24/07/2017 London News

Now on BBC One, let's join our news teams where you are.

Good afternoon and welcome to BBC London News.

One in four terminally ill people are struggling to get the end

And their families aren't being given enough support,

The charity Hospice UK says people from deprived areas,

or from black and ethnic minority communities, are at particular

Dan Freedman is at London's first modern hospice,

I'm at St Christopher's Hospice in Sydenham, which today

is celebrating 50 years providing end of life care to patients

When it was started in 1967, it was the world's

And Dr Heather Richardson is the Chief Executive.

Dame Cicely wanted something that was radically different

She wanted care that was really focused on their symptoms.

She wanted to look after their families,

she wanted them to be in the picture, and she wanted them

It was founded on the basis of equal access to all communities,

To some extent, but we could do a lot better.

And in particular, we want to reach people who either don't know

about hospice care and palliative care

and could benefit, or people that

know about it but are concerned that they might not get

To that end, we are providing a whole variety of services,

but also working with communities so that we can help get it

We've been talking particularly today about black and ethnic

minority communities, as well as the LGBT+ committees,

how can you access them, and why are they not accessing

I think they have a history of thinking that they

may not be welcome. We would welcome anybody here.

But importantly, we need to have conversations with them

to know what they want, and we also need to connect

with people that they trust, help them to do end of life care,

too, and work in partnership with them.

Dr Heather Richardson, thank you much, celebrations

will continue here through the day to mark 50 years here

A man's appeared in court charged with the murder,

rape and kidnap of a 19 year old woman in south west London.

Her body was found at a house in Kingston on Wednesday.

The 33-year-old man, who's also accused of

raping another woman, appeared at Wimbledon

Magistrates Court, alongside a second man who's has

been charged with kidnap. They've been remanded in custody.

There's growing anger in parts of East London

after a 20-year-old man died while being arrested by police.

Rashan Charles was chased into a shop in Haggerston

in Hackney by officers, thrown to the floor and restrained.

Scotland Yard says he'd tried to swallow an object,

and that officers had tried to prevent him harming himself.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission is investigating.

A mother from Surrey, whose son has down syndrome,

has called for doctors and midwives to be given better advice

on how to talk to parents if their baby is diagnosed

Sarah Roberts from Woking feels the language used

when she was told her son Oscar was affected left her

She wants other parents to have better support.

Like most toddlers, he's a bit of a handful.

When Oscar's mum Sarah Roberts first found out her eldest son

had Down's syndrome, she admits it was hard to accept.

I'm going to be completely honest with you, it was

absolutely devastating. I thought the world had ended.

I thought, you know, that was it for our life.

Oscar is now five and doing well, but Sharon believes the language

used by midwives and other health professionals around his

diagnosis was negative, unsympathetic and out of date.

If the medical professionals were starting off their conversation

with, "This is the statistics, you have a one in 50

chance of having a baby with Down's syndrome..."

I don't think that mother would potentially panic as much

as she would if she heard the word "risk".

She was so concerned about the effect it had

on her and other mums she knows with Down's syndrome

children, she decided to do something about it.

I've called my blog Don't Be Sorry, because first thing

the paediatrician said to me when they delivered the news was,

We suspect Oscar has Down's syndrome."

I feel like if she'd opened it with, "First of all, congratulations.

You have a beautiful baby boy. I'm going to tell you something that

isn't exactly the news you were expecting,

I don't think I would have felt quite so sad for as long.

Sarah hopes her blog will help others understand that having

a child with Down's syndrome isn't the end of the world,

and she hopes more training and guidance for midwives

There's a lot of training and education going on

And I think we will include discussions about language in that.

Sarah says her family wouldn't be complete without Oscar at its heart.

Now, if you don't like rodents, you may want to look away.

Harrow, in North West London has been nicknamed Rat Land

with locals saying the situation is out of control.

A video's emerged online of the problem

showing a large number of rats swarming around bin bags.

Victoria Cook's here, you've been looking into this-

just talk us through what we can see in this footage?

You have looked through this, talked us through what the footage shows.

Let's look at the video straightaway. You can see the

problem instantly. There are bin bags on the floor, this is the

middle of the day, not a secluded area, an area in Harrow, and you can

see the numbers there. It is hard to see how many there are, but I would

say more than 20. This was captured by a local councillor, Susan Hall.

It is so bad in Harrow, 600 people have created a Facebook group to

raise awareness of the environment a problem in Harrow. They say an

increase in rubbish and rats, that kind of thing. This is not an

isolated video. I have another one to show you. This one shows rats

scurrying around, a bit more spread out, later in the day, but no

rubbish to be seen in this particular video. But again, the

rats very big. Lots of people commenting on line, saying things

like the bins are collected fortnightly, what do you expect?

Local citizens have themselves to blame for fly-tipping, they enjoy

the conditions they deserve. What has the local council had to say

about this? We spoke to them and they acknowledge there is a real

problem in Harrow. They say they are addressing the problem urgently.

They are putting more rat traps in the area, and are talking to local

traders to explain how to dispose of waste properly. Victoria, I am sure

you will keep us updated, thank you very much.

Many of the services into Britain's busiest rail station, Waterloo,

have now been restored, following major

You will have seen it on the travel bulletins this morning. South West

trains advised commuters this morning to avoid travelling into

Waterloo altogether because of a signal failure. Most trains are

running again, but services between Woking and Surbiton still have

delays of around 45 minutes, so do be warned. Network Rail says it is

sorry for the disruption caused to passengers.

Well, let's get the weather now with Georgina Burnett.

Well, what a dreary, damp start to the day.

And we continue in that vein for the afternoon.

This was captured by a weather watcher this morning.

I'm sure there will be further puddles on the way, as we

are seeing more outbreaks of rain, some of us anyway,

and fairly light for the most part.

We're likely to seem more brightness this afternoon, but not

everywhere, and there is that north-westerly breeze.

Temperatures struggling to get above the mid-teens for some of us,

and where they are high, probably feeling a good few degrees below.

But through the night, we see that rain clear away,

and we are left with a fair amount of cloud,

temperatures down to around 13 or 14 degrees.

But tomorrow is a different day altogether.

Largely dry and fine, not quite as breezy as

today, and a good deal of sunshine around as well.

One or two very isolated showers, most of us having

Temperatures getting up to 22 or 23, possibly even a touch above that.

As the band of rain pushes eastwards, and a fairly wet

day altogether. The wind picking up.

That stays with us for the rest of the week.

Thursday and Friday look more settled, sunshine with a few

Temperature wise, always in the mid to low 20s for the

There'll be much more on our evening programme, of course,

Victoria Hollins will be here at 6:30. Bye bye.