26/02/2018 London News

cold air heading in a northerly

direction continuing until Friday.

On the programme this evening:

direction continuing until Friday.

Mowed down on their way

to a 16th birthday party.

A drunk driver pleads guilty

to killing these teenagers.

Today the parents

give their verdict.

He's hoping to get a reduced

sentence for pleading guilty, what?

For the lives of three boys? There

is no justice if that happens.

Also tonight - preparing

for a bitterly cold snap

as London and the home counties get

a taste of the beast from the east.

Emergency shelter like this in

Hackney have opened to help people

who otherwise would be sleeping in

below freezing conditions.

Plus how much extra would

you pay for a coffee cup?

the trial encouraging Londoners

to ditch the disposable.

Definitely a pound for 50P would

stop you.

It is good, because it

worked with the plastic bags. #

Think of the good times we knew...

And enjoying a comeback....

the revival of the Irish Dance Halls

which disappeared from

the capital a decade ago.

A very warm welcome

to BBC London News

with me Riz Lateef.

First tonight.

Three young lives tragically cut

short - after a drunk diver ploughed

into them on their way to a 16th

birthday party in Hayes.

Today 28-year-old Jaynesh Chudasama

admitted causing the deaths

of these three teenagers

by dangerous driving.

He'd been travelling at more than 70

miles per hour in a 60 zone.

It's also emerged that five

other teenagers came

close to being killed.

Helen Drew reports.

Three great friends -

Josh McGuinness and George Wilkinson

were both 16 and Harry Rice was 17.

They were walking to

a friend's birthday party

in Hayes when they were hit by a car

that mounted the pavement.

All three died at the scene.

Devastated.

We just...

Devastation.

I couldn't put it

into words how we feel.

There is no words.

Ripped us apart.

It's affected everyone,

not just us, hundreds

of friends, because that

is

how nice the boys were.

The driver was 28-year-old

Jaynesh Chudasama,

who today pleaded guilty to three

counts of causing death by

dangerous driving.

The Old Bailey heard he was two

and a half times the drink

driving limit, as well as having

traces of cannabis in his system.

He was doing 71mph

in a 60 when it is

thought he tried to overtake another

car and lost control of this Audi.

The maximum sentence for causing

during the last by dangerous driving

is 14 years in prison.

We are not very happy,

we would have preferred

it going to a trial,

because at this rate,

having pled guilty, he can get

a

third of off his sentence.

We don't feel that is

sufficient enough time

served for the lives of two

16-year-old and one 17-year-old boy.

The local community is devastated

and today the judge said even more

lives could have been lost.

When the three boys

were hit they were

walking with two friends and towards

another three friends, they

were all standing close together.

The judge said this could have

easily have been something that

killed eight people instead

of three, and she may well consider

that when sentencing.

There was a passenger

in the car with Jaynesh

Chudasama and both men

ran from the scene.

Two of the friends who were there

but not hit ran after the men

and managed to drag the driver back

to the scene where he was taken to

hospital and later arrested.

The judge will sentence him

for the deaths of Josh,

George and Harry on the 9th March.

Lots more to come including:

Will it be win, win for Windsor...

The businesses hoping for a boost

in the run-up to Harry

and Meghan's big day.

The weather warnings

have been in place

for the past couple of days

and today the so called

'beast from the east' hit,

bringing with it some snow

and bitterly cold conditions.

And what's more -

there's worse to come.

In a moment we'll hear

from the charities helping

the capital's rough sleepers,

but first to Chris Rogers,

who's in Essex - one of the counties

in our area expected

to be hardest hit.

Yes, I'm in the salt depot. This is

the big weapon against that ice that

is expected to form. In the latest

round, 100 tonnes of salt it heading

out to keep things moving. They have

some great names the trucks. This is

Britney Speirs and there is

Alexander The Grit. They are up

against the snow that has been

falling all day. We have some images

of white stuff falling in the

capital. It started this morning. As

temperatures drop, which they really

are, that will turn to ice and that

is going to cause problems. Has

Essex got what it takes to keep

commuters moving tomorrow. I asked

councillor Ray Gooding.

We can never

say there will never be a problem,

but we are doing our best to make

sure the conditions on the road are

as good as they can be. If it is as

bad as forecast, it will be quite a

difficult process. We have got to

make a number of runs over several

days and we have got the stocks of

salt and materials to make sure we

can do that. So yes we will be doing

everything we can.

While salt can

battle the ice on the road, there is

expected problems with the rail.

National rail has put contingency

plans in place for tomorrow morning.

But the branch routes will be

affected. Here are some of the

routes affected from tonight. There

will be a reduced service on C2C

after 9pm tonight.

