27/03/2017 East Midlands Today

It's almost 6:30pm - you're watching East Midlands Today.

Why a Derbyshire primary - one of the largest in the country -

We just know that some of us have got to go

and it is very upsetting, very, very upsetting.

..that will see plain-clothes police targeting those driving

Plus, the new bereavement centre set up by Martin and Carly in memory

And spring has finally sprung, and if you don't believe me,

take a look at this lot, there are thousands of them!

Good evening and welcome to Monday's programme

with Maurice Flynn and me, Geeta Pendse.

First tonight, further evidence of the increasing

Derbyshire's largest primary has issued redundancy notices

to its teaching assistants because of a funding crisis.

Hilton Primary says it needs to close a third of the posts.

Leaders at the school say it's a disaster but insist there's

Head teachers say they continue to face rising costs and unfair

funding despite the government saying education spending

Jill Radcliffe is one of 40 teaching assistants working

A budget shortfall of ?120,000 means that she and her colleagues have

been issued with redundancy notices to cut their number by 13.

There is no words, just somebody has got to go

and we are more than friends, you know, it is like a family here.

So everyone is in the same boat and we just know that some of us

It's very upsetting, very, very upsetting.

With 850 pupils, Hilton Primary is one of the largest in the country.

Its annual budget is ?2.6 million but each pupil receives less

For the past two years the county council has helped with contingency

funds and this year it is providing an extra ?100,000, but it is not

At the end of the day, our children deserve the same

opportunities as every other child in Derbyshire, yet receive ?800

less per pupil than your typical Derbyshire child.

And for us, that is a shortfall of ?500,000 a year.

We have had an extra ?100,000 from the local authority

and we are incredibly grateful for it, but in reality,

that makes up only slightly the shortfall and still leaves us

In a statement, Derbyshire County Council said...

The elastic now is stretched as far as it's going to stretch and losing

these TAs is a disaster, it really is a disaster and it seems

utterly unfair that children will walk through our gate

in the morning and get less spent on them than any other

It is a bit cold in here today, isn't it?

Well, that's because the heating is off because we are saving money.

Staff who are losing their jobs will be notified in May

and compulsively redundancies cannot be ruled out.

Quentin Rayner, EBC East Midlands Today, Hilton.

The school has lobbied their local MP Heather Wheeler for more funding,

and earlier I asked her if anything could be done to stop

There are ongoing conversations with Derbyshire County Council.

This is all to do with why Hilton Primary, a primary pupil

there is worth ?3090 a head, whereas a primary pupil

somewhere else in Derbyshire is worth ?3900 a head,

and this is what Derbyshire County Council need to actually

But Derbyshire County Council do say that government allocations have not

I mean, are their hands not being tied a little bit as well?

No, the Department for Education will tell you that education

for schools has been ring-fenced and every single penny has been

So it is about on-costs, I do appreciate that,

but the funding has been there, it has not been cut

by the government to Derbyshire County Council for schools.

And, of course, there is the proposed funding formula...

This school would benefit by about ?200,000 a year.

Now, Tory backbenchers are essentially threatening

putting this on hold, what do you make of this?

Certainly backbenchers who have small rural schools have found that

at certain times the funding formula will not help them.

In South Derbyshire, out of my 40 schools,

30 would improve or stay the same and ten would lose, so no

doubt I am going to be getting letters from those.

So it is quite right that the consultation period is only

just finished and Justine Greening needs to look at the whole formula.

The whole point of this was to make sure that schools like Hilton

actually increased in their funding and we had fair funding

OK, Heather Wheeler, thank you very much.

