10/05/2017 Look East (West)

and on BBC one we now join the BBC's news teams where you are.

Billions promised for schools by Labour and the Lib Dems -

the Conservatives say it's all made up.

Will it be enough for our region's schools?

Church-goers in Cambridgeshire club together to buy

Up, up and away - the world's longest aircraft -

part plane, part airship - finally lifts off.

And film the moment it hatches, training begins for this tiny little

chick which has been raised to protect local businesses.

First tonight - cash-strapped schools in our region could be

in line for major investment if Labour or the Liberal Democrats win

Under the current funding formula, many schools in Cambridge,

for example, get less per pupil than more rural areas.

And despite planned changes to that formula,

Today, Labour said it would spend twenty billion pounds

more on education over the next five years.

The Lib Dems say they'd spend seven billion.

The Conservatives called them made-up promises.

It's too kilos for this school in Cherry Hinton to raise enough money

to fund all these computers. Like every Cambridge School, it is

historically underfunded, so every financial decision is tossed. At the

moment, it is harder than it has ever been. We are genuinely facing

some really difficult decisions about the sourcing and provision for

our children next year. By that, I'm talking about human resource in,

people's jobs and that becomes a very difficult decision for the

school. Earlier this year, the governor and put it fairer funding

formula for schools out to consultation but it's there to say

that many headteachers were left disappointed. -- Government. One of

the things they headteachers are telling us is there is still not

enough money in the education port. The question for to come is who has

the best plan to fill it up? Today, Julian Huppert, the Liberal Democrat

candidate for Cambridge was here to deliver a serious message. His

pledge for education over the next five years for his party. Promising

to protect funding in real terms. The total cost is ?7 billion over

the parliament. We can get that, partly by scrapping Tory vanity

projects. There is huge money being put to new free schools, which

stomach schools which are undersubscribed and don't have

enough people coming in. Labour has pledged 20 million dollars billion

to extend to free school meals and education grants, as well as

protecting pupil funding. They will also raise corporation tax to fund

part of it. The important thing about this is, what employers tell

me they need is a skilled workers. It is our education system that will

provide those skilled in the future. This is a really good investment.

The country has become too divided. The super-rich are taking too much

money out of the country at the moment. The Conservatives are yet to

reveal their education pledges. What I'm hoping we'll be in there will be

some reconsideration of the Farrah funding formula. Certainly the

funding formula does not work as it stands. I'm positive the Education

Secretary is looking at that, so hopefully we will see balancing

around the country. Cash-strapped schools will no doubt be

scrutinising party manifestos out next week.

Let's stay with the election for a moment - because the UK

Independence Party says it will not field a candidate against

Instead it's asking its supporters in Luton North to vote

for Mr Hopkins because he is a supporter of Brexit.

Let's talk to our political correspondent Andrew Sinclair.

Welcoming you to have done this in a couple of places, including

Kettering where there are telling supporters to vote for the

Conservative, Philip Alderton, and Peterborough where they are telling

people to back Stuart Jackson. We think this is the first time that

you get however told their supporters to vote Labour. --

Hollobone. The Labour leader does have a massive majority, so it is

questionable whether he would lose his seat, but he may find it

interesting to note that you give public stand against them this time.

This is part of a wider policy by Ukip. Its leader, Paul Nuttall, here

campaigning in Essex, wants to make sure Brexit does happen. In seats

where the Brexit vote could split and a non-Brexit supporting MPs get

in, News including members to stand aside and support the true Brexit

candidate. What we want to see

is people in the House of Commons who support Brexit,

not fly by night Brexiteers, not midnight Brexiteers,

people who have switched sides. Vote for the true Brexiteers,

people who have supported So, how are these nonaggression pact

going down? Well, neither Labour or the Conservatives will comment.

Labour only said that Kelvin Hopkins has a very long record of serving

Luton and he is happy to defend it against whoever chooses to stand

against him. They are in mind telling you get does not have the

organisationally money it had in 2015, so this idea of not standing

against Brexit supporting candidates probably does help it alt but doing

this also raises questions about how much you get cares about its other

policies. It has some pretty distinctive policies, like cutting

foreign aid, banning the Roberto, it has quite interesting policies on

FGM. If it is not standing in places like Peterborough, Kettering or

Ludendorff, no one will advance those policies and the public won't

have a chance to have a say on them. -- Luton North.

