05/03/2014 East Midlands Today

And now the news for the East Midlands, I'm Dominic Heale. Good

evening. First tonight ` an investigation's underway after a

mother admitted killing her baby daughter when the balance of her

mind was disturbed from givhng birth. The police had asked an

emergency social services tdam to visit Amy Black ` but they were told

no`one was available. The ndxt morning her little girl Zoe was dead

from drowning. The scene in the hospital emergency department after

a baby is brought in for resuscitation. Zoe Black, sdven

months old, was taken to thd Queens medical Centre in Nottinghal last

year. Our cameras were therd and captured the dramatic moments.

Hospital staff could not save Zoe, her mentally unstable mother had

drowned her. Amy Black pleaded guilty to the killing. This is where

the tragedy happened. It is the family home in Nottingham. Lr Black

was away in hospital at the time. CCTV footage of the back garden

showing Amy Black putting the body into undergrowth, were shown at

Crown Court. Neighbours found Mrs Black wandering around with

self`inflicted knife wounds. The day before, Mrs Black had taken Zoe to

London. She asked the policd for help. A Sergeant tried to gdt social

services to visit Mrs Black, they said no one was available that

afternoon or evening. The only option for police was a chepue the

next morning, but that was overtaken by events. A Serious Case Rdview,

looking at how authorities handle things, is now underway. In a

statement, the safeguarding children board said... Mrs Black, an

American, 30 years younger than her husband, is due to appear in court

again next month. A new study claims the government's squeeze on welfare

benefits is leading to an increase in rent arrears and a drop hn

council tax revenue in the Dast Midlands. The research, comlissioned

by the region's local counchls, also says the welfare reforms have taken

?1.3 billion out of the loc`l economy. From Westminster, this

report from our Political Editor John Hess. This research is the

first snapshot of the impact of the government's controversial welfare

benefit changes on our local authorities. It calculates that

18,000 households were hit by what government critics call the Bedroom

Tax. 89,000 tenants in the private sector face cuts to housing.

Conservative MPs, such as Andrew Britton, have blamed

Labour`controlled councils. They should be looking to curtail it

They should be riding the front line services that residents desdrve ``

providing. 50% of council tdnants in Leicester City Council cannot afford

to pay back rent. Leicester City Council is losing ?300,000. Tax

payers across the board losd out. Will this issue go away? Hardly

likely because East Midlands' councils have asked the chidf

executive to monitor the impact of the government's controvershal

benefit changes. GP surgerids in Nottingham could soon be opdning on

Saturdays and Sundays. The city s NHS bosses are getting readx to lead

the way with an experiment which will be closely monitored. The move

appears to have popular support but a doctors' leader says it jtst won't

work, as our Health Correspondent Rob Sissons explains. They will not

be open all hours, but here they want to open more hours. Ond of

seven GP practices in Nottingham, interested in Saturday and Sunday

opening. There are times whdn they want to see a GP, and they `re

unable to do so, and Saturd`y has been identified as a day whdre they

would like access to a GP. He is up for Sunday working to a GP hs not

falling over themselves to do it. There are 60 practices in Nottingham

with a handful open on Saturdays. Patients I spoke to in Notthngham

like the idea of seven day `ccess. I think it is brilliant. At the

weekends, when you need a doctor, you cannot get one. I work for the

health service on a Saturdax and Sunday, they should. This doctor

's' leader in Matlock is not sure whether it will work. What we cannot

provide, because we do not have the resources, is 20 47 convenidnce

medicine. We do not have enough doctors. `` 24`hour. They hope more

GP appointments here might dase some of the pressure. Today's news is

most welcome. Saturdays and Sundays are frequently the most busx of the

week. We have a frailer and older population which puts presstre on

the wider NHS. That is the news Here is your weather now with Anna

Church. We have had a fairlx decent day at the cloud has increased, and

that is the story for the ndxt couple of days. A cloudy night ahead

but it will be quite mild. The cloud increases as we go through the rest

of the evening and overnight. It will be quite thick and there will

be some rain and drizzle. It helps, however, to hold the temper`tures

up. We are looking at lows of six Celsius. It is a cloudy start to

Thursday and into the afternoon we may see some showers. A good deal of

dry weather but it will stax quite cloudy, I am afraid! Top ten of 11

Celsius. An improvement on Friday with cloud and rain around hn the

morning, but that will clear away, and we should hopefully see

sunshine. The weekend is looking promising, here is the outlook for

the next few exceed 15 Celsius. The unsettled

weather will continue. With more on that, here is the National forecast.

Good evening. I would like to start by showing you simply haven't seen

the quite some time. After a three-month onslaught, finally I can

show you a chart with high pressure across the whole of the UK. Yes

things are settling down. You may have spotted, though, that says

Monday, so we have a little way to go yet. We have some rain in the

forecast. Not so much in the area suffering from flooding up to now

but in northern parts of the UK it's been a wet day for a western

Scotland and more