08/08/2017 London News

That's all from the BBC News at Six, so it's goodbye from me

The Met Chief tells us a clamp-down on Islamaphobia will help

Her comments come with hate crime on the rise.

Swearing coming out or you can hear someone saying "Get out"

or you can hear someone saying "Leave our country."

We join police on special hate crime patrols.

The woman shot and wounded on holiday in Brazil -

her family tells how her partner, an ex-paratrooper saved her life.

Plus find out why this pub needs an inspector

The requirement is that it's sufficiently gay,

which is hilarious, but we don't want sufficient gayness,

we want wholeheartedly, massive queerness.

And a view not seen by the public for 700 years -

how Westminster Abbey is to open a rarely seen part

The Metropolitan Police Commissioner has told the BBC

that tackling hate crime and Islamaphobia is one

of the best ways of combating Islamic terrorism itself.

Cressida Dick's comments come after figures show hate crime

has been rising over the last three years.

Now the Met is combining dedicated patrols on the streets of London

with a specialist cyber command to tackle the problem.

Our political editor Tim Donovan is at New Scotland Yard now for us.

Are in tax, and tags in Manchester and London, there was a really sharp

spike in reports of reports of hate crimes, especially reports of verbal

abuse and so on directed against Muslims. The commissioner said here

today that that had fallen off, the trend has abated somewhat, but it

was still an issue but it wasn't just about numbers to her mind

because it was a very important signal to send, to address and make

a priority the issue of hate crime. There are specialist patrols. They

have started in east London where the BBC has been. Charlotte Franks

reports. Nusrat and her family know

what it's like Last year, they were

the victims of hate crime. It happened around the time

of the EU referendum. One day, I left my window open

by mistake and when I came back, there were three kgs

of tomatoes here on the window, kitchen shelf, floor

on the wall, everywhere. Three kilograms of tomatoes thrown

through your kitchen window? Then they started

calling my husband names. By his beard, calling

him Osama bin Ladin. They called your husband

Osama bin Ladin? Yes. They smashed my car,

they broke the car's windscreen... Her husband, Khalil, had to install

CCTV to capture the intimidation. After presenting

the evidence to police, Over the last five years, there's

been an upward trend in the number of reported hate crimes

across England and Wales. In London last year,

there were more than 15,000 reports of racist abuse and over 1500

Islamophobic reports. For many, the fear of becoming

a victim is very real. I can hear swearing coming out

or you can hear someone saying "Get out" or you can hear

someone saying "Leave our country." It's why police are patrolling

on foot around East London. A visible presence to

reassure the community. Superintendent Waheed Khan

is responsible for clamping down on and all of them are

equally unacceptable. I think you can be online

and increasingly we're seeing It can happen on a bus,

it could happen in the street, in a shop, but equally

in the digital world. The war against hate crime

on the Internet is being fought It was launched in April

by Mayor Sadiq Khan and works closely with

social media sites The police hope that this

combined approach of street and cyber patrols will

help to reassure London's diverse communities that they can

live their lives without fear. The Commissioner, Cressida Dick,

knows there is a perception here that needs to be tackled. She said

today that the Met needs to work doubly hard to achieve confidence in

Muslim communities. It is why today in the Fourier of the Metropolitan

Police's headquarters here, she took part in an hour-long interview and

falling with the BBC's Asian network with a big reach, of course, with a

Muslim audience. She was making the point here that if the Met was seen

to tackle and take so seriously the issue of Islamophobia, that was

going to achieve the kind of confidence that then led to help in

tackling extremism, the causes of terrorism.

One of the ways that we can tackle extremism together is to ensure

that Muslims, for example, feel protected and feel properly

protected and that we are taking hate crime very, very

seriously and I think, you know, if you look

at the terrible attack in Finsbury Park,

You know, we treated it as a terrorist incident.

What she said was, you would start to see progress when Muslim people,

news and communities felt they were able to influence their local

police, understand their police and also join the police force. 8% of

the Metropolitan Police currently are Muslim. London's Muslim

communities about 18%. There is a gap there that she wants to achieve.

