18/01/2018 London News

warned that patient safety in A&E

unit is being compromised to an

unacceptable degree.

Coming up on BBC London News:

unacceptable degree.

The homeowners of this tower block

who fear they'll have to pay

thousands to replace cladding

following the Grenfell tragedy.

I don't know what to say because it

is suddenly like you are asking for

six months, eight months, even a

yearly average annual salary.

There are calls for

the Government to step in.

Also tonight:

A day of disruption

on the road and rail network,

as high winds bring travel chaos

across the capital.

Plus the woman who had

her face reconstructed

following a riding accident,

now preparing to get

back in the saddle.

I'm eating normally,

I'm drinking normally,

I can talk fairly normally and

I'm hopefully going back to work

on Monday.

And art after dark,

as the Lumiere London Festival gets

under way lighting up the capital.

A very good evening

and welcome to the programme.

First tonight, should residents

of a privately-owned tower block be

forced to pay up to £2 million

to replace cladding similar

to that used in Grenfell?

Well, that's what the company,

which manages a building in Croydon,

has asked leaseholders to do.

In some cases, that works

out to around £30,000.

Residents say it's the building

owner's responsibility to pay.

It may now be a tribunal which

decides who should foot the bill.

Here's our political

editor, Tim Donovan.

The view outside the penthouse

may be great, the view

inside just now not so good.

The cost of either replacement

option is considerably higher

than the previous estimate.

The owner has just received

an unwelcome letter.

The total cost to renew and replace

the cladding are now estimated to be

between 1.8 million and 2 million.

Which has come as a shock,

to say the least, to him and 90

other leaseholders in this block

in Croydon, because they're

being asked to foot

the bill for new cladding.

That will mean between

£15,000 and £31,000 each.

There's anger clubbed

with frustration and we don't know

what to do, and there is this huge

amount of bill that

is being put forth.

After Grenfell Tower, the cladding

here was tested and it failed.

Residents have been told it's not

complying with building regulations.

They think the freeholder should

pay, with government help.

I think it should be the freeholder.

It should be the freeholder.

And if the freeholder does not have

access to the funds,

it should be the Government,

who has now changed the goalposts.

The managing agents for the block

now want the matter settled

at what's called a property

tribunal next month.

And while the Government is saying

that it should be landlords who foot

the bill for such refurbishment,

it's not at all clear yet

what the legal position is.

All of which makes this a time

of considerable anxiety here.

Everyone here having sleepless

nights, people are worried.

I've got messages saying I felt

like I'm going to get a heart

attack or something.

We were not expecting this increase,

like this £2 million bill suddenly.

Everyone is under shock, they are

completely shocked with that.

The agents managing

the block, First Port,

told us in a statement...

I'm gobsmacked, I don't know

what to say about it.

Because it's suddenly

like you're asking six months,

five months, eight months, or even

a yearly average annual salary

for people to churn out.

We don't know how

we will have to pay.

And the sting in the tale is that

for every week that goes

by with this unresolved,

it's costing £4,000 for fire

wardens to patrol here.

A bill that is being met

by the leaseholders.

Tim Donovan, BBC News.

We asked for an interview

with the Communities Secretary

or a Housing Minister to address

some of the concerns.

Neither was available.

But in a statement

the Government said...

Coming up later in the programme:

The mothers who fear changes

to breastfeeding support services

could have a negative effect

on their babies' health.

After last night's storm,

Londoners woke up to a day

of disruption, as trees blown

down overnight blocked

road and rail routes.

In south-east London,

a train hit a tree which had

fallen across the line,

forcing passengers to be led out

of carriages along the tracks.

Charlotte Franks has more.

After a night of 60 mph winds,

London woke up to this. Last night's

storm caused trees to blow over,

logging roads and frightening some

residents. -- blocking roads.

On the railways, the morning commute

wasn't much better. Many writs were

affected when overhead power lines

were damaged and trees blown onto

the tracks. -- many roads. The

5:58am train from new Beckenham

Decameron street hit a tree as it

left the station.

