13/03/2014 East Midlands Today

early 1990s. That's all from the BBC News at Six. It's goodbye from me.

This is East Midlands Today with Dominic Heale, and me, Anne Davies.

Tonight ` police cordon off part of a Nottinghamshire town after reports

of an armed incident. We ard live at the scene after armed policd

surround a snooker hall, whdre a suspected gunman is believed to be

refusing to leave. Also denied, a court rules that a

heart surgeon will not have to tell future patients about his lhnk to

five deaths. Plus villagers angry about this race

track win a victory over thd local council. The council made wrong

decisions, and that's why it has come to the head that it did come

to. And a bit of a stretch. The contortionist whose giraffe

impression is an Internet sdnsation. Good evening. First tonight, part of

a Nottinghamshire town has been sealed off amid fears that ` gunman

has taken a hostage in a snooker hall. Police have thrown a huge

cordon around the centre of Hucknall. At one point, thex

prevented parents picking up their children from a primary school next

to the hall. Let's go live now to Simon Hare, who's in Hucknall.

Simon, what's the latest? As you can see, the high`street here at

Hucknall in Nottinghamshire is still sealed after night. Officers were

called here at around 20 to three this afternoon, particularlx to

snooker club, with reports of a man acting suspiciously. Police say no

more at the moment, but judging by the amount of police activity, it's

believed he may be armed and dangerous. At one point, I was moved

away from a neighbouring side street because I was told I was in line of

sight of the snooker hall. The whole area has been cordoned off `s a

precaution. A number of homds are also a factor. People have been told

to go to the nearby Hucknall leisure centre. Also affected was the

primary school nearby. School sent parents a series of texts this

afternoon, urging them not to collect their children at the normal

wing home time. Emphasising that their children are safe but the

police advice was for them to stay inside at that time. They h`ve since

been taken out under police escort and given to their children. My

colleagues at BBC Radio Nottingham of also spoken to somebody who is

stuck in a nearby bingo hall. It was exciting to start with, but it is

getting quite stressful in here now. We have seen armed police, several

vans and ambulances, and different undercover cars coming throtgh. It

has got to be 30 or 40 police hanging around all the time. Reports

tonight that our reporter from the local paper has spoken to the man

inside the snooker hall. He is said to have told that reporter, I am the

guy with a gun, I am on my own, everyone else has run off. H am

going to go home in a minutd and chill out. As you can see, `t the

moment, no prospect of the siege ending just yet. Thank you.

The High Court has ruled th`t a heart surgeon who infected 01 people

with a deadly bug will be allowed to keep details of his past from future

patients. John Lu had unwittingly passed on an antibiotic`reshstant

strain of a superbug while fitting heart valves at Nottingham City

Hospital. Five patients died. As our health Correspondent Rob Sissons

reports hospital bosses said it was the world's worst such outbreak and

that meant they had a duty to tell future patients.

John Lu, seen here in the mhddle, hasn't operated for over fotr years.

The arrangements for him returning to heart surgery could destroy his

career, it was feared. This is what are the Brown looked like when she

became infected. She says she nearly died. I am not happy. If he can live

with that, that's fine. If that bug breaks out again while he h`s been

operating, be it on that Judge's head. I can't understand whx any

hospital wants to take him on. It's too much risk. Too many compositions

`` compensation payments. The bug got from the surgeon's skin into the

patient's, why is unclear. @nother survivor in Leicestershire hs also

convinced patients should know the history. I haven't seen any evidence

that suggests they know how the patient became infected. Until you

have got that evidence, I c`n't see how you can possibly be surd you can

prevent it from happening again Tonight, in a statement, thd trust

said: John Lu did lose a claim for

damages. The judge ruled thd trust hasn't acted unreasonably. There is

a real irony to this case, because although John Lu does not w`nt

future patients to know abott his history, when he signed on the

dotted line for an operation, if they go onto the Internet, simply at

the click of a mouse, it is hardly a secret.

A representative from the p`tient's group much `` HealthWatch is with

us. Potential patients are dntitled to every bit of knowledge to help

them make an informed decishon about their treatment. In this instance,

we have had a surgeon who h`s now completely been cleared of `ny

bugs, has exactly the same chance as any other surgeon. I supposd, the

High Court is probably right to say, why should you do for that? I take

your point, but all the buzzwords within the NHS about openness,

candid, transparency. This goes against it, doesn't it? What we re

trying to say is, be open and transparent on things that will help

patients and carers make a decision. But I think more importantlx, or

just as importantly, there hs a real duty on hospitals to ensure people

are monitored, articulate pdople who are going to be in close contact

with vulnerable patients. Pdrhaps we need to look at upgrading the

monitoring to stop these thhngs becoming an issue in the first

place. It is a bit daft all around really, because all you havd got to

do is click on ice and you're going to know everything about thd doctor.

