04/01/2018 London News

Here on BBC One, it's time

for the news where you are.

Welcome to BBC London News,

with me, Victoria Hollins.

The Metropolitan Police has asked

the Government to pay almost

£40 million for its investigation

into the fire at Grenfell

Tower in West London.

Scotland Yard says it's one

of the biggest and most complex

inquiries in the history

of the force.

Around 200 officers are working

on the inquiry into the blaze,

which claimed the lives

of 71 people.

Our political correspondent

Karl Mercer reports.

They're starting to cover

the remains of Grenfell tower,

sheeting now up around half

of the first eight

floors of the building.

The rest stands as a stark reminder

of what happened here nearly seven

months ago and the political fall

out from the fire continues.

Grenfell led to one of the biggest

police investigations ever

mounted by Scotland Yard,

with around 250 officers involved.

Now Scotland yard has said

it needs help to pay.

It's put in a big bill

to the Home Office, asking

for £11.1 million to cover the cost

of the investigation

this year, and a further

£27 million for next year.

It says it expects to have more

than 200 officers still on the case

over the coming 12 months.

We don't that think it's

reasonable for us to pick up

those sort of full costs.

As we know, that sort

of investigation will

go on for some time.

There are worries, too,

that the Met simply can't

afford extra spending,

as it's already having to make cuts.

We are still absolutely

facing savings and cuts

for London that we are very,

very worried about.

We are really worried that police

officer numbers are going to dip

significantly below 30,000

if this continues.

The police, though, aren't the only

emergency service facing

a big bill in the wake

of the Grenfell disaster.

London's Fire Brigade has

also seen costs rise.

It's in the process

of buying new equipment.

And in the wake of the fire,

its inspectors last summer made 520

visits to check the safety

of other buildings.

What we also learned today

at the London Assembly meeting

was that 188 cases in the capital,

those buildings failed the

Government's cladding safety test.

That's more than the rest

of the country put together.

No wonder, then, that

London Assembly Members

were asking for government help

for the Fire Brigade, too.

Can you just update us?

Have you exhausted all your

conversations with government around

any monies that they wish

to allocate to you?

Particularly mindful

of what you heard this

morning from the police,

it feels as if the police are having

some success then there's no reason

why fire should also not have that

same criteria relaxed.

The Home Office told us today that

given the unique and tragic

circumstances of the Grenfell fire,

it would consider any application it

received for funding

from the Metropolitan Police

as a matter of priority.

A 95-year-old woman who knocked down

and killed a man after mistaking

the accelerator in her car

for the brake has been given

a suspended prison sentence.

Gertrude Lister, who had been

tending her husband's

grave in Maidenhead,

careered into 47-year-old Paul Mills

on Valentine's Day last year.

Joe Campbell reports.

Gertrude Lister was

driven to court today.

She's not got behind

the wheel since she killed cemetery

worker Paul Mills and returned her

licence to the DVLA.

A man escorting the 95-year-old

carried a suitcase.

She'd been warned there was a very

real possibility she would be

going straight from court to prison.

Mrs Lister's barrister said

it was hard to think of more tragic

circumstances than what happened

in this cemetery on Saint

Valentine's Day last year.

One moment, his client had been

tending her husband's grave.

Just a few seconds later,

she was responsible for the death

of somebody else's loved one.

It was as she left the cemetery

that she hit the accelerator,

rather than the brake.

The car, rather than slowing down,

sped up, hit a verge

and became airborne.

It crashed through a hedge.

Mr Mills was working

on the opposite side.

He died in hospital less

than an hour later.

The court heard so-called unintended

acceleration was a recognised factor

in accidents like this,

especially involving automatic cars

driven by elderly motorists.

In actual fact, the over-70s

are statistically the safest group

of drivers on our road, done by age,

in terms of how many collisions

they have that cause injury.

They're frail, so if they do have

one, they tend to be

injured themselves.

Events like this one, that

are tragic, as all these things are,

are actually really unusual.

Judge Paul Dugdale said these were

wholly exceptional circumstances.

Gertrude Lister's mistake

in pressing the accelerator harder

and harder, thinking

it was the brake, had had

a devastating effect, he said,

on Paul Mills's family.

As his widow, Tracey,

realised Mrs Lister wouldn't be

going to prison today,

but her 16-month sentence

was going to be suspended,

she stormed out of court.

Mrs Lister herself left

without commenting.

Joe Campbell, BBC London News.