We were only a few

metres outside the station when the

train ground twinkled. The driver

said we had hit a tree and he said

we'd have to wait for Network Rail

to arrive and remove it from under

the carriage, then the police

arrived and officers led us to the

rear carriage of the climbed out one

by one onto the track and we walked

along back to new Beckenham station.

At London Bridge, trains were

disrupted on the Southeastern and

Southern routes until 11am and, on

routes into Liverpool Street, an

object caught in the overhead wires

caused cancellations and delays.

Services on south-western macro

railway into Waterloo saw delays all

morning following a tree on the

track. The delays cleared on most

lines by early afternoon as

engineers were dispatched to remove

all the obstacles as quickly as

possible, including some that were

wedged under trains.

We have

response teams available 24/7. They

were busy this morning. We have

chainsaw teams who have been

chopping up trees and large

branches. We have had p panels that

prevents panels, trampolines, all

kind of stuff, so we are removing

them as quickly as possible.

The

Dartford Crossing was removed due to

the strong winds, which led to heavy

traffic on the A13 as drivers

diverted towards the Dartford

tunnel. Emergency services were on

hand to attend any weather-related

incidents. The Fire Brigade took 16

goals in the early hours about

collapsed roofs, structures which

had become unsafe and trees which

had fallen onto cars and property,

but there were no reports of serious

injury.

Engineers have been working across

the network all day, trying to get

trained up and running hollowing

last night's storm, and Network Rail

is warning this evening that there

could still be some residual delays

following those delays and

cancellations. Particularly anyone

on south-western trains travelling

here from Waterloo, because many

services didn't get up and running

until about 5pm, at the beginning of

rush hour, so there could still be

the odd here and there. Anyone who

has faced a delay or cancellation

today is being advised to look up

the delay repayment scheme, a

compensation scheme open to anyone

who has had a delay of more than 30

minutes or a cancellation. If you

think that you, you are being

advised to get in touch with your

rail provider to see if you are

eligible. This evening, it looks as

if in an mostly back to normal. It's

hoped that anyone who had a terrible

journey in this morning will have a

better journey home tonight.

Fingers crossed. Thank you,

Charlotte.

Former Education Secretary

Justine Greening has criticised

the Government over its plans

for a third runway at Heathrow.

In the Commons today,

the MP for Putney claimed

the proposals were "flawed".

But Transport Secretary Chris

Grayling said the expansion

was "hugely important" for the UK.

Battersea Power station is set to be

sold for £1.6 billion,

making it one of the largest

property deals in the UK.

The London landmark is being bought

by a Malaysian investor.

The Grade 2 listed building

is currently in the middle

of a five-year redevelopment

project, creating homes,

office and retail space.

London's politicians met

at City Hall today to question

the Mayor on how he's

tackling knife crime.

At least, that was the plan.

Sadiq Khan and Conservative

Shaun Bailey, a former

advisor to David Cameron,

quickly got embroiled

in ugly exchanges.

And what's more, it was played out

in front of a group of students

who'd been invited to watch

democracy in action,

as our home affairs correspondent

Nick Beake reports.

Welcome to the public gallery,

students and staff from St Dominic's

sixth form college, a row.

It

started so well, the A-level

politics students taking their

places to watch the mayor in the hot

seat, taking questions on tackling

knife crime, including his plans for

the police stop and search more

suspects.

Are you going to guarantee

young black Londoners they will not

be targeted under your current

system? That seems to be the case.

The big difference...

No, no.

The

pupils who swapped a classroom for

City Hall soon found it got rather

personal.

You're not answering the

question. Abusing me doesn't save

Londoners. It doesn't. This is

actually about life and death for

the

and now we get sanctimoniousness

on this politician.

At one point,

they could be forgiven for thinking

pantomime season was still in full

flow.

He says you are not answering

his question for the -- his

question.

As things stand, I am the

mayor, not you. Can we move on?

All

right, that will do.

