04/11/2013 Look East - West

Good evening. In the programme tonight. Eight people go on trial

for sexually abusing girls in Peterborough. That and the rest of

today's top stories. Anti`social behaviour in

Peterborough. Police hope new powers will keep it under control. Waiting

for the phone. The villagers cut off a week after the storms. And had

47, watched as a football team did after its worst in 75 years? `` at

its worst defeat in 75 years? Police in Peterborough want new

powers to crack down on anti`social behaviour such as street`drinking

and begging. If they succeed, it would cover the whole of the city

centre. It would mean that they could take offenders through the

civil courts which could lead to tougher sentencing. Emma Baugh

reports. A couple on an evening out in

Peterborough confronted by a group of ten youths. They made threatening

comments about women. The couple cannot be traced and it is no

charges. But it is evidence like this police hope will bring in extra

powers to cut down on anti`social behaviour across the city. We will

patrol the city centre, see if any of our undesirables are about. See

what the plan of action is today. You have just got out of jail? What

was that for? Join us a street drinker who could be affected by the

new order. Police say he has been rehoused three or four times

already. How can we help someone who doesn't want help? It is very

difficult. If police kept a section 222 order, people breaking it could

be brought before the civil court for content. It might mean police

need less evidence and get more robust sentencing. Police hope

others will give them more power, but it is not always so simple. In

Birmingham, they have been used to cut down on street thinking and

knife crime. A judge said he would not give an order because there was

not enough evidence and there were enough laws in place already. Eddie

is a street musician and fears he may be caught out if people mistake

his busking for begging. Is the order going too far? Whilst it is

quite a strong power we will have, we will use our discretion and talk

to people. There will be about range of problems and they will give

people the opportunity to stop what they are doing. People in

Peterborough said is a problem that needs tackling. I live on a road

where people fell through my Hedge End throw bottles into it. I do not

like people being aware of other people's feelings. The kids are on

the street, whereas the parents We had two children on our street at

two o'clock in the morning. You should be more of a police presence

on the street. Drunks walking around with families walking around. It

always worries me. If police get the extra powers, they could start in

the New Year. A court has been hearing about an

accident at a go`karting centre in Cambridgeshire in which an

18`year`old woman died. It happened four years ago. Today the manager of

the company based in Caxton appeared before a judge having previously

admitted health and safety offences. Mike Cartwright's been at

Peterborough Crown Court. In court today, it was described as

a tragic accident. This is a picture of the victim. She was described as

vibrant and fun loving. The 18`year`old was killed when her

scarf became entangled in the back axle of a go`kart. It happened at

the racetrack near Huntington into thousand and nine. She was with

friends. Only one staff member for a so`called after`hours race session.

This man arriving at court this morning, the was the manager at the

time. He along with the company that employed him, Peter Black Racing

Limited, have pleaded guilty to a number of health and see the

failings including a lack of training, inadequate safety

briefings and the equipment. The defence say that at the time, there

were so`called play sessions. These were after sessions where staff

could bring guests. They said senior members like the manager involved

would have to be told and would have to be there. He wasn't told, they

said, and that is why he was not there. They also said his feelings

were only found in investigations after Suzanne's death and they have

not been directly linked to her death. We should have a sentencing

for this tomorrow as this Court For men and four teenagers have gone

on trial charged with more than 50 counts of sexual effect since ``

sexual offences against five girls in Peterborough. Two of the

defendants are just 14. It was in the spark that a girl with

severe learning disability `` that a giggle with severe learning

disabilities alleged she was raped. It was only when she was taken into

care last year that she told her story. At the Old Bailey, four men

and for teenage boys are per chart with a total of 67 sexual offences

against five victims. Most of them are from a Czech and Slovak

background. The man left in the picture, also known as Skinny, was

described as the boss and the charismatic and controlling figure.

For the prosecution, the described the 13`year`old's ordeal.

The members of the jury have been warned they will be a classic

descriptions in this trial of what allegedly happened to the girls

They will have to put emotions and sympathies to one side. The

defendants denied the charges, the case continues.

A businessman from Coventry charged with the murder of a family of four

has entered a not guilty plea. Anxiang Du appeared at Northampton

Crown Court. He's accused of murdering Jeff Ding, his wife Helen

and their daughters 18`year`old Xing and 12`year`old Alice. His trial is

due to start on November the 12th. The family of a teenager has warned

of the dangers of swimming in rivers at the inquest of their son. William

Stringer drowned in the River Ivel in Biggleswade in August. Though not

a strong swimmer he'd gone in with friends. The coroner Tom Osborne

said people shouldn't swim where there were not proper facilities.

