23/02/2017 Look East (West)

Hello and welcome to Thursday's Look East.

Train delays, traffic tailbacks and lorries and buses overturned

as Storm Doris sweeps through the region.

Really frustrating cos I've got a long way to travel, you see.

I've got to go back up north so, yeah, long way to go.

"A danger to women" - a judge's words as he jails

Ian Stewart for life for murdering Royston writer Helen Bailey.

A rise in council tax and cuts to children's centres,

the Fire Service and adult social care, as Northamptonshire tries

And celebrating a century but what is 100-year-old Marjorie's

Rail services across our region are in chaos tonight as strong winds

battered overhead cables bringing journeys to a standstill.

Meanwhile several people needed hospital treatment after a bus

Emergency services say they've been overwhelmed by the volume

Mousumi Bakshi has been following developments

Thankfully so far no serious casualties of Storm Doris in this

region. Daniel and service were called out to around 55 incidents

they say are related to the high winds. Much of the chaos is centred

around the roads and rails and tonight the dilemma facing many

commuters is how they get home. A day of lucky escapes and long

delays, strong gusts The driver of this lorry escaped

with minor injuries when it overturned at Brampton,

one of several problems Gusts have been up to 60 mph,

which has caused a lot of issues on the road network,

with debris being blown from trees and high sided vehicles

being blown over as well. And in Cambridge, a man was pulled

from under a fallen tree. My foreman, he said,

"There is a bloke underneath there." He ran across the road

and he was down on his knees, I asked him if he was all right,

he said, "Yeah, it's fine, just need to sit down

and calm down." I said, "You need to buy yourself

a lottery ticket cos you've Those waiting for trains in Luton

didn't feel so lucky. Long queues of commuters waiting

for buses and taxis as all four lines were closed when overhead

power lines came down. I had to cancel my meetings at work

today, which wasn't great. Get used to it after

a while, don't you? I got on a train in Kettering

at just after 7:43am. So I was sitting on the train

for a little while. I'm going off to uni right now

to hand off a report that's due in at three so due to the delays I'm

worried about missing the deadline. Empty platforms and more

delays at Peterborough on the East Coast mainline,

with only two trains per hour. It's very annoying because obviously

I have come a long way for a relatively short time and I'm

going to lose a couple It's really frustrating cos I've got

a long way to travel, you see. I've got to go back up north so,

yeah, long way to go. The main reason for the disruption

we have experienced today is objects, particularly things

like trees, falling down, falling particularly

on overhead power cables, which of course we need

to run our train services. When that happens, our priority

is for the safety of our passengers and the safety of our workforce

and that means we have to go through very concise processes to get

the railway operational again. Sporting events have

also been affected. No racing today at Huntington,

abandoned over concerns for The strongest gusts

across western counties have been The low-pressure weather system

that is Storm Doris has now moved Winds will continue to ease this

evening but the amber warning is still in force

from the Met Office Here in Northampton,

the clear-up finally begins. Traffic disrupted as part

of this wall brought down. As the region's weather returns

to normal, the work to repair the damage will continue well

into the night. Much of that work will revolve

around restoring power to around 2000 homes in temperature but it is

the railways that had seen most of the chaos. Services out of Euston

and St Pancras resumed only in the last hour. Check the website for

updates and tune in to your local radio breakfast stations. We'll have

the latest at 10:30pm. And we'll have a full forecast

for the next 24 hours Next, "cruel callous

and calculating" - the words of the judge as he sentenced

Ian Stewart to life imprisonment. Yesterday a jury convicted Stewart

of the murder of the children's author Helen Bailey at the couple's

home in Royston. The judge said he was

a danger to women. Let's get more from Mike Cartwright

at St Albans Crown Court. Ian Stewart chose not to be present

during sentencing. The doc was empty but the court room was packed. Judge

Andrew Bright directed his comments towards Ian Stewart still. He said

it was difficult to imagine a more heinous crime. He said while he was

married to Helen Bailey he was planning to kill her. Said he was a

danger to women he formed relationships with. He was sentenced

to life, a minimum of 34 years. This case is over and the police say it

is right and proper to work into Ian Stewart's past. Seven years ago his

then wife died suddenly of natural causes. Today the family of Diane

Stewart said they support the police in reinvestigating her death.

