20/03/2018 London News

Have a good afternoon.

Welcome to BBC London News.

I'm Alpa Patel.

Nearly £21 million has been spent

keeping Grenfell Tower

survivors in hotels,

according to new figures.

They suggest that the money spent

would have been enough

to have built the original tower

an estimated three times over.

Kensington and Chelsea Council have

been heavily criticised for taking

too long to find permanent new homes

for those made homeless by the fire.

Let's speak to our reporter,

Caroline Davies,

who is with me in the studio.

Caroline, what more can you tell us?

These questions, this issue, it has

raised questions about what has been

happening in the last nine months

since the Grenfell Tower fire.

Hundreds were made homeless, not

just from the tower but from nearby

estates, and since then, the council

has been trying to find homes, about

210 households. Some were initially

put into hotels and the bill is what

the current total for the families

is. Some of them have been

permanently rehoused, about 62,

others are in temporary housing, 66,

but 82 of them are still in

emergency accommodation, 82

households, and the emergency

accommodation is mainly hotels. Some

of them may have accepted a

temporary home but not moved out

yet. There has been a lot of

criticism at the council for not

moving fast enough to get the

families into homes. The local

Labour MP has spoken about this,

about the fact that without

permanent homes, people's lives are

on hold.

A lot of criticism against

the council, what are they saying in

response?

They point out to start

with roughly half of the funding

will come from the Government and

they have pointed out it is not the

only area they have spent money on,

they have spent £235 million

securing 307 homes.

Thank you very

much for that update.

Residents in Fulham say

their lives have been ruined

after work on a super sewer started

going through the night.

Construction work on the

Thames Tideway Tunnel

got permission to operate 24

hours a day last month.

But people living nearby

say it's preventing

them from sleeping.

Victoria Cook has been

speaking to those affected.

For the last six weeks, the

construction work here at the new

Thames super sewer, Thames Tideway

Tunnel, has been going through the

night and local residents say it is

destroying their lives.

I have been

joined by some of them to find out

more. Tell me a little bit about the

noise you are hearing.

What is it

like when it is bad?

It is like an

earthquake in my flat. My little

girl is very scared, every night she

wakes up and says, mum, can I stay

in the bed with you? She has

nightmares.

David, you have said a

similar thing. What impact is it

having on your life?

I cannot sleep.

I cannot plan anything. I have very

little energy and there is always

the fear of yet another invasion in

the middle of the night, sometimes

3am, and we do not know when it is

coming, they do not tell us

anything. It is getting impossible

to live here now.

You live nearby as

well. What would you like to see

done ideally?

I would like it to

stop ideally and we just want to

sleep.

Ideally night-time

construction work to stop?

Absolutely, if possible, yes, that

would be an ideal outcome.

Terms

Tideway has sent us a statement this

morning -- Thames. They have said

they have done what they can to

minimise disruption but they say

they will take the new complaints

into consideration and they will

investigate to see what more they

can do. Victoria Cook reporting from

Fulham.

The Government is being urged

to increase money for schools

to help deal with the rise

in knife crime.

The Labour MP for Croydon Central

told the Commons that

the problem had reached

what she called epidemic levels.

At least three quarters of head

teachers have had to cut staff,

special needs provision and support,

like mentoring, which are all

crucial in preventing crime.

Now that this epidemic has

infiltrated our schools,

will he admit that school cuts

are threatening our

children's safety?

The department is working

with the Home Office and, of course,

other stakeholders -

police, Ofsted and Health

and Safety Executive -

on updating our school security

guidance to make clear the risks

of carrying knives and to provide

advice on dealing with this

really important issue.

London boroughs have

the highest number of A roads

with potholes in England,

a BBC investigation has learned.

The three worst boroughs

include the City of London,

Westminster and Tower Hamlets.

All three need to repair an average

of 14% of their roads.

The RAC says the number

of drivers breaking down

after hitting potholes has risen.

All this week on the BBC,

it's Sport Relief, with money

being raised to help people

in the UK and across the world

to live happier and healthier lives.

One project to have benefited

from your donations

here in the capital

is the BigKid Foundation

in Stockwell.

Chris Slegg has been finding out

more about the work they do.

Hey, listen, there's zero

communication going on

with you lot...

Shaninga Marasha set up a mentoring

scheme when he was still

at school.

It later became known

as the BigKid Foundation.

Now 35, he has helped

transform the lives of

scores of youngsters

in south London.

A lot of these young people come

from really challenging

backgrounds and what we try and do

is create a safe environment for

them, a space where they can kind

of freely express themselves.

But at the same time,

we try to give them

opportunities to volunteer,

to really give back to the local

community, to give back to the young

people that they work with.

17-year-old Weze says he's struggled

with anger management issues until

these sessions helped bring

structure to his life.

I've been here for three

or four years and

it's changed me because, me,

I have a little bit of a temper.

So it's helped me

to control it and be

welcoming to people who are new to

football, especially here.

The work being done

here is made possible

thanks to money raised by Sport

Relief and funding from the National

Lottery and Government

through the #IWillFund.

The money from Sport Relief

and #IWillFund has helped us

tremendously, because what it does

is make the programme sustainable.

And what the young people

need is consistency.

So it has allowed us to engage

with their parents, engage

with other local organisations

and also give the young people

opportunities to grow with us.

18-year-old Nuno says sports has

provided him with a vital outlet,

having grown up in

an urban environment.

It's changed my life because I've

been a really cooped up

kid when I was younger, and it was

going to continue to be the same

until I found BigKid and I started

coming out a lot more to training

sessions and going on trips and I've

just been enjoying the whole three

years of my experience here.

The work of the BigKid

Foundation and

Sport Relief - proof of football's

power to change the lives of young

people for the better.

What a great project.

ow the weather with Kate Kinsella.

How is the forecast looking?

How is the forecast looking? A

little bit warmer. I say that

tentatively, just a little bit

milder. The scene first thing this

morning, quite a lot of cloud,

temperatures down in low single

figures, it was chilly, but

gradually, the cloud has been

breaking up, sunny spells, they will

continue this afternoon, pretty

decent breaks in the cloud. Not

feeling too bad. The wind is not

quite as raw as on the week and then

yesterday. Feeling a little less

cold this afternoon with bright

sunny spells as well.

You will feel the breeze out along

the coast in parts of Essex, cloud

in the West, in brighter spells,

temperatures up at 9 degrees. Still

patchy cloud around tonight. That

will disappear. The temperature will

drop down to zero. A frost for many

first thing tomorrow. Probably

avoiding it in central London. A

lovely bright start tomorrow, plenty

of sunshine, but quite quickly, the

cloud will move in. Cloudy tomorrow

afternoon, mostly dry, but the

westerly breeze, different

direction, touch milder, in double

figures. Post Wednesday, this big

area of yellow, coming in from the

Atlantic, pushing away the cold blue

air, getting a little bit milder

heading towards the end of the week.

And milder still into the early part

of next week. Still showers but also

dry weather too.

Not a bad week ahead.

That's it from me.

Asad will be back at 6.30pm

with our evening programme.

But for now, from all of us here,

have a good afternoon.