This time last week, we were dealing with the aftermath of the biggest

storm to hit the region in decades. Thousands were without power and

there had been major disruption on both road and rail. A week later,

all the lights are back on. But that's not the case with telephone

lines. At Elmdon in Essex 80 people are off line. BT won't say how many

other villages are affected. Around 250 people live here. It is

tucked away, but for the last week, locals have felt even more isolated

than usual after losing their landlines and as spot where mobile

phone coverage is virtually nonexistent. Because we do not have

mobile phone signals, we thought someone would have come in from BT

to explain what has happened. There has been no communication. How would

you rate the performance? `1. We have a lot of people here, some who

are not too well, and BT have left them completely lost. This was the

cause on the outskirts of the village. Two trees tumbled, taking

phone lines with them. It cut connections to around 80 homes. BT

told us today that putting this right will take a significant amount

of work. They need to put in a new poll and 600 jars of cable. They do

say that if the do not see unforeseen problems, everyone will

be back on for Wednesday. FrontPage and consternation to possible

compensation. In the immediate aftermath of the storm, 700,000

homes and businesses were left without power. Many were back on

quickly. But just over 20,000 customers in the East were blacked

out for more than two days and will receive compensation. Anything from

?54 to ?270 to those that run without power the longest. That is

over 96 hours. The total, more than ?1.1 million. If an starting to send

out letters to homes effective `` effective this week. It says it is

committed to handling the impact of the storm. If we do not care enough

to let people know what is going on, they are going to have people

speaking to the cameras, as I am. They feel BT could have done better,

saying they should have had a similar process. A High Court case

against Kettering Town has officially been dismissed after the

club settled a debt owed to their former landlords. The Poppies paid

around ?70,000 to the owners of Nene Park in Rushden for unpaid rent It

means the club, which is 141 years old, can continue to play in the

Southern League. Director Ken Samuel has told Look East he's delighted

the club can move forward. Full time firefighters in this

region went on strike again this morning. It follows a strike on

Friday night in their row with the Government over retirement ages and

pensions. Today's stoppage by members of the Fire Brigades Union

lasted from six o'clock to eight o'clock. The Government wants to

raise the retirement age from 5 to 60.

I will be back at ten o'clock. Goodbye.

morning in their row with the Government over retirement ages and

pensions. The two hour stoppage by members of the Fire Brigades Union

started at 6am. The

still to come tonight, how safe are our level crossings? Within the last

hour, Network Rail has been talking to MPs. We are live at Westminster.

Plus, Norwich's for `` worst defeat since the war. How good as this

season been for canary 's funds? There has been strong criticism

today of a revolving door policy at the NHS, where managers are paid

redundancy and then re`employed a few weeks later. Millions of pounds

have been paid out in compensation as part of a re`organisation of the

health service. The Health Minister and local MP Dan Poulter described

the pay`outs as a waste of taxpayers' money that should have

been spent on patients. More from him in a moment, but first here's

Alex Dunlop. Until April this year, there were 16

Primary Care Trusts in our region. But the government says they were

too bureaucratic and replaced them with the same number of GP`led

Clinical Commissioning Groups. It meant that 29 managers were made

redundant at a cost to the NHS of almost ?3 million. Nine received a

payoff of more than ?100,000. Four were paid more than ?150,000, and

one manager's exit package was worth more than ?200,000. Now some of

those made redundant have gone on to get other management jobs within the

NHS. Those Primary Care Trusts were doing

a good job and didn't need to be disbanded only for those same

managers to then be redeployed elsewhere in the new National knelt

`` National Health Service. That is a scandalous abuse of public money.

Among those who rejoined the NHS is this man, Andrew Morgan. Currently

interim head of the East of England Ambulance Trust, he was the chief

executive of a cluster of local PCTs. NHS Norfolk set aside ?492,000

to compensate him for losing that job. It is not known if he has taken

it. All these payments are perfectly legal, but health unions say the

payoffs are a scandalous waste of money.

Unison members working in health in the East of England recognise the

significance for cuts they are facing, the financial pressures, and

they are outraged that taxpayers' money is going on this rather than

on front line patient services. The Government is now under pressure

to claw back those compensation payments if those who get them

simply walk back into an NHS job a few weeks later.

Earlier today I spoke to the Suffolk MP and Health Minister Dr Dan

Poulter, and started by asking if it would be possible to claw back some

of the money. We are certainly going to do our

best to do so. The problem has arisen because in 2006 the previous

Labour government awarded very senior managers of these sorts of

profligate and unacceptable redundancy terms. We are now coming

to terms with what that means, which is that you have front line staff

feeling pressure on the front line, feeling as if they are being kicked

in the teeth by these arrangements, and also patients that are sought

changed. It is completely unacceptable and we are putting in

measures that will mean in the future these sorts of redundancy

payments to senior managers will not happen again.