What exactly

did the pupils from the sixth form

college in Harrow make of it?

It was

like being in a playground for a

minute, they got childish, throwing

insults.

So you are saying, grow up?

Yeah, we were embarrassed. We didn't

come to see something we could have

seen in primary school.

Some

sympathised with the mayor.

I

thought some of the questions were

quite unfair because he was being

asked to guarantee something about

having black people targeted less in

the country, whereas I don't think

he can guarantee that.

Others were

not impressed with Sadiq Khan's

performance.

Or he's willing to do

is throw political insults at

Conservatives and some of his Labour

colleagues. He needs to step up to

his responsibility or stand down

because London deserves better than

Khan at the moment.

Looking at the

politician in action, did your

respect for them go up or down?

Down.

Significantly decreased.

Sadiq

Khan kept trying to play up the

achievements of the last Labour

government and the Conservative

sentiment was kept trying to play up

the achievements Boris Johnson, so

it often felt like they were tried

to their party was better instead of

dealing with the issue.

Will anybody

come back to watch it again?

It was

a nice day of school, wasn't it? We

might, hopefully dizzy something a

bit more adult.

-- hopefully to see.

It's the £50 billion high speed rail

project that will link

London with the north of England.

But protestors on the site

of the HS2 development in Hillingdon

don't want it to go ahead.

Now some of them have been

threatened with injunctions

by the Transport Secretary in a bid

to prevent their continued

demonstrations on the site.

Caroline Davies reports.

Across this busy road from the HS2

site, they sit and wait.

Protesters have been

here since October.

I walk these fields all

the time, every day.

I'm horrified, absolutely horrified

that it's going to go,

and I can't stand it.

So that's why I'm here, to stop it.

But it's not just about cups

of tea round the campfire.

We have a right to remove

you from this land.

It's not a safe place to be.

Sit ins on the site,

in front of the gates

and even on a digger.

Now HS2 have had enough.

Seven of the protesters here,

like Sarah and Sophia,

have been threatened

with an injunction to prevent them

demonstrating on the site.

I think the threat of an injunction

is very heavy-handed.

I don't want to have the right

to protest being taken away from me

so I'm going to continue to protest.

In whatever means that I feel

comfortable doing so.

Supporters of the high speed railway

line from London to Birmingham,

Manchester and Leeds say it

will connect up the country,

improving the economy,

but there's been controversy

about the noise, disruption,

route, demolition of homes

and the effect on wildlife.

HS2 couldn't put anyone up

for us to speak to today.

They say this is all an issue

of safety, both for the people

in the camp and also

their own workers.

They did admit that the protesters

have caused delays, and they say

they have a duty to the public

to deliver HS2 on time and budget.

We are not putting

ourselves at risk.

We've been given this area

as a designated protest site.

But sitting on diggers

or sitting in front of diggers

isn't that dangerous.

No, we've done nothing

unsafe at all.

Any vehicle has been stationary.

There's been no engines on.

So, I can only speak for myself,

but we've been trying

to protect the trees,

protect the environment by sitting

in front of their vehicles.

HS2 say they are creating

a new green corridor of woodland.

There is no set date

for when they might seek injunctions

but, whatever happens next,

these protesters don't

intend to end their fight.

Still to come before 7pm:

Preparing to get back on the horse.

The woman whose face

was so destroyed in a riding

accident she had to learn to talk,

and eat and drink again.

And London is luminous, set out on

foot over the next four days and it

won't be long before you find art

glimmering in the dark.

New mothers are often told

that "breast is best".

But there are fears tonight that

changes to breastfeeding support

services in one part of north London

could have a negative

effect on a baby's health.

That's the claim from a campaign

group in Barnet who've been told

the current breastfeeding service

will end by April, with no detail

yet on what will replace it.

Tolu Adeoye reports.

For many new mothers, the prospect

of breast-feeding can be daunting.

This mother of two bottle-fed her

eldest child after experiencing

problems.

