22/08/2017 London News

happens all the time. That's a special report coming up at 10.00pm

Tonight on BBC London News... tonight.

30 arrests in dawn raids this morning,

ahead of the Notting Hill Carnival, but a row breaks out over

If there are criminals operating, they should be doing this throughout

the year and it should not just beyond the eve of the carnival

they are making a big show about guns and drugs and crime.

The grime artist Stormzy says double standards are at play,

but the Met says the raids help prevent drug and knife crime.

Almost all of London's boroughs are missing their recycling targets.

Plus the 18th-century painting saved for the nation

at a cost of ?11 million to the National Gallery.

And a big bowler hat and a flare for fancy dress -

a new exhibition celebrates the wonderful world of Mr Benn.

Good evening and welcome to the programme.

In just five days' time, 2 million people will take

to the streets of West London for the Notting Hill Carnival.

It's by far the Met Police's biggest operation every year,

and this morning, in a series of dawn raids, they arrested more

than 30 people they think may cause trouble there.

It's part of a crackdown against knife crime,

But there is also criticism of these now annual raids.

Some ask if they are more for the benefit

It is dawn, a very different type of wake-up call.

The Met Police's targeted raids at 21 different addresses

All within the boroughs of Kensington and Chelsea,

It is 5:30am and about ten special police officers have just raided

What we know is that there's seven people inside,

five of those have been arrested and one of those has

swallowed something, and so they have called an ambulance

The aim of this is to make sure that those arrested here don't turn

What has happened here has taken two months to plan.

We start off with this dynamic entry which you heard -

Then once we have done that and we have secured

those people inside, then we slow things down and make

sure we do a methodical search of the premises,

looking for the evidence that is included on the warrant.

So on this occasion, it will be class A drugs and items

Those arrested will be bailed under strict conditions which police say

will prevent them from turning up at the Carnival this weekend.

In a control centre five miles away, Mark Bird and his team of 75

officers will keep a watchful eye over the event.

This BBC documentary shows how complex and difficult it can be

to police an event that attracts millions of people.

So were today's raids mark of an exercise

of public reassurance, or genuine policing strategy?

Our endeavours are about keeping the carnival safe and free from

How on earth are you going to monitor the people that

We have a range of tactics which will include, obviously,

the use of CCTV, automatic number plate recognition, and there will be

plainclothed officers and other tactics that we will use to keep

I don't understand why they need to be showing off and saying, look,

This is a big issue and we are going to close it

If there are criminals operating, they should be doing this throughout

the year and it should not just be on the eve of the carnival

These are the people police believe may cause trouble and ruin

Well, our reporter Katherine Carpenter joins me now.

And we heard in that report questions about the relevance

of these raids and tonight others have waded in.

The South London rapper Stormzy has waded into this. If you are not

familiar with him, this is his work. HE WRAPS. He has a huge fan base,

but earlier today on Twitter, he made a response to a social media

post about the Met had put out about the raids and this is what he said.

He said how many drugs did you see is in the run-up to Glastonbury? Or

are we only doing tweets like this for black events? Why does it matter

what he says? He has a huge fan base, more than 900,000 followers on

Twitter comic he is also known for speaking out on issues that resonate

with young people. During the last general election he came out in

favour of Jeremy Corbyn and he's one of the artists credited with

boosting support for Labour in that election. When he tweets something

like this, likely to resonate with lots of people going to the Carnival

and people who may not have known about the police raids, people who

do not engage with news programmes like ours for example. This

intervention by him paints those raids in a negative light. That is

think that is problematic for the Met. They know policing the Notting

Hill Carnival is controversial it has been for years and they are

Cathal with this subject. They reiterated to me that these raids

were intelligence red Dell like, it was their duty to make arrests to

keep the public 's safe and avoid problems.

Thank you very much. And we'll be live

in Notting Hill later in the programme looking at how

preparations are going And I will be here with the mangrove

Carnival steel band talking to survivors of the Grenfell Tower a

about how Carnival with all its sounds and beautiful colours is

helping to provide a positive focus for their anger and grief.

Only three London boroughs are meeting their recycling targets,

according to figures obtained by this programme.

London's councils are all meant to be recycling 45% of their waste,

but the overwhelming majority are failing to do so.

In the first part of our series on how we deal with the city's

rubbish, here's our environment correspondent Tom Edwards.

Do Londoners recycle enough of their household waste?

