15/01/2018 London News

A combination that could well cause

some travel disruption.

Coming up on the programme....

It's revealed the man behind

the Westminster terror attack had

taken anabolic steroids,

days or hour before.

The details emerged

at a hearing at the Old Bailey.

Also tonight...

Why the collapse of Carillion

means an uncertain future

for prisons in the capital.

Please hold on, the bus

is about to move...

The helpful advice to passengers,

which may not be so helpful as it

plays after the bus moves.

And we go inside the suburban house

that's an incredible work of art

and labour of love -

now a museum.

A very warm welcome

to BBC London News.

First tonight:

The man who deliberately

drove into pedestrians

on Westminster Bridge before killing

a police officer outside parliament

in March last year had taken

steroids days or hours beforehand.

The details were released

during a pre-inquest hearing

into the death of Khalid Masood

and his victims.

Families have called

for their inquest to examine

the continuing "failure" to get

to grips with

radicalisation on the internet.

Here's Marc Ashdown.

GUNFIRE

It was an attack on the heart of

government in the heart of London.

March the 22nd 2017,

the first of five terror attacks

on the UK last year -

four of them here in the capital.

We now know Khalid Masood had

anabolic steroids in his system,

further tests have been ordered

to establish how that may have

affected his actions.

The families of his victims hope

these inquests may lead to changes

in the way terrorism is tackled.

Masood drove his hired four

by four into pedestrians

on Westminster Bridge at 2:40pm,

repeatedly mounted the pavement.

30 seconds later, he crashed

into the Palace of Westminster.

The first 999 call is then received.

Half a minute later,

Masood is shot dead by armed police.

It lasted all of 90 seconds,

but his rampage took

five innocent lives.

American tourist Kurt Cochran,

teacher Aysha Frade

and Leslie Rhodes were all hit

by the car.

Romanian tourist Andreea Cristea

fell into the Thames and later died,

and PC Keith Palmer,

who was stabbed inside

the entrance to Parliament.

The inquests of all five

will be heard by the Chief

Coroner in September.

A separate inquest with a jury will

then follow into Masood's death.

At today's pre-inquest hearing,

lawyers representing the families

called for the coroner to examine

the availability of extremist

material on the internet and why

messaging services like Whatsapp

need to have end-to-end

encryption on messages

which can't then be read.

The court was told they are issues

which crop up again and again

in terrorist trial after terrorist

trial, which the authorities

need to get grips with.

Yes, there have long been calls for

the security services to have the

ability to access these private chat

messages if they see fit. Companies

like Facebook which owns Whatsapp

says it has a duty to protect its

users. Regarding online extremist

videos, the family said today why is

it radical material continues to be

freely available on the Internet? We

do not understand. That will be

under the spotlight again. We learn

today the two officers who

challenged Khalid Masood will give

evidence to the inquest but

anonymously. Police body

protection will be examined again as

well. PC Keith Palmer's family wants

to know how Khalid Masood could get

into the Palace of Westminster

behind me why the officer was alone,

an armed and wearing inadequate body

protection. Lots of questions for

the inquest, due to get under way on

September the 10th.

Coming up later in the programme...

When it comes to veganism,

people are so excited

about what they know it's

done for them.

A vegan-only pub prepares to open

in Hackney where even

the alcohol is strictly vegan.

What will the collapse

of Carillion mean for Londoners?

As you may have seen

on the 6 o'clock news,

it's a vast organisation

that employs thousands,

and touches many aspects

of our daily lives.

The company went into

liquidation last night.

In a moment we'll explore what it

means for some council services.

First our Home Affairs

Correspondent, Nick Beake, looks

into how it'll affect London's

prisons, which we know

are already struggling.

Early hours, Pentonville prison and

a drone is being used to fly drugs

over the perimeter wall. Undercover

police have been watching and swoop

on the parcel, but drugs by delivery

has been made easier in recent years

because of broken windows on the

wings. The outsource company

responsible for fixing windows and

maintaining the prison is Carillion,

now in liquidation. Relatives

visiting inmates today condemned

conditions inside.

Cockroaches in

the prison, it's just not a nice

place at all.

A lot of people with a

prison is not supposed to be a nice

place.

Obviously not, but they could

put a bit more effort in for the

people in there. They're living in

slums.

