27/06/2017 London News

independence referendum as early as next year. That's all from the BBC

After a spate of fatal stabbings, the mayor launches

You need to mobilise someone like me in the community to be able to give

back to people like myself. And you need to empower someone like me.

The man who says he's lucky to be alive after this.

The pedestrian walked away with a few bruises

The Sikh couple who say a Berkshire adoption agency told them

they were the wrong culture to adopt a white child.

They should be looking at ours as people and understanding more about

our lives, who we are, and not as one particular area such as cultural

heritage. And it's 50 years since the world's

first hole in the wall Good evening and welcome

to the programme. First tonight: The mayor

has launched a major crackdown on knife crime,

it comes after an escalation in violence which has seen nine

teenagers killed in the capital this year, and three fatal stabbings

in the past 24 hours. The strategy could see more metal

detectors in schools, along with an increase in the use of stop

and search by police. Sadiq Khan has also pledged

more money to fund anti as our home affairs correspondent

Nick Beake reports. Noumea chose this boxing club in

Brixton to launch his new assault on knife crime. Pastor Lorraine Jones

set the top three years ago after her 20 old son Dwayne was stabbed to

death. It is the kind of place Sadiq Khan says he will now give more

money to. It is vitally important to have spaces like theirs, because it

is based is like this that young people feel comfortable in. Unless

they feel comfortable and safe, they cannot address their internal issues

and social issues that they are having to deal with. Umea blamed his

predators and the Conservative led coalition for a recent rise in light

crime. As he unveiled his strategy. What can you say is gently drop

pioneering and make that difference? Knife crime has been going up in

London since 2014. It is clear that lovers have to work together. That

means rather than closing down youth centres because of Government cuts,

supporting them. What else is in his strategy? A specialist team of 80

Met officers to be sent into knife crime hotspots. They will be more

stop and search, and the increased funding for community projects.

Also, more help poor people to leave gangs, a crackdown on knife sales,

and more weapons searches in schools. This strategy to fight

night crime is something they may and his team have been working on

for the past year. What is organisations are involved, but the

Metropolitan Police is key to its success. This strategy gives all

across London the opportunity to get involved in stopping knife crime,

and the most aborted thing about it is that it is all-encompassing and

there has been an enormous amount of consultation, engagement with

particularly young people, so it is highly relevant to them. Not

everyone exist packages destined to work. Sefton Henry started selling

drugs when he was just eight. He now runs an anti-gangs project. He think

they may should make more use of reformed criminals. I know what it

is like to be in a prison cell. I know what it's like to carry a. I

know what it is like to rob people and sell drugs and the rest of it. I

the roots. I know what made me do that. Goodes the Conservatives say

the May' strategy a lot clear targets. It will be hard to work out

whether or not any of these measures had been successful.

The emergency services meltdown on New Year's Eve, which caused a fatal

delay. Officials explain what went wrong.

After 16 attempts at IVF and seven years of heartache,

Sandeep and Reena Mander from Berkshire decided

But the couple, who are Sikh, claim they were told they couldn't

take the process forward locally because of their cultural heritage.

They say the agency advised them to adopt a child from India instead,

After seven years of trying and 16 failed IVF attempts, this couple

accepted they were not going to have a baby of their own.

Convinced they could offer a child a loving home,

they went to an introductory session on adoption.

When they told the agency, Adopt Berkshire, they would

like to move forward, they were informed,

with only white babies needing families, their Indian heritage

We had already gone through a long journey, and...

Initially I was hurt and then I was angry.

They should be looking at us as people and

understanding more about our lives, who we are, and not just one

particular area, such as cultural heritage.

The couple, both born and raised in Britain, tried to get the

decision reversed through the agency's complaints division.

They have had support from their MP, Theresa May, but they have not

even been allowed to start the long application process, which is why

I feel that the council has got it wrong, in the sense that they have

prioritised cultural heritage as the one

and primary factor that they will consider before even allowing

The effect of doing that is creating a form

Adopt Berkshire is the council's adoption agency.

When we asked about this case, a spokesperson said they would not

But on its website, it says, when placing children for adoption,

it will first try to identify prospective adopters who will

reflect the child's culture and religion of heritage.

For us, colour doesn't mean a single thing to us, you know.

Why differentiate that, and the well-being of the child

growing up, just out of the fact that, I suppose,

The legal battle, they say, is for future couples

They have now been approved for adoption from the US.

Simon Smith was walking and on Street and Reading, when a

double-decker bus market the pavement and sent him flying.

