31/08/2017 London News

Could the capital's housing shortage benefit from pre-fab homes?

It's very fast, it's very accurate, it's got

great acoustic, great thermal properties.

The Mayor's being urged to do more to meet his own housing target.

Cricket fans evacuated from the Oval after a metal tipped arrow was fired

onto the pitch play. And a warning against keeping pocket sized

hedgehogs as pets, as some are found dumped across London.

And remembering Diana: the cafe named after

her where she frequently took her boys.

The owner speaks to us about their friendship.

Meeting the capital's housebuilding target is huge -

50,000 homes a year are needed to meet growing demand

and the London Assembly is looking to the pre-built market

Manufactured off-site, homes are delivered to vacant public

land and built quickly with less pollution and disruption

and, more importantly, are affordable.

Our Political Editor Tim Donovan has been finding out more.

He joins us from East London. It is such a common refrain. You gave that

50,000 figure which experts agree is the minimum that need to be built

each year. We are currently running at around 25,000, or less. Could

this be the solution? Hearing Dalston, it doesn't look unusual,

there are bricks on the outside but inside, the internal structure from

ceiling to staircase and so on, that is all being constructed elsewhere,

brought here then simply slotted together. Flowbog Butt by floor,

layer by layer, housing block taking shape in East London not built so

much as screwed together on site. This is one of the flats, the first

flats finished which is exciting to see. This is the architect. The

entire structure is made from prefabricated timber panels.

Internal walls, ceilings and floors are all made to measure in a factory

in Austria and transported over. It is twice as fast as building in

concrete. We are saving massive amounts from the overall programme

of construction. So it can mean more housing sooner but what about the

cost? The price equivalent, much more cost efficient. Much more cost

efficient than concrete and steel structures because you have got

fewer people on site, less waste, a more efficient way of building

buildings. Among the first to benefit, this woman and her two sons

who have just moved in after a long wait in a one-bedroom flat. The boys

had their own room and I had my Aaron Groom, I had the balcony on my

side, I am more than happy. The London assembly argues that the

Maher could be doing more to promote this form of housing. He needs to

dedicate land, particularly Transport for London land, he needs

to use resources and funding and uses policies and his planning and

his strategy to incentivise this sector. It would be a win for the

country because this is a real emerging sector, and industrial

sector for the UK. And our people prejudiced against prefabs? They are

worried about the quality of the buildings, the quality of their

homes it makes, but this is an incredibly robust and incredibly

firm architecture which I think is a fabulous result. City Hall says it

is making money available for innovative schemes to provide

off-site manufacture poems, but it has signalled there will be further

measures in the Maier's long-awaited housing strategy next month. And as

the architects involved in this insist that it is pioneering, one of

the biggest projects in the world that uses wood, 2500 trees go into

constructing this, and at the heart of this is an issue of

sustainability. It is also lighter. The model is lighter and bus, it is

easier to build stuff like this long constrained sites. This is over a

Eurostar tunnel and there's a train line behind us, so the thinking is,

if you could get the London Mayor and the government trying to boost

this sector, indicating that there are funds available and deregulating

the planning system, we could start to get a lot more of this built, and

built quickly. The women whose very

personal stories of sexual harassment are being recorded by one

photo-journalist Surrey's County Championship

match with Middlesex had to be abandoned

on the final day after a crossbow bolt landed

on the field of play. Emma Jones is outside

the Kia Oval for us now. What can you tell us? As you say,

this happened on the final day of play in the County Championship at

the Oval between Surrey and Middlesex just before 4:30pm, and

arrow was fired into the ground, very close to the players and

umpires who immediately left the field of play. Around 600-800

spectators were here, security asked them to take cover. Since then the

match has been abandoned and the armed police have been here,

investigating exactly what has happened. At the moment they are

unclear as to the motive although they say they do not believe it was

terrorism related. They also say they believe the arrow was fired

into the ground and inquiries continue. We were hoping we might be

able to speak to the chief executive of Surrey cricket, Richard Gould,

obviously a very bizarre and concerning situation for you.

