23/02/2017 East Midlands Today

It's almost 6.30 and you're watching East Midlands Today.

Tonight: Storm Doris blows in, causing damage,

Across the region, travel has been badly hit with roads closed, train

services halted and cars and buildings damaged. It is even to

windy for windmills. I've got a device here to measure wind speed.

It is showing about 25 at the moment, but it has been blowing to

over 40. In other news, calls for safety improvements outside a school

after a second pupil is involved in an accident. Plus, one of

Leicester's biggest stars comes back to school after more than 25 years.

Good evening and welcome to Thursday's programme

with Dominic Heale and me Anne Davies.

First tonight, Storm Doris made her presence felt today right

Gusts reaching 87 miles an hour hit the region causing

There have been no trains to and from London, the M1 has been

shut and numerous other roads have been closed because of fallen trees.

The police and fire Services say they've been inundated with calls

but thankfully no-one has been injured.

In a moment we'll hear from Geeta Pendse with the latest

But first our reporter James Roberson, who's been

out in the storm today, joins us from Derbyshire.

Doesn't look quite as windy now? Yes, it is much calmer here in

Derbyshire. The windmills need wind to work of course, but this one did

not the kind of wind they had today. In fact, they had everything tied

down and their fingers crossed that the famous Derbyshire landmark would

not be damaged seriously. Now, the shot you saw earlier of me holding

that wind measuring device, the winds here were gusting up to 60

miles an hour, but as you said, the speeds were up to 87 mph, so it was

really not surprising there was huge disruption right across the region.

It was a scene replicated across the region. This tree closed the road

for over an hour. It was not just country roads, this road in

Nottingham was also closed up the glass blew out of a derelict

building. This tree went over in Nottingham also. And a billboard

blew down in Leicester. Viewers sent in dozens of pictures. Trees were

obviously the biggest victims, it meant that country parks across the

East Midlands were closed. But Matlock town also lost a floodlight

and even walls went down. This one was a Shire broke. Attraction owners

and councils also closed venues before the storm. Because the market

Hall in Derby was shut, these two stallholders moved just outside to

an empty shop to run their businesses for the day. We are

struggling enough at the moment to get all the business because we are

small traders and they are in difficult as anyway, so we have to

try and be still on the go. I've got all be stuck and I went to the

market this morning in Nottingham, everything is fresh and we are open

for business. That's what you do. At the window, emergency measures were

taken to secure the sales. They did not want a repeat of the disaster in

1894, when the sales were blown off, destroying the mill. We have all the

breaks we possibly. There's a big strap, so fingers crossed we will be

OK. Motorists have been injured by falling trees and a woman was hurt

near Chatsworth. Now, businesses and the authorities are looking at the

big clear up. Well, we've been looking at disruption across the

region's roads, but it has been difficult for all kinds of

transport. There's been problems on the motorways.

My colleague Geeta Pendse is at Nottingham Train station

with the latest on the disruption to transport across the region.

There have been serious disruptions for travellers. This evening, a

number of lines here and Nottingham station RE the delayed or suspended

entirely. Passengers have to work out alternative arrangements. The

problems started at around nine this morning when there was damage to

overhead wire at St Albans. This meant trains in and out of London

were halted. Eventually, East Midlands Trains had to suspend the

service entirely to Nottingham and Sheffield. Over in Derby, there were

disruptions to services because of reports of fallen trees. As you can

see, there are constant updates for passengers who may be war faced

delays of several hours. We heard from one passenger whose travel time

went from two hours from Loughborough to six hours.

I had to get off just after Bedford because of a line down, so we

managed to get a train back to Bedford and wait for another train

to pick us all up and take us back to Loughborough.

However, a tree is now on the line, so we have to wait

for that to be clear and then we got back

on the move to get back to

So what has the overall impact to be Storm Doris?

