04/01/2018 London News

That's all from the BBC News at One,

so it's goodbye from me -

Welcome to BBC London News.

so it's goodbye from me -

I'm Katharine Carpenter.

so it's goodbye from me -

The Metropolitan Police has asked

the Home Office to pay

for its investigation

into the Grenfell Tower fire.

The force says it submitted a claim

to cover overtime and extra costs

and says it will need millions more

in the next financial year.

Lets get more from our political

correspondent Karl Mercer

who joins me now.

This news emerged this morning, the

London assembly are looking into the

mayor's budget to see if he can pay

to what he wanted to do. The finance

director of the Met said look,

Grenfell cost a lot of money, in the

last year since the fire in June it

cost 11.1 million so they have asked

the home off fires that, they think

they will get it. She said look, we

have 200-250 officers is working on

this investigation, it is going to

cost a lot of money, they will work

on it through the next year, they

will ask for an additional £27

million this is what she had to say.

We do think and we have

approximately about 200 officers

that would be working on that over

the next sort of year, we continue

think that it is reasonable for --

don't think it is reasonable for us

to pick up the full costs as we know

that the investigation will go on

for some time.

Last year was a

challenging year for the Met. They

are not only asking for money for

Grenfell.

200 officers is involved

in that but we had four terror

attacks last year, which dragged in

resources and bumped up the amount

of overtime the Met has had to pay,

so they are going to the Government

and asking for an additional 7.8

million to cover all that extra

overtime, something they are not yet

sure they are going to get all of,

but all this comes in the context of

a funding squeeze for the Met, they

have to save 400 million there are

warnings that officer numbers could

fall well below the current 30,000.

A 95-year-old woman has escaped jail

after knocking down and killing

a cemetery worker in Maidenhead.

Gertrude Lister was driving off

after tending her husband's

grave on Valentine's Day

when she pressed her car's

accelerator instead of the brake.

47-year-old Paul Mills died

from extensive injuries -

earlier his wife left court in fury

when the judge handed

down a suspended prison

sentence to the pensioner.

Joe Campbell was in court

and sent this report.

The judge said these were wholly

exceptional circumstances. Gertrude

Lister 's mistake in pressing the

accelerator harder and harder

thinking it was the brake had had a

devastating effect he said op Paul

mills' family. The car had struck a

verge and become airborne, crashing

through a hedge, where it hit him.

He died just over an hour later. The

car then careered on through other

hedges and across a car park before

striking some bushes where it final

claim to rest. Counsel for Mrs

Lister said it was difficult to

think of more tragic circumstances,

where one minute she had been

tending her husband's grave on

Valentine's Day, and the next, she

had been responsible for causes the

death of somebody else's loved one.

Mr Mill's widow Tracey stormed out

of the public gallery on hearing the

judge say he planned to suspend the

16 month sentence for two years. Mrs

Lipser who arrived at court with a

suitcase packed ready to go prison,

left without making any comment.

As part of our leaving London

series, we've been hearing

from businesses turning their back

on the capital to reduce

their overheads elsewhere.

Tolu Adeoye has spoken to two

businesses which have decided

to relocate to Birmingham.

London can be a pricey

place to do business.

Expensive office space,

high business rates.

Soaring transport costs just three

factors pushing some

away from the capital.

Many are choosing to

move to Birmingham.

With more than 17,000 new businesses

registering here in 2016,

it has the largest economy of any

UK regional city.

We want to revolutionise access

to low cost energy storage.

This reuseable battery company

is currently based in Hayes

but will move operations

to Birmingham this year.

We have to think very

carefully about the cost

of setting up both assembly,

because we are actually making

things with our business,

and the cost of actually having

office space, so we figured that it

makes a lot more sense to be setting

up somewhere where it is cheaper,

which ultimately means

we have a higher chance

of success with our business.

Tech business Oxygen

Finance has been based

in Birmingham for 18 months.

We have had a handful of people move

from London to Birmingham, mixed

with the team that work remotely.

