:00:14. > :00:15.Good evening and welcome to BBC London News.
:00:16. > :00:22.There's growing pressure for older drivers to have to take a test
:00:23. > :00:25.to make sure they're fit to stay on the roads.
:00:26. > :00:27.More than 250,000 people have signed a petition
:00:28. > :00:31.The campaign was started by a man from south London
:00:32. > :00:33.whose wife was killed by an elderly driver in Hampstead.
:00:34. > :00:41.Frank has been driving for most of his life.
:00:42. > :00:44.Know where you are relative to as much traffic as you possibly can.
:00:45. > :00:46.But despite 56 years of experience behind the wheel,
:00:47. > :00:51.he feels he benefits from an appraisal from time to time.
:00:52. > :00:55.None of us gets sharper as we age, and I can see I'm not as sharp
:00:56. > :01:05.There's no legal age to stop driving in the UK,
:01:06. > :01:07.but under the current DVLA system, drivers have to renew
:01:08. > :01:13.their licence every three years from the age of 70.
:01:14. > :01:23.For most drivers, this isn't a problem,
:01:24. > :01:25.but not disclosing a medical issue can have devastating consequences.
:01:26. > :01:28.while walking with their two-year-old son Jackson.
:01:29. > :01:31.When the pressure was on, when the driver had to choose
:01:32. > :01:34.between an accelerator and a brake, he wasn't able to make that
:01:35. > :01:37.He was driving in an automatic vehicle.
:01:38. > :01:40.Ben's campaigning for drivers to be retested every three years
:01:41. > :01:54.Last year, leading road-safety experts delivered a report setting
:01:55. > :01:56.out a national strategy for safe driving into old age.
:01:57. > :01:59.It made a number of recommendations, including increasing the age
:02:00. > :02:02.of licence renewal to 75 if proof of an eye test is made compulsory.
:02:03. > :02:05.Older drivers, at the age of 70, you're no more likely to be
:02:06. > :02:09.But, obviously, as we do get older and start to suffer from frailty,
:02:10. > :02:11.eyesight and hearing, then yes, problems can
:02:12. > :02:13.arise if we don't address them at an early stage.
:02:14. > :02:16.Meanwhile, Ben is hoping his campaign will highlight the issue
:02:17. > :02:19.Meanwhile, Ben is hoping his campaign will highlight the issue
:02:20. > :02:25.say they fear their loved ones could lose their independence
:02:26. > :02:27.because two day-care centres in Southwark are set to close.
:02:28. > :02:29.The council, which owns the buildings in Peckham,
:02:30. > :02:32.has been allowing a charity to use them rent-free for many years
:02:33. > :02:34.but says it can no longer afford to do so.
:02:35. > :02:36.One woman whose son uses the services
:02:37. > :02:40.says they'd be left with nowhere to turn.
:02:41. > :02:44.because I would literally be his 24-hour, round-the-clock carer.
:02:45. > :02:55.It's not only his independence, but it's ours as well.
:02:56. > :02:57.Next, the story of the north London plumber
:02:58. > :03:00.Ian Puddick from Enfield was renovating an old bakery
:03:01. > :03:03.when he discovered it once used to make and sell illegal gin.
:03:04. > :03:05.Inspired, he got his hands on the original recipe.
:03:06. > :03:18.As a plumber, Ian Puddick is no stranger to tinkering with pipes,
:03:19. > :03:20.but when he bought a converted Victorian bakery as his new office,
:03:21. > :03:23.he never imagined he'd be swapping ballcocks for botanicals,
:03:24. > :03:27.thanks to a discovery about the building's past.
:03:28. > :03:32.We learned that the bakers, back in the day, made
:03:33. > :03:34.and sold illegal gin, so I tracked down
:03:35. > :03:36.the family descendants, got the original recipe.
:03:37. > :03:40.When I say that, they never gave me the exact recipe -
:03:41. > :03:43.that's certainly been lost in time, didn't have the configurations
:03:44. > :03:44.of the ingredients, but we knew the ingredients,
:03:45. > :03:47.so from that, bought a little still, played around with it
:03:48. > :03:54.just for a bit of fun, and now I make gin.
:03:55. > :03:56.His simple recipe gin is now sold in Fortnum's and Harrods,
:03:57. > :03:58.as well as his local farmers' market.
:03:59. > :04:00.That doesn't mean he isn't happy to serve customers
:04:01. > :04:06.Can you do us two bottles of gin, please?
:04:07. > :04:12.London has seen an explosion of small-batch artisan
:04:13. > :04:19.and gin lovers can't get enough of it.
:04:20. > :04:22.You get all sorts of people that are making gins -
:04:23. > :04:25.from small husband-and-wife teams who, you know, have decided
:04:26. > :04:27.it's something they want to explore and enjoy,
:04:28. > :04:32.and most small-batch gins will have a story.
:04:33. > :04:36.So these are people who are passionate about what they do.
:04:37. > :04:39.But how plausible is the story of illicit gin being sold out
:04:40. > :04:42.of a Palmers Green bakery in the late 1800s?
:04:43. > :04:45.The perfect cover, if you're going to be distilling,
:04:46. > :04:50.and distilling your own alcohol from a malted mash,
:04:51. > :04:55.there's going to be a lot of smells of boiling, fermenting wheat,
:04:56. > :05:00.and there's probably going to be a lot of steam around.
:05:01. > :05:03.Now, a bakery, lots of wheat around, you've got your ovens running
:05:04. > :05:08.I think it's a highly plausible story.
:05:09. > :05:12.Meanwhile, Ian is hoping one day soon he can give up the day job
:05:13. > :05:13.fixing dirty pipes and fix dirty martinis instead.
:05:14. > :05:27.Chelsea Football Club have announced that their captain, John Terry,
:05:28. > :05:30.is to leave when his contract expires at the end of the season.
:05:31. > :05:32.The 36-year-old has made more than 700 first-team appearances
:05:33. > :05:36.In a statement, he thanked fans and the club
:05:37. > :05:39.and said he'll decide on his future in due course.
:05:40. > :05:41.Let's take a quick look at tomorrow's weather.
:05:42. > :05:45.but it will be a fine and sunny day across London,
:05:46. > :05:49.feeling warm in the sunshine, with a top temperature of 14 Celsius.
:05:50. > :06:13.We'll be back tomorrow morning with updates during BBC Breakfast.
:06:14. > :06:20.A fresh morning on the way tomorrow, even some frost around, not
:06:21. > :06:26.necessarily two in city centres, but in rural air is quite sharp,
:06:27. > :06:28.especially across Scotland, and temperatures in some rural spots