Not all of them... There are

in there, they are doing their time

because they have committed a crime

but they don't deserve to be treated

like this. You wouldn't treat a dog

like this.

Conditions are really

bad, really bad.

It is bad. He was

crying on the phone. He says,

smelly, stinky, everything.

Many of the problems inside

Pentonville are complex and

long-standing. Overcrowding,

underinvestment, crumbling Victorian

buildings, but a recent scathing

report singled out Carillion for

particularly stinging criticism,

saying the company was failing both

the prison and the taxpayer. Well

now, the company itself has failed.

It comes after repeated warnings

about the way Carillion was looking

after prisons across London. At

Pentonville there was a six month

backlog of maintenance jobs, leaking

sewage wasn't sorted and only a

quarter of broken windows were

replaced. At Wandsworth, more

criticism. Some cells were not

prepared for months and basic

kitchen equipment was missing, and

Wormwood Scrubs had numerous broken

toilets, rubbish was not cleared,

which attracted rats and

cockroaches. The organisation

representing prison officers now

wants maintenance work brought back

in-house.

I would hope that the

government of today has learned its

lesson and will bring it back into

the public fold. That is the

ultimate ambition, I suppose, for

all trade unions.

Today at

Pentonville they were sprucing up

the outside, trying to stop the

weeds coming back. It's not clear

who will be trying to root out the

problems inside that Kompany leads

behind.

Our Political Correspondent,

Karl Mercer joins me now.

We heard about prisons there.

What about wider implications in the

capital?

Carillion is one of the

biggest companies in the country so

it's tentacles reach for width by

the government's emergency committee

is meeting as we speak, in the

Cabinet Office, to look at those

implications. Where do we look

first? Let's look at what the London

mayor says. These London line has a

contract for its tracks, signalling

and stations. We're told that

contract is up for renewal. Also a

maintenance contract for London

Underground as well. The mayor

tonight in the last 15 minutes

issued a statement saying there had

been planned in place, services will

run and they will do what they can

to protect jobs and livelihoods. As

far as councils are concerned,

Croydon has taken its library

services away from Carillion. Ealing

and Harris still have library

services at Mourinho but they say

contingencies are in place. Their

libraries are open. Hounslow as its

parks, allotments and cemeteries

contract with Carillion and that was

something that was brought up in a

debate in Parliament about an hour

ago.

Will he again reassure

employees affected by local

authority contracts,

such as those in Hounslow,

that the Government will not

leave them in the lurch

and that the commitment to protect

public services and suppliers

will extend to local authority

contracts, and indeed

to services like prisons,

including Feltham Young Offenders

in my constituency?

Feltham Young Offenders Institution

is certainly covered by the overall

contingency planning the Department

of Justice has put in place.

As regards other local

authority contracts,

the same applies as with NHS trusts,

that the Government's protection

for payments of wages and salaries

to suppliers and subcontractors

extends to those contracts too,

where those are involved in

the delivery of key public services.

So as you say, the collapse of

Carillion far reaching. Not just the

public sector?

Before we finish on

the public sector I should just say

I've been told today no NHS Trust in

the capital, unlike in other parts

of the country where we have seen

hospital redevelopment is possibly

delayed by this, no NHS contracts

with Carillion in the capital. But

as you say, in the private sector,

reports on one of the London

newspapers today saying a big

private development being built by

Carillion embarked Square in central

London, some contractors turned up

today being dogged by their bosses,

don't go into work because Carillion

on payoffs. I think that's where we

might see some movement in the next

coming days, how it will impact not

just on the big institutions but

smaller firms who were suppliers to

Carillion.

Many thanks for the

update.

Next, the borough which says it's

taking a more "ethical

approach" to unpaid bills.

What does that mean?

Hammersmith and Fulham says

it's getting of bailiffs

to collect unpaid council tax.

But some warn that it

could lead to higher debts.

Mark Jordan has been speaking

to a man who lost his home

as a result of his debt,

and finding out what the new system

could mean for residents.

Four years ago, Peter Williams

brought trains to a halt

after killing himself

on the railway.

His home had been taken away

for failing to pay £1350

over council tax debt.

The problem was, Peter

was mentally ill.

