24/07/2017 London News

The father of a 20 year old who died after being restrained by police

officers in Hackney called for justice and for peace tonight.

Traffic was disrupted and some people are still out in the streets

after a vigil was held outside a police station.

Earlier Rashan Charles' father spoke to the crowd.

We are seeking justice today and basically I want everybody

This is obviously a peaceful protest.

This is not anything that we are obviously

We ask for justice, and I thank everyone for coming.

Scotland Yard say Rashan Charles tried to swallow an object -

and that officers had tried to prevent him from harming himself.

The case has been referred to the police watchdog.

Katharine Carpenter has more details.

In the early hours of Saturday, a police officer followed

Rashan Charles into a shop on Kingsland Road.

The police say he was seen trying to swallow something.

But, despite getting first aid at the scene, Mr Charles died.

It's led to questions over the police's handling

Within an hour and a half of the incident, the Independent

Police Complaints Commission announced it was investigating.

But in Hackney, some say they have little faith in that.

Three young men have died following contact with the police

Edir da Costa died six days after the car he was travelling

On the 16th of July, a 16-year-old boy died

Then, at the weekend, Rashan Charles also died.

We do not want this brushed under the carpet.

If this continues, we'll be standing in another few weeks,

outside another police station and asking what's happened

to our sons, what's happened to our daughters, and demanding

This has been going on far too long, and it's time for justice.

Tonight, the local MP urged the IPCC to reveal its findings

We have to know what happened in this case.

We don't know the full facts until the IPCC has investigated.

That means, actually, other investigations can't happen

I urge everybody to be calm while we find out what the full

facts of the situation is, and I'll be watching very closely,

Earlier, the borough commander addressed the crowd here.

He said he understood that local people needed an explanation

for what had happened, and that could not

He also said his officers knew they could be held

Safety experts looking at other London tower blocks

following the Grenfell disaster - are claiming four blocks in Peckham

could be at risk of catastrophic collapse if there's a gas explosion.

Southwark council says the experts are wrong but has asked structural

engineers for a strength test of buildings to re-assure residents.

After the events at Grenfell, it hardly bears thinking about.

But that disaster has led some independent safety experts to look

And now they are worried about this estate in Peckham.

Tyrone Thomas lives on the ninth floor and he's worried, too.

It's a bit like being in prison, but you lock yourself in.

The dangers in prison are probably less than what they are living

In many flats there is cracking between walls, which could mean fire

There are now fire wardens on constant watch and Southwark

But independent safety experts are now warning

If it's leaking, we can end up with an explosion

and a major collapse, affecting and killing

What the experts claim is that the blocks at Ledbury

are of similar construction to the block which collapsed in 1968

at Ronan Point in Newham, killing four people.

That disaster was caused by a gas explosion and, afterwards,

gas was seen as a real danger in all similar blocks,

A Government inquiry set up after the disaster recommended that

gas should be removed from all system-built blocks.

The inquiry called for buildings to be strengthened

But an independent expert who recently visited

the Ledbury blocks wasn't happy with what he found.

The council should immediately cut off the gas supply until they know

that the building can withstand the blast of a gas explosion.

Another safety expert with concerns is Sam Webb.

After Ronan Point, he investigated the weaknesses of this type of tower

block and now he wants the walls at Ledbury checked to make sure

they can survive a gas explosion, saying there could be consequences

It could blow out the load-bearing end plank walls

If there are people in the living rooms,

in the kitchens of those flats, they will collapse and kill people.

Today, we put the two experts' points to Southwark Council

and they said they were wrong - the buildings' problems

are being sorted out, and they are also safe for gas.

The four tower blocks on the Ledbury estate were actually

built after Ronan Point, and are of a different design.

They are the Type-B property, Ronan Point was a Type-A structure.

Therefore, we feel they are safe to have gas in them.

However, we have asked Arup, who are our structural

engineers looking into it, to do that safety check.

Why are you keeping people in the buildings before

We said to people, if they don't feel safe, we will remove them.