The hope would then be that, of course, if you achieve that kind of

level of confidence, you would just have that extra opportunity when

somebody suspects or fears or just has a feeling about something that

is not right in their community, a neighbour or a family member, they

would be more confident about getting in contact with the police

and expressing their concerns. OK, Tim. Many thanks. Tim Donovan,

our political editor. On day five of the world athletics

Championships, IM at the club which helped transform Asha Smith into a

sprint sensation. The family of a mother-of-three,

believed to have been shot by gangsters in Brazil,

has told the BBC how her partner, Eloise Dixon was with him

and her three daughters when they accidentally drove

straight into a Rio slum ruled by one of the country's

most notorious gangs. It was a week into her son's family

holiday when Hazel Dixon got His starting was, you know,

"Eloise has been shot. He said that the gunman

had shot the tyres. "It's absolutely riddled

with bullet holes." Eloise Dixon, her husband Max

and three young children, Isabella, Holly and Alice

were driving in the coastal resort of Angra dos Reis, about 90 miles

from Rio de Janeiro. After straying into favela territory

and stopping to buy water, The mother of three was shot twice,

once in the abdomen. Max, a serving firefighter

in Bromley stayed calm in

extraordinary circumstances. He just wanted to get out of it

as quickly as possible, You know, the head man from

the hospital said she was so lucky. The 46-year-old underwent

two hours of surgery and is now in a stable condition,

waiting to be transferred to a private hospital

in Rio de Janeiro. Do you have any messages to other

travellers who might...? Don't take any little

side roads or anything. And all Hazel can do is wait

for her son's next phone call. for travellers using Waterloo

station after a signal failure shut some of the platforms

this afternoon. Ten of the platforms

are already shut for three weeks so the they can

lengthened to increase capacity. Due to the work, Network Rail have

told passengers to try and avoid In an attempt to avoid parking

charges at Luton airport, some holiday-makers are now facing

huge repair bills instead. Some air passengers have been

leaving their cars in residential to find their vehicles

vandalised and graffitied. The problem's got so bad,

the council is considering When the owners of this card

returned from their holiday, this is what's waiting for them. Parked on a

residential streets near Luton airport, for the past weeks. First

came the graffiti, then a few days later, the vandalism. About two

o'clock in the morning, we heard a thud, but out of our bedroom window

and there were two lads, 15 or 16, jumping all over it and running at

it and then they got on their bikes and drove off. Residents we have

spoken to don't condone the vandalism, but they do understand

the frustration. Icy tyres done, little airport parking, windscreen

wipers broken off. I am not going to vandalise anybody's car, but I

understand why it has been done. It is frustrating. We live here. Parked

elsewhere. They are so bold, they move the columns or they push your

card down to you fit. Someone has been writing notices for some time

and it doesn't have gone further than that but then I came out here

and I saw the side window had been done and I thought, well, seeing

what has happened before, I had better get is reported to the

council because once vandals and starts, it escalates. If you turn up

at Luton, long-stay parking charges are ?25 a day for the first date and

?21 a day after that. Pre-booking brings those prices down. Residents

have told us that all of these cars have been here for some time, left

by people with suitcases heading off to the airport and it's led to a lot

of frustration and, in some places, vandalism. We have seen three cars

vandalised here today. The police say they are powerless to do

anything but the council is trying to take some action. The council has

written to residents asking if they want a parking permit scheme. For

less than a pound a week, they will get full coverage, protection and

presents in the area by way of having the enforcement officers out

there. Most residents told us it is unfair that they would have to pay

to park outside their own homes because of airport passengers. Luton

airport says it always advises passengers to park in on-site or

off-site car parks, but with more airport expansion underway, the

number of passengers preferring to par boys parking charges could yet

increase. -- preferring to avoid parking charges.

A scheme creating the illusion of speed bumps on roads to slow down

drivers is being extended across the city.

Transport for London has now painted virtual bumps in 45 locations

to reduce speeds to 20 miles per hour.

is to bring traffic down to speeds of below 20 miles per hour

with the results of the trial showing some success

as average speeds have reduced by three miles per hour.

Over the last decade, nearly two thirds of the capital's gay bars

In Tower Hamlets, an attempt to stop the trend of LGBT venue is closing

down. The council is sending in an inspector as Emma North reports.

The Joiners Arms was an institution. It was called a meeting place for

genuine outsiders. It was a feeling as you walked through the door,

right there, bring it on! Not to forget the tunes as well, because we

didn't want to go out... Kylie. The only signs here are billboards for

nights out elsewhere because two years ago this site was sold and

like most of our city able to be flats. But the council says it must

be home to a new club for the LGBT community and an inspector will

check it is gay enough. What does that mean? I honestly don't know. I

honestly don't know. Cultural things like the music, decor, stuff like

that, nods to the sort of people that go there? Over a decade, almost

two thirds of London's LGBT venues have closed. The redevelopment of

places like Joiners Arms is part of the plan to stop this. But

campaigners say it is not important that the spaces are created, but

what counts is that they are worth going for. At the requirement is

that it's sufficiently gay, which is hilarious, but we don't want

sufficient gamers, we want wholeheartedly, massive queerness.

