26/04/2012 Midlands Today

Hello, welcome to Midlands Today. The headlines: the big clear-up

after a tornado cuts a swathe through a Warwickshire town. Every

thing was flying everywhere and it was unbelievable. I could not

believe the garden was devastated. Port Vale Football Club have a �1.5

million debt written off by Stoke City Council.

As hundreds of Mercians return home from Afghanistan, commanders say

they have made huge progress. And remembering a bygone age of

brewing, when the best way to advertise beer was very, very

different. They are straight from our own garden. Bill picked them

Good evening. Tonight, a tornado rips a path through a town and

police say it is amazing no one was hurt. Fences were blown down, a

chimney stack toppled over and a children's trampoline ended up on a

river after a freak storm struck in Rugby. Joan Cummings has spoken to

residents caught up in the world weather.

This is the devastation left after just 20 seconds of a mini tornado

hitting Rugby. As I was coming back from the shop, there was a world

wind and it threw me from the sidesteps of the shop, up the road

and I came home to find the hold of garden trash. The greenhouse flying

into the air. Class everywhere and the noise, terrifying. Dozens of

buildings were damaged. Roof tiles, concrete fence posts shower down.

There once was a metal shed here. This was lifted at least 10-12 feet

into the air, thrown into next door's garden where a green house

were smashed, glass rained everywhere. Now the metal shed is

here. The Trista came from nowhere, hitting properties and a line

across Overslade and New Bilton with unrelenting force. I had never

heard a wind like it. When I went indoors to check the wife, she was

all right but she was just crying her eyes out. 10 a phone lines were

ripped and garage roofs and trampolines were relocated. The it

came out of nowhere and went within 10-15 seconds. Amazing. At campaign

has been launched to help some homeowners with the clean-up costs.

We are not getting any support at the moment from the council, so we

are not sure what to do. We are all shaken up from the noise of it and

the sudden shock of it. This by the ferocity of the weather, no one was

injured but the tornado has left its mark, not only on the buildings

but on the local residents. I just cried. Just couldn't believe it.

Now I know how these people who have Horror Keynes feel. It is a

terrible experience. Our weather presenter Sarah

Cruikshank is here. How, and are tornados in this country? They are

more common than you might think but they are not quite as intense

as they would be in other parts of the world. Yesterday we did have

very unstable atmosphere. We have seen some thundery showers through

the day yesterday and that is what caused the show was to be set off

and that is what we saw when we saw the tornados forming. Very

localised thundery downpours through the day and that is what

caused the winds to pick up. They are very localised so that makes

them hard to predict. Stoke-on-Trent City Council has

agreed to write-off �1.5 million owed to it by Port Vale Football

Club. The club slipped into administration in March due to an

unpaid tax bill and concerns over other debts. But has the decision

been received in the city where there has been criticism to cuts to

local services? Port Vale was formed in the

Victorian era, but in modern times the club has faced financial

troubles. Six years ago, the council lent the club to 0.2 �5

million. More than half that is expected to be written off because

the club has gone into administration. Taxpayers have

expressed dismay. Other businesses are not cared about. Be it is

appalling when people are struggling. They are giving too

much away all the time. They should be looking after us. They got

themselves in the mess, we did not get them there. In spite of

taxpayers' misgivings, the decision means a �1.3 million takeover at

Vale Park is likely to go ahead. wasn't the perfect deal. But it was

the very, very best deal. Now the tax payers will be aggrieved and I

can understand and hindsight is a wonderful thing. At a meeting, the

next steps in the takeover were approved. Creditors know the future

of the club depends on this deal and the biggest creditor in Stoke-

on-Trent City Council. And that is why as creditors met, the local

council's role had been so important. As a tax payer myself,

no one likes having to write off a dead. This has resulted in a better

return for the council and the council tax payer than the

alternative of liquidation. Although the club's supporters have

welcomed developments, political commentators say some voters could

take a different view. We are in a double dip recession. Stoke-on-

Trent has Stafford and it will continue to. Tax payers will ask

why are we using this money to bail out a football club when our

services are being cut? The next cuts at Pale to smack their part

will be in ticket prices. All home supporters will get a �5 reduction.