The company says relocating made

more than just business sense.

The work-life balance

so the commute is shorter,

there is a lot of investment that

has gone into Birmingham,

you get the same things you get

in London, if not more,

you have large organisations

like HSBC and Deutschbank moving up.

Of course Birmingham isn't the only

place tempting businesses

away from the capital.

Manchester is a great City.

Leeds is a great city.

I can see the attraction,

the short-term attraction.

But the Chamber of Commerce says

London is still the best place

to do business in the UK.

We are a city of 8.5 million people,

growing to 10 million people.

That is a big market place,

you have to think seriously before

you decide that actually for a small

short-term saving, in perhaps

in terms of rents or cost of living,

that you move out of what is a huge,

huge market place.

For some companies, though,

leaving London is worth the risk,

to give their businesses every

chance of success.

Pregnant women are struggling

with their mental health in higher

numbers than previously thought

according to researchers.

The team at Kings College London

found that as many as one in four

pregnant women could have mental

health issues including anxiety

and eating disorders.

Doctors say early diagnosis is key

to help support families.

It's been described as a fairytale,

the meteoric rise of bodybuilder

Michelle Lawrence from Catford.

Over the course of six months,

in between working in the City

and being a mum, she's gone

from novice competitor

to a bodybuilding world champion.

After winning her title in November

last year, she spent some time

with our reporter Jim Wheble,

showing what it takes

to be a champion.

I came away the overall champion,

world champion and in the pro

division now, so I went to Miami to

say I'm going to do this h I am

going to give it my best, but real

Liz wasn't expecting to come back

World Champion.

Michael Palin wrote and performed

some of the most famous Monty Python

sketches and has become something

of a national treasure.

Of course as well as the comedy

roles and writing, he is known

for his travel shows and films.

Well this weekend, his life

and career is celebrated

in an hour-long television special.

There's a danger, I think,

in these sort of programmes

that they sound a bit

like obituaries, you know,

it's Your Life on Screen,

I think it's called.

I'm still alive and

hoping to carry on.

It's a bit like getting lifetime

awards, which I've had one,

a very nice one from Bafta,

but that's it.

You never get a second

lifetime award.

Anything you do from

now on, irrelevant.

From now on, it's, no Michael,

that's just spoiling

the picture, stop it.

Stop working.

And I'm hot going to stop working

because I don't know

what else I would do.

Michael Palin: A Life

on Screen airs on Sunday

night at 9pm on BBC Two.

Now the weather,

with Elizabeth Rizzini.

Good afternoon.

It was a rather wet

start to the day.

We had some outbreaks

of rain around for a time.

That's now pushed its way eastwards

and, for the rest of the afternoon,

we are looking at the strength

of the winds.

We've got a Met Office weather

warning out for some strong wind

gusts, possibly as high

as 50 to 60 mph at times.

That's enough to maybe cause some

damage, possibly some

travel disruption as well.

In the white circles,

you can see the average wind speeds,

but gusts will be a lot higher.

There will be some brighter spells

around, and it's feeling mild,

9 or 10 degrees Celsius,

but a very blustery

afternoon yet again.

The winds will ease down

as we head into this evening -

that warning valid until 7pm.

We may see a few heavy,

thundery downpours develop

through the small hours of tomorrow

morning, but otherwise some

clear spells around.

Lows of 6 or 7 degrees.

A mostly dry picture by the time

we wake up tomorrow morning.

There will still be some showers

around at times tomorrow,

a bit hit or miss really.

Some brighter spells too,

and generally feeling cooler

with much lighter winds than today.

Highs between 7 and 9 Celsius.

Watch out for some showers

at times, of course.

It looks like it will be a mostly

dry day on Saturday,

but it will be feeling cooler

over the weekend.

A chilly north-easterly wind setting

up and some rather cold nights

as we head into the start of next

week, but also some sunshine.

That's about it from me.

Victoria Hollins will be here

with our 6:30 evening programme.

But for now, from us all,

a very good afternoon.