08/11/2017 London News

On the programme tonight,

almost a year on from the

Croydon tram crash, the

families of those who died

tell us they feel forgotten.

An initial, interim payment which

was beginning of December. And

nothing since then.

We put her concerns

to Transport for London.

Also tonight, a special report

on the rise in the number

of middle-class families

struggling with debt.

Plus, a creative way

of coping with mental health?

We meet the woman who's spent

40 years

transforming her home

into an Italian masterpiece.

And the high-flying banker

who chose to leave the City

behind to breed these.

The giant African snails

in demand in the capital.

Good evening

and welcome to BBC London News.

On the eve of the anniversary

of the Croydon tram crash,

some of the families of those

who died have told this programme

they feel forgotten

by transport bosses.

Seven people were killed

when their tram came off the rails

and overturned during

the morning rush hour.

Ahead of a memorial service

tomorrow to remember those

who lost their lives,

our transport correspondent

Tom Edwards has been speaking

to a widow whose life

has been changed forever.

He left here at...5:40

to get on the 5:50 tram

at the top of the road,

which he'd done for three months.

And...at nine minutes past six,

he was gone, wiped out.

Marilyn lost her husband

nearly a year ago.

A builder, Philip Logan was 52.

He left one morning

and never came home.

His ashes are in the

corner of the room.

His last words to me was, "Bye,

love, what's for dinner tonight?"

I said, "This is breakfast time,

not dinner time, phone me later."

And that was it, he was gone.

In her own words,

the last year has been hell.

Marilyn said she's had

one interim payment of £15,000.

Have you had help,

have you had assistance from TfL?

No, not at all.

An initial interim payment,

which was...beginning of December,

and nothing since then.

I've not heard from them,

no letters, no nothing.

Really?

People will be surprised by that.

I'm not!

Not at all.

So you feel like

you've been forgotten about?

Yeah, absolutely.

Her husband was one of the seven

passengers who died when this tram

overturned, speeding on a sharp

corner nearly a year ago.

51 people were injured.

For Marilyn,

Christmas is not going to be easy.

Not a sign of a Christmas present,

and I've no money to get any.

I mean, my family is excellent,

they don't expect,

but it's something I want to do.

But without money, I can't.

And it must make you feel angry.

Very angry - very, very.

Because I shouldn't

have to struggle like this.

Who knows when

the claim might go through?

Don't know.

Is it going to be a year, two years?

Have I got to live like this

for a year or two years?

For Marilyn, this last year

has been a struggle.

She says she's been lost

in a system and forgotten.

Well, in response to Mrs Logan,

Transport for London says

it's, "very concerned and upset

that she feels she hasn't received

the support she needs

during this distressing time."

It says it was in contact

with Mrs Logan and her solicitors

offering financial assistance

and will do everything in its power

to help her further.

We spoke to the Transport

Commissioner earlier today.

Although we've paid out over

£1 million already to those affected

and their dependents,

if anyone feels that we have not

dealt with their issues in the way

that we should have done,

please get directly in touch,

we will respond immediately,

with urgency to ensure

those issues are tackled.

We want to ensure we look

after people properly.

We think we have done so,

but if we have missed somebody

and it has not quite worked

for individuals, then I promise

you we will sort it out.

And tomorrow, a memorial service

is due to take place today

in New Addington to pay tribute

to those who died

in the Croydon tram crash.

Coming up later in the programme:

Time to get out in the mountains,

grind the gears and get the work

done so we are ready for what is

ahead.

Hoping to qualify for

her second Winter Olympics -

snowboarder Aimee Fuller says

it's time to go big or go home.

Now, we heard earlier about calls

for more money to be spent

on the health service.

But here in the capital,

NHS regulators have thrown

a spanner in the works when it comes

to plans to do just that.

They've asked health bosses

in North West London

to go back and do their sums again -

if they want £500 million

to spend on new GP surgeries

and better hospitals.

