21/03/2017 Look East (West)

Business leaders in Northamptonshire say they're working together

Next Wednesday, the Prime Minister will trigger Article 50,

officially starting Britain's exit from the European Union.

And bosses in the county have been meeting tonight

capitalise on that historic moment, to grow existing industries,

attract external investment and create more jobs.

Sam Read has been hearing how they'll do it.

Logistics, moving things around is one

of the driving forces of the

Northamptonshire economy, and so key to future jobs.

Iain Rogers in Northampton employs more than 100

people, its lorries end up across Europe.

We came here last year and the director told the East she was

She stands by that but says one of her concerns may

administration as our vehicles cross borders, there might be a lot more

So it might mean we have to take on extra people to manage

So that means extra costs so that is a conversation we will have

On the other side of town, at this domestic

logistics firm, the boss told us last year she was voting Leave.

Now she is keen to get things moving.

Can we please just get on and get on with the negotiations?

I think what we need to do is give the Government

a chance to go away and negotiate with Europe a good deal for Britain,

and I am confident that is what will happen.

Tonight, businesses from across Northamptonshire will meet here.

The purpose is to put previous differences of opinion aside and

look at what needs to be done to create jobs

Politics drives economics and economics drives business so

Lecturers here at the University of Northampton are

amongst the organisers for tonight's event.

They say businesses will be wary going into talks with the EU

In terms of negotiations, the quicker and sooner

we have clarity and certainty, I would say the fundamental issue

really is control of immigration against market access, but certainly

those people currently working in the UK that are from the EU, that

Students are here from around the world, many are about to become

My family have asked me if I am scared that I will be thrown

I was laughing, I said, this is not America!

It is affecting me but not as much as

other people who came to the country recently.

I do not think there will be any major changes immediately.

But going on a few years into the future, there

will be definitely changes to business confidence.

The economy has done better than many predicted since

The message from tonight's events is businesses need

They need to concentrate on what the business is good

at to try to make their products better, look at

innovation, to reduce costs, to look at their skills base to make sure

they have the skills for the future, and also just look at what

opportunities may be around the corner.

We do not yet know the destination of talks with the EU so

for now, businesses have to find their own weight to local economic

Sam Read, BBC Look East, Northampton.

But while voters in Northamptonshire were about 60 to 40 for Brexit,

those in Cambridge were overwhelmingly pro-Remain.

The leader of the anti-Brexit Liberal Democrats paid

I asked Tim Farron what his message for the local

Businesses should feel like they've got the ability to change

the direction of this country, as should everybody,

We know that the British people voted marginally, narrowly,

to leave the European Union, but that was not a mandate

for the Prime Minister to give us the hardest possible Brexit,

to damage education, farming and business in the process.

But you don't know what the deal's going to look like yet,

so in a sense, aren't you fear-mongering, rather than helping

So, we don't know what the deal's going to look like, so it's right

So, outside the Single Market, that means that, for example,

agricultural producers in Cambridgeshire will be facing

Given that 75% of their exports are to the Single Market,

that is a crackers thing for a government that wants to take

care of its own people to choose to deal, and this deal will end up

being done at some point in the next two years,

then it will be imposed on the British people.

Someone is going to sign this deal off at the end,

either it is going to be the politicians, or it will be

the people, in a referendum on that deal that as yet,

But businesses don't like uncertainty, do they?

So, if you are saying you want another referendum in

two years' time, that's two years of more uncertainty.

That can't be popular in the business community.

It is increasingly popular that the Liberal Democrats

are the only party giving the people, including businesses,

the chance to say yes or no to the eventual deal the Government

If they feel they may actually have to face the people in a referendum

at the end of all this, there is much more incentive for

So, why have you come to Cambridge with that message,

Why aren't you spreading the message amongst the pro-Leavers?

How we approach these things is all about attitude and tone.

