06/03/2018 London News

That's all from the BBC News at Six,

so it's goodbye from me

Tonight on BBC London News.

so it's goodbye from me

Thousands are without water

for a fourth day despite being given

assurances that the problem

would be fixed.

Where all the hospital people live,

there is no water at all, not a

drop. Nothing coming out, nothing to

do, for them to shower with.

My

neighbour is an elderly woman, 90

years old, so she can't collect

water herself.

The Government wants greater

compensation for residents.

I'll be speaking

to Thames Water live.

Also tonight...

A murder inquiry is launched

after a mother of two

is found dead at her

Twickenham home.

The woman was

Twickenham home.

The woman was found

Twickenham home.

The woman was found dead

Twickenham home.

The woman was found dead with

Twickenham home.

The woman was found dead with stab

Twickenham home.

The woman was found dead with stab

wounds yesterday evening. Her

husband and two sons were discovered

dead on a Sussex beach.

Solidarity for ever!

Strike action

at London's universities,

leaving some students demanding

refunds on their fees.

And visiting London

for the first time -

the Picasso paintings

on display at Tate Modern.

Good evening and welcome

to the programme

with me, Louisa Preston.

First tonight, Thames Water

gave assurances on its

First tonight, Thames Water

gave assurances on this

programme that running water

would be restored to thousands

of homes in south London.

But despite that promise,

around 5000 homes

are having to cope for a fourth day

without the most

crucial of amenities.

Now the Government wants the water

company to pay residents

a greater compensation fee.

Here's Ayesha Bakhsh.

One of several emergency

collection points for London

One of several emergency collection

points for Londoners

still without water.

Last night, Thames Water

told BBC London that

supplies would be back on,

but that hasn't happened.

Just before I came in,

there were really encouraging signs.

As we go through the evening tonight

I believe all customers will be back

on the supply by the end

of this evening.

And locals here in Streatham say

they are still frustrated.

How many days have

you been without water?

It went on Saturday night.

So, yeah, we've not had any water

since Saturday night.

We came down on Sunday morning,

Sunday afternoon, and waited

here for an hour for water

to be delivered.

And there wasn't any.

St George's Grove, where all

the hospital people live,

there's no water at all.

Not a drop, nothing coming out,

nothing to do, for them

to shower with, drink,

put the kettle on.

There's no toilets

being able to be used.

Who are you collecting for?

Myself, my family and my neighbours.

My neighbour is an elderly woman.

She is 90 years old so can't come

to collect water herself.

Local schools in the area

were forced to close.

And while the water supply has

returned to some streets,

others are still forced to rely

on bottled water.

The manager of this restaurant

on Streatham High Road has been

delivering to those unable to get

to collection points

and supporting his neighbours.

We are basically here for everyone

who wants to use it.

We're not picking anyone out

in particular, but those who can't

actually come down to the site,

the elderly and infirm,

those with small children,

we are there to bring the water

up to them.

The business comes secondary now.

We had no staff come

in because we are not open.

We have basically thought,

let's turn this into a shelter

for the people of Streatham.

Hence why we have got bottles

of water everywhere,

we have toilets opened up

for the community.

And we will be open throughout

the night for people

to use our facilities if the supply

doesn't come back.

And the issue was also raised

in Parliament today by local MPs.

Under the Water Industry

Guaranteed Services Scheme,

most of my constituents will only

get compensation of £20 if they have

been without water for 48 hours.

And they can get a further £10

per 24 hours after that point.

Frankly, Mr Speaker,

I think that is an insult.

Mr Speaker, he will recognise those

are the minimum requirements,

and that's why I made it clear

on my phone call today

with the chief executives,

particularly thinking of the areas

where people are being

severely affected, and that

includes his constituents,

so I believe the incident is now

isolated to SW 16 and 17,

the areas he represents.

Absolutely, I do expect Thames Water

to go far beyond that in making sure

they redress the balance.

The government has already

said water companies

could face tough regulations.

And the water regulator Ofwat says

they have been warned time and time

again to plan ahead better.

Ayesha Bakhsh, BBC London News.

We can talk to Jerry White, Senior

operations manager at Thames Water.

Thank you for joining us on the

programme this evening. On the

programme yesterday, you said all

customers would have their water

back on by last night. We know that

hasn't happened. Why not?

The steps

we took yesterday afternoon and into

the evening were looking really

encouraging. Just before I went on

air last night, it looks like the

situation was improving. About

midway through the evening, things

didn't go as we were expecting and

things didn't really improve much

beyond where we got to buy about

8pm. More problems were found last

night. It's been a very complex

issue, compounding issues have led

to such a longer duration. Is not

normally the case like this.