It is a gesture of thanks to the fans. Administrators hope it will

mean a record gate at the end of a difficult season.

Business confidence among small and medium-sized firms is growing

despite the UK economy slipping back into recession. That is the

verdict of 1,700 companies across Birmingham, Solihull and the Black

Country who took part in a survey. The reality is some businesses are

still struggling but they are in its -- encouraging signs.

Move it or lose it! A series of fitness DVDs that have proven to be

a real money-spinner. In the last month we saw 2,500 copies based on

good publicity and with those sorts of numbers we will get this product

into the supermarkets. The secret to his success, he has tapped into

a niche market. The elderly are usually overlooked when it comes to

exercise videos and these people love it. There are a lot of people

out there who just sit around and look for exercise but they cannot

go to gyms. There are lots of people out there who do not know

this is happening and do not have the confidence to sort it out,

whereas, if they have something they can use at home that is good

for them. Wouter Schuitemaker are not the own company doing well.

There are signs of confidence returning to small and read --

medium-size businesses. -- Ark Media. Almost 40 % of businesses

have increased their turnover in the last year. 23 % have

experienced a decrease and 26 % have taken on staff over the last

year. He read Birmingham Science Park there are up to 150 small

technology-based businesses with more than half showing signs of

growth. We define success in things like those finding investment,

taking on new employees. Where we see that,. Why it next for the

business behind the exercise DVDs? They are looking for a celebrity to

front their next one and think that could be the key to bigger sales.

We are joined by marketing Birmingham's Investment Director

Wouter Schuitemaker. This is very encouraging news. Are you

surprised? Clearly it has been a challenging time across the nation,

but on a regional basis we are seeing a real confidence in small

and medium-sized businesses and that is really turning into more

money for these companies. We have seen at least 15 % of these

companies generating more profit in the last three years and 40 % were

increasing their turnover. thought these companies were

struggling to get help from the banks. Access to finance is crucial

to the growth of these businesses but the skills and training side of

things being an important part of the investment in people and growth

of their businesses, so the companies that are doing this well,

investing in people, are really starting to do well. That is a big

issue, skills and training. Absolutely. What we would like to

see is more companies focusing on that area. If we look at the

statistics, the one area we would like to see more of his companies

that are investing in the next of months in people and about 47 % of

those will be doing that. If things are looking so good, why are we

back in a recession? It is clearly a difficult picture across the

nation, but in the regional context, it really is encouraging. We are

seeing a lot of confidence and where we have confidence, there is

growth and so the next two years, more investment in people, skills

and training, we hope to see this continue.

There were long queues outside Molineux today but for once it had

little to do with football. Around 1,000 people waited to enter a huge

jobs fair in the hope of grabbing an opportunity. The MP who

organised the event admits the level of youth unemployment is

particularly serious. Big local To get a clear idea of the clamour

for jobs in Wolverhampton, look at this. A queue that went on and on.

More than 3718-24-year-old son the city up unemployed. -- 3718-24.

Many of them were at this Molineux jobs fair. Richard Davies is a

graduate, frustrated she is out of work after moving to Wolverhampton.

She wants a job, ideally in animal welfare or conservation. Mother I

get a job or not, I do not know. There are many people applying for

the same jobs. It is very competitive. Lee Patterson told me

he is desperate to work, but says, because he is disabled, he has

found it very difficult. Today, he has made a few contacts. There is a

lot about can you walk, drive, read? Certain things get in my way.

I am slightly dyslexic, which does not help. This jobs fair was styled

on speed dating, finding a company you fancy and swapping numbers. The

likes of Carillion and Virgin Trains were looking to recruit and

the MP who came up with the idea believes these young people will

find work. It is important we do not talk down Wolverhampton

completely. We should look at positives. There are a lot of young

people looking for employment opportunities, but companies

offering doors. One of them, Goodrich Actuation Systems, is one

of the city's biggest employers a new contracts mean that new jobs.

There are Testers, machinists, design engineers, some of the

people we are looking for. Statistics show these queues are

getting longer. The number claiming Jobseeker's Allowance in

Wolverhampton is double the national average.

