25/01/2018 London News

That's all from the BBC News at Six

so it's goodbye from me -

Coming up on BBC London News...

so it's goodbye from me -

Should your local council

pay for extra police?

Here in East London,

they say they have no option.

People are beginning to feel the

squeeze and are worried about

whether we have enough police on the

streets. We hope to fill that gap.

Is this the future of policing in

the capital?

Following the Parole Board's

decision to release rapist

John Warboys, the mayor now applies

for a judicial review.

High stakes - the investment bank

warning thousands of jobs could go

in the city over Brexit.

New research tells us the the health

risks of smoking even

one cigarette a day.

And we're out with the eye

in the sky, to meet the photographer

who claims to have

the best job in the City.

A very warm welcome

to the programme.

On the day official figures show

a rise in violent crime,

a bit of good news from

a corner of East London.

Here one of their estates has

actually seen a fall

in the number of crimes.

Arrayed on alleged drug dealers was

carried out this morning. -- a raid.

But it has come at a price -

£3 million, to be precise,

which was found by the local council

from its budget.

The council says money is tight,

but it has no option.

Karl Mercer reports now

on the question of who should

pay for our police.

It can be a tight squeeze

in the lift on the way

to a drugs bust.

Police, open the door!

And sometimes things don't quite

go according to plan.

Police, open the door!

But within minutes

early this morning,

this team in Tower Hamlets were in,

on the search for drugs.

He has indicated on this draw, which

contains cannabis grinders. There is

foil. Traces of Class A drugs, and

also a large weapon.

As police burst in, bags

of what they believe are heroin

and crack were thrown from the flat.

The two men inside were arrested

on suspicion of drugs offences.

This operation is part

of an intitiative being run

by the police with

the local council,

which has paid £3 million

for extra officers on its estates

over the next three years.

The problem is really bad. We are

finding people on the stairwells

injecting themselves. Rehab

residents too scared -- we have

residents to scared because of drug

dealers occupying the area who

intimidate residents.

We have had

more than 30 arrests so far today.

It has been very successful. We

using not just criminal justice

powers, but also working with our

partners, the local authority. We

are trying to look at the bigger

picture and get to the heart of the

problem. And also, it may their

tenancy.

The money for the 30 extra estate

police will come out

of Tower Hamlets Council's savings.

And the local mayor, who launched

the scheme back in October,

says it is money well spent.

We survey our local residents every

year. They tell us that crime and

anti-social behaviour are a concern.

We have also seen big cuts in police

officer numbers because of central

government spending cuts, which

means people don't get anything like

the response they used to get. We

have introduced funding for police

officers funded by the borough. We

have greater control over what they

do.

Across the capital, other councils

pay for around 350 police

in their own areas.

But today the mayor warned once

again that police numbers

in London could drop below 30,000

for the first time in a decade.

During the course of 18-19, we will

have an average of 30,000 offices

across London. Don't be surprised if

it goes below 30. The average will

be 30,000 across London. And by the

way, we have not had so few officers

for a

The government insists

London does get its fare

share of police funding.

But as the row over

funding continues.

So will the raids.

And Karl is here.

It seems money is

the real issue here?

Yes, it is all about the money and

whose money it is and where it is

coming from. As Tower Hamlets is

doing, there are 20 other councils

across London paying for extra

police, giving the Met money,

something like 350 officers extra,

across the capital being paid for by

local authorities. There is a wider

issue. The Met is under severe

financial pressure. Still has £400

million worth of savings to find.

That is even with selling are

planning to sell more than 100

police stations. They have got rid

of them. Scotland Yard has gone.

They have lost police behind the

counter staff. They have lost

community support officers in large

numbers. We have also seen actual

police numbers fall. We hear that

warning yet again from the Met that

numbers could fall below 20,000 --

30,000. It is seen as critical. It

is all about the money. You will

hear the mayor saying we need more.

The government will say they get

plenty. A crumb of comfort today. We

had a couple of weeks ago the Met

saying they needed some extra money

to pay for the Grenfell Tower Fire

investigation. They want £38 million

from the government. The mayor told

the London assembly today, we are

hearing encouraging signs about

getting some of that money. In a

similar way to how the government

paid Manchester extra money of the

back of the terror attacks there.

