09/02/2017 Look East

whether that is legal or not. Full coverage for you online and on the

Hello and welcome to the Look East late news.

who say new government plans to fight bird flu

put their flocks and businesses at risk.

We're given exclusive access at one of our hospitals.

And staying cold with the risk of snow showers over the next couple of

days. I will be here later with all the details.

First tonight, a warning that free-range egg producers will go out

of business because of bird flu despite the lifting of restrictions.

Today, the government said hens in the white areas on this map can

be moved back outside when the current ban runs out

They would then become free-range again.

In the red areas they will still be kept under cover to protect them

from wild birds carrying the flu virus.

But today, farmers told Look East that no area is completely safe

and they claim there is no science behind the advice

Daniel is a free range egg producer in Suffolk.

He is one of the lucky ones because his farm is outside the high

On March 1st, his birds will be allowed out again.

But Daniel is still worried that those inside the high

How have DEFRA come up with these zones?

Throwing paint at a map by the looks of it.

They say it is a risk response but they haven't said what the risks

are. Dave White is another

free range producer. His farm is just a few fields away

but is within a high risk area. His birds will have to stay

in their sheds and he is furious. They have taken a compass,

put it on a map and done circles. In those areas where they still have

to house, they will not be able The government will not be able to

give them help. I am hopeful people will recognise

these are free range flocks, they are being housed

for a good reason. He is a free range producer

and packer supplying three quarters of a million free range eggs

to supermarkets across East Anglia. He says the DEFRA plans will put

some producers out of business and may even extend the life

of the bird flu virus. We saw Alaistaire Brice

in that report. You have farms both in and out

of the restricted zones. Yes, we do. We have three farms in

the high risk areas and I want to clarify there have been no cases of

avian flu in East Anglia currently, but we have restrictions imposed on

three of our farms. I am a free range egg producer and I am expected

to sell and grade barn eggs along with them. If bird flu does pose a

threat, the government has to do something about it. Absolutely and

they have been very proactive in bringing the housing order in. As

poultry farmers we want to protect our flocks and we want to protect

the wild bird population and the housing order was the right thing to

do, but we have come to the end of February and we will lose other free

range status and that has forced DEFRA to make a decision albeit the

wrong one. Why should they be doing then? There is no easy answer to

this. Bird flu is a worldwide issue and we are fighting it on our shores

every autumn and every autumn it is getting worse. We understand the

main problem occurs during the autumn and early spring and then

they migrate to birds go back and through the summer we don't see it.

The current control mechanism that DEFRA will put in place means I fear

we could spread the disease and make it almost a 12 month cycle. This is

going to affect the price you get for your eggs if you cannot call

them free range any more. Do you have fears people will go out of

business? These controls are put in place and they are geographic for

areas where there are wild foul or open areas of water. They will not

change so if you are a producer you are stuck in that zone so in effect

you will not market your eggs as free range again. Only when bird flu

is not prevalent. Tonight, in the last hour,

police have now re-opoend one lane of the A12 southbound

following an incident yesterday in which a lorry crashed

from a bridge onto the carriageway. The driver died in the

accident near Witham. The lorry was carrying 26

tonnes of batteries. As new figures reveal that they're

blocking is the highest on record, we have been given exclusive access

to a hospital in Basildon to see how they are coping there.

We have had a very challenging night.

We are still on black alert currently.

It is the first meeting at Basildon Hospital to work out

I've got three potential discharges for today.

We are in a position where we have no more beds in the hospital,

so we have 28 patients placed in A, so at the moment, if we have

any more ambulances arrive, we only have one trolley

If you have more than one patient, what are you going to do?

Then we will have ambulances queueing.

We admitted more people than we were able to discharge yesterday.

Basildon's managing director takes me through the latest situation.

What we're hoping to do is move patients into our elective

orthopaedic ward, which means we are not able to do joint surgery,

Just coming round to see if there are any patients for hospital home?

After the morning meeting, nurse Natalie Cook goes ward to ward

to find patients who could be discharged from hospital

and get their treatment from Basildon hospital nurses

But the real problem is being dealt with here.

Sick elderly people who get stuck in hospital.

This ward aims to treat the frail quickly and get

Some patients have been here for ten days though.

But after two days on this ward, Eileen is looking

Some patients here are waiting for social care to kick in.

The majority of the patients who come over here we treat

The longer they stay, more complex problems arise,

Every bed in Basildon Hospital is taken and it has pretty much been

that way since the beginning of the year.

So much so that if you needed something like a hip replacement,

they would pay to send you private, none have taken place

Basildon Hospital is trying but getting slack in the health

Earlier, I asked our health reporter Nikki Fox for her

The figures are quite bad in some hospitals in this region. The

Princess Alexandria Hospital in Harlow has dropped to 69%. 95% of

people are supposed to be seen within four hours, that's the target

and many hospitals are falling below that level. One of the solutions is

to send patients to be treated privately, but how much money is

being spent on that? There is a national survey that suggests around

a third of hip and knee operations are being done by private companies

and that is quite worrying, because that is their bread and butter, that

is where they get the majority of their money, they don't get a lot

from emergency operations. For that type of work to be placed with

private companies, that is having a big impact on their finances.

The Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn says the Norwich South MP Clive Lewis

will be able to return the shadow cabinet at some stage in the future.

Mr Lewis resigned as Shadow Business Secretary last night after deciding

to defy Mr Corbyn and vote against Article 50.

Today, the Labour leader said it was right that Mr Lewis

had stepped down now, but he hoped he could come back

Clive voted the way he did last night because he believed

that he must represent the views of his constituency.

I understand that, but it was a national decision,

it was a national ballot, it was a national referendum.

I have a very good relationship with Clive, we had a chat

on the phone yesterday as well as in my office and,

of course, there will be a place for him in the future.

Clive Lewis has not made any comment on camera today,

but there will be more discussion surrounding this week's vote in

That's on BBC One at 11 o'clock this Sunday.

Good evening. The wintry weather has set in and it will be bitterly cold

for the next 48 hours. The risk of some snow flurries as we go through

the night, so you might wake up to a light dusting also the risk of icy

patches. Not a lot of change on the pressure pattern. This weather

feature may mean showers becoming widespread as the day goes on. They

will be blowing in from the North Sea and they may get further England

as that north-easterly wind freshens. More snow expected

tomorrow night and into Saturday morning. Two or three Celsius

beehive. The National weather is coming up and here is the outlook:

You could wake up to a covering of snow on Saturday, it

sleet and snow. The outlook, Sunday will turn a bit less cold again. All

the way up seven Celsius. At this time of year we can often

get the weather stories that reflect the battle between winter and

spring, and that's what's been happening in New York in the USA.

Yesterday, 17 Celsius, but today, it's been bitterly cold, just a

daytime maximum of -2, a significant wind-chill and some significant snow

falling as we speak. This was Times Square earlier today. For others,

it's been a pretty cold day. Not quite as cold, but nevertheless a

lot of low cloud lifting in off the North Sea