`` short changed. When the reorganisation was being discussed,

did anyone say, it will cost us ?500 million in compensation, are we sure

we want to do this two the reorganisation costs 1.5 `` is

saving ?1.5 billion every year by reducing bureaucracy, the number of

blunders and recording costs taking money out of the front line.

`` reducing the number of managers. In the meantime, we inherited this

significant set of redundancy terms that were unacceptable. I don't know

what the previously the government were thinking when they allowed

senior managers to be paid ?400,000 in redundancy. That is unacceptable

and it's short`changing patients. That is why we are looking at how we

can make sure this does not happen again. When we look at this what we

see is that we have a lot of hard`working front line staff in the

NHS. The union is right in condemning this, as well, because

front line staff need more interesting `` more investment. We

need more investment in front line staff, not wasting money on these

profligate payments a consequence of the previous government.

Do we pay people who are accountants and managers more than we pay

doctors, and is that right two you are absolutely right to say that

under the arrangement of the previous government we have a ring

`` we have a situation where senior managers in the NHS are paid...

I am sorry to interrupt you, you keep blaming the previous

government, you have been in power for quite a few years. Shouldn't you

have sorted this out sooner? That is why we put in place reforms

to the NHS, which is saving ?1.5 billion, reducing the number of

managers and administrators, around 20,000 in the NHS, to make sure we

can invest more in front line staff. Part of that is also about reforming

some of the excessive salaries we have inherited from the previous

government. We are putting those measures in place and getting to

grips with those unacceptable redundancy pillage `` payments that

we inherited. We will make sure that we will do better as a government

than Labour did. We will not put money into eye watering redundancy

payments that are eye watering and compromise patient care.

Doctor Dan Poulter, thank you very much.

The head of Network Rail has told MPs this evening that the deaths of

two girls on a level crossing in Essex was a fundamental watershed in

the railway industry. It is almost eight years since Olivia Bazlington

and Charlotte Thompson were hit by a train at Elsenham. Network Rail was

fined ?1 million for breaching health and safety laws, and ever

since the girls' parents have been fighting to make the industry take

the issue of level crossing safety more seriously. Two weeks ago they

gave evidence to MPs at westminster. Tonight it has been the turn of the

industry to respond. Let's join Andrew Sinclair at Westminster.

Network Rail was fined nearly ?1 million for health and safety

breaches after the deaths of Olivia Bazlington and Charlotte Thompson.

At the time the company said they had not been taking this issue very

seriously but that things have changed.

I would say that we are now in a different place. I have to pay

tribute to the actions of the families at the time. Elsenham was a

fundamental watershed for this business. We were in a much worse

place several years ago about managing level crossings and we are

better now, though there are still a way to go.

He went on to save negligent management was responsible for the

deaths at Houghton and he said that Network Rail has risk assessed every

level crossing and you can see that assessment on the company's website.

Apart from being more aware of dangers, what else are they doing to

micro we have also heard from Her Majesty 's Inspectorate of Railways

who said that Network Rail has set aside ?109 million to close 500

level crossings across the country over the next five years.

In the last five years, the company has closed 750 level crossings. Her

Majesty 's Inspectorate of Railways said he would not be unpleasant

about this, but after deaths like the ones we saw at Elsenham, the

industry has woken up. Level crossings in Great Britain are

ranked in terms of the European community as the safest in Europe.

However, the key is all about continuous improvement.

We also learned this evening that Network Rail are looking at the

signage around level crossings, but the company did warn that crossing a

railway will always be a dangerous business, indeed someone died today

in the north`east of England after being hit by a train on a level

crossing. In football, the Norwich City

manager, Chris Hughton, says he is hurting after his team were hammered

at the weekend. But he says he is the right man to turn the season

around. Saturday's defeat at Manchester City

was the worst since the team lost 7`0 at Sheffield Wednesday back in

1938. This result leaves them in the Premier League relegation zone and

without a win in four. Both teams are now just wanting the

whistle to go. Norwich's worst league defeat in 75 years.

Time is ticking, sadly, for Chris Hughton.

He put on a brave face, but this was a miserable day.

At the moment it is hurting, we have let them down today.

Sergio Aguero scores! As manager, I take full responsible

at it. David Silva are arriving!

2`0! We have the choice but to be far better next week.

3`0! When it rains, it pours. And for five days at Bellevue job

goals. Four at United, seven at city, hapless Norwich humour lead

and humbled by successive trips to Manchester. Fans gave the club shop

a wide berth. A lot of fans are very angry. Yes.

No fight, no guts, it was disgusting. I think it is time for

Chris Hughton to go. The danger would be to have a knee

jerk reaction. There are other clubs for Chris Hughton to go to, and if

we're stinted leave the danger is we have nothing to fill the space. ``

and if we asked him to leave, the danger is.

We have to stay positive, but it is not happening.