Nobody realised this at the time

and as a result he was literally

hounded to death over

what was a relatively

small amount of money.

97% of us pay our council tax bill,

but debt campaigners claim over

200,000 bailiff visits were made

in London to those who don't.

We've not received any

payments whatsoever.

It's the councils who decide if Dave

that bailiff comes a-knocking.

It is there any difference

in the way you work

between can't pay or won't pay?

That's not my business.

Mike Thompson was a book-seller

until a devastating illness meant

he could barely work.

His council tax debt

would take his home and lead

to recovery costs 30 times

the original arrears of 2900.

The council forced

the sale of the house.

I got just over £6,000

as my share of the proceeds.

The other £85-86,000 was swallowed

up in the debt itself,

plus all the costs that accumulated

along the way.

The lawyers who do this business

for local authorities prosper

mightily, but the local authorities

themselves actually,

in the great scheme of things,

actually lose out big time.

At Hammersmith and Fulham Council

they've begun to wonder

if bankrupting, seizure of homes

and use of bailiffs is working.

They claim bailiffs only recover 30%

of council tax debt and are getting

rid of them from April.

If a family's trying to keep

the bailiffs away and then

prioritises the bill for council

tax, they then might

miss their rental payment and then

you're left with a homeless family

being traumatised but then

presenting the public

sector with a huge bill,

in terms of free housing

and all the other impacts

homelessness can have.

But the bailiff industry

warn Hammersmith's

experiment will backfire.

To dispense with the enforcement

service will come at a price.

I think that in two or three years'

time the coffers will be looked

at and the question will be asked,

where's the money?

Now, ethical debt collection

in Hammersmith is about to show

whether or not the bailiffs' knock

might become part of debt

collecting history.

Mark Jordan, BBC London News.

And you can see more on the story

tonight on Inside Out London,

at 7.30 here on BBC One.

It was the largest burglary

in English Legal History,

carried out by pensioners,

in Hatton Garden.

And today, Woolwich Crown Court

heard the items the men stole

from the safe deposit,

back in 2015, were worth

at least £13.6 million.

A judge at the confiscation hearing,

which opened today after months

of investigations, will now decide

how much five of the gang,

all of whom are in prison,

should be ordered to pay back.

Still to come before 7:

A rock and roll time warp takes us

straight to Memphis in the '50s,

but you'll never guess

where we really are...

Coming up, I'll tell you how this

seemingly ordinary terraced house

in south-west London is anything

but ordinary from the inside.

Before that, a new announcement

on London buses designed

to help passengers,

but whose timing might

be slightly off...

A technical glitch is being blamed

for the fact that the warning

"to hold on as the bus

is about to move" plays -

after it's already moved.

Here's our Transport

Correspondent, Tom Edwards.

Please hold on, the bus

is about the move.

A new announcement

from London's buses.

This is the 453 to Deptford.

Please hold on, the bus

is about to move.

The problem is, the warning the bus

is about to move usually happens

when the bus is already moving.

If the bus is already

moving, that is silly.

They put that there because

the people don't hold onto anything,

they would fall down,

someone tracks to one side

of the bus, so it is good.

It is annoying, I think they didn't

do a lot of preparation.

They should have done a lot

of preparation before setting it on.

The new announcements have caused

a stir on social media.

Not everyone likes their frequency,

or the fact that they're late.

The reason for these announcements

is that, every year,

about 5,000 passengers are injured

on board buses, and about three

a day of those are due to

accelerating and braking abruptly.

Please hold on, the bus

is about the move.

Too many announcements

can annoy passengers.

Some transport companies

have, in the past, been

told to reduce them.

TfL is now looking

to improve the timings

of the bus announcements.

At the moment, we have linked it

to the destination announcements,

so when it says where

the bus is going.

Unfortunately, depending

on how busy the bus is,

it is not timed correctly,

so we are going to fix that glitch,

because that is really annoying,

and actually link it

to when the doors close,

so then it will be perfectly

timed for the solution.

Please hold on, the bus

is about the move.

This is a trial for a month.

The announcements will only

continue if they help to cut

the number of injuries.

Tom Edwards, BBC London news.

It is a lifestyle growing in less --

popularity as it is estimated there

are three times as many visions now

than there were a decade ago.

