17/09/2012 Midlands Today

Hello and welcome to Midlands Today, with Nick Owen and Mary Rhodes. A

Our main headlines... Caught on camera, the gang who stole hundreds

of thousands of pounds from cash machines are jailed for nearly 25

years. I am relieved that some dangerous criminals are going to go

to prison. Thousands and sign a petition forcing a Westminster

debate this evening on the West Coast Main Line. As long as it is a

good, efficient service, at the right price, I am happy. More than

180,000 people in the region are on the waiting list for a house. And

Prince Charles visits a factory in Good evening. Tonight, jailed for a

total of nearly 25 years, a gang who stole hundreds of thousands of

pounds by breaking into cash machines. They carried out 33

separate raids across England. They stole almost �700,000 in total.

They used cutting equipment to get into the machines before escaping

in stolen, high-performance cars. An undercover operation by West

Midlands Police caught them in the end. This report from Cath Mackie.

They were expects at making their own hole in the wall. They wore

face masks, and they used axes and hammers to smash through the doors

of Co-op stores. Then they broke the back of the ATM, and with a

petrol-driven circular saw, a sliced their way through the steel

door to the cash inside. These are their faces uncovered - Noel Reilly

and David Holmes were jailed for seven years each. Darren Buckley

was given five years, seven months, and Simon Philips was given five

years. There were smiles as the sentence was passed in court.

showed disregard for the laws of the country. I think it shows the

complete contempt that they had for the business premises that a

targeted. The gang stole almost �700,000 from 32 Co-op stores and

one garage during the course of the year. Once they had got the cash,

they escaped in stolen, high- performance cars. Police tried to

chase them on one occasion through Birmingham and Warwickshire at two

o'clock in the morning, but the car was reaching speeds of 150 miles an

hour. One eyewitness said all four brake discs were glowing red hot.

The crime spree started in Kent and when to run the country. Police

caught up with them last September, when they were arrested and bailed.

But even on bail, Reilly and Holmes carried on thieving. On the 2nd

November last year, police did a raid in Dorset, and found them

bundling up this money, �83,000 worth, which they had stolen from a

cashpoint earlier that morning. Holmes had been caught on a CCTV

camera as he did the reconnaissance for the last hit. Anybody that goes

out of their way to commit this type of crime will be targeted, and

we will use whatever means are at our disposal, to make sure they are

responsible. All four men, from the Midlands, pleaded guilty. Police

are still trying to find �600,000 of the stolen cash.

You can read more on that story on our website.

Coming up later in the programme, hundreds of schoolchildren making a

splash in Coventry, as they meet their heroes from the Olympic pool.

A debate is currently under way in Parliament over who should run the

main rail route linking the Midlands with London, the north of

England and Scotland. More than 170,000 people signed an e-petition

calling on the Government to reverse its decision to award the

franchise to First Group, instead of the current operators, Virgin

Rail. Virgin Rail are challenging the decision in the courts. In a

moment we will be hearing from the chief executive of Virgin. But

first, our transport correspondent, Peter Plisner, reports. Who should

run the railway which links Britain's major cities? Virgin Rail

has failed to secure the new contract, losing out to its rival,

First Group, which bit more than �5 billion. But thousands want the

Government to reconsider its decision, adding their name to an

e-petition, which today resulted in a parliamentary debate. Taxpayers

want to know that they will not be held to ransom by Dick Turpin train

operators, asking them to stand and deliver, having secured the

contract on a bogus premise, taking their profits and scuppering for

stop I have looked at the managing director of First Group in the eye,

and asked him if he was able to deliver, and I am confident that he

understands the significance of this. First Group has promised a

variety of benefits, including 11 new trains, 12,000 additional seats

every day, and, by 2016, direct services to London from Shrewsbury

and Telford. Virgin maintains that the figures in the bid simply do

not add up, but not surprisingly, First Group disagrees. Virgin Rail

is also concerned about the way the bids were assessed by the

Department of Transport. But ultimately, passengers want a good,

reliable service, whoever is in charge. I do not care, as long as

it is a good, efficient service, at the right price. To get about the

UK, I find Virgin Trains are the best. First Group is yet to sign a

contract. That has been halted because Virgin wants a judicial

review. The new franchise is due to begin on 9th December. Recently, we

spoke to the bearded leader for First Group, who said they had

house on the franchise fair and square. Earlier, I spoke to the

chief executive of Virgin Rail, and asked if it was now time to accept

the result. I think if they had beaten us on better ideas and more

investment, and the department had done a risk assessment properly,

and offered the right level of guarantees, we would have said,

well done and good luck to them. First Group did put in a decent bid,

because they won, and they have promised to increase capacity and

improve the line to Shropshire. actually promised more investment.