Wreckage from a seaplane

which crashed near Sydney,

killing five members of a London

family and the pilot,

has been recovered.

The aircraft had been submerged

in more than 40 feet of water

after coming down on New Year's Eve.

It's emerged that the plane

was rebuilt after it was destroyed

in a fatal incident more

than 20 years ago.

The wreckage of the seaplane

should help to explain why

a routine flight over Sydney,

its waterways and rugged

bushlands ended in disaster

for a London family.

The salvage operation

at Jerusalem Bay began

shortly after dawn.

Police divers used inflatable bags

to lift parts of the aircraft

from the river.

One of the first pieces of the plane

to be recovered was a damaged wing,

followed by the engine,

and the tail.

By the time that the wreckage

was boarded on the barge,

we saw that there was severe damage

to the plane.

And it appeared that there had

been quite an impact

on hitting the water.

Tributes have been paid to the

family from Tooting who were killed

in the crash.

Tycoon Richard Cousins,

his two grown-up sons, his fiancee

and her 11-year-old daughter died.

Crucial to the investigation

will be the aircraft's

past history.

We now know that the seaplane came

down in these waters

20 years ago.

It was rebuilt and it was bought

by Sydney Seaplanes in 2006.

We've got a range of factors

that we look at to fully

reconstruct the sequence of events

that led up to the accident,

and hopefully find factors that

contributed to the accident,

with the ultimate goal of trying

to prevent something

like this happening again.

Air-crash investigators plan

to release their initial

findings within a month,

but a full report could

take up to a year.

Now strikes affecting three

different train operators serving

London are set to go ahead next week

after talks stalled.

The RMT union has a long-running

dispute over the role of train

guards, which has led to a fresh

wave of strikes

starting from Monday.

Louisa Preston joins me now.

Only a week into the New Year and

already more train strikes. The RMT

union has called these 24 hour

strike starting next week. It is

about the role of guards on trains.

Services run by Southwest and

wilfully RMT members walking out on

Monday, Wednesday and Friday next

week. South-western says it will be

able to run 70% of its trains. That

means 450 trains a day will be

cancelled. So, as you can imagine,

commuters are not impressed.

I see the point for

modernisation, I kind of see

the union's point as well.

I am annoyed at strikes because that

says to me someone hasn't

done their job properly.

I'm absolutely livid about it.

I mean, come into the New Year,

3% rise and we're confronted

with the same thing all over again,

so I just think it's appalling.

I'm not overjoyed about it,

if I'm honest, but I'll try to work

from home to get around it

because I've got the

flexibility to do that.

So, some unhappy people there. There

will be other routes affected, went

there? Greater Anglia guards will

strike also on Monday, Wednesday and

Friday next week which will affect

trains in an out of Liverpool Street

at the company does hope to run a

full service on those lines RMT

members at Southern will walk out,

just for one day, next Monday. That

will affect London Bridge, Victoria,

Chang Cross and Cannon Street.

Sutton thinks it will run 90% of its

services. With increases in fares

going up, it is not a great start to

the New Year for commuters.

It does

not sound like it.

Pregnant women are struggling

with their mental health in higher

numbers than previously thought

according to researchers.

The team at Kings College London

found that as many as one in four

pregnant women could have mental

health issues including anxiety

and eating disorders.

Doctors say early diagnosis is key

to help support families.

It is not yet known what caused the

bricks to fall.

That is it for now.

Time for a look at the weather now,

with Tomaz Schaffernaker.

A very blowy afternoon again

in London with winds in excess

of 50 miles an hour.

Tomorrow, thankfully,

the winds will be lighter.

Through the night, a bit of rain,

the winds easing out there as well

by the early hours of the morning.

I think for most of us it's a case

of clearing skies and temperatures

down to 6 in the city,

3 degrees outside of town -

a little on the nippy side.

Friday itself is looking mixed.

A fair bit of brightness around,

still a bit of a breeze out there,

but also the chance of catching

a spot or two of rain,

and temperatures are starting

to drop now, down to 9

degrees, single figures.

Here's what Saturday looks like -

a complete change.

Watch the wind.

It starts coming in from the North.

So we've been having winds out

of the South or the West

for the last few days and now

they're coming in from the North

and north-east, so it's

going to feel chilly.

A really significant

wind-chill on the way.

Here's the outlook.

Saturday, Sunday, Monday,

a fair bit of dry weather.

Here's the national outlook now.