23/12/2016 Look East (West)

First tonight, the start to Christmas nobody wanted to see.

A serious accident on the M1 motorway in Northamptonshire has

left three children and two adults critically injured.

The crash caused long delays for travellers after it closed

the southbound carriageway for several hours.

The adults and children aged between one and 11

Mike Cartwright sent this from the scene earlier.

It happened on the carriageway closest to us, down by the services.

Two days before Christmas, a family of five tonight

are in a critical condition after their car

As you can see from the condition of the car,

At one point, three air ambulances were at the scene.

The parents in their 30s were flown to Coventry Hospital,

and the three children, a girl aged one and two boys

aged seven and 11, were flown to Birmingham Children's Hospital.

Tonight police say they all have serious injuries.

The southbound carriageway was closed completely.

The northbound, people slowed down to see what was going on.

People looked for other ways out of the congestion and minor ways

The M45 which leads onto the M1 was closed as well.

It has caused huge congestion for people trying to get away

for Christmas but for this young family tonight and anyone who knows

Tonight rail passengers faced delays on services

between Cambridge and Stansted and London Liverpool Street

after overhead electric wires were damaged by a fallen tree.

It was always set to be one of the busiest days

of the year for travelling, with millions of us trying to get

Would you like some chocolate to help you with your flight?

Passengers at Luton travelling on the airport's busiest day

Every flight to every destination is busy.

Passengers thankful that possible strikes by baggage handlers

I expected a lot of traffic coming here and it wasn't too much.

And it's quite peaceful around here, too.

We left with plenty of time just in case.

I've travelled from Sutton Surrey to catch the train.

I gave myself plenty of time just in case.

The M25 was absolutely free this morning.

With Luton Airport's ?110 million expansion,

this is their busiest Christmas ever.

We're reconfiguring the entire airport while trying to keep

We understand that the offering is not as we would want it

We are thankful for their patience and we apologise

And on the railways, closures on the line

between Cambridge and Ely as building on the new north station

The line closed over Christmas and New Year due to electric cables,

points and signalling being put in place further up the track.

Christmas is obviously a great time for celebration.

For the railway, it's a good chance to get on and do a lot of work.

We appreciate that some people want to travel but we do need

to close the railway to get on with that work.

On the roads, thousands are expected to make their Christmas

Certainly, today will be the busiest Christmas getaway day.

The peak rush hour period will be the busiest on

Be prepared, expect the worst.

Hopefully, you will have a peaceful and safe journey home.

The advice, as ever, is to check before you travel.

Whichever mode of transport you choose, allow plenty

The consumer group Which? says Peterborough Trading Standards

has failed to protect millions of customers

Whirlpool issued a warning over a year ago, after several

The company say up to five million may be affected by the fault.

The firm says it's launched a programme of repairs,

but many customers say they're still waiting for

Which? has now launched legal action against enforcement officers.

The Church has today appealed to everybody to do what they can

to help vulnerable people this Christmas.

Reach Community Projects at Haverhill runs a foodbank.

Volunteers have been preparing more than 100 Christmas hampers,

alongside the parcels of essentials they provide throughout the year.

Heather Ainsworth, who has six children and lost her partner

six months ago, was presented with a turkey for

They have been struggling really badly.

Get myself into debts and at this stage I come,

see Anne or somebody at Reach and they help me out.

The world's longest aircraft, the Airlander 10, will be back

in the skies over Bedfordshire in the new year.

The undercarriage was damaged when the ship, named Martha Gwyn,

"landed heavily" on only its second flight in August.

The manufacturers, Hybrid Air Vehicles,

Over the Christmas period the new cockpit will be painted

In rugby, under pressure Northampton Saints have won

a crucial Premiership match against the Sale Sharks

This try from Luther Burrell sealed a very welcome 24-5 victory tonight

after Saints suffered their biggest defeat in their professional history

Well, that's it's from the late team.

After some rain earlier this evening things have dried

out across the area and will stay dry for the rest

of the night with clear spells, some patchy cloud

temperatures dropping off to three or four Celsius,

nothing that should give a frost but a chilly end to the night.

Then we'll see long spells of sunshine as we go

through Christmas Eve morning, is a little cloud pushing back

from the West later in the day and winds blustery, a moderate

to fresh south-westerly winds and temperatures reaching

The dry weather will stay with us for the most part but we will see

cloud increase and become much milder on Christmas Day,

we will see temperatures up to 13 or 14 Celsius by the afternoon

on Christmas Day, near record-breaking temperatures.

Our average is about six Celsius for this time of year.

Leave you with the outlook and that shows a very mild Christmas Day

and then returning to something more average for the time year by Monday.

mild and temperatures could reach 14, 15. He is down bet that the

national picture. It will be more northern parts of

the UK that see the worst of the weather. Another storm is developing

in the Atlantic. This will turn into Storm Connor. This cloud has wrapped

around storm Barbara. It brought gusty winds in the West. Some

localised flooding in Scotland early on and the strongest winds in the

north of Scotland approaching 80 miles an hour. The amber window