Incredibly, he was able to get up and walk away.

And his report begins with some shocking CCTV

A quiet Saturday morning in the centre of Reading, punctuated

By any reckoning, Simon Smith, the local

man on the receiving end of a bus that comes from nowhere, should be

Yet he calmly walks into a nearby bar.

It was out of the blue, that's what gets me.

The Purple Turtle is one of the best-known bars in the town,

and its CCTV captured the whole thing.

Simon cannot talk to the BBC for the kill reasons. But his friends have

been in touch. We called Simon aafter the day

of the accident, and he was I just cannot believe that

Simon got up, dusted The scars of the incident

are plain to see. The impact on the windscreen of the

bus, we have their a slight cushioning effect. That has served

to reduce the impact on the head. In the aftermath, a crowd gathers to

help. It is not confirmed in either of the two Reading bosses employees

was the driver. The scars are all there to see. Many here think that

it careered around the corner because of a mechanical failure.

That is not the subject of an ongoing investigation. Reading

bosses said it is shot by the incident and said its regrets to

Simon. It is sharing a bosses on-board CCTV with police. This is

first time ever like this has ever happened. It is quite a safe state.

The vehicle is the drive down here go about 20 mph. It looks like the

boss has gone out of control. It has just almost gone into turbo, sped

up. As you might expect, this footage has now gone viral. The main

comment, most people and minor way Simon just kept calm and carried on.

We've been here in and around on street just outside the Purple

Turtle, and we noticed that the buses are certainly going slowly.

This is Anfield and popular part of Reading and people are shocked and

concerned. They have a lot of fun that fondness for the bus company

and don't want to point the finger or make accusations before any of

the investigations are complete. Tonight, police have told is that

over this very lucky escape, no arrests have yet been made.

The man accused of carrying out the terror attack

near Finsbury Park mosque has appeared at the Old Bailey.

Darren Osborne appeared by video-link from Belmarsh prison.

He faces charges of murder and attempted murder.

The 47-year-old didn't request bail and will appear

The partner of former EastEnders star Sian Blake has lost a challenge

against his whole-life jail sentence for murdering her and their

Arthur Simpson-Kent failed to persuade judges at the Court

of Appeal that the term should be reduced.

He killed Ms Blake, their eight-year-old son Zachary,

and four-year-old Amon at their home in Erith in December 2015.

It was a computer meltdown in the Ambulance Service,

It happened on New year's Eve, one of London's busiest nights.

Now a report into what happened has blamed poor IT maintenance

for reducing the control room to using pen and paper

Here's our Political Correspondent Karl Mercer.

Goes back thousands on the street and he had Lewis Evans preparing for

its busiest night of the year. Half an hour later, its computer system

crashed, leaving staff to resort to pen and paper to dispatch

ambulances. A whistle-blower told BBC London in February what the

meant. The people of London were felled on New Year's Eve. They were

watching their loved ones suffer and weight, not knowing if when help

would arrive. Do you think there is a chance that people might have died

as a result of this computer failure? Without doubt. The report

confirms one person had back after waiting 40 minutes foreign and

others despite being conscious and breathing when travellers was first

called. Undoubtedly there were a number of pages would have waited

longer on New Year's Eve for an ambulance. Because the manual

systems are naturally slower. For that, we do apologise. The problems

where widespread. Between three and four

in the morning it was taking 25 Some less serious cases had to wait

seven hours for an ambulance. And nearly 500 calls were dealt

with by other services, Today's report also highlights

mistakes made in the run It says seven risks relating

to lack of IT maintenance were raised, but none considered

by the board before incident. It says that at the time Testing

and maintenance was not And it says that When risks

were identified, senior managers If they were seven cases with

problems that were raised before the incident, why were they not dealt

with? As I said, we accepted the findings of the report that there

were failings in terms of our governance and process management.

We had put in place measures to fix that and improve that. Despite you

are confident it won't happen again? I am confident that this particular

failure will not happen again because we have only fault, and we

have eliminated the ability for it happen again. Despite the problems,

front line staff praised for their efforts during computer crash.

Now, all this week we've been reporting on the residents evacuated

from tower blocks in Camden because of fire safety concerns.

Thousands of people living on the Chalcots estate were moved

after their flats were found to have similar cladding to that

Today, we've been hearing that many are returning

to their homes because of uncertainty over rehousing.

Ayshea Buksh is there for us this evening.

