28/03/2017 Midlands Today

Hello and welcome to Midlands Today.

Fears that the Westminster attack has severely damaged

the image of Birmingham and its community relations.

Khalid Masood, who had lived in Birmingham, killed four people

We'll look at the impact on the second city's reputation.

Also tonight? A court hears how a surgeon gave a mastectomy to a GP

because she was cancer phobic - not to treat it.

The new ?1 coin with roots in the Black Country -

From holiday snap to global award winner, the architect whose hobby

And sometimes our weather can help provide the perfect conditions

for a wonderful photo - like this...

Sadly with plenty of cloud around, today wasn't quite as good.

But will things get better this week?

"You can't judge a community based on the actions of one individual."

That's the sentiment of a charity worker,

who fears the actions of the man responsible for the Westminster

attack has severely damaged the image of Birmingham -

The world's media descended on the city following the killings

last Wednesday, committed by Khalid Masood, who'd

Our Special Correspondent, Peter Wilson has been to meet two

men, who in recent months have done so much to change perceptions about

Wheater two men walking through Birmingham.

They've recently become TV and internet sensations.

Two ordinary Brummies talking about being proud

Last week's attack in London and the link with Khalid Masood

to the West Midlands has focused not just Britain's, but the world's

For me it is not about a Muslim or non-Muslim, it is about a Birmingham

thing, about us as a community, and we need to deal with this and I am

very eager to show the world to look at the positive things we're doing.

You cannot judge a whole community based on the actions of one

individual. Are you surprised this man was living in Birmingham, Khalid

Masood? Yes, like I said, I had never heard of him. I have been

asking around, I do not know anybody who has ever heard of him or known

him, but it doesn't seem like he was a very, you know, social person or

part of the community, or maybe even had many friends.

Masood's wife, now living in London, has condemned his murderous outrage.

But for many Muslims there's a sense of anger that they are all expected

to apologise for this man's criminal actions.

Everybody wants to hear what Muslims have got to hear about it -- to

think about it, and for me that is depressing. When people want to know

if the Muslims condemn it, that is insulting. We are always expected to

condemn it. People should be smart enough to understand that whether we

verbally make some sort of statement or from our hearts, everyone is

going to condemn it. We human. The message linking terrorism

to Birmingham has not just been on the national agenda

but also international one. To try to improve relationships

between communities and people of different face, and you go up and

down the country to do all these things, and then one thing like this

happens and it ruins everything. Something like this brings you back

to square one. Both men work for a charity and next

week risk their lives going to iraq There's still very little

information coming to light Very little information about what

he was doing in Birmingham, and the Metropolitan Police say they

continue to question two men arrested in Birmingham

arrested in the city on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts.

They've searched nine addresses in Birmingham and are continuing

to search at one of those addresses, where he either lived or visited.

At the same time it's important to say Khalid Masood lived

in as many places as he had aliases - London, Crawley in Sussex,

Today his wife Rohey Hydara, who lived with him in Birmingham

until the end of last year, sent her condolences to the families

of the four victims who died and has asked for privacy for her family -

A surgeon has been a telling a court that he carried out

a mastectomy to prevent cancer, not to treat it,

Ian Paterson is charged with 20 counts of malicious wounding

of ten patients after performing unnecessary breast surgery.

Today he's been giving evidence in his defence.

Our Health Correspondent, Michele Paduano joins us now

So the first patient discussed today was Rosemary Platt?

yes, Doctor rosemary Platt was a GP, and she had had one operation in

which she had taken part of her breast and removed lymph nodes from

under her armpits, then she had two mastectomies, one after the other.

He insisted there was good evidence for doing that operation, but also

said that Doctor Platt suffered anxiety and had a cancer phobia, and

he said you cannot underestimate the difficulty in treating a patient who

has medical knowledge, and he said it would have been poor management

on his part if he had not discussed his case with her and the

possibility of a mastectomy. What did Ian Pattison have to say about

other patients? Another patient had a mistake to me, he said there was

good evidence she had cancer, and the team had discussed it among

themselves. Then another women did not have cancer, but thought she had

a different condition. He said she had body image issues and had had

surgery to lose 10.5 stone. He actually went through psychiatric

assessment for her to see whether she was in a position to have

surgery because she was complaining about pain in her breasts. What is

the likely timescale for the trial? He has to give evidence and chief

for seven other patients he treated, then he will be cross-examined and

we would expect the fireworks to take place then. That is the

question of how many witnesses he has himself, but we do not expected

to be more than a couple of weeks. Thank you.

