18/12/2013 Look East - West

let-up. Thank you. That is all from the BBC News at Six. Goodbye. Now

Hello and welcome to Look East. In the programme tonight...

Full steam ahead as the new railway station for Cambridge gets the

go`ahead. The community rallies round after

heartless thieves steal Christmas presents intended for three

generations of the same family. We will be here later with the rest

of the day's news, including a massive cut in the jobless figures.

We're at the defence company where the workforce has doubled in three

years. And hanging out with the Darkness

before their latest home`town gig. A brand`new ?30 million train

station for Cambridge has got the final go`ahead today. It will be

built on the outskirts of the city beside the Science and Business

Parks and promises to create jobs. There's already a station in

Cambridge but at peak times it can take more than 40 minutes to travel

across the city to the Chesterton area, where thousands of people are

employed. The plan was passed unanimously by councillors but

there's still plenty of fine`tuning to be done, as Ben Bland reports.

A busy stations serving a busy city. There has been talk of a second

railway station just north of Cambridge for 15 years. Now it has

got the go`ahead and passengers are pleased.

Do you think the city needs a second station? It will do, because of all

the building work going on. I think it is too congested here so it will

make sense to give people more options. I think this one is fine

but I think maybe we had better because it will be less busy.

Sounds fantastic. Good news, really good. Convenient for us.

At a meeting today, councillors voted unanimously on giving

permission for the station to be built. It will join up with the

guided busway, while new buses will link it to the new town being built.

And it should be easier to reach the Science Park and the business park.

We have a lot of residents from the north of the city and it will mean

they have ready convenient access to train routes across the country

without having to come into the congested city centre and Station

Road area. This site will be transformed into this. But some

people are worried about extra traffic and commuters parking on the

by roads. Others say the proposed cycle routes are not safe and others

do not want it to be built across a nearby nature reserve. But the

biggest issue at the moment is the noise. At the moment there is noise

from the railway but it is not excessive. In a few years when it

grows the potential for noise will be enormous. This is where the new

station will go. It will cost ? 0 station will go. It will cost ? 0

million but the train line is already in place, it runs along the

back of the site, so the county council says that trains could be

stopping here by the end of 2015. stopping here by the end of 201 .

Councillor Ian Bates is in charge of planning and growth the

Cambridgeshire County Council. The majority of people think this is a

good idea. Why has it taken 15 years? I think the simple answer it

is about some leadership, and we have shown that. We are the

fastest`growing county, plenty of economy and jobs, so the decision of

the Cabinet was that we should proceed. It is really about grasping

the nettle of growth. We need a station. None of this comes for free

and you are going to or the money to pay for this but you have a plan to

get it back? `` borrowed the money. Correct. We will get money back

through tickets and it will mean more than 3000 extra passengers and

we are content with our business plan. People are not pleased with

all aspects of this plan. There are concerns about the cycle path, the

neighbouring nature reserve and the affect on that. A lot of people

worried about packing. These will need to be ironed out. You are

right. I listened to the debate and lots of people in Cambridge talking

about those issues. It will have to come back to the committee to talk

about some of those local, detailed issues, and I am content that that

will be dealt with later on, when we get to the details about parking,

cycling, and they will be dealt with later on. But you know what this is

like. When it comes back to dealing with the community and people want

certain things, it is not always am quickly. Is there are the essential

that these niggles may delay the whole project? I don't think so. The

whole project? I don't think so The big picture has been dealt with

today. What we need now is to work through some of those details that

local people have said they are concerned about. We will address

those concerns next year and then come forward with those details and

everything will be, I think, smooth. Very quickly, cyclists will

be safe under this scheme and people will not find passengers parking in

their driveways? No. There will the plenty of car parking spaces so I am

not anticipating those problems and hopefully there will be no problems.

Thank you very much, Councillor Ian Bates.

In Northampton another multi`million`pound development has

also been given outline planning permission. The University of

Northampton will develop the Avon Nunn Mills site where the old power

station and Avon cosmetics factory used to operate. It will develop a

completely new new campus in a scheme which is scheduled to be

opened in 2018. An 80`year`old woman has been left

devastated after thieves broke into her home and stole the Christmas

presents for three generations of her family. Evelyn Beaver says she

hasn't had the heart to put up Christmas decorations following the

theft. Louise Hubball is at Evelyn's Peterborough home now to explain.