Meanwhile, the Conservative candidate for Northampton North

Michael Ellis has welcomed the news that no charges will be brought

against him or any other Conservatives for alleged breaches

of spending rules at the last general election.

The Crown Prosecution Service has said it would not

be taking any action against the Conservative Party

for funding irregularities in its 2015 election campaign.

Mr Ellis was one of a number of Conservatives investigated

by police over whether local or national spending should have

Next tonight, a new way to tackle homelessness.

17 people have clubbed together to buy a house for three homeless

Members of the City Church and others put in between ?10,000

and ?60,000 each to meet the ?300,000 cost.

Cambridge now has the fifth highest rough-sleeper count of any

Emma Baugh has been to see one of those helped by the charity

in another of their homes in the city.

Ron Evans fell on hard times, suffering from depression,

Facing possibly being on the street, I was quite suicidal,

Just to have that stability and assuredness in the life is...

So much weight has been lifted off your shoulders and also having

the support from the impairment workers, you don't feel as though

The charity works by helping to encourage investors to buy

properties which can be used to help the homeless and for that,

they get a small rental return and can get their money back later.

It is seen as a way of helping people, especially in expensive

The City Church in Cambridge is one of those buying in,

helping to buy another property and offering support.

For those investing, the benefit they get is,

rather than having money sitting, earning almost nothing in a bank,

it is going to gain some capital growth over the next five years

but most importantly, all of them are investing

because they really want to help others and that is really key

Folks are giving because they want to help others.

National homelessness organisations built on the principle

of the charity funded homes, but question whether

For this latest house at ?300,000, which will help three people,

could that ?300,000 be used in a better way to help more people?

Well, in Cambridge, that is the price of a house.

In Peterborough, you could probably buy two houses for that amount,

but the needs in Cambridge are very high.

This has come out of a church in Cambridge and they wanted

to support the needs of the people in your community.

As an investment, a social investment, I think

Rob now has stability in his life and the charity said more investors

Airlander, the world's longest aircraft,

has taken to the skies once again after it's heavy

The airship had to be repaired after that incident

and after improvements it successfully took off

Good evening. A glorious evening here, as you say, and it has been a

great night for Airlander. I was standing just on the other side of

the error field and, for a 92 metre long airship, she takes off

remarkably quietly. Very deeply, but just with a quite powerful. She came

right over our heads. I was there with a crowd of people. -- purr.

Police were there, marshalling the traffic. A real sense of occasion. A

sense of excitement and here's what some of those people had to say one

had taken off. Definitely worth the wait. Weeping your sins 2pm. Four

hours of waiting but it is worth it. It is huge. I was a bit scared. It

went up at quite an angle, didn't it? Though, it was really good. It

was amazing. Never seen before, we come from Northampton. It's

fantastic. It's huge. People has been waiting a long time, as you

heard there. People had been waiting since August, since Airlander had

that very heavy nosedive landing. Since then, she's been repaired and

one of the sheds behind me, a number of modifications, including those

inflatable landing feet to try and stop that nosedive happening again.

She is still airborne, flying at around 2000 feet, I'm told. The

pilots are carrying out a series of manoeuvres, including a simulated

landing. Eventually, the idea is that these airships will go into

production. They will be used for things like surveillance, carrying

cargo and also for possibly delivering aid in remote parts of

the world. So, it's not just this one airship, there is a wider plan.

Now the focus is very much on their being a successful take-off, but all

eyes on Alan shall landing. Thank you. Indeed, get a safe distance

away just in case. And it will be more photos of that

landing and take-off on our Facebook site.

Northamptonshire Police are introducing "American-style"

baseball caps for all, their officers.

Traditional flat caps and helmets will be

phased out, and replaced with so-called "bump caps."

The unisex headgear is said to offer better protection,

and is already used in Lancashire and Cheshire.

The old-style custodians that men used to wear were not good for

operational use. In vitro, running or doing any kind of tactics at all.

They just fall off. They are only really any good with the big chin

strap done up, which clearly isn't very popular with the staff.

You're watching Look East from the BBC.

Alex will have our weather forecast shortly after a welcome sunny day.

And still to come, there's fragments from the Dead Sea Scrolls

and Samuel Pepys wallet - the museum telling world

Sport now, and women's boxing made its debut

at the London 2012 Olympics - and created a star in gold medal

Well, since then many women have been keen

One of them is Demie-Jade Resztan from Cambridge.

