24/01/2012 Look East - East

Hello and welcome to Look East. In the programme tonight: The

shopkeeper who fought off armed raiders with a mop. I looked at the

guy and thought, I do not care how big he is.

Police vehicle crashes - more than 1,000 across the region in a year.

The search for another firm to step in and save 200 council maintenance

jobs. And the work here to discover the

origins of the universe. Hello. First tonight, the shopkeepers who

fought of armed raiders with a mop and a hockey stick. Dinesh Gorania

and his son Kishan were closing the store in Rushden in

Northamptonshire on Friday. Three masked men pulled up in a car and

try to force their way inside, but they hadn't counted on the father

and son putting up such a fight. For Dinesh Gorania, today's papers

are a little easier to sell because he is featured on the front pages.

This is why. Last Friday, as they were shutting up shop, he and his

son came under attack. CCTV shows a masked man with a metal bar

shouting abuse as he tries to get into the store, but Dinesh Gorania

is having none of it. He picks up the mopey has been cleaning with

and use it to beat off the attacker. His son then brings out a hockey

stick. Realising they are defeated, the robbers leave empty handed.

looked at the galley and thought, I do not care about how big he is.

got the mop and I got the bat and we went for them. We just kept them

outside the shop to stop no-one got hurt, that is the main thing. --

outside a shop. No-one got hurt. Dinesh Gorania has been working

here for 20 years and says he has been robbed before, but this time

he and his son seemed to have become local heroes. I think it is

absolutely terrible but the way he has reacted to it is absolutely

marvellous. It is very brave but I think I would have done the same.

It will always be a difficult call for people who find themselves in

this situation because we would always advocate keeping yourself

safe, taking reasonable steps to keep yourself and your family at a

distance, but people have to make their own judgment and clearly the

shopkeeper and his son thought they were doing the right thing. Indeed,

they both escaped without injury and the offenders escape without

stealing anything. Police also say that the car used in this bungled

robbery has been discovered, but they are keen with anyone -- for

anyone with information to come forward. As for Dinesh Gorania, it

is business as usual, but the mop is being kept closer at hand.

Figures obtained by Look East have revealed that in this region in

just one year there have been more than 1,000 crashes involving police

vehicles. These figures come from a request we submitted to our police

forces under the Freedom of Information Act. They reveal that

in the year to last April, Suffolk police had the highest number of

crashes, at 315. Second highest was Essex, which has had 295 crashes,

seven of which led to someone being seriously injured. Norfolk has 419

vehicles which have been involved in 230 collisions. While in

Northamptonshire and Cambridgeshire the numbers were slightly lower.

And we were unable to obtain figures for Bedfordshire and

Hertfordshire. These figures include bumps and scrapes and car-

parking scratches, but also the more serious crashes, like the one

which injured Special Constable Reece Clarke. 19 years old and a

promising young saxophone player, close to his sister at the centre

of family life and a talented academic, but Reece Clarke always

knew he wanted to be a policeman. He used to work with me during the

weekend at weekends he would do eight-hour shifts. It takes 18

months to get into the police, so you have to become a special first.

His role as a volunteer special constable gave invaluable

experience, but in July he and another policeman responded to an

alarm in Basildon and their vehicle was involved in a collision with a

taxi. He has severe brain damage, fractured ribs, punctured lungs.

And he had a bit of a scarred where he had a bash on the side of his

head. A little bit of physio is missing. His family make the trip

to Middlesex every day. And being the mother, you are there to

protect. I just want to make sure that he is all right, but it

definitely has not sunk in. When it does sink in I do not know how I

will react. His parents say they do not hold anyone responsible.

would not blame anyone for the accident, it is one of them things.

I want to be positive. That is all we can say, really. A police

officer will appear in court next month, charged with dangerous

driving, but Reece's parents are fully focused on getting their son

back home. Essex Police told us any serious crash involving a police

vehicle is thoroughly investigated and the driving history of officers

is carefully monitored. Earlier, I spoke to Chief Inspector Adrian

Dawson from Suffolk Police, which has the highest collision figures.

