12/01/2017 Look East

Hello and welcome to the Look East late news.

A major operation is underway in Essex to move people at risk

What's the best way to improve our railways?

MPs backing re-nationalisation address a meeting

And the risk of ice tonight as temperatures drop below freezing.

Join me later for all the details. Hello and welcome to

the Look East late news. A major operation is underway

in Essex tonight to move people out of their homes as the emergency

services warn the area could be flooded when high tides combine

with strong winds along the coast. This is when we're expecting water

levels to peak tomorrow, starting at seven o'clock in Wells

in Norfolk, reaching Lowestoft at 10.30 and then Harwich

a couple of hours later. Tonight though, the effort

is focused south of Harwich in low-lying Jaywick,

where Katherine Nash is for us now. I am in the education centre about a

mile away from the seafront. Preparations have been underway to

receive people evacuated from their homes. You can see people behind me

have turned up to seek shelter. The Environment Agency are warning that

from one o'clock tomorrow a combination of high tide, storm

surge and strong winds could cause severe flooding. Police have been

out and about today warning people to be prepared. Emergency services

gather tonight in Jaywick. More than 200 police, fire and coastguard

preparing for a tidal surge expected to hit tomorrow lunchtime. This

afternoon, police knocked on doors advising people to get ready to

leave their homes tomorrow morning and make their way to a reception

centre. We will all be out anyway. Are people worried? There is panic.

The neighbours have panicked. She is not very well. A lot of panelling to

stay. Barry who lives on the seafront is planning to stay and

help neighbours who might be honourable. When we had it last time

it was fairly calm as it is today. It came right up to the top of the

water and then it just went back. At the education Centre, volunteers

have set up an emergency reception centre. Sleeping bags, mattresses

and hot drinks, a temporary home. The advice is for people to come out

and use the centre. If they are staying at home on their own, it can

be quite frightening if there is a tidal surge and the police are

the best place to come to. the best place to come to.

Forecasting the severity of a tidal surge is extremely difficult but

police say people should heed warnings, leave their homes and take

no chances. People planning to stay and watch the storm surge. That is

not the advice of the authorities tonight because they see can be

dangerous. Jaywick is not the only place at risk of flooding. No,

warnings have been issued for parts of the Norfolk and Suffolk

coastline. Preparations have been underway in Felixstowe and the

Environment Agency are saying that from midday tomorrow, Felixstowe

Ferry is at risk of flooding. Along with the Devon history and Ipswich

key. If you think about it, all this heavy rainfall combined with the

tidal surge and snow, it could be a very challenging 24 hours for parts

of the region. Well, we saw the snow falling

in Jaywick this evening making conditions there even more difficult

and there has been snow across Weather Watchers sent us pictures

of snow-covered houses in Rayleigh, while in Southend, the snow has

started settling in the gardens. Gritting teams have been

busy across the region. In Suffolk, 37 vehicles have been

out on the roads from lunchtime and will continue throughout

the night if necessary. We have a particular set of

conditions on the forecast at the moment which is rain, sleet,

followed by snow and one of the challenges we have to face is if you

put salt down, it is washed off, it is not clever.

Alex will be here at the end of the programme with

but the advice, as usual, is keep up to date on all the latest

developments with the weather and travel by listening to your BBC

local radio station and checking out your local BBC website.

Norfolk's troubled children's services department has

appointed its second temporary director in three months.

Matt Dunkley, who's been in charge of the same

Norfolk County Council has already appointed four directors

of children's services in as many years.

He is a man with an impressive track record. The head of children's

services in East Sussex, Matt Dunkley was awarded a CBE for his

efforts. Mr Dunkley's predecessor also an interim hands over as

director after just six weeks at the helm. Norfolk children's services

which looks after youngsters is going through a turbulent time

judged by Ofsted as inadequate, it's had a quick succession of permanent

and interim heads since 2013. We seem to be going round in circles. I

would like to see a permanent appointment and we can pick the

right person. It is a bad message to constantly play musical chairs with

this job. When Matt Dunkley takes up his job, Norfolk will have had five

heads of services in five years. One person, Susan Cook has been in post

2012. You need to change the way you do things? Yes, we might depending

on the elections in May, depending on who is in control, my party is

the Conservative group, we will look seriously at the way things work.

Matt Dunkley is seen as a high-calibre appointment. He will

head up the services until its next Ofsted inspection and so the search

for a permanent director goes on and that could take up to eight months.

What is needed is long-term expertise and stability.

Around 100 people attended a meeting in Norwich tonight

to show their support for re-nationalising the railways.

The co-leader of the Green Party, Caroline Lucas,

anger about the state of train services was growing.

She said bringing them back into public ownership

This is an issue which will not go away. With some punctuality levels

at their lowest for a decade and complaints from the public

continuing to rise, the call for renationalising the trains is

finding a sympathetic ear. These the views of commuters in Ipswich. I

think overall, it would be a good idea. We have had a patchy service

from whatever the franchise. Constantly they are delayed,

constantly they are delayed and it is really hard. Tonight in Norwich,

despite the weather, 100 people turned out to hear the co-leader of

the Green party talk about her attempt to try to renationalise the

trains. Something she said would save money and lead to a better

service. That ?1 billion we will be saving could be used to cut fares

and reinvested back into our Railways. Also present the local MP,

Clive Lewis. He said if state ownership of trains could work in

many parts of Europe, it could work here. Passenger train is full of

commuters bound for the office to work on computers. Despite the

adverts, British rail was no tourists for poor rolling stock and

bad punctuality. Supporters of privatisation say the train

companies have brought in billions of improvements, money which the

government does not have. The train operators are taking the risk but we

see significant investment that we would not otherwise, such as ?1

billion of new investment. But critics accuse the companies of

putting the needs of shareholders ahead of passengers. The latest

attempt to reverse privatisation will probably fail but campaigners

insist public support is growing. They will not give up.

Coming up now, Alex with more on the weather, but from the rest

The main band of rain sleet and snow has cleared eastwards and although

there could be some isolated sleet or snow showers, what we are left

with is a dry forecast with long, clear spells and temperatures

dropping so the major hazard becomes ice as temperatures get down to

minus two Celsius. A cold start tomorrow. And area of low pressure

from the north. This will bring further sleet or snow showers but

also strong winds and the Met office has issued a yellow warning for this

part of the country for those strong winds. Likely to be gale force along

the coast coinciding with high tides. Early sleet clears southwards

and then brighter skies, lots of dry and bright weather around with

sunshine but it will be bitterly cold. If you factor in the wind

chill, feeling colder than three or four Celsius would suggest. Further

snow showers in the far North Eastern corner. Strong winds, gusts

of 50 mph particularly in the mid afternoon. The outlook and

note. If that's not your sort of thing, Sunday will be cloudier and

milder. Good evening. It was such a mild

December, wasn't it, but winter has arrived. Tomorrow morning, again,

could be prising the wipers off the frozen windscreen. Yes, it's going

to be cold tonight, whether it is liquid,/ or snow, it will freeze

solid late at night with temperatures close to or below zero

in many places. This was the early snow which pushed across the

south-east, a few centimetres over the high ground. Now we concentrate

on the showers, which feed in over the north and west of the UK. Some

getting into the Midlands, giving a further coding in places. Ice will

be widespread, warnings in force. Blizzards raging across Northern

Highland Scotland as we head into the night and through the early

hours we will see a band of sleet and snow heading down out of

Scotland and Eastern counties of England.