13/04/2017 Look East (West)

Quality care - what makes care homes in Bedford and Peterborough among

Staff and most important asset in a care home, they are the people that

make a difference. Roaming freee - egg producers

let their hens out after months The slow road to recovery

for a sprinter injured And is this the new

Ice Bucket Challenge? The Cambridge trombonist who's

started a global craze. Our region has some of the best

quality care homes in the country. Research by Independent Age,

the older people's charity, reveals that 81% of our care homes

are good or outstanding. Peterborough and Bedford

lead the way, where over But in Luton and Central

Bedfordshire, 21% of homes Emma Baugh has been to a home

in Peterborough to see how they manage to provide a good

service in tight financial times. Creating a home from home -

letting people have pets to stroke The home has been ranked

as the best in the city, by the relatives

of those living here. She has been at Philia

Lodge for 17 years. For her, it's the way

she's looked after. I'm treated properly,

with respect, and Many of our residents may have had

to have left their personal We facilitated for them

to be able to bring those personal possessions here,

to make it that home from home experience,

that they haven't had While the care system is facing

financial pressures, this home is helped by the economy

of scale of being part of a It pays above the living wage,

with an emphasis on training and It is the staff, as I

said, the commitment, Your staff are your

most important asset within a care home,

because they are the people that make the difference

in delivering care. The home here has been

rated as good for the quality of care it gives

its residents, along with 90% But, with increasing pressure

on funding and an ever ageing population, how sustainable

is that for the future? Like many towns and cities

across the UK, we are a growing city -

we have high growth targets for Peterborough, so we have started

to work now on the five-year view for Peterborough,

what that might look like, and what So then we can start

to commission new services and different services now,

so that they are ready to go from the point at which the

population needs them. Both here and in Bedfordshire

they have the highest number of homes rated good or above,

and overall this region fares better Emma Baugh, BBC Look

East, Peterborough. Emma - some great work

in our care homes there - but presumably most people

would prefer to stay Yes, where possible -

that's better for them and eases So Peterborough City Council has

a scheme where they modify people's homes, so they can stay

in them for longer. I've been to see one of them -

Doris Neal who's 93 - they put in a lift and insulated her

home, so that she could stay. So now I can get in and out

with my rollator and it's wonderful, it's

really smashing. The council says having the care

packages in people's own homes plus having good quality care homes

means they can leave hospital In fact, Peterborough has one

of the lowest rates of delayed discharges from hospital

in the country. Elsewhere in the region they're

working to try and ease pressures, but some have some way to go

to catch up. Next tonight, the Chinese community

in Milton Keynes is demanding police do more to protect them,

following the murder 64-year-old Hang Yin Leung died

in hospital, after a gang of men forced their way

into her home in January. But Thames Valley Police says

there's no evidence the Chinese Kate Bradbrook has been to met

Hang Yin Leung's son, Keith. I at least accept

what has happened now. It is now two months

since Keith Leung's mother, Hang Yin, died following a burglary

here at her home in Milton Keynes. Dad has lost one of his

closest friends, actually. And there is no one for dad

to come home to any more. The six men forced their way in,

knocking Mrs Leung, who was a retired Hong Kong police

officer, to the ground. No one has yet been

charged with her murder. The fact that these people

are still at large, I really hope that nobody has to go

through the trauma that we had to go through, or have their homes

and houses ransacked. The family run a takeaway

restaurant and there is concern within the Chinese community

that criminals are targeting Now three Chinese

churches in the area have written to the Chief Constable

of Thames Valley Police, seeking A lot of them, if they are in

the catering trade, the perception is that they are a cash

community, they will have a lot of cash at home or in the business -

they can take advantage of that. Do you feel that the police,

the council are doing enough to Because we feel that we have been

let down by the authority, and a lot of the time when incidents

happen it seems we are only left This is the letter outlining

the community's concerns, and this is a reply from Thames Valley

Police. They say only 4% of burglaries

in Milton Keynes affect the Both the council leader

here and also police officers have now spoken with members

of the church. The Force says it's doing all it can

to bring the killers Kate Bradbrook, BBC

Look East, in Milton Keynes. Free range poultry can finally roam

outside once more today, with the lifting of bird flu

restrictions. Producers were ordered to shut

their birds inside in December, to protect them from the H5N8

strain of avian flu. It was feared migrating

birds arriving in the UK for the winter could infect hens

with the deadly virus. After four months locked away,

the first few steps But where one hen led,

the others quickly followed. Brilliant, it's just

a perfect time, with Easter. Spring is a lovely time

for the hens anyway, with everything coming into leaf,

and to be able to have the hens out here, enjoying the trees,

doing what they are meant to be doing, is just a different class,

it's brilliant, it's what we've been And this is what life

was like after restrictions Measures designed to prevent

an outbreak like this one Defra managed to make

a very good decision. At the time it was quite

a risky decision - no-one was sure they were doing

the right thing. But I think it has proven

that it was the right decision. We've only had a few cases of avian

flu in this country now, compared to parts of