Thank you.

Plenty more ahead, including

the former prison officer

who claims he was jailed

for being a whistleblower.

The Mayor of London has begun legal

action over the imminent

release of John Worboys -

the former blackcab driver convicted

of sex offences against a number

of female passengers.

Sadiq Khan says it's important

that the parole board's decision

is tested in the courts.

Let's get more on this

from Tim Donovan,

our political editor,

who's at City Hall tonight.

This was the legal steps the

government felt it couldn't take.

The justice secretary took advice

and it was decided it wasn't for the

government to challenge the Parole

Board decision. But Sadiq Khan is

coming at this from a different

position and believes he should take

this action in the interest, he

says, of Londoners' safety. He is a

lawyer by training, by background,

and someone who should be aware of

some of the complexities and

difficulties of this legally, when

seen in the round. John Worboys, of

course, was sentenced, given an

indeterminate sentence, for offences

against 12 women, he is in Belmarsh

prison at the moment. There has been

talk of him being released in weeks

if not days. And the city Hall is

saying the decision to challenge his

release will be taken on the basis

it was unreasonable and irrational.

It didn't take into account the

evidence. The mayor, earlier this

week, had given a clear indication

he would take this step.

It is astonishing. This man was

convicted of some extremely serious

offences. It is quite clear that

victims who should have been spoken

do when it came to the parole board

hearing, were not. That is why I

have written this action -- letter

for action. We will be challenging

the decision from the Parole Board.

The chair of the Parole Board

himself welcomes the scrutiny.

The first legal tab -- step taken.

What other chances are that this

will prevent the release of John

Worboys?

Nobody knows. The serving

of the legal papers may well hold at

up. There is a second Judicial

Review action being brought by two

of his victims. The Parole Board

said it would welcome this scrutiny.

It has reviewed the original

decision and stands by it. There are

important legal principles and

process to be explored. This

decision was taken by an experienced

panel who had considerable amounts

of evidence before them. And we

understand that we cannot know the

conditions for John Worboys' release

on licence. They would be stringent.

Were he to breach just one of them

just once, he would be back in

prison.

Tim Donovan. Thank you.

The chief executive

of the investment bank, JP

Morgan, has told the BBC it

could cut its workforce by more

than a quarter if financial rules

diverge after Brexit.

He says it would be bad news

for London's financial hub.

So what exactly is going on -

are jobs really at risk?

Let's cross now to our

Brexit Correspondent, Katharine

Carpenter, who can explain.

The boss of JP Morgan made comments

in Davos at the World Economic

Forum. Sometimes those kind of

events can seem a world away from

places like this, Battersea in south

London. But in actual fact the city

is part of a huge ecosystem.

Anything that happens to it, good or

bad, is likely to have ramifications

all over the capital. Take for

example the fact that 15% of all

jobs in Greater London are in

financial services or associated

businesses. People who work in the

financial services live in places

like this, they commute from Clapham

Junction in the morning. Their kids

go to the local schools and they

spend their wages. When the boss of

JP Morgan Meakes, are like this, no

boss in London can afford to ignore

them.

They might have escaped to a pocket

of Europe outside the EU, but the

conversation about Brexit never

really goes away from politicians

and business leaders in Davos.

Today, the chief executive of JP

Morgan renewed his warning about job

losses in the city if the UK's

financial services get left out of a

post Brexit trade deal.

If they

determine that you can't have

reciprocal regulations and trade

practices, it would be bad. It will

cost jobs. A lot. It would be more

than 4000.

The numbers are important

because that figure is much higher

than JP Morgan's previous estimate

of only 500 to 1000 of its staff

moving elsewhere. If he sees

reciprocal regulation is the key to

preventing jobs leaving London, what

does that actually mean? It is what

many in the city see as the way

forward for financial services, also

known as regulatory alignment. It

essentially means that the EU and UK

laws are a mirror image of one

another with the same standards and

regulations. If either side wants to

change something, they have to agree

on that. And crucially, there is an

independent body to deal with

disputes. That may sound simple but

it has got to get agreed by this

man, the EU chief negotiator, Michel

Barnier, who has previously ruled

out a bespoke deal with the UK

including financial services.

