

tragedy, and we had elderly people, animals involved. We had weather

conditions, speed, and, unfortunately, we still had alcohol

as a factor. I don't think we should have any fatalities on the roads. I

want to make sure that everybody sees next Christmas. Save your

lives. People don't need to die on the roads. The response, here ` a

New Year crackdown on careless or dangerous driving. With offices in

Nottinghamshire being told to stop anyone seen breaking the rules ` it

won't be popular, but it might just save lives.

One thing you can be sure they'll be looking out for is drivers using

mobile phones. People talking, or texting, rather than focussing on

the road. And I was surprised to hear that one of the biggest

problems is still people who don't wear seat`belts. In Leicestershire,

that resulted in 800 prosecutions last year.

It's the start of a new year and a time when most people try a little

bit harder to be a little bit healthier. And doctors in one city

are urging older people to do one small thing which could save their

lives. Everyone over the age of 60 receives a 0

lives. Everyone over the age of 60 receives a home`testing bowel`

cancer kit to pick up early stages of the disease. Yet only 51 per cent

of people in Nottingham actually return the kit. Sarah Teale has been

speaking to one man who knows for a fact that they're a life saver.

Mike George is a healthy, happy example of how one simple test can

save a life. Just after his 66th birthday, he received a bowel

testing screening kit through the post. He's been all clear on

previous tests at the age of 62 and 64, but this time, it showed

abnormalities. They asked me to attend the City Hospital, and the

upshot was, I had a colonoscopy, which showed a polyp which contained

malignant cells. A course of radiotherapy followed. Mike then

received the good news that the cancer had gone. Just do it. I've

got no doubt that if I haven't done it, and if it hadn't been caught

early, it may not have saved my life. That's the message Nottingham

city doctors are keen to stress. Right now, only 51% of Nottingham's

over 60s return these home testing kits ` a figure they want to see

increase. Bowel cancer is the UK's second biggest killer, as it claims

around 16,000 lives every year. But regular screening has been shown to

reduce the death rate by around 15%. That means, if people do use these

screening testing kits, more than 2000 lives could be saved every

year. This is one example of something that we have in medicine

that you can give to individual patients and say, you may have a

life`threatening illness. If you do the test, you can do something about

it, and you can give yourself extra years, in fact, you could cure

yourself of a cancer. How wonderful is that? For people like Mike

George, it's pretty wonderful. We may have welcomed in the New Year

` but the weather's refusing to turn over a new leaf. Here's Anna with a

foretaste of a stormy forecast. There is no change in the weather

forecast. A deep area of low pressure is moving in from the

Atlantic to give another spell of wet and windy weather. The details

later. It must be the start of a New Year

because rail fares have risen from today. The good news though is that

the average price increase in the East Midlands is less than the

national figure. According to rail chiefs, the price hike is the

smallest in four years. Nevertheless, campaigners say fares

are still rising three times faster than incomes. Quentin Rayner

reports. As the New Year rolls in, so does

the annual rise in fares. My daughter comes from London often,

and pays ?80 each time. The rate of increase has been dramatic. Often,

there are not enough seats. How can they not have enough seeds and yet

but the prices up? Train tickets are always very expensive, so another

price rises not huge. I think the rays is fair, because they need the

money to support the service. They are expensive, that's why I don't

travel by train any more. Rail fares have risen on average by 2.8%, but

the main operators have increased their is by less than the used

Midlands. There is will rise by an average of 2.6%, and prices for 17%

of journeys will be frozen. East Coast Trains has put up its fares by

an average of 1.2%, and 43% of all its fares are frozen for this year.

What about season tickets, the price of which are set by the government,

and have gone up by 3.1%? Last year, an annual ticket would have

cost around ?3800. This year, it rises to just over ?7,000. Meeting

annually from Grantham to London last year, and the East Coast

Mainline, cost around ?7,800. Now, it's over ?8,000. East Midlands

Trains says fares are being invested by passengers with a refurbished

fleets and Wi`Fi at 29 stations. Police are investigating a suspected

arson attack in the early hours of yesterday morning in Leicestershire.

