:00:14. > :00:16.the programme tonight: They were taken away for safety, but will
:00:16. > :00:23.children's services ever return to Bedford Hospital?
:00:23. > :00:26.Now the public are to have their say.
:00:26. > :00:30.I am concerned with the consultation, that we may not have
:00:30. > :00:32.an option to bring these services back.
:00:32. > :00:35.That and the rest of the top stories now.
:00:35. > :00:38.Charged with manslaughter - after a fight over a supermarket parking
:00:39. > :00:41.space, Alan Watts appears in court. He's on a salary of more than
:00:42. > :00:46.�66,000, so why has this Cambridgeshire MP taken on a second
:00:46. > :00:49.big-paying job? And, from the electronic wizardry of
:00:49. > :00:59.Cambridge minds to the gadgets in your homes - we meet the company
:00:59. > :01:08.
:01:08. > :01:12.with multi-million pound exports Good evening. We begin tonight with
:01:12. > :01:15.fears that children's services may never return to Bedford Hospital.
:01:15. > :01:19.All overnight stays and emergency care for under 19s were suspended
:01:19. > :01:22.last month after concerns about safety and staffing levels. Parents
:01:22. > :01:27.have been forced to take their children to neighbouring hospitals
:01:27. > :01:35.instead. But some have complained of long delays. Now they're to have
:01:35. > :01:39.their say over the future of local services. Anna Todd reports.
:01:39. > :01:45.Last week, baby Victor spent the night in children's A&E at Milton
:01:45. > :01:48.Keynes Hospital. His family say he was admitted at 11pm, but not seen
:01:48. > :01:53.until 5am the next day. They say staff were struggling to cope with
:01:53. > :01:56.an influx of patients from the Bedford area. People forced out of
:01:56. > :02:02.town as their own hospital is no longer providing emergency care for
:02:02. > :02:09.children. You pray nothing happens, but things do happen and things go
:02:09. > :02:14.wrong, and I would like the security to have the hospital nearby that I
:02:14. > :02:18.could take my child to, rather than having to take him out of Bedford
:02:18. > :02:23.into Milton Keynes, or even Luton or Dunstable. It is different dealing
:02:23. > :02:28.with young children than adults, which is my field. Children go down
:02:28. > :02:32.the tubes far quicker than adults do. They bounce back quicker, but
:02:32. > :02:37.they go off quicker. You have got a limited amount of time in which to
:02:37. > :02:40.catch them. But in June, paediatric inpatient Asian services were
:02:40. > :02:46.suspended at Bedford Hospital due to a lack of junior doctors. Milton
:02:46. > :02:49.Keynes hospital has agreed to take the extra patients. Yesterday, its
:02:49. > :02:55.medical director told BBC it was unlikely the services would return
:02:55. > :02:59.to Bedford, but today, the chief executive refuted that claim.
:02:59. > :03:03.entitled to his view. From a Milton Keynes perspective, we are clear
:03:03. > :03:07.that we want to fully participate in the consultation process, and we
:03:08. > :03:14.would like the right answer to involve evolve over the next few
:03:14. > :03:17.months. The hospital trust said the current changes are interim and that
:03:17. > :03:22.they are working hard to bring them back in a safe and sustainable way,
:03:22. > :03:26.but they say no decisions will be made until there has been a full
:03:26. > :03:30.public consultation, due to start in the autumn. That needs to start as
:03:30. > :03:33.soon as possible. One of the options it to be to bring the services back
:03:33. > :03:37.safely. I am concerned that there is already talk about them never coming
:03:37. > :03:43.back again, and that is not acceptable. Meanwhile, Milton Keynes
:03:43. > :03:46.hospital insists baby Victor was clinically safe throughout his stay.
:03:46. > :03:51.They say, having taken on more senior doctors and nurses, they are
:03:51. > :03:54.well able to cope with the extra workload. The Bedfordshire Clinical
:03:54. > :03:56.Commissioning Group decides where and how people in the county can be
:03:56. > :04:01.treated. It's led by Dr Paul Hassan, who
:04:01. > :04:09.joins us now. The hospital says it's working hard to bring these services
:04:09. > :04:13.back. Why do you feel a consultation is necessary?
