12/12/2017 London News

But for now it's goodbye from me

and on BBC One we join the BBC's

news teams where you are.

On the programme tonight:

An exclusive look

round new properties bought

for Grenfell survivors.

But the majority are still

without a permanent home.

Meanwhile bereaved

families deliver a petition

to Downing Street asking

the Prime Minister to

listen their concerns.

Also tonight:

The serial killer

who murdered teenager Milly Dowler

and two other women.

His former partner reveals

what it was like living with him.

We will be reporting from a shelter

offering beds to some of the 1000

people in need of one right now

tonight. And film Museum under

threat of closure.

Good evening

and welcome to BBC London News.

Nearly six months on from

the fire at Grenfell Tower,

Kensington and Chelsea Council says

it's leading the biggest

house-purchasing programme by any

local authority in recent history.

It's promising to make 300 new

properties available by Christmas.

But so far just 45 of the 208

families have moved into permanent

homes, and many are expected

to still be in temporary

accommodation over

the festive period.

Today, some of the survivors

delivered a petition to Downing

street calling on the Prime minister

to listen to their concerns.

Frankie McCamley reports.

Bereaved families delivering a

petition to the Prime Minister.

Their message is clear.

We are

saying it needs of diverse panel to

help him. He has a lot of experience

as a judge and also about fire,

especially commercial fires of

containers and things, but we just

feel he needs a bit more information

and support to help him come to the

truthful conclusion.

This is a two

bedroom flat we have acquired this

week and is going on the website.

Typically you would either have a

couple who would have a two bedroom

flat at Grenfell Tower or a couple

with a single child for a second

bed.

Just over three miles from

Grenfell Tower this is one of

72-macro bedroom homes the council

is buying. It hopes to acquire 300

by Christmas, spending £235 million.

The pace has been very slow but

equally we have been gathering

information about what people want,

but we stress we always run at the

pace of the individual and not our

place or set a dictation saying

people must be helped by a certain

time.

But many don't think they will

be in these permanent homes any time

soon.

How are you doing? So this is your

home?

After escaping from the 13th floor

of Grenfell Tower, D'Amico has lived

in this hotel for nearly six months.

He is now waiting for a one bed

council flat.

I don't really feel at

home here, it's basically just a

place for me to sleep. I've applied

for about 15 properties permanently

and haven't had the opportunity to

see any of them. The reason is there

is a priority listing to which I

completely understand there are

people who need this house more than

me but the way the council is trying

to say we are allowing people to go

at their own pace, that's not the

case. I haven't even been able to

see any permanent properties.

What

does it feel like when you are

playing and getting no response?

It

feels like they care more about me

as a number than me as an

individual. It is very formal,

almost like them being called. They

really don't care.

The council has

now given him a temporary home and

says it's working around the clock

but rehousing believed found those

with children are its priority.

Tiago is looking forward to getting

out of here before Christmas. Six

months on people might find it hard

to believe some any survivors are

without a permanent home.

Exactly, I

spoke to the leader of the Council

on she said the housing situation

has become more complex than they

originally thought. Lots of families

have decided to live separately so

originally they were looking for

around 130 homes, that has gone to

200. There are lots of things that

need ironing out, the number of

residents said the places they are

being offered is not suitable.

Others said they don't want to move

into temporary accommodation and

then again into permanent

accommodation so they are staying in

hotels. Also the issue of trust,

people think if they move to

temporary accommodation they will go

to the bottom of the pile when it

comes to permanent accommodation.

The council say that's not the case,

they are working round the clock to

get the 300 secured by Christmas.

Thank you.

Coming up later in the programme:

IndyCar drivers race at speeds of

around 230 mph almost continuously

for three hours. I am informed them

to meet the first ever British team

to compete in the modern era.

The former partner

of serial killer Levi Bellfield has

been speaking to the BBC's

Victoria Derbyshire programme about

what it was like to live with him.