Helen Bailey brought joy to all she met. As an author she was best known

for her children's series Electra Brown, but it was a book about

bereavement that brought joy to many. Was dedicated to the man who

would one day murder. She was interviewed about her book. She

brought up the fact that she had been out to dinner with Ian and she

was walking home and she thought a couple of years ago she did not know

this man or these people or she has ever heard of Royston and she

thought, "John, come and rescue me." She said it was only for an instant

and the feeling stayed with her. In hindsight, it is interesting she

wrote that up. Helen Bailey expressing thanks in her book to the

batting boardroom gang. He was known as a family man with community

spirit, helping set up stalls for community events. The news he is

guilty of his fiancee's murder has hit hard. The father of his late

wife Diane says they support the police decision to reinvestigate her

son death. -- sudden death. A neighbour says he remembers the day

the air ambulance arrived and doctors tried to save the life of

Diane Stewart who had been found in the garden by her husband. After her

death, Ian Stewart spoke little about what happened and the family

had support from the local church. He described the family as lovely

and said the two boys were absolutely cracking. He said

everyone around here who knew them were very upset by what has

happened. Ian Stewart showered Helen with affection. He character and

Advent calendar out of wood. She was assaulted. She was bubbly and he was

more subdued. No one we spoke to doubted his intentions. He seemed

nondescriptive, bland, didn't make any impression at all. I could say I

regarded him as being odd but I would ever have thought of him as a

murderer. In her blog, Helen writes about marriage, how she and Ian

Stewart might have 30 years as man and wife. Instead he will spend the

rest of his life behind bars. Another of our councils has agreed

big cuts and a significant tax rise. Northamptonshire County Council says

it needs to save ?58 million over the next year, at the same time

as coping with increased Opposition councillors say the cuts

just aren't achievable. A chance to get together and share

experiences but this dementia cafe hasn't just seen its budget sliced

but cut altogether, while other day The people who are doing these cuts

don't realise what it's The budget for children's centres

is being cut by more than 60%, I would be very isolated if it

wasn't for the children's centre, especially when my little one

was younger, when she was a baby, because I had a little bit

of postnatal depression. So I think it would be terrible

if they cut the budget. Despite members of the public

speaking against the plans, today's meeting approved not only

the cuts but a council Opposition councillors say it

could have been avoided. Demand is rising and one

of the issues around the budget is the fact that they have

traditionally mis-forecast that demand and that is why

they are always scrabbling around each year, trying to

keep up with things. They have concentrated far too much

on keeping an artificially low council tax at the expense

of the vulnerable and those who rely This is the County Council's new,

slightly delayed headquarters. Along with a major restructure

of the authority, it's all meant to help deal with a significantly

increasing demand for services. Last month, the number of children

in care moved over 1,000 In the next two years,

the county's population is to grow by more than 33,000,

and the demand for adult social care The growth in Northamptonshire is

some of the highest in the country. We have an ageing population

and, at the same time, And we have to live

within our means. I think a lady actually said this

morning, one of our speakers, Protesters worried about the cuts

didn't stop today's decision but, with none of the options

for our councils looking easy, the placards may

be back out in future. So that's the picture

in Northamptonshire. Let's get more on how the rest

of the region is doing with our political reporter Tom

Barton. Last year, the government allowed

councils with responsibility for social care to add two percent

to bills to pay for the ballooning But they left it to councils to

decide how much they want to charge. All of our councils opted to charge

3% except for Cambridgeshire, On average, these councils

are putting up bills So what does that mean

in pounds and pence? Well, in areas which have both

county and district councils, most of your council tax is paid

to the larger County Council. The biggest increase in these areas

will be in Hertfordshire, which is adding just under ?60

per year to average Band D bills. While the smallest increase,

of ?23 pounds, is in Cambridgeshire. Bills in these areas are likely

to go up by more than that as district councils may also

increase their share of council tax. In areas with unitary authorities,

where there is just one council, rises are higher

because the councils The biggest rise in these

areas is in Bedford, which is adding just over ?64

to annual bills. While the smallest increase

in in Peterborough, What, then, does all

this mean for councils? Well, across our region,

county and unitary authorities will collect an extra

?47 million this year. But given the increasing