:04:13. > :04:22.I think what we have seen is that the services as they were were no
:04:22. > :04:26.longer safe or sustainable. We want on with our public to understand
:04:26. > :04:29.what safe and sustainable services mean. In a town as large as Bedford
:04:29. > :04:33.it would be ridiculous to consider that there wouldn't be paediatric
:04:33. > :04:37.services, but we need to go through with the families, with the
:04:37. > :04:45.children, with the public, and with all the other people involved in the
:04:45. > :04:49.provision of the services arm how we provide, sorry, how we commission a
:04:49. > :04:56.provider of safe, high-quality and sustainable services which,
:04:56. > :05:01.unfortunately, we have not had, up which is why the services were
:05:01. > :05:04.taken, why the GMC took the junior doctors away from the hospital.
:05:04. > :05:08.Having the idea of merging hospital services in your neighbourhood been
:05:08. > :05:13.around for a couple of years, and some people feel it is an easy way
:05:13. > :05:20.of getting rid of services? It would be an easy way of getting rid of
:05:20. > :05:23.services if it was going to happen. As a local GP, I have no views - we
:05:23. > :05:28.have no queues at all about how providers of services, the
:05:28. > :05:37.hospitals, should arrange themselves. What we want to do with
:05:37. > :05:42.our public is commission the highest possible quality of services for our
:05:42. > :05:48.public, and the consultation that we are starting over the next week or
:05:48. > :05:53.so is designed to involve everybody in drawing up the various options
:05:53. > :05:57.that there will be in order to do this. Many thank you for your time.
:05:57. > :06:00.A jury's been told that a man accused of murdering a Milton Keynes
:06:00. > :06:03.teenager 13 years ago was linked to the case after a sexual assault on
:06:03. > :06:07.another woman. Restaurant worker Shahidul Ahmed from Bletchley was
:06:07. > :06:09.arrested in 2010 after his DNA was matched to that found at the scene
:06:09. > :06:15.where Rachel Manning's body was discovered. Our reporter Neil
:06:15. > :06:25.Bradford was in court. So, the court heard details of how Mr Ahmed became
:06:25. > :06:27.
:06:27. > :06:31.a suspect? That's right. It was two years after Rachel Manning's murder
:06:31. > :06:35.when the 41-year-old was arrested. His DNA was entered onto the
:06:35. > :06:39.national database and it was found to match a sample taken from a
:06:39. > :06:47.steering lock found near the scene will stop it was used to eat Rachel
:06:47. > :06:54.Manning around the head of wobbly after she had been strangled -- to
:06:54. > :06:59.eat Rachel Manning around the head. She went missing after attending a
:06:59. > :07:03.fancy dress party. Her boyfriend he was with her that night was
:07:03. > :07:08.subsequently convicted of her murder, but his conviction was
:07:08. > :07:13.quashed in 2008. The jury here at Luton Crown Court must decide
:07:13. > :07:19.whether this restaurant Walker -- workup was responsible for her
:07:19. > :07:25.murder. Other than the DNA, what is the prosecution's case? The jury
:07:25. > :07:34.heard that there was also a hair found on Rachel Manning's clothing,
:07:34. > :07:39.which was probably belonging to Shahidul Ahmed. The DNA and that
:07:39. > :07:44.hair, the prosecutor says, formed the five banks of the case. The
:07:44. > :07:49.others are that Shahidul Ahmed knows the local area particularly well,
:07:49. > :07:53.and also he sold his car just eight days after Rachel Manning's murder.
:07:53. > :07:57.Finally, his previous conviction for sexual assault mean they believe he
:07:57. > :08:00.is capable of this crime. The trial continues.
:08:00. > :08:03.A man has been in court this morning charged with manslaughter after a
:08:03. > :08:07.grandfather died following an argument in a supermarket car park.
:08:07. > :08:13.Alan Watts, who is 65 and from Biggleswade, will be sent to Crown
:08:13. > :08:16.Court for trial. Emma Baugh has the details.
:08:16. > :08:21.Charged yesterday morning and leaving court today on a brief
:08:21. > :08:24.appearance to face a single charge of manslaughter. Alan Watts spoke
:08:24. > :08:30.only to confirm his name in a very short hearing which lasted less than
:08:30. > :08:35.five minutes. He was released on bail with a number of conditions,
:08:35. > :08:39.that he must surrender his passport, that he must not drive or visit the
:08:39. > :08:43.Asda store in Biggleswade. It was less than two weeks ago that the
:08:43. > :08:46.supermarket car park is reportedly became the scene of a dispute
:08:47. > :08:53.between Alan Watts and another man. It was here on Saturday, August
:08:53. > :08:58.three that the argument was reported to have taken place in the disabled
:08:58. > :09:02.parking area. A 64-year-old man Brian Holmes, was later found to
:09:02. > :09:08.have serious head injuries and he died in hospital the following day.
