20/03/2018 London News

Here on BBC One, it's time

for the news where you are.

Good evening.

I'm Asad Ahmad.

Over 20 million pounds has been

spent on hotel bills, for survivors

of the Grenfell Tower fire.

In June, the fire claimed

the lives of 71 people -

with dozens of families

still in emergency accommodation.

Kensington and Chelsea Council has

been criticised for the time it's

taking to re-home them -

but it says - it's

'doing all it can'.

Here's Marc Ashdown.

I managed to stop the

smoke from coming in.

Antonio was one of the last people

rescued from Grenfell Tower.

As these pictures show

he lost everything.

He has finally been moved

into a temporary flat after spending

seven months in a hotel.

Life is still on hold.

He thinks the council could have

worked better with residents.

Never mind the amount of money

you throw in there, but you know,

the advice is that we could have

given to them, from day one,

from day two, listen

to what our needs were,

that would have saved time,

a lot of money and a lot

of criticism as well and a lot

of unhappiness on our behalf.

Since the tragedy the council

has spent 21 million

on hotels for those affected.

210 households needed rehousing,

so far 188 have accepted a new home,

some are temporary which means 22

households have yet to accept

a home so are still in

emergency accommodation.

According to Labour Grenfell Tower

would in today's money have cost

about £7 million to build

so for the £21 million the council

spent on hotel rooms it

could in theory have rebuilt

the tower three times over.

I condemn the Council

for its conduct before,

during and after, they shouldn't

have made these promises and give

people unrealistic expectations

if they weren't capable

of delivering them.

It is a disgraceful waste of public

money and more importantly

a terrible letting down of people

who were still living in a hotel,

because I can assure you no-one

wants to carry on living in hotels.

Council said they have an army

of staff working round-the-clock

to try and rehouse families

and they have spent 235 million

securing more than 300 homes to give

people the maximum choice.

So we are all individual,

we are all human beings,

of a certain age as well

and therefore, we have to have

something that is really

fitting and suiting us.

Antonio counts himself

lucky, one day he hopes

to get on with his life.

Others were not so fortunate.

Frankie McCamley is here -

a lot of money has been

spent after this tragedy,

but are we closer to any answers?

Yes, exactly and I think we will see

a shift from focusing on housing. A

lot of people have been rehoused,

but who is responsible and how did

this happen? That, it is hoped, will

come from the enquiry and I will be

at the first procedural hearing

tomorrow and we will start hearing a

little bit more about exactly how it

will be structured, who will be

giving evidence, then they will give

evidence and we will find out how

the enquiry is getting along. We

were told that we were going to get

a preliminary hearing by Easter, but

the evidence is going to start being

heard by May.

We will see what

happens, thank you very much.

Detectives investigating the death

of murdered Russian businessman,

Nikolai Glushkov in New Malden -

are appealing to drivers

and cyclists with dashcam or 'helmet

footage' to contact them.

The 68 year old was found strangled

at his terraced house last week.

Scotland Yard wants anyone

with footage near his home

on the 11th or 12th of March -

to send it in.

Actress Liz Hurley has urged

the public to share CCTV footage

of a car police want to trace -

after her nephew was stabbed two

weeks ago in Wandsworth.

These images of a black hatchback

have been released by detectives.

Miles Hurley and a friend

were chased and attacked

following a minor collision

with the vehicle.

The family of a man who died

after routine knee surgery

at a private hospital in Harrow -

is calling for answers

to what happened -

8 years after James Hughes death.

His surgeon Dr David Sellu -

who served time for manslaughter -

has had his conviction quashed -

and has been cleared

at a medical tribunal too.

Now Mr Hughes' family

want a NEW inquest -

to establish exactly what happened.

Tim Donovan has been

speaking to them.

He was always the life

and soul of every party.

He was very sociable.

He knew people from every

different walk of life.

For Jim Hughes' eldest

daughter it's still hard

to understand, let alone accept.

Absolutely devastating impact on all

of us for the rest of our lives.

It was February 2010 and her father

was apparently recovering well

from his knee op which had been done

here, at the Clementine Churchill

Hospital, in Harrow.

But then he got severe stomach

pains, two days past before he had

surgery for a perforated bowel.

He died a day later

of multiple organ failure.

Why was nothing done sooner?

Dad had to call his own GP

from his hospital bed,

on his mobile phone,

to get help.

