21/07/2017 London News

That's all from the BBC News at One, so it's goodbye from me.

Good afternoon and welcome to BBC London News.

London's fire bosses are to spend ?6 million on new kit in the wake

They're set to buy new higher ladders, drones

They've also set aside nearly ?1 million to cover the investigation.

Our political correspondent Karl Mercer is here.

This is quite a shopping list? Quite a long, expensive shopping list, but

the fire brigade have been given permission this morning, after a

meeting of the fire authority, to buy the kit. It includes three

higher ladder appliances. That will cost about ?2.5 million. 1200 new

breathing apparatus kits, because in the Grenfell fire a lot of the

firefighters complained when they got the higher floors it took them

so long to get there, their operators only lasts for half an

hour. New ones would last for 45 minutes. New drones, new masks,

shirts, pop-up tents, there's also some other stuff they want to spend

money on. The legal cost for the public enquiry and cost of the

investigation team, about ?1 million each, and the mayor saying that

money needs to come from government. They need the money, and I said to

the Commissioner I want you to undertake an urgent review of what

you think we need as a result of Grenfell Tower. I've promised my

Commissioner I'll give her what may she needs but the government has the

providers with the resources to make sure our brave firefighters have the

equipment they need. What will happen if they don't get the money

from government? The same thing that always happens when you don't get

the money from government, the black hole in your budget gets bigger. The

extra costs are something like ?6 million extra every year. So they

say we are already facing a deficit, this will grow, about ?30 million in

four years' time. That's the same level of deficit that there was when

they had to make cuts, including ten fire engines, ten fire stations and

500 firefighters the last time we saw cuts with the budget as that

was. Thank you. And Acting Detective Chief in the is the face misconduct

hearing over an investigation into a woman who went missing from Wembley

and was later found dead in Scotland. Simon Ahmed disappeared in

August 20 15. Her body was found on a golf course in Edinburgh five

months later. An investigation by the IPCC found that lines of enquiry

were not followed up when she first went missing.

Waterloo is the country's busiest rail station -

but around half of it is going to be closed for almost the

Passengers are being warned to expect major disruption

while improvement work is carried out - and they've even been

Here's our transport correspondent, Tom Edwards.

Waterloo deals with 99 million journeys the year, but this August,

nearly half of its platforms will be shut. Commuters are being told of

possible to change their journeys or work from home. Late literally all

I'm going to do is take the first train and see what happens. See how

it comes out from there. I'll be on bat. If it means be taking a

holiday, I'll take a holiday. I can work from home so we can just stay

at home and stay out of the way. For the whole of August? I'd rather not

but it's going to be a nightmare. Some people will have to use it.

It's a shambles. The impacts will be felt down the line. Stations like

Queenstown Road will be shut, Clapham Junction will be much

busier. Upgrades to stations have hit problems previously. Network

Rail was heavily criticised after commuters suffered months of

problems that London Bridge. The mayor says the same thing can't

happen here. My message to the government is one, properly

supervise these works. I'm afraid there's examples where Network Rail

has not provided a good service and they've overrun. Two, if it's the

case they overrun the government has to provide speedy compensation to

commuters. That's an incentive for proper supervision and an incentive

for these works to finish in August. Waterloo is getting longer

platforms, so it will be able to deal with thousands more passengers

every rush hour. To ease the congestion the old Eurostar

platforms will be used for the first time in years. Is never a good time

to carry out such a large scale projects but we chose August because

more people are away on holiday anyway. There will be severe

disruption. Will it be finished on time? The mayor has concerns it

won't be. We are working really hard and we've got compressions of plans

in place, it's a well-planned object. -- we have comprehensive

plans in place. We are confident it will be delivered on time. Waterloo

is due to be finished by the end of 2018.

Tower Hamlets Council has apologised, after fining

a five-year-old girl ?150 for selling cups of lemonade

The girl's father - Andre Spicer - said she'd set up her stall

near their home in Mile End, and was charging 50

He said she burst into tears when trading enforcement officers

confronted her over not having a licence.

Now, you only have to get on the Tube to know that

Londoners aren't really known for their willingness to get

But could they be persuaded to shake off their inhibitions

and talk to each other - about mental health?

A team of clinical psychologists are aiming to find out -

The problem is I keep waking up thinking,

I've got to do this, do this, do this.

Every time there's more things people are asking me to do.

A problem shared is a problem halved, or so they say,

but would you share your problems with a complete stranger?

And would you share them spontaneously in public?

That's what one clinical psychologist is hoping

as she launches a bold experiment in London.

Despite challenging weather conditions!

Her team create pop-up problem-solving booths,

then invite members of the public to open up about the issues

So what's the big idea behind it all?

So problem-solving booths are all about people realising

that we can all help each other all the time.

The thing is we don't really have a culture or permission to ask.

And at the end of the day I used to think, gosh,

if only all the people that I've met in private in this clinic today

could talk to each other, because actually they're suffering

While we were there there was a trickle of participants

But those who took part seemed to embrace the idea.

Volunteering to both share their problems

So many people in London have got anxiety or claim to have anxiety.

Do you think possibly maybe because of your parents?

No, I thought maybe I'd be more tolerant.

Trained psychologists are always on hand if serious cases emerge.

The results of the scheme are still being assessed.

The National Health Service and the Mayor of London's Office

It's about opening up conversations around mental health and well-being,

to de-stigmatise these things, get people talking and maybe

If successful the scheme will be rolled out across the country.

Let's get the weather now, with Elizabeth Rizzini.

It's feeling a little bit fresher today, but still pleasantly

Lots of that earlier this morning, as you can see from the picture.

It's more like sunny spells this afternoon.

It's going to feel breezy for the rest of the day.

The southerly wind is starting to strengthen.

Top temperatures today, 23-24 in central London.

While we're going to stay dry during daylight hours

there are showers knocking on the door.

This is a very slow-moving, weakening weather front

is going to give us outbreaks of rain for first part of the night.

Possibly the odd heavy burst but most of it

The gardens and parks getting a good watering.

It's dry by the time Londoners wake up tomorrow morning.

We'll see it stays dry, possibly some sunshine

But also some showers developing, some of the showers could

turn out to be heavy and possibly slow-moving.

Becoming quite widespread by the end of the afternoon.

Not a total wash-out of a weekend but more showers around on Sunday.

Fairly hit or miss in nature, but they could be heavy in places.

Well, that's it from us on the lunchtime team.

There'll be more later at 6:30pm with Victoria Hollins.