A mother and her five children managed to escape, unhurt, from

their home on Robin Crescent in Melton Mowbray. A 32`year`old woman

and a 36`year`old man were arrested and have been released on bail

pending further enquiries. Plans to allow open cast mining at a

farm in Nottinghamshire have been put on hold by the Government. The

County Council had approved proposals to allow UK Coal to

extract more than a million tons of coal from short wood Farm between

Cossall and Trowell. Broxtowe MP Anna Soubry said she was delighted

that Communities and Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles,

had called in the decision. A business owner says he's had to

reduce his staffs' working hours due to a major road closure. Work to

repair the A6 at Kegworth in Leicestershire is still going on

after a burst water main on Boxing Day. The road, near its junction

with the M1, won't re`open until Monday. This combined butchers and

bakery in the village says it's seen a large drop in trade. We've laid

staff off, cut down their hours on shorter time, because we are not as

busy as we have been. We've also had customers ringing up who have

approached the place, they can't get in, and say, we can't get in so we

will have to cancel the order. I suppose, in some ways, we were

fortunate, because if we had to have a burst in the A6, that it did occur

at this time, when traffic is lower than normal. But we'll still want to

get open as soon as we can. The East Midlands needs to have sharper

elbows if it's not to lose out in the competition for government

funding. That's the warning tonight from one

of our leading politicians. Councillor Jon Collins is chairman

of East Midlands Councils, the cross` party group that lobbies

ministers at Westminster. Here's our Political Editor John Hess.

A photocall in Downing Street with council leaders from the North and

Midlands in support of high speed rail. Tucked behind the Prime

Minister, the Labour leader from Nottingham, determined the East

Midlands doesn't lose out in the regional power play for funding.

Back in Nottingham, Jon Collins visits a food bank in St Anne's `

the City Council ward he has represented for twenty`six years. In

his new role as leader of East Midlands councils, his challenge is

to speak up for a region with a population of 4.5 million ` and

that's not easy. Because it's quite a diverse region, and there are a

range of priorities, I think what has tended to happen is each part of

the region has argued its own case. But when leaders of other big

cities, like Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham, knock on the doors

of government ministers for special help ` have you got thesharp elbows

to get them out of the way? I think that's what we need to develop.

We've got a very good case, we just need to make sure we are good at

articulating it, and we're good at getting it across to ministers. Away

from politics, his big passion is cycling. And its transport,

including the building of the Nottingham tram, that's dominated

his ten years as City Council leader, and will shape his thinking

in his new regional role. We've still got to make sure that the

promised electrification of the Midland mainline goes through. But,

I think, actually, more than that, across the region, there are some

very significant strategic sites that we want to get back into use.

Largely for manufacturing and industry. In 2014, Jon Collins will

be the local politician, increasingly, in the spotlight.

Speaking for his city, and, now, for the region.

Well, John's here to look into his political crystal ball for 2014.

What else is coming up? Read things to watch out for. The

continuing squeeze on local government budgets, the pressure on

our hospital A units, and whether academies and free schools can

deliver the improvements in education standards, especially in a

city like Nottingham, where we see so many of the secondary schools put

into special measures. There are important elections looming too? One

important date is Thursday, May 22. UKIP already has two MEPs from this

region ` will it increase its representation? It's also the same

day as the local election. And then there's the Scottish referendum, on

September 18. You may ask what that has to do with us. The outcome of

that could have a huge impact south of the border, especially the

regions like the East Midlands, it is in Scotland vote yes to

independence, it will have a big effect on the political balance in

England. There will be no Scottish MPs any more, good labour ever win a

general election? And the English regions expect greater devolution,

and for some of that funding for Scotland to come into the East

Midlands. The like John Collins will be pressing their case. Thank you. A

Lincolnshire care home has been fined a hundred ?140,000 and ordered

to pay ?65,000 in costs after an elderly resident spent a night

locked out in the freezing cold. Staff hadn't realised 84`year`old

Dorothy Spicer was missing from the Whitefriars Care Home in Stamford.

She died six weeks later. Vicky Johnson has this report.

Dorothy Spicer had been lively, loving and much loved that according

to her family. But Alzheimer's men she needed round`the`clock care.

