01/03/2018 London News

incident and the military

are being called into help.

That's all from us -

now the news where you are.

Good evening and welcome

to BBC London News,

with me, Louisa Preston.

Following the death of a man

who fell through ice

in a park yesterday,

the London Fire Brigade's chief fire

officer is warning people not

to venture onto frozen water.

The emergency services

in the capital have been

responding to an increase

in weather-related call-outs.

One London hospital was forced

to cancel some routine operations

as the freezing conditions continue

for a third day.

Victoria Hollins reports.

You can hear the ice cracking.

It's not thick, but enough to leave

a small dog stranded.

Firefighters wearing dry suits

rescued her in Greenhill Gardens

in Barnet and returned her safely

to her owners.

But elsewhere, the ice and cold had

more tragic consequences.

In Danson Park in Bexleyheath,

a man in his 60s died after falling

through ice on a pond yesterday.

The emergency services

were called just before 4pm.

The man, it's believed,

just fell into the pond here.

He was rescued by another park user,

by a member of the public, before

the emergency services arrived.

He was taken to hospital

but died a short time later.

The circumstances are

still being investigated,

but it's the sort of tragedy that

London Fire Brigade

is really worried about.

Please do not go near frozen water.

Even if it looks like it's safe

to walk on, you've got no idea

how thick the ice is.

People are falling in and the shock

factor can kill people very quickly.

So, we're absolutely urging people

to stay away from any water.

Cold weather brings other

challenges for those keeping

the emergency services going.

Very technical.

All ready to go.

Bob is doing everything he can

to keep things going outside

at St George's Hospital in Tooting.

He's got through the entire winter

supply of salt in just four days.

It's my 29th year now and I've never

seen it like this before.

I've looked after the grounds

and gardens in all that time

and we've always looked

after the de-icing and

clearing up of the roads.

But it's never been as bad as this.

It's just been constant,

constant, constant.

When I came in on Tuesday,

it was minus 12.

How's it going?

It looks OK at the moment.

Dr Phil Ross helps keep things

going inside the hospital.

He's in charge of the emergency

department at St George's.

There's an increase in heart attacks

and strokes during cold weather,

but it brings other problems, too.

We find that we get

an increase in injuries,

because people slip over

on the snow, the ice.

People on bicycles come off them.

Cycling in snow is never a good

idea, from our perspective.

And coupled with that,

it is extremely cold,

so we are seeing patients who come

in hypothermic who need rewarming

and become incredibly

ill because of this.

At other hospitals including Barts,

some routine operations have

had to be cancelled.

But from the staff on the children's

ward at Queen Elizabeth Hospital

staying overnight, to the paramedics

still on their bikes,

the emergency services

are overcoming the challenges

the weather brings.

Surrey was one of the worst

hit places in our area.

180 schools were closed

in the county because of

the freezing weather.

But despite the difficult

conditions, carers were out in force

bringing much needed help

and support to the elderly

and vulnerable.

From Surrey, Gareth Furby

sent this report.

We're on the back roads in Surrey.

The places gritters

don't often visit.

And the task for Charlotte

is to get through safely.

There are people, vulnerable people,

sometimes very poorly, elderly,

that are depending on us

to get to them.

It's care provided 365 days

a year and no weather,

no matter how extreme,

will stop it.

They're very small

residential roads.

There's no grit, so we're

getting a bit icy, now.

To be honest, I haven't experienced

these weather conditions before.

I've actually borrowed

my son's wellies.

Hopefully they will do the job.

Hello, my love, we're here.

And delighted that Charlotte's made

the effort is Cynthia,

who's 88 years old.

We will make you all lovely.

Oh, dear.

And you will be

the delight of Cobham.

Really?

Yes, absolutely.

I couldn't manage without somebody

coming in, a carer.

I couldn't manage...

Undressing and dressing,

for example.

I do need that help.

With Charlotte continuing

on her rounds, we headed off

through Surrey and the roads seemed

a lot emptier than usual as people

stayed in and schools were closed.

One of them, Reigate Grammar,

had early warning of this weather

because of a forecast made

using the school's weather station.

It was over a week ago that

I e-mailed all the staff

and on the basis of what we had

learned from our weather club

we started to think this

is a good possibility

that we would get some snow.

I must admit, I have a soft

spot for a snow day,

to give the students a chance

to have some fun in the snow,

to make some memories,

to create some lifetime

moments of fun.