Norwich are not much worse off than 12 months ago, the same number of

wins, but, crucially, more defeats ` six compared with four after ten

games last season. Fewer points, eight compared with ten, leaving

them 18th in the relegation zone. I have confidence in my own ability

and I have confidence in the changing room. We have been in this

position before, last season, where the start was not as good, but where

we have not been as on the back of a defeat like today.

Not a record Premier League defeats ` that came nearly 20 years ago.

Ipswich thrashed, 9`0 at Man Utd. Both Ipswich and Norwich ended up

going down that year. If Norwich are to avoid a similar fate, results

must improve. Chris Hughton spent millions reinforcing his team.

Performances have not lived up to raised expectations.

A horrible day for Chris Hughton. I think most of us recycle our

household rubbish, but it's not so long ago that things were very

different. Not in your house? We recycle it and

get more back then! He goes to the recycling centre and brings back

loads of stuff that we really do not need!

20 years ago recycling rates were just 4% ` now they are 54% and

rising. 20 years ago we hadn't heard of

recycling centres, either. But, in fact, the first one had just

been opened in Milton Keynes, from where Fae Southwell reports.

It is called a factory for a reason. Recyclable waste is resorted here

with absolute precision. It starts out as a mound of rubbish that is

loaded onto conveyor belts. Paddles shuffle the items forcing

heavy`metal food tins and drinks cans to fall through the gaps.

Cardboard and newspapers are pushed to the front, while jets of air

separate different coloured plastics.

I think there is scepticism that we do not recycle what we take in, but

we truly do. Some people think that by putting a few things in the

recycling it doesn't make a difference but it makes a massive

difference. Recycling was popular in wartime `

the model make do and mend. But it fell out of failure `` favour in the

consumer years of the early 90s. Bill Oddie launched a pilot scheme

covering just 5000 homes. At the time only 4% of all household waste

was recycled. Now in Milton Keynes it is more than 50%.

Extremely forward`thinking, it took a lot of courage for the Council is

to agree to set up a scheme, it was risky and costly but it has paid

dividends. Everyone supports recycling.

At this factory, they sought 16 tonnes of waste per hour, up to

150,000 tonnes per year. Recycling has huge benefits. It protects

finite resources, like oil, used to make plastic. The authorities also

are saving by not paying landfill tax. The council now wants to boost

recycling to 70% of all household waste. It is building a new ?140

million facility to processed rubbish which may have inadvertently

gone into the Blackburn instead. Many people do not realise how

psychical waste management is. In the summer there will be more garden

waste but at Christmas this pile of paper, plastic and bottles will be

up to the ceiling. This month, the factory celebrates

20 years in operation. It is holding an open day for the public on

November the 16th. Looking at that conveyor belt, I am

not sure what he would bring home! Luckily, not that kind of stuff! We

get an off a lot of wood and things brought back.

I am good to be in trouble! `` I am going to be.

Today we had some rain arrived first thing but then it was a nice,

November day. Quite blustery at times but from the satellite picture

you can see this afternoon was largely clear skies and a lot of

sunshine. The clear skies at the moment mean the temperatures are

tumbling. We are already down to around two Celsius. We're looking at

a ground frost in rural areas and perhaps a local air frost for some

of us. Then it will change because this area of cloud and rain pushes

in. By five or six o'clock in the morning it will probably be ringing

across much of the region. Tomorrow, as we head into the early hours,

temperatures rising a little bit. At that point it looks like we will

have light winds, but they are picking up as this system rattles

towards us. This brings cloud and rain but moves east very quickly. We

will sort of cloudy with outbreaks of rain, but as the morning goes on

we will start to see all of that edging into the North Sea with that

weather front and brighter skies following behind with sunshine.

Temperatures tomorrow, similar to today, actually, around 10 Celsius

at best, but it will feel chillier because of the cloud and rain first

thing and also because of the winds, which will be up lustily `` blustery

Westerly. In the east, eventually the rain and cloud should clear,

probably clearing the East Coast by 4pm. Then it is a dry, clear end to

the day. What lies ahead for the rest of the week? Tuesday night, a

dry, clear start, but then the next system arriving during Tuesday

night, bringing more rain. That looks as if it could stay with us

through Wednesday. There is a bit of doubt as to how far north the rain

will spread and how long it will stick around, but as it stands it

looks like the bulk of Wednesday will be cloudy with outbreaks of

rain. Once that has gone, Thursday and Friday are looking better, quite

blustery. Thursday, any showers should be few and far between and

many of us should enjoy decent spells of sunshine. On Friday,

probably a few more showers around and some of them on the heavy side.

Again, not for everybody. That is it from all of us here,

thank you for your company. Good night.

A family memoir that captured the hearts of millions.

A potter telling stories out of porcelain