Leicestershire Police plan to use plain-clothed officers on bikes

to target motorists who drive too close to cyclists

The scheme has been backed by one particular cyclist,

who says close passes are an almost daily experience

Too often you will have a car fly right pasture without any

consideration. It is not anger, it is adrenaline that hits you. You

have just been skinned by a hard motor vehicle. This man cycles 500

miles a day. He records his journey on his helmet camera. A person on a

bike has the mix for motor vehicles. The person on a bike is any

ponderable situation. That person could be someone's mother, father,

it could be a child, they are in a vulnerable position and motorists

must recognise that. Leicestershire Police plans to educate drivers

using plain clothes police officers using plain clothes police officers

to target offenders. They will have cameras on the front and rear of

their bikes. If they are past the their bikes. If they are past the

Ouseley by a motorist on a before, they will pass that on to the rest

of the team who will endeavour to stop the vehicle and speak to the

diaper. It is game that has been tried with success in the West

Midlands. It has been welcomed by cycling groups here. Survey after

survey has shown that the reason that people do not cycle is

primarily because of the fear of traffic and it only takes one near

miss or close pass to put them off for life and that is why be met with

the Police Commissioner last year to say, look, West Midlands had this

great operation, can you try this out in Leicester? We are so pleased

that the Leicestershire Police agreed to take this on board. What

is a safe passing distance? The Highway code says you should give at

least as much space as you would a least as much space as you would a

car, or run the risk of being prosecuted for driving without due

care and attention. You are watching BBC East Midlands

Today. Plenty to come between

between now and seven. Not only a full forecast

and a field of daffodils, We will be speaking to the most

passionate and honest chairman, Kevin Nolan and more on Notts

County. The family of an amateur boxer

from Derbyshire who died in the ring on Friday night say they're

devastated at his death. 17-year-old Eddie Bilbey from Ripley

collapsed after a contest at the Postmill Centre

in South Normanton on Friday. Derbyshire Police say the death

is not being treated as suspicious, but the Board of England Boxing has

begun its own investigation. A Leicestershire MP has apologised

after failing to declare a financial interest during a debate

in Parliament about HS2. Andrew Bridgen sold his home -

which is nearby the proposed route - under what's called

the Exceptional Hardship Scheme. He received ?1.8 million

in the deal, but has been criticised by the Parliamentary Standards

Commissioner for not mentioning I've never made any secret of how

close HS2 was running to my then property

in North West Leicestershire and this, in no way,

clouded my view of the HS2 project, a project I opposed before

the route was announced, I thank you for an opportunity

to put this all on the record and I apologise to the House

profusely for any Two arrests have been made

following the death of a man The 22-year-old victim was found

with a stab wound on Canonsleigh A 19-year-old man was arrested this

morning on suspicion of murder. A 21-year-old woman has also been

arrested on suspicion A woman who claims she was raped

by her teacher in the 1980s has been A jury's heard that

Christopher Metcalfe allegedly carried out the rape

when he was a teacher at the children's care home

in Skegby Hall, near Mansfield. The victim, now in her 40s,

denies she's making up Well, our reporter James Roberson

has been at the trial James, just remind us

of the allegations against The retired teacher,

who's now 70 years old, was a member of staff

at Skegby Hall. In the 1970s and '80s,

it's alleged that he indecently One - who was nine years

old and one of his pupils - claims he sexually abused her at her

village primary school near Mansfield, and then again

at a local swimming pool. The other two complainants say

they were both abused at his family Christopher Metcalfe denies five

separate sex offences. And today we heard from one

of those women who says Yes, she's now in her 40s,

but back then had been sent In court today, she said

she was 15 when Mr Metcalfe, her rural studies teacher,

took her to his house. She said Mr Metcalfe

"Threw me onto the floor I had tried to run away from him,

but I couldn't get to the door." She said after ten

minutes of raping her, he was interrupted when a young man

- she believed to be The witness has been

cross-examined by Mr Metcalfe's That's right, he's suggested

that the alleged rape never happened and that she's just making it up

to get back at Skegby The barrister said, "I suggest

you've made a false allegation against Mr Metcalfe in order to make

money from compensation?" "No money in the world

would replace all this." James, we have to leave it there,

thank you very much. Leicestershire Police say they're

reviewing one of their "risk assessment" forms after it sparked

a racism row. The claim has come from music

promoters who say other forces are using the system to unfairly ban

rappers and grime It's fast tempo, it's high

energy, it's attitude, it is the whole culture,

it is fashion, it is People in the industry have said

that this genre of music is being unfairly targeted

by the police, who ask for a specific risk assessment

form to be filled in. In my experience, when it's

normally a night where it's predominantly black people,

without fail, the form comes out This is the form used

by Leicestershire Police which specifically asks questions

about ethnicity of the audience. Event organisers

claim that is racist. Our social affairs correspondent,

Jeremy Ball, is here. What are the police

so worried about? After rival gangs involved

in postcode wars used to meet And I remember one concert

in Nottingham, where there were armed police with sniffer dogs

and metal detecting arches, and that And there's a real concern that it's

led to a blanket ban Because grime's become

much more mainstream. And most of those artists we saw

in Sarah's report have played here in the East Midlands

without any trouble at all. Now Leicestershire Police told

us they don't believe But a form that links

safety to ethnicity Our other main police forces told us

they don't use these safety forms. A Leicestershire bridge has reopened

to drivers seven months after it The bridge in Barrow-upon-Soar

was closed last August, after rubble Network Rail had hoped to reopen it

before the end of last year, The bridge finally reopened

to traffic this afternoon. A couple are putting the finishing

touches to a new a support centre It's called Zephyr's

and will be in the grounds of Nottingham City Hospital -

named after Carly and Martin's son And they're planning an open day

there next weekend for anyone affected by the loss

of a baby or child. Our health correspondent

Rob Sissons has more. It was a sharper decline, Carly was

in the early stages of labour, her pregnancy had gone full term but a

midnight could not find the baby's heartbeat. -- midwife. I looked down

at myself and felt absolutely terrible. I screamed, I could not

give birth to a dead baby because everything came crashing down around

us. We had to get through it. That was my job. They have created a

bereavement Centre for other people affected by baby and child loss.