And if we are talking about sufficient, sufficient on whose

terms? Going out LGBT London has changed. People don't meeting pubs

and clubs but use apps instead. A culture is seen by many as a

mainstream. John sizzle, seen in the leopard-print here, appears on the

South bank. Out of costume, he explains in London's need for LGBT

bars and clubs. People I know that don't look as straight as I do will

get a lot of grief on the streets, you know. They are called names

constantly, they are bullied. People need to come to a place and express

themselves and feel safe during it. The mayor of Tower Hamlets says they

are at committed to celebrating the great diversity...

The council decides tomorrow what will happen to the Joiners Arms. A

space for the LGBT community could be guaranteed for 12 years. What

can't be promised though is the quality of any party.

Restoration work to open up part of Westminster Abbey,

not seen by the public for hundreds of years.

The bond between London and Paris hasn't been affected by

That's the view of the departing French Ambassador to the UK.

As Sylvie Bermann prepares to leave at the end of the month,

she's been speaking to BBC London about the city she's made her home

She's been speaking to our Brexit reporter Katharine Carpenter.

When Sylvie Bermann was posted to the embassy here in London

three years ago, colleagues warned her it would be boring

Well, I think it has been a historic period because I arrived

just before the referendum on Scotland and then I had

two general elections and then of course the Brexit

Around 100,000 French people living in London voted in the French

election earlier this year, but they had no say

in the UK's decision to leave the EU.

Some have already left, not a huge number of people,

some decided to leave because they feel maybe less

welcome in the city now and, again, the main problem is uncertainty.

You've talked about the Brexit negotiations as being

Did you still think that's a good analogy?

Well, that was a funny analogy and while I hope that in the future

I'm not sure it's going to be the case.

So, does she think the city will be one of those losers?

I think that London will remain a very

important financial centre, but at the same time,

some people and some activities will be relocated

It's not our choice and, of course, we take the opportunity

but generally speaking, we have a policy of strengthening

But if she's keen to play down any rivalry

between Paris and London, she's equally keen to talk up

the friendship between what she describes as our twin cities.

It's close, it has always been so and also

we suffered terrorist attacks and so there was a lot of

displays of solidarity and friendship.

I was very touched also when I was invited to Wembley and

the Prime Minister and the Prince of Wales sang the Marseillaise.

It is understood she is off to Russia next,

I like the culture and their sense of humour as well,

so I really enjoyed my time in London.

It's a bit too short, but that's the diplomatic life.

An interesting insight there into the Ambassador's thoughts

Yes, and it's very clear speaking to her that she thinks this is going to

be detrimental to the UK and to London particularly in terms of a

loss of influence on the world stage. Of course, there are many

people in this city who will disagree with that viewpoint, but we

know that to be the French position generally, so it is perhaps a great

surprise. What was interesting during our chat was how little she

felt that would impact on the human relationships between Christians and

Londoners. She said we had a human bond, particularly after the terror

attack she was talking about the -- Parisien 's and London. She said one

thing she was most proud of during her two year terrible setting up the

Anglo Franco Young readers programme, something she hopes will

mean there is a network between people of all backgrounds in France

and the UK, something that will injure. That was something that was

conceived pre-Brexit but she acknowledges it will become more

important now. And of course, we wish her well in

Russia. It's day five of the World

Athletics Championships and among the British medal hopefuls

taking to the track at the London Stadium tonight

in the 200 metre heats will be They're getting ready to cheer her

on at her club in Bromley, which is where we can

join Chris Slegg. Hello. This is Black Keys and

Bromley Harriers. Some discus training is going on behind me. The

200 metres of course, Dina Asher-Smith. A fortnight of training

here a week still. She grew up training here and she will have the

support of so many people down here tonight. Anyone who has seen her

race will know she races with a smile on her face. These pictures

are the last World Championships two years ago. She came fifth then

Budgie has since gone on to become a European champion. She has had a

really tough season after breaking her foot in February. She has

battled back in time for these rock championships. The youngsters behind

me here are going through Sprint straddles here tonight. I could

think to a court here, Ken. How do you think she will be feeling ahead

of these heaps, trying to get it if there's a's semifinals? She will do

OK. She came here 13 years ago to join the Academy and that has been

run by her current coach, John Lackey, who spotted her potential

the same as I did and everyone else did. I remember in the individual

primary school championships she won probably eight years ago now. She

broke a new record in that. I remember a teacher up there saying

to me, who do you think will win? I said the girl in lane for. They

went, no, look at the girl next door, she is twice her size and

younger. I said, just watch and basically, yeah, she ran a fantastic

time and a teacher turned round and said to me, my God, she looks like a

future Olympic champion. She is nearly there! Not far off. Let's

speak to one of these young sprinters. You do heptathlon but 200

metres as part of that. We say a lot in the media, is a cliche, or is she

genuinely an inspiration? Definitely an inspiration. To have a great

British sprinter like Dina on TV competing at the world-class shows

kids like us that if you have the determination and commitment she

has, you could be like her. Definitely an inspiration. When you

see her running, what tips do you take from her? What you learn? She's

really relaxed which he runs, so fluid and that is key especially in

sprinting slaps a great tip. We shall see how she gets on tonight.