Normally there is a simple burst, we

fix it and everything comes back

into the supply. This has been a

very complex issue, taking much

longer than we thought and we

apologise for customers who have

been impacted for a long period.

It's a complex issue and it's taking

longer than you thought. The

government says you should pay more

compensation, so will you do that

for customers?

This has been such a

difficult situation here for such a

long period, we'll take this

incident, review it afterwards and

look to how we might improve the

level of compensation to those

customers impacted after we have got

everyone back in safely.

At the end

of the day, people are losing money

because of your fault. Children

can't go to nursery is because there

is no water there, parents are

having to take time off work. As we

saw on the report, businesses are

shutting. This isn't good enough, is

it?

We are going to look at this

incident after everything is

concluded and make sure we can learn

from any mistakes that have been

made or areas where we can get

better. That includes how we deal

with some of those vulnerable

customers and how we will compensate

people who have been impacted in any

way.

We have also heard today from

the industry watchdog saying that

you were not prepared for this. You

have had many problems in the past

and you would have known this was

coming, you knew the bad weather was

coming, so why will you not

prepared?

We were prepared, I think.

We had spent all the preceding weeks

to the cold weather last week

ramping up resources and getting

four by fours to travel at getting

people around the region and many

other resources have been ramped up.

But the unprecedented change over

Saturday night from the freeze to

the thaw impacted us hard. And only

in a couple of locations.

Unfortunately Streatham was hit

really hard with a really complex

problem which has led to the

protracted nature of the outage of

water here. The rest of the region

and the other 9 million customers we

have served have largely been kept

in supply and we have been doing

lots of repairs around the region to

ensure that remains that way.

Cold-weather happens every year, as

we know. This just isn't good enough

for customers who are on their

fourth day without water, they can't

wash children. Vulnerable customers

without the basic amenity of water.

Yes, we would agree with that. This

has not been good enough. Our

response is not where we wanted it

to beat this very difficult

situation. That's why we want to

take what happened here and build it

into learning from this event so we

can do better next time.

Thank you

for joining tonight.

A murder investigation is underway

after a woman has been

found dead at her home in Twickenham

and the bodies of her

husband and two boys

discovered in East Sussex.

Let's get more on this

with our reporter Tolu Adeoye.

What more can you tell us?

Police

are still here this evening. We have

seen forensic teams working away

throughout the day. Police were

first called here yesterday at

around 6pm. Someone had raised

concerns about the welfare of the

family who live at the property set

back behind the police van. Police

forced their way into the property

and discovered a woman in her 40s

dead, she had been stabbed. They

started making enquiries as to the

whereabouts of her family. Meanwhile

in Sussex, police discovered the

body of three people. Two boys and a

man aged 57. They made contact with

the Met police, which is how these

incidents are linked. It appears the

family are not well known in the

area but this is what a neighbour

told me earlier.

I didn't know

anyone had actually moved in. I saw

some Christmas lights go up at

Christmas, but I didn't see anyone

coming in or out or anything. It's a

huge shock, you don't expect it to

happen on your doorstep.

There has

been no formal identification as

yet, but police say the three bodies

found are likely to be the immediate

family of the woman discovered here.

Postmortem examinations will take

place on or four bodies. The Met

will lead the investigation working

with Sussex Police, and Sussex

Police are carrying on their own

separate enquiries. No arrests have

yet been made and at this early

stage police are not looking for

anyone else in connection with this

murder. But they say they want to

speak to anyone with any

information. Next of kin has been

informed, but we'd still don't know

who this family were.

Still to come this evening...

A

sticky problem on our streets. Could

this bubble gum bin be the start of

a chewing gum litter revolution?

And

if you managed to dodge the showers

today and keep the sunshine, it

felt, dare I say it, almost like

spring. But how long will it last?

More details coming up.

Now, should students be refunded

if their lecturers go on strike?

A number of London's universities

have been hit by industrial action

and walk-outs are expected over

the coming weeks.

Students though are divided,

some are backing the strikes

but others want some

of their tuition fees back.

Here's our Education

Reporter, Marc Ashdown.

Support on the picket

Reporter, Marc Ashdown.

Support on the picket lines

Reporter, Marc Ashdown.

Support on the picket lines this

Reporter, Marc Ashdown.

Support on the picket lines this

morning. Hundreds of lecturers

across London were on strike. They

say plans by universities to change

their pensions are unfair.