So expect problems on the trains

tomorrow. While we may bear the

brunt of the pain of the commute

tomorrow, think about those with

nowhere to go who are living rough.

They will feel the cold and Mark

Ashdown is at a shelter in Hackney.

Thank you. Spare a thought for

anybody facing the prospect of

having to face a night outside. It

is freezing. Some fantastic work

from the volunteers here at the

Hackney winter night shelter. This

runs from November to March each

year and people can come here and

there is 25 beds each night. There

is a shower and toilet and food.

They're preparing a meal for people.

What is on the menu.

We are doing a

Moroccan night. We have vegetable

tagine and couscous.

Thank you. This

is all part of the the mayor's

strategy for emergency shelters so

no one should spend a single night

outside rough sleeping. Let's talk

with the chair of the trustees. Take

us through some of the work people

are doing. They're all volunteers?

Everyone is a volunteer. We have a

couple of members of staff, somebody

will be along later. But we are

volunteer-run and between November

and March we provide, dinner, bed

and breakfast. During the day our

staff help them find more suitable

accommodation.

People at home might

be thinking what can I do if I see

somebody sleeping rough to help?

As

well as calling up, I would

encourage people if they can give

some money obviously. This, although

we are volunteer run, it costs a lot

to run the sherment. The other thing

to think about it can you spare some

time and help us to volunteer or

could you help us with fund-raising,

transport, we need people's time.

Thank you. There is a central way of

reporting this. If you see somebody

sleeping rough tonight, the mayor'

street link system mean you can. The

cold is inconvenient for most, but

it can be life-threatening. Thank

you

A man with more knowledge

than most about the weather -

than most about the weather -

Nick Miller joins us.

How unprecedented is this?

.

We will probably have to wait

until the end of the week to put it

in context in the recent years. But

going back to a similar sort of

weather set up in the atmosphere to

2013 and March which saw

considerable snow in the south-east

and the London area. We are just at

the start of this process. It is

good to see people getting prepared.

There are Met Office warnings saying

be prepared. Particularly in the

east and south-east of London, where

we will see some significant snow

and different days, different people

will be affected. Not everybody

tomorrow will be wake up to a

blanket of snow. That doesn't mean

to say we won't get problems. There

will be problems tomorrow coming

into London from the east and

south-east of London, but on later

this week there could be more

widespread snow affecting all

Londoners and everyone around London

as low pressure comes from the

south. We are at the start of what

could be a very eventful and serious

week of weather.

Thank you. A

general sense, you will give us the

detailed forecast later. Thank you

The parents of a severely disabled

little boy on life support

at a London hospital say

they want to take their case to

the European Court of Human Rights.

A High Court judge previously gave

doctors at Kings College

Hospital permission to provide only

palliative care to Isaiah Haastrup

against his parent's wishes.

They intend to make an application

to the ECHR and want

intensive care to continue.

Preparations are well underway

in Windsor for the wedding

of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

It's being seen as a big

business boost to the town -

not just because of tourist

revenues, but the endorsement

of the royal brand.

Sarah Harris reports.

The castle is the symbol

of the Windsor brand -

weekend home to the Queen and soon

to be venue for the

international wedding of the year.

According to one economist,

the event is a much-needed financial

boost in uncertain times -

worth tens of millions of pounds.

If you look at the boost

of the wedding in

Windsor and in London,

it's going to be huge.

But the real boost is to Britain PLC

and all the brands in

terms of intangibles, it is very

difficult to quantify that,

but clearly a lot of jobs and a lot

of

economic activity is going to come

from this celebration.

And it's that celebration,

plus the eyes of world

being on Windsor that's leading

to the production of the town's very

own Monopoly board.

Brand experts see it

as a golden opportunity to be

associated with the Royal milestone.

It was always a case of when not

if for Royal Windsor to gets its

own official Monopoly board.

We were going to do

it in a year or two.

A certain event taking place in two

months made it irresistible for us

and our mission is to make this

board a love letter for Royal

Windsor and showcase

it to the world.

Sending that message round the world

requires an infrastructure update.

Engineers are working to ensure that

communication cables

running underneath the cobbled

streets here are state of the art to

cope with demand.

Just higher broadband

speeds for all the

broadcasting as well.

So beforehand it was copper.

Fibre optics is a lot faster.

For many businesses based

in the historic town west of London,

the ceremony is the Monopoly

equivalent of passing go and

collecting 200 - not

just down to tourism,

but because of what a modern royal

couple's wedding brings

to the Windsor brand.

It made a huge difference

to the number of plastic

bags going to landfill -

so could a 5-pence charge

on for customers on top

of their coffee be enough to change

drinking habits too?