She trains in Newmarket, and has just defended her

Demie now hopes to become Britain's number one.

She may be slight stature, but Demie-Jade Resztan

20 years old, already a two-time national champion.

She began boxing to give her the courage to square

I was seven years old, I used to go with my cousins who are all boys,

they got me into it but I used to get bullied at school.

So, it kind of got me into a good frame of mind for how

I used to let my nerves get to me all the time.

When I came to boxing, it let me get my anger out, help me

No matter how much they hurt you, don't bite back.

These young kids look up to Demie and this is where they want to be.

Her hero, double Olympic champion Nicola Adams,

Demie-Jade spends hours on end honing your skills and building me

Running every morning, coming down here, doing my strength

I just go in there, I think what I've trained for...

I just go in, I bite my teeth and get on with it.

When I'm boxing, I can't think of anything else.

Fighting at 48 kilograms, her weight is not currently one

of the three categories recognised for women at the Olympics.

It means she isn't eligible for funding with the British squad.

What do you do, move her up to 51 kilos?

51 kilos is an Olympic weight category.

I have a feeling that they are going to put it in the Commonwealth Games,

to look and see what the interest there is, see how it goes and maybe

I want to be in the Olympics one day.

If I do, that would just be my dream come true.

Right now, she's the undisputed number one in here.

An inspiration, determined to fight her way to the top.

The fruits of a ?1.5 million grant from the Arts Council

The money was aimed at enhancing the arts and cultural

infrastructure of the town - and it comes as Luton bids to be UK

Kate Bradbrook is among the new exhibits at the University

a yes, welcome to the University of Bedfordshire and welcome to... This

event that is going on is one where you will see some artwork you might

recognise, this one you will not. I did not. The artist said he used to

work in payroll and said he did not know whether to throw it all away do

something with it, he may get into this. He calls it the wooden

tapestry. We will just show you this other bit of artwork here, very

expensive, it is called Shamrock but it is actually piece of glass from a

car window, vandalism that happened on Saint Patrick Dave. That is the

background to that. Do tell Mortimer Helen Bailey from the university.

What is this all about? The arts Council England invested ?1.5

million to support the arts in Luton, in the University of

Bedfordshire and Luton Borough Council have worked together to

develop a whole range of activity to support the growth of arts. This is

the project that supports local artists and brings international

artists into Luton to develop their careers and sustained then, give

them time to practice. And there is lots of other projects as well. The

other absolutely. It is across the discipline. Not just visual art and,

photography and live art, ranging from exhibitions to performances.

And finally, how the visual way to Luton's bid to become city of

culture? We are very excited to be supporting that did here at the

University. The borough council have decided we will work on that and I

think the strands of this project really working together over the

next couple of years are going to build the momentum that we need to

put in a really excellent bid naturally represents Luton as the

thriving place that it is. Thank you. It's not just about this week,

this runs for the rest of the year. But the project and exhibitions. In

the coming months, artist can apply for an extra's funding. Back to you.

Thank you. And staying with arts and culture in outcome of the sort of

Northampton is home to Europe's, if not the world's,

largest collections of historic leather items.

It contains fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls,

Samuel Pepys wallet and even underpants which are

But for 30 years they've been locked away in a store cupboard,

well now plans are underway to open a new visitor centre in the town

so this priceless collection can once again be seen by the public.

Stuart Ratcliffe has been for a visit.