:09:08. > :09:12.Brian Holmes was a grandfather who lived in a nearby town. His family
:09:12. > :09:17.said he had just been given the all clear from cancer. Little is known
:09:17. > :09:20.about the details of what happened, and police have appealed for
:09:20. > :09:26.witnesses. Alan Watts will now appear in court in Luton before the
:09:26. > :09:29.end of the month. He will then face a Crown Court trial.
:09:29. > :09:32.The debate over whether MPs should have second jobs re-ingnited today.
:09:32. > :09:37.Sir Jim Paice who represents South East Cambridgeshire has landed a job
:09:37. > :09:41.as the Chairman of First Milk, the UK's largest farmer-owned dairy. The
:09:41. > :09:49.former Agriculture Minister begins the role in October. It'll only be
:09:49. > :09:53.one day a week, but will constituents support him?
:09:53. > :09:57.I would say it is impossible. On one county has got to look after the
:09:57. > :10:01.people, but he has also got to look after the shareholders, and the two
:10:01. > :10:07.don't tally at all. I think it is a conflict of interest. How can you
:10:07. > :10:12.concentrate on two things? He has obviously got good commercial
:10:12. > :10:17.knowledge and experience which justifies his position. The chances
:10:17. > :10:21.are he will do a very good job. I don't see how it can compromise
:10:21. > :10:25.things. Jim Paice has already announced he'll step down as an MP
:10:25. > :10:31.at the next General Election in 2015. So, why didn't he wait until
:10:31. > :10:36.then to take up a new role? I asked him this afternoon.
:10:36. > :10:42.Well, things don't always work on a precise timetable. It is not too
:10:42. > :10:47.years, it is only 14 or 15 months. Even so, it does mean there will be
:10:47. > :10:50.an overlap. It is a very part-time role that I am taking on. I am
:10:50. > :10:55.certainly still intending to look after my constituents to the best of
:10:55. > :11:00.my ability, as I have always done. But not everyone agrees that MPs
:11:00. > :11:05.should have second jobs. Ed Miliband raised it very recently. People want
:11:05. > :11:08.to put a stop to what you are doing. I think that is outrageous, and I
:11:08. > :11:12.think Ed Miliband is entirely wrong. I don't think the general public in
:11:13. > :11:20.this country want a professional political class with no contact with
:11:20. > :11:24.the rest of the country. There are people practising as GPs, several
:11:24. > :11:28.practising dentists, there are still people doing some teaching - they
:11:28. > :11:35.never get criticised. Either you can do something else and be an MP or
:11:35. > :11:39.you can't. You mentioned salaries. Your predecessor in 2009 was on
:11:40. > :11:44.�120,000 a year. What will your salary he? I am not prepared to go
:11:44. > :11:48.into that. And I will take up the position, I will make the necessary
:11:48. > :11:52.declarations to the register of members interest in parliament, but
:11:52. > :11:58.I can tell you it is a lot less than that. They constituents we spoke to
:11:58. > :12:04.today are quite angry. You can't make comments like that. I don't
:12:04. > :12:07.know how many you have spoken to. Did you go out... Whether they are
:12:07. > :12:16.one, two or five, they are still your constituents and they said this
:12:16. > :12:19.should not be happen happening. Well, no MP gets 100% support from
:12:19. > :12:22.all their constituents. It is not surprising that you will find some
:12:22. > :12:26.constituents who don't like what the MP is doing.
:12:26. > :12:30.One thing the company says it likes about you and why they wanted you
:12:30. > :12:33.for the job, it quotes your considerable list of contacts. Do
:12:34. > :12:39.you feel you are profiteering from your former role as a minister is to
:12:39. > :12:42.mark no, I do not believe I am profiteering from any former role.
:12:43. > :12:49.As a minister, I gained wide knowledge of the dairy industry.
:12:49. > :12:51.Coming from a farming background, I had good knowledge anyway. I
:12:51. > :13:00.passionately believe in the concept of Corporation. This is a business
:13:00. > :13:03.owned by farmers. It is not some big big public plc. If I can provide
:13:03. > :13:10.them with the leadership that they seek, then I shall be very pleased.
:13:10. > :13:13.Sir Jim Paice. Plans to create an extra 500 places
:13:13. > :13:16.for schools in Bedfordshire have been approved today. The council
:13:16. > :13:19.granted permission to three schools, to create new places from 2014. The
:13:19. > :13:23.council says it wants to ensure there are places for all local
:13:23. > :13:25.children at local schools and the population in Marston and Ampthill