Despite this, she had been able to walk out of this care home in

November 2009, without anyone realising. She was found the

following morning line freezing outside. Today, her family get their

reaction. We found it concerning, that they had gone to such lengths

to prove that they were innocents. We feel that it has been a total

waste of time and money. We have injuries for years of heartache and

emotional torment, whilst we listened to their futile excuses to

avoid admitting the truth. Lincoln Crown Court has heard how the had

been a catalogue of failures run for a hangovers to inadequate checks of

residence, and problems with door alarms. The judge said there had

been corporate, systemic and procedural failings, and added that

the value of the fine imposed was in no way calculated to reflect the

value of Mrs Spicer's life will stop the chief executive of the trust

which runs this care home and others across the country, has insisted

that improvements have already been made. We've built more checks, more

balances, more management into the system. This happens been an

isolated incident, the court was told. Management had failed to heed

warnings from its own staff just a month before. The home has recently

been inspected by the health watchdog, the QC, and is now meeting

all required standards. Still to come ` number crunching

down at the Zoo. It's the annual stock take at Twycross. But will the

animals stand still long enough to be counted?

He's braved injury, and appalling weather, but this week Brendon Birch

from Nottingham could finally celebrate completing a year long

running challenge. Every day for the past twelve months, Brendon's run at

least five kilometres and raised thousands of pounds for charity in

the process. Angelina Socci went to meet him.

It was a New Year's resolution with a difference. This time last year,

Brendan Birch from Basford, decided to set himself a big challenge, and

run a total of 3000 kilometres in 365 days. A year on, he has raised

more than ?3.5,000 for a charity which helps people with leukaemia

and blood cancer. My grandmother had leukaemia towards the end of her

life, so it's something that is personal to me. I felt it was a good

opportunity, this year, to not only raise the profile of the foundation,

but, also, hopefully, raise some money ` which we have done, and it's

gone really well. Mick Green set up the charity two years ago, following

his wife's death, and says Brendan's support has been overwhelming.

Nothing short of phenomenal. He started his plight with this a year

ago, and he's just finished ` absolutely amazing. But he hasn't

done it alone. I had shin splints after about three weeks into the

run. There is a section of park near here which is a one kilometre loop.

I'd do one kilometre and have to stop. I used to stop at this bench

and cry, stretch my legs out, and do another kilometre. I basically had

to do five of those. The running shoes are now being swapped for a

bike, as Brendan plans to cycle from Land's End to John O'Groats this

summer. We'll start with football and

Leicester City ` who begin 2014 four points clear at the top of the

Championship. They picked up another win at Millwall yesterday to make it

four from four over the Christmas period. Tom Brown reports now on

what could be a big year for the Foxes.

If the festive fixtures were a test of Leicestershire's promotion

credentials, then they passed with flying colours. Impressive wins

against their promotion rivals proved they do have a good team. But

yesterday's win over Millwall showed that they have the squad for

promotion, too. Manager Nigel Pearson made five changes to the

side that put five past Bolton on Sunday. But it was a familiar name

who gave Leicester the lead after just six minutes ` Anthony Kanaka

firing in his second in as many games. Summer sign`in Gary Fletcher

has waited patiently for his league start, and he was determined to make

an impression as he teamed up with David Nugent to make it 2`0 just

after the break. Here's something you don't see every game ` a

substitution for the linesman's flag, apparently ripped up by angry

Millwall supporter. The home fans were soon cheering, though, when

Richard Chaplow pulled one back. But in injury time, another man on the

outskirts of the first team, Geoffrey raced clear to slot home

Leicester's third. It meant city finished the festive period with

maximum points from their four games. Fans are dreaming of a big

2014. We want automatic promotion. That's what we want. A great start

to the New Year. It couldn't be better. I'm confident this year.

It's the first time in five or six years where I thought we could

actually do it. Could 2014 be Leicester's year? After this

weekend's FA Cup ties, the fixture computers have been thrown up a

treat. Derby County are the next visitors here, playing not only for

local bragging rights but crucial points in the push for promotion.

That's the table`toppers. But we actually start this year in the

fantastic position of having all three Championship teams in the top

five. Both Forest and Derby could actually be better off after not

making the most of their chances yesterday.

Derby had been on an extraordinary roll ` nine games unbeaten.

Yesterday's defeat at home to Wigan a frustrating reminder that all good

things come to an end. Frustrating was the word ` Wigan stifled Derby,

and had much the better of the first half. They had some luck, as well `

somehow Perch escaped a red card for this shocker, and then, in the

second half, produced the winner ` beautifully taken by Beausejour.