Certainly very bizarre. We don't know whether it was a deliberate act

or whether the cricket ground was the bolt -- the location where this

bold eventually ended, but when these issues happen you have to take

them seriously, which is why the umpires acted quickly and took the

players off the pitch, but the spectators in a position of safety

and the police arrived very quickly. This is an international brown, as

well as one that hosts County Championship matches. Will you be

reassessing security? We will, it seems as if there are new threats

coming our way every few weeks. It is something we will constantly be

assessing. A crossbow bolts such as this is difficult to guard against,

because it is the sort of thing that can be fired over fences and walls

and still do damage at the place that the glands, so this is a

particularly difficult threat to guard against. Richard Gould, the

chief executive of Surrey. Police inquiries continue.

A family say that their business has been destroyed

after a large fire at a furniture warehouse in Hertfordshire.

Firefighters had concerns that the building in Ware

might collapse, but emergency services say

Yvonne Hall sent this report from the scene.

8am this morning, hundreds of beds and sofas go up in flames at

The owner Dean Ambridge escaped from the building just in time.

The smoke was quite strong and I thought it would

As the fire progressed, because it was so

severe, the building started showing signs of collapse.

We had to withdraw the crews from inside the property

and start doing some external firefighting.

This is the back of the warehouse, and, as you can see,

part of the roof had collapsed, and five hours on after this blaze

started, firefighters are still working hard

to try and put out the

blaze which is still smouldering inside.

Firefighters are expected to be here all day making the building

safe and with roads nearby closed to traffic, disruption will continue

An investigation is now underway into

A doctor has appeared in court, charged with more

The 47 year-old from Romford is accused of sexually assaulting

more than fifty people at a medical practice in East London.

Here's our Home Affairs Correspondent Daniel Sandford.

This was the first time that the 47-year-old East London GP

has had to attend court and answer the 118 charges

Manish Shah has been charged with so many offences -

that it would have take too long to read them all in court.

So the Deputy District judge just heard a summary.

The doctor said he would plead not guilty to all the charges -

one of which involves a child under 13.

Throughout the time Dr Shah is accused of committing

the offences he was living here in a detached house

not far from the surgery where he worked.

The GP practice is in the London borough of Havering.

But for legal reasons the media have been asked not to name it.

The alleged offences all took place between June 2004 and July 2013

Manish Shah was released on bail and told he would stand trial

on the 118 sexual offence charges at Snaresbrook Crown Court.

The General Medical Council suspended him from working

With the rise in acid attacks in the capital,

burns specialists, together with the NHS, are issuing

guidance to Londoners about what to do

to help a victim immediately after an attack,

Helen Drew's report does contain some upsetting details.

Scarred for life, this man and his cousin were victims of an acid

attack in Becton earlier this year. My day started nodding, my clothes

started to burn, my short started sticking to me, there was smoke

coming from the seats. Corrosive substances were used in over 450

grams in the capital last year, a big increase on previous years. The

growing number of attacks means the NHS and burns specialists are giving

advice to victims and witnesses. Report it. Treat it as an emergency.

The witness can call 999 last the victim concentrate on their burn.

Remove contaminated clothes and rinse areas affected under running

water until specialist help arrived. Specialist burns unit like this one

Chelsea are busier than ever. Doctors say that the members

immediately after an attack are crucial. Providing appropriate first

aid can have a dramatic affect on the outcome of these injuries

because it can reduce the trauma of the acid but also reduce the

possibility of unwanted life changing injuries. Earlier this

month shopkeepers in Hackney started signing up to a voluntary scheme to

restrict the sale of products containing ammonia and acid, the

first of its kind. They refuse to sell to anyone under the age of 21.

Currently in the UK there is no age restriction on buying these items.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd has ordered a review to ensure that

