20/02/2017 Look East

for Mosul underway, there will have to be some follow-through. So what

comes next? Join Hello and welcome to

the Look East late news. In the programme tonight,

protests from the public gallery, as another county council admits

services will be hit, despite a big Hopes that our wartime history

will prompt a friendly And after an exceptionally mild

Monday, I will have the weather Hello.

I'm Amelia Reynolds. The region's council tax

payers are in line for big to plug the gaps in local

government spending. Today, Norfolk agreed its budget

for the new financial year and it has gone for its biggest

increase ever - 4.8%. That is an extra ?57 a year

for the average home. Last week, Essex increased its

charge by ?36 a year for an Southend sets its bills separately.

Its increase is even higher. Suffolk went for a 3% rise,

meaning an extra ?56 a year. Today the county council admitted it

would have to make savings. This is where the pain

will be felt this year, in sheltered housing -

warden-run homes for the elderly I think it is a very important

part of the social care It enables the elderly

residents to live longer and maintain their independence, thus

avoiding having to go into nursing If your funding from the county

council is cut, what happens? Obviously, some of the services

we may be able to provide But in some cases, we may have

to even reduce the services. And that subsidy is going to be cut

this year by up to 50%. So, too, funding for charities

in Norfolk who provide accommodation County councils no longer have

a statutory obligation to provide So, with spending

pressures elsewhere, this part of the budget

is being scaled back. I regret that, but we have been

subsidising the district councils and they have their own

tax-raising powers. What we are saying is, "Hang on,

we can no longer do this for you." This was the most contentious

part of today's budget. The opposition parties tried

to reverse the cuts, but when they failed, there

were cries from the public There will be an increase

in homelessness. There are places already closing

down that look after vulnerable people and women's centres

and so on. And they have been lost and are in

the process of being lost. I don't know where people like that

are supposed to now go. The council says that,

in making difficult choices, it has been able to protect

frontline services. Libraries, even mobile

ones, are staying open. No fire stations are being closed.

And school crossing patrol survive. But it has meant some painful cuts

and a big increase in council tax. How is this going to go down

with the electorate? Andrew Sinclair was at today's

meeting at County Hall in Norwich. I asked him earlier

what the local tax rises tell us about the pressures faced

by our local councils? The fact that all our authorities

are putting up council tax in an election year gives

you an idea how serious things are in local

government finance. Over the past six years,

their grant from central government By 2020, they have to make further

savings of ?120 million. and if they see services

like youth services, housing support, which they do not,

by law, have to provide, there are going to be cuts

in funding for them. What we are talking

about tonight is the county council's share of the council

tax bill. The financial bill is

likely to be much more? Over the next few nights,

district councils in Norfolk - most of them, at least -

are going to increase their share We already know that the police

share of the council tax bill is By the time this comes to an end,

most council tax payers in Norfolk will be looking at an average rise

of ?70 this year. That is quite a lot

for voters to swallow. but there is another row brewing

around the re-evaluation The Chancellor Philip Hammond has

said tonight that he is I asked our business correspondent

Richard Bond to explain. Most businesses out there are lucky

enough not to see increases But there are places

where the rates are going up What we are seeing in Southwould

in Suffolk, for example, and Burnham Market in Norfolk,

where rents have risen most since the last valuation

nearly ten years ago. This bakery in Southwold,

which has recently been refurbished, is expecting its business

rates to rise from ?2,000 At the moment, I pay myself only

the minimum wage of ?10,000 a year. Everything that I make goes

back into the business. So we are looking at decisions,

potentially, about the likes of the people that

I employ and employ and decisions about where money

is invested in the business. But are increases

on that scale typical? No, they are not.

The government has been at pains today to say that the main

areas seeing increases are in London and the South East,

not in this region. It says businesses in the East

will see an average 7% fall in their business rates, equivalent

to a saving of ?180 million. And the winners, in more detail,

include Chelmsford, which will see a reduction of 10%,

Ipswich 11% and Norwich 5%, though that does not mean that

all premises in those places a reduction of 10%,

Ipswich 11% and Norwich 5%, though that does not mean that

all premises in those places The first residential

home in Suffolk for women with eating disorders has

been officially opened. The White House is operated

by a commercial company. hose who need help can

be referred by the NHS and given help with planning

their meals and life skills. 75 years ago today,

at the height of World War II, the so called "friendly

invasion" of East Anglia Now, the tourism

industry in this region wants to make sure our wartime

history is not forgotten. Mike Liggins reports from

the Imperial War Museum at Duxford. and the launch of a new

tourism campaign called 75 years ago, 180,000 US servicemen

came to East Anglia, to serve with Now, Visit East Anglia has put

together new itineraries, based on locations like Duxford,

which will be sold in America. The Queen has her royal retreat

here in East Anglia. They like that.

We have our Downton Abbeys. We have links golf courses,

we have English whisky distilleries. All the things that we know American

tourists like, we tick those boxes, as well as having

the peg of the 75th anniversary At today's launch, there

were several VIPs here, from Playtone, Tom Hanks's

production company, which is planning to make a new TV

series about the 8th Army Air Force. Been a long war.

It's been a tough war. The same company made the worldwide

hit, Band of Brothers, and are now in production

of a series based on a book I can't promise exactly

if we will be shooting here, but certainly we do so much research

on what we do with these projects. There will certainly be that

presence, to do research. What does it look like?

What did it look like? And to talk to some of

the local people, who have knowledge, of what it

was like in the '40s Tom Hanks will not star

in the series, but will be a writer The storyline will probably

concentrate on those of the 100 Bomb Group, aka "The Bloody

100", who were based here, The worst job you could have

in World War II was to be an American or British flier in one

of these aeroplanes 30,000 feet over Germany.

It was pretty tough. The camaraderie that grew out

of that is simply extraordinary and is really at the

heart of our drama. It is estimated there

are ten million staying in our region, but with a

blockbuster series about our wartime days on the way,

Visit East Anglia says that the potential

to sell the region to Coming up now the weather

with Julie, but from the rest A largely cloudy knit, with

outbreaks of patchy rain. Tomorrow, the front responsible for two nights

dream, eases away towards the south. Eventually, it should become dry of

Arabia. Some spills of brightness. Temperatures getting up to 12-13 C.

On Wednesday, this front pushing down from the north, introducing

more rain. Eventually, that should push away towards the south. Dry

conditions following. Similar temperatures to witness the. These

isobars fairly close together, signalling that the weather is going

to become increasingly breezy on Thursday. The wind should ease by

Friday. But you will see the temperatures considerably lower than

for the rest of the week. Here is the outlook.

As you have just seen, after a day in which some of you have been

shedding the layers, you will be putting them back on for the rest of

this week. Big changes ahead, all down to where the air has been

coming from. Today, it originated in