The

politics of the situation are going

to be the really tricky part to get

right. You will have heard Emmanuel

Macron at the weekend actually talk

about a continuation of an

arrangement specifically for

financial services. But he was very

clear, of course, that with

continued access we would need to

consider issues like contribution to

the budget, free movement of people.

Those are the tricky issues, I

think, that will need to be resolved

before this agreement can be put in

place.

As one of the architects of the city

fudge plan she is confident a deal

can be reached. Today the government

said it was still determined to

build a deep and special partnership

with the EU. -- city's plan.

It is important to keep perspective.

4000 jobs is not a huge number if

you consider all those who work in

the city of London. The other thing

to bear in mind is that we are still

very much in the midst of these

negotiations. We are likely to hear

more from David Davis tomorrow about

what the next phase of negotiations

are going to bring. He will lay out

what we are going to talk about when

it comes to transition. It is still

all to play for. Many will say that

focusing on one person's

announcement is scaremongering.

There will be plenty more to hear

from both sides in the week ahead.

Thank you.

A former officer at Belmarsh prison

- jailed for being the paid source

for a newspaper reporter -

is taking his fight to

the European Court of Human Rights.

Bob Norman claims he was a whistle

blower on subjects like staff

shortages, and was acting

in the public interest.

But that claim was rejected

by the courts in this country

and he was jailed for 20 months.

Sarah Harris has the story.

Maximum security.

Belmarsh is home to some of the most

dangerous prisoners in the country,

but it's been accused

of being a hotbed for extremism

and being badly run.

Bob Norman was a prison officer

here for 23 years before deciding

to become a whistle-blower

to a newspaper reporter.

I didn't actually go to them first.

I tried the MP, the Houses

of Parliament and the then

Home Secretary, writing to them

with the concerns about HMP Belmarsh

and what was going on there.

I received, "Thank you,

we are aware of certain situations"

or "it's all being dealt

with at a higher level than you".

I felt as though it

wasn't the policy of

the committee at Belmarsh.

I felt something had to be done.

I felt that much...

that badly about it that

something had to be done,

and the public had to be made aware

of what was going on inside.

But in the aftermath of the Leveson

inquiry into press ethics,

Bob was sent to prison

for misconduct in public office.

The Daily Mirror named him and gave

details of payments it gave

of around £150 a month for five

years for the information.

40 times, information was shared.

Sometimes the journalist made

contact to verify facts.

On other occasions, Bob Norman gave

tip-offs about staff shortages

and perceived security breaches,

including about well-known

inmates like Abu Hamza.

Now, the barrister leading

the appeal to the European Court

says the paper should not have

revealed their source

and the payments should

not have been an issue.

There is no law anywhere that says

that someone can't be paid

for speaking to the press.

I think we all know there's adverts,

even now, in the press advertising

the fact that if you've got a story,

we will pay.

And some of the biggest stories

we've seen, such as the MP scandal

over all their claims,

the Daily Telegraph paid

around £100,000 for,

and it was money well spent.

But some who know what it's

like to run the prison service

believe there needs to be a strong

deterrent when the rules are broken.

Prison officers have

lots of confidential information.

Information about prisoners,

about prison security,

information about the strengths

and weaknesses of prison security.

They are required to

keep that confidential.

That enables us to run safe prisons.

Bob was jailed for 20

months in June, 2015,

and is now a free man.

He thinks it's fair he was sacked

for breaking the rules

but believes his punishment did not

match the wrongdoing.

The Daily Mirror did

not want to comment.

I cannot work out how I was put

in prison for breaking a rule.

If I had known and broke the law

or murdered someone,

knocked someone over,

stolen from a bank,

I can understand that.

But for doing what is my

right in a free country,

I don't understand it.

He's now working as a van driver

and researching his legal

rights in spare time.

Bob believes it's important his name

is cleared to give encouragement

to others to speak out

if they believe

the system is failing.

Sarah Harris, BBC London news.

Still to come before seven...