It's hard

to remember a group of employers who

have played their hand in a worse

way than the vice chancellors. There

is a big gap opening up between what

I think are a group of fairly out of

touch people, who are trying to

impose something that is going to

really damage universities.

The

union claims changes would cost the

average academic £10,000 per year.

But universities say there is a £6

billion black hole in the pension

scheme. So far, 115,000 students

have signed a petition in support of

lecturers. Here are just a few. This

protest performance, reading the

work of their lecturers all day

long, is to raise money to support

them.

The mood is definitely one of

solidarity. Our lecturers are what

make this university happen.

These

lecturers here today will not get

paid because they are on strike. But

Kings has broken ranks with other

universities to say it will not gain

any financial benefit from these

salary savings. Instead, it is

setting up a fund with a view to

compensate students are cancelled

classes. It's not yet clear how that

would work and kings did not want to

comment further. Of the road at the

School of Oriental and African

studies, these students think a plan

like that is unworkable.

It's really

difficult for me to say, I want £300

back for each lecture I miss. How do

you measure the knowledge that you

consume within a lecture or

tutorial?

There is money that will

be saved as a result of the strike,

so we are pushing for that to be

taken into the hardship fund.

Universities UK said they are ready

and willing for more talks and said

they are committed to exploring

affordable and viable options to

resolve the dispute.

Solidarity for

ever!

Is this damaging the

reputation abroad? The Chinese

government wrote to ministers urging

them to intervene on behalf of their

170,000 students here.

It's not

fair, we have put a lot of money,

especially people in our country, to

come here to study. They just want

to study and communicate.

More talks

are plans to untangle this mess but

more strikes as well.

A review into the death

of a five-year-old, who died

after a tree trunk holding a swing

fell on her, has concluded

the council won't be prosecuted.

Alexia Walenkaki's mother claimed

Tower Hamlets' annual inspection

of Mile End Park hadn't taken place

for almost two years.

Today, the CPS upheld

an earlier decision,

saying there was a lack

of evidence to prosecute.

South-eastern has announced any

passengers stranded on trains for

more than two hours will get

compensation. Hundreds of passengers

were stranded in Lewisham on Friday

night and power had to be turned off

when passengers forced open the

doors and walked on the tracks. An

investigation is taking place to

find out what happened.

A new multi-million pound science

park at the University of Reading

has opened its doors to businesses.

Around 400 people are employed

by the first companies

that are moving in.

But as development continues

over the next 20 years,

it's expected to support 5,000 jobs.

Six months after controversially

being introduced into several London

boroughsm nearly 75% of council

tenants who claim universal credit

are now behind with their rent.

It was supposed to simplify

the benefits system,

but critics say the credit has

delayed payments, which

pushes some of London's

poorest people into debt.

Here's our political

editor, Tim Donovan.

You're suffering, you're

getting into debt.

You're health's declining

because you're not eating right.

You've got no money,

you're borrowing money from family.

So you're going into a personal zone

where you start to feel

a little bit embarrassed.

Shirley was put on universal

credit when she moved

into her new council

flat in Peckham.

12 weeks it took to sort

out her money, but that time

So that was 12 weeks without money.

12 weeks without paying

my rent every week.

12 weeks without paying

my television licence.

All I could borrow money

for was for food and gas.

I couldn't say to my friends

and that - oh, well,

pay for my bank loan and pay

for my TV Licence.

So it just mounted.

These six boroughs are

the first in London to roll

out universal credit -

Croydon, Hammersmith,

Hounslow, Southwark,

Sutton and Tower Hamlets.

9,379 of their council

tenants are in arrears.

That's 73%, nearly three quarters

of those on universal credit.

Yeah, I've just received a letter

from the council saying

I owe them, £1,600.78.

Desmond sought help here from his

local advice centre in Peckham.

Problems with his claim mean he owes

£1,600 in back rent,

and a letter's arrived warning

of the risk of eviction.

What's it like when you get

a letter like that?

It's very, how can I put it,

stressful because Aa

roof over your head,

that's the most important thing.

So it's really stressful.

One safety net is the

borough's food bank.

They say here the vast majority

of people coming for food

are on universal credit.

People are going on to universal

credit and suddenly they go

into this different place of fear,

where they can't work out what's

happening with their money,

what's happening, what's coming

in with their money,

and trying to help them into work

becomes a much harder situation

at the moment.

There are more than 110,000

people in London currently

claiming universal credit.

These figures we have

for council tenants,

who've fallen behind

with their rent, are only part

of the picture because they don't

take into account tenants

in the private rented

sector who are in arrears.

We're seeing more and more

in Southwark that people

are struggling with their rent.