He said the majority of them were minor, but the nature of police

driving needed to be taken into account. Some of the accidents

included on this are as the result of some police interventions and

also some criminal activity in relation to the use of vehicles on

the road. We do take it very seriously and every single accident

is reviewed by a supervisor at the time, an accident book is completed,

and then it is reviewed by driver training. Any issues with a

particular officer are obviously looked at and dealt with. Is there

anything to do with the culture and attitude that maybe when you are in

a police vehicle you feel more invincible in some way? I think you

have to remember that we do not feel invincible. We are there to

serve the public. Sometimes if we're making an emergency response,

we are thinking of getting to help that member of the public and

sometimes that might take priority over some of the standards of

driving in certain instances. all of the officers involved in

emergency response trains to advanced standards? The answer is

no. It is a very intense course that is quite expensive in time for

the officers to go on that. Also the cost of the training, so we

cannot afford to train all officers to that particular level. Talking

of cost, obviously the cost of any collision comes back to the force

in some respect and therefore back to the public. Is this something

that concerns you? Like any organisation, cost is of prime

importance. We are all taxpayers are cells and therefore the money

comes out of our pocket as well as everyone else's. It is our duty to

look after our equipment. We do 7.4 million miles in a year, which is a

massive amount. Therefore, you're going to have minor accidents

during the course of the year to. We would obviously, again, not

being complacent, try to reduce it as much as possible. Thank you very

much. Thank you. People who live near the Coryton oil refinery in

Essex have told Look East they're worried about possible job losses

after the company which owns it said it would file for bankruptcy.

As we've heard, there are also fears that petrol suppliers to

Essex and the South East could be affected. Gareth George is at

Coryton now. It is after dark, when the Coryton's -- the Coryton

refinery's lights come on that you can see it's a vast scale. Many

jobs in Essex rely on this refinery. Places roundabout only really

exists because this industry is here, and people round here are

desperately hoping that this refinery survives this crisis. This

was the reaction earlier today. is not a surprise because we have

been aware of it before Christmas. We have friends who work there and,

yes, I think it has been a matter of when rather than if. Absolutely

tragic. My husband worked at the refinery for a number of years. We

are pensioners. If it was not about refinery I would not have been nice

like that I have now. It would be a shame to lose that expertise from

this area. I think BP should take it over. It is really important,

not just to the town but the Essex as a whole. So what happens now?

Are worryingly, very few tankers have been coming and going today.

Meanwhile, Price Waterhouse, the company trying to sort out the

financial mess of the parent company, is trying to get Coryton

back on scheme as soon as it can. If it does, supplies should hold up.

There is anecdotal evidence that some garages in Essex have been

busier than usual today. The Unite union has said that there is no

need for panic buying. Still to come on Look East: Should we be

told exactly how our tax is spent? And the football club fighting a

bizarre legal battle to stay in the ground it has called home for 90

years. The city council in Norwich says key services such as street

cleaning will be maintained. The existing contractor, Fountains,

collapsed yesterday and made 153 staff redundant. It's the second

such collapse to hit council services in the city in 18 months.

A reassuring sight for Norwich householders today - a their bins

were being collected despite the collapse of the company which is

contracted to do that. Fountains called in administrators yesterday

and made 153 workers redundant. They worked on a contract to clean

streets and maintain parks and cemeteries. A further 60 workers

collect rubbish and recycling, our role which is sub-contractor. Those

workers remained in post. The sub- contractor is not in financial

crisis but is talking to the council about its future contract.

A previous contractor went bust in 2010. This raises questions about

how these contracts have been managed. Services should be

provided in house. The council should provide them directly. It

does not make sense for the council to be paying a private company to

pay people to clean the streets and empty the bins when the council

could do it itself. A our ambition, and we will achieve it, is to make

sure that people do not see any disruption in service. We then have

to think about the provision of these contracts over a longer

period. 52 Fountains staff in Essex have also been made redundant. Both

Suffolk and Essex County Councils have finalised their budgets today.

Once again, both are planning big savings, but they insist that most

services will still be protected. Our political correspondent Andrew

Sinclair is here. Another tough year? Yes, this easier two of the

budget cuts. County councils are always most badly affected because

they have the biggest budget and provide a more services. Essex

County Council have approved �123 million of savings, Suffolk �26

million and Norfolk at �44.5 million. A lot of them will come

from back-office costs, doing things differently, trying to do

things more efficiently. The councils are keen to stress that

services will not be adversely affected. The school crossing

patrol service is still available. We have made sure that the

essential services are there. The people have shown us that these are

services that they value. procure significant services from

outside of the county council. We make better use of IT. It is a real

mix of projects that we have got together to take that sort of money

out of the Budget. But, Andrew, there surely has to be some pain?

