14/02/2018 London News

That's all from the BBC News at

Six, so it's goodbye from me -

and on BBC One we now join the BBC's

news teams where you are.

Coming up on BBC London News:

An airport engineer is killed

after two vehicles crash

on the tarmac at Heathrow.

Another man is in hospital.

An investigation has been launched

into how this could have happened.

Hundreds of passengers were also

evacuated and flights were delayed.

I'll have the latest.

Also ahead tonight:

Has the City changed

enough since the 70s?

Lloyds becomes the first FTSE 100

company to set ethnic diversity

targets for senior management.

How 30 tonnes of wet wipes,

a day are having to be cleared

from London's sewers

and it's costing millions.

Plus we may think of it as part

of sexualised pop culture.

But one Londoner wants to reclaim

twerking as cultural heritage.

We dance at christenings, no-one

sits there and goes, "my God, what's

that?"

A very good evening

and welcome to the programme.

A British Airways engineer has died

after a crash between two vehicles

on the tarmac at Heathrow.

He was taken to hospital

but couldn't be saved.

Another man was injured.

Hundreds of passengers

were evacuated from a plane

and dozens of flights delayed.

We can get the latest

from Chris Rogers who's

at Heathrow airport now...

It started like a typical busy day

for Heathrow Airport but as

passengers boarded the first flights

to leave, tragedy quickly struck.

DRS airport cars collided, leaving

one driver injured and another

suffering a cardiac arrest Arch two

airport cars. As paramedics battled

to save his life at the scene and on

the way to hospital, he sadly died

leaving hundreds of passengers

stranded, planes delayed, colleagues

in shock and a family bereaved. We

didn't hear the details for some

hours later, but the events did

quickly unfold on social media.

It's just after 6am.

The tragic pictures

of the aftermath of the

runway crash emerge.

An airport worker is killed

as he does his rounds.

The other driver suffers

a broken shoulder.

Police are investigating

why the white BA van

and yellow pick-up truck collided.

Often used by Heathrow's staff

to direct aircraft and inspect the

runways.

Hundreds of horrified passengers,

their planes delayed for

around two hours, can only look on.

Traveller Alistair McLeod

tweeted: "We boarded,

waited and then the captain gave

a series of delay announcements.

At around 8:55am, we all de-planed."

Around 25 planes were delayed.

London ambulance later tweeted,

confirming one of the

drivers suffered a cardiac arrest.

"Despite our extensive

efforts to resuscitate him

at the scene, and on

the

way to hospital, he was

later pronounced dead".

The victim's colleague,

Kevin Fitzgibbon,

tweeted, "sad day at work today,

lost one our engineering colleagues

this morning.

My thoughts are with his family

and friends at this

terrible time".

If you've travelled on a plane to

Peter and looked out of the window

as the plane taxis towards the

runway, you will know how much

traffic there is not just on runways

but around them as well. Because of

that, there are strict speed

restrictions in place and safety

guidelines that everyone has to

follow. A lot of questions need to

be answered about why this collision

took place. That is in the hands of

the serious collision unit with

Heathrow police. Heathrow Airport

and British Airways are cooperating

fully with that organisation. They

expressed their deep sympathy with

the family of the engineer who died

here today.

Many thanks.

You're watching BBC London News.

Coming up later:

The World War II bomb taken to Essex

coast by the Royal Navy.

We'll show you the

controlled explosion.

Some of the most vulnerable

Londoners are being trapped

in a "cycle of homelessness" -

due to a change in the law.

That's according to

the charity Crisis.

It says new, tougher criteria

are being used to remove people

from housing waiting lists.

Now this programme has

learnt that across London

the number has

been cut by a third.

Raising questions as to who has

been removed and why.

Our political correspondent

Karl Mercer has been investigating.

This person needs to be on the

housing waiting list. She since

August she hasn't been, she couldn't

pay her rent and fell into arrears.

She is now homeless and unable to

get back on the waiting list for a

home for herself and her two

children.

