02/04/2014 East Midlands Today


02/04/2014

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

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evening. UK Coal has confirmed tonight that

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the last remaining deep pit in the East Midlands is to shut next year.

:00:21.:00:24.

The company is consulting with unions and employees about the

:00:25.:00:27.

planned closure of Thoresby Colliery in Nottinghamshire, which has been

:00:28.:00:32.

operating since the 1920s. Helen Astle reports.

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It has been a sombre day today, the end of an era for deep coal mining

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in Nottinghamshire. 600 people are employed here, the jobs are under

:00:46.:00:51.

threat. 280 could go by the end of the year. It was last November the

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Chancellor visited the site and there was hope it had a future. It

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is a different story today. Falling prices and the strength of the pound

:01:03.:01:05.

against the dollar are being blamed. I spoke to several people

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who work here, no one on camera but they told me they are shocked and

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saddened. They also say they have been given little information by UK

:01:17.:01:21.

Coal as to what is happening and there listening to the radio for the

:01:22.:01:26.

latest news. The site has been here since 1925, almost 90 years old. It

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is the main employer. Many people have spent most of their lives here.

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Today, they tell me they don't know what else they can do. The site will

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close in the next 18 months. Earlier, I spoke to Andrew

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Mackintosh of UK Coal who confirmed the closure and explained the

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company's position. A very difficult day for all of us.

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2000 employees, 600 in Thoresby and a sad day for Nottinghamshire. The

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point about on how the situation is, we tried to keep employees

:02:12.:02:16.

informed, today has been a crunch day weather news has come out with

:02:17.:02:22.

competent `` about consultations. Consultations with unions and Andrew

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Mackintosh from UK Coal speaking to me earlier from our Norwich studio.

:02:26.:02:28.

Employees, what will you talk about? We will look at the discussions are

:02:29.:02:31.

taking place at the moment involving a wide range of people to see if we

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can get a package together to make sure we can close the coal mines

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down safely. At the same time, to make sure employees and suppliers

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get the appropriate treatment they expect from such a plan.

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A lawyer has called for prosecutions over the death of an elderly care

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home resident. 87`year`old Betty Arch, who had dementia, was offered

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solid food despite not being able to swallow it. An inquest heard that

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neglect at the home in Nottinghamshire contributed to her

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death. The coroner said the case should act as a warning to other

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care home owners. Rob Sissons reports.

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Do not be fooled by the sign, this was not a quality provider. The

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inquest heard staff were run ragged, mealtimes chaotic and the needs of

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dementia patients not met. Betty Arch paid the ultimate price. Betty

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Arch died alone, left unsupervised with sandwiches. She should not have

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had solid food, it should have been mashed or pureed. The coroner said

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the attitude was take it or leave it. Take it, sandwiches and

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biscuits, risked Betty's life, leave it and she would go hungry. This was

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the owner. The inquest was told she was asked for more staff but this

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was ignored. The coroner said she controlled the purse strings and the

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purse remained closed. Betty Arch's son left with his solicitor

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demanding tougher action on care homes. Whilst nothing can bring

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Betty back, the family hope lessons have been learnt by everyone

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involved in the care of dementia patients and homes providing care

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for these vulnerable residents will in future be much more closely and

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effectively monitored. Tonight, Nottingham social services stressed

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most of the 170 care homes they say are good or excellent but they do

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have concerns about a handful. We have established a task force

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which consists of professionals going in to work with those

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identified homes to make sure they improve their quality of care.

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The family don't understand why the facts that were produced at the

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inquest should not form a prosecution by the Health and Safety

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Executive. Clearly, these residents' lives were put in danger. Concluding

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the case, the coroner said Betty Arch died from natural causes

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contributed by neglect. The trust which runs Derby's

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hospitals is warning services could be cut unless the Government

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provides it with an emergency financial bail`out. It's currently

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spending ?66,000 a day over its budget. It had already been left

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with a ?9 million deficit from the last financial year. And it needs to

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make savings of ?43 million during this year. Officials say that could

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have an impact, but there aren't any plans to cut whole services or make

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any redundancies. But in the short`term it's going to need a

:05:44.:05:48.

financial bail`out. We need to ask the Department of

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Health for some short`term specialist funding to cover the

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extra costs we won't normally incur. That's so we can make sure we can

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continue to deliver high`quality services for patients.

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Soldiers from our largest local army regiment marched through Ashbourne

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this afternoon. The Mercian's second battalion have served four gruelling

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tours of duty in Afghanistan. This was the first of three "freedom

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parades" in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire this week. Tomorrow

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lunchtime they'll be marching through Mansfield Town centre.

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That's your news. So, it's goodbye from me but with your weather now,

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here's Anna Church. We are currently at moderate

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pollution levels and it continues to rise. The risk of moderate to high

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levels of air pollution is something to be aware of. Tonight, mostly dry

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and very mild across the East Midlands. Fairly cloudy, some

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showers across the North at the moment, some clearer skies in the

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south of Leicestershire. Towards dawn, mist and fog forming in the

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Peak District but a mild night, lows of eight Celsius. Cloud is quite

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stubborn try morning, a misty and cloudy start. Any brightness in the

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afternoon will be across the East and one or two showers starting to

:07:17.:07:22.

push in. A good deal of dry weather. Temperatures, not too bad, a maximum

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of 17 degrees. be dry. The air pollution has been

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hitting the headlines today. For more information on that, here is my

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colleague. Good evening. Very hazy skies in

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London today and many other towns and cities across the UK. On

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Thursday there is the chance of some pretty high pollution in the

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south-east and East Anglia but by the time we get towards the end of

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the week, we will see clearer Atlantique air coming in and we

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should get rid of the Saharan dust which has been making services

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grubby in the last few days. You can see the pattern across the

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Atlantic. We also have a weather front.

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