What we want to be able to do

is work with people earlier.

Help them to get

through that process.

Help them to avoid being evicted

by their landlords.

So if they would work more

constructively with us

and share more information,

we would be able to do that and do

more homelessness prevention work.

The government's recently taken

seven days off the wait time

and offered a fortnight's

extra housing benefit.

The aim is to ease the situation

for new claimants, though it's

pressing ahead with universal

credit, saying it will help people

like Shirley back into work,

help them pay their rent

and improve their lives.

Tim Donovan, BBC London News.

Next: you see it everywhere

when you walk around

the streets of the capital.

Chewing gum costs UK councils

around £50 million pounds

each year to clean up.

Now, a London designer has come up

with an idea to collect what we chew

and turn it into useful objects.

Wendy Hurrell has been

finding out more.

What's to do with

chewed chewing gum?

It's blasted off our streets

at great expense by councils.

Or there are attempts to stop it

getting there in the first place.

Can I give you the papers

to wrap it up into so that,

I don't know, do you swallow or...

It's even turned into art.

Ben Wilson has been painting

miniatures on the unsightly

splodges for years.

He's becone quite a celeb

since we filmed him in 2005.

And then there's this, it's called

gumdrop.

They're popping up

around the capital.

This one at the British Library.

It's a special bin which itself

is made from recycled chewing

gum because this stuff

is synthetic rubber.

It's basically a plastic,

which means once it's chewed it

should be possible to make it

into something else.

One woman, at the Design Museum,

in West London, has been

trying to find out how.

I could find pretty much programmes

for recycling for a lot

of the litters apart from a piece

of chewing gum that I picked up.

Now she has a process where the gum

from her bins is taken

to a recycling plant,

mixed with other recycled plastics

and then squirted into moulds.

So, discarded gum is transformed

into more bins and also

reusable coffee cups.

Gum boots and shoes

with snazzy soles.

I do believe that through right

design we can actually change

the way people behave.

We'll be seeing more pink bins

on London's streets,

surely a better place to drop gum.

Wendy Hurrell, BBC London News.

You can see more of that

on the BBC News website.

The address is on the screen now.

Yesterday we brought

you the story of the man

who uses his inflatable

bike to pick out plastic

from London's rivers.

Today, we're meeting

another plastic warrior.

Bettina Maidment is on a drive

to completely rid her

home of plastic waste.

Alpa Patel has met her to see

how she's doing it.

Bettina is a mum of two

and this is Dexter,

her two-year-old son.

Since last year, the family have

been trying to kick their plastic

habit, replacing bottles of shampoos

and gels for more

friendlier products.

I'd hate to think that my boys grow

up in a world where they know

nothing but a polluted planet.

Bettina has even shaken

up her handsoap.

She now makes it at home and then

stores it in an old bottle.

I guess I'm quite strict.

We just had toys at birthday and...

KNOCKING AT THE DOOR.

An interruption.

Hey!

How's it going?

Good, how are you?

It's her home delivery

of vegetables, almost

entirely plastic-free.

And none of it is

wrapped in plastic?

Yeah, so it's brilliant.

They're slso really committed

to cutting down on their plastic

waste, so it doesn't all have

to be hard work.

You know, I get veggies

delivered to me.

Grape?

Yes, please!

But does all of this

come at a higher cost?

There are certain things

which are going to be more

expensive, but other things

are cheaper, so it

kind of balances out.

I've worked out that,

over the course of the year,

my spending, food-wise,

hasn't actually increased.

And the family have

made real progress.

Take the fridge, for instance,

now almost 90% plastic free.

So, as you can see, a lot of glass.

So plastic milk bottles went out

for glass, delivered by the milkman.

This was bought from the deli

as well, just took the jar

and they filled it up.

In the food cupboard,

items like rice are bought

loose in the shop and put

in a reusable bag.

It means plastic packaging

is at a bare minimum here.

This, the family's total plastic

waste since Christmas.

In the next room, we have

a look at Dexter's toys.

Almost all wooden.

Although today, and despite his

mother's appeals, he'd rather play

on his plastic tractor.

The rug!

Reverse!

What about your children?

Because what if they want that

chocolate bar wrapped in plastic?

What do you say to them?

No.

LAUGHTER.

It's really simple.

You know, I'm their parent,

and they're my kids.

I think kids need

boundaries, you know?

I'm not...

You know, I'm not a total grinch.

I don't say no all the time.

My kids are healthy, happy,

well-adjusted normal children,

but they can have an alternative.

For me personally, I could never go

back to living the way I did before.

It just doesn't sit right any more

and it's just onwards

and upwards from here.