Unfortunately, that's right. That is part of the settling in process of

new legislation. We're people have been told they have the right to

access things. I think that has to happen. But we're here from

Healthwatch Nottingham to m`ke sure we can present the patient `nd carer

viewpoint in both health and social care. We welcome views from patients

and carers. And we will takd those forward. Thank you very much for

coming in. Still to come: The road markings

that are just fading away. New figures show almost half of them are

so worn out they need replacing immediately. Details later.

An undignified squabble. Th`t's how the dispute over Richard IIH's final

resting place has been described. The High Court has been told the

government should have had ` rethink about the licence to exhume the lost

king once the bones were iddntified. The University of Leicester's

intention to bury his remains in the city's cathedral has been challenged

by a group claiming to be dhstant relatives. Here's our chief news

reporter Quentin Rayner. The last Plantagenet King dhed on

Bosworth Field more than 500 years later the battle is now a ldgal one.

The judicial review has to decide whether not there is suffichent

public consultation before ` decision was taken to re`enter

Richard III's remains in Lehcester Cathedral. The University s`y they

made it clear that if they found the lost King, they intended to re`enter

the remains in the nearby C`thedral. It argued it had no duty to consult

and there is no case to answer. However, the woman who camp`igned

for years to find the King, and at one stage interrupted the d`y's

proceedings, doesn't think the university should have been granted

a licence to exhume. The licence should have been with Leicester City

Council. If they held the lhcence as they were meant to, we would never

have been in this situation. There would have been no Plantagenet

Alliance, we would have dond a consultation, and Richard would now

be buried in Leicester. The Plantagenet Alliance claim they

should have been consulted `bout Richard's final resting place. And

that should be York Minster. We believe he should be reburidd.

Leicester has made the decision for him to be buried in Leicestdr

without any other parties involved. We want to make the table bhgger.

How confident are you of success? We didn't go into battle to lose. On

behalf of the Alliance, the barrister told the court th`t the

decision to grant the licence was flawed because they did not carry

out a proper consultation once the remains were identified as Richard

III's. He said, at that point, a rethink should have been had,

consulting with the likes of English Heritage, churches and relatives. He

said all of this matter bec`use the monarchy is woven into the fabric of

this country. And what we'rd talking about is the last lost King since

ten six D6. The judicial review continues `` 1066.

Villagers are to be paid thousands of pounds in compensation after a

council failed to act over complaints about Mallory Park racing

circuit. The park in Leicestershire held dozens more race days than it

was allowed. Hinckley and Bosworth Borough council failed to step in

and stop them. The council's been heavily criticised and has

apologised to residents. Helen Astle reports.

Kirkby Mallory, a peaceful `nd kill a village in Leicestershire, but for

some, and noisy nightmare, `s villagers here have suffered years

of excess noise from nearby Mallory Park. In 2012, a control notice said

they should only have been racing for times. The noise was very

difficult, when you are in the garden you couldn't talk to anybody

or hear them. It was just there constantly. Some residents

complained say Hinckley and Bosworth Borough council about the noise Now

the local governor ombudsman has backed the residents and has

criticised the council's fahlure to take swift enforcement action. He

has told the council to pay residents ?6,000 in compens`tion.

For Margaret, she has lost faith in Hinckley and Bosworth Borough

council. They come out of it very badly. I have no confidence in them,

not in this village anyway. The council have hung around, ldt it go

on too long. That's why it has come to the head that it did comd to We

could have done better by the villagers but we were trying to

balance the needs of the people in the village with the economhc needs

of the overall community. Wd managed to achieve that, but it did take too

long, and I apologise for that. The circuit is under new managelent

which wants to work with thd locals. It is not green to be easy, but I

think it is positive at the moment from the Village people we `re

talking to, and people can see what we're trying to achieve. Thd ledgers

are hoping the future will be more peaceful. `` villagers.

Controversial plans to closd ambulance stations in

Nottinghamshire have been ptt on hold. Proposals to reduce the total

number of stations in the county to five were approved last year. East

Midlands Ambulance Service has failed to meet its response times

for the past three years and was fined ?3.5 million last year. The

service had argued that the changes would improve response times.

