Browse content similar to 09/12/2013. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
Line | From | To | |
---|---|---|---|
the north and west. That's all from the BBC news at six. | :00:00. | :00:00. | |
Hello and welcome to Midlands Today. The headlines tonight. More savings | :00:00. | :00:12. | |
needed. Another 1,000 jobs to go at Birmingham City Council. It is very | :00:13. | :00:19. | |
sad and I am sorry for this but there is no alternative because the | :00:20. | :00:21. | |
money is not there to keep those people in employment. We'll be | :00:22. | :00:28. | |
asking how these cuts will affect those who use the services. Ten | :00:29. | :00:32. | |
years down the road, claims the M6 Toll is a benefit to no one and | :00:33. | :00:36. | |
shunned by most drivers. Pulling in bumper crowds but has Birmingham's | :00:37. | :00:38. | |
German Christmas market become too popular? It feels like a connection | :00:39. | :00:48. | |
of sheds. I have nicknamed it Shedville. Storm clouds over manager | :00:49. | :00:55. | |
Steve Clarke as West Bromwich Albion suffer another home defeat. And you | :00:56. | :00:59. | |
would be surprised at the weather this week, it is not quite as cold | :01:00. | :01:06. | |
as you would expect others. `` expect for December. All the details | :01:07. | :01:22. | |
coming up. Good evening. Hundreds more jobs are being lost at the | :01:23. | :01:25. | |
region's biggest local authority. The leader of Birmingham City | :01:26. | :01:28. | |
Council is warning tonight of the most severe cuts in its history. | :01:29. | :01:31. | |
He's blamed a reduction in Government funding amounting to ?149 | :01:32. | :01:33. | |
for every person in Birmingham. Today's announcement means 1080 jobs | :01:34. | :01:37. | |
are to go in the next two years. And the amount the council needs to save | :01:38. | :01:41. | |
by 2017 has increased from ?615 million to ?840 million. Three years | :01:42. | :01:44. | |
ago, the council employed 21,000. That's now down to 14,000 ` a | :01:45. | :01:47. | |
reduction of a third. Bob Hockenhull reports. One year ago, Birmingham's | :01:48. | :01:53. | |
council leader said that the city was staring individual is a doom. | :01:54. | :01:57. | |
Today, he said those jaws had widened. More than 1000 posts will | :01:58. | :02:03. | |
go by April 2000 and Dean. It is not just those who have been made | :02:04. | :02:08. | |
redundant who will be losing out. Advice activities, and that things | :02:09. | :02:14. | |
are residents are very much in need, so there is a range of cuts for | :02:15. | :02:19. | |
different categories of people, residents and indeed businesses. | :02:20. | :02:23. | |
Post from Park keepers to pest controllers, from librarians to | :02:24. | :02:27. | |
leisure centre managers are under threat from this latest round of | :02:28. | :02:31. | |
cuts. Only those working in children's services will be | :02:32. | :02:37. | |
protected. The council says that a 40% reduction in government funding | :02:38. | :02:40. | |
is to blame for the cuts, but the Government insists it has delivered | :02:41. | :02:43. | |
a fair deal which protects front line services. Opposition party | :02:44. | :02:47. | |
leaders on the council believed Labour has got it spending | :02:48. | :02:52. | |
priorities wrong and Birmingham. Why are they not willing to reduce | :02:53. | :02:56. | |
services and back office, things like the human resources Department | :02:57. | :02:59. | |
on legal department, or consult this? They spend a huge amount on | :03:00. | :03:04. | |
consultants. The council should be managing its budgets better, cutting | :03:05. | :03:09. | |
out vanity projects. We cannot afford them at the moment, and using | :03:10. | :03:15. | |
its lenses. The unions have described today's announcement as | :03:16. | :03:20. | |
horrendous but inevitable. It does not come as a shock but it will come | :03:21. | :03:23. | |