I was talking to a big employer up in my patch,

up in Cumbria, just two weeks ago, and he said to me,

"Brexit is a disaster, but we are positive

He said, "We're a Victorian company, we've lived through three fires,

umpteen floods, two world wars, we'll get through Brexit and we'll

Now, I think that is the right attitude.

It doesn't change the fact that Brexit is a disaster.

Detectives investigating the death of a woman in Milton Keynes say

coverage on the BBC's Crimewatch programme last night has led

Hang Yin Leung was attacked at her home

during a burglary and died 11 days later in hospital.

Police say they've had several calls about newly released CCTV

Six men broke into the house in Bolbeck Park in January

and stole several items, including a rolex watch

Technology experts have been gathering in Cambridge tonight

to discuss high tech solutions to the city's congestion problems.

A number of schemes are being planned,

including smart bus apps and closer tracking

Cities where driverless pods ferry you from place to place.

Where you will know how clean or not your air is.

Be shown where you can find the perfect place to park.

At Microsoft tonight, business and politicians working together to

Cambridge has always been a place of innovation and it's been a place

where the best brains of the planet have come together

so we think we really are best, well-placed to take advantage

to use it and harness it to solve some of the problems that all

Sensors across Cambridge collecting data.

Numbers of vehicles, where the bottlenecks are.

Every bike that passes here is counted up here, 1876 today,

that's valuable data to help cut congestion

And arriving this summer, a new travel

app telling you to the second when your bus will be at your stop.

You can check exactly where on the map

is your bus, so you can see where your bus is before you can

The idea is to use the best brains of Cambridge, all the data,

to help people travel around this area

better and that will help them work, they will help jobs, it will get

them to and from their homes or their schools.

A city trying to become smarter, greener,

less congested and easier to get around.

Mike Cartwright, BBC Look East, Cambridge.

Peterborough's Olympic and Paralympic heroes have been

honoured with the Freedom of the City this evening.

27-year-old gymnast Louis Smith has won four Olympic medals

in London and Rio and found wider fame when he won

24-year-old rower James Fox has three World Championship titles

as well as the Paralympic gold he won in Rio 2016.

Ahead of the ceremony at Peterborough Town Hall, the pair

Well, Peterborough is home, this is where

it all began, this is where it all started, this is where all

my friends are, all of my family are.

I've had incredible support from Peterborough and to be given

this award just means an incredible, a lot to me.

The Freedom of the City is a massive thing, it's an honour

for anybody and for us, we do sport for a living,

we do what we enjoy and it's just amazing to be recognised.

My life's changed and I'm sure Louis' has since we went

to the Olympics and Paralympics and to come back to this is incredible.

Football finally and Luton Town travelled to Newport

meaning they stay at fifth in the table,

That's the late news and sport from Look East.

I'll leave you with the weather from Alex.

Most of the showers from earlier have now faded but

there just could be the odd isolated one

generally fading to a dry night with some long clear spells.

So it is going to be a cold night for tonight.

Quite widely, temperatures

Locally, they could be lower so the risk of a touch of frost.

So, we start the day tomorrow with low pressure on the scene.

That's going to mean a windy day and some

Having said that, we may well get off to a dry start

with some bright weather first thing but it will quickly

with rain spreading across all areas by the afternoon.

And with that wind, it's not going to be

Some showers will follow with some brighter spells

but there could be some hail mixed in.

So it's going to feel quite cold through tomorrow,

But gradually those showers fading and the winds easing.

The national weather is coming up but

And things calm down by the end of the week,

high pressure building in, so some fine weather by Friday.

Before then, a rather cloudy day on Thursday with

Heavy rain, snow and ice are all in the forecast once again. It was

quite a wintry scene today, especially in Scotland. Some very

cold looking winter skies here, and we had some snow falling at times in

West Lothian. For a while earlier today, there were quite a few

showers running through central Scotland, all in that cold air.

Right now, we have two areas of cloud, one in northern Scotland and

this