You are just stuck in a

place that has no control and that's

the worst, that is one of the worst

feelings. You have a problem that is

your problem but you can't solve it.

There's nothing you can do about it.

For six months, this has been her

home, living with friends of her

daughter but they are about to be on

the move again.

Since August,

they've been permanently just in

bags and boxes, this is how I've

lived. If I'm here today, might be

there tomorrow. I might be at my

mum's for a couple of nights, just

to...

She's not alone. Across

London, thousands being taken off a

list for council homes since the

local as an act since years -- six

years ago. It gave local councils

more power to decide who should and

shouldn't be on the list.

If they

can't register for social housing

are their options are limited, they

can end up in some kind of spiral of

homelessness. And poverty. The

reason they couldn't register BBC

because they had rent arrears and

they are forced into a more

expensive solution and things will

only get worse from -- couldn't

register.

Things will only get worse

across London and illustrated pretty

clearly here where I am standing in

north London. On my right is the

London Borough of Camden. Here,

waiting lists have gone down by

16,000 since 2012, a drop of

something like 85%. But if we switch

across the road, just a few feet

away, this is the London Borough of

Islington. The waiting lists

away, this is the London Borough of

Islington. The waiting lists have

actually gone up by more than 4300,

a rise of

actually gone up by more than 4300,

a rise of 36%. Some councils have

excluded people like Clavia in rent

arrears but others have introduced

rules saying only people who live

locally can get on the list. The

rules across London are different.

We have urged the mayor to bring

borrowers together. Particularly

local connections problem needs

sorting out at a London level. If

you have lived in a borough for a

few years and then a different

London borough, you might not

qualify for housing anywhere in

London. Living in London ought to be

the qualification.

Change like that

would come too late for Clavia.

three people have been found guilty

of the killing of Thornton Heath

teenager Jermaine Goupall.

He was chased by a gang wearing

balaclavas and...

18-year-old Samuel Oliver Rowland,

21-year-old Adam Benzahi,

and 17-year-old Junior Simpson

were found guilty of

murder.

A British man who fought

against so-called Islamic State

in Syria has appeared in court

and pleaded not guilty

to a terror offence.

It's the first case

of its kind in the UK.

Emma Vardy was at Westminster

magistrates court.

James Matthews was greeted outside

court today by a crowd of supporters

who turned out to voice their

opposition to the charge against

him. Some of them themselves were

former volunteers who have fought

against IS in Syria was not James

Matthews, known as Jim, is 43, lives

in Dalston in London and he's a

former British Army soldier. We

heard in court today the allegation

he is facing is of attending a

training camp as part of a group of

people struggling to assist the

Kurdish forces in their fight

against so-called Islamic state. The

prosecution say Mr is alleged to

have attended that training camp for

the purposes of terrorism and he

pleaded not guilty to that charge

today. It is believed there are

dozens of people from Britain who

have been to Syria and Barack to

fight as volunteers with the Kurds

-- Syria and Iraq to fight. The

magistrate here today said this was

a very unusual case. The first time

that somebody who has fought against

IS is being charged in the

circumstances. James Matthews was

granted bail. He will next appear in

court on the 1st of March at the Old

Bailey.

The City has long been

seen as the preserve

of white middle class men.

It is changing but perhaps not fast

enough.

Lloyds banking group has

become the first FTSE 100

company to set an ethnic diversity

target for recruiting its top

management.

The high street bank really wants to

increase the number of black, Asian

and ethnic minorities working in its

top 7000 roles. They really believe

that a diverse management group at

the very top of the company really

helps the bank to relate to its

customers and the whole community it

serves. We do believe there will be

extra pressure put on the banks over

the next few days when it comes to

gender and the pay equality, the

issue that has been spoken about all

the time.

Bankers in bowler

hats and sharp suits.

The City of London in the 1970s

was a very different place

to today.

Or is it?

In the corridors of power

in 2018, black, Asian and

minority ethnic faces

are conspicuous by their absence.

Lloyds banking group

are hoping to change that.