as a shock to the people of Birmingham that their services are | :03:24. | :03:27. | |
being wrecked by central government. The council was that services that | :03:28. | :03:32. | |
are currently protected Mike also face cuts in future years. `` might | :03:33. | :03:44. | |
also. The council said that volunteers could step in to take up | :03:45. | :03:49. | |
the slack. But will that work, and what do community stand to lose if | :03:50. | :03:56. | |
it doesn't? Standing up for Birmingham, they called it, an event | :03:57. | :04:00. | |
organised by the council intended to inspire volunteers to step up as | :04:01. | :04:04. | |
they step back. People like Roger, who wants to buy local playing | :04:05. | :04:07. | |
fields to provide sporting facilities. It opens up the door for | :04:08. | :04:12. | |
community and voluntary sector groups to step up to the plate and | :04:13. | :04:16. | |
say, we can get involved and we can do stuff on behalf of the local | :04:17. | :04:21. | |
community. How much can we expect from volunteers like Emma, who | :04:22. | :04:25. | |
devotes hundreds of unpaid hours to running their neighbourhood park? If | :04:26. | :04:30. | |
it is maintained it has no insurance impact. Cuts today would mean more | :04:31. | :04:36. | |
park rangers and keepers losing their jobs, but she says they cannot | :04:37. | :04:39. | |
do it all on their own. You cannot mothball a park, you cannot not look | :04:40. | :04:46. | |
after it. It will go back to being the field that it once was. I am not | :04:47. | :04:51. | |
quite sure what the answer is. The answer is getting volunteers to | :04:52. | :04:55. | |
help, but volunteers cannot do it with no infrastructure behind them. | :04:56. | :04:59. | |
Up the road, a swimming pool and gymnasium that could be mothballed. | :05:00. | :05:03. | |
It is one of nine slated for closure. The council says it will | :05:04. | :05:10. | |
build six new leisure centres. It is fair to blame the local authority | :05:11. | :05:13. | |
that was voted in recently on the basis of defending public services. | :05:14. | :05:17. | |
What they have done is the luck `` the exact opposite, not standing up | :05:18. | :05:22. | |
to central government, whatsoever. These cuts are affecting ordinary | :05:23. | :05:26. | |
people, the working class, not the middle`class. Around the corner, one | :05:27. | :05:31. | |
of 39 libraries in the city that could face closure or transferred to | :05:32. | :05:37. | |
local community groups. It might be about handing overhaul services to | :05:38. | :05:40. | |
communities and using that as an opportunity to get people control | :05:41. | :05:43. | |
over something that matters to them in their lives. There are some | :05:44. | :05:47. | |
positives to come out of this. It is not all negative. Sunset, or new | :05:48. | :05:54. | |
dawn? One way or another, the landscape of local government is | :05:55. | :06:00. | |
changing. John Hemming is the Liberal Democrat MP for Birmingham | :06:01. | :06:03. | |
Yardley and a former city councillor. A little earlier I asked | :06:04. | :06:07. | |
him if, as a member of the coalition, he agreed with these | :06:08. | :06:10. | |
cuts. If the country wanted to not be in a mess in 2010, it would have | :06:11. | :06:16. | |
required different policies from 2005`8. Giving those policies | :06:17. | :06:24. | |
between 2005`8, which Tony Blair himself said were wrong, inevitably, | :06:25. | :06:28. | |
we face cuts across the country and I think now the Labour Party | :06:29. | :06:32. | |
nationally accepts that they will go at least with the first year after | :06:33. | :06:37. | |
the general election if they were to end up in government. You cannot | :06:38. | :06:42. | |
keep naming the previous government. The workforce has been cut by | :06:43. | :06:47. | |