It was on Sunday evening in the hour after strictly come dancing that an

intruder came through this door and straight up these stairs and came

back with a bag of wrapped presents, belonging to the pensioners who live

here. They will furl their `` for their grandchildren and

great`grandchildren are things like personalised towels, aftershave and

perfume. In all it was worth around ?500, the couple say, and if you

come through you can meet Evelyn and Nick. Nick was actually asleep when

the intruder broke in. We are dead `` devastated. It happens all the

time, though, we are just one of the people who got caught. It is just

the shock of it. I am grateful that Michael did not get up to have a go.

Make me you were asleep in that very chair. `` Mick, you were. Yes. I'm

afraid I did go to sleep this particular night and what woke me up

was a draft on my face and I turned and looked and this person or

persons were going out through the front door. So you actually caught a

glimpse? I caught the back of them, not a facial. Terrifying

nonetheless. It is, and the fact that I got up quickly, I might have

got them. I think Evelyn is very pleased that you did not try that.

The one good thing is the support you have seen from the community,

people you have never even met. My daughter met a lady last night and

she has given us a Christmas card with some money in it, and the

support we have got around the square as well as from my daughter

is just phenomenal. You don't know when you are going to need a

friend. That is wonderful to hear, and thank you both very much for

inviting us into your home. The police recommend that you do not put

presents on display under your Christmas tree. You can hear more on

this tomorrow on BBC Cambridgeshire. Homeowners in a Northamptonshire

town say they have been upset by a letter claiming rights over the land

their house are built on. The letters have come from the Duchy of

Lancaster, which is owned by the Queen. They were delivered in Raunds

last week and say the Duchy is applying to register rights to the

mines and minerals under their houses.

It has been their little green space for over 40 years but now Mary and

Arnold Richardson are not so sure, after they received a letter from

the land Registry last week. `` Donald. It looked official and when

I started to read it I thought, oh, my lord, what is this about?

Somebody else owns our land, our little bit of land that we thought

was ours possibly isn't. Apparently we own the surface area, the Duchy

of Lancaster owns what is underneath. Around 2000 people in

Raunds have received the same letter. I turned it over and saw the

government website on the back and wondered what it was about. It is

quite difficult language to understand on it. The Duchy of

Lancaster has come out saying he has the rights, we have the freehold to

our Rome properties and it would be a matter for a legal debate. `` are

own rubber teas. The Duchy has had the rights to minerals since

medieval times. This month Raunds last month nearby

Chester. The solicitor has fielded many anxious phone calls. It is

purely bureaucratic exercise, these rights already existed. I have come

across them in old title deeds and be facetious comment I make is, if

you find gold in your garden, cover it up quickly because it is not

yours. A lot of people are digging deep this Christmas but it will not

be the landed gentry bash your garden remains their property.

In the last two hours it's been announced that victims of the Winter

Wonderland fiasco in Milton Keynes are to get their money refunded. The

are to get their money refunded The Wonderland closed at the weekend

after just one day, with hundreds of complaints from visitors saying the

attraction had ruined their Christmas. Neil Bradford's been

following this story and joins us now. Neil, good news, then, for

those visitors? That's right. As you might imagine over the last few days

we have been contacted by dozens of viewers affect it and it seemed

there were some conflicting messages. While some had claimed

their money back from the money processing company, others were told

that because there transaction was more than 40 days old they would not

be covered. This morning Look East contacted the company directly and

late this afternoon they have confirmed they will be offering

their customers what they call a goodwill refund to anybody left out

of pocket by this event. That includes the Collins family from

Leighton buzzard. Catherine, Declan and their four`year`old daughter

Lacey went to the event on Saturday and were left bitterly was appointed

after paying ?47 to go ice`skating and see Father Christmas. Catherine

told me she was presently surprised to receive her money back, they had

written it off but now they are looking forward to take Lacey to see

Santa elsewhere. PayPal say that if you have launched a transaction

dispute you will be refunded in full and you do not have to do anything

else but they say if you have not you should do so now. A lot of

companies were mentioned on the winter wonderland website and they

were listed as supporters of the event, including MK Dons, the foot

wall team, and Riva buses. A reader buses told us they did not supported

at all. MK Dons have said the same. `` support it at all. They have gone

to trading standards. I have spoken to a special events company which

says they were involved in the early stages but they had to pull out

because the organiser did not take their advice. We have tried to

contact the organiser, Lorenzo Franco, tonight, but he says the

matter is out of his hands and in the hands of his legal team.