Perhaps not surprising that a new

Gregan only pub is opening in

Hackney, where even the beer, wine

and cocktails of Ligue Un friendly.

And it is not just about the food.

In many ways, the Brook looks and

feels like a London pub but you

won't find pie and mash on the menu,

or in fact any meat or dairy at all.

I became vacant for animal welfare

reasons.

I have been a vegan for six

months now and I feel much of the.

Because I believe I can live without

causing harm to other beings.

I am a

vegan because I love animals for

stock

that customers are here for a

special sample night. The pub

doesn't actually open for another

four days. The many here, the

Guineas is more than just a diet, it

is a way of life.

I think people are

becoming far more educated about the

industry, the dairy industry, the

impact on the environment, the

impact on their health, what happens

to the food that they are eating

before it gets to them, and I think

people are just naturally starting

to move this way.

Oh, vegan hot

chocolate backs Matt

another devout

follower, Radio 1 Xtra DJ Sara Jane

Crawford. She has been a vegan three

years.

The timing was right for me,

I had a few health scares, I had a

breast lump removed, a couple of

operations in the space of one year,

and I was just like, you know what,

I don't want to be eating so many

hormones, consuming so much rubbish

in my diet.

She is an ambassador for

Tamme one, a month calling on us to

become beacons.

Don't worry. Now I

get why people become so passionate

about whatever it is they believe

in, if they feel like it will help

people to improve their life. Not

whatever it is people believe in but

when it is actually about life and

it is about having a better

quality-of-life, and it is about

love, empathy, health. You know,

health is well.

The owners say the

numbers of the guns are growing and

they are hoping some of them will

find their way through the door on

Friday.

Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley

started a new kind

of music in the 50s -

from Sun Records in Memphis.

It was a distinctive new sound

and took over the world.

Now one rock and roll fan is trying

to recreate that sound -

exactly - from his recording

studio in Essex...

Where Wendy Hurrell

has spent the day.

# Blue moon, blue moon...#.

It's a rock and roll time capsule.

Elvis is in the building,

and we could be back to the 50s,

in Memphis, Tennessee.

But actually we're in Wickford,

Essex, at a garden centre...

So, Get Rhythm,

with Billy, take one.

..where Dean Amos has built his

authentic vintage recording studio.

# A little shoeshine boy

never gets the down.

# But he's got the

dirtiest job in town.

We're in the live room here,

and we've got the same sound board

as they would have used in the 1950s

in all their recording studios.

Mike's mixers and recording

equipment was salvaged from the US.

This is what they call an Ampex 350,

which is a 1950s, mid-50s,

tape recorder, and it was the same

model that Sam Phillips

at Sun Records to record Elvis on.

# ...

When you get the Blues,

come on, get rhythm,

when you get the Blues #.

But it's not a museum,

I mean all this stuff works.

Everything works, yeah,

I won't have anything

here that doesn't work.

Everything works.

Now what he didn't know

when he was carefully repairing this

kit and creating the right 50s

ambience was that down the road

in Southend another Essex boy had

just acquired the worldwide rights

to the Sun Records songs.

He is putting on a show

at the Southend Cliffs Pavilion

with these boys singing the hits

of Elvis and Johnny Cash.

They're here today to record

an accompanying soundtrack.

It is going to be released

on the Sun Records label,

for the guys here to

have the opportunity

to record their stuff on that label.

Sun was out before Motown.

Sun was out before Stax.

Sun was out before Atlantic,

so you've got all the other labels

to follow, but the original,

the start of rock and roll

was where Sun was.

Which explains the obsession

to create a studio like it for 4000

miles away in Essex,

and find again that 50s sound.

575 Wandsworth Road.

From the outside, perhaps hard

to believe, it's been described

as a spectacular hidden gem.

But the intricate work behind this

door is a labour of love by a poet

and civil servant who lived there.

When he died, he left it

to the National Trust and it's

already inspired one composer who's

won an award for music

she wrote in the house.

Helen Mulroy has been

to take a look.

So here we are in south London on a

seemingly ordinary suburban street,

outside what appears to be a

seemingly ordinary terraced house.

But 575 Wandsworth Rd is anything

but ordinary.

MUSIC

but ordinary.