21,000, to 14,000, in the last three years. Your government is keen to | :06:48. | :06:52. | |
stress that the recovery is under way, but that is not the case if you | :06:53. | :06:56. | |
work in the public sector or relying on council services as many of your | :06:57. | :07:02. | |
constituents do. We have to bring the deficit under control. The | :07:03. | :07:05. | |
government spending more money than it in, in tax, every year, and we | :07:06. | :07:10. | |
are gradually reducing the difference but we will not be in | :07:11. | :07:15. | |
balance until the year, 2018. How will you explain these cuts to your | :07:16. | :07:19. | |
constituents? There is an inevitability to all of this. | :07:20. | :07:22. | |
Whoever is in government nationally will have to have an austerity | :07:23. | :07:27. | |
policy. The only way we could have avoided it is by having different | :07:28. | :07:31. | |
policies between 2005`8. Those having been set, we are stuck. We | :07:32. | :07:37. | |
are doing better than places like Greece Spain that have had much more | :07:38. | :07:43. | |
serious cuts. Are you comparing us to Greece? Are you saying, tough, | :07:44. | :07:48. | |
this is the situation, we're going to have to get on with it. Your | :07:49. | :07:51. | |
constituents will be affected by this. The point is, the deficit, the | :07:52. | :07:57. | |
amount of money that the Government spent that it did not get, in | :07:58. | :08:01. | |
income, as a proportion of gross domestic product, was the same order | :08:02. | :08:05. | |
of magnitude as that in Greece, it was that big a problem. How can you | :08:06. | :08:11. | |
maintain services when the budget needs to be cut by the amount it | :08:12. | :08:14. | |
means to be cut by, which you have acknowledged? At the end of the day | :08:15. | :08:19. | |
you have to be more efficient in the way that you do things. We haven't | :08:20. | :08:23. | |
used staffing levels and libraries whilst keeping them open. That is | :08:24. | :08:28. | |
not an unreasonable thing to do. We're talking about losing a further | :08:29. | :08:33. | |
1000 jobs. Lots of jobs have been lost over time. There was nothing | :08:34. | :08:35. | |
particularly new in all of this. Plenty more to come tonight, | :08:36. | :08:45. | |
including: why the only thing traders in one riverside town want | :08:46. | :08:48. | |
for Christmas is an end to over`running bridge repairs. We | :08:49. | :08:52. | |
cannot carry on. We are losing money every month, and one just cant carry | :08:53. | :09:04. | |
on like this. `` can't carry on. Ten years ago to the day, the | :09:05. | :09:07. | |
controversial M6 toll road was opened. Many expected it to help | :09:08. | :09:11. | |
relieve congestion on the existing M6, but a decade later traffic | :09:12. | :09:14. | |
levels and congestion is virtually the same. That's partly because the | :09:15. | :09:22. | |
M6 Toll has never managed to attract the number of vehicles it was | :09:23. | :09:26. | |
forecast to carry. It's also lost millions of pounds for its owners, | :09:27. | :09:29. | |
Midland Expressway Limited. A recent report by the Campaign for Better | :09:30. | :09:31. | |
Transport claims that the pay`as`you`go motorway is of | :09:32. | :09:34. | |
"benefit to no one". However, the roads bosses say, after a long | :09:35. | :09:37. | |
recession, more drivers ARE now beginning to use it. Here's our | :09:38. | :09:40. | |
Transport correspondent Peter Plisner. The M6 Toll this morning ` | :09:41. | :09:43. | |
still one of the UK's quietest motorways. Dissy Tonks was on it | :09:44. | :09:46. | |
today. She likes it, but... It is expensive. It was better when it | :09:47. | :09:49. | |
first started. It was slightly cheaper. And even drivers who do not | :09:50. | :09:51. | |
pay the tolls themselves have similar views. Why do you use it as | :09:52. | :09:54. | |
