05/03/2018 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 Katharine Carpenter.

The mayor has said it's

"unacceptable" that thousands

of Londoners still don't have water

following last week's bad weather.

Parts of north and south London

are affected and some schools

have shut for the day.

Thames Water has been handing out

bottled water and says it's working

flat out to fix the problem.

Our reporter Marc Ashdown sent

this report from Balham.

Now, this is one of four impromptu

water distribution centres that's

been set up this morning

by Thames Water here in Balham.

Now, all these people

here we have been talking to,

many of them have been without water

since Saturday morning.

Some people with children, some

quite elderly, quite vulnerable.

Lots of frustration here.

Now, these problems have

affected many Londoners,

not just here in Balham,

but also up the road

in Streatham, Herne Hill,

Cricklewood, Hampstead...

There are bottle distribution

centres set up there as well,

and they are struggling

to cope with demand.

People we've been talking

to here are very frustrated

and quite desperate.

Thames say they have already dished

out 200,000 litres of bottled water.

They are hoping to have handed out

about 600,000 by the end of today.

They do say they are working

on fixing these problems,

and have apologised,

of course, to customers

for the frustration

and a lack of supply.

It's not clear what

has caused all this.

It appears they are blaming

the cold conditions -

the snow, the storm from last week,

and the very old pipes,

when they've thawed,

have potentially cracked

and caused these burst mains,

which has caused these problems.

At the moment, though,

Thames are saying they are hoping

to get supply back on by the end

of today, but people

here certainly, from quite far

afield, are at the moment still

without water from the weekend.

In the last few minutes Thames water

have said that due to high demand

they have now run out of water at

their bottled water site at

Streatham and Balham, but they say

more supplies are on their way. With

regards to North London they say

there is a boost to the Hampstead

reservoir and they are filling it

right now, but it could take some

hours.

right now, but it

could take some hours.

The Metropolitan Police has defended

the intelligence database it uses

to map criminal gangs,

describing it as a vital tool

in the fight against violent crime.

A Freedom of Information request has

revealed that 80% of those

on the Gangs Matrix are black

but the Met says that includes

victims as well as perpetrators.

Alex Bushill reports.

To understand knife crime,

just ask the children who have

to live with the threat

of it every day.

This is the Brookfield

Club in Peckham.

one of one of the kids

who was stabbed to death last year.

The others who knew him well.

It just feels that our friends can

be arrested or can kill somebody,

and our friends can be killed.

It makes me feel sad,

because they are just

losing their life over stupidness.

A lot of the time it makes me feel

scared, but such is life,

really.

Such is life.

Well, it is certainly

true that there's been a

recent spike in stabbings.

The Met says its gangs

matrix is a crucial tool.

It's an intelligence led database

that identifies 200 active

gangs in London.

What is controversial

though is that the

matrix also lists 80% of all gang

members as black, which has

triggered accusations of racism.

How did they get on the matrix

in the first place?

It could be that their cousin

is on the matrix, they go to

football with someone

on the matrix, or just live

next door to someone on the matrix.

If you are black and you are in

a group of more than two or

three, then you are

automatically in a gang,

because the definition is so loose

and so problematic, so it's

also like racial profiling around a

problem that they are going to be

in a gang because they are black.

In response, the Met

says two separate

pieces of intelligence are needed to

put you on the matrix, and that it

can't be racist because it

identifies gang members who are also

victims.

If you are a young black man

in London, you can be the

subject of violence

as a victim, and be

in a gang, and you will be

on the

matrix, and we will look to divert

individuals away from a life of

crime, but are on the matrix.

It's looking at your custody record.

You're 21 years of age,

and you're unemployed at the moment.

Is that right?

And that's where programmes

like Divert come in.

Informed by the matrix,

the Met can and do seek to

from a life of gang violence.

New figures suggest London

is the hardest place for young

people to find an apprenticeship.

The index which looked at government

figures found that 16-24 year olds

in the capital face more than double

the competition of those living

in north-west or south-west England.

The recent broadcast of the BBC's

Blue Planet series seems to have got

everyone from the Queen

to the Prime Minister

talking about how we can

reduce our plastic waste.

And all this week we'll be meeting

the Londoners trying

to do their bit to cut down.

Today we speak to a former

city worker on a mission

to clean up our waterways.

Sean Fletcher has the story.

In 2015, I raced a 70-foot yacht

from London to Rio de Janeiro

and in the middle of nowhere

we found these two turtles caught

in a maze of fishing

nets and water bottles.

It has got yellow and orange

around its front right fin.

Well done.

In the middle of nowhere in this

amazing ocean like it is blue water

everywhere and then you have

all this plastic.

In London 66,000 tonnes of plastic

were sent for recycling last year

alone but nobody knows how much

was simply discarded elsewhere

and while the government has pledged

to ban all avoidable plastic waste

by 2042, some Londoners

are taking action now.

After cycling 150 miles

on the Thames, ex-city worker

Dhruv Boruah is collecting plastic

from canals on board his

floating bamboo bicycle.

In just one hour in the canal

I collected this full load

of plastic rubbish from balls

to Styrofoam packets,

to water bottles, to energy drinks,

to single use packaging.

I can't collect everything

because if I collect

everything I will sink.

The plastic that is being dumped

in our waterways is having a huge

impact on marine life.

A recent study by the Royal Holloway

University found up to 75% of fish

living at the bottom of the Thames

have plastic in their guts.

It is really disgraceful.

We are harming the life

even right here.

Obviously we are harming us

in the end because we are going

to eat the fish as well.

Cheers.

Ultimately we have to go and educate

the young people and make them more

aware of how damaging this

is and how we are destroying

their world, their planet.

We are making it worse for them.

And you can see the full story

on Inside Out tonight

on BBC 1 at 7.30pm.

Now the Weather with Kate Kinsella.

Good afternoon.

Well, it's certainly feeling

a lot milder than it did

this time last week.

We woke up to temperatures

in positive figures.

So we've had a bit of blue

sky, some sunshine.

It's feeling just a little

bit more like spring.

Certainly more acceptable.

Now this sunshine becoming

a bit of a memory this

afternoon as we head through,

as the cloud will start to increase.

We will see some showers and some

outbreaks of rain arriving

coming up from the south.

Some heavy bursts mixed

in there as well, so we are going

to lose that sunshine,

I'm afraid.

Temperatures, though, back up

in double figures at 10 Celsius.

It continues overnight,

these outbreaks of rain,

becoming a little bit drier,

especially towards the south

and the East, but we are then likely

to see some mist and fog developing,

so a murky start to Tuesday.

Minimum temperature again

above zero, between three and five

Celsius, so this mist and fog

will take a while to lift.

When it does, it will be into low

cloud, so it looks like it's

going to stay rather grey,

and a small chance of a shower

the further south and east

you are tomorrow afternoon,

but many places staying dry.

The temperature again

still quite mild.

We are looking at a

maximum of 12 Celsius.

Now, as we had further

through the week, into Wednesday,

various fronts heading towards us,

so it stays rather unsettled.

Some showers around, but also plenty

of dry weather as well.

Thursday, there's that band of rain,

which could just move a little bit

further inland from the south coast,

so it's looking fairly wet

for a time, at least,

as we had through Thursday,

but it is fairly changeable.

Showers, some dry spells,

but gradually you will notice,

as we head to the end of the week

and the end of the weekend,

we are looking at temperatures back

up at around 12 or 13 Celsius.

That's it from me.

Riz Lateef will be here

with our 6:30 evening programme.

But for now, from us all,

a very good afternoon.