Alpa Patel, BBC London News.

It's being billed as a once

in a lifetime exhibition

of his work and one of Tate Modern's

most significant shows ever.

Picasso 1932 will see some

of the artist's greatest

work brought to the UK

for the first time.

It will also include a painting

of his mistress, which recently sold

for £50 million.

David Sillito has

been to take a look.

It's almost showing off,

most artists would only ever

have the honour of a Tate show

with a retrospective

of their entire life's work,

this Picasso exhibition is just

what he made in one year - 1932.

Of course, we've had major Picasso

shows before in London.

ARCHIVE:

London's Tate

gallery honours Picasso,

the man who painted this,

in 1895, and has gone

on painting ever since.

Without doubt the century's

greatest artist, though

perhaps the most puzzling,

to some people anyway.

60 years on, we may not question

the style in quite the same way,

but the more we know of his life

provokes other questions.

In 1932 Picasso was married

to Olga Khokhlova, but the face

in the paintings isn't Olga,

it's Marie-Therese Walter,

she was 17 and Picasso was in his

late 40s when their affair began.

There's no question about Picasso's

genius, but do you ever find

yourself uncomfortable with the man?

Most artists are complex

and complicated human

beings and I would say,

what this means in particular,

is that they show their

complication very openingly.

And part of what artists do,

and what Picasso certainly did,

is to put all the contradictions out

there.

But one thing remains unchanged,

Picasso's place in the art world.

The London art market has

in recent weeks been

fizzing with Picasso sales,

records have tumble

and this exhibition is just

a snapshot of one year.

When you add it altogether,

we're moving from a world

of millions into billions.

David Sillito, BBC London News.

Now let's check on the weather

with Louise Lear.

It is more spring-like,en?

It was a

brief respite I suspect today there.

Are showery outbreaks of rain to

come.

It was lovely for many of us

today. We started off cloudy. The

cloud broke up, the sunshine came

through. If you managed to dodge the

showers, it felt almost spring like

out there. As you can see from

Twickenham earlier on this

afternoon. All the weather action

was further north. We have not got

rid of the snow quite just yet.

There was is significant snow across

central and northern Scotland. Look

at the London area, the cloud broke

up and it was quite pleasant. We

keep some well broken cloud through

the evening tonight. So that means

that temperatures are likely to fall

away. Still the risk of an isolated

shower.

They should fade away up to the

north. With clearer skies, to the

north and west, we could get those

temperatures falling close to

freezing. But by the end of the

night, this could be a little bit

tricky, central and eastern areas

really, really to the east of the

Greenwich Meridian there could be

more cloud. It could break outbreaks

of rain through the day. It could be

further west. It looks likely at the

minute to stay in hes sex is and

Kent. The further west, breaks in

cloud and sunshine coming through.

Temperatures now starting to

respond. We could see double digits.

So that will be very nice indeed.

With a light westerly wind it will

certainly feel much better than we

had this time last week. A little

bit of cloud, a risk of a shower

perhaps into Thursday. Relatively

quiet story in comparison to what we

have seen. Then things are likely to

change as we move out of Thursday.

Enjoy the double digits if you can.

We could see rain arriving into

Friday. It's this area of low

pressure. It will take its time. It

will bring a spell of wet weather

and it may linger for a time and it

will though introduce something a

little bit milder still. For the

next few days looking somewhat like

this. Some rain around Friday into

Saturday, but as you can see,

temperatures will peak at around 12

or 13 degrees all due to the wind

direction. So it does look as though

it will be largely quiet for the

next few days, but some rain to come

for the start of the weekend.

Louise. Oh, dear. Thank you

for the start of the weekend.

Louise. Oh, dear. Thank you very

much, Louise.

Now the main headlines:

Counter terrorist police are now

leading the investigation

into the suspected poisoning

of a former Russian

spy and his daughter.

Both are critically ill.

Thousands of people are still

without water for a third

-- fourth

-- fourth

day in parts of the UK

after frozen pipes burst.

Water companies have continued work

to restore supplies to homes

and businesses in London,

Kent, Sussex and Wales.

A woman has been found

stabbed to death

at her home in Twickenham,

an hour after the bodies

of her husband and two sons

were discovered at the foot

of cliffs in Eastbourne.

Police say they're not

looking for anyone else

in connection with the case.

Food companies are being

told they must cut

the calories in their products

by a fifth within six years.

The Government says legislation

is an option if they don't comply.

That's it, I'll be back later

during the Ten O'Clock News,

but for now, from everyone

on the team, have a lovely evening.

Goodbye.