A man has been charged with murder, following the death of a 55 year

Mark Beresford died in hospital on Saturday, after being found

with serious head injuries at his home in Offmore

22 year old Henry Lewis Jones, also from Kidderminster, has appeared

at Redditch Magistrates Court today.

Staffordshire police has announced its new Chief Constable.

Gareth Morgan, who's currently the deputy chief constable

at the Avon and Somerset force, was appointed out of

He started his career at West Midlands police in 1990 -

and has also worked at Warwickshire and West Mercia.

A new surgical procedure - which has been trialled in Shropshire -

could give hope to thousands of people who have a

The pioneering surgery was trialled at the Robert Jones

and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic hospital, near Oswestry.

It involves operating through the side, rather

Experts are now recommending that the NHS should

West Midlands Police are appealing for information after a car

was set on fire outside a house in Birmingham.

CCTV footage, shot during the incident in January,

shows three men smashing a rear passenger window of a Mercedes -

parked outside a property in the Selly Park area of the city.

Up to ?5 billion of investment in Birmingham Airport,

the National Exhibition Centre and local universities

has been promised - at the biggest-ever business forum

staged by the British and Qatari governments.

The Prime Minister delivered the keynote speech, as she prepares

tomorrow to commit Britain to leaving the European Union.

Our political editor Patrick Burns is at the International Convention

Centre in Birmingham, where the event was staged.

Ministers are leaving it to us to join the

But clearly it sends out the message that the Midlands Engine is firing

The most visible Qatari presence here at the moment is the daily air

And the airport itself is one of the potential beneficiaries,

along an assortment of transport projects.

Theresa May signalled how much store she sets by all this

by finding time to speak here, even as she prepares to take

the plunge tomorrow and set Britain on course to leave the EU.

I asked one of her cabinet colleagues if global links like this

would be enough to make up for the loss of European investment.

This is investment on top of whatever else we negotiate. This is

a real bonus, a real plus, a vote of confidence, not just in the United

Kingdom, it is a vote of confidence in Birmingham and the Midlands. And

that is as it should be. How did the message come across to people on the

receiving end of the charm offensive?

What's not to like about ?5 billion of inward investment,

in areas like global sport, cyber and security,

But of course business hates uncertainty and Brexit does

The people of Birmingham will benefit through the new life

sciences Park, new technologies to intervene with new therapies, and

also the people of Birmingham will benefit from enamoured -- inward

investment and to the stopper opportunities this will bring.

Theresa May likes to point out that Britain is the only member running a

surplus trade with China... Jaguar Land Rover boss has expressed real

worries about what might happen if Britain loses open access to his

biggest markets in Europe. That is a very big concern and it will weigh

on her mind. Thank you very much. Have you seen one of

the new ?1 coins which went A teenager in the Black Country

was particularly keen to get his hands on one -

because he designed it. David Pearce won a Royal Mint

competition two years ago - and his initials feature

on the new coin. But today was the first

time he saw it. David Pearce has every

reason to be proud - he designed the back

of the new pound coin, From the Royal Coronet, there is the

English Tudor Rose, the Welsh league, the Scottish thistle and the

Northern Irish shamrock. They're tiny, but David's initials

are beneath the coronet on the right of the coin,

but he's pretty modest. Quite humbled to have a part in the

creation of this kind of coin. It is a nice experience.

He entered this drawing in a Royal Mint competition

with the encouragement of his teacher at Queen

Mary's Grammar School in Walsall, and won ?10,000.

