12/04/2017 London News

Good evening. I'm Asad Ahmad.

A new crossing for the Thames has got the go-ahead.

It'll be a tunnel helping to link the M25 north

of the River, with the A2 - south of it.

Hauliers say they're delighted with the government's decision,

but opponents are calling it a disaster for homeowners

Our political editor Tim Donovan has been speaking to both sides.

One of the busiest stretches of road in the country and often no one's

going anywhere fast which is why the Government felt the decision it

Many people who use this crossing who live in Kent,

work in Essex or live in Essex, work in Kent, this will provide

It will ease the pressure on Dartford in a way that only

Now they've just got to build it and a new approach road

This is a landscape east of London which will soon be

Over there is East Tilbury village and in between, well,

this is Tilbury marshes and it's over the other side of that

ridge where those hedges are where the mouth,

the opening of this tunnel on the north side

The whole route, well, this is due to start at north Oxendon,

The whole route, well, this is due to start at north Ockendon,

where a road comes off the M25, down through Orsett at the junction

with the A13, then down to here on the north side

of the Thames, underneath the Thames coming out east of Gravesend

and then there'll be a link road to join the A2 and the idea will be

to siphon off a lot of that cross Channel traffic,

particularly haulage which needs to get to the rest of the country,

which is why local hauliers here really welcome it because it's

going to relieve pressure on the existing Dartford crossing.

It's the only option that will seriously avoid the congestion

and disruption that we have on a daily basis trying

But in the village of Orsett, not least in one quiet cul de sac,

The estate is less than two years old, there is 24 homes here.

Actually it's here, it's exactly here, so you will find that the road

is intending to go all the way across here, arc all the way

He is leading a campaign and he doesn't believe the option

chosen will relieve the Dartford crossing like officials claim.

495,000 square metres of green belt land which you can't get back again,

over 200 residential properties, multiple commercial properties

and it won't fix the problem that Highways England were tasked to fix

which is the congestion of the Dartford crossing.

No final decision's yet been taken on what will be

demolished and where, claims the Government.

There'll be more consultation, although here

While many others behind the wheel this evening may feel another

The M1 motorway was closed in both directions this

afternoon and evening, after a fire at a builders

Trains were also seriously disrupted causing major problems

The motorway has tonight reopened, but there are still delays.

There's been a massive rise in gun and knife crime

in London over the past year, with the Metropolitan Police

admitting it can't solve the problem by itself.

So it's asking for the help of Londoners.

But the force says it's not a reason to panic because overall crime

is significantly down, to what it was a decade ago.

You don't need annual crime figures to know that knife crime's

In Northolt this morning following the fatal stabbing of a teenager in

west London. And in Mile End too following another deadly knife

attack in London. Two more signs of a growing problem for the Met.

That's up 24% with over 12,000 offences last year, or 33 every day.

Worryingly, knife crime with injury is up 21%, with 44 offences, that's

12 people injured by a knife every day in London.

Any of us can pick a knife up and there are too many young people who

are being injured, seriously injured and in a number of cases killed

because of what is a fight where people are using knives.

It concerns me that what we're seeing undoubtedly in those numbers

is an increased number of young people who are routinely carrying

a knife around of whatever sort with them.

The Met has gone on the front foot over a set of figures

Gun crime has gone up 42% in the last year with some 2,500

offences across the year, that's seven every day.

I think that with gun crime discharges rising as they have done

and that we have taken more guns off the streets, I think

you can say that one of the reasons is there are more

We have taken more guns off the street in the last two

1,400 guns have been taken off the streets of London.

While crime is rising, detection rates are falling.

The Met recently criticised for being 700 detectives short.

Some crimes like burglary have a clear uprate of less than 5%.

City Hall today called the figures deeply disturbing and called

for the Met's funding to be protected from further cuts.

There's no question over the last four years we have taken over

?600 million out of our budget and we have other savings

So that is going to have an impact on an organisation's

The Met, like other forces around the country, is facing

a squeeze on its budgets, at a time when crime

In recent years, a number of consultants say there's been

a sharp increase in the number of women in London choosing

to have a double mastectomy, as a precaution

It's attributed - largely, some say -

to actress Angelina Jolie, who had a much publicised

double mastectomy herself, to reduce the risk of cancer.

In this situation these are women who are choosing to have mastectomy

before they've been diagnosed. Their rigsing may be high, an 80% risk in

their lifetime, that they seek out and have a mastectomy without having

had a cancer diagnosis. It's a fact that many of us use

statistics in order to prove a point one way or the other,

but here's a genuinely One in five - that's 20%

of all children in London - And that figure increases

during the school holidays. So a local project in Brixton

is leading the way in tackling the problem,

as Tara Welsh has been finding out. Many mums will know

that after a game of football their boys

just want to be fed. They've each got sons playing

here but they're helping The aim is to make sure children

from lower income families are kept Here, they get a proper meal,

it's freshly cooked on the day So, they get that along

with free football. I think it's really important

for them to come out of the house It's worked so well

here that the idea's # Fried chicken, make

burgers finger licking... And bringing a bit of song

and sauce to the launch But there's a serious

reason behind the scheme. It's estimated half a million

children in London are facing hunger Back in my day we never had that

kind of problem because it was more of a community spirit and we looked

after each other. But now I think it's

about individual lives and that becomes harder,

especially for parents because it's so individualistic

the way that we live now. So it's brilliant when we get

out and come together The programme aims

to help 7,500 children When you think about it,

it makes sense that if kids are getting free school meals

they're not getting free school meals during the holidays,

that makes sense, so The question is how are families

able to deal with that gap? Most of the funding is public,

much of the food donated. But of course it's the football that

keeps the kids coming back. Didn't really go so well for me

and my team, but we played And I enjoyed eating food because it

helps me to get strong. But it makes you wonder why

in the capital in 2017 It does make you wonder, I wish the

project the very best. Finally, just to prove you can

never predict what's going to happen in London,

there's this video which was It's of two Metropolitan Police

officers chasing a pig down a road A passing jogger also tries to catch

the animal which was finally I want to know where is home and

what was the pig doing in Redbridge? There are some obvious gags. Over to

you No, I want to be back tomorrow! Moving on quickly. Some sunshine at

times tomorrow. It should be dry as we head into the Easter weekend.

There will be a lot of cloud around, it will produce some rain. It's not

a washout and probably not very much rain at all.

Generally it's going to be dry overnight. The cloud tends to thin

and break. We will have clearer skies developing, it will be

chillier than it was last night. Temperatures about six or seven.

Tomorrow starts fine, some early sunshine. As we head through the

morning it will cloud over more from the west. The cloud should break up

during the afternoon. Essentially some sunshine at timings.

Temperatures probably peaking around 14.

The outlook sees cloudy skies on Good Friday and rather damp as well.

Brighter on Saturday but cloud again on Sunday.

Brighter on Saturday but cloud again on Sunday. Here is Tomasz.

Good evening. The weather in the run-up to

Christmas... Easter! I got ahead of myself there! It isn't looking

especially great, nor is it looking all that sunny. It will be

changeable, it's been changeable today. You can see cloud streaming

out of the north-west of the country. You can see some showers

getting into north western parts of the UK, but eastern areas will

remain pretty clear tonight, so here we have some frost on the way first