We were going to invest more than �800 million. I think they have

said �350 million. They offered a big premium to the Government, and

that is the essence of a one argument - had the Government done

the risk assessment on that premium payment properly, and had they

asked for the right guarantees from First Group, it might have been a

different result. We have taken what both sides have said publicly,

and we have applied those numbers to have aided the risk assessment

on a bit, and we have come up with a different answer. -- to how they

have done the risk assessment on our bid. We have lost two bids to

very risky bids, and this is the third time. Both of the previous

two failed. We felt, this has not been done properly. We have just

been asking for transparency from the Department of Transport, to see

the two bids side-by-side and see if we are right. Is this not just a

stalling tactic, because they are due to take over the running of the

line on 9th December? If this is not resolved by then, passengers

will be suffering. We are conscious of that. The decision we have taken

to go to court has not been easy, for that reason. We are helping

First Group in the background, to get them ready for mobilisation, in

case we are wrong, because we do not want passengers to suffer.

Finally, passengers are telling us they do not care who runs the line,

as long as it runs on time and they get a fair deal on what they are

paying for a ticket. I think they are, because you look at the

passenger satisfaction ratings that we get, compared to First Group,

and we always get a lot higher rating. The fact that we have had

this e-petition set up by members of the public, I think it shows

that they do care. Generally, we do a decent job, and we can be an

awful lot better. We would love to have the chance to do that for the

next 14 years. Our correspondent Peter Plisner was listening to that

interview, and he has also been following the debate in Parliament.

He joins us now from Birmingham's New Street station. So, clearly,

Virgin Rail are not going quietly - what will happen to the service and

to the passengers if this is not resolved? It is most likely the

trains will carry on as normal on 9th December. What might happen is

that the Government may ask Virgin to carry on. Some say that is

unlikely because of the war of words between the Government and

Virgin. Amy bring in their own directly operated railway company,

but that would mean a cost to the taxpayer, and the Government will

be trying to avoid that. It is normally 100 days from the signing

of a contract to the taking over of the trains. At the moment, only 90

days of remaining. It is a bit worrying. Everything is now on hold

while the legal action goes on. have also had this afternoon at

another of our train companies, London Midlands, is to be closing

three ticket office - what more can you tell us about that? There have

been looking at ways of saving costs. Ticket buying habits have

been changing, with machines, and with the Internet. They have asked

the Government if they could close a number of stations and change

hours. The Government has not accepted all of the proposals. A

number of stations which were too close will now be staying open.

Three will be closing, however. Scores more stations will be facing

reduced ticket office hours. The best thing to do is to check with

London Midland, and with your local station.

So, the debate goes on, but who do you want to see running the West

Coast Main Line? Get in touch with us via e-mail, on Facebook or via

Twitter. We will read some of your comments later in the programme.

Tens of thousands of Midlanders are stuck on housing lists, waiting for

a home. A three-day conference began in Birmingham today to

discuss what to do about it. In the discuss what to do about it. In the

West Midlands alone, there are currently 183,000 people waiting

for a house. That's up by 45% in the last five years. The average

house price in the region has also climbed steeply, to �153,000.

That's up by 78% in the last decade. But at a time of rising prices and

rising demand, the number of homes being built is failing to keep pace

- just 8,600 were built last year. - just 8,600 were built last year.

This report from Joan Cummins. are, we have the living room.

Wyke was on a waiting list for eight months before being

successful in getting the keys to her �93-a-week, two-bedroom home in

Darlaston. She had previously had to pay more than �120 a week for a

damp-ridden, privately-rented flat, and she says this social housing

development is good news for her. My asthma has calmed down since we

have moved. It has made a great difference to my health. This house

is timber-framed and insulated, so we're saving on the bills as well.

I would not change it for the world. The current housing crisis has been

described as a perfect storm. Those that would traditionally have

bought their own homes now cannot get mortgages, and changes to the

benefits system mean that more people are reliant on the social

housing sector. It is said that unless something is done, the

crisis is just going to get worse. Just 8,000 homes were built in the

region last year. One housing association has planned to build

800 affordable homes over the next thing the years, but they say more

is needed. If we can build homes for market rent as well as

affordable homes, that's fine. I think groups which cannot afford

market rents, however, so we still need subsidised housing. More than

1,000 delegates at this conference are hoping the new Housing Minister,

Mark Prisk, may have some solutions. He will remind them of �10 billion

worth of government finance which is available to provide the spark

to get Britain building. But there are fears that this is not enough.

Investing in house building is the quickest way to get the economy

moving, but also to meet that basic human need for a decent home at a

price you can afford, to rent or buy. How can you afford to save to

buy a home when rent is so high? Social housing is very difficult to

access at the moment, because we are not building enough. It does

not matter where you turn, you have got a generation of people excluded

from the housing market. There may be no quick fix for this housing

market crisis, but there is a growing realisation that building

has to be prioritised. You can see what our political

editor has to say about the housing situation in his latest blog...