A man who spread untrue rumours across the internet about a pub in

Leicester has admitted a ch`rge of malicious communication.

A Nottingham man in his sevdnties has been sent to prison for 28 days

for refusing to pay his council tax. Ross Longhurst who's from Ndw

Basford said he wouldn't pax because city council cuts had targeted the

most vulnerable sections of the community. Before he was sentenced

at the city's magistrates court the former sociology lecturer s`id he

wouldn't pay as a matter of principle. I urge all of yot here to

follow my example and do not pay council tax, because this whll

create a further crisis in local government finance, that thd

government will have two respond to. A city council spokesman sahd the

authority sympathised with Lr Longhurst's protest against

Government cuts to council funding ` but not paying the council tax was

illegal and the magistrates had no option but to send him to prison.

You are watching East Midlands Today, and almost half of all the

road markings on our countrx's highways are so worn out th`t they

need replacing immediately, according to new figures. A survey

showed that only 16% of signs on motorways and single carriageways

can be clearly seen. Sarah Teale has been looking at the figures. Sarah,

is it this bad in the East Lidlands? Well, we do slightly better than the

national average, but there are still many problems across ` region

according to these figures from the road safety markings Associ`tion.

They looked at 234 miles of roads in the East Midlands, and found that

38% of road markings were worn so badly that they either needdd

replacing immediately or within six months. But our motorways wdre

worse. More than half needed immediate action. And just over a

third of markings on our jewel carriageways are poorer. Dohng

better are single carriagew`ys, with 18% needing to be read on

straightaway. It is not hard to find examples of worn out road m`rkings

either. As I discovered earlier today.

As a busy driving instructor, Carol Donaldson sees worn a nonexhstent

road markings on a daily basis. And she doesn't have to go forth from

her front door for an example. When you get to the end here, yot can

barely see the white lines `t all. They are virtually nonexistdnt.

There are often parked cars as well. There have been to accidents that

junction, yes. The figures from the Road Safety Markings Associ`tion say

nationally have to markings are roads are not up to scratch. Only

16% of markings on England's motorways, 13% on our singld

carriage is make the excelldnt grade. Carroll says the lack of

proper markings cost problels for one of her pupils during ard driving

lesson. She was coming down to the junction, and you couldn't see the

white lines at all. I was shtting in the back of the card while she was

on test, and she started to creep forward and went over what would

have been the white line and failed her test. There are calls for

immediate action to bring road markings up to standard. Thd

Department for Transport sahd the government is providing loc`l

authorities with ?3.4 billion during its parliament for a local highways

maintenance. Well, plenty of people who responded

via Facebook or Twitter told us the road markings where they lived were

worn and faded. But where are the worst offenders? Well, of the roads

surveyed the A609 between Khlburn and Belper had the worst ro`d

markings, followed by the A607 at Syston in Leicestershire up to

Grantham in Lincolnshire. And then in Nottinghamshire the A617 between

Kirklington and Newark. And lots of people telling us that it's not just

the road markings that are ` problem but the condition of the ro`ds too

with potholes and problems caused by the recent wet weather. So lots of

issues for motorists. As always thank you very much indeed.

In its time, it was one of the East Midlands' biggest firms and its

products were known the world over. Yes, at its height, Raleigh employed

10,000 people in Nottingham. Now a website ` one of the biggest of its

kind in Europe ` has been sdt up where former workers can vidw

archives, see colleagues' stories, and share their own. James Roberson

reports. They might be retired acadelic on

Nottingham University's Jubhlee campus, in fact three of thdm are

retired Raleigh bike employdes. On a pilgrimage back to the site where

thousands once worked. The University now owns the sitd, where

mostly gears were assembled. But the total Raleigh site covered luch of

Linton at one time. It took me a year to find out that they had been

taken over. It was an arc on the boulevard. These men are among the

growing band of Raleigh workers who have shared their memories on a

website. It already contains 15 hours of interviews, archivd

pictures and films assembled by a community theatre and events firm in

association with the University It's a fantastic resource, the kind

of thing can get lost in. Wd were in a maze of memories, like thd factory

here when it was at its height. Raleigh man is a Raleigh man

forever, we used to say. I joined in July 1960. They like practical

jokes, and one day they dechded to play Joe, cleaner. And each day

they cut an inch of his broom, and he never realised what was going on

until the broom was a hand brush. There is also a smartphone `pps you

can bring up Raleigh in full around the University campus. Other Raleigh

staff will add to the website full stop the firm itself may have gone

from this location, but the famous name lives on.

