10/04/2017 East Midlands Today

Syria? And we speak to Howard Jakonson on his novel about Donald

Trump. Here on BBC One, it's time for

And now the news for the East Midlands,

I'm Anne Davies, good evening. First tonight, a judge has taken

the unusual step of making public the details of a custody battle

which prompted a mother from Nottinghamshire and her two

Samantha Baldwin and her boys were finally found last week

Today, a judge said that serious accusations she made

Our reporter Victoria Hicks has been following this story.

Judge Jeremy Lea said people needed to know some essential facts.

Because there's been so much "ill-informed

You'll remember that Samantha Baldwin was arrested,

at the end of last week, on suspicion of

That's after the police found them in a holiday cabin,

And it all followed a nationwide "missing persons" hunt,

Now today the judge revealed that it started, when Samantha Baldwin

That was while he was making a ruling on what contact

And he said she took the boys away, to prevent the court from deciding

So what did the judge say about those abuse allegations?

In a nutshell, his judgement made it clear Samantha Baldwin's claims

And his Honour Judge Lea spelled it out.

He said "the father had not perpetrated sexual,

physical or emotional abuse against the boys, as

He said "the allegations made by the mother were false".

Samantha Baldwin "genuinely believed he had done it,

And the judge added that "in order to try to prove her case",

she "caused the boys to ingest substances".

Two sedatives that would give rise to a positive drugs test.

In short, the judge said she was trying to obstruct

And he said the two boys are now in the care of the local council.

Next tonight, the fight is on to try to stop two major

High Street banks from shutting down branches across our region.

NatWest and Lloyds both say the growing popularity of online

But campaigners fear the impact of any closure will be

felt far more widely, as James Roberson reports.

It's been there for decades but now it's shutting.

The NatWest branch in Mickleover in Derby is a victim of changing

15 branches of NatWest and of Lloyds are due to close

Matthew Holmes is one of three local councillors who have signed a

petition to stop the closing. We want to send the message to them

to pause and think again about this. I don't think they consider

what the effect is on a local There is still another bank

and aPost Office here but this storeowner says she has seen

another branch close. I am surprised they are closing

because they have just lift which would have

been very expensive. Are you worried

that is closing down? The post office will handle a lot

of transactions and I will have It is not good for the village

and people's access. NatWest say they have listened

to local communities and extended the time between announcing branch

closures and actually shutting to six months, to give people time

to find alternative banking. This is to give people time to find

alternative banking. Meanwhile, in Nottingham,

Lloyds say they've made a difficult decision to close its branch

in old Market Square They say it's because of

the changing way that customers bank with them and that this branch

is being used much less. The savings made in this closure

is going into developing The new ways many individuals and

as online, telephone banking. The new ways many individuals and

businesses are starting to use. In rural Derbyshire,

Lloyds say they are investing in new bank vans so that people

still have a bank Student rowers in Leicester fed up

with debris being dumped along their stretch of river

have decided to deal The watery waste littering

the River Soar risks damaging their boats

and compromising their training. So Jo Healey has been to meet

the rowers to see what they've They are fishing out the mess again

and there is plenty of it in the water and out of it. The other day

we had a couple of hours out on the river bank and we managed to collect

about 26 bikes. There is absolutely loads of letter. Swift boats costing

around ?3000 a piece any damage is costly in time and money. If the

letter gets into the money it is not good for the birds or boats. We can

definitely hit orders on bottles and traffic cones and things like that.