So at senior management

our figure is 6%.

And, actually, that reflects

the external labour market at senior

management positions

across the FTSE 100.

But I think our view

is that we need to do more

and we need to go further.

That's the other reason

for introducing the goal,

to accelerate the pace of change

and to make sure that our most

senior levels in the organisation

are more representative

of the external labour market.

Lloyds say they are confident

they can meet their diversity

targets within the tight

two-year time frame.

But in a place like the City,

how realistic is it?

And is it ambitious enough?

I think it's a good idea.

I think it's a good initiative.

Whether it's going to be successful

or whether it's going to have

any kind of traction,

you know, remains to be seen.

I suppose there's a perception

of an old boys network,

maybe, in the city.

maybe, in the City.

Maybe that's because traditionally,

you've had a lot of middle-class

white males who been running

operations.

white males who've been running

operations.

You look at it historically,

there are more whites

here than there are blacks,

but it's not a true

representation of the ratios.

So if you look in society,

there are more ethnic minorities

than there are represented

here in the city.

than there are represented

here in the City.

Lloyds might be the first FTSE 100

company to set these public targets,

but they aren't the only

organisation working to improve

diversity at senior levels.

Joanna is the managing

director of a consultancy,

which helps businesses recruit

ethnic minority talent.

There are issues around

development and opportunity,

so if you do not have a visible role

model in a position

in which you aspire to get into,

it can be quite discouraging.

And it can make you believe

that that's something

And it can make you believe that

that's not something

that is actually achievable

within that organisation.

Which is why what Lloyds

is doing is so good.

It will actually encourage people

within their organisation to believe

that the company are taking

it very seriously.

In one of the largest financial

centres in the world, Lloyds' move

won't have go unnoticed.

This might be a welcome step

towards greater transparency.

We know 162 financials and firms in

the city have signed the women in

Finance Charter which really hopes

to make the gender gap a lot

smaller. But it is thought that some

firms in the City obviously haven't

signed it and there are questions

now about why they haven't signed

it. And they may have done so to why

they haven't got this gender gap in

better proportion and have to answer

the Treasury Select Committee in the

coming months.

The World War II bomb which closed

City Airport earlier this week,

has been detonated a mile off

the Essex coast.

The half-tonne device was moved

there by the Royal Navy

from the Docklands on Monday.

Here's Charlotte Franks.

The plume of a World War II

bomb being diffused six

metres below sea level.

This is where the 500 kilograms

device discovered at

City Airport on Sunday,

finally met its end,

helped by a two kilograms explosive.

A team of four divers set

out to work on the bomb

at 8am this morning

after it was placed four

miles off the coast.

Today's tasks were to remove

the equipment used to bring the

bomb down.

The second dive was carried

out to place a charge,

plastic explosives, next

to the bomb, which we then used

to initiate and set the explosives

within the bomb itself.

The device was discovered

at the King George V

dock, which led to an exclusion

zone around the site.

It was then transported

by boat for ten hours

through the night,

to this MoD location.

It's taken a couple of days

for this bomb to be diffused

because conditions have to be right.

If you look out there now,

it is quite choppy.

But yesterday it was

extremely windy.

Which meant a large degree

of groundswell in the water

making it very dangerous

for the operation to be

carried out safely.

24,000 tonnes of bombs were dropped

in London alone during the Blitz.

The military is still dealing

with around 60 of them each year.

The three teams that

I have that work

for me, are called out between them

around every 18 hours.

So at least once a day one

of the teams is going

out on the road to deal with

a device, anything from a small hand

grenade all the way up to this kind

of thousand pound bomb.

Following the blast,

the team dived down again

to check the bomb had

been diffused properly.

They then returned to shore safe

in the knowledge that

a thousand pounds of explosives

were safely disposed of.

Charlotte Fairbanks,

BBC London News.

Still to come before 7pm:

The humble T-shirt -

a new exhibition charts the history

of a garment never intended

to be seen.

And...