Today, we had a number of trees blown down across the network,

bringing down overhead equipment in a number of places. Lots of people

have been out and about, chopping trees down a re-and enquires are

making sure customers are OK getting the ball safely to where they wants

to go to. It has been difficult for the customers, I am proud of what my

colleagues on the railway have done to make sure everybody got to where

they want to safely. There are also problems on the roads earlier,

particularly in areas where there have been fallen trees. Southbound

on the M1, three lanes were closed between junction 25 and 26, but that

has now reopened. It is hoped that all services will resume tomorrow

and East Midlands Trains say if you have a chain ticket data for today,

it will be valid tomorrow. At least that is one bit of good news! Thank

you. Still to come: A fire officer comes

up with a new smoke alarm that's more likely to wake

up sleeping children. Research has shown many children

don't respond to standard alarms, Parents and teachers are calling

for safety improvements outside a school in Leicester,

after a boy was hit by a car. It's the second accident

there in three months. The 13-year-old was taken

to hospital yesterday after the collision

near St Paul's Catholic Like many schools, at Saint Paul's

in Leicester, pick-up and drop-off Two pupils were hit by a car

on their way to school in Luckily, neither were

seriously injured, but the latest accident yesterday morning

has renewed calls for increased I feel tremendously frustrated,

really exasperated that despite these things happening,

despite children coming to school and despite efforts we go to every

day to keep them safe, they can't cross this very, very busy

and congested road safely in the Something absolutely needs

to be done about it. They've been petitioning

for a crossing here for With a primary school

are now on the same site, teachers and parents said the road

must be made safer as children's For people with

children who are in a That would slow the kids down

and they could cross If somebody manned it or police

were there, that would cut down quite a lot of future

accidents, I hope. But the council remains

against creating a crossing here, saying footfall is not great

enough to justify it. There's a very low number

of pupils actually crossing Most pupils have

crossed the road before The sort of measures we wish

to introduce things like bollards, railings to prevent dangerous

parking, people parking on verges. We're also trying to get

a school crossing patrol in. The teachers and parents

here are determined to keep Unless action is taken they fear

the school drop-off will A woman from Nottingham has been

jailed after an autistic Nottinghamshire Police and has been

displaced following allegations of misconduct. He failed to spot an

elderly man had his driving licence revoked. Albert Newman had dementia

and went on to cause a fatal accident in October last year. He

was driving the wrong way up the M1. Mr Newman and a passenger in a van

both died. The policeman was found to have breached the standard

professional behaviour in respect of honesty and integrity. It can appeal

the panel 's findings. Lincolnshire Police have crushed

a car used in hare coursing as part Officers seized a number of vehicles

which were used to chase hares The force has carried out similar

public displays in the past, to try to stop potential offenders

from coming to the county. A woman from Nottingham has been

jailed after an autistic man in her care drowned

while she was texting on her phone. 29-year-old Nikki Deaney

from Sneinton was also making phone calls whilst caring for Majid

Akthar. They were on a day trip to Kingsmill

Reservoir in September 2012. and a mental age of four,

had wandered off. A fire officer who investigated

the deaths of six children in Derby Dave Coss worked on the Philpott

case, where the children were killed His research has found that younger

people tend to respond to alarms which have a lower frequency noise

and he's now decided This is how quickly a fire

can rip through a room. Within minutes, it causes

complete devastation. In 2012, Dave Cross

was investigating what happened in the Philpott case,

in which six children died in an arson attack after alarms

failed to wake them. One of the problems that hit

the investigation team was that all six of the children that had

died were Even though a smoke

detector was present at the scene and had

operated during the fire, none of the children had woke

to the smoke alarm or tried to The case spurred Dave

on to look at why the children may not have

woken up and threw three years of research,

he realised that although

effective for adults, This is the traditional

smoke alarm being Now, their mother tries

out the new alarm. And immediately,

all four get straight Just the thought that what we've got

in the house doesn't work properly, that something

like this that will give The more people that can

test them the better. It's quite heart-wrenching

when you see children die in a house fire and it's even more upsetting

when you think you could have prevented

that from happening. And at the very least,

this may be one of the items we can put in place that

will stop that in future. Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service

are now appealing for volunteers to try out the new alarm,

which will hopefully help to protect Still to come - back to school

for Kasabian's lead singer. Tom Meighan was there

to open a new building. The first time he's been back

to his old primary for 25 years. Two of our Conservative

MPs have clashed over whether Britain should take more

unaccompanied child refugees. Some of our councils are caring

for dozens of youngsters who've fled But the Government's been accused

of failing to take its fair share of vulnerable children who've

arrived in Europe alone. And today's there's been

a passionate debate Our Social Affairs Correspondent,

Jeremy Ball, has been Why now? Because some MPs are

extremely angry about the ending of what is known as the dump scheme,

which was expected to bring 3000 unaccompanied children to the UK. In

the end, it looks like only 350 will come. The minister said that is

because it was a magnet, and bringing youngsters to a watery

grave. He was supported by the Derbyshire MP Pauline Laffan.

