06/03/2018 London News

That's Newsnight with Kirsty.

Welcome to BBC London News

with me Louisa Preston.

Despite assurances given

to this programme last

night by Thames Water,

around 5,000 homes in London

are still having to cope

without running water -

for many it's the

fourth day in a row.

Today the government urged

the company to pay more

than the minimum compensation

to residents who've been

struggling to cope.

Ayshea Buksh reports.

One of several emergency collection

points for Londoners

still without water.

Last night, Thames Water told BBC

London, supplies would be back on,

but that hasn't happened and locals

here in Streatham say

they are still frustrated.

How many days have

you been without water?

It went...

Saturday night.

So we've not had any water

since Saturday night.

We came down Sunday afternoon

and waited for an hour

for water to be delivered

and there wasn't any.

St George's grove were all

the hospital people live,

there's no water at all.

Not a drop, nothing coming out,

nothing to do, nothing

to shower with, to drink,

put the kettle on.

No toilets being able to be used.

Who are you collecting for?

My family and my neighbour.

My neighbour is an elderly woman,

she is 90 years old, so she can't

come and collect water herself.

Local schools in the area

were forced to close and well

the water supply has returned

to some streets, others are still

forced to rely on bottled water.

The manager of this restaurant

on Streatham High Road,

has been delivering to those unable

to get to collection points

and supporting his neighbours.

We are basically here for everyone

who wants to use it.

Those who can't come down

to the site, the elderly, infirm,

those with small children,

we are there to bring

the water up for them.

The business comes secondary now.

We've no staff coming

in because we are not open,

so we basically thought,

let's turn this into a shelter

for the people of Streatham.

Hence why we've got bottles

of water everywhere,

our toilets are opened

for the community and we are opened

throughout the night for people

to come and use of facilities.

And the issue was also raised

in Parliament today by local MPs.

Under the water industry

guaranteed services scheme,

most of my constituents will only

get compensation of £20 if they have

been without water for 48 hours

and then they get a further £10

per 24 hours after that point.

Frankly, Mr Speaker,

I think that is an insult.

Mr Speaker, you will recognise those

are the minimum requirements

and that's why I made it clear

on my phone call today

with the chief executives,

particularly thinking of the areas

where people are being severely

affected, and that includes

his constituantents.

So I believe the issue is now

isolated to SW16 and 17,

the areas he represents.

Absolutely, I do expect Thames Water

to go far beyond that in making sure

they redress the balance.

This has been such a difficult

situation for such a long period.

We are going to take this incident

and review it afterwards and look

to how we might improve the level

of compensation to those customers

to those customers impacted,

after we've got everyone

back on supply safely.

The government has already said

water companies could face tougher

regulations and water regulator

Ofwat, says they've been warned time

and time again to plan ahead better.

A murder investigation is under way

after a woman has been found

dead at her home in Twickenham -

the bodies of her husband and two

boys were discovered earlier

on a beach in Eastbourne.

Our Reporter Tolu Aday-o-yay

has the latest.

This evening, forensic investigators

were still working at the property

in Twickenham where a woman

in her 40s was discovered with fatal

stab wounds yesterday evening.

Police were first called to South

Road just before 6pm after concerns

were raised about the welfare

of a family living there.

It is always very quiet at the

house, but yesterday I saw loads of

flashing lights. I looked out the

front and sort of fire engine and

police cars. I thought there must be

a fire. I looked at the back and I

heard them smashing the front door

down. Obviously, they were in the

garden running around, like

something was not right. You don't

expect it to happen on your

doorstep. You hear it on the news

and TV, but very shocking.

After

discovering the woman's body,

detective set out to discover the

whereabouts of her two sons aged ten

and seven. This is where they were

found, in Eastbourne 90 miles away.

Sussex Police were called to the

area about an hour before police

found the woman. There has been no

formal identification and

postmortems are due on all four

bodies. The Met are leading this

investigation with support from

Sussex Police. At this stage they

said they are not looking for anyone

else in connection with this

investigation but they do want to

speak to anyone who may have

information. Very little is known

about the family in the area, and

the next of kin have been informed

but police have not named them

publicly.

A Spanish tourist

has died and another

is in a critical condition,

following a suspected

carbon monoxide leak

in a hotel near Earl's Court.

