20/01/2017 Midlands Today

Thousands of fish feared dead as a stretch of

People come here to feed them, but it's going to be a sad loss

and I think it's going to take a long time before it

Local people are being warned to keep livestock and pets away

As Donald Trump becomes US President, we get the view

from the Whitehouse - the other one.

When the pavement becomes a road - confusion over shared spaces causing

They reduce my independence, they reduce where I can

The stuff of dreams, from making music in a converted bedroom

in Coventry to being nominated for an award in LA.

And as we get revved up for the weekend you might be

wondering whether we're in line for more sunshine,

I'll have a full forecast, and find out why I'm at the Genting

It's feared thousands of fish may have been killed after a river

The Environment Agency has set up an incident room,

after chemicals were found in the River Morda, near Oswestry.

The water company United Utilities says there has been an issue

at its nearby water treatment works and is investigating.

Bob Hockenhull is in Oswestry for us tonight.

Brown trout and heels have been affected in the Morda.

It may look beautiful in the winter sun, but last night local people

were sickened to see hundreds of fish gasping

Acid from a nearby water treatment works flowed into the Morda,

Staff at Western Pools Fishery witnessed the river

They fear it'll take years for the habitat to recover.

The river was white and there was evidence of dead and dying fish.

They seemed to have a problem with oxygen.

The length of time it's taken to build up this system,

the complete ecosystem, the invertebrates, the stuff

on which they feed, plus four or five generations of trout

which spawned after the original, all wiped out.

A mile and a half from the fishery, this is

They've confirmed there has been an incident here and they're working

By this afternoon, the dead fish had been washed downstream after water

levels were raised to flush the pollution out.

The Environment Agency has launched an investigation and is working

There's acid that has gone into this river.

Even for our staff that are working here today

and the work that we're doing, we have to be exceptionally

I advise people to keep their pets, themselves out of the water and,

where possible, keep livestock out of the water

Fortunately, the pollution doesn't appear to have got

But the owners fear it'll be a long time before the River Morda is once

A lot of work has been done to clean up the Morda in recent years and

people love coming here to see the brown trout in the clear water. The

fishery staff see the believe this stretch is now dead but the

Environment Agency is beating a slightly better spent on it. They

are saying the river is already beginning to you. -- recover.

Millions watched today as Donald Trump was sworn in

But around the world there have been protests,

from a group whose tag line is 'Build bridges, not walls.'

Joanne Writtle went to see one such protest in the historic

setting of Ironbridge and she's been gathering more

As Donald Trump became the 45th president of the

a peaceful protest had taken place in the unlikely setting

of historic Ironbridge - birthplace of the

It was one of 100 such demonstations by the group Bridges Not Walls.

We see a lot of kindness around us every day, really,

and just to reinforce that and recognise it and celebrate it

and encourage people to focus on that rather than negativity

and divisiveness that's been characterising our politics lately.

We don't really know what's going to happen and it's nice

to join together with similar people to build bridges and get

There's a lot of suspicion and fear, both in Europe with Brexit and also

Trump is, from his personality, a president which we have

never experienced before and we don't actually know.

In the summer, Ironbridge is packed with tourists and today's winter

sunshine brought out the visitors too, all with views

I have my doubts about whether he's wired up right.

Some of the things he says are excellent, but some

of the other things, I think he's just gone

My view is to give him a bit of time and just see how it goes.

We're living in a world that's changing rapidly and all sorts

of uncertainties and he's not a politician.

Many experts say Pennsysvannia was the state that swung it

for Trump, an area suffering from a decline in industry.

It's where mum of two Cathy Wardius is from.

I think, like most Americans, we're apprehneisve because we don't

know what the next four years are going to bring.

But then, like I said, I know a lot of really good hard

working people who had voted for him who are optimistic that he'll bring

jobs back and do the things that he promised.

I wonder how they're feeling at the White House right now.

I think it's the most scariest thing that I've ever heard of.

He's scary because I think if anybody's going to push

the button, he's going to be the one to do it.

He may have his sceptics, but President Trump gave this message:

Together, we will make America great again.

Thank you, God bless you and God bless America.

A man's appeared before Walsall magistrates charged

40-year-old Kulwinder Kaur was found dead

at her home, in Gomer Street, in Willenhall, on Wednesday.

46-year-old Azad Singh was remanded in custody

and is due to appear before Wolverhampton Crown Court on Monday.

Police are appealing for witnesses, after a man was arrested

on suspicion of robbery, following two incidents

The first took place at the BP Garage on Stratford Road in Warwick,

where it's alleged an armed man demanded money from the till.