crammed into these boxes, international imported items. Each

with its own story to tell but, until now, no one to tell them. Let

me show you some of the treasures we have found along the way. Let me

show you... I've worked in the Siemens for 20 years and this is the

sort of thing that has left the week at the knees. Just hiding on a

shelf, we have seven fragments of the dead Sea Scrolls. Yes, these are

fragments of... Whether apartment and fell that the biblical text was

written on around the time of Christ. Rages that they are just

enable. I know. They are the reason why this news, museum must come back

alive and the public had to get to see them. This is another remarkable

one, nine pages of a ninth century Koran. This is part of a Koran that

was written only about 200 years after the Prophet Muhammad was

writing the Koran in the seventh century. To give you an idea of the

range of things in this collection, this is a wallet that was given to

Samuel Pepys in 1687. In their hair, perhaps the world's oldest

underpants. These are loincloths, which were worn by Egyptian slaves

in 1500 BC. And this is where this incredible diverse collection will

eventually be displayed. Right in the heart of Northampton. Lewis

Daynes we have a strong tradition of making boots and shoes here for over

900 years and people of the weather industry has gravitated here ever

since. We teach weather at the University of Northampton, the only

visiting Europe adults. The borough council museum has the largest

designated collection of boots in the world. It is perfect. Getting to

this stage has been a long, slow process. That is until recently, as

no one even knew what was in the collection. Lewis Daynes part of my

job to the past 18 months has been going through every photo, I can,

photographing it and cataloguing it. That was the voyage of discovery.

Uncovering these treasures. No chronological order, every day was

another surprise. When you started doing the cataloguing, could you

believe the kind of thing you had in the collection? Honestly, no. There

is a challenge here. We need to get it to the public, we want the public

to join us on the journey. Jenny begins now, the museum is looking

for businesses and volunteers to help transform the space to welcome

its first visitors any autumn. Next to the tricky question of how

to deal with gulls and pigeons which can be a nuisance in some town

and city centres. They are protected by law -

which is why some areas rely on trained falcons or hawks

to scare the birds away. But demand is so great,

these birds of prey are now being bred specifically

for the task, as After 30 days of incubation,

integration, a crack appears. Finally, pushing through the shell

at three minutes to three this It's incredible to think this tiny

falcon born just minutes ago That's when they start to pierce

through the shell of the end of one until today that

it actually hatched. Bred through artificial insemination

at this company in soliciting, this chick is one of five

in the clutch of eggs which belong As far as a young bird

of prey is concerned, So the bird is going to think,

is he going to eat me So, I just spent a period

of time manning, getting Also, this big,

scary thing, a human, You have to form

a bond with the bird. The bird is realising

you're not a threat to it. So, the bird flies, the gulls

or pigeons are frightened. They have done the scaring, the lure

comes out and they fly back to us. And companies hold a special licence

for this method of pest control. The aim is to do

so rather than harm. But it is not just businesses

like as food processing factory in King's Lynn where birds

are being used. More famously at Wimbledon,

ruthless people from Brixton in Northamptonshire has been

patrolling the skies But for these checks,

they will have to wait another nine The sun made a welcome appearance

today, welcome for most of us, although many will be wishing

for rain, as fears So to see if it's here to stay,

here's Alex with our weather. Hello. It was a chilly start to the

day but we have seen some sunshine across the region to day. This was

the scene this morning in Northamptonshire. Another lovely

photograph taken in Southwark this afternoon. So, we will start to see

some changes over the next 48 hours. Some heated air moving up from the

south, also bringing some rain by Friday morning. For now, it'll be

quite a chilly night under those clear skies for most of the night.

-- much of the night. Could be called an offer a touch of ground

frost in places. Potential for 2-3dC in rural sports by the. That is

likely to be the last frosty night now as they move ahead to something

slightly warmer and more humid. This is the weather system responsible.

It will bring some rain, but not until overnight Thursday into Friday

for us in the east. We kick off with sunshine again and a chilly start to

the day tomorrow. Good silver sunshine through the morning. Not to

get into the afternoon, it will tend to just cloud over from the south.

Those Southern counties turning a bit cloudier through the day.

Temperatures climbing quite reasonable to 20 Celsius. That will

crash as the weather system comes up from the cell. The odd spit and spot

of rain but ordering rainfall not equated to arrive until overnight

Thursday. That will be around on Friday. Some of this possibly could

be a little bit heavy and sundry in places. This'll weather system moves

to the north and then slightly cooler at the weekend, fresher

regime with a wind shift to the west. Before then, feeling quite

humid, Monty for both Thursday and particularly into Friday. That rain

clearing through the morning to brighter skies and some sunshine.

It'll feel a bit fresher the weekend, likely to see dry weather

and some sunshine around, but also some shallows. There could be all

heavy one. Some chilly temperatures as well, but not getting as well as

you would expect. A reminder of our top story, labour and the Lib Dems

have pledged to spend more on education if they wind the general

election next month. The Conservatives say they are made up

promises. You can get full details on that on the BBC News website.

That is all from Luke east for now. We'll be back with an update at

10:30pm. Until then, have a wonderful evening. Or now, have a

wonderful night.