No, says Paul, a self-confessed recycling anorak.

He has even set up a charity to encourage it.

He lives in Newham, but he is a rarity in this part of London.

This area has the worst recycling rate in the capital.

Newham, 40% of its housing is flats, and you can't easily

recycle in flats without having some kind of recycling area.

So you are building in London, and we're building on every square

foot, so you have to make allowances, you have to do it now

while you are building new to make you have got

Next door to Paul, these flats have no recycling facilities at all.

So this block of flats here, where is the recycling?

This is just the one bin that takes the recycling and the rubbish.

So this is the big problem across London?

This is the whole problem with Newham.

And across London, there is a mixed picture for the amount of household

The best is Bexley, recycling 52%, followed by Bromley and Kingston.

The worst are Lewisham, Westminster and Newham,

where just 14.7% of household waste is recycled.

There are lots of different reasons why different areas have

Some of them are practical and about space.

For example, flats have less room for all the bins, and some

Some communities are less aware of recycling.

And different boroughs also have different schemes for recycling.

Bexley say they are now seeing a commercial value in recycling

In Bexley, it's cheaper for us to recycle than it is to throw away.

So if anything, we've been trying to put more efforts into getting

more stuff recycled because it costs us over ?100 a tonne to send

things to the waste, the energy plant.

When we recycle paper, we actually get paid.

Increasing recycling rates is a key ambition of the mayor.

He wants 65% of the London's waste recycled by 2030.

But helping the boroughs to get there will be a huge challenge.

How far should the welfare state stretch?

Should taxpayers, for example, pay for free Wi-Fi for

Well, that's exactly what's happening in Tower Hamlets.

The council has approved ?1.75 million to bring free

Wi-Fi to town centres and social housing in a bid to close

the digital divide between rich and poor.

50-year-old Mark Lewis has been out of work for a year.

He had a job interview last night which he only got

by having Internet access, but he can't afford

Going to the library, it is half an hour to get down there.

You are not always 100% guaranteed to get a computer to get

online, because sometimes the machines are down.

So I am sending my CV out pretty much every day and getting replies

I had the job interview and that was by sending my CV

to the company and getting a reply that day.

What would be most useful to Mark is Wi-Fi so he can constantly check

Tower Hamlets Council is going to put free

They say lots of their residents don't have access to Wi-Fi,

including 24% of residents living in low income households,

40% of residents with disabilities and 45% of people over 50.

We think that investing in this Wi-Fi for all will help people

with day-to-day activities and it will save them money

For example, it will help people to help their kids to do

homework in the evenings, it will make it easier for people

to pay their bills online, which we know has cost

The first places to get the free Wi-Fi will be here at Watney Market

as well as Brick Lane and Chrisp Street.

It will be for the local businesses as well as around 130,000 residents

The council is spending ?1.75 million on it.

They are calling it free Wi-Fi, but it is not actually free

because people in Tower Hamlets will be paying for this

And council tax has gone up by over 4% over the last year,

and that is a lot for hard-pressed families on low incomes.

But many argue that with so much moving online, including

applications for benefits, access to the internet is essential.

The biggest is actually moving onto Universal Credit so people

The free Wi-Fi won't start to be in place until next autumn.

Mark is hoping for good news after last night's interview

so that he does not need to worry about being online all the time.

it's just five days to go before the 51st Notting Hill carnival.

And in the wake of the Grenfell fire this year, it will feel very

The route passes near to what remains of the tower.

Organisers are asking anyone going to dress in "Green

for Grenfell" to show their support for the survivors.

There will also be a one-minute silence on Sunday and Monday

Our Reporter Greg McKenzie is at a steel band workshop

in Notting Hill for us tonight with preparations well underway.

Is the Tabernacle where we have these deal bands getting prepared to

invite numbers of the public in to have lessons on how to play the

steel pans. I have been speaking to the organisers of those earlier

today. The final preparations are well underway here at the Tabernacle

in Notting Hill gate. It is a hive of activity and the home to

Mangrove, a steel band and the Carnival troupe who will be dressed

in Carnival attired this weekend. And this year there are plenty of

themes. It started from a Hawaiian theme and then we further to that to

more Polynesian theme so we have got three sections and they are all

Polynesian gods and represent something different. For instance,

one is a green costume and she was the god of childbirth and nature so

they have all got a bit of history going on which is cool. Mangrove are

arguably one of the biggest steel bands to take part in the Carnival

and have been for the last 30 years. Getting ready with the steel band

and getting ready for the competition on Saturday, out this

evening we will do some workshops for people to come along and have a

go to learn how to play steel pan as well as learn how to do some

carnival dance in the studio and downstairs people can take part in

costume making. More than 1 million people are expected to attend the

two-day event marking 51 years of Carnival, so expect more than 60

steel bands, 40 sound systems, countless dancers and of course

plenty of Caribbean food. Of course Carnival will be marked

this year wearing Green for Grenfell Tower with us is one of these

months ago, you are on the 15th months ago, you are on the 15th

floor, Carnival is quite significantly poignant this year.