Our political correspondent

Karl Mercer is here with more.

to change the way the NHS works

in North West London, Karl?

Yes, a story we have covered a lot

over the last few years, these plans

have been around for about seven

years, and what the local health

bosses want to do is spend £500

million, as you said, to build new

GP surgeries, update current ones,

and also improve places like West

Middlesex, Headington hospitals.

They thought they had the money, it

has been two regulatory processes,

then it got to a group called NHS

Improvement nationally, which come

back and said, hang on a second, we

are not sure about how you have done

your workings out, we are not sure

the plans add up. This plays into

what protesters locally have been

saying, they don't fight the plans

to lose hospital beds, they don't

believe people will stop using

hospitals and go to GP surgeries,

and we are not sure you have taken

into account our past the population

is growing in the area. Those are

the details that NHS Improvement is

asking for.

Local health bosses have

been confident of getting the money,

haven't they?

Yes, I was told by

someone very senior at NHS London

that they fully expected this money

in the budget and the Chancellor

would say there is your £500

million. This does raise some

questions, doesn't it? It would be a

brave Treasury official who would

say, yes, have the money, when the

regulators have said we need more

evidence, and it will be something

that is watched closely not just by

people like Ealing Council, who have

been against the plans, but by

health bosses across the whole of

London, because they all have big

budget demands as well.

Karl Mercer,

thank you.

A man's appeared in court charged

with murdering a mother of two

30-year-old Simone Grainger

was found with head injuries

in Windsor Way

on Saturday afternoon.

Her family have described her

as beautiful and kind.

32-year-old Steven Grainger

has been charged

with one count of murder.

All this week, we're looking

at the issue of personal debt.

But increasingly, it's not

just those on low incomes

that are struggling.

Now, the so-called middle classes

are running up unsustainable debts.

Gareth Furby reports.

He lives in a gated muse in north

London, and David runs his own IT

consultancy. -- mews. We should be

living a comfortable life, but

instead he is struggling to pay off

a huge debt.

Total amount of debt is

just under 30 3000.

It was built

upon credit cards.

Virgin Money,

MBNA, Halifax, Barclaycard...

It

will take at least 20 years to pay,

and he now owns little more than a

computer and a push bike. The flat

is rented, and he admits he is

someone who could be seen as

middle-class.

I have, I guess,

public school education, I went to

Ding's College London, studied

business management there, and now I

have pretty much nothing to my name.

The danger is that you get used to

having a lot of credit on a lot of

different cards.

Iona as

middle-class and has chosen to never

use a credit card.

I have a debit

card, and that way I know how much I

have got to spend each month.

She

writes about money and is a

middle-class lifestyle can be

expensive to carry off.

That is £80.

And some people turn to credit to

keep up appearances.

So many people

put on a very good show of having a

good income and a desirable

lifestyle. If you scratch and the

surface, it is built on debt.

Today

the Treasury Committee is launching

a new inquiry into the state of

household finances. It is estimated

15% of adults have some kind of

issue with debt, and the middle

classes are not exempt.

Typically,

these people may be tempered by 0%

offers credit cards but they find

the borrowing is unsustainable, and

before they know what has hit them,

debt is spiralling out of control.

I

was transferring balances,

interest-free, so you think, it is

money for nothing.

And David has

this advice for middle-class

Londoners who are happy to build up

and juggle debts from credit cards

to credit card.

If you are not going

to keep on top of it very closely,

it is a very dangerous game.

He is

in a dark place at the moment, and

it will take many years to recover.

Gareth Furby, BBC London News.

And continuing our

series on London debt,

tomorrow we'll be looking

at the rise in people

taking on several jobs

to try and make ends meet.

Stay with us, still

to come before seven.

Before I got into it I had never

touched a snail in my life.

We meet the City high-flier who quit

the corporate world to create

a snail farm business

in her London flat.

The scale of homelessness

in the capital was revealed today,

with one leading charity

claiming that the equivalent

of the population of Reading

is without a permanent home

here in London.

