14/03/2014 Midlands Today

died aged 88. That's all from the BBC News at Six so

Hello and welcome to Midlands Today, the headlines tonight: Exercise

classes in junior school to fight the flab with child obesity on the

increase. The children love it, it makes them

more awake, brings them into the classroom ready to learn.

I'll be talking to one expert who says child obesity is becomhng an

epidemic. Beating the bookies, a victory

against the odds for Lord Windermere, this year's Cheltenham

Gold Cup winner. Would bringing the Black Cotntry

under the umbrella of Greatdr Birmingham mean more jobs and

investment? Why some fans will be flying the

Spanish flag to stand by embattled West Brom manager Pepe Mel, still in

search of his first win. Given him the time, I think he could turn out

to be a good manager for us. I think he can help keep us up.

And we might not be basking in Spanish sunshine, but for a weekend

in the West Midlands not looking too bad, with scenes like this to come

over the next few days and temperatures into the mid`tdens

Your fall forecast is on thd way. Good evening. Schoolchildren across

the region are starting thehr day with a burst of exercise to combat

child obesity. Parts of the West Midlands have some of the hhghest

rates in the country. In Wolverhampton, 27% of children

starting infant school are overweight or obese. By the time

they get to ten, that's gond up to 40.6%, 7% higher than the average

for England. Recently in Coventry, one junior school pupil weighed in

at an astonishing 20 stone. Bob Hockenhull reports.

Wake up and shake up is the rallying call to these children at Btrton

upon Trent's Victoria community school. Pupils here do this exercise

every day. The aim is to sed if being this active on a regular basis

helps to keep them at a healthy weight. How does it make yot feel?

Happy! Sometimes tired in the morning and I wake up when H come

here. The children love it, it makes them more awake, brings thel into

the classroom ready to learn and focus on the task. The school is

taking part in a three`year trial called Waves. It's funded bx the

National Institute for Health Research. The University of

Birmingham is monitoring yotngsters in 54 schools. They want to curb

obesity levels as one in fotr youngsters start their educ`tion

overweight. We know that chhldhood obesity is related to adult obesity,

and so that puts those children in the future at risk of dying

prematurely, of having diabdtes and heart disease and some cancdrs.

During the experiment, 1,400 children will be monitored. Here,

pupils at Lillington Nurserx and Primary in Leamington Spa are being

measured and assessed. We do height and weight, we do blood pressure. We

do skin fold thickness at fhve different sites, so a different way

of measuring body fat. It is not just about exercise. These children

have been given lessons in healthy food and their parents were invited

in for nutrition classes. I learned a lot, there were certain things

promoting health, but when xou find out they contain an amount of sugar

in them, you have to stop, because that it is why is sending them a bit

hyperactive. The conclusions of the research will be published next

year. And if the trial provds successful in maintaining hdalthy

weights, these exercise classes could become part of the National

Curriculum. Bob Hockenhull, BBC Midlands Today.

Tam Fry is from the National Obesity Forum. We're hearing today `bout a

20 stone ten`year`old from Coventry, people will be horrified to hear

that, but how common is it? It is not common. But it is certahnly

getting more frequent. This is one of the terrible things about the

obesity epidemic, that although some of the levels may be equalising

across the country, the obese children are getting fatter. What do

the figures tell us exactly? It tells us that the healthy schools

policy is not working. That policy was initiated eight years ago, and

hopefully the preschool obesity levels were going to be sevdrely

curtailed, and we would havd children going into secondary school

at a much more healthy weight, and that clearly has not happendd. That

is a major problem. What can be done to tackle the problem, then? We

believe we have got to start tackling against obesity much

earlier. There are even one`year`old is being treated for obesitx. By the

time they get to school, it is 5%, and so there is four years where we

have to do a lot of work to try and instil healthy eating and exercise

into our children before thdy get to school. So on that, what advice

would you give to parents, what can they do to change eating habits

Well, essentially, they havd got to learn about food, and I was very

impressed about the film th`t you have just shown where parents are

starting to learn. You have to remember that there is a whole

subpopulation of parents who never got education in domestic science at

school, because it was wiped out. So if you were learning at the same

time as the children, there will have to be much more one`to`one

teaching of parents in children s centres to give them the kind of

knowledge that will help thdm lead their children into a healthy

lifestyle. OK, thank you for joining us tonight.

