29/12/2016 London News

Good evening and welcome to BBC London News.

A Dutch woman who lives in Surrey says it's ridiculous

that the Home Office has told her she must leave the UK.

Monique Hawkins who is a software engineer and has two children

with her British husband applied for British citizenship after the EU

She says the error is a serious concern, as she -

like many Europeans living here are feeling uncertain

Monique Hawkins left the Netherlands to live in the UK 24 years ago.

Since then, she's married a British man, Robert,

And she was content with her rights as an EU citizen living here,

I decided to apply for permanent residence, because I felt I needed

to have some proof that I was allowed to live here.

Amid all the uncertainty following the vote.

But Monique says she was met by a wall of bureaucracy.

Her application ended up being rejected on a technicality.

The letter actually said that I now had to make arrangements

But if I could produce the right documents,

I'm a British citizen, I'm married to someone

I had an expectation that the process would be pretty

straightforward and I've been very surprised how complicated it is.

The Home Office says the rights of EU nationals are unchanged

while Britain is a member of the European Union.

It says the onus is on those seeking permanent residency to submit

as much evidence as possible in support of their application.

A group which campaigns to preserve the rights of EU citizens in the UK

says these are worrying times for many people.

We've got a situation where we need to secure the future

of these 3 million people, as soon as possible.

We need to make the bureaucracy work for them as well.

That's just a sad example that it's just not working.

Monique's hope for her second application will be successful,

but for many EU nationals, there is a question mark

over their future and they will be watching how Brexit negotiations

The Government is facing pressure to hand over responsibility

for suburban rail services to Transport for London

after a new poll showed commuters support the proposal.

Transport Secretary Chris Grayling has been accused of 'putting

politics ahead of passengers' when he opposed the idea.

The Mayor's Office argue it would provide a better service.

2016 hasn't been easy for commuters on the railways.

It seems not on's gone by without strikes, delays and

cancellations, with passengers bearing the brunt of disruption.

On Thames Link this morning, this was

the picture at Elstree and Borehamwood station.

Trains late and some cancelled altogether.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, wants

TfL to take control of rail services from 2018.

The plan was agreed by the then mayor, Boris Johnson

But earlier this month, the new Transport Secretary, Chris Grayling,

rejected the idea, saying it would be unfair

We are asking the government to independently review

the business case, and actually, let's see

the Department for Transport's analysis.

We fear that the opportunity for improving the rail

services for hundreds of thousands of Londoners is slipping

And we would like the Prime Minister to step in and actually

have this business case independently reviewed.

And the idea appears to be gaining support among the public.

1000 people were asked if they thought that Transport for

London should have more or less control than they currently do over

58% agreed TfL should have more control.

Just 14% of those surveyed backed the Transport

And more than half think that Mr Grayling made the wrong decision.

And what about taking the rail network out of private hands

The unions want the railways renationalised and nearly

half think it would have a positive effect on rail services.

If he can improve them, if he feels he can do

I think take them over, can't get any worse.

It's not going to be difficult given that there is basically no trains

Got to be better than the state it's in at the moment.

The Department for Transport says the mayor's business plan for

the south-eastern train routes provided no extra capacity in peak

And there was no funding identified for improvements to

These would come at a cost to Londoners.

But commuters hoping for a better New Year might

be disappointed, with planned strikes on the Southern network

on New Year's Eve and the threat of industrial action on the tube.

Now, Christmas 1940 was a Christmas week like no other.

It was feared that London could be destroyed by bombing

Now a letter has been discovered which was written by one

of the firefighters after the worst night of the Blitz.

It seemed to be impossible for us ever to get the fires out.

It was spreading from one place to another.

Fire from enemy planes rained down on the city of London.

But I'm afraid there were quite a few firemen that never came back.

There were so many buildings that crashed down and the poor devils

David's father was one of the firefighters battling

to save his capital city as the bombs came down.

He wrote to his wife about the events of that night.

She'd been evacuated to the North of England

with her young sons, the letter has only

We were clearing out my mother's bungalow, when she died.

And we came across a drawing, a sort of a bureau,

and there were loads of Christmas cards and goodness knows what.

We managed to read it and I must admit

that both my wife and I welled up a bit.

Because it really takes you back to the times, as they were, then.

When you read the letter, I think it was just

Now, the letter is safely protected in the archive

Now let's check on the Weather with Chris Fawkes.

In the run-up to the new years bongs there will be a lot of cloud around

but it should stay dry. We will have a process of things counting over

tonight. Clear skies in place and the moment but we are starting to

see some fog patches forming and frost developing. Things could get

sleepy on untreated roads and pavements for a time tonight. --

slippy. Claudio Bravo moving from the West should help lift the fog

into mist and fog -- cloudier weather. There will be more clout in

the sky compared to what we've had over the last few days. Not many

breaks but occasional breaks possible by the afternoon. In terms

of temperatures, rise of five to seven Celsius, so not exactly

toasty. Things will get milder over the next few days with temperatures

in double figures on Saturday. For New Year's Day colder air coming

back in and temperatures dropping at we should see sunshine returning.

Thanks. We'll be back at the

later time of 11:10pm, until then, from all the team,

have a lovely evening. Temperatures have dropped away

shortly and we have seen some fog, particularly through the Midlands.

We do have some clout drifting in from the west. By the end of the

night, towards the East Midlands as well. Further north, more of a

breeze from the south-west, bringing in a weather front. Keeping the

temperatures at seven or 8 degrees. Freezing or just below to the

south-east corner. Fog will live to low cloud and generally speaking a

lot more cloud than we saw today. Northern Scotland is the focal point

for wet and windy weather. Confined to the north and west of Scotland

where temperatures will be quite mild, ten or 11 degrees for Glasgow,

Belfast. Ricky Chile in the south-east corner with low cloud