Jo Collings, who's waived her right

to anonymity, revealed

that he raped her hundreds

of times saying

"we were his property".

Bellfield is currently serving

a life sentence for the murder

of schoolgirl Milly Dowler

and two other women.

Our Home affairs correspondent,

Nick Beake reports.

Truly heinous is how Milly Dowler's

family described Levi Bellfield.

The father of 11 and former bouncer

would stalk the streets attacking

lone women near bus stops.

He murdered 13-year-old Milly,

19-year-old Marsha McDonnell

and 22-year-old Amelie Delagrange.

Now one former partner has described

life with Bellfield.

It was torture most of the time.

You know, when he was being nice

you could not have asked

for a nicer person.

He really was a real gentleman.

Spoiled you rotten, did everything,

took you everywhere,

and then he'd just flip

and the beatings, all this abuse.

But it wasn't just violence.

Jo Collings has waived her right

to anonymity to reveal that

Bellfield repeatedly

sexually abused her.

The rapes became

quite a common thing.

It was because we were his property,

we belonged to him and whatever

he wanted, we did.

he wanted, he did.

You didn't say no to him

and you didn't argue or question.

You just became a shell

and he just chipped away,

chipped away and just broke it.

Do you know how many

times he raped you?

I couldn't tell you, hundreds.

Levi Bellfield is now behind bars,

but last month it was alleged he'd

confessed to two other murders.

Lin Russell and six-year-old

daughter Megan were killed

21 years ago in Kent.

However, Bellfield's former partner

claims he could not have done it.

It's my birthday the 9th of July,

which is the date they were killed.

I remember we woke up in the morning

to when we went to bed that night,

I can tell you everything we did,

everywhere we went and there's no

possible way he left my side.

For any amount of time.

Bellfield has denied ever making

a confession or committing

the Russell murders,

and this man, Michael Stone,

who was convicted of the crimes,

remains in prison.

But the woman who says

Levi Bellfield made her life

hell is convinced he did

kill other women.

Freezing temperatures has

seen a surge in the demand for beds

at homeless shelters in the capital.

One charity in central

London says last night

was its busiest this year.

Let's get more from Chris Rogers.

He's in Charing Cross now.

I am at the Connection. There are

two problems caused by severe

weather for charities like this, the

first is a sudden surge of people

needing a bed, the second problem is

convincing those who want to stick

it out to come inside, get one, have

some food and have a good night's

sleep because a lot of rough

sleepers decide to stay on the

streets for various reasons, whether

it is mental health problems, they

don't like to be alone or feel

intimidated by the people they share

the shelter with. There's a lot of

people out there to help tonight,

8000 rough sleepers per year, a

third of them are here in

Westminster. Before we hear more

about the work of the Connection, I

wanted to hear from a gentleman who

will be sleeping rough tonight with

a married couple who want to stick

out the cold weather.

I can sleep

indoors but I choose to sleep

outside, with him.

We are going to

stay together and brave the cold

together.

The three of them have

been living on the streets for about

four months now and that's a problem

for Lorna, an outreach worker. It's

convincing them to come inside. They

say they find the system

complicated, they feel intimidated

by other people coming to shelters

like this, how do you convince them

to get out of the cold?

We go out

every night of the year to find

people who are willing to come in

but it's taking time to understand

their reasons and listen to what

concerns they might have and try to

address each of those individually

to try to understand what it is

specifically they have concerns

about. If people remain unwilling,

we continue trying to reach them and

not let them feel as if we are going

to forget about them just because

they may have their own reasons for

not wanting to come in on one night.

We find when the colder weather

hits, it encourages people to come

in and they get more of an

opportunity to have the right kind

of contact that turns into proper

progress.

That surge you get at this

time of the year when people who

wouldn't normally come to the

shelter do because of the cold

weather, it is good for you because

it gives you a chance to get to know

people in need.

Yes, it has its

advantages because people who are

particularly unwilling to come to

places that could potentially help,

it's an opportunity to reach those

people more easily.