The first time round my

breasts were bleeding as I was

feeding my daughter and I didn't

have the right support network

telling me what I needed to do. This

time I had a home visit and a centre

I could go to, and if I was doing

something wrong they told me how to

do it differently.

She was one of

those who joined a protest meeting

today against plans to close

Barnett's breast-feeding support

service, a team of trained advisors

and volunteers who help mothers

through home visits and by phone or

e-mail.

Sometimes those issues and

you have these problems that can

crop up so for me I would be

disappointed if I can't go to the

group.

You can just turn up, no set

times.

I have been breast-feeding so

long because of the help I got from

the service.

Plans to close the

service in its current form, at a

time when the UK has one of the

lowest breast-feeding rates in the

world.

I've got these handy knitted

breasts to illustrate some of the

statistics. Even though three

quarters of women start out

breast-feeding in the UK, in less

than two months around half have

stopped. By six months only the

third of babies in the UK are

receiving breastmilk, despite it

being recommended babies receive

breastmilk into their second year.

In response to concerns, a council

spokesperson said:

There has been no public

consultation on the changes to the

service and part of the reason for

having this protest today is to show

actually lots of people do care,

they do use the service and lots of

people will notice if it goes.

Public Health England have said

breast-feeding support services are

key to increasing rates in the UK.

These mothers are sceptical any

service will keep up the same level

of support they have come to rely

on.

Surgeons at St George's Hospital

in south London have rebuilt

the face of a woman severely injured

in a riding accident.

It took nine surgeons ten hours

to reconstruct her face.

Alpa Patel reports.

Just a warning her report contains

distressing images.

For Libby Keating, horse riding

is a way to de-stress.

This is her riding

her horse, Barney.

But back in October,

while out riding, Barney

got spooked by a noise.

We were going through a wood

with trees going past my head very

close, and I came off him

deliberately to try and get out

of harm's way, and unfortunately

he swerved and we think ran me over.

This distressing image shows

the extent of Libby's injuries.

The horse's hoof essentially struck

this part of her face...

She was brought to St George's,

where she coincidentally also

works as a paediatrician,

but her injuries were so severe

the surgeons needed a photograph

of her before her accident in order

to reconstruct Libby's face.

Our problem with any patient

like Elizabeth is we have no idea

what things were like before such

a catastrophic injury.

She has a natural count to her teeth

and that has been reproduced

in the final result.

I would never have known that

unless she'd come along

with some photographs.

In order to perform Elizabeth's

complex operation, the surgical team

needed to create bespoke splints

to keep her jaws in place, and this

is the lab where they were created.

The team here support surgical staff

across the whole hospital.

So tell us the feeling

on your face...

Almost three months on,

Libby is back to see Nick,

who led the surgery on her face.

Today she has 11 plates

holding her face together,

but she is recovering well and has

learned to talk, eat and drink again

in a very short space of time.

I'm feeling like I'm recovering,

I'm feeling like I'm ready to get

back out there and back on a horse,

ready to get back to work.

So yes, that's...

I don't think I'd be doing any

of that without the team here.

So how are things with Barney?

We are definitely friends.

He hasn't disowned me

for my inability to stay

on when he runs off,

and I haven't disowned him

for standing on me so we are all

good and hopefully

I will be back in his saddle

in about a month's time.

Just incredible, good luck to Libby.

These are just some

of the examples of how central

London will be bathed in light

for the next four nights.

The Lumiere Festival returns

to the capital with the chance

to see some spectacular

installations after dark.

Let's get more from Wendy Hurrell

in Leicester Square.

It looks like the frog wants to jump

into the fountain here. This

installation is called Nightlife, a

different night life to the one we

would normally expect here. Lumiere

London 2016 brought us flying fish

in Regent Street, a multicoloured

Westminster Abbey and an aquarium in

a phone box so what will be filling

up your phone screens this time

round?

From tonight and through

the weekend, 58 installations

by international artists

will transform London's streets

into a night-time exhibition.

Here's a taster.

Now, an event of this ambition

and scale is logistically tricky.