Yes, adult Social Services have been badly hit. Some bus subsidies

may go as well. Once again, across the board, most of the job losses

will be in the back office. If they are cutting about -- talking about

cutting back room staff, that has an impact on their ability to

deliver services. It is going to be really huge. I do not think people

really realise quite how deep it is going to impact on services. It is

not all cut, cut, cut. There is more money for broadband and roads,

but no-one is really enjoying this. Thank you. A teenager accused of

murdering her neighbour had a violent past, a court was told

today. Shane Boulton was stabbed to death in Great Yarmouth. Norwich

Crown Court heard Katy Bown had a history of self-harm and violence,

and once pulled a knife on a family member. She denies murder. Essex

Police say the Sunday Times has finally handed over e-mails

relating to their investigation into the Energy Secretary, Chris

Huhne. The e-mails were sent between the paper and Mr Huhne's

former wife. It has been claimed she took the penalty points when he

was caught speeding on the M11. He has denied the claims. In football,

Norwich City have confirmed the signing of Leeds midfielder Johnny

Howson. The 23-year-old has joined on a three-and-a-half-year contract

for a fee thought to be in the region of �2 million. He made

nearly 200 appearances for Leeds, scoring 28 goals. The England

under-21 international injured his knee last month. But he has passed

a full medical before signing. He joins former Leeds team-mate

Bradley Johnson at Carrow Road. A new animal disease which can cause

birth defects in livestock has been confirmed in Norfolk and Suffolk.

It is the first time the Schmallenberg virus has been

detected here. Farmers have been urged to be vigilant. For 30 years,

Robin Richards has been running his dairy farm in Suffolk. Like most

farmers he has had to deal with many animal health scares down the

years. His farm is right next to a rare breeds centre where there was

an outbreak of blue tongue four years ago. With that, DEFRA was

here and we vaccinated. With this Schmallenberg one, it may become

worse. We cannot really tell. One would not consider it at present

danger. Dairy herds are very robust. The new disease can cause

deformities. It first emerged in Germany and the Netherlands last

summer. It spread into Belgium. It was brought by flies across the

North Sea to England. There are unusual signs associated with this

disease, particularly stillborns, abortions and unusual birth defects.

But also with cattle in Germany and the Netherlands they are picking up

on loss of appetite, loss of condition and productivity, fever

and, in some cases, severe diarrhoea. This calf born this

morning is found to be in perfect health. The disease has been found

You're watching Look East from the BBC. Coming up: The cutting-edge

Cambridge science discovering the Let's be honest, no-one really

likes paying tax, but would it be any better if we actually knew

where our money was being spent? If you earn �25,500 a year you pay

�5,979 in tax. Of that, roughly �2,000 goes towards pensions and

benefits. Around �1,000 goes to the NHS. �339 is spent on defence, and

border control costs �20. The Ipswich MP Ben Gummer wants

everybody to know exactly where their tax is being spent. Tomorrow

he is introducing a Bill in the Commons, and we can talk to him in

Westminster now. Why do you think it is important that we know the

detail? Because we have a weird relationship with government at the

moment. They make us pay tax but they do not tell us how it is spent.

If you went into a restaurant or went shopping, you get an itemised

list at the end of the day about what you have spent, but in this

case probably our biggest bill of all, even bigger than the mortgage

for most people, we get no idea of how it is spent on our behalf.

figures are interesting. For example, public sector pensions

costs �797. Do you think this will fuel public debate? Will it caused

controversy with people saying they do not want the money to be spent

on certain things? That is the point it - it is supposed to fuel

debate. Democracy is about having a lively discussion. Today the

national debt past one trillion pounds for the first time. It is so

big that none of us can relate to it. As politicians, it is much

easier for me and my colleagues to try and have a proper discussion

about the priorities that people want and the things that they want

their money spent on. Do you think that the Government is sympathetic

to this idea? Would they be a interested in doing this or would

be just be more people work? Be I have had good noises from the

Treasury. The Chancellor is behind it. Number Ten have been broadly

warm about it. I think there is a groundswell of opinion that we

should have some more transparency and Lawrence -- honesty from

government. It is not a party political thing, it is just about

better democracy and better politics. Thank you very much.