This is the leisure centre just in front of the state where people have

been coming all day to get information on all sorts of things,

where can I watch their children's close them how well their post be

redirected, and where will they be living for the JCB 's? This

evacuation was done with the best interests on the visitors, but not

everyone deals are positive about how it is being carried out.

It is home to hundreds of people, but while cladding is

removed from tower blocks on the Chalcots

estate in Swiss Cottage, residents must simply wait.

After the evacuation before the weekend,

many were forced to stay on air beds at the local leisure centre.

Others are with family or in temporary accommodation.

This couple have been staying at a hotel in Euston

The hotel told us we have to check out today,

and we've got 90 minutes to go and pack all our stuff and leave.

We don't know where we're going to go next.

Other residents are also anxious about the uncertainty.

10:45 in the evening, somebody called and said,

we have found you a place, can you move?

I said, yes, I can, but for how long?

I am not going to move for two nights.

With the children had everything, you wake them up at 10:45

in the evening, they don't sleep, let's go, we have to move.

Then you have to return back into the sports hall.

Last night in Parliament, Camden Council was praised by the

Communities Secretary for taking swift action,

and he said all local authorities and housing associations

must act immediately to ensure public safety, regardless of

There are problems with gas pipe installation, stairways that

are well-known accessible, breaches of internal walls, and most

astonishingly there were hundreds, literally hundreds of fire

The estimate by the council itself is that they need at least

1000 fire doors because they were missing from those blocks.

Camden Council have said the missing doors will be replaced during

The leader says she wants people to be

safely back in their homes as soon as possible.

Residents have been told this could take up to six weeks.

Let's not forget many quintile residents are still in temporary

accommodation across London. You had the committee 's secretary said type

of action should be taken no matter what the cost, we spoke to Camden

has an asked them about the contribution from central Government

and they said so far there has not been any comedy Department of

communities declined to comment. 50 years ago today the first cash

machine was born here in Enfield. Find out more later in the

programme. And so far this week we have had sublime sunshine and a

ridiculous amount of rain. The forecast later, I will tell you

what's happening in the next few days.

Devastating and frightening - that's the response from parents

of severely disabled children who've been told their respite care

home is going to close because of spending cuts.

Nascot Lawn in Watford looks after the most disabled children

in Hertfordshire at weekends to give their parents a break.

But local NHS officials say it's got to close to help

Ten-year-old Lennon is unable to do anything for himself. He is severely

disabled with complex medical needs. His mother Nikki says Kerry for her

son at their home near Stevenage is demanding and exhausting. He has

lots of medications that take me about half an hour to drop the

mornings. He requires hourly care throughout the day and roughly two

hourly care throughout the night. It is hard. There has been a few times

when we reached breaking point. To help Nicky and her partner Cope,

Lenin spends one weekend a month here at Mascot Lawn in Watford. It

offers unique respite care for 60 severely disabled children from

across Hertfordshire. Just get some sleep really. Some time off and a

break, recharge our batteries. It does mean the world and it keeps us

going. But none had such a valid clinical commissioning group says it

cannot afford the ?700,000 annual running costs any longer. It says it

is under huge pressure from the Government to save ?45 million this

year, and says it is not responsible for funding respite care and can

only afford to pay for services it is legally responsible for. The

clinical commissioning group says happy to chat county council's

response ability to pay for the care children receive her. But the

council says it cannot afford their servers either. But says it will

offer to help and support to the children in any other way possible.

Nicky and other parents are now fighting to keep the home of open.

They say it is scandalous and unfair that once again of vulnerable people

are caught up in the middle of a row over who should pay for their care.

We have fought for the last ten years to keep Lennon alive, and it

has been a daily battle. Actually we do anything for him I just feel that

if we do not get respite, I don't know what the future holds, I really

don't. I am scared. I'm scared to do it discuss it, what is go to happen

to our family, but didn't happen to my son in the future. Devastating,

really devastating. It was technology which totally

changed the way we think about and use cash -

the world's first ATM. Installed at a Barclays Bank

in Enfield, that original cash machine was unveiled

50 years ago today. But with an ever-growing

number of ways to pay, It was much more than a spectacle.

