07/03/2018 London News

Natalie many thanks once again.

Natalie Perks there for us

Good evening.

I'm Riz Lateef.

The Mayor is demanding

answers from Thames Water,

accusing the company of decades

of under-investment.

It's after thousands of Londoners

were left without water for days

and then this morning a burst pipe

in Tooting flooded the streets

forcing businesses to close.

Marc Ashdown reports.

Tooting Broadway underwater.

The early hours of this morning,

the road resembles a river,

the latest burst water pipe to bring

chaos to south London.

It left commuters with a precarious

journey to work and many

businesses closed, and trying -

some more successfully than others -

to deal with flooded shops.

Never seen anything like it before,

to actually come into the shops.

Just yards from the burst pipe,

staff at this charity shop said

there was waist-high water gushing

past, but miraculously

the doors held firm.

We thought that everything would be

flooded, but luckily someone

was looking after us,

and, yeah, back to business.

You're going to carry

on, you're open?

Yeah, of course.

We don't let nothing stop us!

Thames Water said this incident

is unrelated to the recent

disruption caused by pipes cracking

in the severe weather.

This 30-inch pipe is one

of the oldest in London,

dating back to the 1830s.

Thames say they had a team on site

here within 15 minutes to shut off

this pipe and reduce the flow,

and as you can see, pretty much now

it has receded altogether.

The local MP says "sorry"

isn't good enough.

She's calling for tough action.

I think fundamentally the time has

come to legislate for this.

We need to make sure that

Ofwat have the powers

that they need in order

to make sure that things

up regulated properly.

Look, they said they

couldn't see this coming.

It's a 200-year-old pipe.

It was always going to be coming.

This is happening all across London

and enough is enough.

Local residents have been

without water for four

days, some of them.

Schools have been closed

and now local businesses

are going to be suffering,

due to a loss of local revenue.

It has been a difficult

few days for Thames.

Thousands of people cut off

and accusations of a slow,

poorly communicated response plan.

And today, a huge stockpile

of water has sprung up to hand out

with just a slow trickle

of residents still in need.

How long have you been without?

Erm, five days.

Five days?!

How many kids have you got,

have you got kids?

Four.

The Mayor of London has

written to Thames blaming

decades of underinvestment

for the recent problems.

Sadiq Khan wants pipe upgrade work

intensified and said Londoners need

assurances things will be

markedly different when -

not if - this happens again.

Marc Ashdown, BBC London News.

Tolu Adayoye has got more on this.

And the letter the mayor sent

to Thames Water - strongly worded?

Yes, this has been a week when

thousands of Londoners have really

been beyond inconvenienced. The

Mayor clearly thinks that Thames

Water should have been better

prepared. In the letter, he lists a

number of concerns, including that

the bottled water distribution

centres that were set up were

limited to a handful of locations,

which were not suitable for many of

the people affected, particularly

vulnerable people. He says

throughout the whole affair that has

been poor communication. For

example, even though Thames Water

anticipated supply issues last week,

based on the weather, they still

didn't tell all agencies, including

the Fire Brigade. Lastly, he talks

about compensation. The advice group

says that water companies should

automatically give companies £20 for

12 hours without water, that should

be £10 for every 24 hours. The Mayor

does not think that is enough, he

wants more generous compensation and

fast.

Any response from Thames

Water?

Yes, very brief. They say

they have agreed to look at

compensation issues. For now, their

priority is to get every single

customer back with a water supply.

More than 500 Syrian

refugees have been resettled

across the capital since 2015.

But as campaigners demand even

more to be taken in -

some councils say they're already

struggling with the housing crisis.

So now one London borough

is appealing for more private

landlords to offer homes.

Chris Rogers reports from Islington.

These two women have formed the most

unlikely of close friendships.

Yvette is a London landlady

and Layla is her tenant.

A refugee from war-torn Syria.

She was a miracle for me, angel.

Comes to help us.

The home changed our life

for 100%, to better.

Leila, her husband and three

children are among ten

Syrian refugee families

to settle in Islington.

Under a government scheme London

councils are funded to pay the rent,

and support parents into work,

and children into school.

Although there is obviously a small

hit because you don't get market

rent, we get secure rent,

it's regular, there's no

gaps between tenancies,

and it's an amazing way

of being able to offer

help to families that are just

like ours, and have found themselves

in a difficult time in their lives.

Islington Council says it is mindful

of the housing crisis,

but there's the issue.

They now need to appeal for more

compassionate private

landlords to help refugees.

We aren't able to give any council

housing to our Syrian

resettlement scheme,

because frankly there isn't enough.

We have 19,000 people

on the waiting list,

so we just don't have any council

properties to offer,

and that's why this partnership

with the private landlords

is so important to us.

