28/02/2018 London News

from the BBC News at one o'clock

team. Goodbye from everyone

Welcome to BBC London News.

I'm Alpa Patel.

Snow and ice is causing

severe problems

for people across London, Essex,

Hertfordshire and Kent.

There have been significant delays

on parts of the tube network,

as temperatures plummeted

to below freezing.

Trains and planes have

also been disrupted.

We'll have a full update

for you in a moment

but first here's our Transport

correspondent Tom Edwards

on the day so far.

This was the day London woke up

to a thick layer of snow.

It meant many tricky

journeys and icy roads.

In East Dulwich, this driver slid

down Dog Kennel Hill.

Buses didn't run on some routes,

and this one came off the road.

And those that did run were packed.

For Tom from Twickenham that meant

a much longer journey.

I think snow is going to cause

a problem anywhere.

I understand the difficulty.

But I was hoping that we could

prepare a little bit better for it.

If they had known ahead of time

that it was going to snow,

they could have done a little bit

more prep for it, I think.

There were, again, delays

and cancellations on many Tube

lines and on the trains.

Normally, you can clearly see

The Shard from here.

Dozens of South Eastern

services were unable

to run with cancellations

into London Fenchurch Street.

This is usually

a view of the Thames.

The main roads have been gritted

and salted and, as you can see

are flowing pretty well.

That's not the case

on the side roads.

They haven't been gritted at all.

They are much more treacherous.

That's also the case

on the pavements.

Road surfaces changed

quickly throughout the day.

And some tried their best

to grit the pavements.

Stephen looks after his street.

In this together, and you grit

it as best you can.

As snow showers came

and went through the day,

conditions change from hour to hour.

And vehicles inched around, or,

in this case, gave up.

Commuters, though,

were pretty resilient.

Horrendous.

I'm used to this.

I've been in the

country for a while.

So I'm not too bothered.

Just take my time.

It's not been too bad.

About 20 minutes late or so.

I know my colleagues have

struggled to get in, so...

This time-lapse footage shows London

being hit by the snowstorms.

The bad news for commuters is that

more snow is forecast.

There have been significant travel

problems this morning.

Alex Bushill is here.

Alex, what's the latest?

How bad is it? Starting on the

roads, this is Westminster Bridge,

traffic is moving well, but there's

a fair amount of snow on the ground.

Let's go to the worst affected

roads, the M25 between the M1 and

the M11 is particularly bad with the

M1 closed at junction eight.

That's having a knock-on effect

for all routes around

there into London in Hertfordshire.

Central London is coping much better

but still lots of buses are also

on divert, terminating early.

It's a better picture on the Tube.

This is the travel board and shows

some minor delays on some lines.

Severe delays on the Jubilee,

Central and Piccadilly lines.

London overground has a broken down

train at Kentish Town,

hence delays.

On the trains,

the worst affected are

the Heathrow Express

and Connect services,

which are currently suspended.

And at Charing Cross

South Eastern services

are experiencing major disruption.

It's not just public transport,

because flights have been disrupted

as well.

Some airports doing OK,

Heathrow is not.

This picture was taken

at Heathrow this morning.

Dozens of flights have

been cancelled

on mostly short haul routes.

An additional five inbound

flights were diverted,

including one which was forced

to land at Gatwick instead.

This photo was taken of a grounded

jet at City Airport,

which has been closed.

52 flights to or from London City

Airport were cancelled as a result.

Think of the day as the warm up act

for what is to come. Particular

concerns for the commuter tomorrow

evening. And even more concern, yet

again, perhaps blizzard conditions

for the commute on Friday morning.

And don't forget you can get more

travel updates via

our live page on our website.

The address is on your screen now.

London has some of the

worst rates of

child poverty in the country,

and over the last ten years

things have got worse.

Well, one mother became so concerned

about the situation,

Neo is one of the many children

in London born into poverty.

He came into the world prematurely

at 25 weeks, and as a result,

his mother wasn't fully prepared

for his arrival.

Chelsea has come back to visit

Little Village, the charity that

helped her in her hour of need.

We got a cot and a lot

of stuff to start us off,

which has been just amazing.

It is something that has just been a

massive blessing.

I honestly don't know how

I would have been able to manage.

Sophia Parker setup Little Village

in 2015 to help desperate families

who could not afford the equipment

that comes with

looking after a baby.

Since it started, the charity has

helped over 1,000 families.

Just this week we've helped

a homeless mum who gave birth

on the street yesterday,

we sent an emergency bundle to her.

Over the last month,

we've seen babies sleeping on towels

and on sofa cushions,

toddlers walking around in shoes

two sizes too small.

This is the face of

poverty in London today

and it's on our doorsteps.

Over the last ten years child

poverty in London has got worse

with now the highest rates

in the country.

Ten years ago 32% of the capital's

children were living in poverty.

By last year it was at 37%.

That equates to 700,000 children

living under the poverty line

in our city

and those figures

are never far from Sophia's mind.

We want to keep doing

what we are here to do

which is to help as many families

as we possibly can.

With dignity and kindness.

And yeah, we're just going to keep

doing what we're doing,

helping as many people as we can.

Paul Murphy-Kasp, BBC London News.

Let's return to the

snow for a moment

because despite the the

misery for some of us,

one school in Southend has been

making the most of it.

Are you ready?

Yes!

Staff - are you ready?

Yes!

Go!

SCREAMING AND LAUGHTER

Alleyn Court Prep School

cancelled their PE lessons today -

and instead the children got

to take on their teachers

in a big snowball fight.

It's not quite clear who won -

but both sides look like they took

full advantage of the situation.

Now the weather with Kate Kinsella.

How bad is it looking?

How bad is it looking? We are still

expecting some snow. This was the

scene in Central London, most woke

up the blanket of snow

across-the-board. Temperatures

Whiley down at -6 overnight. These

scenes this morning were stunning,

perfectly blue skies, this was

Enfield Lock. These temperatures are

not going to shift. There is been

further snow showers, moving in from

the North Sea to the north of London

and the Met Office has a yellow

weather warning in place. They are

clearing to the west. Some brighter

spells but the wind is

strengthening. It is a bitterly cold

easterly wind. The maximum

temperature, -1, and with that

easterly wind it is going to feel

much colder. Overnight, one or two

showers, but less so, with cloud

feeding in from the south and the

wind continuing to strengthen

overnight. Again bitterly cold, -5,

-6 potentially by the end of the

night. For tomorrow, we have Storm

Emma coming up from the south.

Further snowfall is expected to the

west of London this time, the East,

perhaps, the North East, getting

away with it a little better but

still some snowfall expected.

Temperatures widely around freezing

and in that bitterly cold wind it is

going to be much worse. For Friday,

a repeat performance, potentially

heavy and persistent snow through

the middle part of the day and into

the evening. Heading through to the

end of the week, more snow is

expected.

A difficult week ahead.

Kate, thank you very much.

That's about it from me.

Asad Ahmad will be here

with our 6:30 evening programme.

But for now, from us all,

a very good afternoon.