demand for many services, council leaders are warning it's

not big enough. Northampton Saints have announced

that former player John White will take over as chairman

of the club next season. Tony Hewitt is stepping

down after four seasons in the role and will continue

on the Saints' board. Let's join Susie and Stewart

for the rest of Look East, You are watching Look East

with Stewart and me. Coming up: Alex will have the very

latest on Storm Doris Find out what happens behind

the scenes as the TV show During last year's EU referendum

there was a lot of talk about how much we receive in grants

from the European Union. Farmers, businesses,

local communities are all eligible, But they won't be for much longer,

which is why today we got one of the most detailed breakdowns

for many years. It shows how much money has

actually come to this region Let's get some details

from Andrew Sinclair. This list was compiled by the East

of England office in Brussels and it reckons that our region has received

?4 billion of EU investment over the last ten years,

which has helped fund ?12 billion ?2.3 billion of that came

from the European Investment Bank, which loaned money to windfarms

and road schemes. ?800 million went on

research and development. ?660 million in grants

to businesses. There were also dozens of other much

smaller funds giving out grants No, not the slopes of Bordeaux, but

border. Though which chills have border. Though which chills have

entered their own vineyard and "In array, helped in part by ?42,000

from an EU front set up to encourage rural economic development. The

banks wouldn't front us because we are a new business and have no

trading history. We fitted the bill for EU funding very well because we

are going to be boosting tourism in the area and employing local people

here. Improvements to several other nature reserves, and you

freightliner three Ipswich, space research in Stevenage, the

regeneration of Lowestoft seafront. Hundreds of projects in the east

have benefited from EU money, but they are not going to for much

longer which is why one of our business organisations commissioned

this report, to find out just how reliant we are on EU money.

Currently, millions of pounds of European funding comes to support

economic growth and we know that is coming to an end. But we are doing

is to make the case to government to say that here is a whole that has to

be plugged. Those who lead the Leave campaign point out

that we sent more to Brussels than we get back, so the government

should be able to keep funding all the schemes, but with Brexit just

two years away, business groups say they need firm promises. Quickly.

Hasn't the Government given guarantees about future funding?

Only to an extent. The government has said it will continue that

funding until the beginning of 2021. After that I can dig any promises

because the Chancellor doesn't know how much money he will have to play

with as he doesn't know how much it is going to cost to leave the

European Union. It will be up to whatever party in power to decide on

funding and that could change. The feeling is we can't expect to get as

much money in future from the UK Government has from the EU. They say

things like science and technology and transport schemes will probably

be OK, but smaller things like wineries are nature reserves might

not be so lucky in future. As is so often the case with Brexit, we

simply don't know what the minute. There is a lot of uncertainty and

businesses them like uncertainty, but we will talk more about this on

but we will talk more about this on Sunday Politics this week.

Now what do you think is the best way to stay young?

A glass of wine a day, plenty of fresh air and exercise perhaps?

Well, according to one woman from Kettering, it's indoor bowls.

Today, Marjorie Wright has been celebrating her 100th birthday.

She had her telegram from the Queen and, of course,

she is officially the oldest female bowls player in Northamptonshire.

Stuart Ratcliffe has been to meet her.

Happy birthday to you. Cheers! 100 years young. As you

might expect, it is taking a bit of getting used to. You just can't take

it all in. It is funny, really. I can't realise that I am 100. When

people ask me my age and I have to say 100, I can't believe it. But

reaching three figures does provide the perfect excuse to invite a few

friends round. It is a wonderful achievement for her. I have no and

Marge since I was 15 and worked opposite her little shop with their

husbands. You can believe it. When you look at her, she doesn't look

100. She is very active. She is absolutely full of it. She is an

inspiration to us all. Shi'ite to be in beginners book of records.

Reaching three figures also means a certain special delivery. The

switches for you and such a special occasion, Elizabeth R. How does that

feel? I think that's lovely. Born and bred in Kettering, Marjorie has

seen many changes in our own time and the wider world. This cine

footage captures the day her husband, Len, returned from the

Second World War, and this is the first Christmas back together as a

family. Back to 2017, and with the party over, it is a quick trip into

town to visit a place which Marjorie credits with her youthful appearance

and Outlook. I love my balls. If everybody did that when they

retired, it is such a lovely pass time and it stops buying in a chair!

