06/04/2017 Look East (West)

Specials in decline - the police force struggling

The father of missing airman Corrie McKeague keeps vigil,

as the search for his son's body continues.

And temperatures are hotting up for the weekend.

First, the police force struggling to recruit

Specials have the same legal powers as regular officers,

Northamptonshire Police is short of them.

The previous Police and Crime Commissioner set

The current PCC reduced that to 600, but they have only got 377 Specials,

with more than 20 a month leaving over the past year.

I will, to the best of my skill and knowledge...

This is our ceremony where newly-qualified

This was at the height of the force's campaign

to recruit up to 900 Specials, but the force came

Well, the new Commissioner says some some simply weren't up to the job,

some went on to become full-time officers, but many decided it

But actually, higher quality, rather than just higher quantity.

You know, we are upwards of nearly 400 and the highest,

in the East Midlands I think, Lincs, Leicester and Notts,

they have just over 200, so in terms of percentage to force,

Obviously, the key for us is the number of hours that

are actually deployed across the year and that

But in terms of investment, the loss of Special

The admin fee to recruit each special was ?120.

260 have left, leaving Northants Police with a bill of over

?31,000, but that doesn't include the training or uniform cost.

On top of that, the force spent a further ?42,000

One Special Constable contacted BBC Northampton's Facebook page to say

the lack of help and support within the force for Specials

Here in Northampton Market, there was genuine support

for the Specials, but a recognition that as an unpaid role,

I should imagine that they start off, yes, full of enthusiasm and get

delusioned and move on, to be honest.

They probably get a little bit lambasted at times because people

don't think they have the authority, perhaps, that we think

I think they do a good service because they volunteer

So, yeah, my Mum used to know somebody who did that, so, yeah,

The only thing that's disappointing is the fact that we have to have

them instead of the police getting paid a decent wage.

If they were paid a decent wage then you wouldn't have the need for them,

One thing the Police and Crime Commissioner is clear

on is that the fall in the number of Specials hasn't affected

the quality or standard of policing and says efforts are now being made

again to recruit more staff, including front line officers,

So, how does Northamptonshire compare to the rest of the region?

Here's our Political reporter Mousumi Bakshi.

According to the Home Office, both Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire

police forces had 258 Specials last year.

In contrast, Northamptonshire Police had a staggering 722 Specials

Specials are a huge asset to police forces coming

They may be unpaid volunteers, but they have full policing powers.

They can arrest people and fulfil the very public need to see

In Scotland, some companies have begun to offer employees time off

to work as Special Constables - one way, at least,

There's more on that story on the BBC Northamptonshire website.

The father of missing airman Corrie McKeague has told Look East

he will maintain his vigil at a landfill until his

Police think Corrie somehow ended up in a bin lorry

Officers have been searching the waste site in Cambridgeshire

Every day for a fortnight, Martin McKeague and his wife,

Tricia, have been camped-up in this lay-by, a stone's throw

He's been to the site five times now, mindful that at any

moment his son's remains may be recovered.

Every time that excavator picks up a load and lays it out,

there's every chance that that's the one that could

Today, Corrie's mother shared this video of the airmen from Scotland.

He is based at RAF Honington in Suffolk.

The 23-year-old disappeared in Bury St Edmunds last September.

Suffolk Police are now convinced that he ended up in a commercial bin

and was then transported to the landfill near Cambridge.

Why are you putting yourself through this, visiting this five

And there's every possibility that Corrie's there.

Police were criticised for not searching the landfill sooner,

but at the time they were mistakenly told that the bin weighed

It was, in fact, heavy enough to contain a body.

Martin McKeague says the police could not have done more.

The McKeague family back in Scotland, that is supporting us,

cannot thank Suffolk and Norfolk Police enough

and what they have done to try and find Corrie.

You don't feel this landfill could have been searched far sooner?

This could not have been done sooner.

1,500 tonnes of waste have been sifted so far,

but the search could last another five weeks.

While Martin McKeague keeps his vigil here,

Corrie's mother, Nicola Urquhart, and her two other sons haven't

They say, for them, the experience would be too distressing.

However, since this search started almost five weeks ago,

they have been staying in the local area almost every day.

All Corrie McKeague's family can do now is wait.

Their agony compounded by the knowledge that

if his remains are found, they may never know how

The centre of Flitwick, in Bedfordshire, could be

transformed if plans released by the council get the go-ahead.

The scheme includes new flats, a new supermarket and a new

transport interchange on a brownfield site next

Central Bedfordshire Council says the project would create

The plans will go out to consultation in the summer.

?10 million is being invested in a new cancer therapy centre

The centre will cost ?15 million in total.

The 24-bed facility will bring together all the different cancer

The hospital has already received ?2 million from the charity Macmillan,

so 80% of the funding has been found.

It may not have the money of the big London galleries,

but Kettering Museum and Art Gallery is making the most of what it s got.

It has been nominated for a national award for the best low budget

exhibition for its novel way of displaying of local art.

Built in 1913, the Alfred East Art Gallery in Kettering,

named after the man whose bequest enabled the construction of this

Now the gallery has much less cash to play with.

An exhibition held here earlier in the year,

making use of ribbon to show the connection between local

artists past and present, has just been nominated for an award

We are part of local government, so we are part

of Kettering Borough Council, so all of our exhibitions have to be

But the only real thing that we spent money on was our

It was quite intricate in its design and so we got external designers

to come in and do all of our panels and information boards.

And for artists living in the town, it's essential.

The gallery is an important part of Kettering, an important part

of the local artist's life, because if they actually

want to exhibit their work, this is the only part of the county

All the exhibitions are superb for local artists.

And now the gallery has a new exhibition where anyone can

The only criteria - it needs to fill this space.

The reasons for wanting a spot on the wall varied.

This is the second year that we have submitted

work from our school, Friar's Academy.

It's a school for children with special educational needs

and it's absolutely wonderful for them to be able to do

some artwork and have it displayed in a public space.

A nice chance to sort of get my work at an open exhibition and get

seen by people and maybe get some feedback.

I am an artist that has not been taught, I taught myself,

and they really encourage you here to have a go

This gallery has positioned itself at the heart of the community.

It will find out if it has won that national award next month.

That's all from the late team here in Cambridge.

We'll leave you now with the forecast from Alex.

There was lots of fine Spring sunshine across the region today.

A little bit cool in the north-westerly wind,

but by the weekend the southerly wind is going to bring us much

For the moment, we have clear skies across a lot of the region.

There will be some patchy cloud coming and going at times,

but it is possible that temperatures could drop low enough

for a touch of ground frost in one or two places.

Tomorrow, we still have high pressure right over the top

and that is going to bring us some more fine Spring weather.

It may just turn a little bit cloudy at times,

but we are expecting a bright start with some good spells of sunshine.

Some patchy cloud coming and going, so it may just become a little bit

overcast here and there, but some good spells of sunshine

expected and temperatures likely to get to around 14 or 15 degrees.

We've still got that north-westerly wind,

so it will certainly feel a little bit cooler in the wind.

The national weather is coming up, but here's the outlook.

Into the weekend, we get the southerly wind and that is

going to bring in dryer, clearer air, so lots of sunshine

around and temperatures could peak at 20 degrees.

to rise into the weekend. We'll see 22 Celsius on Sunday.

Hello. There was some warm sunshine around today, but it's set to get

even warmer this weekend. 18 Celsius in London this afternoon. This was

the scene in Chiswick, much quieter than it was on Sunday for the boat

race. Under the cloud for example here in Cumbria, temperatures

struggled to make double figures. Through the night we're going to

hang onto a lot of cloud across north-west England, North Wales,

Northern