12/01/2017 East Midlands Today

And now the news for the East Midlands.

First tonight, a "survivalist" who made explosives and stockpiled

chemicals has been jailed for terrorism offences.

46-year-old Roger Smith claimed he wanted to protect the UK

from an attack by the so-called Islamic State.

Today, Nottingham Crown Court heard how he regarded himself

Our social affairs correspondent, Jeremy Ball, was in court.

Roger Smith has been sentenced for possessing explosives

and for downloading a document called the Anarchy Cookbook.

The judge said he wasn't planning an imminent attack

but they were ready to use at short notice and they were offences that

fell within the legal definition of terrorism.

He told Smith, "In your warped view you were preparing

for the possibility of a siege and for a local war

That created an extreme risk to others," he said.

Tonight, Roger Smith's beginning a four-year prison sentence.

These are some gunpowder samples that were taken from his property.

They were ground down into various forms.

This is why police called the bomb squad to Roger

They found several containers full of chemicals, including

hydrochloric and sulphuric acid, and this can of acetone,

and he was grinding down the gunpowder pellets

inside a domestic ballcock that was sealed

Mr Smith said he had an interest in chemistry.

He also said he liked to make minor explosions within the confines

of his own back garden for the entertainment, really,

You must have been concerned by what you found there?

Exceptionally concerned, and there is a risk attached that

actually...the harm that could not only be done to neighbours

or neighbouring people, passers-by, members of the public,

there is an inherent risk to himself with all of this.

The investigation began after police were called to deal with a dispute

Behind these reinforced gates, he had several knives

His next-door neighbour saw him testing the explosives before

The bomb squad suddenly pulled up on the front,

I went out the back and ask the coppers, "What are you doing?"

Turned around and said, "Do you know, if he'd had a fire,

He said, "Yeah, he's got all these cylinders."

Smith was also convicted of possessing a copy

of The Anarchist Cookbook, that's banned under terrorism laws.

The downloading of the Anarchist's Cookbook is totally illegal.

Contained within that book were details of how to make bombs.

I think it's really important that members of the public understand

that researching how to make bombs, researching what these things

Your curiosity will never be an excuse for downloading something

The court heard that Roger Smith's a loner,

he's eccentric but he's not mentally ill, and the judge told him,

"You are as misguided and foolish as you are sinister."

The need for more money to be poured into social care has been

debated by Nottinghamshire county councillors today.

Members backed a motion calling on the Government to provide

With services and spending stretched, our political reporter,

Peter Saull, has been seeing how one initiative in Nottinghamshire

is trying to ease the strain on the system while

Just like any 18-year-old, Miles from Gedling wants to be

He's always struggled with public transport,

so here to help is a council support worker, Adrian.

Right, Miles, do you remember what we do when we get to the bus stop?

But before that we need to cross the road, don't we?

Gradually, Miles has gained the confidence

When I first met him, although he was quite confident,

he was unsure about crossing roads, finding what number bus to catch,

things like that, but we broke it down and he's come on wonders.

Nottinghamshire County Council is spending an extra ?750,000 over

the next 18 months to pay for more people like Adrian.

The idea is that people like Miles will no longer have to access

an already stretched social care system.

Back home, Miles' mum believes her son has made

He's 18 and he wants to be out meeting his friends,

meeting his friend Joe for pool or swimming and to the cinema

in town, and we are working on it all the time.

So what do you like about the cinema, Miles?

I liked watching the movie Passenger.

While there is a positive outcome here, this initiative isn't a silver

Today, the county council passed a motion calling on the Government

to make extra funds available as a matter of urgency.

The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, has told this

crisis facing the NHS could be partly resolved by passing on some

He's revealed that his party is working on a plan

for the Treasury to take away the burden of Private Finance

Initiatives - or PFIs - which the last Labour government

My colleague John McDonnell, who's our Shadow Chancellor

of the Exchequer, is looking at ways in which the Treasury could take

over those, buy out those debts, so the burden is not placed

on the patients but is borne by the rest of the community.