Less than half an hour later, an armed man is believed to have

demanded cash from the Heart of England Co-op on Church Road

A 29-year-old from Leamington Spa has been bailed with conditions

until the beginning of March while investigations continue.

The search for a company to design, build and maintain high speed trains

for the HS2 project, has been launched by the Government.

Up to 60 trains will be needed and the contract to build them

Construction work on phase one from London to Birmingham is due

The Transport Secretary Chris Grayling says the project should be

given royal assent in the next month.

This is the real thing, this is the start of

the construction of HS2, a huge project that will

transform our country, will transform our transport system

and will create huge opportunities for people

The Labour MEP Sion Simon has formally launched his campaign to be

elected West Midlands "Metro Mayor" in just over three months.

He told an invited audience at a training centre

in Wolverhampton that, if elected, he would fight

for fairer Government funding for the West Midlands

compared with Scotland, Wales and even other regions of England.

Our political editor Patrick Burns is in Central Birmingham for us.

So what exactly is he concerned about?

is the public spending formula operated by successive governments

for 40 years and it means that in Scotland there is an allocation of

over ten and a half thousand pounds per head over the past year while

here in the Midlands, just ?8,750 and Mr Simon wants it scrapped

because it fails to recognise the fact that the population of the

Midlands is bigger and makes a bigger contribution to the UK

economy than Scotland. I put it to him however that successive

governments that shall not the slightest interest in scrapping it

because Scotland is a nation whereas the Midlands is merely a region.

We pay the same taxes as they do in Scotland, Wales,

Northern Ireland and London, but they get much better public

services deliberately on purpose, because of this formula,

It is not fair that they should have better hospitals

and better schools than us, even though we pay the same tax.

I just want our fair share of the national pie.

Interesting to see that slogan taking back control. Where have we

heard that before? How could we possibly forget? Mr Simon says it

reflexes determination and as he puts it, we need to seize back

control from a Westminster Government that has no plan for

Brexit, far less than the challenges that flow from that from our part of

the world. There is an irony that a Labour MP who until recently had on

his website a statement in support of the Remain vote should now be

campaigning under the slogan made famous by the league campaign. When

I reminded him of this, he said it was his idea first. -- Leave.

I've been campaigning for this for seven years now

and throughout that time, my single clear message has been -

we need to take back control from London

If some other people more recently have appropriated my slogan

for their ends, then that's not my problem.

How do you see his chances and those of the other candidates? Labourer

will see the idea traditional front runners in this part of the country,

Conservatives say they only need a 4% swing but with other parties

contesting this, it is the real contest and it's more about

personalities than most street party political fight because of the very

nature of the job. Thank you, Patrick.

Thanks for joining us on Midlands Today, still to come

on tonight's programm: Searching for his century, Stoke City's Peter

Crouch is poised to score his one hundredth Premier League goal.

And if you're looking for something fun to do this weekend, I might just

But if this is a bit noisy, the weather is

They were supposed to make getting about easier,

but the so-called shared spaces where kerbs and road

markings are removed in some town and city centres,

Campaigners for blind people say the concept, widely used

They have been discussing their concerns at a special

meeting of MPs on the Women and Equalities Committee

Here's our transport correspondent, Peter Plisner.

Charlotte Nickson and guide dog Layla navigating their way

But for them, shared space doesn't make things very easy.

This is where she's stops for this crossing.

Here Layla gets confused because there's no kurbs and waits

for instruction from Charlotte.

And it not just Layla who doesn't understand the layout.

When we filmed, there were cars and other vehicles everywhere,

even on what was supposed to be the pavement.

They make it harder for me to get to work, and that's just not fair.

They make it impossible for a lot of my blind friends to come

and visit me and if they do, we have to make sure

there is a sighted person there to help us at all times.

The idea of shared space comes from Holland, what happens is,

road signs, traffic lights and road markings are removed and drivers

don't quite know who actually has priority, and they go slower.

But it might be safer for some, but not others.

As you get to this side, Peter, it doesn't lead to anywhere.

Sarah Gayton from Staffordshrie campaigns on behalf of the blind

and partially sighted and she maintains that shared

Blind people have real difficulties navigating them because the kerb

line is taken away and crossings are taken away.

Some zebra crossings are put in, but they're not put in properly.

Today, Sarah and others had the chance to speak directly

to MPs on the Women and Equalities Select Committee

as it held an outreach meeting in Birmingham.

