04/02/2014 East Midlands Today

And now the news for the East Midlands, I'm Anne Davies.

A baby girl suffered a catalogue of appalling injuries, including 15

fractures, at the hands of her mother. She's since been convicted

and deported. A serious case review into Baby Z found mistakes were made

by health professionals. Jo Healey reports.

The baby was eight months old when she was taken to her local A in

Leicester by her parents. These are some of the injuries. 15 fractures

in all. This was in October 2012. In September last year, the baby's

mother, who was 31 and had admitted GBH, was given a two and a half year

jail sentence. A few weeks ago on Christmas Eve, she was deported back

to India. The child is still here in care. It will be her second birthday

on Thursday, but she won't know much about it. She's brain`damaged,

severely visually impaired, confined to a wheelchair and fed through a

tube. So why was she never referred to social services? When she was six

months old, a GP noted that she had blue marks on her back. He did

consider it was non`accidental injury, but because the mother was

relaxed, smiling, well`dressed and nicely spoken, and the baby was

happy, he was reassured. But he should have referred baby Z to

children's social care. The GP accepted it was an error of

judgement, but said he found it difficult to believe that anyone

would harm a child. The Serious Case Review has recommended more training

for health workers in referring child cases to social services.

If you're concerned, please ring, do not keep it to yourself. Refer

quickly, do not delay because delay can lead to serious consequences. As

it did in this case. As, tragically, it did in this case.

NHS England has told us this review has shown them things need to be

done differently to protect children and changes will be made to make

sure this doesn't happen again. Scant comfort, though, for Baby Z

facing her second birthday with little to celebrate.

Council workers have been protesting today, demanding an extra pound an

hour in their pay packets. Cleaners and care workers joined this demo in

the centre of Leicester. There were similar protests in Derby and

Nottingham. Trade Unions say some of their members are being forced to

rely on food banks. Hard`working, and we keep the economy going, so we

should get something out of it. We take on a lot of the stress of

families that are in difficulty and I don't think our pay reflects the

work that we do. MPs are getting way in excess of inflationary increases

and the Royal Family as well. Social workers haven't had a real pay

increase for the last five years. A man's been airlifted to hospital

following reports of an assault at a block of flats in Oakham. The

47`year`old was flown from Rutland to the Queen's Medical Centre in

Nottingham, after police were called to Derwent Drive this lunchtime. A

40`year old woman has been arrested and an investigation has started.

Police are appealing for witnesses. The former Gedling Colliery in

Nottinghamshire is to be transformed into a 300`acre country park. The

first phase of work will include making the area safe for the public.

The ?1 million project will see a car park and road added, along with

a children's play area, all due to open this autumn.

Next, developers could be forced by law to include flood protection

measures into future plans. It's the idea of Mark Spencer, the MP for

Sherwood, and follows severe flooding in many parts of

Nottinghamshire in recent years. From Westminster, here's our

Political Editor John Hess. Today, Mark Spencer introduced his

own parliamentary bill to ensure that any new building plans include

flood prevention. He wants developers rather than customers

through their water bills to pay for those flood prevention measures,

especially in villages that have been so vulnerable in the recent

floods. Sadly, the drainage systems of those

villages have not grown at the same rate and further developments

upstream have added to the problem of drainage. These villages today

are faced with sewage systems that are already under enormous pressure

and have a high risk of flooding during periods of prolonged or heavy

rainfall. While the national media attention

today has been focused on Somerset, there are many households in the

East Midlands that are still struggling to cope with the impact

of the floods from last year as Simon Hay reports.

It's hard to believe that this is rainwater run`off, not flooding from

a river or stream. The water came down, and along the

road here, and over the edge and it filled the garden and the house. We

made futile attempts to stop it, but you can't stop water. It continued

coming in. It deluged the Buntings' home last

July. Six months on and they've only just moved back in. We had good

temporary accommodation, but to be back home is very good. The drains

couldn't cope with three inches of rain in a couple of hours. It's a

question not simply of defence, but drainage and coping with excess

water. Last year's events here have left many feeling wary about what

the weather is going to bring in the future.

Mark Spencer's parliamentary bill today coincided with the government

announcing an additional ?7 million to help communities affected by the

floods. So far, up to 53 local authorities, many of them in the

East Midlands, have indicated that they will pitch for some of that

emergency funding. And now an ingenious place to set up

home in winter. This family of mistle`thrush, we believe, have

nested on traffic lights at a busy junction in the middle of Leicester.

All mod`cons, central heating from above and below. The lights may go

on and off all night but it does produce a cosy warm colour scheme.

Brace yourselves, we are in for a rough ride over the next 24 hours or

so. The rain has already arrived across western parts. It will become

heavy and persisted for a time through tonight, quite wet and windy

tonight. Most of the rain should clear away to the North by the end

of the night. Some places. Dried tomorrow, but more been pushing in.

We could have an inch of rain by the end of the day tomorrow.

Temperatures of seven or eight degrees. Not looking good for the

next 24 hours. I will Good evening. Much like the local

forecast, the national picture is a stormy one in the next 24 hours The

Met Office have issued an amber weather warning for strong winds

across southern counties. Wilts up to Surrey in particular. There will

be some transport disruption, no doubt, and it could go beyond that,

so if you're travelling across the country there could be transport and

power disruption and with more rain in the forecast, further flooding

where areas have flooded and some very strong winds and high seas

Southern coastal counties of England and Wales have been troubled, but

Dorset sees three severe flood warnings,