:00:09. > :00:13.Susie and me. In the programme tonight. An investment in the
:00:13. > :00:21.future, or a waste of tax payers' money? The Government ploughs
:00:21. > :00:25.millions into more charging points for electric cars. Sacked - the
:00:25. > :00:30.school dinner lady who lost her job after serving pork to a Muslim
:00:30. > :00:35.pupil. More resources for the front-line. The East of England
:00:35. > :00:45.Ambulance Service sets out how it plans to improve response times. And
:00:45. > :00:56.
:00:56. > :00:59.eels in Earith. The plan to return of pounds of taxpayers' money is to
:00:59. > :01:04.be spent installing more charging points for electric cars. Despite
:01:04. > :01:08.the fact that many of the existing ones are hardly being used. The
:01:08. > :01:11.Government announced today another �37 million for the project. In this
:01:11. > :01:15.region, Milton Keynes town centre will receive the most investment
:01:15. > :01:18.followed by Peterborough. There are also plans to install charging
:01:18. > :01:24.points at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge and railway stations in
:01:24. > :01:27.Cambridge and Peterborough. But in a time of austerity is it right to
:01:27. > :01:31.plough so much public money into a scheme that the public don't seem to
:01:31. > :01:37.be supporting? In a moment we'll hear what the Transport Minister has
:01:38. > :01:45.to say. But first, this report from Louise Hubball.
:01:45. > :01:50.Clean, green motoring. Our electric cars the future or a fad that
:01:50. > :01:57.refuses to take off? Many here in Milton Keynes, are they ready to go
:01:57. > :02:02.electric? Yes I would because it saves money and it is good for the
:02:02. > :02:08.environment. If you get a power failure on a country lane, where you
:02:08. > :02:11.going to charge it? I don't think so. Figures released show that one
:02:12. > :02:16.charging post here in Milton Keynes had only been used once and another
:02:16. > :02:22.three for only ten minutes, although the council said has picked up now.
:02:22. > :02:28.We bumped into one motorist who had just taken the plunge. So far, very
:02:28. > :02:34.happy with it. I've only had it for three weeks but I am enjoying it.
:02:34. > :02:37.But elsewhere, charge points have broken down and electric car owners
:02:37. > :02:44.could not get into base to power because petrol cars were parked
:02:44. > :02:49.there. You have technology that can only get you some 280 miles and then
:02:49. > :02:51.takes several hours to charge. But what I think we are moving to now is
:02:51. > :02:56.the next stage on which makes electric cars are real option for
:02:56. > :03:03.considerably more. At the moment there are just age charging point in
:03:03. > :03:10.the whole of the sentence. Milton Keynes already has 13. Cambridge and
:03:10. > :03:14.after Germany have it then each. At the show has 22 points. Some
:03:14. > :03:19.motoring experts say it is hybrid cars, part electric and part motor,
:03:19. > :03:22.which have really accelerated. The Transport Minister, Norman
:03:22. > :03:25.Baker, says the investment boosts the motor industry and jobs, it
:03:25. > :03:30.helps cut emissions and makes the country less reliant on oil from
:03:30. > :03:38.overseas. But I put it to him that despite his argument, people weren't
:03:38. > :03:42.buying electric cars. That is a rapist mystic way of
:03:42. > :03:48.looking at it, not true. straight into rubber the figures
:03:48. > :03:53.suggest it is true. In our region a lot of money has been invested in
:03:53. > :03:56.charging points and some of any been used twice in an entire year.
:03:56. > :04:00.sales of electrical vehicles in the last quarter with the highest they
:04:00. > :04:06.have been by some distance. We have all the major manufacturers
:04:06. > :04:12.producing electric vehicles or shortly to do so. Thirdly, when you
:04:12. > :04:16.undertake something like this, which is to transform a house or product
:04:16. > :04:21.like a car, right across the country, of course it does not
:04:21. > :04:26.change overnight. But there's no point selling electric vehicles
:04:26. > :04:34.unless they are charge points. do they not charge them at home? You
:04:34. > :04:37.need to be a car overnight built to get more than a few miles. You do
:04:37. > :04:43.not, because we're rolling out today rapid charges which will benefit
:04:43. > :04:48.from half �1 million of investment. They will later charge a car within
:04:48. > :04:54.30 minutes. You can pop into the shops only come out again your car
:04:54. > :04:57.is charge. This is the future. experts are telling us that hybrid
:04:57. > :05:04.cars are the future, they give the emissions and do the job electric
:05:04. > :05:10.cars will do but are more affordable. Hybrid cars, I regard as
:05:10. > :05:14.a rich. Ultimately I think they will give away to electric vehicles.