It looks empty

now but you open at 9:30pm and there

will be another surge. In fact there

are 1000 people in need of a bed

tonight here in London.

Chris, thank you.

The latest bid to clean

up London's toxic air has seen

launch of the capital's second

Low Emission Bus Zone

in one of the worst

polluted areas in London.

Brixton Road which runs

from Streatham to Brixton

regularly breaches EU pollution

limits on nitrogen dioxide.

Here's our Transport

Correspondent Tom Edwards.

On Brixton high street,

the Mayor today met local

campaigners Mums For Lungs.

They welcome his plans

to run only cleaner buses

here, but they want more action.

I worry about the future, growing up

in this area, and whether it

will affect their health.

We really hope that with the huge

numbers of buses running

down this road, that it

would make a difference.

The corridor is a great

thing but we can see

there's lots more they can do.

Brixton High Street is heavily

polluted, in part due to the high

number of diesel buses.

Now only ones that meet

the latest engine standards

will be able to use this route.

We can't clean up all the buses

across London, we are doing

it is one area at a time.

The dirtiest areas go first.

Putney was first, Brixton is second.

We've learnt the

lessons from Putney.

It takes longer than we thought

to retrofit the buses,

but we've made sure the buses

in Brixton have been retrofitted

or they're new hybrid buses.

The first low emission bus zone

was Putney High Street.

City Hall says emissions

have dropped there.

Although initially,

the more polluting buses

were moved onto other routes.

Wandsworth Council said it was just

shifting the problem.

And there are similar

concerns now in Lambeth.

The concern is that they just move

it, that it displaces

the dirtier buses elsewhere,

I mean what do you say to that?

It is a valid concern.

This is a London-wide problem

and we shouldn't be displacing buses

to other parts of London but also

to get rid of all polluting buses

that actually travel in London.

Transport For London says diesel

buses are being phased out

and business groups say the low

emission bus zones

are a step forward.

We want people to be lingering

on the high street, to be sitting.

You want the place

to have an extra buzz.

More cleaner bus zones

are planned, while

calls to clean up London's air

seemed to be increasing.

Next this evening,

the BBC has gained

unprecedented access into the world

of male sex workers.

There are around 100,000

male and female sex

workers across the UK.

As many as 20,000 of those

are believed to be men

with nearly half of those working

here in the capital.

Michael Cowan has been

speaking to two men

working in the industry.

It's early afternoon in East London

and Daniel has just finished his

first appointment of the day.

After dropping out of university,

he turned to sex work and has been

doing it full-time

for the last decade.

I see mainly single men, a large

proportion of them are gay and

out, but also a lot

of them are married.

I charge massage rates of £100,

but most of my customers have

paid £150 for a single hour and then

for successive hours they pay an

extra £50.

For an overnight, they'd usually pay

£250, but maybe upwards

if they wanted to play for longer.

For that money, is that

whatever the client wants?

I have boundaries which are

usually on safe sex and

drug taking.

But for others drug taking

something an integral part of

the job.

Chemsex is a growing trend

where drugs are used to heighten

sexual experience.

For Toby, who works in London,

50% of his clients

are for chemsex.

The drugs of choice are the illegal

methamphetamine crystal meth

and the psychoactiveGHB.

What is the chemsex scene?

It basically involves

getting high and having sex

together, often for

extended periods of time.

That would normally be the case.

That's possible because

of the drugs we take.

For a few hours, it won't be

a constant process, but in

other cases it will

last for a weekend or,

you know, several days.

While the two men we

spoke to are Londoners,

80% of all the capital's sex

workers are migrants.

Research seen by the BBC

also found that 20%

of men they spoke to felt isolated.

Do you have people who you consider

friends in your life?

I would say only

through my work, yeah.

Because that's where I do

most of my socialising.

So you have a few clients

who become close friends.

In 2015, the Government

launched a drive to get

sex workers paying tax.

It's one way of increasing sex

workers legitimacy, but they still

face stigma from society, including

their own friends and family.