29 people had to be evacuated from

the Mayflower Hotel in Kensington.

The death is currently

being treated as "unexplained".

A postmortem is yet to take place.

The parents of a severely disabled

baby boy from Peckham,

who's on life support have

lost their appeal at the European

court for doctors to

continue treating him.

A High Court judge previously gave

doctors at King's College Hospital

permission to provide only

palliative care to Isaiah Haastrup

against his parent's wishes.

Doctors at the hospital say

providing further intensive

care treatment is not

in the child's best interests.

A review into the death

of a five-year-old who died

after a tree trunk holding a swing

fell on her, has concluded

the council won't be prosecuted.

Alexia Walenkaki's mother claimed

Tower Hamlet's annual

inspection of Mile End Park hadn't

taken place for almost two years.

Today the CPS upheld

an earlier decision,

saying there was a lack

of evidence to prosecute.

Hundreds of lecturers

across the capital were on strike

today over a change

to their pensions,

walk outs are expected

over the coming weeks.

Students it seems are divided,

some are backing the strikes

but others want some

of their tuition fees back.

Here's our Education

Reporter, Marc Ashdown.

Support on the picket

lines this morning.

Hundreds of lecturers

across London were on strike.

They say plans by universities

to change their pensions are unfair.

I think it's hard to remember

a group of employers who have

played their hand in a worse way

than vice chancellors.

There is a big gap opening u,p

between what I think are a group

of fairly out of touch people,

who are trying to impose something

that is going to really

damage universities.

The union claims the changes

would cost the average

academic £10,000 a year.

But universities say there's

a £6 billion black hole

in the pension scheme.

So far, 115,000 students have signed

a petition in support of lecturers.

Here are just a few.

Wake up, wake up...

This protest performance,

reading the work of their lecturers

all day long, is to raise money

to support them.

The mood is definitely

one of solidarity.

Lecturers are what make

this university happen.

Of course, these lecturers

here today won't get paid

because they're on strike,

but King's has broken ranks

with other universities and says it

won't gain any financial benefit

from these salary savings.

Instead, it is setting up a fund

with a view to compensating students

for cancelled classes.

It's not clear yet how that

would work and King's didn't

want to comment further.

Up the road at the School

of Oriental and African Studies,

these students think such

a plan is unworkable.

I think it's really difficult for me

to say, I want £300 back for each

lecture that I've missed.

How do you measure

the knowledge you consume

within a lecture or a tutorial?

There is money that will be saved

as a result of the strike,

so I am pushing for that to be taken

into the hardship fund.

Universities UK say they are willing

and ready for more talks

and are committed to exploring

affordable and viable options

to resolve the dispute.

Is all this damaging

their reputation abroad?

The Chinese government has written

to ministers urging them

to intervene on behalf

of of their 170,000 students here.

It is unfair, we put in a lot

of money, especially our country,

for the students to come

here to study.

All they want is just to study,

just to communicate.

More talks are planned

to untangle this mess,

but so are more strikes too.

Marc Ashdown, BBC London News.

Finally some good news

for passengers who were stranded

on nine trains in Lewisham

on Friday night.

South Eastern say they'll pay

compensation of £100 to anyone

who was delayed because of bad

weather for more than two hours.

Power had to be turned off

after passengers forced the doors

open and walked on the tracks.

Investigations are taking place

to find out what happened.

That's it for now from me so I'll

say goodnight and hand

you over to Chris Fawkes

for a full weather forecast.

It looks a lot more springlike than

last week?

It does. Temperatures are rising

over the next few days and into the

weekend as well. Not a bad day

today, sunshine through the clouds.

This is one of the pictures showing

the sunshine in Kew Gardens. In the

south we have an area of low

pressure and rain developing. The

area of rain is looking like it is

going to come our way. With the low

pressure developing it will put the

brakes on this little weather fronts

and it means we will probably see

extensive rain as we go through

Wednesday morning and it could be

pretty slow. Cloud around through

the morning. The afternoon,

brightening up and sunshine coming

too late in the day. The

temperatures, where we see the

sunshine coming through we should

see how I is climbing to 10 Celsius

or so. Not feeling bad in the

sunshine but the temperatures slow

to rise in the morning. Rain to come

to Wednesday night and a few showers

left over for Thursday. Friday is

dry and then it turns milder towards

the weekend