08/02/2018 London News

and on BBC One we now join the BBC's

news teams where you are.

Have a good afternoon.

Welcome to BBC London News.

I'm Victoria Hollins.

The High Court has rejected a bid

to halt controversial housing

plans in North London.

Some residents had sought

to stop Haringey Council

going ahead with the

£2 billion regeneration scheme.

It's the latest twist

in a story which has seen

the council leader resign

and accusations of intimidation.

Our political editor Tim Donovan can

tell us more from the High Court.

Residents claimed there hadn't been

enough consultation on these plans

or enough consideration of the

impact on vulnerable people in

Haringey but the judges supported

Haringey Council. There was another

protest last night outside the town

Hall, another meeting about these

plans, and in a sense what happened

legally has already been overtaken

by political events because the

leader of the Labour Council, Claire

Kober, already said that she wasn't

going to be prepared to do the final

sign off. There has been so much

anger and distrust about them, she

said she was going to resign. The

residents here say they will appeal.

I am disappointed on the ruling on

all four grounds the judge decided

not to rule in our favour but he has

certainly left the door open. He

agrees with our QC's points,

particularly on consultation which

didn't happen the way it should have

happened, it just didn't happen, but

he thinks that should have happened

earlier, not when we said it should

have happened, and we dispute that

and need a higher court ruling.

So

it sounds like this is not the end

of the matter?

No, and there is a

wider political row within Labour

with Momentum supporting Jeremy

Corbyn, some accusing it of bullying

and intimidation, and being against

the housing plans, but they said no,

they are just concerned that the

poor might be driven out and today

the Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell

told me he was concerned there was

proper consultation.

I am hoping now

there is a real listening to the

local community and I think that's

what the Labour Party is doing,

because the feeling I was getting

from when I was up there that people

were not confident this scheme would

deliver the secure homes they need.

That's why there needs to be a real

reconsideration.

Haringey Council

has the powers to go ahead but

politically they have put it on hold

and we won't see much more happening

on this until after the local

elections in May.

Tim, thank you.

Do you know what happens

to your rubbish once

it leaves your home?

Many of us are paying people

to take away larger waste.

But one council is warning

of bogus rubbish collectors

who simply dump it elsewhere.

And if it turns out someone has been

fly-tipping your waste,

you could be fined.

Greg McKenzie has been out

with the Harrow fly-tip

squad this morning.

Seen here, the bogus

rubbish collector who goes

by the name of Charlie.

He is accused of conning cash out

of residents and it appears

he's not the only one.

A truck turned up and the lady

next door paid £50.

I just had a feeling

it didn't look right,

so I questioned them

for their licence and the man

was sitting on the wall

with the elderly gentleman,

and he said, "I'm an old man,

I haven't got it with me."

It was a hot day.

Anyway they seemed to bundle it

off quickly once I sort

of challenged them.

On the road with the Harrow

fly-tip squad this morning,

they tell me they are dealing

with more than 100 call-outs

a day and the problems

across the borough are plain to see.

We are seeing it increase.

There's a lot of what we call beds

in sheds happening around

the borough, where people are not

allowed to use the main wheelie bins

or anything like that so they just

dump in black bags willy-nilly

anywhere, and that's

without the mattresses,

the fridges, the white goods.

You can imagine.

And this is just some

of the stuff the fly-tip squad

are collecting on a daily basis.

In here, some building materials,

some tiles in there.

Then back here you

have got a toilet.

This is a toilet lid.

The rest of the toilet is back here,

and this stuff is literally dumped

on the street in Harrow

on a daily basis.

The councils say they have a clear

and strict policy on fly-tipping

and will prosecute those

who are caught, even if they are

duped by the conman.

My warning to residents

is ultimately this is the resident's

responsibility to make

sure their waste is

disposed of properly.

The best thing to do is check people

have a waste transfer certificate

and they get a waste transfer note

to make sure the person that's

picking up the rubbish is legally

able to do that.

And it's not just Harrow who are

seeing a surge in fly-tippers.

Other boroughs across the capital

are also seeing huge increases,

such as Wandsworth and Ealing.

From tomorrow, Londoners will get

the chance to see a slice

of the giant fatberg,

which was discovered beneath

the city's streets last year.

Thames Water has given

a portion of the 250-metre,

130-tonne mass of oil and grease

to the Museum of London

to go on display.

Diana Athill was editor to some

of the greatest authors

of the 20th century and later became

a successful writer herself.

But she was never paid the same

as her male co workers,

and now says she regrets just

putting up with it.

As part of our week marking 100

years since the bill that

introduced votes for women,

Sarah Harris went to meet

Diana Athill at her

home in North London.

Still making a living

by writing at her Highgate

flat aged 100 years old,

Diana Athill says this work ethic

was instilled in her by her family.

I think they were rather modern

in their attitudes to women

and never in my childhood did it

strike me that one was

limited by being a woman.

After leaving Oxford University,

Diana joined the BBC before setting

up a publishing company with Andre

Deutsch.

Despite being equal partners,

their profits weren't split equally.

I mean everybody knew that I was one

of the leading editors in London.

Presumably everyone knew

I was earning a good

deal less than Andre.

You only had to see

our cars to see that!

The one regret Diana has is not

fighting harder for women's rights.

Even today she believes

the push should be stronger.

I've always felt, I suppose,

that getting the vote was important

but I've always felt we haven't used

it particularly well.

There's more we should

have done with that.

She's worked with some

of the greatest writers

of the 20th century,

but it's being an author herself

that has brought Diana the most joy.

The minute I retired

when I was in my late

70s and into my 80s,

I began to have time

to write, and then I wrote.

And then, that was

absolutely wonderful.

I loved that.

And so I got happier and happier.

Sarah Harris, BBC London news.

Now the weather with

Elizabeth Rizzini.

Good afternoon, it was a cold and

frosty start of the day with

temperatures dipping below freezing

last night but lots of sunshine

around to compensate this morning.

It will turn increasingly cloudy as

we had through the afternoon, the

breeze will pick up but it won't

feel as cold as it has in recent

days because we have milder air

coming through and there will be

another weather front overnight

tonight. Quite a cloudy end to the

day as you can see on the map here.

The southerly wind will pick up

again as we head into this evening,

then we have rain coming through,

through the small hours, heavy and

persistent rain. I milder start of

the day tomorrow, up to six Celsius.

This is tomorrow, there will be

sunny spells around but also some

wintry showers, there could be sleet

and snow over the higher ground, but

they will be on and off through the

morning with sunny spells in

between. A lot of dry weather around

as well. A chilly north-westerly

wind, and it will lead on to a very

cold start of the day on Saturday.

Temperatures again below freezing.

This is Saturday's weather, another

weather front will bring outbreaks

of rain as we had through Saturday

afternoon and evening, and it will

turn windy as well. Sunday is

looking like the better day of the

weekend with the chance of showers

are also good spells of sunshine and

it should stay mostly dry.

That's about it from me.

Riz Lateef will be here

with our 6:30 evening programme.

But for now, from us all,

a very good afternoon.