But I think it must evacuation isn't the right thing at the moment.

We've put measures in place to make sure there is safety there,

Southwark Council insists the blocks are safe,

and says it's working with London Fire Brigade

on a permanent solution to all of the issues,

and says the results of the strength tests will be known shortly

Now, if you don't like rodents, you may want to look away

Harrow, in north west London has been nicknamed Ratland,

with locals saying the situation is out of control.

A video's emerged online of the problem,

showing a large number of rats swarming around bin bags.

The council says it's taking the problem extremely seriously.

It's a video provoking horror online.

Rats brazenly running around this car park in Harrow.

Not too far down the road, Bryony filmed this

Dear Harrow Council, council tax has gone up

substantially in the last few years, yet the bins are

overflowing and we're plagued with rats.

It's one of dozens of complaints on social media.

She's set up a Facebook group highlighting

And rats are one of the biggest concerns.

The thing that's causing the problem is the

amount of rubbish and litter we have in the borough on a regular basis.

Every day and getting people posting in my group massive fly-tips,

We've been here for the past few hours, we haven't

actually seen any rats but people tell us they have been spotted near

As you can see, they are overflowing and people say it is

What we have done straightaway is put rat traps and poison to deal

And where we do get complaints, and we do know there is

an issue, we issue fines because people that fly-tip

and make Harrow disgusting, it's something we want

You've got rat droppings all the way along.

You've also got burrows at the back you that you can

You can also is not the UN, that's when you know

there's a real infestation on the surface.

David Piggott has worked in pest control for 12 years.

He says Harrow is one of the areas in London

The council says it's putting traps and

poison down, is it going to get rid of the rats?

It might reduce the numbers but it won't control the

entire problem because as you can see if there was a food source here,

the bait isn't going to have much effect on that

free food source, the poison is a bit more of a risk, leaving poison

That's it for now from me, but lets find out what the weather's

The weather of the week ahead, a bit of everything. Really it's a typical

summer week. Don't forget how spoiled we've been so far with all

the sunshine and heat. Some rain in the forecast. Also going to be

breezy but bright spells. Not going to be a complete wash-out. Today we

were shrouded under this cloud. If we wiggled into the sunshine we

would have got to temperatures of 24 degrees but instead we were under

the cloud at 17 degrees. Still producing bits and pieces of rain,

but it's been breaking up through the day and one or two weather

watchers did send pictures of a bit of sunshine right to the end of the

day. This is the picture as we go through the night, temperatures

between ten and 14 degrees as the cloud continues to break up. Still

drifting around as we go through the day. Still a breeze coming in from

the north but more in the way of sunshine through the afternoon and

the temperature responding nicely to that. That northerly breeze is

bringing in some quite warm air. 23 degrees into the afternoon in

central London. On Wednesday this is what happens, plenty of cloud. Not a

huge amount of rain but there will be bits and pieces of light patchy

stuff going through the middle part of the day, then a bright end to it.

Some sunshine by the evening. The end of the week isn't looking too

bad, lots of dry weather. There might also be some sunshine breaking

through on those Thursday and Friday days. Temperatures average for the

time of year. The outlook for the weekend is that it's going to be

remaining unsettled. But there will still be dry and bright spells, on

the still be dry and bright spells, on

the cool side perhaps. Darren Bett has the National forecast.

All our weather this week will come in from the Atlantic. We started the

week with some major differences, sunshine here in western Scotland in

the Highlands, temperatures of 25 degrees around Glasgow. Contrast

that with grey skies, cool breeze in Southwold in Suffolk. Temperatures

are struggling to around 15. Still cloud spilling into the eastern side

of England overnight, still rain or drizzle here and there. Away from

here many places will be dry and there will be some spells of clearer

skies following the sunshine. Temperatures in towns and cities no

lower than 12 or 13. A cloudy start, we'll see the nagging breeze easing

away from East Anglia. Drizzly showers pushing through by late

morning and the power breaking up, sunshine coming through. Nice day

with light winds