We know he was in agony

because he spoke to people.

He told people he was in agony,

on the phone, "I can't

talk, I'm in agony.

I'm in too much pain, I can't talk."

For a while she thought she had

at least a partial explanation

when surgeon David Sellu was jailed

for manslaughter ffter being accused

of unacceptable delays

in his treatment of Jim Hughes.

But last year, that conviction

was quashed on appeal.

He had been practicing safe

and cautious medicine.

Yeah.

And this month he was cleared of all

11 counts by a medical tribunal.

It wasn't held he should

have operated earlier.

A detailed written judgment Maggie

finds hard read and accept.

But she says it was never

just about one doctor,

the family is concerned

at the general level of care he got

at the private hospital.

It was absolutely appalling.

If he had been anywhere else,

absolutely anywhere else.

If my dad had been in Tesco,

when his bowel ruptured,

he would probably be alive today.

A much missed brother,

father and grandfather, Jim Hughes

has just begun his retirement here,

near Portadown, in Northern Ireland,

after running a successful building

firm in west London.

I just don't trust the legal system.

I don't want any controversy,

I just want to live a life.

I just want answers.

To know, why did he die?

Which is why Maggie now wants

the inquest re-opened.

The only person I can see that

could be interested in the big

picture or have the power to look

at big picture would be the coroner.

I think there's lots of failings

and I think they all

need to be accountable.

It's not retribution,

we want the truth.

We don't want it brushed

under the carpet.

I can tell you, my dad - no way -

would have accepted that.

Whether Maggie gets her

wish will now be up

to the north Londond coroner.

Dr David Sellu said he would

welcome a new hearing.

The hospital said it

would work with the coroner

if the process was reopened.

The hospital added it appreciated

the families loss was felt

as acutely now as when he died

and any number of inquiries

will never outweigh that loss.

His daughter says she won't

let the matter rest.

You may not recognise it -

but this is one of London's

most famous landmarks.

It's Tower Bridge -

from below water level -

As the chamber is being converted

into a performance space.

Emma North went to take a look.

Below the grace and the grandeur,

these are the guts

beneath Tower Bridge.

Normally out of bounds to you or me,

but this week this is the giant

bascule chamber, transformed

into a huge cinema screen.

Blackout tells the story

of the work of two London

policemen during the Blitz.

Their job was to wait until the all

clear sounded after an air-raid,

and then to head out

to document the destruction.

I wanted to feel a real sense

of what it was like to live

during the Blitz, to be in that

space, to be among the falling bombs

and the shock and awe of it all,

and the community spirit

that was born out of that.

Astonishingly, this

is a student project.

The challenge set was a double one -

create something of a professional

standard, but do it

in an impossible place.

It's underground, it's dark,

it's damp, there's a lot of stairs

involved, we've to bring

in all the equipment.

So there's lots of physical

challenges, but also creatively,

when you're in a building like,

this that is so awe-inspiring

in its own right, you have to make

sure that the work you put

in there does justice

to the environment.

Mixed in with the show

are the sounds of the traffic

above and the boats chugging

by on the other side of the walls.

It's impossible to

forget where you are.

It's not the most conventional

of theatre spaces.

For starters, the audience

sits below water level.

So it's so cold in here,

you can see your breath.

And above us is the bascule, that's

the counter weight to the bridge.

So that when Tower Bridge opens,

that great ceiling,

which is actually part of a road,

sweeps down through this chamber.

Give the little ones a kiss

on the way out the door.

But they do get 24-hours

notice before it moves,

and the performance only lasts 20

minutes to stop everyone

from getting too cold.

There are 16 performances

of Blackout scheduled,

subject to river traffic.

Emma North, BBC London News.

That's it for now from me,

but lets find out what the weather's

up to with Chris.

If bit of sunshine coming through.

The wind was still a little on the

chilly side but that wind will be

using all the while and with the

sunshine coming out, and very fine

picture. We have more in the way of

cloud to deny them that this

filtering then, keeping temperatures

in London up. Around about four

degrees. Cloud will break up through

the night and what we will be left

with is cold and clear conditions

and temperatures taking a dive and a

widespread fast developing and

getting pretty close

even in the centre of town. It means

we should have a fine start to the

day and plenty of sunshine during

the morning. My high cloud in the

afternoon making the sunshine on the

hazy side. It will cloud over by the

evening. Warmer than it has been for

a good few days and that trend