Coming up later in the programme, fears for the future of a f`rm

school where city children get open air lessons and their first taste of

country life. Race`goers were treated to `

thrilling finish in the big event at Cheltenham today. The Gold Cup is

the highlight of the four`d`y meeting. And there have been few

closer finishes in its history. Ian Winter reports on a fitting climax

to a classic Cheltenham Festival. It was a foggy start to Gold Cup

day, but as the mist cleared the punters turned out in force. Next

year they are in for a surprise because this temporary building

formerly the Queen Mother stand will have disappeared, and by 2 16 a

new ?45 million grandstand will be up and running, built by a local

construction firm. I think ht makes us all the more determined to make

it a six as full job, because we know the importance of the

racecourse. `` successful. Striding out in search of Gold Cup glory it

is high noon and Tom Scudamore from Herefordshire is just three hours

away from potentially the most famous victory of his racing career.

He has written three winners so far this week and has high hopes for The

Giant Bolster, trained at Stow on the Wold. The conditions will suit

him, we know he likes Cheltdnham. I am very hopeful of being first. This

is the last fence on the Gold Cup course, and if The Giant Bolster is

still in with a chance at this point you will hear the roar 20 mhles away

at Stow on the Wold. And so it proved to be, The Giant Bolster ran

another big hearted race on the course he loves best, so close to

pulling off the National Hunt victory, but not enough to catch

Lord Windermere, the 20`1 whnner. I was watching alongside your family,

they were very excited in the closing stages. I imagine it was

quiet earlier, but I am ple`sed they are here, it has been a gre`t day.

Second, third, now four. Wh`t is next? There is only one place to be

next, I will keep on trying as long as he keeps on running. Tod`y was a

nostalgic day for Jim Lewis, the tenth anniversary since Best Mate

completed a remarkable hat`trick of Gold Cup triumphs. One day soon Tom

Scudamore will surely experhenced the same thrill as a Gold Ctp

winning jockey. Well, I caught up with our reporter

Ian Winter a short while ago and asked him what the atmosphere was

like track`side with such an incredible finish in the Gold Cup.

Shefali, the atmosphere has been very special indeed. As you can see

behind me, the crowds are flocking home after a fabulous four days of

racing at Cheltenham. And for the first time I've had the privilege of

watching the Gold Cup from hnside the parade ring surrounded by

members of Tom Scudamore's family. They were cheering his everx move as

The Giant Bolster came into that storming third` place finish, a

remarkable triumph for trainer David Bridgwater based at Stow on the

Wold. He's only got 30 horsds in training, many believe he should

have more after guiding The Giant Bolster in consecutive years to a

fourth place, a second placd and today a third`place finish. Overall,

how would you say the festival has gone? What have people been saying?

Well, what a difference the weather makes. 12 months ago we werd here

and it was freezing cold, the rain was tipping down. Today, warm spring

sunshine, record crowd of 235,0 0 spectators. A week on Mondax they

start building that ?45 million grandstand to replace the old Queen

Mother stand. Things are on the up and up, and of course the Irish

today have seen them win six out of the seven races, as if they needed

any incentive at all to be back next year. They will be to give ` further

massive boost to the local dconomy here in Cheltenham. I'm surd, Ian.

Two more people have been qtestioned by police in Birmingham on suspicion

of possessing extreme pornography. A 36`year`old teacher from Kings Heath

Boys College and a 45`year`old youth worker in the city were arrdsted

this morning. This afternoon they were released on bail. It follows

the detention of three other teachers yesterday who were also

later bailed pending further police inquiries.

Moazzam Begg, the former Gu`ntanamo Bay detainee from Birminghal,

appeared at the Old Bailey today to face terror charges. The 45`year`old

from Hall Green in Birmingh`m will stand trial in October. He denies

providing terrorist training and funding terrorism overseas.

A 23`year`old soldier has appeared at Wolverhampton Crown Court charged

with murdering Corporal Geoffrey McNeil at an army barracks hn

Shropshire. Corporal McNeill's body was found at Tern Hill on S`turday.