Thank you very much. The heat are at 7:30pm, the 200 metres. If Dina

Asher-Smith gets through, semifinals on Thursday night and then fingers

crossed, everyone down here will be cheering her on, hoping she can get

a Friday night's final. We certainly hope so. Thanks very much indeed,

Chris. For more than 800 years

the Abbey has stood a medieval masterpiece,

largely untouched. So imagine the pressure

of being responsible for a multi-million pound project

to build a brand new tower alongside so visitors can access parts

of the Abbey seldom seen before. Victoria Hollins has

been to take a look. This isn't a journey many get

to take and it transports us to a place few get to see -

the top of Westminster Abbey and the hidden project changing

the face of the church. Right here, we can see the roof

of the access tower, so that's the herringbone pattern

of the lead work which we're halfway

through completing. This is the parapet

of the tower going around here. This is the top of the

new 120 foot tower to contain stairs and a lift, a new

build to bring visitors It's very challenging

project to be working on such a prestigious building,

such a prestigious project, but using historic materials

to be tied into the new materials that

we've had to build the actual Do you feel the weight

of history little bit here? It's an honour and a privilege to be

doing it, but we definitely feel It will be a new museum

and gallery allowing 300 objects from the Abbey's history

to go on display for the first time. And this, in building

terms, is the icing on the cake - a finial,

the decorative lead polle matching those that have

sat atop the other towers This is the first

significant change to Westminster Abbey

in nearly 300 years, but it's not just a change

for the building. They will be a big change

for visitors to because this is the rather unique view

they'll get once they reach It's a view that hasn't changed

hugely since the last It's been an architectural challenge

to match old with new. The design intent for

the architects, was to make this as discreet

as possible, so they've glazed it all so

basically you can look through What do you think Wren

would think of all of this? I think the Wren would be

very happy with this. Visitors will get the chance

to decide for themselves when the tower and gallery open

to the public next June. Let's get a check on the weather now

and Lucy Martin has joined us. Not great weather, not feeling

pitifully summery, but here in London we have largely got away with

seeing the better of the weather. We have seen quite heavy, thundery

showers across England today and even a few funnel clouds, Ouschan

was where I was a bit further over to the east as they make their way

up to the north is omitted the day. We have got away with seeing more in

the way of dry weather. Doesn't look like we will be quite as lucky as we

move into tomorrow though with some heavy outbreaks of rain along the

way. Here's what's going on in the charts then. Low pressure moving up

towards the north and then a weather front here that's going to sink a

little bit towards the south-east. The very slowly and as it goes

towards the south-east it will be in the great, bringing heavy outbreaks

of rain. A yellow weather warning in-place valid until midnight

tomorrow, heavy outbreaks of rain and showers could bring local

disruption, flooding and tricky driving conditions. Through this

evening then, some showery outbreaks of rain. A fair amount of cloud

around with temperatures falling to an overnight low of around 10-13dC.

We will see that rain pushing in from the north and west. Starting

off with dry spells in the south and east first thing but the rain

pushing in quite quickly from the north-west and bringing heavy

outbreaks of rain and the odd rumble of thunder and flash of lightning

knocked out of the question. Temperatures reaching a maximum of

15 or 17 degrees is not feeling warm. The yellow weather warning

could mean a localised flooding and tricky driving conditions. A ridge

of high pressure does put in on Thursday and that means we will see

something a bit drier and brighter. The weather front finally pushing

out what the south-east, so a few showers possible in the morning but

sunny spells developing into the afternoon. Temperatures reaching a

maximum of 21 Celsius. That dry weather is still with us first thing

on Friday, but it's not long before we see the rain pushing in from the

north-west later in the day. More outbreaks of rain on the way. I will

leave you with the outlook then. Very unsettled as we move through

the next few days. You will want to have your umbrella at the ready.

Stay indoors tomorrow? I would!

Organisers of the World Athletics Championships

at the London Stadium are trying to limit the spread of norovirus.

It has already affected dozens of athletes and staff.

A woman has escaped serious injury after appearing to be pushed

by a jogger into the path of a bus on Putney Bridge.

CCTV of the incident shows a man appear to shove

The Met Police Commissioner has told the BBC that tackling hate crime

and Islamophobia is one of the best ways of combating terrorism.

Figures show hate crime has risen in the capital

You're always welcome of course to get in touch

And I'll be back later during the ten o'clock news.

Thanks for joining us and have a lovely evening.

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