Why aren't the French doing anything about it?

Why aren't the French dealing with that situation?

Lots of people live there quite safely, so why are we worrying

about us doing this when it should be the French in that situation?

What response did she get? The Loughborough MP Nicky Morgan said

many of these children have a legal right to come to the UK and now

suffering further trauma, including trafficking, sexual exploitation and

freezing conditions as a direct result of the Government's failure

to bring here. There is scope in this debate a

thing of our moral obligations and compassion. As a parent, I know that

the member for Derbyshire said let us hope the situation these children

are running from never arises here. Of course we hope that. But it

could. And I know, as a parent, that if my son need a refuge, I would

want to know the world was offering him about safety. Should give the

Government credit though for what happened after the closure of the

Jungle Camp in Calais last year. She said they helped large numbers of

unaccompanied children in a short period of time at that point and

said it showed that where there is a political will, the system can work.

Next, the latest in our week of special reports on sugar.

Tonight we hear from a doctor who's been investigating childhood obesity

for years and is convinced the sugar tax on soft drinks is worth trying.

Change Dr Dilip Nathan says most of us are eating too much sugar -

way over official recommended amounts.

Our Health Correspondent Rob Sissons has more.

And these East Midlands schoolchildren do look

not overweight, never mind obese, do they?

67 years on and England has a childhood obesity epidemic.

10% of 4-5 -year-olds, 19% of 10-11 -year-olds are obese.

Doctor Nathan is a community paediatrician in

He says taxing sugary soft drinks has to be worth a go.

If you look at what young people consume, we know

that about a third of their sugar intake comes from sugary drinks and

we know they are consuming too much sugar already.

We've not proven it will definitely work, but we have to

The official advice is that added sugars should not make

up more than 5% of your daily calorie intake.

That's about 30 grams of sugar a day, or seven

Laura in Derbyshire reckons she's consuming far less

She's eliminated processed foods from her diet and

I'm not going to say that it wasn't difficult for the first few weeks

and I craved sugar, got a bit shaky, I was bad-tempered and I was looking

She's lost more than a stone and her husband,

who followed soon after, has seen a difference as well.

Doctor Nathan says it does not have to be that

Many of those could reduce sugary snacks.

The trends nowadays are for teenagers to spend more time

in their room, often on computer games and telephones and when they

do that, they unconsciously, without realising,

reach out for a drink or

If you can avoid those, these invisible calories, you can

Colin's on his way back from sunny Seville with

Yes and Leicester are back and with real hope.

The Premier League Champions showed SOME fight and heart in Spain

so tonight their European dream is still alive.

The Foxes did lose 2-1 but Jamie Vardy, this time,

came to the party AND with a crucial away goal to stun Seville.