But could the demand to house

Syrian refugees increase?

10,000 have been given refuge

by the UK from a devastating war,

with strong support

from London local authorities.

The UN Refugee Agency UNHCR warn

the Government's quota of 20,000

is simply not enough.

The success of the scheme has

fuelled calls from campaigners

and politicians for the Government

to do more, and take in perhaps

another 10,000 refugees,

particularly children -

and not just from Syria,

but other war-torn countries.

The Home Office tell us it has no

planned to increase its quota.

For now, Layla's family are among

the minority to escape war

for a new start in London.

Chris Rogers, BBC London News.

As the capital joins

celebrations to mark

International Women's Day tomorrow,

this week we're getting

an insight into the some

of the women who run London.

Tonight we hear from

Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton.

I spoke to her at a fire station

in south east London -

where she was meeting teenagers

interested in learning some

of the skills needed for the job.

Get yourself rigged

and ready for roll call.

Dany, does it remind

you of your teenage self?

Oh, definitely, just

looking at them doing this,

the first time you put your fire

gear on, it's so exciting,

but a bit scary too.

That's it, well done.

The beginning was tough, you know.

I was one of about 30 women out

of 6000 firefighters.

I think we were probably tested

more than the guys were,

because there was some questions

around can women really do it?

Are women still being put off

a career in the Fire Service

because it's still seen

as a job for men?

I think they are, and I think it's

really important that we role model

women and that we talk

about the fact women

can be firefighters.

Most importantly,

we explain the role.

I think people do still think it's

just about heroic macho stuff

and you have to be six foot

tall and strong.

Two women running London's

major services, it's not

that long ago that that

would have been unthinkable.

Completely, and even now

sometimes people are quite

surprised that it's happened,

and in the same year, which has just

been a great coincidence,

but a really fantastic one,

because it has just given us

the sort of support and shown,

for me, young girls and young women

that there are fantastic career

opportunities out there in non sort

of traditional roles.

Your first year, of course,

the tragic events of Grenfell.

Do you remember the moment

you got the call?

Vividly, because I was at home.

It was in the middle of the night.

I remember thinking at the very

start, this is going to be something

very different and it's going to be

something we've never

experienced before.

You've said you never get rid

of the guilt and responsibility.

What did you mean?

I was responsible for every single

firefighter on the fire ground that

day, and it felt like the biggest

weight of responsibility

I have ever had.

I have never honestly experienced

that feeling of anxiety,

responsibility and care.

If you were looking at that

building, you couldn't help

but look at that and just

have an overwhelming

feeling of concern.

How do you cope with the images

that you saw that night?

I think a lot of it for me has been

about having counselling,

and I've been really

honest about that.

I don't think I could have

processed it on my own.

I think it's a very difficult...

For me, walking round the fire

ground, talking to my firefighters,

having them physically break down

in front of me is something that

I've never experienced before.

Do you think admitting that

vulnerability is a touch

from your leadership,

because you are a woman?

Do you think that would have

happened under a male commissioner?

I'm not so sure it would have done.

I can't judge what people

would have thought,

because it was such a different

night, but I felt it's OK for me

to be really honest about that.

Do you feel like a role model?

I do absolutely feel

like a role model.

And when I see groups of young girls

like these amazing girls here,

it just makes me feel proud that

I can show them there

is a way forward.

They don't have to do

traditional jobs.

They can challenge themselves.

That's it from me -

but let's get a check

on the weather with Nick Miller.

After the tally, wet start to the

day, things cleared up with some

sunshine and tomorrow we will get to

see a bit of sunshine. It will be a

windy day as well, particularly in

the morning. Between now and the

morning we are going to see some

rain. Let's look at the radar

picture, and find out what is going

on. A few showers popping up towards

the south-west of the UK into Wales.

They are moving east quite quickly.

By the end of the night not just

showers, a spot of rain coming our

way. Increasing cloud overnight. The

odd shower, then here comes the

rain, a quick moving spell at the

end of the night. Quite heavy as it

moves through, overnight

temperatures of four 5 degrees. Not

just wet, gusty wind. Look out

quickly it is out of the way in the

morning. Then broken cloud,

sunshine, maybe a stray shower if we

catch one tomorrow. It will move

through quite quickly on the wind,

which will be very gusty,

particularly during the first part

of the day. The wind easing as we go

to the afternoon. 12 degrees, more

like ten at best tomorrow. It is

going to feel colder, but looking

ahead to the weekend, temperatures

on the up again. But there will be

some outbreaks of rain at the

weekend. Thankfully not all weekend

long. Rain for us. Elsewhere in the

UK there is some