opposed to a free road? Because somebody else pays the expenses. It | :09:55. | :09:56. | |
is expensive but the company are paying the way. And its high cost is | :09:57. | :10:02. | |
part of the reason many drivers have voted with their wheels and stayed | :10:03. | :10:05. | |
away. 75,000 vehicles were supposed to use it every day. But in reality | :10:06. | :10:09. | |
traffic levels are much lower. It is not just traffic that is missing. | :10:10. | :10:12. | |
Profits are missing for the company that runs the M6 Toll. Accounts | :10:13. | :10:16. | |
submitted over the last ten years show that this road has lost nearly | :10:17. | :10:22. | |
?300 million. Despite that, the man who runs the road is adamant that | :10:23. | :10:27. | |
the business is sustainable. I certainly think it is. We have the | :10:28. | :10:31. | |
continued support of the banks. The rah another 40 years ago. This will | :10:32. | :10:34. | |
prove to be a good long`term investment. Eco`warriors and | :10:35. | :10:40. | |
environmentalists did their best to stop the road being built. Not | :10:41. | :10:43. | |
surprisingly, ten years on, those involved haven't changed their view. | :10:44. | :10:45. | |
Expectations were always far too high for the M6 Toll. There was no | :10:46. | :10:51. | |
silver bullet for congestion in the West Midlands. We need to get on | :10:52. | :10:55. | |
with investing in public on sport. But what's it like living close to | :10:56. | :10:59. | |
the M6 Toll? This couple's home is just yards away. It is quite loud, | :11:00. | :11:03. | |
and it is more prevalent when it is wet. You get a continuous hissing | :11:04. | :11:11. | |
noise from the wet road. When it opened, the M6 Toll was a | :11:12. | :11:14. | |
trailblazer for a future network of toll roads. But ten years on, to the | :11:15. | :11:18. | |
delight of many drivers, the prospect of further pay`as`you`go | :11:19. | :11:26. | |
motorways seems as far away as ever. Peter Plisner is at the M6 Toll for | :11:27. | :11:30. | |
us now. So what's gone wrong with the toll road ideal? Many drivers | :11:31. | :11:36. | |
just don't like toll roads. We had the petition a few years ago where | :11:37. | :11:39. | |
millions of people signed a Downing Street petition opposing the idea. | :11:40. | :11:44. | |
Drivers say that they pay a tax already. As far as the M6 Toll is | :11:45. | :11:49. | |
concerned, it has been hit by the recession although traffic numbers | :11:50. | :11:52. | |
are coming back, but it is seen as a luxury by some and luxuries are the | :11:53. | :11:56. | |
first thing to go into recession, and some simply cannot afford it. It | :11:57. | :12:01. | |
must be galling for people struggling on the congested M6 to | :12:02. | :12:05. | |
see another motorway running almost empty at times, nearby. It must be. | :12:06. | :12:12. | |
And even at the busiest times this road is free`flowing, and it will | :12:13. | :12:15. | |
always be like that because the M6 Toll has the ability to increase the | :12:16. | :12:20. | |
tolls the joke of traffic if they want. The tolls are not regulated by | :12:21. | :12:25. | |
the Government, so the management can set whatever tolls they want. | :12:26. | :12:29. | |
There are measures being taken on the existing M6 to make things | :12:30. | :12:34. | |
easier. Smart motorways are being introduced on many sections so they | :12:35. | :12:38. | |
are using the hard shoulder and controlling the speed of traffic. | :12:39. | :12:40. | |
That helps ease congestion in places and improves journey time | :12:41. | :12:45. | |
reliability, so that you know, moron less, when you are going to reach | :12:46. | :12:59. | |
your destination. `` more or less. A headteacher has spoken of his | :13:00. | :13:02. | |
school's "immense loss" after a member of staff and two pupils were | :13:03. | :13:06. | |