Bosses at Stafford Hospital are a major step closer to night to

reopening their A&E department during night-time hours. It has

been closed since December for managers to recruit more staff and

improve training. The decision sparked a furious reaction. Our

Health Correspondent is there. Campaigners must be pleased

tonight? There was a mood of cautious

optimism. One campaigner, suffering from epilepsy, had a seizure. That

is why he said he is campaigning for accidents emergency on his

doorstep. -- for Accident and Emergency. Some did not think they

would make it. In the bleak midwinter, a light

shining in hope more than expectation. The gates shut

overnight last September. People wanted a 24-hour A&E and thousands

signed a petition, being rewarded today. Personally, on listening to

them, there could be a team showing the rest of the country how to do

it. And if people work well together and are proud of what they

are doing, it could be a flagship for the rest of the country. There

were three serious incidents and up a report by the Kear quality

commission, so it was not safe. The hospital board was told they had

consultants and junior doctors and targets met. Can a hospital keep it

up? We have some weeks to go and want to make sure we can reopen on

11th June with all safety measures in place and that it is sustainable.

In the cafe where the campaign to clean up Stafford began, Julie

Bailey is unrepentant. She received heat mail by exposing dirty washing

in public. It transpired that -- it transpired they did not have

adequate staff to run the hospital overnight safely, so it had to

close. Now we have the correct numbers of staff and, as long as it

is safe, then it will reopen. does reopen overnight in June, the

process to downgrade it could begin in October. It is not downgrade and

it is not public relations. If we can do this and set up an urgent

care Centre, that will improve care for local people enormously.

that is for the autumn. If the Commission has approved, summer

will have come. Today, I sensed that trait --

sensed a change of mood that the trust board. It is the fact that

finances, although still falling, had stabilised and they had posted

the smallest debt rates of the West Midlands. There was still be

admittance there was a lot to do. - - smallest death rates.

Still to come, keeping the memory alive as we look on a bygone age of

brewing. And why a folk singer and male-

voice choir have come together in the pouring rain to a town with

Hundreds of soldiers from the Midlands have returned from

Afghanistan. The Mercian Regiment's 2nd Battalion fought several

hundred gun battles and commanders say they have made huge progress

during their six-month tour of duty. During the bolts of the final

contingent arrived at their base in Belfast last night.

-- Jeremy Ball saw their final contingent arrived back.

It was always going to be emotional. I am very relieved. My job is done

now that their father is back. have been waiting a while. Some of

the Mercian Regiment came home with powerful video footage from the

front line. Men of A company what hundreds of gun battles to drive

the Taliban out of a small part of Helmand Province the Afghan

Government did not control. We were contacted from three different

angles and everything went crazy. Running across an open field with

people coming towards you, muddy rain, slipping everywhere. Everyone

has grown up more. I have seen major development, infrastructure

development, roads, power, health care, education. But it two

comrades lost their lives. One came under fire from grenades and

another was killed by a roadside bomb. Around 20 others had serious

injuries. You cannot walk away saying it does not affect you, of

course it does, but if you had worked alongside Afghan national

forces, saw the potential that come -- saw the potential that country

has, what the military has achieved, absolutely, everything we have done

and achieved has been worth it. This is the official end of the

battalion's for deployment to Helmand Province and soon will be

providing security for the Olympic Games. For now, they are looking

forward to spending time with their families.

A one-time Birmingham brewery, Famous on its doorstep deliveries

of beer, has announced its intention to return to the city.

Davenports once employed thousands. Today, the company has been

celebrating its 185th anniversary on the site of its former home, now

a student housing complex. A flurry of beer trucks leaving

Davenports brewery on Bath Row in Birmingham. The company, founded

exactly 185 years ago today, was famous for home deliveries.

Davenports will deliver to your home. Millions are supplied.

beer was heavily supplied -- was heavily promoted by a series of

television advertisements. Beer delivery in the style of the

1950s me seemed like a relic from the past, but Davenports is using

this anniversary to announce it intends to restore the practice for

the 21st century. There is a market for home trade and if we can

diversify within that there is a good future. Davenports brewery was

a striking landmark until it closed in 1989. Now the site is student

flats, appropriately called The Maltings. A blue plaque was

delivered today in style to commemorate the brewing heritage.

