21/08/2017 London News

First tonight, nine Londoners dead in seven years,

all killed in fires caused by white goods.

The deaths have prompted the Mayor and London's Fire Commissioner

to demand the Government introduce new safety measures,

The Grenfell Tower fire is believed to have started

And a year ago, a fire at a tower block in Shepherd's Bush

Our Political Correspondent Karl Mercer reports.

Shepherd's Bush a year ago, and a fire on the eighth

floor of a tower block, caused by a faulty tumble drier.

No-one died in the fire, but this was what was left

Chantal Froelich lives two doors along, and like neighbours,

spent three months out of her flat after the fire, which she'd seen

I could see it was kind of around my floor area but didn't

I was just a horrible, horrible feeling.

It was chaos out there, police and fire, and people just

going crazy because the shopping centre was being evacuated.

This was the tumble drier blamed for the fire,

which led to calls from London's fire brigade for more to be done

to highlight the potential dangers of faulty white goods.

It's thought the Grenfell Tower fire was started after problems

The brigade wants the Government to set up a simple website

where people can get information about their white goods.

I don't think it is an unreasonable ask to have a central point

where a member of the public can check to see if their product

is safe and it means they are going to be safe

Grenfell Tower aside, the brigade says nine people have

died from fires blamed on faulty white goods in the last seven years.

On average, it goes to one fire a day blamed on them.

Nine people have lost their lives where there have

There are people in London who have got some of those now.

Lawyers representing Chantal and others affected

by the Shepherd's Bush fire have backed the fire brigade's call.

We need a complete shake-up of the product recall system in the UK.

We are talking about the risk of fire equalling

This is an important issue for consumers

We are living with ticking time bombs and it is not fair.

You are playing with people's lives and you guys need

to pull your fingers out and do something ASAP, really.

The Government said it did have a website up and running

that people could use to find out if their white goods

It also said it would respond to the fire brigade's letter.

As we heard in Karl's report, a series of recommendations

Our reporter Jim Wheble is here with more on this.

And, Jim, it was consumer champion and former Watchdog

presenter Lynn Faulds Woods who headed up a review

That's right, Lynn Faulds Woods was invited by the Government to do this

report and she made nine recommendations but frankly she

feels a bit ignored by the Government. Two of the

recommendations she felt particularly important, one hasn't

happened and the other she is not very impressed with, as she

explains. I did a very simple review because the Government said to me

there's no money and we don't want new laws so the first thing I wanted

was somebody to be in charge officially, and I quietly said to

them, why don't you appoint a tsar that you can get rid of if you don't

like but at least they can start the job. I wanted them to look at doing

something along those lines but obviously cheaper. Then we wanted a

website, where people can find things, an official government

backed website, and what they have come up with so far makes it clear

to the public it's just a portal, appointing portal to various

websites. People that speak to me haven't been able to find it. What's

the Government saying? We have a statement from Margot James saying

it's the Government's top priority to keep people safe, there is a new

website which makes it clear what is safe, and they are looking at a

national body to support consumers. And what about those consumers? What

advice for them? Unplug your faulty machine, don't use it, but frankly

something with a fridge freezer it is not practical to switch it off if

you are not home. There is a website, as Lynn mentioned, which

you can see at the bottom of your screens now. You.

Transport for London is investigating footage of a bus

appearing to move onto a busy road without a driver, after BBC London

It was all filmed by a camera on a cabbie's dashboard.

Our Transport Correspondent Tom Edwards has been

Marylebone Road early on Sunday morning.

This is the footage from a black cab's dashboard camera.

You can hear him talking to his passenger when this happens.

A bus mounts the curb and pulls out into the road,

Then, from the side, the driver jumps behind the steering

He then reverses it off the road and waves at the cab.

The whole incident in total lasts five seconds.

It looks like there is just one other passenger on board

and the driver stops the bus just before it hits the

Buses and bus driving have been under the spotlight recently

This was a crash on Lavender Hill in Battersea.

And a London Assembly report found high levels of stress and long

shifts amongst drivers, and London's bus safety record

does not compare well to other world cities.

It's not clear yet why this incident involving the 453 bus happened.

Transport for London have asked the bus operator Go-Ahead

No-one was hurt in the incident, but this will again focus attention

There was a time when there was a thriving local newspaper

but with the advent of online news many are struggling or have

But as Sarah Harris reports, London Assembly research suggests it

may not be all bad news for local print journalism.

Some see it as an endangered art when it

comes to a local press in London in decline,

but here in the city, is

A local newsroom covering stories 7500 residents over a square mile.

And growing from week to week since launching, last year.

London is one big community, but within that, you have many other

It is going back to people wanting to know what is

going on in their area, Fleet Street obviously

being in our patch has given us a great platform from which to jump

A London assembly report showed that circulation across London over

One North London paper's readership was cut by 90% even though

the number of publications and online local news has gone up.

The author of the reporters calling for more investment,

like the scheme run by the BBC funding dozens of local journalists.

To make sure those important meetings that can be quite dry

at local council level still get journalists going along to,

so the BBC puts resources into funding media read a newspaper

level that people would not be aware.

Those at the sharp end keeping local papers going with much less funding

think it needs an image overhaul, making what may appear rather dull

as serving an important role in holding local

Pre-Grenfell, all the discussions about fire safety

and the way buildings were built and material checks,

people thought it may be boring and irrelevant,

the fact that no-one was covering that

so there is still a good argument to keep the printer is going

And this success story shows there is still an appetite

for an imprinted version of what is happening

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

And another disappointing summer 's day.

Yes, but at least across America for the total eclipse there was a

beautiful blue skies, lucky them. We had a lot of low cloud and it didn't

really cheer up through the afternoon, but there is hope for

tomorrow. As usual on Monday night we are going to look at the weather

for the week ahead. It will be among key start, fresher later, a lot of

dry weather around with sunshine at times. But overnight it will be

cloudy again, there could be drizzle as the temperature

drops. We have a change in wind direction coming in from the

south-east, so we are more likely to see the cloud in and break tomorrow.

In the sunshine we could be looking at temperatures up to 26 degrees so

lovely afternoon. By the end of the day it will start to feel cooler so

the highest temperatures will probably be through the morning.

There will be sunshine around as well, likewise on Thursday. The

possibility of some showers. For the weekend at the moment the forecast

looks uncertain so stay tuned for the details but it

looks uncertain so stay tuned for the details but it looks like a

promising start. Misty weather conditions will be the

story as we go through the night. A murky night through England and

Wales with low cloud and missed. The rain band continuing to trundle

north-east across Scotland for much of the night. It will be a mild