100 metres underneath Geneva is a circular tunnel 27 kilometres long,

and in it the world's top physicists are trying to recreate

the conditions at the Big Bang when the universe began. It's called the

Large Hadron Collider, and it is used to smash atoms together at

almost the speed of light. Scientists from Cambridge have

played a major part in the work so far, and now they are designing the

next generation of equipment to tell us how the universe began.

Shortly after the Big Bang, when the universe was created, the Higgs

boson came into being and has been referred to as the God particle.

Its discovery was one of the main targets of the Large Hadron

Collider. Its collisions are so powerful that they recreate the

conditions that existed shortly after the Big Bang. One scientist

in Cambridge has been working on the project since the very

beginning. I was at the first meeting of the collaboration, which

now has over 3,000 physicists and engineers on board. It has been an

amazing 20 years and now we're seeing the rewards as the results

start a cupboard door. The search for the elusive particle reached

fever pitch last year as scientists spotted something possibly

resembling yet. We had already seen one result, so it is a very nice

hint of a possible Higgs boson. scientists caused multiple

collisions and searched for signs of the particle. It is this

detector that is being updated for the next generation of research.

have people working on the new generation of detectors. We have

been working on them since before the first experiments it started to

-- first experiments started. We will be able to collect data much

faster and they will be much more immune to radiation. Scientists

ought to be able to confirm later in the year if they have already

banned the Hagues bosun. In the meantime, Cambridge is staying one

step ahead towards the future of physics.

Cromer Town Football Club don't get into the news very often, but they

are caught up in a bizarre legal wrangle which could see them forced

out of their ground. The Crabs have played at Cabbelll Park since 1922

when they were bequeathed the land by a rich local landowner. But a

clause stipulated the lease would expire 21 years after the death of

King Edward VII's final descendant. And deciding when that happened has

caused big problems. The King of Norway on a visit to the UK. When

he died in 1991, not many people would have known that 21 years

later his death could mean that Cromer Town football club would

lose their ground. It was given in trust to the club and town by a

wealthy local landowner. This is where it gets complicated. They can

stay until 21 years after the death of the last descendant of King

Edward VII. That descendant was thought to be the King of Norway.

It appears to be common practice that when a charitable trust was

set up in those days, they had to determine a means of deciding its

end date. It was quite common to relate it to the reigning monarch

of the time. Much examination of family trees followed. It may have

seemed clear to some, but the Mayor of Cromer had other ideas. I asked

if there were any descendants of Edward VII born after the document.

I was told that there was the Earl of Harwood who, at this point last

May, was still living. He was a descendant of Edward VII. He was in

being in 1922 because he was in his mother's warm and was born two

months later. This new descendant of Edward VII died last year. That

means the club could have 20 years left at Cabbelll Park. But no-one

knows for sure. What an extraordinary story! I am

What an extraordinary story! I am It has not been the best of days,

but I will start with some temperatures. This is a time of day

when you expect temperatures to be falling but they are, in fact,

lifting. The temperatures will continue to rise through the night.

We have had a warm front crossing the region through the day. There

will be a lot of cloud around tonight, some patchy rain and

drizzle. Things will turn misty over night. By around 5am, this is

where we think that temperatures will be. Tomorrow, the warm front

clears away and we should see drier conditions for tomorrow. In between

the warm front and the next front coming in, which is a cold front,

we will have mild air. During the course of tomorrow, that mild air

crosses, but the cold front is trying to push in some cold air.

Tomorrow will be cloudy and mild. There is enough cloud to produce a

sport or two of rain or drizzle, but it should be mainly dry through

the day. Many locations could get into double figures. The wind will

be light and moderate. As the cold front approaches, it will bring a

band of squally rain overnight on Thursday night. There could be

quite a lot of rain fall on this front. It should rattle through

fairly quickly but it will be a wet start on Thursday, particularly in

the East. There will be brighter skies behind it, much cooler

temperatures. Behind it, or one or two blustery showers. We will be

down to freezing on Thursday night, potentially some icy roads. One or

two showers to start with on Thursday but mostly a dry, fine day.

Some cooler air with us over the weekend. A bit of sunshine on

Saturday, a little more cloud the on Sunday. There are nights where