The world's first cash machine was born right here in Enfield half a

century ago. Judith Simpson was 20 years old that they, she came to see

what all the fuss was about. I remember there was quite a crowd

outside the bank, a lot of people did not really know what was going

on. I think people came just to be nosy. I remember that Reg Varney was

here and he put some sort of piece of paper into the machine and

allocate money. Which was extraordinary in those days, to get

money out of a wall was a bizarre. The girl Christine celebrates the

history major that they, but the actual cashpoint 50 years ago was

installed around the corner. Elizabeth Weiser was nine when she

stood and watched history happen. You put your car down and it was

like magic. You have to look back at how things started, and an ATM was

like a pioneer of how we operate now with the digital world. It was one

of the first steps, so it was incredibly significant. But they

didn't realise that then cut them had a crystal ball. The rate of

change has been rapid. Today we have numerous ways to pay, by our cars,

watches, and phones. Do we still need cash? Or even banks? Will be

humble ATM supply? Be used have about 20,000 bank branches in the

UK, similar 4000. Cash machines will actually provide 99% of all the

services that people can get from bank branches today. Technology is

transforming the way we pay for things. Making our lives easier. It

is all thanks to the hole in the wall, born here 50 years ago today.

Now - he sold over 30 million albums, won multiple awards

and crawled onto the Top of the Pops stage dressed in gold lame.

Leee John and his soul group Imagination dominated the charts

Now the self proclaimed "North London soulboy-made-good"

is back, and Thomas Magill's been reminiscing with him,

as he celebrates 35 years in the business.

Pop trio Kept imagination, but it is banned in the 80s, when what you

wore was just as important as what you were singing. If you remember

London at that time, the end of the 70s, end of the 80s, everyone had a

look. What we were doing was an extension of the club scene. There

was a whole funk movement, everybody was dressing, everyone looked sharp.

Ever wanted to be uniquely different. So we just extended the

way we looked onto the stage. And for Leee John, that identity were so

important he has held onto many other unique outfits and handmade

accessories worn at the time. And welcome... Tee Leee's layer of

costumes. This like a memory lane for me. So many parts of my life. 35

years in Imagination. Despite this looks familiar. Well, and top of the

Pops, we had a big hit called Just An Illusion, and I believe I had a

mask on the back of my head, and this was the outfit that I wore.

Goodes in those early days, Leee says the rare few other black

British art is on the scene, but there was one who he says was more

than helpful. When a way to Highbury Grove school, not far was Stoke

Newington, when it was a studio and Eddy Grant used to be there, we used

to go to his studio and he's together is fantastic advice. I have

known Eddie said I was a kid. The state, Leee is all grown up, still

making music and performing, other he does admit the moves are just a

little tamer. Moves have evolved,. I could still do my spins, that is

cool. Here's another one. I can still do that. I would say he still

got it. Now the weather with Wendy -

and I expect gardeners in London If you like the summer weather,

probably this is not your cup of tea. It will be much point in Lucky

a watering can around at the moment. There is plenty of rain falling

across London, we started with heavy showers, these and the bright

flashes unity on the radar picture. Accompanied by some thundery

activity as well. If we just zoom out slightly can start to see what

we've got now and what is coming next. Rain on the radar picture,

working up from the south. Heavy bursts, still plenty of it to come

through this evening. The Met office has as covered by a yellow weather

warning, that is because we could have flooding and places and it is

not to be nice to dry. It may also cause disruption to our transport.

Here's how it will play out. Overnight, rain fairly consistent as

we go through, within its heavy bursts as well, not out of the rails

applies it to get one or two rumbles of thunder. My day with temperatures

there were lower than 1415 Celsius. Tomorrow, just about with rain with

us, particularly west and north London. Pulls away from 's adviser,

leaving us try and brighter into the afternoon, but any brightness may

trigger of one or two showers later in the day, so it will be very humid

and temperatures will get to around 20 Celsius. Was the end of the week,

precious little sunshine, maybe one or two showers on Thursday, bits and

pieces of rain about to the first part of Friday as well, and we are

all going to feel humid. Was the weekend, a slight change to the

weather, that is a little bit of a breeze is going to start picking up.

Was the end of the week, rain started to move away, rain should be

overnight leaving us try and brighter in the day with breezy

conditions into the weekend. In our late programme, a special

report on a fire warning issued by the London Fire Brigade, weeks

before the Grenfell Tower disaster. A letter obtained by this programme

was sent to all councils in London, warning of cladding panels. It

followed a fire in Shepherd's Bush last year.

We will be back later during the ten o'clock news,

but for now from everyone on the team have a lovely evening.

Brexit means Brexit. We did it!

To pretend that it's going to be plain sailing is such

knuckle-headed lunacy. Happy days are here.

They have said one thing one day, another thing the next day.

think during the year that changed British politics?

18 weeks tomorrow and we're still here, still going strong.