Lance Corporal Richard Farrdll will appear back in court in Stafford

later this month. Senior political and business

leaders are backing calls for the region's biggest city and some of

the towns around it to be rdbranded as Greater Birmingham. But ht's an

idea that divides opinions, especially in the Black Country

which has a long and fiercely independent history. Our political

editor, Patrick Burns, is whth me now. Where exactly is this hdea

coming from? For some time, Shefali, there has been an animated

conversation about whether some really big strategic decisions to do

with the economy, transport infrastructure are too big to be

confined to individual local authority boundaries, and more and

more organisations are using that Greater Birmingham tag. The chairman

of the Greater Birmingham and Solihull local enterprise

partnership, in an article hn last week's Sunday Telegraph, sahd that

Greater Birmingham, as he ptt it, doesn't want this second city tag,

because it's doesn't want to be second in anything. He said it is

urging faster than anywhere else as a major economic, industrial,

commercial powerhouse, so that is what has galvanised it. We've had

lots of comments on Twitter and Facebook, the vast majority against

the idea. Just a flavour of the comments, ridiculous, pretentious,

leave the Black Country alone, not in a million years. Although Alison

Palmer wrote on Facebook in favour of the idea saying, why not? If

Manchester can have it, why not Birmingham? Clearly, this isn't

going to be an easy idea to sell, is it, Patrick? I think that is

absolutely understandable, especially in the Black Country To

be fair to Andy Street, he's not talking about a land grab, not

talking about integration, lore collaboration between local

authorities. It is an idea that has been picked up by a leading local

blogger who described it as a softer rebranding exercise, and th`t idea

has won the backing of two senior MPs. I think it should be Greater

Birmingham and Solihull, Solihull is the engine room of the economy, and

you would expect me to say that We can still have the identitids for

Solihull and elsewhere, and interestingly, that is why

devolution inside Birminghal is important. I say that as a

Birmingham MP. What are the prospects of anything coming of

this? We're not going to sed a transformation overnight, btt there

is growing pressure for a broad look again at the structures of local. In

Warwickshire, they are wonddring whether they should go for `

unitary, single tier system, as in Shropshire or Herefordshire. So why

not go the other way in Birlingham with a big strategic authorhty at

the top and the smaller authorities clustered beneath it looking after

more personal services. Patrick will be back with more on

this in the Sunday Politics from 11 o'clock on Sunday morning your fonts

on BBC One. Medical staff in Shropshire have

come up with new plans of how they'd like to see health care reorganised

in the county affecting hospitals in Telford and Shrewsbury. One idea is

to have just one accident and emergency unit based at a ndw

hospital. Other urgent, but non`life`threatening cases would be

dealt with at a number of slaller care centres across the county.

People living in a Worcestershire village which was badly hit by the

recent flooding have met officials from the Environment Agency. Dozens

of people packed into the vhllage hall at Severn Stoke with m`ny

joining calls for flood defdnces. The hall was among several

properties flooded last month. The local MP is to meet landowndrs to

discuss flood defences. It is 6:43. Our top story tonight:

Beating the bulge, schools tackle the growing problem of obeshty by

teaching youngsters the valte of exercise. Your detailed weather

forecast to come shortly from Rebecca. Also in tonight's

programme, how scientists in Coventry will be leading thd search

to find planets that could sustain life.

It seems like a dream, it sdems like Star Trek, but this is real now And

everything is turning Irish as Birmingham prepares for the Saint

Patrick Stade parade. A farm school set up by the Cadbury

family 40 years ago is facing an uncertain future as Birmingham City

Council tries to find hundrdds of millions of pounds in savings. Over

the years, outdoor classes have been enjoyed by four hundred thotsand

inner city children, some of whom wouldn't otherwise get the

opportunity to experience rtral life. Joanne Writtle reports.

Mount Pleasant School Farm hn Forhill is ten miles from Bhrmingham

but a world away from normal lessons for young visitors from Perry

Beeches Junior School. We'vd got chicks at school, but we've never

seen a chicken, like a hen. Chicken have no teeth, and they lay eggs

and... They just walk around and peck. But this outdoor class run by

a charitable trust is under threat. The teacher's paid for by the

council, and that could end. Birmingham City Council is reviewing

its entire outdoor`learning service as it saves more than ?800 lillion

over four years. It says outdoor learning is running at a loss of ?1

million a year. The service also includes residential centres further

afield, which the council s`ys are used only 55% of the time. The

school's on a farm owned by the Bournville Village Trust. It was set

up by a member of the Cadbury family. The council's suggestion of

perhaps looking to the priv`te sector in future hasn't gond down

well. The private sector wotld not be providing the quality of teaching

that we have here. This is ` fully qualified teacher. It's not a

fun`fun day out, this is a hands`on to learn about food and farling

That's not the only thing they learn. Weighing and counting eggs is

maths, and science and geography are built in too. The farm schoolteacher

whose job is in question wasn't allowed to talk to us, but the

children were. I don't want it to close down, because it's a fun

place. It's a good farm, and it s just sad.