:05:14. > :05:17.you were a betting man, are you some confident that electric cars will
:05:17. > :05:23.take off in this country insufficient number to make the
:05:23. > :05:26.investment worthwhile, that you would bet your life savings on it?
:05:26. > :05:33.don't know about my life savings, but I would certainly have a good
:05:33. > :05:41.bet on it. Do you have an electric car yourself? I do not, but I have
:05:41. > :05:46.no aversion to it. Do you think that the investment has simply become too
:05:46. > :05:52.soon? That the rapid expansion of the electric car market is so far
:05:52. > :05:58.into the future that actually we could have waited? No, I think if we
:05:58. > :06:01.waited, we would like Germany, France, Japan, to overtake us. By
:06:01. > :06:05.getting in early we have investment in this country to rating jobs and
:06:05. > :06:09.we have environmental credentials to go around and send this message
:06:09. > :06:13.across to the rest of the world. A school catering company is
:06:13. > :06:16.standing by its decision tonight to sack a dinner lady after she served
:06:16. > :06:19.a pork dish to a Muslim pupil. Alison Waldock worked for a company
:06:19. > :06:29.which provides school dinners for Queen Edith Primary School in
:06:29. > :06:31.
:06:31. > :06:34.Cambridge. Our reporter Gareth George is outside the school now.
:06:34. > :06:37.Queen Edith Primary School is in a quiet street in Cambridge but
:06:37. > :06:42.tonight it finds itself at the centre of what you could describe as
:06:42. > :06:48.a media storm. And dinner lady who used to work here said she was
:06:48. > :06:55.sacked for pleading numbers compute or pork and today she went public
:06:55. > :06:59.with her story -- feeding a Muslim people. The Queen Edith Primary
:06:59. > :07:04.School School has a diverse catchment area. Today in a national
:07:04. > :07:14.newspaper, the dinner lady called Alison Waldock claim she had lost a
:07:14. > :07:15.
:07:15. > :07:19.job because she accidentally served a Muslim pupil Bob. -- pork. The
:07:19. > :07:24.pupils parents reportedly complained. Today some questioned
:07:24. > :07:30.whether Alison Waldock should have lost her job. I think an
:07:30. > :07:37.explanation, but certainly not sacking. It is a bit extreme,
:07:37. > :07:41.they're going over the top. What should they have done instead?
:07:41. > :07:47.should have taken aside and had a chat with her. Just give her a
:07:48. > :07:51.warning and if it happened again she would be sacked. Now one would I am
:07:51. > :08:01.sure give a chart liberally feed that they should not be having all
:08:01. > :08:03.
:08:03. > :08:07.hell for religious frames. -- for health or religious grounds.
:08:07. > :08:12.letter sent by the company says that the main issue at the disciplinary
:08:12. > :08:18.hearing will be feeding Cameron to Muslim students. I spelt it also --
:08:18. > :08:21.I spoke to Alison Oldham this morning. She said she was not able
:08:21. > :08:27.to do a television interview but she said that she felt what had happened
:08:27. > :08:31.to her was unfair. A member of the Muslim minty also disagreed with her
:08:31. > :08:36.sacking that said there needs to be more education about what people can
:08:36. > :08:42.and cannot eat. In this incident were taught about the Muslim faith
:08:42. > :08:48.but it could be the Jewish faith or people who had an allergy to nuts.