Other days, we have won games, and ground out results, and played great

football. We knew it would come to an end. We didn't want it in the

fashion that we did ` we wanted to play football, but I think that's as

much as Wigan's game plan, as to our failure to play enough. He is,

perhaps, a little harsh on his team, who fought hard to try and get

something out of the game, but just weren't able to. In the end, seven

points out of twleve available over the holidays ` it's far from the end

of the world. Derby are New Year contenders. Forest will still count

themselves in the contenders bracket, too. Greg Holford's goal,

away at Reading, a great New Year start. But, after that, their

current inability to finish with clear`cut chances reared its ugly

head. And, deep, deep, into injury time ` the Reds were made to pay for

it. It left Forest unbeaten over the Christmas and New Year fixtures,

but, knowing it could have been even better than it was. They are fifth,

with manager Billy Davies already hunting the January market for that

elusive goal scorer. Three quick bits of news to mention

` Derby will keep Leicester defender Zak Whitbread at the iPro on loan

till the end of the season. Nottingham Forest face competition

to keep Hull's Jack Hobbs. He was expected to sign permanently at the

City Ground, but Hull manager Steve Bruce says there have been enquiries

from other clubs. And QPR Manager Harry Redknapp has claimed Leicester

are chasing veteran striker Kevin Philips ` who's a free agent. Truth

or mischief? We shall see. In League One, Notts County are off the bottom

of the table thanks to a much`needed win at home to Bradford. They scored

three goals without reply but this was by far the pick of the bunch. A

brilliant solo effort from Jamal Campbell`Ryce ` who ran half the the

length of the pitch before putting the Magpies one nil up. That's how

it stayed until the 88th minute when Callum McGregor coolly slotted the

ball home to make it two. Then a neat turn from Enoch Showumni set up

Jack Grealish for number three. Relief for manager Shaun Derry.

Mansfield Town struggled at home to Burton Albion but came away with a

creditable point after a nil`nil draw. One of our teams is in action

tonight. Nottingham Panthers are at league leaders Belfast hoping to

build on their comprehensive New Years Eve victory over Coventry.

Panthers ` the reigning Champions ` are fourteen points behind Belfast

and badly need more goals like these to start closing the gap.

The new year is often a time when we take stock of our lives. Today,

Twycross Zoo in Leicestershire has been doing just that.Keepers have

been busy counting every single animal ` from elephants to ants `

for the zoo's annual census. It's a huge task ` and trickier for some

keepers than others. Amy Harris reports.

It is home to hundreds of creatures great and small. Today's staff,

here, at Twycross Zoo, dug out their calculators and clipboards to count

out exactly how many in the annual stock take. One of the key roles of

a stock take is so that we can be completely accurate about the number

of animals we've got. It's really important so that we can feed that

information back to breeding programme coordinators, so they know

how well their breeding programmes are doing, how effective they are,

and they can plan for the next year. As you'd expect, the count is more

challenging for some zookeepers than others. These stick insects are

camouflaged, making it easy for them to hide, and tricky to count them

up. It's really difficult for species like stick insects. We will

have a few people come and count them on several occasions. Then,

we'll take an average. So, we'll be making a very good estimate of how

many we've got. Luckily, the ants count as one colony. But every other

animal in the zoo has been individually counted. How many of

these do you think you've got? We've got eight. And you know that for a

fact? Yes. It's been a mammoth task, but it's now over for another year `

much to the relief of some. And now for the weather.

It's looking really quite unsettled for the next few days. Keeping with

its theme at the moment. It's down to a number of low pressures pushing

their way in quickly. Strong winds tonight, gale force tomorrow.

Another spell of wet and windy weather on Sunday. This is the

current area of low pressure moving in. The isobars were squeezed

together to give us strong winds tonight. They are expected to

strengthen further as we go into Friday lunchtime stop that's when we

are expecting to peak at between 45 and 55 mph. This area of rain is

heading our way. Generally dry at the moment, but the rain should

pushing the next hour. It should start to clear during the early

hours of Friday morning. Strong winds throughout the night, two

nights. Low temperatures of six or seven degrees. A dry start, but

blustery showers throughout Friday. Dry spells in between, and those

winds are strengthening my gusting at about 45 mph. They'll force for a

time. Temperature struggling tomorrow, feeling cold at about

seven degrees. More unsettled weather at the weekend. Saturday

looks dry, but quickly we will start to see the next area of low pressure

pushing in or Sunday. More wet and windy weather then. This is a Sun

dog, which happens when sunlight passes through ice crystals.