Bedfordshire Police is under investigation over its dealings with

the child abuse case involving Lostprophets singer Ian Watkins.

the child abuse case involving Lostprophets singer Ian Watkins The

Lostprophets singer Ian Watkins. The Independent Police Complaints

Commission says it's looking at how the force responded to reports of

abuse made to them in October 2 12. abuse made to them in October 2 12.

The force says it received a complaint from a member of the

public after she reported a suspected incident of child abuse

but there had been insufficient evidence to apply for a warrant

In rugby, the Northampton Saints have been fined ?60,000 for allowing

George North to play for Wales against Australia last month. The

fine's been imposed by Premiership Rugby because the the match took

place outside the International Rugby Board international window for

autumn. followed a thorough assessment of

the needs of the prison system. Still to come. The darkness are

coming home to Lowestoft and playing at the end of the pier. Another

weapon in the fight to raise school's standards. Police officers

out on the streets of expert looking for truants.

There's been a big drop in unemployment in the East. It

underlines our status as the region with the lowest unemployment rate in

the country. The total stood at 176,000 in the three months to

October, a fall of 35,000 on the previous quarter. The East's

unemployment rate is now 5.6%. That compares with 10.1% in the worst

region, the North East. Companies of all sizes are said to be taking on

staff. One large firm, which has been recruiting strongly, is the

defence contractor Lockheed Martin in Bedfordshire.

Warrior tanks have served the British Army for 25 years, seeing

action in the Gulf War, Bosnia and Afghanistan. But they need

upgrading. Lockheed Martin got the job. On the Warrior programme, we

are upgrading the turret, electronic systems and the armour. There are

over 700 warriors in service and the current plan is to upgrade a minimum

of 380. That will take the vehicle to 2040. Lockheed Martin won the

Warrior contract from rival British Aerospace. BAE staff in the Midlands

lost their jobs. Here at Ampthill, hundreds of people were taken on.

Not just for Warrior but other contracts, too. The site is working

on the new Scout tank and is looking at how tanks can fire on the move.

