27/01/2018 London News

Goodbye.

Hello and welcome to BBC

London News, I'm Alpa Patel.

A busy road in West London

is still closed this evening,

almost 24 hours after flooding

caused chaos due to

a burst water main.

People became trapped in cars,

shops and restaurants.

And firefighters had to use boats

to carry out rescues.

The flood has now cleared,

but the effects are still being felt

by some business owners.

Nicola Ford reports.

Two bin bags, two elastic bands and

I'm out of it.

This was the scene on

King Street in Hammersmith last

night after a burst water main

caused chaos. 50 people had to be

rescued by fire crews as the water

poured through the streets reaching

three foot deep. People travelled in

this restaurant escaped by boat.

That's the only time they decided

the leave when they saw the boats.

Bin bags, plastic bags, they had

them so they didn't get wet. No

communecation, people in uniforms

walking up and down. -- no

communication. We tried to ask them

what was going on and they said they

didn't know what was going on.

There were people with small kids

and prams.

The water main burst

right outside Ali's corner shop. He

filmed as the water flooded in

despite his best efforts to stop it.

Damaging the food. And the most

damage in the basement. I don't have

any news. No-one answer me. That's

the problem. I know it's happened.

So this has happened. But at least

someone say, I'm responsible.

No-one, hundreds people outside and

no-one answering. Only this shop is

damaged.

Flooding stopped just after

Midnight and now the focus is on the

clean-up then the repairs. There

have been apologies for disruptions

caused and it's hoped things will be

back to normal as soon as possible.

It's not the first time Thames Water

has run into trouble. Last year, the

company was fined more than £8

million for failing to reduce

incidents like this. Staff from

Thames Water were at the scene today

talking to those affected.

Businesses and residents will be

hoping that help soon follows.

Councils across London have raised

concerns about companies

using a loophole in the law to put

up telephone boxes only to use them

as advertising billboards.

The Local Government Association

says applications have risen 10

fold, but often the phone boxes

do not even include a working phone.

Westminster received the highest

number of applications,

the council says the loophole

should be closed.

Behind them are not Telecoms

companies, they're advertising

companies who've found a way to put

something on the street that allows

them to advertise and bypass the

rules that we have as a local

authority. They don't offer Wi-Fi

despite they advertise they do offer

it.

All petrol and diesel vehicles

could be banned at peak times

from part of east London,

under new plans being considered

by Hackney and Islington councils.

Only the very cleanest will be

allowed into some roads

in Shoreditch which are among those

with the worst air

quality in the Capital.

It's hoped the measures will help

reduce air and noise

pollution in the area.

Time for the weather

here's Georgina Burnett.

That's it from me and the team,

there's plenty more on our website,

We had beautiful weather captured by

weather-watchers today. We are going

to see the back of the rain as it

moves off to the east. Also it's

been drawing in some milder air, so

that will be noticeable overnight.

We are holding on to a lot of cloud

and it does look like it should stay

dry once the rain's cleared. The

winds ease too. Temperatures getting

down to seven or eight. It's a

cloudy day to finish off the weekend

tomorrow but it's looking mainly

dry. We can't rule out one or two

spots of drizzle. Most of us should

have a dry day. Certainly much

milder with highs of 13. We may even

scrape a 14. Now, as we head through

the week, it's looking changeable

and it looks like we could have some

wintry showers on Wednesday.

That's it from me and the team,

there's plenty more on our website,

which is on your screen now.