A couple of weeks ago, while testing

the installation of this giant orb,

it came untethered and injured

a pedestrian on Oxford Circus.

It's not yet been put back.

They did on to, but bearing in mind

there were 70 mph winds last night,

thought better of it. That

particular artwork will be beamed

onto the buildings at Oxford Circus

and I'm told the ball will be back

tomorrow. That's not the only

challenge for the organisers here.

With me is Helen, director of the

charity running this. It was so

popular last time, the big goblin

was crowd control. Are you doing

anything different this time round?

We have decided to create a bigger

footprint this time, from King's

Cross down to the south bank and

from Grosvenor Square across to

Trafalgar Square, divided into six

sections so there's lots of room for

people to move around.

Wonderful,

and it is all worth it. That's what

you are going to tell us, Justine,

isn't it?

Yes, it is January,

post-Christmas, so what better time

to fill London with a light and

invite visitors down for free,

discover London filled with light.

Top tips, plan of action, there's a

lot to see, go on.

There are 58

things, plan your route and decide

which bits you will see when and

where and work out how to get there.

A lot of the streets are so don't

drive, come on public transport if

you can or walking is even better.

It is going to be freezing so wrap

up warm.

Also download a map.

Yes,

on the Visit London site you can get

the information in advance and plan

your journey.

Thank you, I have

downloaded my map, I will bundle the

baby into the buggy and I will see

you tomorrow!

London, the perfect backdrop but

what about the

London, the perfect backdrop but

what about the weather? Let's find

out.

It is going to behave over the next

few evenings anyway. Certainly this

evening we have clear skies,

tomorrow evening as well. Fairly

interesting weekend coming up, we

will talk about that in a moment.

Today was a turbulent start with

strong winds but things quiet and

down quickly. Look at this, I looked

at a picture like this and the word

spring comes to mind. It felt

pleasant in the afternoon sunny

spells but it is turning chilly this

evening. We picked up the odd stray

shower around towards the end of the

day, that threat now decreasing.

Plenty of clear skies, allowing the

temperatures to drop away over the

next few hours. A frosty night

coming up so we will end up a degree

or two either side of freezing

depending whether you are in the

town centre or countryside. But it

does mean a frosty start with plenty

of sunshine tomorrow and we will

continue with good sunny spells as

we go through the day. The wind

feeling stronger tomorrow than it

did today. Look at all that

sunshine, temperatures will

gradually recover and we will see

cloud building. The chance of

picking up a stray shower later in

the day but most will stay dry with

temperatures between four and seven

Celsius with a bite to the wind. I

want to show you tomorrow night, we

start off clear but through the

night cloud increases. We see wet

weather coming in and a lot of

uncertainty about this but we could

see sleet and snow, wet snow into

the Chilterns briefly. That clears

southwards, then sunshine on

Saturday afternoon so don't be

fooled by a slow start on Saturday

morning with the damp weather

around, things should improve as we

go through the afternoon. Then

another big change because on Sunday

we will see another weather system

coming in, and it will produce quite

a bit of rain. But the temperatures

are heading up and that is the

change for next week. It is turning

milder.

change for next week. It is turning

milder.

Thank you, and thankfully the wild

weather has calmed down.

Recapping the main headlines:

Senior doctors in Wales have said

patient safety in accident

and emergency units is being put

at risk "to an unacceptable degree".

46 hospital consultants have

written to the Welsh

government saying the NHS

there is "chronically

under-resourced".

Storm force winds have caused

disruption across the UK.

More than 60,000 homes

are without power in East Anglia

and south-east England.

High winds have brought down

trees and power cables,

blocked transport links

and damaged homes.

Figures released show the country

is in the grip of its worst flu

season for seven years.

The number of people going to GPs

in England with suspected flu has

risen by 42% in the past week.

That's all from us for now.

You're always welcome

of course to get in touch

on our Facebook page.

And Asad will be back

with our late news.

Thanks for watching

and have a lovely evening.