17/05/2017 East Midlands Today

And now the news for the East Midlands, I'm Dominic Heale.

First tonight, the Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell has claimed

in the East Midlands that public support is building for Labour -

despite the party trailing far behind the Conservatives

Mr McDonnell was campaigning this afternoon in the Labour target

seat of Derby North, where, in 2015, the Conservative MP

Our political editor Tony Roe was there to meet him.

You could say this was the few for the many -

the few Labour Party members braving the rain, waiting for

the Shadow Chancellor, waiting for a bus which was an hour late.

Yesterday's manifesto launch had nailed Labour's very different

manifesto to the mast and supporters here are happy.

This is a kind of 1945 moment for the people of Britain,

where we could re-establish the welfare state, even in the face

This is a Labour target seat, it had a Tory majority of 41

at the last election, but they believe here,

this seat will be a test for Jeremy Corbyn's politics.

I'm so pleased you've stuck around despite the elements themselves.

Derby is of course a railway city and Labour promise to electrify

the Midland Mainline and nationalise the railways.

Places like Derby, not only will we increase their connectivity,

but in addition to that, Bombardier will be one

of the companies, obviously, that will be providing a lot

of the railway stock that we will be needing in that new system,

so for Derby, I think this manifesto, you could have almost

And the claim also from the Shadow Chancellor about why

The mismanagement of the economy now is affecting all people.

I think that's why Theresa May called the general election.

I think she called it now because she realised

that the economy was on a downward spiral.

Labour don't believe the election will be a damp squib

for the party's fortunes. Things are picking up,

they say, and polls have been wrong in the past.

Well, one of the region's most influential economic organisations

has called for the next government - whoever it is -

The East Midlands Chamber of Commerce says there are vital

decisions to be made on things like broadband, road and rail

spending, the skills shortage and devolution.

Those issues were put to three parliamentary candidates

at a hustings meeting in Derby tonight.

The small talk before the big event at the University of Derby.

The audience grabs a cuppa before three parliamentary candidates begin

the hustings event organised by the East Midlands

This document was the basis for discussion.

As well as Brexit, The Chamber says other things like growth

and devolution, road and rail spending, broadband and other

issues can't be overlooked by whoever gets into power.

There is going to be a lot of work, a lot of talk over the coming months

But this election must be about more than that.

There's a lot of things domestically that we need to be

It's about providing skills, providing the infrastructure,

supporting businesses that want to trade.

If we can get those building blocks right, then I think we'll be OK.

We do not understand why we want to leave the single market

where both other main parties are saying that's

the way we ought to go. We don't think that we should

be splitting ourselves from our nearest large market.

What comes through loud and clear from the business community's

own document is that there is a role they need the state to play in order

for them to be able to prosper as a private business,

a role in terms of infrastructure, skills, support for research

These are exactly the things we're talking about.

So we are very much on the same ground.

One of the things that I think that we do most

effectively is actually, we do support businesses.

I've been knocking on doors, that's why I'm looking so damp today!

I've been knocking on doors all day and people -

SMEs, small businesses - they are saying we are doing

exactly the right thing, that they do have confidence that

a Conservative government is doing the right thing.

They don't want to have a Labour government that destroys that.

Figures out today showed the region's unemployment

The lowest by one measure since 1992.

But The Chamber says, there is still more to be done.

Mike joins me now - Mike, one of the issues brought up

by the Chamber was the importance of devolution to our region.

Well, there's some concern in the business community

that the East Midlands could get left behind if it doesn't have

The Chamber wants to make sure there's a strong business community

voice so that focus isn't lost on this region -

especially for initiatives like the Midlands Engine.

There's research and development money and other funds up for grabs

and the Chamber doesn't want to see that go to areas that

Kehoe process of devolution has stalled because the MPs can't agree,

is there any movement on that? Well, I spoke to Nottinghamshire

County Council tonight, which is now controlled

by a coalition of Conservatives and the Mansfield Independent Forum

after the recent elections. They say they'll now be

meeting with local leaders to discuss devolution

and other regional issues. They also say devolution

is dependent on the direction the new government takes as well.

