21/12/2017 London News

the Prime Minister's closest allies,

means a furious backlash from Tory

MPs

Welcome to BBC London News.

I'm Sara Orchard.

This morning, the Mayor of London,

Sadiq Kahn proposed a Council Tax

rise of 27p a week from April

to help fund the police

and fire brigade.

With all the details

Marc Ashdown is here.

That is the maximum amount he can

raise the tax by?

Yes, it is,

welcome to game of figures. The Met

police, like all forces, is partly

funded by the Government, partly by

council tax. The Home Office says up

to £450 million extra will be spent

on all forces next year, about £50

million on the Met. Most of that

will come from the council tax part.

Today, the mayor said he'll put up

his part of that by the maximum

allowed, £12 a year. On top of that,

an extra few pounds. So in total,

£14. 20 a year, about 27p a week.

All he says for policing and the

Fire Brigade. In total, this will

amount to about a 5% increase. The

Mayor of London says this is all

about keeping Londoners safe.

The

police announcement on Tuesday was

an opportunity for the Government to

act and to end the police funding

crisis. But unfortunately, this is

something they currently fail to do.

Instead, they are resorted to smoke

and mirrors, pretending to give the

police more money, but in fact

pushing the responsibility to

taxpayers in London. This is

regressive, unfair and frankly

no-one is falling for it.

So a bit

of a war of words which has been

going on for some time. Nobody

begrudges putting up money for

policing. We have had four terrorist

attacks in London this year, police

are stretched. The Met Commissioner,

Cressida Dick says repeatedly, we

need more money. The Tories have

welcomed this, although they say the

Mayor is scaremongering and the

policing minister in Parliament

yesterday Nick Hurd said directly to

Sadiq Khan "get out of your bunker,

stop writing letters for more cash

and tell people how you are going to

implement your crime plan. ".

Thank

you.

It's just over six months

on from the London Bridge terror

attack, in which eight

people were killed.

Borough Market was heavily affected

with many traders suffering not only

the emotional impact of the attack,

but also a financial one

as the market was closed

for the police forensic examination.

Many traders are only now

getting back on their feet.

As Victoria Hollins

has been finding out.

Yoghurt, dessert... Sam knows a lot

about honey. She's one of 119 stall

holders at Borough Market whose

lives were turned up side down by a

terrorist attack in June.

It felt

weirdly personal because again Boar

radio Market is about us coming

together sharing a love of food.

Then you have this alien action, so

to be 11 days without being able to

connect and touch with your other

trader friends was tough. It wasn't

nice on an emotional level.

The

impact wasn't just emotional. The

market had to close for 11 days. It

was a huge blow for the traders,

many of whom run very small

businesses.

This is their business,

this is their life. We are

protective of the space. It feels

like home...

Darren is the managing

director. He says it was the

uncertainty after the attack that

hurt many businesses.

It was

incredibly difficult. Both

financially for the traders but also

emotionally and also physically

there was damage.

Many stall holders

found out their insurance didn't

cover losses from terrorism, a

trader support fund was set up,

raising more than £100,000.

For some

of them, they were able to pay their

dairy bill, for some, they were able

to buy more fish off the dock, some

were putting petrol into fishing

boats, it was that immediate.

Dozens

of business applied for help with

losses of more than £900,000.

Organic dairy farmer Steve Hook was

one of those that needed help.

I've

still got people to pay. The lady

that works on the stall on a

Saturday, she needs her weekly

income. Turnover's getting back up

to a sustainable level. Everyone is

behind each other and we all want

this to work.

Six months on,

customers seem to be returning.

Monica's traded here for 25 years

and has helped smaller businesses

who've suffered.

I think the mood is

strong again. The trade has come

back midweek. I think the local

Londoners were not going to be

overcome by this, they were going to

definitely shop soon afterwards.

2018. It's going to feel like a good

Christmas.

Borough Market market is

open every day in the run-up to

Christmas, a hopeful time at the end

of the year.

And tonight Riz Lateef will be live

at Borough Market for a BBC

London special programme

here on BBC One at 6.30pm.

A petrol station was ram raided for

its ATM cash in Surrey for the

contents of the cash. A tractor and

digger were removed.

Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford

is to pay a private nursing home

to look after patients

who are medically fit for discharge

and causing a blockage in beds.

The Guide-Total-Care home is next

to the hospital and will provide

registered nursing staff to look

after up to 30 patients a day.

Broomfield hospital currently has

around sixty patients in beds

who would benefit from being looked

after away from the hospital.

Workers from three train operators

will stage 24-hour strikes in the

New Year over an ongoing dispute

with guards and driver-only operated

trains. RMT members on south-western

and greater Anglia will walk out on

8, 10th and 12th January.

Now, they are called

'The Showstoppers' they improvise

the story and music

for their musical with

suggestions from the audience.

Usually it's for

a grown up audience.

But this Christmas

the children are in charge.

So anything could happen!

Wendy Hurrell is in Leicester

Square to tell us more.

Roll up, roll up to the Spiegeltent

in the middle of Leicester Square.

The show will begin in a little

while, the audience will be here.

It's a show where anything

could happen, because it's

entirely improvised

with suggestions from the audience.

Normally, that audience would be

grown-ups but, for Christmas,

it's going to be children.

That is a tall order, isn't it?

How does it change the show to have

suggestions from the kids?

Taking suggestions from

kids is often better,

because they come up with much

better ideas than adults.

They are immersed in the story,

they are used to story.

So they come up with the best

ideas you've ever heard.

What are some of the

best ones you've had?

We've had crazy things so far,

like a stand-up comedian

that was a candy cane,

elves inspired by Legolas

from Lord Of The Rings.

It's just unstoppable.

A fairy kicking Donald Trump.

It all happened.

And topical as well.

It can be!

They know what's going

on as well as we do,

so a lot of the stuff they come up

with is topical.

And really exciting as well.

It keeps you on your

toes, doesn't it?

Absolutely, literally sometimes.

We do point ballet and

all sorts of things.

We've had tutus onstage

and crazy suggestions,

lots of tap dancing,

lots of singing and dancing.

It's great.

Wonderful.

I can't wait to see this.

You can see this for

yourself and contribute

to the story until the 30th.

They are here in the tent.

We are going to be filming it today

and we'll bring you the results

of what they come up

with in the 6:30pm programme.

Now the weather with Sara Thornton.

Now the weather with Sara Thornton.

Good afternoon. It certainly was a

very slow start to our withacross

London. A lot of mist and fog around

and early rain captured beautifully

by our weather-watcher at Wembley.

Things are improving a little for

the rest of the day. The low cloud

is lifting. It will still be fairly

cloudy but it's mostly dry and it's

a mild feel out there. Cloud breaks

at a premium but dry for daylight

hours and a top temperature of 11 or

12.

As we go through the night, there is

a bit of patchy rain to slip towards

north-eastern parts into Essex as

the night wears on, out towards East

London, just for a little bit of

time. But for all of us, we'll

continue with the cloudy feel, misty

and murky as well by tomorrow but

still mild with its temperatures in

the high single figures, if not ten

degrees. Tomorrow morning, another

slow start with the low cloud and

mist. Better breaks in the

afternoon, a tiny bit brighter than

today. Again, a high of 12. As we

head through towards Christmas

weekend, I'm afraid we are going to

stay really mild. Mild

south-westerly winds keeping

temperatures up in double figures.

That's about it from me.

Riz Lateef will be here at 6:30

from Borough Market.

But for now, from us

all on the lunch team,

have a very good afternoon.