Shelter says there are currently

more than 160,000 people

recorded as homeless.

It's blamed the crisis on years

of underinvestment

in the building of

affordable properties.

Chris Rogers has been taking

a look at the numbers.

The housing charity Shelter

warns two London families

are made homeless every hour.

It's a nationwide crisis,

but the most startling figures

are in the capital,

where figures out today

reveal welfare reform,

housing shortages and rising rents

are forcing the young,

the elderly and, in some cases,

entire families

into emergency accommodation

or even out onto to the streets.

London boroughs dominate

the UK's 50 hotspots

for homelessness in the UK -

13,607 homeless in Newham.

That's a much larger borough

compared with those which

follow closely,

including Haringey

at 9,717 homeless,

Westminster 8,054

and Enfield 10,057.

Shelter's chief executive,

Polly Neate, says tens of thousands

are stuck trying to escape the

devastating trap of homelessness.

There are two main causes, really.

One is just the sheer lack of

housing, so there just is not enough

housing available, and, even more,

there is not enough genuinely

affordable, but we need to stop

thinking affordable housing means

affordable to buy. It is affordable

for people on low incomes to rent.

So that is the long-term goals of

it. The other issue is that these

are the consequences of welfare

reform, in particularly the freeze

on housing benefits, which means

that even people who are working,

the gap between their income and

even the lowest rents is simply

unaffordable.

Take a look at this.

The faces behind the statistics -

the rough sleepers,

those in temporary accommodation,

as we revealed yesterday,

many living in slum-like rooms

because councils are overwhelmed.

And there's the hidden homeless,

Londoners who are not recognised

in official figures

sleeping on night buses,

in illegal squats or so-called

sofa-surfers like Gillian.

I've got three daughters with me

now. And there is a huge impact on

them. They become isolated from

their own friends because they are

different from their friends, and

therefore they just can't talk

properly, they can't express

everything, and then they have to

move all the time, move their

friendships, their neighbourhood,

and they are stacked in a place that

they've no answer of where they are.

Mayor Sadiq Khan is injecting

millions into projects

to help rough sleepers,

and London councils

will get a cash boost

from the Government.

But Sian Berry, chair

of the London Assembly's

Housing Committee says it's

not enough.

We're not sure that councils have

enough funding to do even that, to

keep people in those temporary

accommodation homes, so we need new

social rented homes going up all

over the city, whether the mayor can

achieve that with this strategy, I'm

not sure.

While a spokesman

for the Mayor admits

the statistics are worrying,

his office points out over

the last year we have seen

a decade-long rise in rough

sleeping effectively halted.

Chris, thank you very much, Chris

Rogers.

They're one of the top women's

football teams

and reigning Super League champions.

Chelsea Ladies are aiming to qualify

for the quarterfinals

of the Champions League

for the very first time.

Tonight is a key game for the club,

whose star striker has been

in the headlines after

the racism scandal which engulfed

the Football Association.

Chris Slegg is at

their ground in Kingston.

What's the mood there?

A real mood of togetherness here at

Chelsea. Chelsea stood by Eni Aluko

all summer, when she felt some of

her former team-mates didn't. There

was a parliamentary hearing and

investigations before others found

Mark Sampson had directed a racist

comment at her. She has been through

a lot this season. This is the

highest profile match she has been

involved in since then. She is on

the subs bench tonight. Chelsea are

the reigning Super League Spring

series champions. They have proved

themselves domestically. They have

the first leg tonight and the

manager hopes they can prove

themselves a continental force.

We

have proved we have developed the

experience we need to progress in

the competition. We take one step at

a time. They are the third top

ranked team in Europe. If we think

about the next stage we will stop

doing what has got us to this point.

We need to concentrate on taking

care of all the details at home so

we get a clean sheet.

There has been

so much happening off the field, can

I ask how any owner has kept

mentally with what has been going

on?