The committee is currently investigating the build environment

You can read all the papers you like, but until you have the people

sat in front of you telling you exactly how it feels to not be

able to move around their city centre or that they can't get

a house that's suitable for them to live in,

you don't really get the human feeling of it.

Coventry City Council maintains that its shared space is safe

and that schemes developed in consultation with

But despite concerns of some, the use of shared space is growing

It's been announced that the by-election

to vote for the next MP for Stoke-on-Trent Central will be

It comes after the resignation of Tristram Hunt,

who announced his resignation last week to become Director of

Mr Hunt is expected to leave the House of

Conductors on London Midland trains are to vote on strike action.

The rail union, RMT, said it was balloting its members

over the proposed imposition of security contractors on trains.

The union said the company's move was made without agreement.

London Midland said it was "very disappointed" the RMT

Now here's a tale of far-away seas - with links to

In 1914, the polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton gathered

28 men to explore the Antarctric - three

His ship, the Endurance, was destroyed, but there was just

about time to recover a collection of incredible photographs,

For the first time, they're on show in Birmingham.

Arguably the greatest polar explorer.

A man who would not accept he'd be beaten by the elements.

The Enduring Eye exhibition is billed as one of the finest

photographic records of human survival, documenting his

exploration of the Antarctic aboard the ship The Endurance.

The idea that Shackleton had was to be the first person to cross

He'd been beaten to the first person to reach the Pole by Roald Amundsen

and this was the last achievement there could be

He also wanted to make a name for himself as being

Many of these previously unseen images were captured by ship

photographer Frank Hurley, who hoped to earn a small fortune

by selling the rights when they returned.

When the Endurance started sinking in 1915,

he risked injury or worse by plucking glass plated photographs

This Hurley image was directly digitised from one of those plates.

He chose three men - a geologist, a scientist, and a doctor -

And Shackleton wanted all of his men to contribute no

But Ernest Shackleton's epic voyage would never had departed,

some say, were it not for a Birmingham businesman.

Dudley Docker is very well-known locally I think as being a major

industrialist of the time, of the early 20th century.

Shackleton, like a modern explorer, would look for funds from all sorts

of sources and he had inspired Dudley Docker.

In today's money, he gave about ?430,000 to support the expidition.

The were two more Brummie seamen including James A Mcilroy,

who studied medicine at Birmingham University.

For the 28 men on board, the wanderlust was lost

to the ferociuous cold and thick ice which swallowed the ship.

Enduring Eye at the Library of Birmingham continues

Stoke City's Peter Crouch is poised to reach a century

Yes, he gave us the robot goal celebration and his model wife won

But actually Peter Crouch is one of the most down to earth

So it will be a very popular moment if he can score his one hundredth

Premier League goal this weekend when Stoke City take

Peter Crouch is loving his football and who can blame him?

He was brought back into the starting line up for Stoke

at Christmas and he's scored three goals in five matches since.

I looked at where my career was going and thinking,

I think now that I've been given this opportunity to play again,

I'm loving it, probably more so than when I was 18 months ago

and before that period because now I realise how much it means

His attributes and his ability to affect games hasn't changed.

He's getting on years, he's probably coming

towards the end of his career, he knows that.

But we haven't seen any diminishing of his qualities at all.

The very first Premier League goal came for Aston Villa 15 years ago.

The 20-year-old was still growing into his six foot seven frame then

and it took a move to Southampton before his career really blossomed.

42 England caps and appearances at two World Cups followed.

He's scored 36 goals for Stoke since joining them in 2011 but he's

The goal for Stoke against Man City was probably the best

Headed it down to me and being able to flick it up and volley it.

Nine out of ten times they don't get anywhere near the goal.

So to see it fly in the top corner was probably the best

His wife Abby Clancy won Strictly Come Dancing in 2013

and Crouch is also famous for his goal celebration moves.

So will we see the robot again for the first time in a decade

I've had so many people say to me, if you get the 100th,

you've got to do it, you've got to do it.

The pressure's taking its toll, let's put it that way.

He's clearly a popular member of the Stoke City squad

and would love to play on until he's 40.

So we could see that Peter Crouch goal celebration plenty more times

And you can see the full interview with Peter Crouch on Football Focus

And he's about to get a new team mate.

Saido Berahino set to move up the M6 from West Bromwich Albion.

Yes, Albion have accepted a bid from Stoke for their striker.

Berahino is still only 23 but he's being trying to leave

His attitude has been questioned at Albion

For Albion it's one in and one out as they've completed the signing

of midfielder Jake Livermore for ?10 million

He's had his problems, notably the loss of

But Tony Pulis says Livermore is back to his best.