Goal! Jamie Vardy's first Champions League goal. That was all they

wanted. These fans who are troubled in their thousands buying, begging

and black ink to give that they were. A bit of pride at a

problematic time. They were made to wait, however. The first half was

left at their most ordinary. Saville took the lead and it could be much

worse. The Foxes showed signs of the second half life only to concede

again and looked doomed them from somewhere, they found some spirit

and they found that goal. Vardy's first this year could have a huge

impact on all these players. I felt the change when we arrived in the

dressing room. The togetherness. And like you said, Jamie Vardy has his

goal on and he deserved it tonight and he works hard and it was a

nightmare for their defenders. Hardly anyone comes to this place

and winds, so a defeat to be expected, and the away goal? That is

special and keeps things alive. Leicester City fans were sat up

there in the top area, celebrating as hard as they could. 2-1! We've

scored in 2017, so it is a good start. After we scored, it was a

completely different side playing out there. My voice is gone! A

winner for the fans, so relief? The look was on your side. We had to

keep going. Now we know our focus is on the Liverpool match, because it

could be a turning point. We must make a good match. For three

quarters of an hour, Leicester found something good from the past so let

us hope they keep hold of it. At Derby County manager

Steve McClaren said today Despite a week of disappointing

results he says the Rams still have a chance

of making the Play-Offs. We nearly got to the 50-point mark

and what has happened is we shot right up the league on a great run

and all expectations started to rise and we failed to sustain

that, which is normal. We just have to quickly

find another run. Now - it'll be one of the East

Midlands Sports highlights of 2017. A crowd of 20,000 is expected

to see some of the worlds The event's been officially

launched this afternoon, Yes, it is a sport that Britain are

leading the world in and more people are taking part. All ages and both

sexes, and that is why there is such a buzz about this event at the

beginning of September. A short time ago, I spoke to the world's best

about the event in Nottingham. It is good when it is in the heart of the

city and I like it when the triathlon... It makes the city. And

hopefully that will be the case in September, with the mixed relay cup

and not ago will become a triathlon city for a date and everyone will

come down and watch and enjoy it. It is exciting and it has been a long

time coming to have one of these races in the UK and Nottingham

should be a great venue for it. Right in the city centre and

hopefully we'll get fantastic crowds on the day to watch what should be a

spectacle. It is amazing. Triathlon is growing every day. So many people

are falling in love with it and to be able to showcase it in a relay

format, it is new, exciting, fast and furious. And that is just for us

and the spectators get to be a part as well. It will happen over there

by the cricket and football grounds, longer Nottingham's Victoria

embankment. As well as the elite event which will be shown live on

this -- BBC One, it will be for all The Leicester rock band Kasabian

might have played at Glastonbury and won many awards,

but today, the lead singer had a particularly appreciative audience

when he went back to his local Tom Meighan was there

to open a new building, the first time he's been back

to his old school for 25 years. And he told us very

little had changed. It was a morning assembly

with a difference, as frontman Tom opened a new building

at the school for For the lead singer of one

of the region's best loved bands, it was a morning

full of memories. Really emotional as well, because

just walking the corridors... Tom's old teaching

assistants, who still work at the school, said

he was a lovable rogue. He would go up to the path

to the Headlands building, doing the Moonwalk

and doing his twirls. He would get told off

and not being in line. He always said he would be

a singer like We've seen him play Glastonbury

and all these massive gigs in front of thousands of people

and I think he's been more nervous today than I've ever

seen him before. The head teacher is hoping

he will inspire today's pupils. The children need

to see that there is somebody who comes

to their school who has done something with their life

and it gives them that enthusiasm

to do things themselves. I'm a bit surprised

he actually came to THIS school, because you would have

expected someone famous to go to a different school,

somewhere posh or something. For Tom, even at primary school,

it was all about the I played football,

but I didn't really So they used to clap and say,

Tom, pass the ball! So, from Glastonbury

to his old primary. For Tom and the pupils

here, it will be Work hard and you can be a rock

star! Storm Doris did cause some trouble

earlier today and we still have that amber warning in place. Until around

eight and this evening for the win. Take extra care on the road even

though those gusts are starting to ease off. We had a bit of a weather

bomb earlier. That is where the pressure loses and goes down by 24

millibars in 24 hours. It went down by 30 millibars. It was a much of a

bomb site for these sheep, but elsewhere in the East Midlands, we

saw quite a lot of damage. Thank you to our weather watchers for sending

these photos. Where did East Midlands figure in the general

scheme? Well, in Wales we saw the strongest gusts today. Also the Peak

District and parts of Nottinghamshire. Over 70 mph in

Buxton earlier. So it was very windy. This is where Storm Doris

tracked earlier. She's just about out into the North Sea now. Less

breezy conditions over the course of tonight. But we now have a Yellow

Warning for highs, particularly Derbyshire. Take care. Looking at

the detail, we will see breezy weather, showers as well and lows of

around 2 degrees. As we go toward tomorrow morning, what a difference

a day makes. We will still have a fewer showers, but quite a bright

day. Noticeably cooler with highs of seven Ivan 8 degrees. Some sunshine

as well. Looking toward Saturday and Sunday, wet and windy on Saturday,

but a little respite on Sunday with some more brightness on the way.

Still some lively weather in the mix. Stay tuned to the forecast in

the next few days. A bit of brightness in there as well.

Goodbye to the weather bomb. Explosive psycho Genesis. Crikey! We

don't know what to say about that. I will be back at 10:30pm. Goodbye.