everything possible is being done to prevent acid attacks. They are still

rare, but scenes like this, the aftermath of an attack in

Knightsbridge, are becoming more familiar. The advice today, report,

remove and rinse. women of different ages,

races and backgrounds. But they all have one thing

in common - they were the target

of unwanted attention or abuse. It's all part of a project on social

media by a London-based photographer taking a stand

against sexual harassment. First, here's a sense of the stories

she's been documenting - and just to say if there

are young ones in the room - This is a photojournalism project

documenting women and their accounts It has come about after

a conversation I had with all of my female friends

about how often we experienced we experienced sexual harassment,

on a daily basis, and I then have a conversation with

my male friends as well and they were just so shocked,

and in complete disbelief. One of the most shocking things

for me, one of the most disturbing things, is how many girls experience

things from such a young age. I was really angry and I felt really

disrespected and upset, knowing that it's not the worst

thing that happens As soon as I launched

the project on Instagram, there has just been almost

a constant flow of women And I talk to them,

and I shared their stories, and now they are parts

of the project. I want to change people's attitudes

towards sexual harassment. I want people to know that it's

unacceptable and I want people to be able to speak out about it more

and I want it to be Thank you for coming in. Your

project on Instagram has clearly struck a chord with many women. It

has been completely overwhelming. Since launching the project, but

there has been a constant flow of women wanting to come forward to

share stories. When I started the project, I didn't realise how many

woman experienced sexual harassment on such a huge scale. It really has

been a completely overwhelming process.

You've attracted women from all over the world.

It has been completely international, which has took me by

surprise. Mostly I only photographed women based in London because that

is where I am based at the moment. But women from all over the world

have got in contact wanting to be involved and to share their stories.

What difference do you hope it'll make?

I just really want to raise awareness about an issue that is

barely spoken about. And I wanted to show that, some of the range of

unacceptable things that so many women have to go through on a daily

basis. Is there a danger that these things are normal lives and society?

Completely, they are completely normalised. I grew up in London and

I have experienced so much sexual harassment from a young age, and I

just brush it off because I thought it was just a normal thing that

young girls experience, and only earlier this year I realise that

actually, no, that should not be a normal thing. We know from figures

from the British Transport Police that on the underground, people

reporting it, the numbers have gone up. Do you feel that this does show

the power of the Internet, to change things, a women's movement, if you

like? Completely. I feel like most women do not feel like they will be

taken seriously if they tell someone about it after they experience it,

and it is only through Instagram and through people e-mailing me that

women feel that they can come forward with these experiences. I'd

love to talk more about it, but for now, thank you very much.

Still to come this Thursday evening...

Why exotic miniature hex togs are being abandoned across the capital.

-- hedgehogs. And after a day of sunshine and showers the weather

should dry up over the next few days. I will have the details later

in the programme. All this week we're looking

at London in the future. Today, fast-forward to 2050

and the food that we'll be eating. Currently, we import almost

half of all our food, but when it comes to fruit

and vegetables Experts say that's unsustainable

and we need to look closer to home Picked, packed and ready for

delivery, and barely one hour out of the ground. This might look like a

step back in time, but it is in fact very much part of the future. We

have got patchwork farmers who have delivered freshly picked salad

leaves from a small urban sites, we are going to pack it together,

divided up into smaller bags and sell that to customers tomorrow.

Growing communities in Hackney Road locally and sell locally to 1000

homes every week. It is this kind of small-scale farming that experts say

will become more reliant on by more people in the future. One of the

things about growing locally is that there is less carbon footprint but

we also start to eat seasonally, and that makes a really big difference

in terms of cost because it is going to be so abundant, so anyone growing

courgettes at the moment, they cannot give them away. Everything is

automatic... We didn't always think like this. There was a time when it

was predicted that we would get our food from these hot meal vending

machines. These can take any cause and provide a wide choice of food

and give change. Surprisingly, they did not take off, but perhaps what

was not predicted was how much we now rely on imported food to

survive. Currently, we get 48% of what we eat from outside the UK and,

when it comes to prepare vegetables, that figure rises to almost 70%. --

fruit and vegetables. There is also a real concern here that available

patches of land where these salads were drunk or disappear, putting

more pressure on the concept of growing locally for local

consumption. That is why these disused panels under London could

come in handy. Some are already being used to grow microbes in

Clapham and there are miles of them. We could also being eating crickets

and other insects in the future which are very high in protein. We

are still cavemen living in the modern era, and all of the

technology out there doesn't make us any different as human beings.