The City Council says its priority is essential services, like

protecting vulnerable children, but the youngsters here today w`nt

councillors to think carefully. Joane Writtle, BBC Midlands Today,

Forhill. The University of Warwick is leading

?1 billion search for planets outside our solar system. Scientists

there are designing a space telescope called Plato that will be

sent into orbit and which whll scan the sky looking for earth`lhke

planets that could even be home to alien life. Here's our science

correspondent, David Gregorx`Kumar. The search for exoplanets, planets

orbiting other stars in our galaxy, is one of the most exciting areas of

modern astronomy, and the ndxt leap forward in that search will be led

by the Midlands. So we're looking for planets that orbit stars

elsewhere in the Milky Way galaxy. The main thing that this mission is

designed to do specifically is to look for planets in the habhtable

zone of the star. So that's the region where water could exhst as a

liquid on the surface of thd planet. There are already some spacd`based

planet`hunting telescopes ott there. This is Kepler, a NASA misshon which

works by looking at distant stars and watching for the drop in

brightness as a planet, herd it comes, moves in front of thd star.

But there are some problems with Kepler. It's currently brokdn, it

can only look at small porthons of the sky, and it can only re`lly look

at dim stars. Plato, on the other hand, although it uses the same

technique, can look at much larger areas of the sky, and it can also

look at much brighter stars. And what all that means for resdarchers

is they can learn much more about the planets, they should be able to

find more of them. They shotld be able to learn things like the

planet's mass and even studx things like its atmosphere.

If you've found an atmosphere that's oxygen rich, well, that could be a

sign of life. If there wasn't life on the earth,

the amount of O2 in the atmosphere would rapidly decay. It's only the

life here that keeps it there, so in that sense it's a marker for life.

We can't guarantee things would work the same on other planets, so it's

risky to say that if you've found O2, you've certainly found life But

beyond that it's certainly `n indication.

So it seems like a dream, it seems like Star Trek, but this is real

now. And by the end of the next decade we'll start to do th`t search

in a very directed way. We won't just be blindly looking arotnd the

universe, we will be looking at specific objects that we know have

earthlike planets. Now starts ten years of hard work

before launch in 2024, and then if all goes well, we can start to

search for planets like ours and even look for signs of alien life.

David Gregory`Kumar, BBC Midlands today, at the University of Warwick.

So still a long wait! In football, the West Bromwich Albion striker

Nicolas Anelka says he's terminated his contract with the club. Anelka

tweeted that he couldn't accept the conditions Albion had imposdd for

his reintegration into the team Meanwhile, the head coach, Pepe Mel,

has thanked the fans for backing him despite his difficult start at the

Hawthorns. The club has yet to win since he took over. Nick Clhtheroe

reports. As the Hawthorns basked in the sun

today, there was a real Spanish feel about the place, but for how much

longer? Because just two months after the man from Madrid w`s

appointed, he's under massive pressure.

TRANSLATION: This pressure hs totally normal when a head coach is

not achieving results. But the most important thing is the playdrs, and

I can see that their confiddnce is really high.

Some thought last week's defeat by Manchester United might be his final

game, but Mel survived. Now they're saying the same about tomorrow's

trip to Swansea. There's little appetite among the

fans for a change, though. H don't think he's done anything wrong, he

deserves until the end of the season, and I really hope hd manages

it. Given him the time, I think he could turn out to be a good manager

for us. It's not going to m`ke no difference to this season, hs it? So

may as well keep him to the end of the season. Many will demonstrate

that support by flying the Spanish flag in the away end at the Liberty

Stadium. What I'd really like to strdss is

the fact that I'm extremely indebted to the supporters of West Bromwich

Albion. Perhaps this isn't the best game because Swansea have ehght

Spanish players! There's no guarantee sacking Mel

would work. In the last fivd seasons, 11 clubs in relegation

trouble have dismissed their managers. At least one of them has

gone down each season. And only four of the 11 improved their le`gue

position. The club are advertising a curry`and`pint night with Pdpe Mel

in 12 days' time, but the bhg question is, will he still be here

then? Nick Clitheroe, BBC Midlands Today,

at the Hawthorns. This Sund`y 100,000 people are expected to

descend on Birmingham for the annual St Patrick's Day parade. Thd event

has been running continuously since 1966 and is the third biggest St

Patrick's Day parade in the world. Only Dublin and New York ard bigger.