-- Eni Aluko? She's a consummate

professional. You can see how hard

she is working on the training

pitch. She has been prolific at this

moment in time and adding real value

to the side.

She has scored four

goals domestically, the boy-macro

Aluko so far -- Eniola au Aluko.

Having seen off Bayern Munich you

would have to say Chelsea Ladies are

the favourites tonight. There have

been many negative headlines around

women's football this summer so it

would be great for this team if they

could make a huge step tonight to

making it to the quarterfinals for

the first time in this club's

history.

Chris, many thanks.

Staying with sport -

some impressive snowboarding tricks.

This is Aimee Fuller, who was bought

up in Keston near Bromley,

and is hoping to qualify for Team GB

for her second Olympics.

With the 2018 Winter Games just

a few months away, Sara Orchard

has been to meet her.

Aimee Fuller is one

of the most fearless athletes

you will ever meet.

She became one of the most famous

snowboarders in the world to land

a double backflip five years ago,

but the 26-year-old is still pushing

the limits, knowing Pyeongchang 2018

is fast approaching.

We're getting close and it is now

time to get back out

to the mountains, grind the gears

and get the work done,

so we are ready for what is ahead.

Aimee speaks from experience.

In Sochi she qualified two weeks

before the games began.

She never really had time to prepare

for her first Olympic experience.

I went out there with the mentality

of go big or go home.

That is something I don't regret.

I'm glad I went there

and gave it everything.

Four years on, four years wiser,

shall we say, I really put a lot of

focus and energy into the qualifying

process last season.

I finished fifth in the world

rankings overall so that has put me

in a really good position moving

forward to the games.

So between now and February,

my main focus is training

and not competition.

Aimee ended up finishing 17th

in Sochi, but she qualifies

for Pyeongchang, her chances will be

increased, because she will be

competing in both slopestyle

and the new discipline of big air.

The concept is simple, one run-up,

one big jump, one massive trick,

one Olympic gold medal.

It is fun, exciting,

fast and anything can happen.

That is what is cool

about the big air.

You have two shots to do your

biggest and best trick that

you can do on the day,

so really, it's anyone's game.

The field is open.

Between now and February I feel

I can push my limits so I am excited

to see what I can do.

Jenny Jones won Great Britain's

first Olympic medal in a snow event

with slope style bronze in Sochi.

Aimee hopes she will have two

chances to increase the medal

tally in South Korea.

Next - the story of how work

of the great Italian masters

have inspired a woman

to transform her one bedroom flat -

into what she calls

Hemel Hempstead's Sistine Chapel.

She's spent 40 years painting

every wall and ceiling,

using just her fingers -

and says it's been very therapeutic.

Sarah Harris went to take a look.

On her way back from the art shop.

Hello!

From the outside, Diana Keys's

one-bedroom council flat

in Hemel Hempstead looks

like all the others.

But inside, she's been inspired

by the Italian Masters

to paint her own version

of the great murals.

After years of suffering

from mental health issues,

this has been her therapy.

I've never seen the Sistine

Chapel, but I wanted it

to be a bit like that.

If I haven't done anything

in my life, which I haven't

because I've been all in care

and homes and everything,

I like to think that I've left

behind a piece of love.

Amazingly, Diana uses

only her fingers to paint and always

listens to her favourite classical

music by Bach for inspiration.

Without any kind of training,

creativity helps her live

an independent life.

I've just got it

in me, sort of thing.

I can't paint people, I mean,

like Leonardo da Vinci painted them.

I've just got this idea in my head.

Few people have seen what she calls

Hemel Hempstead's Sistine Chapel,

but Diana invited in our TV camera

as a way of keeping

her artwork alive.

When I eventually go to heaven -

this is what I believe -

the council will paint over

this all magnolia.

And all this 40 years of painting,

which I've actually done,

it'll be the end of it.

And the reason why I want it to be

shown now is because I like to think

some of it will live on,

even when I'm not here.

