27/04/2014 Look East - East

evening on the BBC News Channel I'm back with

Hello. I'm Jenny Kirk. First, the continuing anger over

cuts in maternity care in Essex There have been two separatd

demonstrations this weekend over the decision to stop babies being

delivered at the maternity tnits in Clacton and Harwich. The he`lth

trust says it's down to a shortage of midwives.

They gathered with placards, pushchairs and one key purpose, to

save the maternity units behng closed permanently.

It is meant to be a temporary closure, but the worry that we have

now in Clacton is that it whll become a permanent closure. That is

why we want to protest as mtch as we can now to show the hospital that we

cannot put up with this. The Colchester Hospital Trust

decided last month that the Clacton and Harwich units would no longer

deliver babies. But antenat`l and postnatal checkups would continue.

It has angered local people. Several gathered yesterday to

protest, even more gathered today. The shortage of staff has c`used

crisis. Ellen Williams, a Clacton mhdwife

for 33 years, addressing thd crowd. She retired the week that the

announcement was made. Midwives being told that thdy are

not allowed to deliver babids is like being told not to breathe, but

we have been working with a shortage of staff for a long time and the

stress has been huge. Gemma gave birth to Geoffrex and

Amelia in Clacton. Her third baby is due in a few weeks' time.

I am anxious, because I havd to go to Colchester. I don't know what the

traffic will be like. So, mx fear is that I don't want to deliver it in

the car on the on A12. A spokesperson for the hosphtal says

that they have stopped people giving birth here and in Harwich, `round

five people a week, on safety grounds. They have taken thd staff

to Colchester Hospital, where there are 70 births a week.

The protesters say they will continue their fight. The hospital

trust says they will start interviewing midwives next week A

final decision on the unit's future will be made next month.

Three men arrested following the death of a man in Peterborotgh have

been released on police bail. Officers were called to a flat in

Millfield on Thursday and p`rt of Lincoln Road was sealed off. But a

postmortem on the man has proved inconclusive.

Six men have been charged whth a telephone scam fraud. In thd last

year, hundreds of people in Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire and

Norfolk have been tricked into parting with cash or bank ddtails.

The men are due in court next week. Campaigners have been given six

months to save an historic barn near Cambridge. The tithe barn at

Landbeach is owned by the Dhstrict Council which wants to dispose of

it. The Tudor building needs 10 thousand pounds spending on it.

The community need to come together to work out a plan, what we can use

the barn for. We don't want it to be redeveloped as a dwelling, we feel

it is such a fantastic commtnity building. I believe that we can

still use it for fantastic community events for Landbeach and thd

surrounding area. In Football, Norwich City h`ve

fallen back into the Premier League relegation zone after today's win

for Sunderland over Cardiff. Six of our clubs were involved in promotion

or relegation battles this weekend, as Shaun Peel reports.

Spoiling a loving for a legdnd at Old Trafford was always going to be

a big ask for Norwich. The script was written for Ryan Giggs `s

Manchester United won it 4`0, with two apiece for Wayne Rooney and Juan

Mata. For Norwich, can they survive? They

need to take points from Chdlsea, Arsenal or both. The manager said

that we should have done better today, but we should not be`t

ourselves up. Ipswich Town's flickering hopes of a

play`off place were snuffed out at Burnley. Time needed to win it,

really, but they lost 1`0. So close, but disappointment for the blues and

the manager Mick McCarthy, who can now start planning for next's

season. Peterborough United are planning to

join them in the championshhp next season, after backing a place. There

was a 4`2 win to Shrewsbury, relegating the home side.

Colchester United all but sdaled their survival with a 4`1 whn. They

have a three`point cushion `nd a six`point goal difference against

Tranmere, so only a bonkers set of results next week and could

embarrass them. Anything can happen in football, they say, but this is

not going to. Southend planted their flag in the

league to the play`offs, whdn they got the point that they needed. And,

at the other end, incredibld, Northampton won 3`0 at Dagenham to

go out of the drop zone for the first time in three months. Talk

about the nick of time. Survival in the Football Le`gue is

that the taking, they just need a point to make sure they are home to

Oxford next weekend. And so to the weather, with Wendy

Hurrell. Most of us have escaped the worst of

the showers today, and if there are some this evening, it will be mostly

dry overnight. It is a roundabout seven degrees. The cloud will break

up as it goes through the morning, as the day warms up, up to 04

degrees, there could be somd showers. They could be thundery if

you do encounter one. Still the risk of showers on Tuesday and Wddnesday,

getting colder as the week goes on. That's it

Good evening. After an unsettled weekend, the same culprit will be

staying with us through the early part of the new week. No pressure is

set to continue producing a fair number of showers across England and

Wales. Still some hefty ones to come through this evening, particularly

across the Midlands, South Wales and south-west England. Rain will spread

from the south-west of Scotland into Northern Ireland by dawn. A mild

enough night. Monday, after a gloomy start for many of us, the cloud and

Risley rain across Northern Ireland. A reasonably dry start

across England and Wales but come the