I'm

heading high into the sky above

London to see how the city has

changed over the past 20 years.

And

it's been a nice day today, but will

it last? There will be changes in

the forecast for the weekend. Join

me later for the details.

We're all aware of the risks

to our health of smoking,

but new research from

University College London says

that smoking even just one cigarette

a day is much more damaging

than previously thought.

Scientists say for every

100 middle-aged people

who'd never smoked,

five have a heart attack

or stroke each decade.

But if each of them smoked

20 a day, 12 of them

would have a heart attack or stroke.

However, even if they all

drastically cut down to just

one cigarette a day,

eight would still suffer

a heart attack or stroke.

Let's get more on this

from the professor leading

the research, Allan Hackshaw.

Do you think people will find it

surprising that just one cigarette

can have such a damaging effect?

Yes, because you think if you only

smoke once cigarette instead of 20,

your risk would be on 20th and that

seems to be the case for things like

lung cancer and so many smokers have

been encouraged to cut down a lot

and that's been a good thing over

the years but in terms of getting

the risk is really down for heart

disease and stroke, it is about

trying to quit completely.

There will be people thinking,

here comes more research -

how do you get people to quit

when we live in a city

as polluted as London?

Absolutely, so you've got the

pollution, plus the smoking

together. One you can do something

about, the other you cannot so

hopefully you will try to cut out

the one you can do something about.

There are various ways to help

people quit and it's about trying to

find one that best helps them.

How long after someone quits

will they see benefits in terms

of health and life-expectancy?

Because the risk is so high for

smoking only a couple of cigarettes

a day, the risk comes on quite

quickly. It only takes a few years,

and the reverse of that is quite

good, it means when you quit

completely a lot of the risk only

takes a few years to go away, unlike

cancer.

I suppose jury is still out

on e-cigs and vaping in terms

of how safe they are?

The jewellery is sort of out for

that. E-cigarettes are far safer,

and if people are having difficulty

quitting or cutting down without any

sort of aids, e-cigarettes would

probably help people. I'm pretty

sure they are much safer than

smoking cigarettes and our evidence

shows that by even only smoking a

couple of cigarettes a day increases

your chance of heart disease and

stroke, I can't imagine e-cigarettes

will have the same fact but there

are long-term studies on it at the

moment.

Thank you for sharing your

research.

Turning now to a story of pick

pockets and turf war

in Victorian London.

Oranges and Elephants opens

in Hoxton in east London tonight

with an all female cast and crew.

Louisa Preston explains all.

A gritty musical about the rivalry

between two female gangs

in Victorian London.

Its writer grew up in the East End

and wanted to bring this forgotten

bit of history to life.

As we know, history is not written

by working-class people.

It was the industrial revolution

with the sudden influx of 6 million

people into London that had nowhere

to live, were underpaid

or slaves or servants,

and obviously the crime rate went

through the roof.

The musical sees the performers

effortlessly act, sing

and play instruments.

The cast and crew are all female,

with more than 30 women

working on the production.

It's just a very refreshing project

because it's so rare that you come

into a creative environment

that is female dominant.

It's just incredible to be

surrounded by so many

talented women that,

they can all act, they can all sing.

They pick up an instrument

and they can play it.

I'm in a bit of awe of most

of them to be honest.

Oranges And Elephants is the first

production in the venue's

all-female spring season.

I think that there is not

a recognition of when women are not

there, so a season like this

with all men, nobody

actually would notice

the women weren't there.

We are talking about this

because it's unusual for there to be

an only women season.

The intimate setting of

the Victorian musical lends itself

to the audience getting involved.

It's an all-ladies cast

and I think it's brilliant.

I love the music infused

with the storylines.

I think it's good because obviously

a lot of plays are to do

with men quite a lot,

and it's different.

You can catch the show

from tonight at Hoxton Hall.

Louisa Preston, BBC London news.

He describes it "as one

of the best jobs in the city".

These pictures were taken by aerial

photographer Jason Hawkes,

who's been documenting London's

changing skyline for

the last 20 years.

Marc Ashdown went to meet him.

Oh, it's the most beautiful city.