#

Singh, although the excitable's

heart... The hand-carved fretwork

interior of this house was the

life's work of this poet.

He came to

London in the early 60s.

He came from western Kenya but he'd

been at school in Nairobi, and he'd

done his degree in architecture.

This started in the mid-'80s.

He bought it and it

was in a really -

as he'd say himself

- parlous state.

He started doing some carving

in order to just cover up the damp.

He put a little bit of filigree work

and then he carried on from there.

It took 20 years. There was

extraordinary. And all done with

that one tool.

This was his passion but also

he was creating his own world.

Unsurprisingly, the house

has inspired others

for the last two years.

Through the London Symphony

Orchestra, it's had

an artist in residence

and Cevanne Horrocks-Hopayian has

just won a British Composer

of the Year award for this piece

of music, which she

wrote in the house.

MUSIC

They invited me to be

here for two years -

not living here, sadly,

but responding to the house,

its history, the acoustics,

and all of the art that had been

created, and his poetry as well.

I also sampled, like,

recorded elements of the house,

including these inkwells

and the thumb piano as well

to create this lilting

sort of gentle rhythm, which goes

underneath the soprano voice.

It was a lovely feeling to sort

of make a musical home

here because that's another thing

that really inspires me

about the place, someone who has

come to this country and made

a wonderful life and work

and career here as well.

And the National Trust hopes

the house will continue to inspire.

It's open for pre-booked tours

from March through to October.

Helen Mulroy, BBC London News.

Time now for a check on the weather

and Louise Lear is here.

It was horrible, wasn't it? It will

get better, if you want sunshine but

I lay in bed this morning thinking

it will be a horrible Monday morning

commute, and it was. Plenty of rain

making its way through. Another

pulse arrived at lunchtime as well,

thank you very much for that. And it

some scattered showers and the

showers will continue through the

night tonight. Those were the French

clearing away by drawing your

attention to the north-west, that is

where the air source is coming from.

It will get colder but over the next

few days the winds will be an issue,

but in comparison to the weather we

had last week which was very grey

sunshine and showers, I want to

stress in the London area and the

south-east we will not see a too

bad. If you watch the National

forecast you will hear cold and

snow. There will not be that bad for

us. Through the night tonight, a

real rash of showers rattling in

from the west, 90 of them quite

frequent and temperatures falling

down to two to 4 degrees and will be

a cold start, not particularly

present out there than standing at a

stop first thing in the morning. And

we will see a day of sunny spells

and scattered showers, but if you

dodge them and get the sunshine, you

may be happy with that. A few of the

showers in higher ground across the

Chilterns, maybe through the Downs,

a bit of wet snow in there but we're

not concerned about it. Top

temperatures through the afternoon,

five to 7 degrees. We pretty much to

it all again, a chilly start on

Wednesday morning. There will be

some sunshine though as you can see

first thing. A few showers, perhaps

not as frequent as we go into

Wednesday, so not a bad day in some

respects. It will feel windy and

that will make it feel quite cooler

there. But in comparison, that

blanket of cloud and miserable

weather we had last week, I will

take this any day. A change to come,

Wednesday into Thursday, this wet

weather will rattling across the

country. They will bring severe

gales for some but I think the

London area it will be a very windy

day, with gales on exposed coasts.

But perhaps a ten mile, and there

will be a little more in the way of

sunshine coming through. Double

figures return on Thursday,

Calderwood some sunny spells and

scattered showers again Friday. I

will that again any day.

scattered showers again Friday. I

will that again any day.

Unions are urging the government

to protect jobs -

following the collapse

of the construction

and services firm Carillion.

The company employs

20-thousand people.

The Ukip leader, Henry Bolton,

says he's ended his relationship

with his girlfriend

after she made offensive remarks

about Prince Harry's fiancee,

Meghan Markle.

But he's insisted he won't

resign as party leader.

The man who deliberately

drove into pedestrians

on Westminster Bridge before killing

a police officer last year had taken

steroids beforehand.

The details were released

during a pre-inquest hearing

into the death of Khalid Masood

and his victims.

That is it for now, thank you for

joining us, you are always welcome

to get in touch on our Facebook

page, and I will be back with the

latest for you during the ten

o'clock news. From me and all the

team here, have a lovely evening,

goodbye.