Europe which have seen It has become a very

serious threat to us. Although these hens are now enjoying

the great outdoors a full protection zone and bio-security

measures remain in place. But a real fear of farmers

is that these avian flu restrictions become

an annual event. But the lifting of last year's

restrictions is not only good news for commercial farmers,

it is welcome news for farms It's just the freedom

now which is good. We haven't got to panic

about bio-security quite as much as we have, we haven't

got to panic on a daily basis as to whether we're

going to be impacted. We are not news-watching

all the time now, which is good. Back at Wood Farm today

marks a welcome return to normality, a normality

which everyone hopes won't be interrupted by more

restrictions next winter. So will poultry farmers find

themselves in the same I spoke to the Government's

Chief Veterinary Officer, Professor Nigel Gibbens,

and asked if bird flu Bird flu is a natural part

of the ecology of birds. Bird flu viruses have been

around for many, many years - hundreds,

thousands of years - and they constantly cycle in birds

in the far east, and that That means there is

a threat through migrating birds, and that will

vary year on year. And the flu viruses -

as we know from human flu viruses, that constantly evolve,

such that we have to have different vaccinations every

year - so we have to be alert to that and tailor our response

as carefully as we can. Do you think we'll ever see

widespread immunisation projects for poultry, so that they

resist these diseases? Vaccines do exist, not to this

strain that we've just had, but they are injectable -

they are very difficult to apply. If you imagine the thousands

of birds in a commercial poultry flock, to inject them all is not

a sensible proposition. But other methods of

applying vaccine are being looked for - aerosols,

that kind of thing. How far off do you

think we might be? This is difficult, this

is very difficult research. There is nothing in prospect

in the immediate future. So we will, I'm afraid,

have to do continue to work with the effective tools that we have -

getting on top of it very quickly and stamping it out again

where we have had success this year. Part of a new road that

will ease congestion The road connects the

Woodside Industrial Estate That junction and the A5-M1

Dunstable bypass is due to fully For the moment it will just serve

local traffic in Houghton Regis. That is all from me for now in our

late news. Street. The work could affect other

parts of the region, so the advice is to check before you travel.

Alex will be looking ahead to the weather

It's three months now since the Olympic sprinter

Nigel Levine suffered a serious motorbike crash in Tenerife

Speaking for this first about the accident,

he accepts he will be out of contention for 18 months.

But the man from Bedfordshire is determined he will be back,

Nigel Levine, in crutches but among friends.

Recovering and recuperating after a horrendous bike crash.

An experience biker, he was sightseeing and Tenerife

with his team-mate when a car swerved and hit them.

When I realised I couldn't move, I was like, this

And I asked James if he could move, and he said, no.

First of all, when it happens, you don't believe it.

Then you pinch yourself and you realise this

Levine was on a team training camp when the accident happened.

He had a biker's license and claimed that British Athletics didn't stop

Levine broke his pelvis and was in hospital for a month.

His team-mate James Ellington broke his pelvis and both his legs.

I'm not angry any more because these things happen.

There are certain things you can't avoid.

I have just got to accept it and I have accepted what has

happened, and I am grateful to be well and alive.

Levine is a key member of Britain's relay team.

He has featured in two Olympics and has won eight

championship medals, the highlight being

He is now out of competitive action for 18 months and is unsure

I will be back on the international scene.

I fully believe I will be back on the scene.

It is going to be a tough one but it is not impossible.

Levine is still deciding whether to prosecute the driver.

For now, he is just grateful to be fighting back.

When do you think Britain got its first female firefighter?

Amazingly, the first firewoman working for a county fire brigade

Her name is Jo Reynolds and she was based in Norfolk.

Now, 35 years later, she's written a book

We'll talk to her in a moment, but first Kevin Burch has been back

to Thetford Fire Station, where it all began.

When Joe started training is a junior

firefighter in 1982 she was

Thetford was her first base, Nigel Monument her first boss

and today reunited again they reminisced about her first day.

I thought they are just going to think who is this

I had a good team, good group, and hopefully Joe would agree

that she was welcomed with open arms.

The image I love of Jo is her dashing here on her bicycle around

the corner onto what was then a gravelled suffers. Jean was on their

word for it. This was Joel on Mideast in 1987. As these cuttings

show, it was big news, and await this next question is bit tells you

much about attitudes at the time. What do you male colleagues make

been endeavouring to the job i.e. Women driver? Given me a lot about

it but they are not too bad really. We have got a female in charge at

London Fire Brigade and at London please. It is a fantastic job. Every

day is different and I think Jo will make the best of that. Jo remains

modest about what proved a landmark Korea. She was asked by friends to

write anger thought an eight bit. It truly as some story.

Did they decide they want to open up to women? I think right timing was

right in the 80s. It was a time of teams. And then onto me, they had

advertised for junior firefighter was up I saw the advert and applied.

My house had burnt down when I was a young thing. I just applied and...

Yeah. I got in. I was the first woman day opened the door to. How

many other women did you work with? Or lady cooks and things and

people's ways but not to work with on-the-job. The others excepted you

completely? You didn't make your life difficult in any way? Not.