But for care workers like Charlotte,

the job must go on.

For the sake of those

who can't manage without her.

A woman who bludgeoned her husband

to death has won a bid

to challenge her conviction

at the Court of Appeal.

Sally Challen is serving

an 18-year prison sentence

after killing her husband

with a hammer.

Her lawyers say she was the victim

of a form of domestic violence known

as coercive control.

Former mayor Boris Johnson was back

at City Hall today, for a grilling

by the London Assembly over his role

in the failed Garden Bridge project.

The Foreign Secretary denied wasting

taxpayers' money on the project,

which would have seen hundreds

of trees and plants on a crossing

over the River Thames

in central London.

Some £37 million was spent

on the the project, before the plans

were rejected by the current

London Mayor, Sadiq Khan.

That's not true.

Not a single penny of tax payers'

money has been wasted.

Not a single penny.

You listen to me.

Not a signal penny of tax payers'

money has been wasted by me.

It's been wasted by

the current Mayor of London,

who cancelled the project.

Now, as we've seen, the snow

and cold weather has been causing

disruption in the capital,

but many have been enjoying it.

Today, the Team GB snowboarder

Aimee Fuller, who crashed out

of the Winter Olympics only a few

weeks ago, today was back

on the snow - but this

time closer to home,

on Primrose Hill.

We caught up with her there.

Two, three, keep going, keep going,

keep going, and release.

MUSIC

I'm positively surprised

at the gradient and speed that

you can pick up on Primrose Hill.

Go, guys.

I love it.

Imagination.

Imagination at its finest.

The best thing about the snow

in London is the inspiration

and creativity we have seen

from just about everybody

that is on this hill today.

Yeah!

Lots of fun being had

in Primrose Hill, but let's find out

how much longer this cold weather

is going to be around for.

Darren Bett is here.

In weather terms it's the first

day of Spring today.

It definitely doesn't feel like it.

The first day of spring, would you

believe it. It's incredible, isn't

it? It could actually be the coldest

March day on record today and it's

got colder and colder as the week

goes on and that's due to the Beast

from the East and that's really an

easterly wind that comes all away

from Siberia. Over the past few days

we've seen that wind picking up,

which brings with significant

wind-chill and now it's combining of

course with Storm and that's coming

up from Portugal and brought wet and

windy weather there. The, nation of

those two things which is the reason

we've recently seen snow up the

Arsenal game earlier this evening.

It's extremely cold, we've had a bit

of snow, but not as much as other

parts of the country. Why is that?

We are further away from the storm

and the moister air, which gives the

car snow flakes which are more

likely to settle, has been further

north across the UK, so it's been

what I'd call snizzle, accommodation

of snow and drizzle, that finds no,

but the amber warning has been

extended towards parts of Surrey and

Berkshire.

We'd like to show you

some pictures of the cold weather

which is difficult to cope with for

some, but take a look at these.

Extremely brave swimmers didn't let

temperatures of -3 put them off a

bit of a dip! This lido saw an

increase in visitors as the snow

fell!

Very brave people indeed. I'll say

good night and hand you over to

Darren for a full forecast.

You wouldn't catch me doing that!

Lets look at the amber warning from

the Met Office. It's extended

towards Surrey and Berkshire, we

have some snow around through the

latter part of this evening and for

a while overnight. It tends to move

away as the night goes on, but we're

left with a lot of cloud actually.

There won't be too much snow for

many of us and temperatures

shouldn't get too low because we

have the easterly wind as well. But

there's more snow to come tomorrow

and after a dry start, perhaps not

too bad for the morning rush hour,

we are looking at this spell of

snow, mostly light snow, pushing up

from the south through the day. It

will be around for the evening rush

hour and it will be cold again,

temperatures struggling to get above

freezing. Add on the strength of the

wind and temperatures will be much

lower or feel more like -9 for

example a in Luton. Some snow to

come and some uncertainty about how

much snow there will be and what

impact it will have. It's moving up

from the south, which means it will

head northwards tomorrow evening and

tomorrow night and it should tend to

clear away. We may get some breaks

in the cloud coming in from the

south. Once that happens this is

actually less cold air. That takes

us nicely onto the outlook, where

there are some significant changes

on the way. What you will notice

first of all is that temperatures

will be rising over the coming few

days, even through the weekend,

because we're losing the easterly

wind. We