killed in a car accident on Friday. Maggie Stewart, who was a technician | :13:07. | :13:09. | |
at Kingsbury School, near Tamworth, died with her sixteen year`old son | :13:10. | :13:12. | |
Damian and 15`year`old nephew Dion Walker`Smith. In a statement, | :13:13. | :13:14. | |
headteacher Simon Cotton said all three had been respected and loved | :13:15. | :13:18. | |
by everyone who had the pleasure of knowing them. Two Birmingham women | :13:19. | :13:21. | |
have been jailed for a total of 24 years for starting a house fire in | :13:22. | :13:25. | |
which a woman died as she slept. 39`year`old Nussrat Khatoon was | :13:26. | :13:28. | |
sentenced to 14 years for manslaughter and arson after she set | :13:29. | :13:31. | |
fire to her ex`husband's home. Her co`defendant, 30`year`old Tina | :13:32. | :13:33. | |
Andrews, was sentenced to ten years. A woman's body found in woodland two | :13:34. | :13:40. | |
months ago has been identified as a 27`year`old from Redditch. Police | :13:41. | :13:45. | |
found her body in Bolton and release pictures of jewellery and confirm | :13:46. | :13:50. | |
her identity. They have issued a fresh appeal for information. Our | :13:51. | :13:56. | |
top story tonight: More cuts needed, another one thousand jobs to go at | :13:57. | :14:00. | |
Birmingham City Council. Your detailed weather forecast to come | :14:01. | :14:02. | |
shortly. Also in tonight's programme: A first league win over | :14:03. | :14:07. | |
Chelsea in almost 40 years. Has Mark Hughes's Stoke side begun to turn | :14:08. | :14:13. | |
the corner? And non`league Kidderminster Harriers boost the | :14:14. | :14:16. | |
coffers with a place in the third round of the FA Cup, but not the big | :14:17. | :14:28. | |
draw they'd hoped for. An estimated four million shoppers will visit | :14:29. | :14:30. | |
Birmingham's German market this year. But is it becoming a victim of | :14:31. | :14:34. | |
its own success? On the busiest weekends, parts of the city centre | :14:35. | :14:37. | |
have become virtually impassable, with a one`way system to try to keep | :14:38. | :14:40. | |
pedestrians moving. Our reporter Kevin Reide has been investigating. | :14:41. | :14:48. | |
Birmingham's Frankfurt market is an ever popular attraction every | :14:49. | :14:53. | |
Christmas. But local journalist Graham Long is questioning its | :14:54. | :14:56. | |
existence. He believes it has become same old same old, . It feels like a | :14:57. | :15:05. | |
collection of sheds. I have nicked named it Shedville. Even of the | :15:06. | :15:11. | |
sheds were designed in a more theatrical way, it would just create | :15:12. | :15:18. | |
a more Christmassy experience. If they just changed it a little bit | :15:19. | :15:23. | |
every year, change the layout, or have the Victorian market one year, | :15:24. | :15:26. | |
you would remember it, but 13 years the same, it just blends into one. | :15:27. | :15:36. | |
This is the city of 1000 trades, the city of invention, but when you walk | :15:37. | :15:39. | |
around the market you cannot really see that. And it just dominates the | :15:40. | :15:43. | |
city. You don't get a flavour of what the real city is. They are | :15:44. | :15:50. | |
concerned about the Christmas nativity no longer being | :15:51. | :15:56. | |
centrestage. It feels as if we are ashamed of what Christmas is about | :15:57. | :16:04. | |
at the beginning. It gives people a trail to explore the city from new | :16:05. | :16:09. | |
Street, up to the square, and that night time it looks so beautiful. We | :16:10. | :16:18. | |
have had a lot of media coverage from the likes of New York travel | :16:19. | :16:22. | |
magazines, from overseas publications, and from broadcasters | :16:23. | :16:28. | |
saying how great the market is and highlighting it is a thing to do | :16:29. | :16:33. | |
when you come to this country. We have seen record numbers of people | :16:34. | :16:36. | |