Yes, it is our hope that this space will provide a better place for

people when they are grieving, too, and feel cared for. It is named

after their son, Zephyr. Come inside and we will show you what we have

been doing. We have been trying to make the space feel as homely as

possible, so, rugs, cushions... They have raised more than ?20,000 to set

up Zephyr's. When a family is believed they need a place to come

to do feel like they are understood. The centre has been set up so that

it can offer counselling. Maybe you need physiotherapy because your body

has changed and you have to come for counselling or to see a consultant,

or have a postmortem meeting, all those things can be very clinical

and dry and have a hospital type feel. It is magical, the fact that

you have made something from something so difficult to benefit so

many other people like you, it is just the best thing anyone could

think of. Martin and Carly are artists from St Annes and are

putting their own creative touch on the present time for an open day on

Saturday. It is for anyone who is affected by the divorce or the death

of a child. Martin and Carly are very busy, they have an 18-month-old

son. Rob Sissons, BBC East Midlands Today, Nottingham.

And if you want more information on that open day to go the website -

Time for sport with Colin who's had some special guests tonight...

Coming up, a gymnastic triumph and Leicester Tigers seeing off

departing Head Coach Aaron Mauger in some style.

But we start with those special guests.

Alan Hardy is the local businessman who took over

He's been lively, combative and seems utterly

Kevin Nolan is his bright young manager.

It wasn't long ago he was a star of the Premier League on the pitch.

Now he's led Notts County from relegation peril

They both joined me just a short time ago.

Kevin, Alan, thank you for joining us. Let us start with Alan, it is a

tough gig being the chairman and the number of a League 2 club, why are

same question! Huge potential, huge same question! Huge potential, huge

potential. We all are up for a challenge and enjoy the challenge

and it does not get any bigger than this. Kevin, it is tough gig being a

football manager, why are you doing it? The pure enjoyment, I love it, I

love football, I love the fact that I have been given this fantastic

manage a great football club with manage a great football club with

such history, yes, I am just giving it everything I possibly can to make

sure that we are a success and so far, so good. You are in cracking

form at the moment, 14 games, 24 points, that is promotion form. You

had that win at Wycombe, what has changed? How have you done? In

number of things, being able to put my own stamp on the team right away,

rather than... Alan has backed me 110% and also the players have

bought into it. That is the biggest thing, they have bought into what we

are doing. Allen, of the field, I remember a game in December and the

crowd was only 3500, now you have crowd was only 3500, now you have

7500, what is happening for the field? It has to begin on the pitch,

he is amazing to work with and to he is amazing to work with and to

see him what was that players and his encouragement, passion and

desire to bring the best out of that there is and get it right on the

pitch, and the cards will come in, I am absolutely convinced of that. You

are pretty competent, you are outspoken online, involved in

everything, you are a numbing boss, everything, you are a numbing boss,

do you think that fits in with the football club? People are people at

the end of the day, you have a group of people who have a desire to be

successful. When you give them a vision and a jolly to go on, they

will buy into it, you can create special things. Finally, talking

about passion, we have some images of you celebrating after the Exeter

game and Europe throwing yourself into a growing's arms, will be

showing it. You have played at Premier League level and scored lots

of goals, how have you retained that passion at this level. We have

started to get a fortress mentality, it is broken. I love the game

than anything, although not more than anything, although not more

than the family, obviously! So having this opportunity, I do not

want it to go, I want to give it want it to go, I want to give it

everything I've got and hopefully that will be enough. We wish you

both all of the best, thank you for joining us. Thank you. Thank you.

Also in League Two, Mansfield Town are now just a point off the play

off places but tonight we understand manager Steve Evans has had

His team won 3-1 away to Morecambe on Saturday.

Danny Rose scored twice, before Ben Whiteman

The Stags getting the job done before half time.

