11/05/2017 Midlands Today

Drayton Manor Theme Park in Staffordshire will be closed

for a third day while a health and safety investigation

continues into the death of a schoolgirl from Leicester.

11-year-old Evha Janneth was on the Splash Canyon Rapids ride

on Tuesday when she fell into the water.

The park closed yesterday as a mark of respect

Our Staffordshire reporter Liz Copper's been

Drayton Manor has confirmed that the gates behind me will be

closed to visitors tomorrow and that is to allow the Health

and Safety Executive to continue their work on the ride.

Staffordshire police will also be here tomorrow.

This closure is unprecedented in the park's 67 year history

and the park's owners say their thoughts remain

with Evha's family and everyone he was affected by the incidents

Throughout today, flowers have continued to be laid at the entrance

to the park and Evha's family who spoke so movingly yesterday

about how their world had been torn apart by her death are now preparing

That is expected to take place sometime next week in Leicester

and the family say the whole community has been deeply

As for the investigation, it is expected that a postmortem

examination will be conducted on Monday and then an inquest is

Today, we heard that theme parks across Europe closed similar rides

but this evening we have heard from Merlin entertainment

who own a number of theme parks including Alton Towers and they say

they have conducted their own safety and risk assessment and spoken

to the Health and Safety Executive but as a result, they are confident

they can reopen those rides tomorrow and I think that is an indication

any wider safety concerns have been allayed fairly swiftly

but when things will reopen here it Drayton Manor isn't yet clear.

A man's been charged with using drones to fly

drugs and mobile phones into Birmingham Prison -

the first prosecution of its kind secured by West Midlands Police.

Drones were allegedly used to drop contraband into an exercise yard

at the jail in October and November last year.

27-year-old Michael Tovey, from Erdington, is set to appear

before Birmingham magistrates on the 7th of June.

The inquest into the death of a woman struck by debris in high

winds during storm Doris in February is to be held in October.

Further investigations need to be made into how 29-year-old

Tahnie Martin came to be hit by a piece of timber outside

Exactly four weeks to go now until polling day and nominations

have closed for candidates standing in the General Election.

So, in the run-up to June eighth, today was always going to be a big

moment for those seats where there are slim majorities.

That's why we sent our reporter Ben Godfrey to one tightly fought

West Midlands constituency to find out what issues are on the minds

It's a beautiful day in Dudley North, the seat held

by Labour since its creation in 1997 but high up on the list

We have come to Corbyn Road to see what people are thinking.

First we met Mandy Yerster, an undecided voter who wants

the next Government to champion social care.

Giving single parents more leeway, childcare because my son

is autistic, a little bit more help regarding autism and stuff.

With support for Labour, the Conservatives and Ukip in this

area - it's no surprise the big hitters have been

Far from getting ready for the next politician to visit -

Lyndon Corbett - just to clear it up he's the Corbyn Road beekeeper -

would welcome a ban on zero hours contract hours.

Lyndon also runs a business providing home care

It would be beneficial because we don't get paid enough to do these

jobs. Basically when you do a 15 minute call for an old-age pension

you do not have enough time to communicate with the one that is

what some of them the most of all. Retired shop worker Betty had a bee

in her bonnet when I caught up There is a lot of men in London,

they are not in the real world. My bus is here and I

am off, thank you! Some polling experts suggest

Dudley North may turn blue in fours weeks' time,

but on on Corbyn Road we found many That's for me to know

and you not to! People who work or play sport

outdoors are being urged to protect their skin now that

sunnier weather's around. According to a recent study,

working in the sun could lead to one death and five new cases

of melanoma every week. Laura May McMullan's been talking

to a former beach lifeguard from Shropshire who now

has incurable melanoma. First being diagnosed with melanoma

22 years ago and again in 2014. This time it's stage

4 and incurable. Melanoma is such a cruel

and unpredictable disease and I wouldn't want anyone to go

through what I've gone through, the surgeries,

the shock, the anxiety. In his youth, he spent years

working on the beaches Doctors say it's vital

for us to apply sun cream BEFORE we go in the sun,

and that's because we all have a different burning threshold -

when our skin starts to turn pink. Construction workers

are at the highest risk of skin cancer, due to long hours

of sun exposure. We've brought a UV camera

to this Wolverhampton site You can see some sun damage

on your cheeks, nose, and forehead. I wasn't surprised to see

I have damage to my skin. Without doubt, having seen

what has been evident, I've been sunburnt and after seeing

this today, I would, He's urging others to stop burning

up and instead cover up. If you take a look out

of your window you might be lucky enough to spot ivy,

hydrangeas, fuschia, magnolia, We have our ancestors

to thank for bringing The great explorers of the day

travelled the world. Ben Sidwell hasn't been that far,

but he did take a trip to the Malvern Spring Festival

on the trail of plant history. In the shadow of the Malvern Hills,

some of the greatest flora and fauna the world has to offer

and for this, we need to thank the Victorians which is what they're

doing this year at RHS Spring At the heart of the floral marquee

is the plant finder's parlour, It is important to the intrepid

explorers who search They would search for months on end,

some of them would never come back, some would come back with broken

legs and they would go in search for clients and bring them

back in Edwardian cases because they couldn't figure out how

to get the plans back. You don't have to go far

to find species Victorians These carnivorous plants

are from Malaysia and Indonesia. It was brought in by the Victorians

and remains in cultivation today so if it wasn't for the plant

hunters, they wouldn't There was one type of plant that

surprisingly got the Victorians more Now grown in abundance

in Warwickshire, in the 19th century There was a period known as fern

fever and they went mad for building little got

was like this where the theories could live

and the imagination was amazing. Today we are just as

captivated by horticulture. 100,000 people will come

to the showground in Malvern, making it the biggest gardening show

outside of London. I've been going to

Chelsea since 1968. If you were to say to me you can

pick one show way you like being, From award-winning show gardens

to pupils from local schools who are just

beginning their gardening journeys, the Victorians would be

amazed that the plants to discover are now common sights

in gardens across the country. Before we go, I'll leave you with

the weather from Rebecca Wood. Temperatures did very well indeed

today helped by the sunshine but through the afternoon we started

to see it turning a little more hazy, not quite the blue skies

but in Perthshire temperatures As we head through the next few days

there was a change on the way, gardens will be grateful for some

showers which will build and tomorrow we could get quite

a lot of rain through the day. Tonight, a few showers out

and about, some are quite lively across the South Midlands containing

a rumble of thunder Across the North Midlands,

with clear skies temperatures are still will not fall too far,

a muggy night, lows Tomorrow, a weather system moves

through, low-pressure back in charge and some showers,

unstable air so we see the first band of showers clearing

the way to the north, we are left with brighter spells

and showers star to trigger off with the heat and unstable air

so temperatures lower than they have been today,

16 to 17 Celsius but the sunshine Saturday, fine and dry,

Sunday more rain. More information on

the national forecast. We want to see the economy

work for everybody, not Now the weather.

, yes a humid dead. We have had photographs of the