Whatever the future, when it comes to what we eat, technology can only

go so far and, for these urban farmers, the rest of the answer lies

at the bottom of the garden. As the nation remembers

Princess Diana 20 years after her death, flowers are being

laid and candles lit Among those with very personal

memories is the owner where Diana would sometimes pop in

for breakfast with her boys. She had wanted to be the Queen

of people's hearts, and, 20 years on, that's how many people

still see her. Her neighbour in Kensington,

he named his cafe after her - 20 years ago, it was,

I was asleep, and I wake up, and I heard about the news,

and disbelief happened, and I came to the shop about five

o'clock in the morning. Suddenly I saw the weight

of the people coming and putting the flowers,

putting the candles, It is not controlled about your head

and your brain. One minute you're thinking it is not

real, the next minute you're 20 years ago, people left flowers

here, as they did across London. She was the best of the bunch,

and she was a victim, As news of her death

started to sink in. I was working on that Sunday 20

years ago and the newsroom And my editor told me

that Diana had died. And it took a few

moments to sink in. There was a reaction

of shock and disbelief. And when I came into London,

here in Kensington, I watched other people go

through that same reaction. Looking back, some find it hard

to understand why there had been such an outpouring of emotion

for someone She looked fantastic.

It was a great event. Ian met Diana many times as a royal

photographer and said she had a quality of relating to people not

known before in the Royal Family. When you are in the realms

of the Royal Family, a lot of the time, unless they ask

you a question, But, with Diana, you could just talk

to her as a normal person. She just was someone who was normal,

who wanted to listen to what you had to say,

because all the time, This is an international milestone

marked by people all over the world for one of the most famous

woman in a generation. An image still recognised,

and a legacy that her It seems to be the latest

must-have pocket-sized pet. But animal charities are concerned

that these exotic miniature hedgehogs are being dumped

in the capital because they require much more commitment

than people think. In a small thatched cottage in

Berkshire... Lives a lady and 70 hedgehogs. We have, certainly in

these crates, these are older ones that are covering. You can see that

they have labels on them, the ones that are ready to go. They have all

been rescued. This baby was attacked by a dog. His eyes have just opened.

And I am having to try and feed them through the day. He will be released

along with the others into the wild when they are better. There is a

different kind of hedgehog that rescue centres are seeing more of.

Here you go, come on, monster, how to come. The African pygmy hedgehog

has been bred as a pet and can be bought for about ?100, but some of

them are dumped by owners. Theo was found in a wheelie bin and the RSPCA

rescued one platform on Edgeware Road station and he has been

nicknamed Paddington and is living with carers. But the RSPCA says

people should not be keeping hedgehogs as pets. As cute as they

are, they need to be in a warm temperature at all times. They are

nocturnal. As you can see he is death -- he's desperately trying to

get back to sleep. They smell, they are incontinent to machines, they

like to wake up at night, not during the day, they are prettily, you

cannot cuddle them and some of them bite. So they are not exactly the

best pets, especially for children, because children will not see them

during the day. Gill hopes people stop breeding them because there are

enough to deal with here, sharing her home with 700 hedgehogs are

here, there is not much room left for even the smallest of these

creatures. Deceivingly high maintenance.

What can we expect? Not looking too bad, heading into the first day of

autumn, today was the final day of summer any meteorological calendar.

It was a day of sunshine and showers. We had blue skies and this

big show a cloud with the odd rumble of thunder. Still some showers

around over the next few hours. This is the radar picture and it shows

showers moving from West to East. Quite a good deal of sunshine also.

We still have the chance of passing shower over the next few hours but

many will stay dry through this evening and overnight. But the

spells, light winds, it is going to be quite fresh posting tomorrow

morning. Temperatures around 12 Celsius in the city and in more

rural spots, around six, seven Celsius. Starting on that fresh note

tomorrow, but it will be a day of sunshine, largely dry, particularly

through the morning, but by tomorrow afternoon we will tend to see more

cloud bubbling up and bringing with it showers. Most of those will be

out towards East London, towards Kent and Essex. Further west you're

more likely to stay dry and bright throughout the day. It will feel

quite pleasant at around 21 Celsius, and light winds and scattered

isolated showers tending to fade as we move to tomorrow evening. For the

first part of the "Matter is looking pretty decent. High-pressure arrives

with temperatures on the fresh side on Saturday. But with clear skies,

Saturday looks set to be a dry, sunny day, feeling pleasantly warm

in those light winds and temperatures pretty much where they

should be for this time of year, at around 21 Celsius. Patchy cloud

building through the course of Saturday afternoon. Saturday

probably the better day of the weekend, some wet and windy weather

arriving from the West, but not until late on Sunday so it is

looking pretty decent over the next few days. September already

tomorrow! Thank you very much. We'll be back later during the ten

o'clock news, but for now from everyone on the team,

have a lovely evening. I took something

that didn't belong to me.