Still to come - the charities which are benefiting from extra cash,

thanks to a brainwave from Prince Charles. And signs that autumn is

beginning to assert itself. Many of us take heating our homes

with mains gas for granted, but it is not an option in many rural

areas. The rising price of heating oil is hitting pockets hard, but

one way to keep the cost down is to join other users, and buy in bulk.

It is an idea which is growing in popularity. Rural bliss at Woore in

Shropshire, but as autumn bikes, and temperatures plummet, it comes

at a price. Like many country villages, Woore has no mains gas,

and many people use oil-fired heating. That's why Brian Herbert

and 21 neighbours have joined and bulk oil buying scheme to keep

soaring costs down. When we first heard oil put in, it was at the

cost of 16p per litre. It is now 60p per litre, or about that. So,

it is quite an expensive item. According to the organisers, people

are saving at least 4p a litre by buying as a group. That means a �40

saving on an average 1000-litre refill. Many households do that two

or three times a year. The scheme is being run by Shropshire

Community Council, a charity which helps rural communities, and which

has seen oil prices rising in recent years. We have got more than

500 members in the Shropshire, so we are ordering between 70,000 and

100,000 litres each month. So, we have more negotiating power. Just

over the border, here in Staffordshire, another buy in bulk

scheme is in its infancy, with just a handful of members. This one has

been backed by a Staffordshire County council, which gave the

community council �15,000 to help set it up. Following the success in

other counties, we launched our scheme two weeks ago, and the

response has been very positive. If the tanker can arrive and make 10

deliveries in one day, it is better for the Environment. It has been so

successful that organisers are now looking at buying electricity, coal

and wood in bulk, too. For more on that story, take a look at the

Staffordshire Community Council website. It has been a busy weekend

of sport, particularly football. Here's Goosen off. -- here's Ian

Winter. Dan Ashworth is not the most familiar face in the Premier

League, but in five years at The Hawthorns, he has done a great job

for West Bromwich Albion. But now, the director of football from West

Brom is joining the FA at the end of the season. It is a double blow

for fans, following their defeat at the weekend. After seven points out

of nine, some Baggies fans were wondering whether Europe could be a

possibility. But they came back down to work with a bang at Fulham

on Saturday. Already a goal down to Dimitar Berbatov, any realistic

chance of getting something from the game disappeared when Peter

Odemwingie lost his head and saw red. I lost my temper of it. I am a

professional, I have to keep my cool. It is not my habit. It is

something to learn, and next time I will make sure it does not happen.

will make sure it does not happen. The mood could not have been more

different at Villa Park. They found the start of the season tough, but

suddenly, things seem to be falling into place for Paul Lambert. He saw

two of his summer signings score in their first victory in 14 games in

the Premier League. Matthew Lowton got the first, and Christian

Benteke got the second. Stoke City continued to frustrate Manchester

City's millionaires. Five times they have met in the Premier League

at the Britannia Stadium, and never have Stoke been beaten. There was

further frustration for Manchester further frustration for Manchester

City, with Peter Crouch using his hand as well as his foot to strike.

It is incredible, this is basketball, not football.

Manchester City got an equaliser through Javi Garcia. Not even the

arrival of Michael Owen could get a winner. It was only the

intervention of Ryan Shawcross which secured the point for Stoke.

