:11:14. > :11:17.A man is in custody after allegedly threatening police with what's
:11:17. > :11:20.thought to have been a gun. It follows dramatic scenes last night
:11:21. > :11:23.when armed officers were called to Bridge Street in Leighton Buzzard.
:11:23. > :11:33.And as Neil Bradford reports many people found themselves right in
:11:33. > :11:35.
:11:35. > :11:40.the centre of the police cordon. 10:30pm last night, and finally, a
:11:40. > :11:46.peaceful can flick -- conclusion to an stand-off that lasted five hours.
:11:46. > :11:52.Wearing a blood stained jumper, a 42-year-old man is taken away to be
:11:52. > :11:55.questioned. Armed officers sealed off much of late and borough --
:11:55. > :12:01.Leighton Buzzard town-centre. Police were called just as the
:12:01. > :12:05.shops was shouting. Many shopkeepers and their customers on
:12:05. > :12:10.Bridge Street found them -- found themselves in a does the caught up
:12:10. > :12:14.in the drama. This woman runs a bridal shop. She was pitting
:12:14. > :12:18.address when the drama unfold it forced -- unfolded. This picture
:12:18. > :12:22.was taken from her window. Her customers were eventually led to
:12:22. > :12:26.safety. I did not know what to think. There was an indication that
:12:26. > :12:31.someone was in there with a gun, because they would not have had
:12:31. > :12:36.armed police there. I was carrying on working. I had an appointment! I
:12:36. > :12:39.carried on. We kept an eye on what was going on, and it became
:12:39. > :12:44.apparent that both ends of the road had been cordoned off. But we were
:12:44. > :12:48.at the top of the building, so we won't really aware too much of what
:12:48. > :12:53.was going on. This hairdresser saw the situation developed. Initially,
:12:53. > :12:57.I did not think it much of it, but others aware, but that on my left
:12:57. > :13:02.the salon, that the police were anxious about gaining entry into
:13:03. > :13:09.the premises. As more police arrived. I thought there was more
:13:09. > :13:15.to it. Police found a replica firearm at the scene.
:13:15. > :13:25.Army bomb -- bonded but -- bomb disposal experts were called in but
:13:25. > :13:27.
:13:27. > :13:33.90% of people in Northamptonshire will have superfast broadband by
:13:33. > :13:35.the end of 2015. The promise came Council says as part of the same
:13:35. > :13:38.scheme, almost everyone will have at least basic internet capability.
:13:38. > :13:41.Urban areas, are quite well covered already, but rural areas have
:13:41. > :13:47.struggled. The government has given the county just over �4 million
:13:47. > :13:50.towards the project. The private company behind the heavily
:13:50. > :13:52.criticised Surgicentre in Stevenage says it has made changes in the
:13:52. > :13:55.last four months to improve patient care. It follows an independent
:13:55. > :13:58.report into the centre after the unexpected deaths of three patients.
:13:58. > :14:08.Carillion says it's reacted to concerns about the speed of
:14:08. > :14:14.
:14:14. > :14:24.response when patients need specialist care. One of two men
:14:24. > :14:31.
:14:31. > :14:34.found... 25-year-old Frankie Parker While some parts of the economy are
:14:34. > :14:37.still having problems, there is some good news. Latest figures show
:14:37. > :14:39.there's been an increase in the number of self-employed people in
:14:39. > :14:42.this region .. With the biggest increase in Northamptonshire where
:14:42. > :14:44.the number of people working for themselves went up by 15,000 in
:14:44. > :14:48.four years. Our business correspondent Richard Bond reports.
:14:48. > :14:53.This woman used work for a company in a Northamptonshire selling
:14:53. > :14:56.imported car accessories. But she and her colleagues decided to turn
:14:56. > :15:03.up -- take over the business of stop men are factoring in the UK.
:15:03. > :15:07.They were still stop making products like snow plough clubbers.
:15:07. > :15:10.When working for someone else, they picked a what you sell. They do not
:15:10. > :15:14.dictate what they bring in. We can try different things, and if they
:15:14. > :15:18.don't work, we can try something else. It gives us a much more open
:15:18. > :15:24.market to work with, and we are not restricted by what someone else
:15:24. > :15:28.says we can do or make. This man held start of to Northamptonshire.
:15:28. > :15:33.The reason that so many people are starting up his two reasons.
:15:33. > :15:38.Sometimes people need to have some support to their income. They can
:15:38. > :15:46.do it as a hobby. More importantly, we are doing it because they want
:15:46. > :15:53.to have their own business and they can have control of their finances.
:15:53. > :15:59.With cutbacks going on across the economy, it is a neat self-
:15:59. > :16:02.employment that has saved us a much higher unemployment. A head teacher
:16:02. > :16:05.from a school in Northampton says illegal parking outside her school
:16:05. > :16:11.is putting children's lives at risk. She's taken to doing her own
:16:11. > :16:16.patrols and is naming and shaming illegally parked drivers. It is
:16:16. > :16:20.quite clear. The road markings are the same found outside any school.
:16:20. > :16:26.No parking. But some parents and drivers are ignoring the role. This
:16:26. > :16:30.woman is the head teacher. After witnessing several it misses, she
:16:30. > :16:37.decided to take matters into her own hands. All of the road markings
:16:37. > :16:47.are clear. Double marking is unsafe. And against law. She is now outside
:16:47. > :16:50.
:16:50. > :16:54.I have tried to work with parents to stop when parking illegally, but
:16:54. > :16:57.it has reached the point where parents have been so rude to me and
:16:57. > :17:07.verbally abuses there I feel strongly now that the police need
:17:07. > :17:15.
:17:15. > :17:22.to take action. If a car is moving, I will ask them to move. -- parked.
:17:22. > :17:26.I don't think people can understand that they can't park there.
:17:27. > :17:29.police say they don't have the resources. They say that they are
:17:29. > :17:33.working you consider the school and the council say they are doing
:17:33. > :17:43.everything they can. They are repeating signed to make it as
:17:43. > :17:44.