It's definitely one of my

favourite cities to shoot.

I've kind of shot all around

the world but when the weather

is nice and particularly

when the Thames glows,

the sun on the water looks amazing.

For 20 years, Jason Hawkes has

been an eye in the sky,

documenting our changing capital.

Particularly recently, it's

incredible the amount of changes

that are going on in the city,

around Canary Wharf and of course

all around Nine Elms development.

The changes are quite amazing.

You do notice, it is

a concrete jungle, isn't it?

There's not a lot of green.

Well, yeah, I suppose in the summer

when all the leaves are out,

I suppose all the parks are quite

a lot more visible.

The majority of it is concrete,

steel and glass I guess

these days, isn't it?

As if the view wasn't spectacular

enough, to get the sharpest images,

Jason opens the door.

Which means, like most

Londoners, he has a mini

obsession with the weather.

A lot of time the

weather is rubbish.

We get about one day every two weeks

that will be perfect

for this kind of flying.

Even when it's horrible

and cold out there, it's not

so bad as being in the rat

race, is it?

It's stunning, isn't it?

The funny thing is when you look

out, you can barely see any people.

It's almost like

everyone's gone home.

And how the skyline has changed,

from before and after the London Eye

to the Square Mile.

Once fairly low rise,

who would have thought now

dominated by a Gherkin,

a Cheese Grater and a Walkie-talkie.

And of course the all conquering

Shard, but not for long.

I think you will see

it by the end of 2019,

there's going to be two really big

towers and an inner city cluster

that will be the same

height as the Shard.

So that will be the biggest

change of all, I think.

Even now there are some arresting

sights in everyday life.

Then there's happening

upon the extraordinary,

like Justin Bieber performing

in Hyde Park.

All these people, rather

than looking at Justin Bieber,

they've all got their phones out.

There's 5,000 kids with their phones

taking photographs of him.

So I guess yes, sometimes

the news just happens.

Yes, this shot on the day,

Grenfell Tower caught fire,

we took off I think at about 4:45am

and as you took off you could see

the smoke, so even though

we were going to do a job

in the City of London,

we wanted to have a look at it,

and it was just absolutely awful.

Have you got a favourite picture,

anything you've done that really

captured the essence of London?

Well, I like this kind

of view from here actually.

Normally we would be a little

bit higher than this.

Particularly at dusk

when you've got the setting sun

straight down the river.

When all the lights start coming on,

it looks really amazing.

Would you say it's

the best job in London?

It's one of the best jobs.

It's good fun.

On a day like this it's

obviously very cold,

it's a little bit choppy today

so you can feel a little bit sick,

but yes, it's great fun.

Mark Ashdown, BBC London news.

Incredible pictures.

Back on the ground,

let's get the latest

on the weather from Darren Bett.

on the weather from Darren Bett.

Nice day today. Dry weather for

tomorrow but I think we will find

much more cloud so less sunshine on

the way. That lovely weather watcher

picture taken in the Southbank. You

can see the grey cloud threatening

showers today but pretty much that

was it. We have had these bands of

showers trundling towards the

south-east, they have been lighter.

We have a band of heavy showers

heading towards the Chilterns over

the next couple of hours or so but

anywhere could capture shower this

evening. I don't think it will

amount to much and as the night goes

on it should become quite cloudy

preventing temperatures falling

below three degrees. It does mean

tomorrow morning could be cloudy and

there's a risk of a light shower

first thing. They should fade away,

it's more in the afternoon we will

see the cloud thinning and sunshine

coming through. The winds will be

and the temperature is not too bad

on the face of it. The cloud

continues to break up overnight

tomorrow night so this is probably

the coldest night of the next few

with temperatures in some rural

areas not far from freezing. So it

starts on the chilly side but

shouldn't last long before the

breeze picks up, we see cloud

increasing and outbreaks of rain

continuing on and off as we head

into the afternoon. Pretty mild with

temperatures of nine or 10 degrees.

That rain should have cleared away

by Sunday. Likely to stay that way

on Monday, and all the while it will

be mild. Thank you.

That's it from now, more from us at

10:30pm. Thanks for watching, have a

lovely