Ben Sidwell's in Birmingham's Irish Quarter. I'm guessing preparations

are well under way, Ben. Yeah, well me welcome to thd Spotted

Dog, this is HQ, preparations are going well, we have got the band, a

pint of the black stuff, and even the flowers have been paintdd the

right colour. But it's not just here they are preparing, at a Catholic

school in Sutton Coldfield `ll week they have been making costules and

working on music and movies and even getting ready, 50 pupils in the end

will lead the parade on Sunday. We are playing the Irish paradd on the

float, and they will be dancing It is hard work but lots of fun with

your friends. I will be a bht nervous, but I'm sure I'll get

through it! With me is the festival organiser, how are those

preparations going? What can we expect? They are going very well,

thank you, it is Irish myths and legends, Howard theme for this year,

schools, businesses and the community are all involved. Why is

the festival so big here? The third biggest in the world? Why

Birmingham? We have a very vibrant Irish community, all sections of our

heritage and culture are covered, and we invite everyone else to come

and join us to celebrate. Is it s difficult to organise? It h`s its

challenges, but lots of people are doing lots of different things, and

we start straight after the parade to plan for next year. And ht is a

community event. Always has been, and the community will turn up on

the day and enjoy it. It will be great. And I will tell you what if

you have never been before, the parade starts at 12 o'clock on

Sunday, and to be honest, this area of Birmingham becomes a little part

of Ireland for the whole on Sunday afternoon with plenty of music like

this. I bet it does! Well, they'll be

hoping for good weather, and I reckon there'll be smiles all round

if we see a repeat of last The weekend as a whole doesn't look

too bad at all. Now, Saturd`y is looking like the better of the two

days, which I'm sure organisers of the parade don't want to he`r, but

Sunday doesn't look too bad at all. It is going to be cloudier, but

temperatures are still abovd average for the time of year, and wd will

get breaks in the cloud, thd sun coming out at times. For thd rest of

the weekend, continuing with that pattern, sunny spells to end the

day, we made it up to 17 in Hereford today, temperatures well above

average for the time of year, and that continues as we head through

the next few days. Tonight we have ended with quite a bit of cloud over

the top of us, a breeze as well Over the North Midlands tonhght a

few spots of rain here and there, but with the cloud, to Bridges will

not fall away too far and wd should manage to keep any fog and list that

they are. We have a cloudy start on Saturday, not long before wd start

to see the wind blowing through and we will get some breaks in that as

the sunburns flew as well. Saturday is looking like a nice day,

temperatures up to 15 Celsits. You will notice the breeze as wd move

through the day tomorrow. Whth that wind it will help to keep a frost at

bay and keep those temperattres up a little bit, so a ballot mild nights

to come as we head into Sunday, temperatures between six and seven

Celsius. `` so a relatively mild night to come. We will get some

spells of brightness, the whnd is quite breezy, temperatures getting

up to 15 Celsius. By the tile we get to Monday, this area of high

pressure is slowly starting to slip away. We will keep good conditions

through Monday, but by the dnd of Tuesday we are back to wet `nd windy

conditions, Shefali. What a shame! Tonight's headlines

from the BBCL Hailed as a political giant and the voice of the radical

left, tributes to the the former Labour Cabinet minister Tonx Benn,

who's died aged 88. It's emdrged the Tory peer whose helicopter crashed

last night killing him and three others had complained of safety

defects. Exercise classes in junior school to

fight the flab with child obesity on the increase.

And a thrilling finish sees outsider Lord Windermere take this ydar's

Cheltenham Gold Cup. That was the Midlands Today. I'll be

back at ten o'clock with an update on the day's news. Have a great

evening. We'll leave you with a look back at this week's Cheltenham

Festival, one of the great sporting events of the year.

Lord Windermere battling it out Lord Windermere has lifted the Gold

Cup!