Indeed. It is what we have been through. As you can see, when we

have Carnival coming, I believe we will have this with organisation

with the Carnival, so we have a lot of support from them to organise

because they were of the situation and the family we lost as well so it

is important to us to make sure the Carnival is going to be nice and

smooth and what I try to say is without any trouble or interfering,

especially around the building, so we had a discussion with the

chairman of the organisation and hopefully it will be nice and

organised and secure. And in terms of some survivors, they were not

happy with carnival taking place. You were one who wanted the Carnival

for the community spirit? It is not that I want I do not want it, it is

the Carnival we cannot stop it because it has been there for many

years and we had a proposal from the Organisation for the Carnival and

they say that it is how it is going to be. I had a conversation with the

do not mind, it is just they like to do not mind, it is just they like to

know how it is going to be. Thank you. Joining us also is the chairman

of the Notting Hill Carnival. 51st year Carnival this year. In terms of

the tone of Carnival in light of Grenfell Tower how are you going to

organise it? This year we wanted to be a celebration. The Carnival will

be a celebration. We will honour the people, these survivors and the

people who have passed away in Grenfell Tower and having a minute's

silence on the Sunday. Before that, we will have a multi-faith prayer

and after that we will carry on with carnival. And Monday, we want to

bring the whole of Carnival to a standstill, everybody plays respect

to the victims of Grenfell Tower 's in terms of the grime artist from

London comic he has gone to Twitter to criticise the Met police in the

raids they had on potential carnival goers. He said they have been

targeted specifically at a Black event. What would you say to those

comments? I do not want to comment on that. The Met police have their

job to do and we organisers have our job and we organise the Carnival.

They are doing what they have to do. Thank you very much. The Carnival

will take place on Sunday and Monday.

Thank you very much. A big bowler hat and

a flare for fancy dress - a new exhibition celebrates

the wonderful world of Mr Benn. And I'm finding out why these sheep

are grazing in pastures new, right outside Buckingham Palace

in the middle of Green Park. Next, these two

masterpieces by the Italian Renaissance painter Titian made

the headlines when they were They were bought, in part,

by the National Gallery Now the gallery has once again found

millions to save a Renaissance Well let's speak to our reporter

Dan Freedman who's there. This is a real treat. I'm in the

National Gallery in central London on the day they take delivery of

their latest national treasure. It is a fortress... You can see it

here. It is back to regular. He was the nephew of another painter and

employs a number of the same techniques. He then had to raise

?11.5 million of cash to keep it in the country otherwise it would have

gone to a foreign investor. I'm joined now from a member of the

gallery full stop you must be delighted. We are ecstatic, a huge

amount of effort to raise that kind of money for a private campaign,

trusts, individuals, a huge contribution from the Art fund, we

are thrilled that this is here for the nation for Rover. How big a loss

would it have been? Would have been absolutely monumental. We are very

rich in views of Venice, the kind of paintings brought here in the 18th

century. We do not have any views by this artist of this money mental

ambition, this incredible precision that use the. This gives the

opportunity to introduce him to a British public and should see his

most ambitious work. Congratulations on your success. You can see his

work here at Dean a shop Gallery from today.

Now, if you're walking through or driving past

Green Park this week, don't be surprised if

they're helping flowers to flourish and grow.

The rare-breed sheep are part of a conservation trial taking place

Tourists passing through Green Park today might have been

A flock of sheep complete with a farmer and his dog.

Esmeralda and her mates are grazing in a meadow not far

from Buckingham Palace to help with the conservation project

Here we got a hover fly which are really

She's measuring how insects such as bees and butterflies

The hope is the sheep will help by keeping down the grass

so the flowers can grow and the insects can feed on them.

