22/03/2017 Midlands Today


22/03/2017

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MPs from the Midlands have been speaking tonight about their shock

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following the terror attack in Westminster.

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Five people died, including an armed police officer and the man

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Three schools from our region were on trips there today,

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but all children and staff are said to be safe and well.

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Numerous MPs, including many from this region,

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spent most of the day locked inside the Palace of

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Westminster as police carried out their searches.

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Elizabeth Glinka has been following developments and joins me now.

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Well, it has been a very dramatic day and to be honest things are

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still unfolding as we speak. There have been some very upsetting scenes

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and just like the rest of the country many people from the

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Midlands have been caught up in this. Rob Lyon from Rugby was

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walking along Westminster Bridge with a colleague when he saw the car

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travelling at high speed towards pedestrians. When I saw the vehicle

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mounted the curb, it was coming so quickly. I saw some people being hit

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in front of me and I jumped into the road. I think one of the guys who

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was hit came past me and I looked around me in shock because I could

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see bodies and people and it was a real shock. And a number of

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schoolchildren from the Midlands were there at a time. Three schools

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from the Midlands were on trips to the houses of parliament today. They

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were Rugby High School, Balsall Common Primary School and Holy

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Family Catholic Primary School. We know that thankfully the pupils from

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Rugby High School had just left before the incident started and the

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children from Balsall Common Primary School were also safe and well. The

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pupils from Holy Family Catholic Primary School were actually inside

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Parliament when the incident began. We can see a picture of them from

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earlier in the day actually on Westminster Bridge, as you can see,

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where the attack started. Those children were involved in the

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lockdown. They were inside Parliament but we know they were all

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safe and released at about 6pm tonight. Lots of people caught in

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the lockdown. Have they all been allowed to leave? The lockdown was

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lifted earlier this evening after major searchers of the Westminster

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estate conducted by armed police. As people started to come out we

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started to get more the sense of what had been happening in their

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drink the day, including from the West Bromwich MP Adrian Bailey.

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We go into Parliament everyday and see these warnings about attacks

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and danger and I think like a lot of people we just live with them

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and don't take much notice but today it was a very uncomfortable

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realisation that this was for real and I think we're really indebted

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to all our security services and public services that work

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so hard to insure that went reality does really write they're

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That when reality does bite they are there to protect us. Paying tribute

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to police there. We know that one officer was killed, two are being

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treated in hospital. Now attention begins to turn to who this man was

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and what was motivating him. Thank you.

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A Birmingham man's been sentenced to 12 years in prison

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Osmond Bell was found guilty of the manslaughter

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But it was a piece of chewing gum and modern day DNA technology that

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Our special correspondent, Peter Wilson has been

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Nova Welsh was a happy, extrovert young woman aged just 24.

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In July 1981 she was living in this block of flats

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She'd recently split from Osmond Bell, the father

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of her two children, complaining about his

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Then one night, she simply disappeared.

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Osmond Bell didn't report her missing.

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He told friends that he thought she'd gone to London.

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In fact, she'd been strangled, her neck broken.

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But it wasn't for another three weeks that her body was discovered

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The killer had forced the lock on the cupboard door.

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he needed something to fix the lock to conceal her body.

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The only thing he had was a piece of chewing gum.

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To deceitfully show that that cupboard had not been forced open,

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a piece of chewing gum was used to stick the lock back on and of

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course with the advancements of DNA technology over the last 35 years,

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we were able to send that piece of chewing gum off

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and find Osmond Bell's DNA on that chewing gum.

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This is the pink chewing gum turned brown by brick dust and dirt.

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36 years later, because of that piece of gum, Osmond Bell was found

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Her mother gave this reaction to his sentence of 12 years,

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the death of a much loved daughter, sister and mother.

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By all accounts he's been a good dad.

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We understand that the boys, now grown men, are completely

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bewildered, devastated, that their father has proved to be

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Peter Wilson, BBC Midlands Today, Ladywood, Birmingham.

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The UK's first factory dedicated solely to electric vehicle

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The London Taxi Company's invested more than ?300 million

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It'll create more than a thousand new jobs at a plant which'll be able

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Here's our Transport Correspondent, Peter Plisner.

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A massive leap forward for taxi technology.

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Diesel engines are on the way out and in comes zero

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Amongst the 1,000 staff being recruited here,

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apprentices like Abbie Ferrar, braving a male dominated industry.

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I just always wanted to do engineering and manufacturing.

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My dad, he's a manufacturing engineer and I've always

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This line of cars shows taxis through the ages,

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all of which traditionally have been built in Coventry and the new

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electric taxi is no exception, except this one's being built

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But with a range of around 70 miles on one charge, London cabbies

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The reality is at the moment in London there is one rapid charge

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point within six miles of Charing Cross.

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That's an absolutely crazy situation.

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And they won't be cheap either - rumoured to have a price

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tag of around ?50,000, although the company's chief

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executive says lower running should balance things out.

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When you look at the monthly payments in terms of buying

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the vehicle coupled with what it costs in Peel, which will be much

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the vehicle coupled with what it costs in fuel, which will be much

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lower, coupled with the lower maintenance costs, actually

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the monthly cost of running this vehicle is not only

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competitive with today's, it's much better than today's.

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Analysts maintain that it's a big vote of confidence in the region.

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Massive investment by the Chinese in the UK and demonstrates

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the confidence I think that the world has in designed

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Four years ago, the old London Taxi company went bust.

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Now it's entering a new era in it's 70-year history

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with this new factory, and in the future they could also

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be building electric vans as well as taxis.

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Peter Plisner, BBC Midlands Today, in Coventry.

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A special breeding programme is underway in the Black Country

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Numbers of the black and white bagot goat have been fast diminishing -

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there are now fewer than 200 females registered in the UK.

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Laura May McMullan has been along to Sandwell Valley Country Park

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to see the initial and endearing results of the programme -

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Just over three weeks old, and still finding their feet.

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They're the first baby Bagot goats to be born

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since a special breeding programme was introduced last November.

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It's quite overwhelming sometimes seeing new birth being brought in.

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And it is amazing because we kind of saving the breed.

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It's believed there are less than 200 registered breeding females

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left in the country and so the aim of this conservation programme

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Ivy, who I have to say is my favourite, is aged 14.

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She produced two grade a embryos, which

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insemination methods and so far four grade-A embryos have been harvested

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them into the Rare Breeds Survival Trust's gene bank.

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We are over the moon with the results we have had

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This is the first time this has ever been done with primitive goats.

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Bagots are the oldest breed in Britain

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and it's hoped the fertility programme will now help to preserve

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I'll leave you now with the weather from Rebecca.

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Well, it certainly was a wet and miserable day today.

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Temperatures really struggled underneath all that cloud and rain.

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But steadily we started to see things brightening up and improving,

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And that's a theme we'll keep as we head through the next few days.

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For the night, we have got some clear spells to begin with but we're

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slowly starting to see that rain band push its way back in,

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so it is going to be a rather damp start to the day tomorrow.

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Overnight at temperatures falling between one and three Celsius,

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At steadily, high pressure is going to force at low pressure

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system out of the way and that's what brings that rain

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But once it has cleared, we will start to see

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So it is going to be a damp rush-hour but eventually the cloud

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thinning and breaking across the North Midlands,

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the sun coming out and temperatures are going to start to recover.

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We should see them pushing up to 11 Celsius once again.

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So we are slowly starting to head in the right direction.

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That high-pressure settling things down as we head

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decent day. Saturday could be a much better day, with some sunshine.

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It certainly was a pretty wet day across parts of the country, lots of

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downpours around. This is a picture

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