It is nourishing and is the answer to a housewife's prayer.

advertisements may be consigned to history, but Davenports says it

wants to start brewing in Birmingham again, creating up to

100 jobs. We think the time is right to bring it back to

Birmingham. It is synonymous with Birmingham, so it seems wrong it is

not brewed in the city itself. Davenports beer is still produced

at Highgate Brewery in Walsall. But there is a long way to go if the

mass production of the 1900s is ever to be achieved they were --

achieved again. Terrific. We have been singing

along this afternoon. If you are intrigued by those wonderfully

dated advertisements, there are six of them on the Midlands Today

Facebook page. A canal barge full of comedians and

digital images in the Ironbridge Gorge, two of the spectacles coming

our way as part of celebrations for the London 2012 Festival.

Organisers say it is about putting artists in unusual locations. And

it is not more unusual than an acclaimed folk-singer and male

voice choir singing in torrential rain in ruins of a medieval priory.

When you are British, rain does not stop playing. Mercury Prize nominee

Eliza Katerine and their Much Wenlock Male Voice Choir would not

allow getting wet to stop them promoting their performance in the

ruined medieval priory. For Eliza, it will be one of four appearances

associated with the Olympics and pan-island bits. The welcome songs

as part of the Olympic Games is supposed to signify a spirit of

welcoming. -- the Olympics and Paralympics. We are looking forward

to rehearsing and performing on the evening. Hopefully it will not be

raining. The performance will coincide with the Wenlock Olympian

Games in July, founded by Dr William Penny Brookes and famous as

the inspiration for the modern Olympic movements. We have dozens

of London 2012 events. We have an amazing projection exhibition down

the road. We have major outdoor spectaculars in the centre of

Birmingham. Some happening in June. And in Worcester, we have a dance

event happening in a church. But it is not just a cultural and sporting

events creating a buzz in this town so famously associated with the

Olympics. Businesses like this one are benefiting, too, from the

Olympic event. Potter Mike Fletcher has seen a 50% increase in turnover.

He makes the prizes for the Wenlock Games and is now inundated with

orders from those keen to get something craft didn't Wenlock in

the year of the Olympics, all a far cry from having to take on another

job when the economic downturn first took hold. From making hardly

any pots a week, for example, to making nearly 200 plots and day on

the Potter's wheel. Tremendous difference. It is hard work. He has

welcomed Chinese television crews and made toys for a children's book

about the Wenlock Games that his pottery across the town from those

rehearsals. SINGING. Old singer, Eliza Carthy,

has arranged four welcome songs for the London 2012 Festival. I am sure

you will pay for better weather? Maybe, it is called today. The 2012

festival will last 12 weeks, opening on Midsummer's Day. -- cold

today. If you want to hear more from Eliza

and the Much Wenlock Male Voice Choir, we have more of their

singing in the rain on our Facebook page. Umbrella factories must be

doing well at the moment. I think Some have welcomed the showers,

many are tired of them. But without those, we would not have scenes

like this. A beautiful scenery of a rain ball. Overnight, we should see

it turning cloudy and it looks like a wet night. Showers will merge,

bringing longer spells of rain, so the Met Office has a yellow warning

for tonight. The heaviest of the rain across the north and west.

Tonight, rather cloudy, outbreaks of showery rain, merging into

prolonged spells of rain by tomorrow morning. Temperatures

under that cloud and rain will not be too lower. Temperatures to

around five or six. Tomorrow looks like a cloudier day and it will be

cooler. Not much brightness. We will see the rain gradually ease

through the day. A very wet start tomorrow and a cloudy one. Or

rather dull and damp. We hold on to that cloud tomorrow, then the rain

gradually easing. By tomorrow afternoon, something a little drier

towards the end of the day and clouds starting to break.

Temperatures on the cooler site because of all that cloud. We will

not see much brightness. For Saturday, very similar, cloudy and

some showers. This lower pressure A look at the headlines, Rupert

Murdoch says he did not know about the phone hacking scandal because

of a cover up. And there has been a big clean-up in Rugby after a

grenade will cut a path through the town.

Warwickshire and Worcestershire have managed to play today. 127 not