Michael Cowan, BBC London News.

Still to come before 7.00pm:

The kebab shop, opposite

the Roundhouse in Camden,

with legendary status.

This week hosting an artist

who works on a very unusual canvas.

Coming up in the next few minutes,

it looks as though the weather's

going to turn a little bit milder

in the next couple of days, but

it could well be that we

lose our blue skies.

I'll have all the details

for you in just a few minutes.

It's considered one of the most

dangerous motor sports in the world,

with IndyCar drivers maintaining

almost continuous speeds

of over 200 miles an hour.

Today, a motor racing team based

in Farnham, in Surrey,

announced they would become

the first British team

in the modern era to enter a car

into next year's series,

with ex-Formula One driver

Max Chilton at the wheel.

As Sara Orchard reports.

The IndyCar Series, raced

in North America and, for some,

the most dramatic form

of motor racing.

In my opinion, IndyCar is probably

a little bit more exciting

because we get to race on overalls.

We race up to speeds of 240 miles

an hour, for 500 miles.

So, you know, F1 gets those

speeds for a few seconds,

but we do 500 mile races

at that speed.

As a former Formula One driver,

Chilton has been racing an IndyCar

for two years and joins Carlin

in 2018 to become the first

British team in the series.

It's the premier level of racing

in North America so, obviously,

there's thing things

that we haven't done before.

So it's a real step up

on all levels, really,

but it's a step up that we're ready

for as a team.

Here at the Carlin Race Shop there

are trophies here, here and here.

In fact, this building screams

success from the likes

of Formula Two and Formula Three,

but as Carlin have long been

considered a launch pad

for countless F1 drivers,

like Sebastian Vettel and Nico

Rosberg, why go into IndyCar?

Predominantly, Formula One

is dominated by manufacturers such

as Mercedes and Ferrari

and privateer teams like us can't

really compete at that level.

We're not really interested in just

making up the numbers

or being on the grid,

we want to be competitive, and in

IndyCar we can really do that.

Carlin are taking a risk,

but so is Max every time he gets

into a car, with two British drivers

having died taking part

in the last decade.

When you're running side by side

and your wheels are only a couple

of inches apart from your team-mates

or other cars, at those speeds,

and you've got a concrete

wall just to the side

of you, it's terrifying.

You know, I have started

getting night terrors,

which I've never had

before, and that's come

because of the stress of the job.

But when you win, it

makes it all worth it.

Carlin will join the IndyCar series

for the first race of 2018

in Florida next March.

Sara Orchard, BBC London News.

That was a lot of trophies. Good

luck to them.

Next, paintings of ordinary

Londoners whom the artist met

on the street, at Tube

stations and shops.

There's nothing particularly

new about that, but you may be

surprised at the canvas he's

using and where they're

being exhibited.

I'll leave it to Wendy Hurrell,

in Camden, to explain.

I'm in a kebab shop opposite the

Roundhouse near Chalkfarm Station.

It's called Marathon. It has

legendary status in Camden Town

because of this room here. The back

room to the kebab shop which is

where, late at night, you could have

found people like Jarvis Cocker

having a jam session. It will be

turned into an art gallery whose

canvas is pizza boxes.

They are

people I see around the place who I

think is interesting. I was having a

pizza at 3am, a guy in front of me

who was really miserable. He sat

down in front of me to have his

pizza. The pizza box was happy with

crazy, funny graphics. I thought

that was interesting. It's just

going to a random pizza place in a

part of London and saying - can I

see your boxes? Sometimes they give

it it to me. Sometimes they say no

and look at me strange. They might

think I'm a health and safety

inspector. Estate agents in central

London I asked about empty space it

fell on deaf ears. I went to see Mr

Marathon. He is nice and it works

with the theme.

It's on for two-days

at the Marathon Raes raunt on

Chalkfarm Road. Oliver Malin's

takeaway dreams at the takeaway.