Having gone to Hull, the tragedy that followed him around

We played him twice this season and he was exceptional in both games.

He looks as though he's getting his form back and he's just 27.

We think it's a really, really good time.

Onto tennis and another fantastic victory for Birmingham's Dan Evans

Yes, recently dropped by his sponsor he had to stock up

But it's working he's through to the fourth

round of a Grand Slam for the first time in his career.

He beat Australia's Bernard Tomic in straight sets 7-5 7-6 7-6.

And he played some scintillating tennis.

This 25 shot rally in the final tie break arguably the pint

His winner even drew applause from his opponent.

Moments later, he'd earned himself three match points.

He was receiving serve but he only needed one match point.

Evans was very emotional at this point.

It was due to losing a former coach to cancer last year.

He said afterwards he wised that Belgian Julien Hofferlin could have

He always said I could do it, so obviously, you know,

he always said I should be playing top 40 tennis and in the grand slams

Evans plays the 12th seed Jo Wilfried Tsonga from France

A singer songwriter making music in her bedroom and ends up along the

stars of LA. She has attracted quite a following on social media and has

been nominated for a prestigious American music award and Emma could

be sharing the winning platform with Adele and Ellie Goulding, the only

other solo female British singers. From Coventry to Los Angeles,

that's where Emma McGann is going. She performs from this converted

bedroom at her home in Coventry, and is delighted to be nominated

for America's iHeart I was super surprised, it feels like

a dream. The nominations have come at a point which is already really

exciting. The awards will be broadcast across this state in

March. It will be a star studded event and we can wave Emma to walk

the red carpet. Last year Justin Bieber

was the overall winner, and Adele and Ellie Goulding have

nominations this year. With Adele and especially Ellie

Goulding, I would let them as my inspirations. To be on a pie with

them at the same award show is insane. It's really insane. As well

as being busy with the music awards, Emma is experimenting with

cutting-edge technology. The plan is too great a music video using

virtual reality. It will be the first of its kind in this industry.

K, guys. It wouldn't be possible

without the help of her boyfriend James, who's the driving force

behind all the technology. The main thing idea is our deal but

with Emma's broadcasting, I have dabbled individually and lighting

and anything to do with computers, anything to improve the broadcast.

Emma's been been nominated in the social media category

from now until then she's drumming up support amongst

Thank you for tuning in and I will see you later on tonight for another

broadcast. Goodbye. Finally, the sun made

a welcome appearance today. Rebecca has the forecast,

but she's somewhere a little different this evening

at the Genting Arena. There is something special about to

happen this year. You wouldn't catch me doing any of this but one person

you might is Chris. You do this, what's wrong with you? I've been

doing it from an early age and it's stuck with me ever since. What is

Arena Cross? Its motocross. We do tricks, fireworks and everything.

You don't actually do this? I stick to the racing. This looks dangerous,

is it? It can be, but we really experience and we try not to crash

too often. Why should people come down and watch it this weekend?

There will be tricks and erasing, fireworks and lots of entertainment.

We have to ask the boss man if we can get them to be quiet because

I've got to do the weather forecast. If you fancy coming down here that's

all well and good about the weather is looking too bad this weekend. It

has been a glorious day today, clear blue skies. Our temperatures were

only at five Celsius. Through the weekend, we will get much colder air

from linear continents. That is going to cool things down. We saw

that across the southern half of the region last night. A chilly weekend

but some sunny spells and variable amounts of cloud through this

weekend. We have got much colder air working its way across as from the

east. The map will turn very blue as we head through tonight because

temperatures are dropping like a stone. It will start to creep its

way northwards, cold right the way across the board. Temperatures

dipping two minus five. In some sheltered rural spots, it could get

lower than that. Widespread frost and in eastern parts of the region,

mist and fog patches developing and they could be clearing into the day

tomorrow. High pressure in charge, little movement and breeze.

Continuing to see those cold conditions through the morning, a

frosty start and a very cold day indeed tomorrow. Still an easterly

breeze so temperatures ranging from between one and three Celsius. There

will be lots of lovely sunshine. We get cloud coming in from the east as

we head through the day, variable and then applied a black cloud

should help with temperatures as we head Saturday night into Sunday.

Another very chilly night, another widespread frost right the way

across the region, temperatures dipping down to around 8-1 or minus

three. We could see some drizzle from that cloud which could tend to

sleet or snow. Sunday -- Monday is more of the same. Stays that way as

we head into the new working week. I am going to go and learn some

tricks. Not really. Nicola Beckford will be

with you at 10.30 for the late news.