So our wild flower meadows are particularly important

They are also home, as we can hear at the moment, to lots

And they are really a haven for a wide variety of invertebrates.

The sheep are here to eat this kind of grass, the rough stuff,

And because there are rare and native breeds,

they are accustomed to eating this kind of forage.

And in fact, they seem to quite like it.

They love the fact they are walking around in a massive mixed

salad at the moment, you know, because the wild flower

meadow has such a wide variety of different species of plant

which provide the sheep with an amazingly large amount

So you will see them selectively grazing around the area

And so are the visitors, who are taking delight

in an unexpected taste of the countryside.

We were very surprised because it is like in the middle

Because it is something for children and it is natural

Even though it is only a small piece of ground,

It brings a bit of peace in the city.

It has added something that would not be here

The sheep are only here for a week, but if the trial is a success,

they could be on the move again to other London parks.

Now, you'll have to be of a certain age to have grown up

This year, Mr Benn and his bowler hat turns 50.

To celebrate, an exhibition opens tomorrow.

Alice Bhandhukravi has been speaking to Mr Benn's creator David McKee

about the character and how his home in Putney was pivotal to the plot.

He was the straitlaced, bowler hatted character from many

The man who regularly made his way from his house to the local fancy

dress shop where he took on a new persona.

Each costume meant a different escapade,

Inside the little room, Mr Benn put on the Roman clothes

Here we have your original illustrations from Mr Benn.

I was always fascinated by mirrors from when I was young and went

to the hairdressers to have my hair cut.

So I wanted him to be correct and I didn't want him to be

I wanted him to be as neutral as possible so anybody

And the bowler hat was something I have always liked.

Welcome to Festing Road, home of Mr Benn and his

And it is here that Mr Benn was first imagined -

The man who lives there now is a big fan. They are lovely simple stories,

positive stories, lots of cartoon characters are quite destructive

coming you think of Tom and Jerry trying to knock the hell out of each

other, but Mr Benn always had something positive. He taught

cavemen how to build houses and he taught the nights how to love the

dragon rather than kill it. So positive they have named a nearby

alley in honour of these stories. It is the straightest road I have ever

seen, Ford Mr Ben. . It is more flattering, I cannot think of

anything more flattering than that. Thank you again, he said. See you

again, I hope. The writer... He did confide one thing. If you had to

choose a first name for Mr Benn, it would have been William.

Now the weather with Elizabeth Rizzini.

It was a little bit better today. It was a bit. We used the word

was a disappointment because we was a disappointment because we

thought we could get up to 27 degrees, but the cloud was very slow

to break and we did not get much past 23. We have a nice picture

here, now silent Big Ben and we have refute cloud breaks so thank you for

taking that one. These are the skies most of us were treated to. Some are

rather misty, making conditions to start the day. There will be changes

tomorrow onwards, losing the humid air from tomorrow afternoon turning

fresher, there will be sunny spells for the rest of the week, but the

possibility of some showers. I have to stress, lots of dry weather. We

have a line of showers that have worked its way eastwards from the

Isle of Wight and knocking on the door of Western counties so you may

see some showers on your commute home from work, that they will fade

away through the night, lots of this will reform overnight and we will

stay mild, starting the morning on around 17 degrees, lots of moisture

in the air in the muggy humid feel. Sunny spells tomorrow morning and we

will have weak cold front coming through, we will not noted this,

lots of rain further north, and then it will brighten up again through

the middle of the late part of the afternoon, some sunshine, but the

air will feel a bit fresher with a westerly wind, but temperatures up

to 24. Some of the highest temperatures we will see in the

morning then cooler by the afternoon. Thursday, probably a nice

day, if you showers, but largely dry with lots of sunshine, and Friday

looks similar, maybe 24 on Friday. Bank holiday weekend, some

uncertainty, so my advice would be staging. We could see showers on

Saturday. Still all to play for. Here is hoping. Thank you.

Four Moroccans have appeared in court in Spain.

They're suspected of being part of the Islamist cell which planned

and carried out the Barcelona attacks last week.

One of them admitted that a bigger attack was being planned.

Police have arrested more than 30 people they think may cause

trouble at this years' Notting Hill Carnival.

The early morning raid was part of a crackdown against knife crime,

I'll be back later during the Ten O'clock news, but for now

from everyone on the team have a lovely evening.

# Gonna make you wonder why you even try... #

# Gonna make you wonder why you even try

# Gonna take you down and laugh when you cry