booking trips to Birmingham and citing this market as a reason for | :16:37. | :16:43. | |
doing that. According to social media it is certainly attracting the | :16:44. | :16:47. | |
crowds. These pictures were captured at new Street station with a one in, | :16:48. | :16:51. | |
one out, barrier system in operation. What do those who run | :16:52. | :16:58. | |
nearby businesses think? People do spill into the arcade looking for | :16:59. | :17:05. | |
relief from it and find the best shopping in Birmingham, so it can be | :17:06. | :17:09. | |
to our advantage. Do you like it? Yes, I like the pancake stall. We | :17:10. | :17:14. | |
have lots of people from different cities coming to Birmingham to | :17:15. | :17:17. | |
experience the market. We are very busy. And perhaps Dan Graham should | :17:18. | :17:25. | |
have the final say. We had a comedian in Germany saying thank | :17:26. | :17:29. | |
goodness of the German markets are over here, because they are glad to | :17:30. | :17:34. | |
get Germany back to how it ought to be, which is not full of German | :17:35. | :17:37. | |
markets, they are tired of them too, so that is why they are | :17:38. | :17:44. | |
exporting them here. You have been getting in touch with your | :17:45. | :17:47. | |
experiences. We have had some divided opinions. | :17:48. | :18:16. | |
Steve Prescott took his children there on Saturday. He said. | :18:17. | :18:27. | |
And Larry Ashworth wrote on Facebook. He paid ?16 50 for three | :18:28. | :18:38. | |
hotdogs. I was there yesterday with my goddaughter and their family and | :18:39. | :18:41. | |
it was very 28 miles south of Birmingham, the | :18:42. | :18:52. | |
town of Evesham on the banks of the River Avon would love some of those | :18:53. | :18:55. | |
visitors this Christmas. Repairs to a bridge have over`run, shoppers | :18:56. | :18:58. | |
have been going elsewhere and some businesses fear for their future. | :18:59. | :19:00. | |
Sarah Falkland reports. Construction of the new bridge has been described | :19:01. | :19:03. | |
by one Evesham resident as being such a saga, it makes the Lord of | :19:04. | :19:07. | |
the rings seem concise. With the main road closed, passing trade has | :19:08. | :19:10. | |
vanished. This garage has laid off two staff, and next door they are | :19:11. | :19:16. | |
shutting up shop. We have not been able to make the mortgage payments | :19:17. | :19:21. | |
at home, and I have just resigned myself to the fact that we cannot | :19:22. | :19:25. | |
carry on. We are losing money every month. Contractors say they have | :19:26. | :19:30. | |
encountered all kinds of unexpected challenges building this bridge, | :19:31. | :19:33. | |
everything from high winds to high river levels, and have apologised | :19:34. | :19:37. | |
for missing the latest deadline. They point out they have offered | :19:38. | :19:40. | |
free Christmas advertising to some businesses affected. The one thing | :19:41. | :19:45. | |
they don't mention is that when this is going to be finished. We | :19:46. | :19:52. | |
understand the difficulties. It is a very complicated structure they are | :19:53. | :19:54. | |
trying to replace. We understand all of that, but we are getting quite | :19:55. | :20:00. | |
stroppy with them, that is the right ascription. When do you think the | :20:01. | :20:07. | |
road will be open? We think it will be open in early February. Early | :20:08. | :20:11. | |
February, then, things will be back to normal. But maybe not, says the | :20:12. | :20:19. | |
town mayor. They say it is not going to open until the middle of next | :20:20. | :20:23. | |
year, but you never know how much of that is real inside information or | :20:24. | :20:26. | |
people just shooting them out after having a few beers. He says that | :20:27. | :20:32. | |
Evesham is coping and that the Christmas market is bringing people | :20:33. | :20:35. | |