Training was difficult at times. It was the 80s and not very politically

correct at times. Having said that, at the station Nidal and the guys,

it was like a massive family. To be excepted you had to do all of the

difficult things. Yes I joined as a firefighter not something in the

middle. Proper firefighting, carrying the 12 stone dummy. You

have to be able to do that anyway. Winning chemical protection suits

and going down into sewers and onto ships. You did it for four years,

but you didn't stop because he didn't enjoy it, you did love the

work's I loved it. You can see how happy I was. By the time I was in my

mid-30s I be able to is besetting this time a desk getting other

people to run around. That was my plan. Then things changed as they do

in life. As it stands today, less than 5% of firefighters and women. I

was very surprised. No one is following you read. I hope other

girls out there well. It is a wonderful place to work noted days

at the same. It is fascinating, you learn so much. And people like

firefighters. Glad to see and glad you enjoyed work back then. Thank

you for having me. 100 years ago, thousands of young

men from this region were taking part in the War

on the Western front. More than a million had already

been killed or injured The horrors of Passchendaele

were just a few weeks away. To mark the anniversary,

lots of schools have visited France and Belgium to teach children

about the misery of trench warfare. But now there's an alternative

closer to home. Practice trenches dug

by soldiers at the time For many soldiers in

the First World War, this was the reality of life

on the front line. Many hours spent deep

in the trenches. But before they were sent

to the Western Front, they practiced digging those

defences back at home. And here, in Norfolk,

100 years on, some of those First of all, they would have taken

a barbed-wire barrier Then they would dig a trench five

yards long, stop for two yards, dig another one five yards long,

stop for two yards and put soldiers in it, just to defend them

if they were discovered. And then they'd dig the zig-zags

and the supply trenches back. Those trenches were built

by the Lovat Scouts, a Scottish regiment based

in Hunstanton in 1915. By September of that year, they had

been dispatched to Gallipoli. The rocky terrain there meant

they were never able But now, the trenches that they dug

here are being used to teach When they hold the things and see

them and try them on, obviously, that gives a much better impression

of what it would have been like than just seeing things

in books or being told about it. Walking through the trenches,

past boards displaying information and poems,

gives the children a sense of what it was like to

live on the front line. I feel bad for the soldiers that had

to live in those mouldy They would be quite sad

because they would be cold. I don't like the explosives

and the scare of being round the corner and there was a whole

army of Germans just At the entrance, we call them

the Call Of Duty generation. All the little lads

that jump up and down. You know, bang, bang,

we're going into the trenches. By the time we got to board ten,

you could shake a pin drop. Trenches payday key role

on the battlefields Now the trenches left behind

in his Norfolk fields are helping a new generation learn

about the realities of war. Do you remember the

Ice Bucket Challenge? Where people had cold

water thrown over them The latest online craze involves

a musician from Cambridge, a trombone and a famous

bit of music. Jayne Murrill shares her love

of the trombone with Stephen Sykes. When she discovered Stephen

was seriously ill and needed an expensive drug to save his life,

she turned to music. It's called The Acrobat, and thanks

to Cambridge trombonist Jane, The Acrobat Challenge that struck

a massive chord on the Thinking about the Ice Bucket

Challenge, and The Acrobat is such a famous trombone solo,

so it just popped I have been absolutely

staggered by the response. I thought it might raise

a couple of hundred pounds and I was dreading that

I would be the only video up on the We have had pledges

from all over the world It is to raise ?90,000

for Stephen Sykes from Bristol, In fact, they have

all been really good. Some of them have been so exciting

that it is making my hair I met Stephen a couple of times many

years ago when he was at the Welsh College, and a trombone

quartet that I play in called Bones Apart had coached him,

so I think I felt that as a fellow trombonist,

that would be a great thing to do. Not just trombonists,

it is all types of instrument - a global ensemble that has grown

from just Jane and her trombone. We are going to have that music and

head all day now. The weather. The Easter weekend is almost upon us

and it is not looking as warm as last weekend. Perhaps not quite as

good as it could be but some lovely weather around today's. Some

beautiful blue skies around and Norfolk. Closing over a little bit.

The satellite image shows we have started to get more cars coming in

from the north-west as this weather feature is moving down across the

country. Eventually, it will bring something later on tonight but it

should stage I this evening. Generally, rather cloudy. The odd

clear spell that should means damage is not dropping as low as last

night. By the end of the night, a few spots of light drizzle coming

and, perhaps quite a Dabbs sought to Good Friday. The pressure patent

shows you that high pressure is dominating for our Easter weekend.

North-western bees is going to be a feature which will make it feel a

bit chilly. It will be a little bit chilly at times. This is our

summary. There will be sunshine around, some rain and just a rather

kill filter things, generally. Tomorrow, we have a south-westerly

wind so things could get down to the teams. It should brighten up,

perhaps even some sunshine. Depending prayer that is, we could

record highs of 14 of 15 degrees. We see rain appearing in the afternoon,

so Cecily later on in a day and into the evening, some rain moving and.

That's where the frontal and to do cooler air. Some sunshine around and

quite a fresh field designs on Saturday. It will feel a little bit

chilly with the north-westerly breeze. A fine day on Monday.

Perhaps isolated showers on Sunday but not too bad.

the most that have ever voted for anything in this country,