17/04/2017 London News

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Good evening and welcome to BBC London News.

There's growing pressure for older drivers to have to take a test

to make sure they're fit to stay on the roads.

More than a quarter of a million people have signed a petition

It was started by a man whose wife was killed by an elderly

Frank has been driving for most of his life.

Know where you are relative to as much traffic as you possibly can.

But despite 56 years of experience behind the wheel,

he feels he benefits from an appraisal from time to time.

I can see that I'm not as sharp as I was ten or 15 years ago.

There is no legal age to stop driving in the UK but under

the current DVLA system, drivers have to renew

their licence every three years from the age of 70.

And that must apply when I'm driving a car.

Not disclosing a medical issue can have devastating consequences.

In 2012, Ben's wife was killed while walking

with their 2-year-old son, Jackson.

When the pressure was on, when the driver had to choose

between an accelerator and a brake, he wasn't able to make that decision

Ben is campaigning for drivers to be retested every three years

Last year, road safety experts delivered a report setting out

a national strategy for safe driving into old age.

It made a number of recommendations including increasing the age

of licence renewal to 75, if proof of an eye test

Older drivers, at the age of 70, you are no more likely to be

But as we do get older and start to suffer from frailty,

eyesight and hearing, then yes, problems can arise

if we do not address them at an early stage.

Meanwhile, Ben is hoping his campaign will highlight the issue

Families of people with disabilities say they fear their loved ones

could lose their independence because two day care centres

The council - which owns the buildings - has been allowing

a charity to use them rent free, but says it can no

He's 23 next month and he has severe autism.

Ertan spends most of his days at this care centre.

He takes part in art classes, cooking and even goes sailing.

But the council has told the charity which runs the centre that the lease

on the building is due to expire and it can no longer

Meaning that the centre will have to close.

The centre is the best price for us to pay.

It has given Ertan's mother sleepless nights.

My business would have to fold, my teaching would have to stop,

because I would literally be his round-the-clock carer.

It's not only his independence but it's ours.

Just two miles away, another centre has also been told

Julia's Sun is severely brain-damaged. He has been going to

the centre for 11 years. It is outrageous that people who have had

the misfortune to be brain-damaged, through no fault of their own, and

it could be you or I, they are suddenly landed in this position

where they have nowhere to go. Southwark Council says

it is working to try to keep But what about the people

who use Queen's Road? Some people might want

to go to Riverside, the Council's new resource centre

for people with disabilities. But families say they are still

worried about what the future holds Next, the story of the north

London plumber with Ian Puddick from Enfield

was renovating an old bakery when he discovered it once used

to make and sell illegal gin. As a plumber, Ian Puddick is no

stranger to tinkering with pipes. But when he bought a converted

Victorian bakery as his new office, he never imagined he'd be swapping

ballcocks for botanicals thanks to a discovery

about the building's past. We learned that the bakers,

back in the day, made and sold illegal gin,

so I tracked down the family descendants,

got the original recipe. From that I bought a little still,

played around with it - just for a bit of fun -

and now I make gin. His simple recipe gin is now sold

in Fortnum's and Harrods as well as his local farmers market

but that doesn't mean he isn't happy to serve customers

who pop in on spec, too. London has seen an explosion

of small batch artisan distillers in recent times and gin lovers

cannot get enough of it. You get all sorts of people

that are making gins, most small batch gins

will have a story. These are people who are passionate

about what they do. But how plausible is the story

of illicit gin being sold out of a Palmer's Green bakery

in the late 18 hundredths? The perfect cover,

if you are going to be distilling, making your own alcohol from malted

mash, you're going to There's going to be a lot of smells,

boiling, fermenting wheat. And is probably going to be

a lot of steam around. Now a bakery, lots of wheat around,

it's got your ovens running, I think it's a highly

plausible story. Meanwhile, Ian is hoping one day

soon he can give up the day job fixing dirty pipes and fix

dirty martinis instead. Chelsea have announced that captain

John Terry will leave the club when his contract expires at the end

of the season. The 36-year-old has won 14 major

honours at Stamford Bridge after making his

first-team debut in 1998, having risen through

the youth ranks. Time for the weather

now with Louise Lear. Good evening. If you have managed to

extend your Easter break, you will probably be happy

Yes, it could be cold first thing with lovely sunshine to compensate.

It should stay dry, maybe with just an isolated shower. But that really

will be few and far between. In terms of the feel of things, 10-14

degrees. We are playing a repeat performance into Wednesday. High

pressure means a chilly start on Wednesday, dry and largely Sunni.

We will be back later tonight- at twenty past ten.

Hopefully you managed to enjoy some good weather this Easter. It has not

been ideal but it has not been that bad. Pretty cold tonight. Sharp

frost on the way in role areas and across northern parts. The skies are

not clear just yet but they are starting to