in. Maybe everyone is that adopt the attitude of this cafe owner, look | :20:36. | :20:46. | |
what is in her window. Sports news, and it is time that football | :20:47. | :20:55. | |
managers start to get vulnerable. At the end of November seven football | :20:56. | :20:58. | |
managers were sacked in the space of just eight days. It was a harsh | :20:59. | :21:02. | |
reminder of how much pressure there is to achieve instant success. But | :21:03. | :21:05. | |
as the bosses of Aston Villa, Stoke City and West Bromwich Albion can | :21:06. | :21:08. | |
all tell you that success doesn't come easily in the Premier League. | :21:09. | :21:12. | |
Nick Clitheroe reports. This was the highlight of Mark Hughes's Stoke | :21:13. | :21:14. | |
City career so far. Oussama Assaidi's thunderous winner against | :21:15. | :21:17. | |
Chelsea brought the house down at the Britannia Stadium on Saturday. | :21:18. | :21:20. | |
But it was relief as much as anything. Since Hughes took over in | :21:21. | :21:27. | |
the summer with the additional task of improving the team's style of | :21:28. | :21:30. | |
play his was just their fourth win in 15 games. We have not won as many | :21:31. | :21:34. | |
games as possibly we deserve, but everybody understands that we are | :21:35. | :21:36. | |
barely into what we are trying to do, and we are trying to change the | :21:37. | :21:39. | |
way we play, and a lot of people have said that the meat. Overall | :21:40. | :21:45. | |
that means he's taken 17 points from a possible 45. 37.7% of the rewards | :21:46. | :21:58. | |
on offer at this early stage. So how does that contrast with Paul Lambert | :21:59. | :22:02. | |
at Aston Villa. Lambert has been in charge for an extra season. His | :22:03. | :22:08. | |
brief was restoring the club's fortunes while slashing the budget | :22:09. | :22:11. | |
for players' wages. That's led to the inconsistency which saw them | :22:12. | :22:13. | |
beaten 2`nil by struggling Fulham yesterday. Overall though Lambert | :22:14. | :22:16. | |
has secured 60 points from a possible 159. Exactly the same | :22:17. | :22:29. | |
return as Mark Hughes at 37.7%. And that leaves Steve Clarke at West | :22:30. | :22:32. | |
Bromwich Albion. They were booed off following the 2`nil home defeat by | :22:33. | :22:35. | |
Norwich and Clarke has been criticised by some fans recently. | :22:36. | :22:39. | |
Overall though his record bears comparison. Like Lambert he's been | :22:40. | :22:43. | |
in charge for 53 games but Clarke has a slightly higher points tally | :22:44. | :22:46. | |
of 64 to give an overall success rate of just over 40 per cent. Those | :22:47. | :22:50. | |
statistics are quite revealing. It seems like Steve Clarke at West | :22:51. | :22:52. | |
Bromwich Albion has got the biggest task. December is a tough month. | :22:53. | :22:55. | |
West Bromwich Albion have lost three games in a week. They are away at | :22:56. | :23:02. | |
Cardiff city, then I wait to hold. Then I wait to Spurs on Boxing Day, | :23:03. | :23:06. | |
and 48 hours later, away to West Ham. Difficult times. Kidderminster | :23:07. | :23:18. | |
Harriers fancied up home draw against Premier League giant in | :23:19. | :23:22. | |
round three, but instead, they drew Peterborough, and they are pleased | :23:23. | :23:28. | |
as punch. Steve Bird woke up today, with working on his mind, because | :23:29. | :23:31. | |
tomorrow, that is where Kidderminster are hoping to close | :23:32. | :23:35. | |
the gap on conference leaders, Cambridge. On Saturday, the Harriers | :23:36. | :23:41. | |
held a minute applause for Nelson Mandela and it seemed to inspire | :23:42. | :23:55. | |
striker, Michael Gash. Like I said, I am very happy with it. It was a | :23:56. | :23:59. | |
good goal. The Harriers were outstanding in the first half, and | :24:00. | :24:06. | |