There was of course no Premier League or Championship

But that didn't stop a couple of our strikers from hitting

Leicester City's Jamie Vardy scored his 6th international goal,

to help secure a 2-0 win for England at home to Lithuania

And Derby striker Chris Martin, on loan to Fulham, scored Scotland's

only goal in a crucial 1-0 win over Slovenia.

Rugby, and Leicester Tigers are back in the rugby union

Premiership's top four, after a thrilling win away

The Tigers snatched victory in the last few minutes,

It means head coach Aaron Mauger goes out on a high.

He's now been replaced by Matt O'Connor.

We expected to see some tries from both sides, but not as quickly as

they came. Northampton scored with just over one minute on the board

but the Tigers hit back quickly. It was back and forth throughout the

game but the Tigers trailed with a few minutes left on the clock and it

was left to all and Williams with two brilliant penalties to secure

the victory. A fitting end then to abrin Major 's final match in charge

of the Tigers as they fought their way back into the top four of the

premiership. Nottingham's Ellie Downie dominated

the British Gymnastics She became all-around champion

on Saturday before winning the vault It marks Ellie out as the leading

British woman in the build-up to And we do not seem to have the sound

on that, I do apologise. A curious finish to Nottingham

Panthers' regular season - their game in Manchester settled

by an early penalty shootout They won but it had no

effect on the play-off Panthers will now play

Sheffield Steelers over two legs It'll be a chance to put right

Friday night's controversial match, when Sheffield won 3-2

but Panthers had this last Next tonight, whether they inspire

you to quote one of our great Romantic poets, or simply put

a smile on your face - the head-nodding daffs

are in full bloom. But who needs Wordsworth

and the shores of Ullswater in the Lakes,

when we've got Jo Healey on the banks of Ulverscroft

in Leicestershire? They are inspirational little chaps,

soul and the words of the pot... A host of golden daffodils. Then my

words, wow! And in the words of some of the 30,000 visitors who come to

Stone will each year, this is what they said... Headteacher breath

away, it is very beautiful. It brings a nice feeling to see new

life, art, the new daffodils. It makes you feel good. On a cold day

like this it makes me feel spring like to see them, it is lovely,

really beautiful. And there are thousands of them, get the originate

from just 300 bulbs in three varieties planted one century ago by

the family who lived here. They have spread by putting out the killer

bobbles and seeding, until you see this glorious display that we have

today. You have not had applied these bulbs, which fills me with

horror? No, just a single bob to make the display. That display

surrounds the arts and crafts house, the National Trust's greatest

treasure, one of its smallest but proving one of the most popular,

especially at the moment. They are quite early this year, the

daffodils? Yes, we have had quite a bit of sunshine and it has brought

them on. Probably about two weeks early. So just a couple more weeks

to be inspired. And then my heart with pleasure fills and dances with

the daffodils. Absolutely beautiful. Apologies from

it mispronunciation earlier. Time for the weather. Good evening,

we had some lovely weather at the weekend but for the rest of the

weekend think it is going to convert weekend think it is going to convert

a bit cloudier. We had to miss this morning, this is one of our Weather

Watcher pictures from Market Harborough, default this morning.

That eventually lifted and we did That eventually lifted and we did

see some spells of sunshine, this picture coming in from Retford. Over

the next few days it will be fairly cloudy, the cloud will wind out over

the sun. But there will be some sunny spells to be had and outbreaks

of rain at times. This is the picture through this evening and

overnight, quite a lot of cloud through the night, we will see some

this morning, could be a misty and this morning, could be a misty and

murky start to Tuesday morning, temperatures down to 5 degrees. Some

mist and murk, a grey start to the date but that will eventually left

and we will have some sunny spells breaking through. One or two showers

and some of them could be heavy but temperature-wise, doing quite well,

15 Celsius is the high. Through Tuesday night, the showers will die

away, there will be some cars built initially, but gradually we will see

the cloud push and once more, if you are bits of light, drizzly rain

through the night but a mild night to come overnight Tuesday and

Wednesday, temperatures getting down to 10 Celsius. For Wednesday, we

continue with that increasingly unsettled feel, it is going to be

breezy from the South West, quite cloudy with a few outbreaks of rain.

Temperatures on Wednesday still doing OK, 14 Celsius, despite that

cloud. As we go through the rest of the week, we continue with that

unsettled feel, lots of cloud on Thursday but Thursday looks like

being the warmest day of the spell, temperatures up to 16, 17 degrees.

On the Friday and the worst weekend, a bit cooler, more showers with

Heisele 14 degrees. 17, fantastic! Colin has joined us.

The gymnast, you were telling us about her achievements.

Yes, absolutely brilliant. That is this evening, we will be back with

the big news.