It's already taken 40 years

to paint, but 70-year-old Diana

will keep going until every inch

of her flat is covered -

continually inspired

by her favourite music.

It's lovely, isn't it?

OK, not quite the Sistine Chapel,

but this is our version of the giant

African snail. They have long been

part of the Nigerian community in

London.

We went to meet one woman who quit

her job in a corporate bank to

create a snail farm business in her

flat in central London.

Lee Thompson used deliver fast paced

investment banker life but a year

ago she made a dramatic change and

now she spends all day with these

guys.

I felt I was not really living

in the sense I was going to work,

coming home, going to work, coming

home and only living my life for the

weekend which is what so many people

do. It is important to have money in

this life but it is also trivial.

You are working for money but you

can't buy happiness.

She has found

happiness farming snails at her

home. These are giant African land

snails and they are very popular to

eat in the African community. But

for Ollie, they have taken some

getting used to.

Before I discovered

snail farming I had never touched a

snail in my life. I felt ill like

most people did! I had to go through

phobias of washing my hands and

letting the snail walk on it for a

day.

Ollie sells snails for pets,

for their slime and most commonly

for the dinner table as well.

Growing up in Nigeria I looked

forward to eating them. The French

like to use garlic and garlic

butter. In Nigeria it is fried with

peppers and an insert. It tastes

like squid -- peppers and onions.

You can enhance the flavour.

Ollie

says she is one of the handful of

people to do this for a living. It

has taken dedication, discipline and

lots of vegetables as well.

Reading

about how they mate, reproduce, lay

eggs. I was turning into a psycho

but for a good reason. You have to

do your research if you are going to

run a business like this.

Admittedly, she says a change of

career is a risk but Ollie says a

slower pace of life suits her and so

far, it is paying off.

Snail in the city. I bet Phil Avery

likes snails. Do you?

I will

probably upset people by saying I

have eaten then! This is rather

Canaletto like, getting back to the

artistic theme.

This western boundary rather broke

up giving some hints of sunshine. It

was not overly warm. That is thanks

to the fact it was a chilly start

and we had a north-westerly breeze

as well. The temperatures will dip

away. We will bring a shield of

cloud in. There could be some early

frost. We will bring a shield of

cloud in from the north-west. Not a

particularly inspiring start but I

am an optimistic by nature so I hope

things will brighten up. Don't be

surprised to see some rain first

thing. That is an old weather front

which has slumped its way down. As

that clears away, and it could take

a good part of the morning before we

see the first signs of brightness

getting into the north-west, that

creeps towards the south as we get

onto the middle part of the

afternoon. Perhaps a bit warmer than

it was today. I did not see more

than ten advanced driving in on the

car the monitor. Maybe 12 tomorrow.

-- I did not see more than ten today

on the car the monitor. On Friday we

will hold the temperature in double

figures. That may not be the trend

for the weekend. Once that weather

front is away and it will be a wet

all night Friday into Saturday, then

the isobars crank around into the

North and north-west. You do not

need me to tell you that is never a

warm direction, especially this time

of year. Despite the presence of

some sunshine, you will notice we

have got one or two isobars there.

It will be

Recapping the day's headlines...

Priti Patel has entered

Downing Street for talks

with Theresa May which could spell

the end of her Cabinet career.

The International Development

Secretary was summoned back

from Africa to explain her

unauthorised meetings

with Israeli officials.

Kevin Spacey is facing fresh

allegations of sexual misconduct.

A US journalist has told reporters

that her son was sexually assaulted

by the Hollywood actor last year.

The Head of NHS England says

he expects the Government to honour

a promise made by Leave campaigners.

Simon Stevens wants an extra

£350 million a week

for the NHS once Britain

leaves the EU.

That's it for now,

thanks for joining us.

More from the London

newsroom at 10.30.

You're always welcome to get

in touch on our Facebook page.

From me and all the team -

do have a lovely evening.

Bye-bye.