Well one coffee chain is doing just

that as part of a trial at 35

of its stores here in the capital -

with the money raised

going to an environmental charity.

Ena Miller has more.

. For some a takeaway coffee is the

perfect start to the day, for others

it is the trigger.

I'm a megaphone

and I'm not afraid to use it.

To

wage war on waste.

None of these

cups get recycled.

Should be.

How

big is the problem? Two and a half

billion cups are thrown away each

year. Less than 1% is recycled. MPs

have been calling for a 25 pence on

levies bought in takeaway cups.

Starbucks said it is listening. For

the next three months 36 stores in

London will charge an extra 5 pence.

.

It is about changing people's

behaviour. Our customers want us to

do something about reuse and

recycling. There is no excuse, if

you come in you're going to get

charged for a cup or get rewarded

for reuse.

The idea is to change

people's behaviour, it worked for

supermarket with the 5 pence charge

on carrier bags but will it work for

coffee. What would you pay in order

to change your behaviour in buying a

coffee if 5 pence was addeds or 50

pence or a pound.

A pound would.

Coffee is expensive enough. 5 pence

wouldn't. You wouldn't realise.

5P

probably I would think it was too

little to change my mind. 50p maybe.

But definitely a pound.

The money

will go to charity.

It will go

towards a recycled boat to enable

young people go out on and collect

plastic Ute out of the Thames.

In

three months we will see if 5 pence

can persuade people to drink and

think about the waste their coffee

produces.

Before that though -

50 years ago it was a ground

breaking BBC series about western

art and human identity.

Now it's been remade and all this

week we're looking at some

of the civilisations that

have influenced London.

Wendy Hurrell can tell us more.

Yes in the 60s, David Attenborough

was controller of BBC Two and had to

sell the nation colour TVs and they

showed western art. So Civilisation

aired in 1969 presented by Kenneth

Clarke and it defined TV documentary

making for many years. The BBC has

remade it, looking at art from

around the world. That got me

thinking about the civilisations in

London. I had to hone it down and I

have been looking today at the

Caribbean.

Though it's changed over the years,

Brixton, since the 50s,

has traditionally been associated

with people of the Caribbean.

# London is the place for me #.

70 years ago the Empire Windrush

docked at Tilbury.

Those 492 West Indians

were some of the pioneers

of multicultural London.

# London is the place for me #.

The early settlers often faced

prejudice, but they were followed

by many more who still contend

with an entirely different climate.

Understandably they've

clung to the traditions

and comforts of home.

We have managed to embrace

our cultural history

and we've taken it with us.

We have lived it.

And we are sharing it with others.

Our treats are so filled

with love and authentic

flavours that our queue

was extremely lengthy.

We rocked down to Electric Avenue,

as Eddie Grant said, you know?

The Caribbean islands have always

been remarkably diverse,

populated by colonial Europeans,

Africans brought by the slave trade,

and indigenous tribes such

as the Caribs and Arawaks.

We found two intriguing

artefacts that tell the story

of those civilisations.

So, over to the West India

committee in Westminster

and its chief executive,

Blondel Cluff.

In my hands I have one of my

favourite items from the West India

Committee collection.

This is a Zemi, it's a very small

stone artefact depicting

the principal god of the Arawaks.

What we have here is a sample

of the fabric known as toile digire.

It was first designed in the 1700.

-- It was first

designed in the 1700s.

It's very popular even today.

What many of us don't realise,

even though we have it in our homes,

is that it was invented

as a form of currency.

With which Europeans traded

with African slaves.

Filling our galleries and museums,

humble objects that tell a human

history of the people that make

up our city.

In London and museums, galleries,

and culture centres are taking part

in a festival that surrounds the

programme that is inspired by the

programme. There will be lots of

special events. To find out what is

happening near you, you can go to

the website. Tomorrow I will be

looking at the treasures of India.

Thanks very much.

The Winter Olympics

may have just ended.

But we're already looking

ahead to this summer

when the London Stadium will once

again host the Anniversary Games.

Two of our top athletes,

who were meeting schoolchildren

in Westminster today,

say they're looking forward

to being back on the track.

As Emma Jones reports.

A special games lesson with some

extra tuition from two

of Britain's best sprinters.

Paralympic world record-holder

Richard Whitehead, and Britain's

fastest woman over 100 and 200

metres, Dina Asher-Smith.

The way she moves her arms just

really, like, inspires me,

and I just watch her technique

and hopefully it'll

improve my sprint.

It's really good because

they are so inspiring.

You just want to be

like them when you're older.

Dina is fresh from just finishing

second in the 60 metres

at the indoor Grand Prix

in Glasgow yesterday.