But I do think PFI, frankly, was a big mistake, I think it

would have been much better to invest in those new hospitals

by direct public investment, and I think that generally

the public would agree with it and I don't think anybody now

Next tonight, the first designs for what's hoped will be Leicester's

next multi-million-pound visitor attraction have gone on show.

The Jewry Wall Museum, on the site of the city's Roman ruins,

is to be transformed in the hope of bringing in yet more tourists

And this latest development follows yesterday's

announcement that the nearby Abbey Pumping Station may also be

in line for a revamp, as Amy Harris reports.

In the middle of modern-day Leicester, a reminder

Jewry Wall is one of the largest pieces of Roman masonry

still standing in Britain, and its story -

told in this museum - attracts 27,000 visitors a year.

Now the council hopes to triple that by updating and extending it -

We have an opportunity to reinterpret this for Leicester

people but also to bring still more people to Leicester.

By doing that, we can do more for the Leicester economy.

Today the first designs were unveiled, showing how

Detailing life in Leicester during Roman times, it will include

these interactive displays and projections

The designs have been drawn up as part of a major

Now they want to turn it into a world-class visitor centre.

And it's not the only museum which could be revamped.

Around half a million pounds may be spent on improvements inside and out

It showcases the city's industrial past but hasn't received any

Both proposals have been welcomed by Leicester Civic Society.

It's all part of the heritage of Leicester and its history,

If we don't know where we come from, we don't know where we're going to.

In tough economic times, spending on heritage may raise eyebrows,

but those behind the plans insist that investing in Leicester's

past will secure the city a bright future.

And finally for this Thursday evening, the cold weather has

attracted a spectacle of nature to our region - a murmuration

of around 80,000 starlings which has been filling the skies over

Stoney Middleton in the Derbyshire Peak District each evening at dusk

for the last couple of weeks, thought to be one of

the largest murmurations in Britain in recent years.

Wonderful. That is your news, so it is goodbye from me. Now the weather.

It is very cold tonight. We had the rain through the afternoon so it is

surfaces. A weather warning for surfaces. A weather warning for

that. We have some sort -- snow showers as well, a line coming in

through the early hours and also the rush hour, so the possibility of

disruption on the roads because of ice and snow. That was the area of

ice and is now clearing to the Southeast but the snow showers are

starting to come down a bit more from the north-west, where not to

affecting Derbyshire and Leicestershire. The rest comes down

to northern parts in the early hours. Very cold out there, these

are the temperatures in the towns and cities. And icy start first

thing tomorrow morning, then we find this line of showers are starting to

work southwards through the rush hour period before clearing. A

covering of snow from these and difficult driving conditions but a

bright day tomorrow. Cloud developing in the afternoon but the

main feature will be the strength of the westerly wind. It will feel very

raw and outside, a daytime temperature no higher than three or

four Celsius but factor in the strength of the wind as well. It

falls a bit lighter through Saturday, still breezy and cold but

it should remain quite bright. I will you with the

note. If that's not your sort of thing, Sunday will be cloudier and

milder. Good evening. It was such a mild

December, wasn't it, but winter has arrived. Tomorrow morning, again,

could be prising the wipers off the frozen windscreen. Yes, it's going

to be cold tonight, whether it is liquid,/ or snow, it will freeze

solid late at night with temperatures close to or below zero

in many places. This was the early snow which pushed across the

south-east, a few centimetres over the high ground. Now we concentrate

on the showers, which feed in over the north and west of the UK. Some

getting into the Midlands, giving a further coding in places. Ice will

be widespread, warnings in force. Blizzards raging across Northern

Highland Scotland as we head into the night and through the early

hours we will see a band of sleet and snow heading down out of

Scotland and Eastern counties of England. A narrow band, but inland

it could give two or three centimetres of snow, heading all the

way down to the London