when Callum Givens scored, Newport County knew they were well beaten. | :24:07. | :24:15. | |
Then Michael Gash made it 4`0 and Kidderminster were able to celebrate | :24:16. | :24:18. | |
a cup victory against a team who pipped them for promotion last year. | :24:19. | :24:22. | |
Kidderminster were fired up for a possible home tie Iron Man three | :24:23. | :24:25. | |
against someone like Arsenal, Liverpool or United. Peterborough | :24:26. | :24:31. | |
United. Obviously not the draw we wanted, but it is a chance to | :24:32. | :24:36. | |
progress, that is the thing. There was no joy for the other non`league | :24:37. | :24:39. | |
teams, with Stourbridge crashing away to Stevenage, and at Tamworth, | :24:40. | :24:47. | |
Andy Todd's last`minute consolation goal could not present `` prevent | :24:48. | :24:53. | |
Bristol city going through, 2`1. Those ties among the first week of | :24:54. | :24:59. | |
January, on the fourth and fifth. I saw snowplough on the motorway | :25:00. | :25:02. | |
today. Is there something we should know? Shefali Has got the weather | :25:03. | :25:11. | |
forecast. This week is going to be milder. We have a wonderful wodge of | :25:12. | :25:18. | |
warm air in Central Europe at keeping temperatures up instead of | :25:19. | :25:24. | |
down this week, and on top of that, giving way slightly to low pressure | :25:25. | :25:30. | |
by Thursday and Friday. That high pressure will still exert some | :25:31. | :25:31. | |
influence. Taking a look at tonight. We start this evening and the first | :25:32. | :25:41. | |
part of the night with clear skies. So this is when temperatures are | :25:42. | :25:44. | |
going to drop to their lowest point, so they could see a slight frost | :25:45. | :25:50. | |
developing and remote spots. That's the side of midnight. After that, | :25:51. | :25:54. | |
cloud increases from the West, which will keep temperatures from falling | :25:55. | :25:59. | |
below four Celsius. We could get a bit of missed developing towards the | :26:00. | :26:04. | |
end of the night. Lots of this cloud is going to linger through the day | :26:05. | :26:07. | |
tomorrow. The best chance of any sunshine is in the East. In spite of | :26:08. | :26:15. | |
the cloud, it is going to be mild, temperatures between 9`10dC. And it | :26:16. | :26:18. | |
is going to be dry as well. Tomorrow night, cloud again into making us. | :26:19. | :26:23. | |
Not exactly warm, but not desperately cold, and later in the | :26:24. | :26:28. | |
night we could see some cloud breaks developing across the southeastern | :26:29. | :26:30. | |
corner of the region, with some missed developing. And then looking | :26:31. | :26:39. | |
ahead, it looks like Wednesday is going to be a fine, dry day with | :26:40. | :26:42. | |
plenty of wintry, sparkling sunshine. I temperatures of nine | :26:43. | :26:49. | |
Celsius, but on Thursday, we have a frontal system slipping down from | :26:50. | :26:52. | |
the North West, making it cloudy but milder, the possibility of some | :26:53. | :26:55. | |
patchy rain. The headlines. Amazon convert admits | :26:56. | :27:06. | |
killing a British soldier, Lee Rigby, in London and tells the Old | :27:07. | :27:10. | |
Bailey, this is a war. And more cuts needed. Another 1000 jobs to go at | :27:11. | :27:15. | |
Birmingham City Council. And you might remember seeing Sean Conway | :27:16. | :27:18. | |
from Cheltenham last week. He has become the first person to swim the | :27:19. | :27:24. | |
length of Britain. He most from the sea, looking like Neptune. He grew a | :27:25. | :27:29. | |
beard while swimming to protect him from jellyfish stings. Today, he | :27:30. | :27:34. | |
gave it a chop, and donated the money raised to the BBC Children In | :27:35. | :27:42. | |
Need fun. `` fund. I'll be back later with more on those job cuts at | :27:43. | :27:46. | |
Birmingham City Council. Join me for that | :27:47. | :27:47. |