23/02/2017 Look East

Hello and welcome to the Look East late news.

The worst is over, but the effects of Storm Doris

We're live on the North Norfolk coast.

Winds of up to 80mph, damage to buildings,

It's been a tough day for many here in the East.

Why 500 people in the region have more than 12 points

on their licence, but are still legally allowed to drive.

The winds may have died down, but the effect of Storm Doris

is still very much being felt this evening and it looks like tomorrow

More than 30,000 homes are without power, there have been

delays on the roads and railways and people have been

Mike Liggins is on the North Norfolk coast, which has seen some

Yet is much calmer now. You may be able to see the lights of Cromer

behind me. We think the wind speed at the moment is about 16 miles an

hour, but earlier as speed of 81 macro is an hour was recorded just

along the coast. It has been a difficult day for many in the

region. High tide at Cromer at 5.00pm this

afternoon and the North Sea But there are always sightseers

here and on the pier some even The wind has definitely grown

stronger in the last hour and with the rain,

I don't think I've ever seen I'm pleased that we're

off the pier now. The strong winds brought down power

lines and UK Power Networks have All of our normal work has been

suspended, as you'd expect. The whole organisation comes

together in 'Storm Mode'. We've got over 400 engineers

out there ready to go, some of them are out there working

at the moment, to make sure we can In Haverhill, the roof of this job

centre came adrift and staff had While in Colchester,

64 homes in Greenstead Avenue were evacuated after Storm Doris

damaged this building. It was as if a lorry had gone

into the side of the building. Then, when I looked out

of the window, I've just noticed all the bricks had fallen off

the top of the roof. Then we looked out the front

door and the whole roof On the roads, fallen trees made

scores of minor roads impassable, while an overturned lorry blocked

one lane of the M11 The Orwell Bridge at Ipswich

and the QE2 Bridge at Dartford were both closed for much

of the day, causing long delays. It has been a similarly miserable

story on the rail network. Many commuters took to Twitter this

evening with pictures of a packed For many in the East,

it hasn't been a good Doris day. So the latest we have, UK power

networks say that 31,000 customers across Norfolk, Sussex and assets

are still without power. That number is slowly coming down. The Orwell

Bridge and QE2 bridge both open tonight. Greater Anglia tell us that

they will have a limited service on the trains first thing in the

morning but there will be no trains between Norwich and Sheringham

because there are conifer trees on the line which are at risk and can't

be felt until the morning. It would probably be a good idea to check

Alex will be here with the forecast later.

BBC Look East has learned that more than 500 motorists in Norfolk,

Suffolk and Essex are still driving despite having too many penalty

Usually drivers are banned when they exceed 12 points, but it's

One driver from Essex currently has 42 points and is still on the road.

From causing a road collision to failing to have insurance,

when you break traffic laws you are penalised.

12 points on your licence usually means a driving ban for six months,

but figures obtained by the BBC show that, in this region,

502 drivers are still on the road despite having 12 or more points.

Essex has the highest count at 313, where one person is still driving

despite having 42 points on his licence.

Alex McFarlane was caught speeding six times in three months.

He would have lost his job had he been banned.

Drivers can appeal if they claim that the ban can cause them

For example, they could lose their job.

There is no definition in law, though, as to

Every person, every case is looked at on its own merit.

Magistrates have to consider the impact of a ban not

just on the motorist, but also the effect on his or her

There are drivers out there on the road with

As I say, it's a matter for the courts that they've

All I would hope is that people with an excessive amount of points

do begin to learn the lesson and not commit offences in the future.

The vast majority of drivers with 12 points are banned,

but the fact remains there are a handful who have

continually broken the law who are still on our roads.

Simon Nicholls is from Belmores Solicitors.

At the end of the day, that's my job - to try and keep

people their driving licence when they go over the 12 point mark.

The Magistrates' Court have a discretion not

to disqualify people if they find the disqualification would cause

The important word there is 'exceptional', so not just

discomfort or you've got to get the bus or you've got

It means it's going to cause a real exceptional hardship,

A bus driver who is single and lives at home with his parents.

A bus driver who is married, has a mortgage, has a young family,

One of them loses his licence, he loses his job as a bus driver.

The other one loses his job as a bus driver, can't get another job,

the family is at risk, mortgage, all the rest of it.

But doesn't it suggest, then, that you can kind

of break the law and, as long as you've got

yourself a good lawyer, you'll be all right?

It helps to have a good lawyer, I'm not going to argue

with that, but the reality is that the magistrates listen very

carefully to these arguments, and I have seen people

present their own arguments in court and those presented by lawyers,

and they analyse them, they scrutinise them very closely.

No one pulls the wool over magistrates' eyes very easily.

Can you understand, though, that some people think it's not fair,

Is anything in life a real level playing field?

But the law gives the magistrates discretion and people are entitled

It's not easy because of the word 'exceptional' and the court has

got to be convinced, and we have to convince

the court on the balance of probabilities, that exceptional

Today, we got one of the most detailed breakdowns for many years

of how much money has actually come to this region from the EU

The East of England office in Brussels says our region has

received ?4 billion of EU investment over the last ten years,

which has helped fund ?12 billion worth of projects.

Farmers, businesses and local communities are all eligible,

No, not the slopes of Bordeaux, but a farm

The Witchells have planted their own vineyard and open up a winery,

helped in part by ?42,000 from an EU fund set up to encourage rural

We fitted the bill for the leader funding very well because we're

going to be boosting tourism in the area and employing local

people here and adding to the local supply chain,

so really, it was the perfect funding for us.

Improvements to several of our nature reserves,

a new freight line through Ipswich, the regeneration of

Hundreds of projects in the East have benefited from EU money,

but they're not going to for much longer, which is why one

of our business organisations commissioned this report -

Millions of pounds of European funding comes to support economic

growth and we know that's coming to an end.

What we're doing is to make the case to Government to say that here's

The Leave campaign argued that because we send more

to Brussels than we get back, the Government should be

able to keep funding all the schemes after Brexit,

but ministers will only guarantee funding to existing

projects until 2021 because after that they don't know

how much money they'll have the play with.

Science, technology and infrastructure will probably

But no one can be sure at the moment.

They're looking for firm promises quickly.

You can see more on that story on Sunday Politics East.

That's this Sunday on BBC One at 11.00am.

Coming up now is the weather that's been making the news,

but from the rest of the team, good night.

You will be glad to know that Storm Doris has now moved well away and

this centre of the area of low pressure is now well out over

Scandinavia. The winds are easing and continue to do so over the

course of the night. There could be some patchy rain as we go through

the night and with clear spells developing and temperatures dropping

quite a bit lower tonight than they have recently, there is the risk of

icy patches and a touch of frost in the early hours of tomorrow morning.

The average wind speeds are much lower as we get to 5am tomorrow.

Tomorrow, complete transformation in our weather. It is likely to be

quite a bit colder, but try with some good spells of sunshine and

some light to moderate north-westerly winds, so feeling

very different. Temperatures only seven or eight Celsius at their

best. It will feel noticeably cooler. Here is the outlook. It

turns smiled up at the be much milder. I will leave you

with Thomas Shelter. Good evening. It was quite a day for

some of us. We get these sort of storms every couple of years also.

Difficult to give an exact number, but it was certainly a nasty one.

It's now moving into Holland, Germany, south of Denmark, and it

continues to blow itself out. The winds around coasts were not

particularly spectacular, but