10/01/2017 East Midlands Today

And now the news for the East Midlands, I'm Anne Davies.

First tonight, one of our region's hospitals has announced it's

under such severe strain, it's raised its status

to the highest level by declaring "a critical situation".

It's a rare move by senior managers at the Leicester Royal Infirmary

but shows how much pressure its services are facing.

Only yesterday, we reported how the Red Cross had to be called

in to help our emergency services cope over the New Year.

It's been an incredibly busy day here at the Leicester Royal

Infirmary. Extra nurses and doctors have been drafted in to cope with

the demand. One of the patients is Elaine Paige's 89-year-old father

who spent hours waiting on a trolley to be admitted to a ward. She

described the situation. It was so busy, rushed off their feet. There

have been times where they've been queueing up and waiting in the

corridor. It has been hectic, in and out, all the time. They are just

waiting all the time, the doctors. You can't fault the stuff. They are

brilliant. It's the second time in brilliant. It's the second time in

six months this hospital has reached a critical situation. Nonemergency

operations have been cancelled as the Leicester Royal Infirmary deals

with increased pressure on its services. It's often very busy after

Christmas and New Year. A second issue is the change in temperature.

More patients than expected are looking for emergency services.

We've had e-mails saying that it is down to cutbacks and poor services.

I think we have very good plans in I think we have very good plans in

place across our health system that have been working well this winter.

The problem we have experienced the The problem we have experienced the

past 48 hours is a surge in demand and we are responding in an

appropriate manner. Tonight, hospital and ambulance staff across

our region face another busy start -- busy shift. The managers here at

Leicester Royal Infirmary say they hope to be on top of the situation

by tomorrow but the advice tonight is to use emergency services

appropriately and only come to accident and emergency with serious

or life-threatening conditions. A man's appeared before

magistrates in Derby, charged with attempting

to murder his wife. Paul Sherratt, who's 56,

has been remanded in custody - after his partner was found

with a serious head injury at their home

on Avondale Road in Spondon. He will appear before

Nottingham Crown Court next month. His wife, who is 59,

is still in a serious condition. Police have released CCTV footage

of a man they want to speak to in connection with a series

of sexual assaults in Derby. The first incident took place

on December 21st last year and officers say they have grown

in frequency over the past week. A further six were reported

on January 6th alone. All the incidents involve

the offender touching a woman The front of a village post office

in Leicestershire has been demolished after thieves rammed

the building with a construction vehicle and stole a cash

machine containing around They left a scene of devastation

in Rothley as Amy Harris reports. The aftermath of a smash and grab in

a quiet Leicestershire village. Just after 3:30am, this runway did this

golden trigger -- this stolen digger into Rothley post office, removing

the cash machine and the entire front. I heard a big noise, so we

looked through the window and saw a tractor trying to hit a building.

It's horrendous. I've never seen anything like it. You don't expect

it in a quiet, rural village, even though we are a busy place. It's

quite alarming. The thieves fled from the scene with about ?30,000 in

a white pick-up truck, later found burned in a field in Melton. Though

this kind of raids are becoming more common, Leicestershire police think

this is a one-off. We have not linked this to any particular spade

or series at this time. The method in this case was messy. The

occupants and staff were not in the building at the time, the

post office was closed, but this method has caused significant damage

to neighbours as well. The post to neighbours as well. The post

office has been at the heart of this community for more than 30 years but

coincidentally, this attack comes days before the post office

relocates to a new building. The post office was due to close for

good on Saturday despite a campaign by locals. The owner didn't want to

talk on camera but told me, quite simply, he is devastated. As the

clear up continues, so do police investigations. Anyone with

information is asked to contact them.

Almost 500 parents have signed a petition opposing

changes to the uniform at a Nottingham secondary school.

Redhill Academy in Arnold is introducing new skirts

They're branded with the school's logo and will only be available

The school says the changes are to improve consistency among students.

But, starting at around ?16, many parents say

That's more than double what we are currently paying for one pair. You

don't buy just one pair of school trousers. You always have two or

three pairs in case of doubt, damage etc. It is going to cost a fortune

have just been told that from have just been told that from

September, they have got to wear these trousers.

There are fears of increased fly-tipping in Derbyshire

after the Council approved plans to charge for taking building

waste to the authority's recycling centres.

People will have to pay ?3 for each 25 kilogram bag.

Christmas is well and truly over and some feel that Derbyshire County

Council is acting rather like Scrooge when it comes to recycling.

At the moment, there is no charge for bringing building rubble to this

recycling centre but all of that is set to change. This morning, the

council approved a ?3 charge for every 25 kilograms bag taken to its

nine recycling centres. That includes bricks, rubble, soil and

ceramics. As you can imagine, people here were not happy about paying for

something that has been free until now. That's a bit expensive, really.

You may as well get a skip. I think that's excessive. I live on a lane

and debate has already been fly-tipping. This will create more.

The authority says it will help to protect front line services which

are under threat because of cutbacks are under threat because of cutbacks

by the government. It is not that we want to introduce it. We are

protecting front-line services which we offer and if we didn't introduce

the charge, we would have to stop collecting it. Concerns have been

raised that it will mean more fly-tipping as people try to avoid

the charge. I think it will lead to an increase in fly-tipping across

the county which is of a concern to everybody. We have looked at other

authorities that have introduced these charges previously and the

evidence they gave us is that their fly-tipping has not increased in

their counties. I cannot stand here and say that it will not increase.

We can't look into the future. The charges will be introduced in April.

Leicester's Clare Hollingworth, who broke the news that

World War II had started, has died aged 105.

After growing up on a farm in Loughborough, she became a war

correspondent and went on to report on conflicts across the world.

Tourism in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire

is to get a ?150,000 investment.

The money is for the development of more Grand Tour projects to help

people discover hidden cultural treasures alongside

The Arts Council says they hope it will encourage more

Finally, for almost half a century, its been a centre

But now a family business in Nottingham's hanging

Despite popularity growing again in fancy dress,

the Golden Cage on Canning Circus says it can't compete with more

modern ways of selling it - either online or in supermarkets.

It means it has to clear thousands of original and unusual

There are a lot of things here that really are collectors items. So, I

hope I sell a lot of them. I will be sad to see it go but I hope it will

go to good families and people will continue to get the enjoyment out of

the costumes that we have. That's the whole enjoyment of costume, it

is fun, isn't it? It sure is. Now for the weather. It has been quite a

quiet day weather-wise in what is going to be quite a busy week

weather-wise. Today has been quite dry, a lot of cloud out and about.

Thank you for this picture this afternoon. Things will start to get

a little bit more tricky, especially with the strength of the wind. Then

it will start to get colder as well. Overnight tonight, temperatures

aren't going to increase, but as this front moves across, the colder

air starts to filter in. Strong winds in the early hours of the

morning and because of that, we have a yellow warning in force from the

Met office for Nottinghamshire. We are talking about winds of around

about 60 or 70 mph for the early hours of the morning. Strong winds,

outbreaks of free as well and noticed there's temperatures, they

are rising in the early hours. Milder at first, very windy, one or

two showers out and about. Brightening up with its boughs of

sunshine. Many of us will stay dry into the afternoon. Although those

strong gusts may easily little, it will still be an exceptionally windy

afternoon and much colder by the end of the day. Temperatures are about 6

degrees and then we are looking out for this on Thursday. The risk of

some rain but at the minute a glimpse

of the week, and to start the weekend as well. For more on that

snow situation, over to Jay