Now if you love cinema,

you may consider a little known

museum in south London

as a hidden gem.

It's a treasure trove

of memorabillia collected by a film

fanatic from when he

was just 15 years old.

But as Alpa Patel reports, the grade

II listed building now faces an

uncertain future.

It is a look into a forgotten past.

At the helm, 81-year-old

Ronald Grant.

Admission for one.

A fanatic collector

of cinema memorabilia.

It all began when he took a job as

a projectionist, at the age of 15.

I was in a warm place,

being paid to watch cowboy films.

It was paradise.

Almost 70 years on, Ronald has made

it his mission to acquire everything

and anything related to cinema.

His collection is vast

and includes this slide lantern,

dating back to the 1920s.

I can't focus it.

Oh, it's the...

This is the thing that's wrong.

It may have been lost if Ronald

hadn't given it a home.

You see the light?

Ronald set up the cinema room where

we meet Ronald's partner, Martin.

I found someone entirely different

from myself. I'm surprised we had

anything in common at all.

It was a

successful partnership. They set

about protecting cinema history.

Because the cinema appeared to be

in decline, we were rescuing these

objects in order to keep a sense

of social history, so that we could

remember what it was like.

This piece of equipment

is for showing messages

on the screen, it's for showing

still slides which say -

is there a doctor in the house?

Will the person with car

number AV 254 move it?

Like any love story they are facing

a huge obstacle. The building's

owners have decided to sell so they

may no longer be able to lease this

space.

Absolutely crushing,

that's my life's work in the gutter.

Would you set up anywhere else?

No, no.

If it's the end, it's

the end, I'm afraid.

Alpa Patel, BBC London News.

Let's hope not.

Let's get an update

on the weather with Phil Avery.

Let's get an update

on the weather with Phil Avery.

Not as cold tonight, thank thrill

for those without a proper source of

heating or a good roof over their

heads. This was Key, minus 4.7 last

night we won't see the like of that

again. I can't see this was taken in

Golders Green, very arty with the

ice. It was a real problem first up.

We are not done with that, as you

will see. Decent enough day. Three

or four degrees on the thermometers

eventually. Over night we cloud

things up with rain at time. As you

will see, once that is gone, the

temperatures are set to fall again.

That could lead to a problem with

ice. There is a warning from the Met

Office, north of the Thames Valley,

I wouldn't be too precise about

that, that gives a flavour of it.

Dry start, but rain later. Don't be

fooled by the bright start because

it won't stay that way. Remember

that we do have that ice warning

until well on into the morning. The

odd bit and piece coming through for

the commute, that isn't the whole

story by any means at all. If you

missed that, you won't miss what

comes later on. A really blustery

set of showers coming through. Hail

in some of those and possibly, just

in time for the school run, it might

dry up in the north and west.

Temperatures a good deal higher than

today, eight or nine degrees at

best. Here we go for Thursday, bit

similar not without that

organisation of that great belt of

weather coming through. After a dry

start there will be will be showers

throughout the afternoon. You will

notice it not as warm as it was -

warm he says - as it was on

Wednesday. Top temperature on the

day probably, Thursday, six or seven

degrees. Just to give you a flavour

of what will go on through the

weekend, it will be be pretty

chilly. Temperatures double figures

- no. We heard it. Thank you.

chilly. Temperatures double figures

- no. We heard it. Thank you.

Recapping the headlines:

Rising food costs,

bigger electricity bills

and higher air fares have

helped push up inflation

to its highest level

for almost six years.

Britain experienced

the coldest night of the year last

night with temperatures down

to minus 13 Celsius in some areas.

The freeze has led to more

disruption for travellers

and hundreds of schools

have remained closed.

Grenfell families have

delivered a petition

to Downing Street calling

for an overhaul of

the public inquiry.

That's it for now.

More news from us at 10.30pm.

AYou're very welcome to get in touch

on our Facebook page.

From me and all the team, thanks

for watching and enjoy your evening.