:08:48. > :08:52.Alison Waldock was employed by a catering company called Lunchtime
:08:52. > :08:59.UK. It says it would not cease to dismiss any employee due to just one
:08:59. > :09:05.honest mistake. The plot thickens. Within the last few minutes were had
:09:05. > :09:08.a statement from the head teacher of the school here, Caroline Peet. She
:09:08. > :09:13.says, we understand from the employers of that dinner lady that
:09:13. > :09:16.this was not a one-off event entry to the significant number children
:09:16. > :09:21.involved, the company treated the issue with the seriousness it
:09:21. > :09:25.deserves. It was entirely up to Lunchtime UK to decide what measures
:09:25. > :09:27.to take. After a rough year, with failures to
:09:27. > :09:30.meet response times and the resignations of senior management,
:09:31. > :09:34.the East of England Ambulance Trust has been explaining how it intends
:09:34. > :09:39.to improve performance and regain public trust. Kim Riley has the
:09:39. > :09:43.details. When the trust board member sat down
:09:43. > :09:46.for business today was a new line-up. That month five
:09:46. > :09:54.nonexecutive directors to down, in the best interest of agents, they
:09:54. > :09:59.said. Two new interim replacements have been headhunted. Both have
:09:59. > :10:02.considerable senior experience in the NHS. The chairman said there had
:10:02. > :10:07.been 46 applications for the nonexecutive roles and interviews
:10:07. > :10:11.were to be underweight. As soon as the board is concerned we need to
:10:11. > :10:15.get a permanent team in place and we need to make sure that immediately
:10:15. > :10:21.we begin to turn around something which is taking quite a long while
:10:21. > :10:26.to develop. Issues in a trust like this cannot happen overnight.
:10:26. > :10:32.are determined to make a difference. Absolutely, that is what I voice
:10:33. > :10:38.been committed to in the NHS. public hesitation this afternoon
:10:38. > :10:44.attended by three of the regions and is. The interim chief executive
:10:44. > :10:46.setting course to build public confidence. The aim is true of the
:10:46. > :10:52.leadership of this trust to make sure our response to patient is
:10:52. > :10:57.better than it has been. It is about timeliness, it is by care and
:10:57. > :11:01.compassion, and about clinical outcome. Today was also a shop
:11:01. > :11:08.window for the gambling service. They were setting up a major
:11:08. > :11:10.exhibition of their work. And the trust is actively seeking more
:11:10. > :11:16.community first responders, volunteers trained up to provide
:11:16. > :11:19.vital local care while an ambience is on its way. We provide a training
:11:19. > :11:23.course on all the skills that they need to learn to be first responders
:11:23. > :11:29.and give them the training and confidence to go out there and save
:11:29. > :11:33.lives. Volunteers are urgently needed as part of the trust's
:11:34. > :11:38.determination to listen to its staff more carefully and put more
:11:38. > :11:40.resources into the front line. A decision will be made tonight
:11:40. > :11:44.about a controversial new business park for Wellingborough. The
:11:44. > :11:47.developers of Appleby Lodge say it will create up to 2,500 jobs. But
:11:47. > :11:50.there are concerns the development is in the wrong place, and local
:11:50. > :11:53.roads won't be able to cope. Charles Stockdale is preparing his
:11:53. > :11:58.three-minute speech - objecting to the plans for a proposed new
:11:58. > :12:01.employment park. Living in the village of Mears Ashby, he's just a
:12:01. > :12:09.mile from the site. He says the rich agricultural land will be wasted and
:12:10. > :12:16.the traffic increase will be unbearable. It is taking up 150
:12:16. > :12:20.acres of good quality, great to agricultural land. The bypass at him
:12:20. > :12:24.put on hold so there is no decent thing from the North. It does not
:12:24. > :12:27.make sense. This is how Appleby Lodge employment park is likely to
:12:27. > :12:31.look - it would cost �150 million and should create more than 2,500
:12:31. > :12:33.jobs over the next ten years. But with 100 letters of objection
:12:33. > :12:36.received by local residents, including the parish councils of
:12:36. > :12:46.Isham and Mears Ashby, the planning decision tonight won't be
:12:46. > :12:50.straightforward. It is a difficult balancing act, trying to balance the
:12:50. > :12:54.economic needs of the borough with the impact that it may have on
:12:54. > :12:59.residents in surrounding villages. I think you have to take the overall
:12:59. > :13:01.view of what is good for the borough. There are going to be some
:13:01. > :13:06.road improvements and roundabout improvements carried out. A lot of
:13:06. > :13:13.that will go a long way to mitigating any opulence. If the plan
:13:13. > :13:17.is approved work on phase one is likely to start early next year.
:13:17. > :13:20.Milton Keynes and Luton are facing a chronic shortage of blood donors, in
:13:20. > :13:23.particular the Blood Service needs more young people to volunteer.
:13:23. > :13:27.To highlight the issue, the "Blood Bus" rolled into MK this afternoon.