So it could be back on the cards. And here's a full list of the

candidates standing in Derby North. A man's been killed after being hit

by a train in Nottinghamshire. British Transport Police were called

to the Barton Lane level crossing in Attenborough at around

11.20am this morning. The incident caused disruption

to train services between Nottingham and London, Leicester,

Derby and Newark. Rail Accident Investigators

have started an inquiry. Police in Leicestershire

are continuing to question two men on suspicion of murdering

a 16-year-old girl. Megan Bannister was found

dead after a car crash in Enderby on Sunday.

Detectives say they believe her injuries weren't

caused by the collision. They've been searching homes

in the Braunstone area Two Leicester men - aged 27 and 28 -

have been arrested. Patients evacuated after a fire

at Nottingham City Hospital are unlikely to return

to the ward until tomorrow. They were moved to another part

of the site after what's being described as a small fire

on the maternity unit just after one Nobody was injured, and no other

parts of the hospital were affected. Our cameras have been allowed to see

the work going on at Stanford Hall, the military hospital under

construction that's going to be the country's main rehabilitation

centre for veterans. Our social affairs correspondent,

Jeremy Ball, was invited in to film. And found veterans

helping with the work. This is how Stanford Hall

is being transformed into a place From this vantage point, you can see

how they are restoring the old roof, just one small part of a site that

now employs 700 You can see our heritage contractors

relaying the reclaimed slate. Rich left the army with

post-traumatic stress disorder. He used to build

bases in Afghanistan. Now, he's recruiting other veterans

to help build here at the Defence Whilst it may take a little

bit of time to bring a service leaver up to speed,

service personnel have got discipline and they have those

logistical, planning challenges that they faced on large operations.

They bring leadership. They will be there on time

and they are reliable. There are many ex-forces on this

site, as a result of the draw of what this project

is all about and It means so much because it

will revolutionise rehab treatment for men and women in the forces

who have been wounded. A rehab service that is currently

based at the outdated The replacement they are building

here at Stanford Hall is due to be handed over to the Ministry

of Defence in the What you can see behind me

is going to be everything from complex trauma wards

to hydrotherapy pools. And accommodation for up to 300

injured service personnel. And from the air, a bird's eye view

that shows just how vast it is and how rapidly the grounds

of Stanford Hall have been This must be the biggest

construction project in the East Midlands at the moment.

This wasn't here the last time you came.

So this will be a new addition. This is one of the gymnasiums

where most of the rehabilitation will take place.

It is a massive challenge. This is four times

the size of Headley Court. We've got 20 odd separate

individual buildings, hence the reason why we've got six

tower cranes and two mobile cranes to actually feed the materials

that we need to build in. There is still a lot more work

to do, but when it is finished, they hope this will be a lifeline

for the next 70 to 80 years. Well, we've had our fair share

of wet weather today. Most of us felt a little bit

soggy at some point. Thank you to our weather watcher

for sending in this picture. Now, looking up the charts,

we will continue to have low pressure in charge of the weather

but the frontal system that has brought all the rain is moving out

of the way into the North Sea So looking at the detail overnight

tonight, we will continue to see that rain moving eastwards over

the course of the night. The cloud will start

to move away with it, leaving us with some clear spells

in the early hours and a fresher feel tonight, not quite as humid

and lows of around 8 Celsius. As we go through the course

of the day tomorrow, we'll start on a reasonably bright

note, some sunny spells there. But the cloud will increase over

the course of the day and we are expecting to see some

showers working across Some of those could be heavy

in places and we are expecting highs But again, a fresher and less humid

feel to the weather. So as we go ahead towards Friday,

we'll continue with that regime Variable amounts of cloud

around on Friday and highs of only around 14 Celsius,

so feeling slightly As we look ahead towards

the weekend, we've still got low pressure in charge of the weather

so we are expecting again a mixture of sunshine and showers.

I will leave you with the outlook. That's it from the late team

at East Midlands Today. Next up is the national

forecast with Nick Miller.