Coventry City could be revealing their new manager on Wednesday. And

what a big job he will be taking on. Two sloppy goals conceded in the

last 10 minutes against Tranmere mean that Coventry could be rock

bottom of League One if they lose at Shrewsbury tomorrow evening. In

contrast, Port Vale are flying in League Two. Ashley Vincent was on

target in their victory at Plymouth. Two real crackers coming up, the

first from Richard Stearman, to seal the victory for Wolves against

Leicester at Molineux. But this is my pick of the bunch, an absolute

scream or for Walsall, who beat Portsmouth. The City of Coventry

has the only 50-metre pool in the Midlands, so it was the perfect

venue for many of Britain's top swimmers today. 500 excited

children took time off school to meet their Olympic and Paralympic

heroes. Coventry sports centre has never seen anything like this

before. It is the fifth and final leg of the British Swimming Heroes

Tour. The locals call it Cov Baths, and inside there was a pool full of

excited children to welcome our finest Olympic swimmers and divers,

our water polo players and our Paralympians. Claire Cashmore, from

Kidderminster, is still as high as a kite after winning more medals at

her third and best Paralympic Games. I still have some nightmares about

some of my races, coming fourth in one of them, and missing the gold

by a short margin. You're going to have these disappointments. But I

am really happy, it is the best Games I have ever heard. Three

times Paralympian is very special. I do not have three Olympic Games

in me, so I take my hat off to her. Congratulations to her. No sign of

Tom Daley on the diving board. He is training for the World Junior

Championships in Australia next month. But there was a lot more to

whet the appetite of the kids for watersports, like Jake Vincent, one

of our a limpid water polo players, and Yvette Baker, from Sutton

Coldfield, a member of Team GB, who finished sixth. You make it look so

easy. Thanks! It is very hot, but it is a lot of practice and

training. We train up to 50 hours a week. It is really good to meet the

Olympic swimmers. What have you learnt today? Had to save someone's

life. 500 Coventry school children. This has been a huge success,

hasn't it, Rebecca? Rebecca? Great to see so many swimmers in Coventry

today. Dan Wheldon to Walsall Cricket Club, newly crowned

champions of the Birmingham League. And in their bicentenary. Now, for

the last 15 years, 6,000 charities have benefited from an extra �130

million of income thanks to a brainwave from Prince Charles. He

set up an organisation to distribute slightly defective goods

to good causes, which would otherwise end up in landfill. This

afternoon he was in Telford to see how his idea is being put into

how his idea is being put into practice, as Bob Hockenhull reports.

The Prince on a production line he helped to make happened. The

pottery he was packing at this giant warehouse in Telford is not

destined for a department store. Instead, thousands of goods with

slight defects are sent here to this company. It is an organisation

which Prince Charles founded in 1996. The products are posted out

1996. The products are posted out to charities instead of being

thrown away. It is things like toiletries,

cleaning supplies, sports goods, small appliances, laptops, all

really crucial, important things for charities and for their

beneficiaries. This is a residential school for severely

autistic children in Worcestershire. It is one of the charities which

benefits. Projects like the school farm, which helps pupils like 17-

year-old Michael to develop life schools -- life skills, have been

able to grow, thanks to the money. We have saved �150,000, which means

we have got more money to spend on the youngsters, things that they

need, for example, for communication. All the orders from

all over the country are processed here in Telford. The only thing

that charities have to pay us a handling charge, which is 5%-10% of

what the goods are worth. To keep the costs down, volunteers like

these bank workers are helping to pack the goods. This is one of the

companies which donates. More than �2 million worth of pottery has

come here to date. In the past, the majority of that product would have

been ground up and used to fill potholes in the roads of Stoke-on-

Trent. In these days of reduced funding for many charities, this is

an increasingly vital lifeline, and one which would not be there if it

was not for the foresight of the future king. I have to say, there

has been some very warm sunshine around today. Can it go on? What a

around today. Can it go on? What a way to start a new week - a sun-

drenched morning, hardly a cloud in the sky. But since then, as the

cloud has thickened up this afternoon, the extent of the drop

in temperatures since the weekend is probably more obvious now.

Definitely an autumnal feel to the week, which can been seen quite

clearly from the change in colours on the air mass - from the warming

yellows last Friday and the weekend to the cooler blues washing over us

now. And it's not just the days that are going to be cooler but

also the nights. But generally speaking, a lot of dry and fine

weather about. As for tonight - we're beginning to see some showers

now spilling in from the west, and I think during the first half of

the night, most places could catch the odd one. But they will

gradually fade into the early hours, by which stage the skies are going

to clear and temperatures will fall to lows of seven or eight. But by

the morning, another batch of showers begins to topple in from

the west - most of them affecting the western parts of the region,

but a few could cross over to the east. Temperatures dropping to a

minimum of 15 Celsius in brisk north-westerly winds. Tomorrow

night is going to be the coldest of the week. A look at tonight's main

headlines: The GCSE exam for 16- year-olds in England is to be

replaced by an English Baccalaureate certificate. And

caught on camera - the gang who stole hundreds of thousands of

pounds from cash machines are jailed for nearly 25 years. Now,

earlier we asked you for your views on who should run the West Coast

Mainline. That's the main rail route linking the Midlands with

London, the north of England and Scotland. First Group won the bid

for the franchise but Virgin are challenging that decision in the

courts. Andy Platt got in touch via Facebook. He's not keen on either

company. His simple message - company. His simple message -

nationalise it! Stephen Maiden says Branson lost, so spat his dummy out.

If his claims are correct, that First overbid, then fair enough. He

would be right and Virgin should keep it. Anne-Marie Lucas says that

for disabled and pushchair access, Virgin is useless and it's way

overpriced. "But I've never used First, I would imagine they're

better than Virgin and if not then they must be atrocious!" Caroline

Brammeld reflects the views of a number of people who've contacted

us from Stoke-on-Trent. She says if First Trains are

anything like First bus service in Stoke, then I think Virgin should

keep the train services. Adam Dwyer says, after using both

First and Virgin, the Government would be stupid to get rid of

Virgin. First Group don't have the money or resources to carry on the

upgrade and bring in the better, cleaner, faster trains. And finally,

Eighties Doc says... To be honest, who cares, as long as the customer

gets a fair price on their tickets and the trains aren't late all the

time! That's all from us this evening,