And it isn't unusual to promote And it isn't unusual to promote

things like this. These really cause quite a lot of damage to the boats

so we make it a priority to get them out of the dinner. You don't get

many motorbike six not as much as the pushbikes and trolleys. How much

damage do these cause? Quite a lot of the time they are low-down but

eventually you have handled this sticking up which can cause quite a

lot of damage so try to get these out! It is about getting it all out

but they also want to give something back and they have made the pledge

to dredge every month from now on. You are from the canal and River

trust. Just how damaging is all this and other rivers? We spend over ?1

million of hard earned cash and lots of volunteer hours in clearing this

rubbish out of the waterways. It can get in the way of boats and repair

work and can be very harmful to wildlife. How would you like to

raise your family and what essentially is a rubbish tip? We

have seen the volunteers picking the have seen the volunteers picking the

rubbish out and I know you rely on them. Shouldn't we be educating

people not to throw stuff into the waterways? Absolutely, it is all

stuff people are throwing in and if people weren't throwing it we

cleaning it up and it seems some cleaning it up and it seems some

people just don't care. The government has announced it has

plans to get much tougher on litter louts. Do you think this will have

any effect? I think it'll be helpful in raising awareness but in terms of

actually starting it it will depend on how much enforcement is actually

done. Perhaps just getting people to understand that what they are doing

is bad and causing problems. Everyone could come and volunteer

away. If you have a crystal ball, is away. If you have a crystal ball, is

the future of waterways good? Definitely and we have more people

visiting and using the waterways than ever before and we are

committed to tackling these kinds of problems and making them even better

yet. We'll find out in a moment

whether today's glorious weather And it's the dry, sunny conditions

which may be putting some of our East Midlands

countryside at risk. We're being asked to be careful not

to accidentally start fires when out and about -

such as this one which destroyed an area of bracken in

Leicestershire's Bradgate Park The advice I give to visitors is

just please be very careful with your activities, watch the cigarette

ends and don't chuck glass bottles around and there a reason we don't

allow barbecues in the park, and this is it.

And it's not just in rural Leicestershire where there's concern

Clearly we have some areas in the county of outstanding natural

beauty. They have taken thousands of years to become established and will

be destroyed very quickly. What I would say to the public is just be

careful when you're out there particularly if you're using

barbecues. It might lead to an accidental fire. These fires can

grow very quickly and soon get out of hand and take considerable

resources to extinguish, and while we do that it causes a tremendous

amount of damage. So, it's goodbye from me -

but with your weather The week ahead is looking fairly

settled but for a week in spring not looking too bad at all. Feeling

noticeably cooler but we are expecting some sunshine and

occasional showers in the Macs. The high-pressure giving us some fine

weather is starting to lose its grip on the weather over the next week or

so. We have this cold front moving in our direction bringing sports and

spots of rain over the next few days. As for tonight, variable

amounts of clouds and the temperature taking a bit of a

tumble, lows of around six Celsius, and through the course of the day

tomorrow, eight very similar picture, starting on a sunny note

and the cloud starts to increase. Highs of around 14 Celsius but

tomorrow even in the cloud will start to melt away again. Again,

more cloud around on Tuesday night, and under clear skies could fall

away Tim Butcher Wise, lows of around eight Celsius and the chance

of an odd shower you that they are. Towards the midweek, the cold front

comes into play and we may see some rain starting to push Southworth,

shouldn't be too heavy but stay tuned to see how that develops,

highs of around 13. So as we head to the midweek and on words to Easter

we start to get more fronts coming in our direction and again we may

see some more showers, so as we look ahead towards Thursday, we've got

more cloud starting to build into the picture and a slightly more dull

day, highs of around 11 and then finally, towards Good Friday, yet

again a springtime mix of sunshine and showers. I will leave you with

the Outlook. will have to keep an eye on the

National forecast with Matt Taylor. Good evening. Let's cut to the chase

the first big holiday weekend of the year is on the horizon and if you

consider last weekend as a taster for the summer, this weekend is not

looking too bad. It will be a bit cooler, temperatures this week and

closer to where they should be at this time of the year thanks to the

north-west breed and the reason for that, if we look at the jet stream,

coming across the Atlantic pushing from north to south -- north-west

breeze. It separates the high pressure and low price and it allows

the northerly airflow to develop. It means there will be some showers

going into Easter weekend but they will only be a small portion of the

weekend wherever you are and there will be some dry weather and when

the sun is out, it is getting stronger so it will negate some of

the chill. Without the sunshine it will be chilly