Dance. It's a channel you can use to

express so much joy, pain, sadness.

How one Londoner is trying

to reclaim twerking as part

of her cultural heritage.

Brace yourselves. We are going to be

talking about and seeing giant lumps

of congealed fat and wet wipes.

Clearing fatbergs -

giant lumps of congealed

fat and wet wipes -

from London's sewers is now costing

a million pounds a month to clear.

That's according to Thames Water.

Last year this one got

stuck in Whitechapel.

It was longer than Tower Bridge

and weighed as much 11

double decker buses.

And if you're having you tea,

be warned some of the pictures

in Tom Edwards' report

are unappetising.

Welcome to Europe's largest sewerage

plant in Beckton, East London,

serving four million Londoners.

It deals with 17,000

litres of sewage a second.

Here though, they have a growing

problem of nonperishable

items, mainly wet wipes.

It is a massive problem,

not just for us, but for London.

We remove 30,000 tonnes

of what we call rag a day.

-- 30 tonnes.

-- 30 tonnes.

That is a combination of wet wipes,

sanitary products etc.

This causes a lot of damage

to the infrastructure, to the

environment, in terms of pollution

because of blockages, and also to

people's homes when there

is a blockage and there is flooding.

Wet wipes help fat

and grease congeal in

sewers, to form huge fatbergs

like this one in Whitechapel.

It is costing Thames Water

£1 million a month

to unblock the sewers.

This demonstration

shows what happens to

tissue paper in water

compared to wet wipes.

Paper disintegrates quickly.

But the plastic in the wet wipes

means it is not affected.

I'd like Londoners to bin it,

not block it, which is the

message from Thames Water.

Stick it in your

dustbin, don't throw

it down the toilet.

I'd also like the manufacturers

to stop marking things

as flushable when they clearly

are not flushable items.

That is what we need to be doing.

This would save an awful lot

of money that Thames Water

could then be spending

on other things.

Other things like Thames Water's

poor record at fixing leaks.

So the message for Londoners -

sewers can only deal with waste

from people and paper.

Tom Edwards, BBC

London News, Becton.

It was designed merely

as underwear, never

intended to be seen -

but has ever since been

grabbing our attention.

Now a new exhibition charting

the history of the humble T-shirt

has opened at the Fashion

and Textile Museum in Bermondsey.

Ayshea Buksh reports.

Often, just a simple

piece of clothing,

a T-shirt can also be

a canvas for high art

or radical politics.

This new exhibition at the Fashion

and Textile Museum in

Bermondsey charts its history.

And as one of the world's

street fashion capitals,

the curator believes

London is the best place

to show them off.

London is a creative city.

And many of the T-shirts that we

And many of the T-shirts

that we actually have on display,

originated in London.

And I think the London scene,

in terms of graphics, music,

fashion, design, have

all had their impact on the T-shirt.

And I think that's represented here.

More than 200 T-shirts

are on display.

Some are from the personal

collections of

fashion designers Vivienne Westwood

and Katherine Hamnett.

Others were donated by collectors

from around the world.

American artist and photographer

Susan Barnett has spent nine years

documenting the T-shirt

wearing public on both

sides of the Atlantic.

She started her study shortly

after Barack Obama was elected.

Over the years, the

message has changed.

And it's become a lot darker.

There's more anger.

There's more anger at

the government, anger at each other.

Messages of hate, sadly.

And one of the things that

interests me is to see what happens.

These are time capsules.

So whether you want to

show support for social

activism or your favourite band,

wear your T-shirt with pride.

It may well be a collector's

item in the future.

Ayshea Buksh, BBC London News.

Now if you've heard of twerking,

you will know it's a provocative

dance move synonmous with pop videos

and scantily clad performers.

It's been criticised

for being over sexualised.

But now a dance

instructor from Peckham is trying

to reclaim the move as a form

of feminist expression, by taking it

back to its African roots.

We caught up with her.

She tells us in her

SINGING.

Dance.