If everybody did that, they would be much better. The polls, that is your

secret to a long life? Oh, yeah. It's been a day of lights,

cameras and action at BBC television crews moved

in for a valuation day Hundreds of people gathered

at Glemham Hall, near Woodbridge, to find out if items they had

brought from home might make Kim Riley was given a look behind

the scenes as the cameras rolled. They started arriving

at the Elizabethan mansion early this morning, armed with family

treasures or items they would, If you found out they were worth

quite a bit, would you sell them? Because they are not something

we particularly want, but we've had them on the shelf

for a long time. On-screen expert James Lewis

was working the crowd. We've already found some

interesting bits and pieces. I found a little bit of an 18th

century scientific instrument, some silver, some porcelain,

a bit of Moorcroft, So already the things

that are coming out The last sort of ten,

15 people to come through the doors are often the people with the real

treasures, so we'll see. Rooms in the hall were then taken

over by hundreds of Flog It fans - the invasion welcomed by the man

who lives here. Well, I'm sort of

getting used to it. Over the years as we've

developed events here, These houses are what they are

and I think to share them with as many people as you can

is a good thing. Eventually, everyone

who came through the doors Cameras everywhere,

but only a relative few will have their stories told

on the final programmes. Even though we might get 500

or 600 people turning up, everybody will receive a free

valuation, but to make the four editions of Flog It that we will be

producing from Glemham, we only actually need to film 35

people with their items and take Sisters Linda and Sally

may well be among them. They brought along a Chinese

teapot reportedly given to their grandmother

by a Romany Gypsy in the 1930s. It won't be very

valuable, I know that. It's just interesting,

the history behind it. We've never seen anything

like it anywhere else. Presenter Paul Martin is on his 16th

series of the programme. It gives you a connection

to the past. We've all got these wonderful items,

little documents of social history, treasures, you know,

examples of Great Each region has a different

identity so we are looking That's why everybody is into this

kind of thing because it gives you a connection to the past,

but inspiration for the future. Selected items will go under

the hammer in Suffolk in March. The programmes will air

in the next 18 months. Before the weather, let's just catch

up with Storm Doris. As we have already told you,

roads have been closed, trains cancelled and thousands

of homes left without power. Mike Liggins is in Cromer

on the North Norfolk coast now It doesn't look very nice there. No,

it isn't. You might just be able to make out the lights of Cromer Pier

behind me. I was on the pier at 5:30pm this afternoon when the

weather was quite corrosion is. We were all struggling to stand up. As

you were saying, there has been a considerable amount of disruption on

the roads and the trains. We are hearing that the Greater Anglia line

between Norwich and London is blocked due to a tree on the line. I

have just seen the photograph somebody Tweeted of Liverpool Street

station that is completely packed, presumably with people struggling to

get home. Severe delays on the M11 tonight due to an overturned lorry.

The Orwell Bridge End Dartford Crossing are both closed. UK power

networks are telling us that 40,000 customers across East Anglia are

without power tonight, so that will be pretty miserable for those

customers. 22,000 of those customers in Norfolk, 4,000 in Cambridge,

7,000 in Essex and 7,000 in Suffolk. It is still very cold and very

miserable and my advice would be to stay indoors if you possibly can.

Our advice to you is get indoors if you possibly can!

Nowhere escaped the Winsock Storm Doris today. This map shows quite

neatly where the highest gusts were. Across the region cost between 60

and 70 mph. The strongest gusts were at 81 macro sonata at way born. This

weather system that is Storm Doris has moved the into the North Sea,

but it will stay very windy, particularly on the North Norfolk

coast. You can see a tree down here in Cromer. Also in Cambridgeshire,

trees are down. Many foot graphs of comments showing the effects of the

storm. Here is the pressure pattern to show where the low has gone. The

winds will turn to a north-westerly direction and that is only really

whipped up this afternoon. The winds will continue to ease. Norfolk and

Suffolk will stay very windy. The Met office Amber weather warning is

in force until eight o'clock this evening. The trend will be for those

winds to ease as we go to the evening and night. There is also

some patchy rain around as well. We have another problem to contend

with, which is clear skies developing and much colder air

coming our way. That will mean a much colder night than we have

experienced recently and we could be down as low as two Celsius, locally

down to freezing, so it brings with it the risk of frost and icy patches

where we have the earlier rain. So tomorrow, I completely different

picture, a much more calm picture. High pressure building in from the

south-west. It will be a cold start to the day and the day as a whole

will feel much colder. It will be largely dry, maybe just the isolated

shower first thing. Good spells of sunshine. It will be significantly

cooler, just six Celsius for some of us through tomorrow, but it will be

a welcome change to to moderate north-westerly

wind and a much more calm picture. For the afternoon, it will turn

cloudy from the West and eventually the chants of some rain arriving in

Western counties by the end of the night. Looking beyond, there is some

changeable weather on the way, milder air coming back for the

weekend but with the chants of some rain for Saturday. It could be

patchy rain first thing before more rain pushes in later. Both Saturday

and Sunday will be blustery. Sunday looks like the dryer of the two

days. It looks like an unsettled start to next week, but not as

windy. Just before we go,

huge congratulations He received his MBE from the Queen

today for services to gymnastics. The 24-year-old, who trains

in Basildon, said he's so proud to add those three letters

to his name. He just started to hold his hand out

to shake her hand, didn't the? Good evening. Goodbye.