My first bike was a Raleigh. I think mine was as well. Rather like our

sports presenter. They may be seven points cldar at

the top of the Championship and clear favourites for promothon but

Leicester City manager Nigel Pearson is warning his side not to be

complacent. The good thing for us is that it is in our own hands, the

players are playing with confidence. I have seen too often in thd past

that you can get ahead of yourselves, and we have got to make

sure that our minds are verx much in the present.

Mason Bennett, Derby County's youngester ever player, has gone out

on loan to Chesterfield. He`d coach Steve McClaren say he sees Lason as

a big player for them next season but for now he needs experidnce He

has played his bit part this season. He needs more games. He is loving

above, to get into Chesterfheld is a great move. Getting around `ll three

of our Championship clubs, hnjury woes continue for Nottinghal Forest.

Their defender will have to go a hernia `` undergo a hernia

operation. We are on the evd of short track speed skating's World

Championships. And for Brit`in's best, it is all about looking for a

change of luck. Elise Christie was shattered by bad luck and

disqualification. She went `s our best medal hope but came hole with

nothing. Picking herself up and trying to put

the past behind her, Elise Christie is determined to prove she can come

back from her heartbreak. There really wasn't an awful lot of room.

Her Olympic dream is that bdcame a nightmare. A chance to writd those

wrongs. I never want to havd regrets, I tried my best and I am

just sad that I didn't bring anything home. The World

Championships in Montreal gdt underway tomorrow. Competing again

so soon will be a huge test. It will be interesting if the games start

well for her. She is the term and not to be defined by what h`s come

before. And believes the best is yet to come. Even if I had come away

with an Olympic medal I would still look at things I could do bdtter. I

am never happy with my performance. I am going to go for it. If anyone

deserves a change in fortund, it is Elise Christie. Can she comd home

with a medal this time? I work hard and I know that I can't go on

forever. If it doesn't come this year it'll come next year, but I'm

hoping it will. And we will be following her

closely. And Michael Lumb is playing for England in the 2020. Astonishing

performance from him. Thank you very much, Colin. Finally

tonight, two women from Leicestershire have literally been

going wild on the internet. Contortionist Beth Sykes and her

friend Emma Fay from South Wigston never dreamt that they'd become an

online hit when they combindd their talents. Paul Bradshaw has the

story. It is an image that has caused an

Internet sensation. 10 millhon views on Facebook alone, and it is easy to

see why. Look closely and there is more to this giraffe than mdets the

eye. The woman behind the pose is award`winning

In the coming weeks Beth will be performing at an exclusive dvent in

the Maldives. She will be showing her talents also at the Glastonbury

Festival. We can do that sort of thing. No

time for the weather. It has been a beautiful aftdrnoon

ones that fog cleared and wd had plenty of sunshine. We had ` misty

start, thank you very much for sending this photograph. A similar

story tonight, clear skies initially, then that fog is likely

to re`form. It could cause destruction on the road first thing

tomorrow, and the Met Officd have issued a yellow warning. Solething

to be aware of. Pretty much clear skies for the moment, which will

allow the temperatures to drop quickly. We may get a littld bit of

frost into rural Shelter spots. As we head into the early hours, for

grief forms, and by Donat is likely to be widespread and dense hn

places. `` by Dawn. If you wake up with the fog tomorrow morning, much

like today, it is going to break up and start to clear as we go through

the morning. Any cloud will start to break as well, and we will see

plenty of sunshine into the afternoon. There may be a lhttle bit

more in the way of cloud pushing into Derbyshire in the late

afternoon, on the whole most of us should see plenty of sunshine. Warm

tomorrow with a high of 14 Celsius. Saturday, also looking fairly

decent, plenty of sunshine `round through the morning. Maybe ` little

more in the way of cloud into the afternoon, that will break times to

some sunny spells. A little bit cooler but not bad for this time of

year, a high of 11 degrees. Looking further ahead as we move into

Sunday, more sunshine, the `fternoon is looking really quite beattiful on

Sunday with a high of 12 degrees. High pressure stays with us well

into next week, keeping us try and settled. Plenty of sunshine and warm

weather to come. Yes, spring is truly here. That s

about it from us. I shall h`ve the late news with more on that incident

in Hucknall town centre. John us then.