The headmaster put this as his top achievement in the last academic

year, so the school as a whole are very proud. His friends are

impressed as well. Thousands of people entered this, and it had to

be one of my mates from my class to design the coin, it was a great

achievement for David. What do you think of it? Green it is beautiful,

I like the design, and how he incorporates the togetherness of the

country. The pain machines and things like

that have to be changed now. What do you like about it? The general

design, it will be hard to counterfeit. Back to David, and he

may have been to Downing Street and met the then Chancellor, but we

couldn't resist showing you what happened during the interview.

Well, David will be in his forties by the time the new coin ceases

But before then he has A Levels this summer and an offer

from Cambridge to study architecture.

And if you still have some of the paper ?5 notes

in your purse or wallet, you have until 5th May to spend them

- or take them to the bank to exchange for the plastic ones.

Thanks for joining us on Midlands Today.

Rebecca will be here later with the forecast,

They are in the last eight in Europe, can wasps make it all the

way to the final? And how a holiday snap in Berllin

landed an architect, not one, Potholes, they're the bane

of drivers' and cyclists lives. A report published today says that

roads in the West Midlands are in such a state of disrepair -

it will take more than ?1 billion to get them into reasonable condition -

that's more than ?96 million, Last year 208,000

potholes were filled Nicola Beckford is at Barton under

Needwood in Staffordshire, to give us an idea of the state

of the roads there. It is one of those things, potholes,

that gets People's Court. We're at the roundabout off the 838, and this

road is littered with potholes. Take a look at this one. You'd saw a car

move around it. It is absolutely enormous. You can see the way the

cars are weaving their way and to avoid it. Painting at this

roundabout, again we are looking good old look at it. It is littered

with potholes. Earlier I saw cyclists trying to weave their way

around, and motorcyclists trying to do the same. The reason we're

talking about potholes is because there is a new survey out which says

some of the Midlands roads have real problems with potholes. They say the

backlog for road repairs are so bad it will take nine years to clear it.

But the problem is, each local authority would need to have ?5

million extra in their budgets to solve it, according to the report.

Inevitably there are calls for more funding. Every so often the

government gives out a potholed front -- pothole fund, reacting to

the crisis. But we need to plan longer term funding and have a

greater proportion of what drivers paying motoring taxes ring fenced

just for maintenance. We do not have time to give you all the information

on social media on potholes. Have a look at Facebook. The Department for

Transport say they are providing ?6 million over six years to maintain

roads and repair potholes. When the boss asks you to raise

some money for charity - But one Gloucester financial firm

went a bit further - by raising ?50 million

and helping 3000 charities. The difference, it says,

is the ethical and responsible way the company is run -

without having to answer But just how easy is it to be

ethical and profitable? Here's our Gloucestershire

reporter, Steve Knibbs. As insurance companies go,

the office may look But Ecclesiastical is doing

something different. As well as insuring some

of the world's most impressive buildings -

like St Paul's cathedral - it works to plough

profits into charities. The new chief exec challenged his

staff to put fifty million to good causes in just three years -

it took them just over two. He says the fact they're owned

by a charity and don't have to pay dividends to corporate

shareholders is key... When you have a charitable ownership

and you are driven by the right thing, rather than the topline and

bottom line, you do not do that. Just a mile down the road -

and on a much smaller scale - a company that sources ethical

coffee from Tanzania and Brazil. And profits they make go back

there - in this case into a new fresh water supply

into a village in Tanzania. Being ethical has always

been their mantra - but it's something that you have

to live and breathe. Business is a really powerful tool

to change the world. It is often seen as a necessary evil, which I do

not believe. I think business can be used to serve the greater good. Back

here, Mark wants to challenge his staff even further. What is driving

us is the contribution to good causes. Ethical doesn't work for

everyone, but for some people the incentive of just doing good seems

to be enough. Dan's here to talk sport -

specifically rugby union. You've been catching up with Wasps

ahead of their big weekend. Yes, the training ground felt

different today. On Saturday Wasps face Leinster

and a crowd of around 50,000 as they bid for a place

in the European Champions For the English players in the Wasps

team it's a quick return to Dublin - the scene of their Grand Slam

disappointment in the 6 Nations. It is the one blemish on a perfect

record. England's defeat to Ireland didn't

cost them the 6 Nations - but they did lose the grand slam

and a world record. But this weekend there's a form

of rematch as Leinster boast a host of Irish Internationals -

and Wasps have four England players. I'm sure they carry a little bit of

fire in the belly about that game, but I think the overriding emotions

will certainly be to get the job done.