This motion platform imitates movement over rough ground. At

current capabilities, they have to stop to allow them to shoot the

target. The new capability on the new Scout and Warrior programmes, it

allows them to shoot whilst on the move. Therefore, they are not a

sitting target for the enemy. In three years, the Ampthill workforce

has doubled to 900, mostly specialist engineers. Among many

special projects, they provide the technology inside Apache

helicopters. They also find ways of applying military know`how to civvy

street. This visualisation product can be used for command and control

in a military environment but also for civilian and commercial

operations. For instance, wind. It will allow you to know where to

place your wind turbines, in the right environment, so that you get

the right wind density. And also, where not to place it, should you

get too much wind power. Elsewhere in the region, defence cutbacks have

caused job losses. 200 posts are currently under threat at the

Marshall group in Cambridge. By winning business from competitors,

Lockheed Martin has created hundreds of jobs. By using its know`how to

find solutions to long`standing problems, it reckons more are on the

way. Richard is here. So earlier we heard

unemployment was down by 35,000 in one go. Why such a big drop? It must

reflect an improving economy. We have been through a very severe

recession in recent years, and when it started in 2008 unemployment

started to shoot up as you would expect. We are now back on

unemployment times when we were in 2008. Whether people feel as close

as did then is another matter, that is we are. Which sectors of the

economy are taking on staff? It is the private sector will stop I was

talking to a recruitment consultant who said her firm was as busy as it

has ever been, and the sectors she mentioned were retail in a row to

Christmas, food manufacturing, the energy sector and also professional

services. Small and medium`sized firms are recruiting quite well at

the moment, and in this region we have an awful lot of them. Thank you

very much. The police and education officers

took to the streets of Ipswich today to search out children who were

playing truant from school. Suffolk has become well`known for the poor

quality of its education, particularly in primary schools. But

what is perhaps less well`known is that it has one of the worst truancy

rates too. It stands 127th out of the 152 councils in England. And of

course the experts say, if you improve attendance, you'll improve

performance too. Etcher and heading back to school

after being caught shopping this morning in Ipswich. Earlier, a team

of officers were briefed, among them this officer. It wasn't long before

they found children bunking off school. The excuse this boy's mother

was that he needed a new school shirt after staying in one with

beetroot juice. She didn't want to talk to us. Also out of school, this

little girl, although her mother said there was a good reason,

tonsillitis. Mainly they don't encourage children enough to wash

their hands at school. It concerns me, and a public doesn't help with

her getting her tonsillitis as often as she does. There is a huge range

of excuses parents come web. Are you ever amazed by the excuses? It is a

travesty that people are thinking on their feet. I think is a travesty

that the children aren't in school and actually those regions have come

before anything else. Suffolk is near the bottom of national league

tables for attainment. It is also in the bottom quarter for truancy. We

know that a child less than 90% attendance will only have a 74% of

getting pied a disease. So a direct link there between truancy and

spot`on. They caught 43 truants in Ipswich today, eight parents are

issued with a fined ?60. The truancy team says their focus is getting

children back into school, to give them the best chance of succeeding

in life. We have still got banned to come. `` The Darkness. First the

weather. It is going to bring some heavy rain and strong winds already

in Beds. You can see from the radar, the last few hours have shown this

band of rain intensifying as it moved eastwards. It is getting in

the west half of the region and over that the next few hours it will move

quickly. Expect some freshening winds and heavy rain for this

evening. It should rustle through quite quickly, so we should be done

with it by the time we get to bed night and it clears away into the

North Sea. Despite the strong winds, there will start to ease down

the second half the night. There may be some showers but clear spells

developing. Temperatures of two to three Celsius. Tomorrow is a

different feel. It is windy. It would be quite bright sunny spells

in the morning, and temperatures will be on the chilly side, or seven

Celsius, and although it won't be windy, it will feel a bit chilly.

Into the afternoon, an increasing amount of cloud with a chance of

showers. As we progress to the evening, these showers might turn a

wintry. There may well end up going into the English and not really

affecting us, but there is the potential of a little bittersweet ``

Lincolnshire. It should clear through commerce of the rest of

person I'd looks largely dry. In the next weather event, we have got

several at Atlantic weather systems lined up bringing us wet and windy

weather. This one will cause problems on Saturday. Once it gets

the eastern half of the UK it will come to a grinding halt, so we may

well get some rain on Saturday. It may well stick around. If properly

will be here until the early hours of Saturday morning. Before then, we

have got a dry day for Friday. It is going to be on the chilly side.

There should be some sunny spells. Don't forget the potential is there

on Thursday the wintry showers. Into Saturday, we started get increasing

amount of cloud of lead, eventually bring us some rain. This will likely

be on the heavy side but it brings in milder air, so temperatures may

climb to 11 Celsius through the day on Saturday. That rain sticks around

the Saturday night then it is out of the way. It will be dry and cool on

Sunday, also overnight it could well be cold enough for a touch of frost.

Go back to the early 2000s and one of the big bands from this part of

the world were The Darkness. Heavy metal, outrageous suits and never

guilty of taking themselves too seriously. They split up in 2006,

re`formed in 2011 and released a third album last year. Now they're

on tour, and tonight they are coming home to Lowestoft. Gareth George has

been to meet them. The Darkness in their pomp. I first interviewed The

Darkness ten years ago, before they are really hit the big time.

Straight out of Lowestoft The Darkness. Do you remember that

Not at all. Della. After ten years of rock stardom,

they can't remember much. I think we should thank our parents. Denied,

they are playing at a new venue in their hometown of Lowestoft. It is

amazing this is your first gig in Lowestoft? It is amazing. We were

formed in Lowestoft, we rehearsed in Lowestoft. Some of us still live in

Lowestoft. Ten years ago it became famous. There was not anywhere big

enough for us, so it is great somebody has invested the time and

the money in a space that is now going to be hopefully one of the

venues on the circuit for touring bands. As a teenager, you'd have to

go over to Norwich to watch a. Often you would be unable to get the last

train back. You'd have to get a list of someone, and this venue I think

is 800 50 capacity. It is bigger than the waterfront in Norwich.

Hopefully this new venue will bring bigger name bands to Lowestoft. With

a bit of luck it will change Lowestoft music scene. The Darkness

have not lost their loved rock roll. I think it has been our best tour so

far, in terms of performance and five, and also technically I think

we're better than me ever been. It is very cool to be playing rock 'n'

roll. They play Lowestoft tonight and tomorrow. Nothing quite as

talkative as a rock 'n' roll band. They will be fantastic. That is all.

Goodbye.