Next up for her, preparations

to be part of the England

team at her first ever

Commonwealth Games in April.

Yeah, I'd like to go

down there and do well,

we don't know who entirely

we are competing against next

because different countries have

taken different approaches

to their selection policies.

So, we don't quite know

who is going to be in the race yet,

but I'm looking to go out

there and put together a good

performance that will set me up

in a good place in the Europeans

later on in the season.

Something else for both her

and Richard to look forward

to are the anniversary games,

which will see them both back racing

at the London Stadium in July.

And as it is an inclusive event,

both Olympic and Paralympic

champions will be in action.

London is such a warming

environment for para sport.

It's got an appetite for para sport.

The athletes want to be

back in that stadium.

The spectators really get

behind their performances,

and that's what we enjoy

as athletes, we want to be treated

as athletes, not para athletes.

It's going to be tight!

Thousands of athletics fans have

celebrated British success

at the London Stadium already.

There will hopefully be plenty more

opportunities this summer.

Emma Jones, BBC London News.

Turning now -

to something that's enjoying

a revival in one part of London.

Once a regular part of life

for thousands of Irish Londoners -

promoters are recreating

the atmosphere of the traditional

Irish dancehall at a

social club in Kilburn.

And it's proving a huge hit.

Here's Thomas Magill.

# Last night I had a pleasant dream

#.

In Ireland they call

this a -- in Ireland they call this

a ceilidh. It first opened in 1952.

Along with other venues such as the

National Intel Burn, it featured

Irish show bands and country singers

often playing to huge crowds of

revellers.

In comparison to the

dances I was used to in Ireland

which is basic hall it was awesome.

You stood looking around because it

was so beautiful.

Massive queues.

Once he got in the door that was it,

you had an absolutely fantastic

night.

For many they were a place to

find work, a flatmate, or even a

love of your life.

Took a long time

to arrive but it arrived in 2003

when I met my husband, Declan, who

is sitting here.

It was actually

2002.

Cut that.

Whenever it was,

Times changed and the dance halls

closed. This is one being demolished

in 2008. It all seems like the end

of an era. But something rather

wonderful is happening just behind

the church of the Sacred Heart in

Kilburn. Every Monday night one of

the performance from back in the

day, a man known as McGinty, is

single-handedly attempting to revive

the old dance hall tradition. He is

turning this social club into the

ballroom of romance.

I know some

people who come in here and have got

a stick. They are walking in. As

soon as the music starts they are up

dancing on the floor. They reckon I

am a faith healer, as well.

How does

it compare to the original dance

halls? Declan and Patricia have come

back to trip the light fantastic

once again.

It reminds me of 40

years ago. The music, do you know

what I mean? The atmosphere is much

the same.

You see something like

this and it takes you back.

There is

no doubt McGinty has created the

atmosphere these revellers remember

from the old days, he just hopes

that maybe one day a new generation

will also discover his ballroom of

romance. We heard from the earlier.

But now you have the full forecast.

romance. We heard from the earlier.

But now you have the full forecast.

It is finally here, the beast from

the east, the bitterly cold wind has

been moving in. We really felt it

today. We have seen snow showers.

There will be more of that as we go

through this week. Further snow

showers, some will get a covering at

times, giving some disruption. And

it is a bitter cold week to come.

Immediate concern from the Met

office, there is an amber warning

for snow. That means be prepared.

Some of us will wake up to some snow

tomorrow morning. We have had some

snow showers around today. Over the

next few hours some of those will

continue. But we are most concerned

with this line of snow showers just

getting going here. It will be the

same areas again and again, to the

east of London, Essex, and some

parts of Medway getting it, as well.

Anywhere is at risk of seeing a few

centimetres on the ground, but

particularly deep to the East, South

East, and the rail routes coming in

from these areas into London. The

highest chance of disruption will be

ten centimetres of snow where we

have the amber warning. To the north

and west, you might not see as much

snow, perhaps some, hardly anything,

not as much disruption. But it is

absolutely worth getting up a little

bit early in the morning, just

checking your local travel

situation, making sure that what has

happened overnight and into the

morning won't affect you too much.

Bitterly cold as we start the day,

temperatures way below freezing. As

it continues tomorrow morning, snow

showers coming in. It is far too

cold for anything to melt. It will

accumulate and blow around in

places. Things will improve later in

the afternoon, more in the way of

sunshine. We are watching the end of

the week for potentially disruptive

widespread snow, maybe blizzards, we

will keep across that as the week

goes on.

Thanks very much.

goes on.

Thanks very much. Thanks for joining

us. Wrap up warm. Feel free to post

your wintry pictures on our Facebook

page. I will