It's a channel you can use

to express so much joy,

pain, sadness, like,

you can express so much

through it.

So I started to use that as a way

of really communicating

the things that I thought

there were no words for.

OPERATIC SINGING.

My name is Kelechi Okafore.

I'm an actor, director,

twerk instructor and pole

dance studio owner.

A lot of people seem

to think that this is

where the movement starts and stops,

but actually the movement starts way

before that.

It starts from your feet,

so how you're using your feet,

how you're transferring

weight back and forth.

That will then translate to how

you're actually able

to rock your pelvis.

For me, from my understanding

of twerk, we're looking at something

that started in West Africa,

and it travelled with

the enslaved Africans

to become something else.

Let's get the hips going.

Poking out, poking backwards,

keeping the legs straight.

So one...

Show me more hip, roll that hip!

It isn't as hyper-sexualised in West

Africa, because it's a

cultural thing.

We dance at funerals,

we dance at weddings, we dance

at christenings.

No one sits there and goes,

"Oh my God, what's that?"

Up, up, roll, roll.

Nice.

Women are objectified,

whatever they do.

A woman can stand still

and do nothing and be objectified.

So, why, then, not do everything?

Right, right, right, right, left.

Right, left.

I think my classes

attract such a variety of

women, because they watch

the videos on social

media and they see

the variety of women.

And they've probably seen a woman

they can identify with.

"Well, If she's going,

then I can go."

And what I really wanted

to do was have as many

women come through as possible,

representing different types

of woman.

I was a bit nervous, to be honest,

but I came in, it was fine.

Got into the changing

room, ripped my hijab

and stuff off, it was

a women's only class.

And just within five

minutes of being there, was

just in the flow of it,

it was brilliant.

If I were to speak to the Sian

from years ago that was still

trapped in that toxic relationship,

and tell her that in a few years'

time, you would be twerking,

essentially an public, on a stage or

in carnival might even in a dance

studio full of strangers, I would

never have believed it.

Bend your knees, bend your

knees, bend your knees.

Interesting to hear

knees, bend your knees.

Interesting to hear the

knees, bend your knees.

Interesting to hear the cultural

knees, bend your knees.

Interesting to hear the cultural

history. But this man has got to

follow that. Ben!

history. But this man has got to

follow that. Ben!

You might have been twerking your

way to work today when you saw the

beautiful blue skies overhead. The

sort of day when you wanted to get

out of the house. It was a beautiful

start. This Weather Watchers

captured perfectly from a vantage

point at the Barbican. A beautiful

view over the city. That was not to

last. I had worked its way from the

West. We saw outbreaks of rain. That

was Essex earlier. The sort of

afternoon to hide behind the glass

because of this cloud, which fed

these outbreaks of rain in from the

south-west. The rain is taking its

time to clear. It will hang around

in the evening. Pretty soggy for the

next couple of hours. If we run the

sequence through the evening, slowly

but surely those outbreaks of rain

will be pushed away to the

south-east. Eventually after

midnight, the skies were clear. The

winds will slowly ease. One big

difference compared with last night

it -- is it will not be particularly

cold. Temperatures above freezing.

Tomorrow get off to a relatively

bright start. You can see some

patches of cloud. As we go through

the day. -- on my today we will not

see cloud and rain from the West.

What we might see some parting

showers. The vast majority will stay

dry and see sunshine. Have a look at

those temperatures. 1011 degrees.

That will feel fairly pleasant under

clear skies. This is Friday's

forecast. There will be a lot of

sunshine. Some patchy cloud. Friday

is a nice looking day. 910 degrees.

Light winds. A very pleasant feel.

As we head into the weekend, high

pressure takes more control. That

means more in the way of dry

weather. Some spells of sunshine.

Once those temperatures get into

double digits, they will

stay that way

stay that way through the weekend

and into next week.

That sounds like good news. Thank

you.

That's it for now,

thanks for your company.

And your views always welcome

of course on our Facebook page.

From all of us on the team -

do have a lovely evening.

Bye-bye.