Prop Matt Mullan is one of the England players now

And he's relishing running out in Dublin in front

It is incredible. It is what you work so hard fought on the training

ground Monday to Friday. You put in the hard yards to get the chance to

showcase your talent as a team and individual on grounds like that, on

big stages. Everyone is desperate to go there and try to play well. You

can feel the buzz in training today, a different atmosphere. Hopefully we

can put on a good show. Wasps are in the quarterfinals in Europe. But not

any silverware. Everything we have done counts for

nothing, it does not amount to any silverware at the moment, so we

would like to translate that into silverware.

Last weekend Wasps victory over Worcester in the Premiership

Don't expect the same again this weekend.

So Wasps are looking forward to next weekend.

But the fall-out continues from Sunday's game with Worcester.

It was arguably the turning point on Sunday's game was the sending-off

of Worcester's Bryce Heem for this dangerous tackle on

We learned today that Le Roux suffered concussion so must go

through the necessary protocol and could miss Saturday's

Heem has pleaded guilty to an RFU disciplinary charge and has been

List you all miss him, he has been playing well. -- Worcester will miss

him. If you enjoy taking pictures

on holiday, you'll be The Birmingham architect landed

a double win in the world's largest photography competition,

with this photo. Tim is an architect,

with a natural eye for buildings. But he's not a professional

photographer. So today's announcement has

caught him by surprise - as our Arts reporter Satnam Rana

has been discovering. He's an amateur photograher who's

picked up not one but two wins in the Sony World Photography

Awards. And it was this shot of the Federal

building in Berlin that I never thought I would enter it

into any awards. I just saw this amazing circular building and

thought I need to wait here for these people to get into the shot.

Taken by Tim Cornbill from Birmingham.

He's won in the Open Category section for architecture globally

and has also picked up the UK national award.

Yes, I got a call at work actually and I just had to say, are you sure

you've got the right person? I could not quite believe that.

Closer to home Tim Cornbill is known on social

media for taking photos in Birmingham - a place

Most of us think we are budding photographers.

But there are top tips we can pick up. We have perfect weather today,

so always look for the weather and where the light is good. The light

is hitting the front of the library, so put up your camera, balance the

library in the shot, then touch on your screen to get it in focus. And

then shoot away. It could be an award-winning entry!

By profession he is an architect. A winning combination, really. You

look for facades, and elements like the large photo that won the award.

He has taken a day off today to celebrate, by taking more photos. A

talented guy. And given the number of pictures we get from weather

Watchers, there are plenty of amateur photographers at home.

We have a loyal team of weather watchers who send in some fantastic

pictures like these - but we're always looking

It's really easy, all you need to do is sign up to

Take a picture in landscape, and upload it.

It could end up on Midlands Today one evening.

I have had a look around some of the other regions, and let me tell you,

ours are the best. It helped tell today's story. We had mist and fog

out there today. Not very pleasant. In some spots did get lovely, which

helped to boost temperatures. We made it to in some spots. We have

got some heavily scattered showers and rumbles of thunder, which

started to work their way across Birmingham. At Edgbaston there was

cricket today, it is almost like mother nature knows. Temperatures

got up to 13, but by this afternoon the rain started and tempers

underneath the rain dropped by 4 degrees. The shower is really did

have an impact. We continue to see them filtering through the West

tonight, and then we get a persistent area of rain moving its

way through. Eventually it will clear, with cloud over and.

Temperatures are in double figures. These are the daytime highs

yesterday, but low-pressure dominating. Tomorrow rain will move

on from the West, with cloud around. For the least we could get something

attach brighter, with temperatures getting up to 13 or 14. But the

breeze will continue to keep filtering in the match milder air.

It will be a much milder end to the data model, with rain moving and.

Temperatures 11 to 12 Celsius. Thursday the best of the brightness

will be further east, so make your way there. At the end of the week

things will start to brighten up. That is all from me. I will be back

with your late news at 10:30pm. Goodbye.