08/11/2017 Midlands Today

That's all from the BBC News at One

- so it's goodbye from me -

Hello and welcome to Midlands Today.

- so it's goodbye from me -

The headlines this lunchtime.

- so it's goodbye from me -

It's a constant problem

throughout this region,

Stoke-on-Trent council has a zero

tolerance approach and we have

issued hundreds of tickets for

fly-tipping.

Hundreds of new jobs to be

created here and abroad

by a Solihull-based estate agent.

And we meet the Ice Maidens

who are racing against the clock

to reach the South Pole.

Good afternoon.

It's a constant problem

throughout this region,

but in Stoke-on-Trent flytipping

is particularly bad,

with more than 8,000 cases

in the past year alone -

that's a rise of over

1000 such incidents

in the previous 12 months.

But the Council say

the increase reflects the fact

that they are tackling the issue

proactively, encouraging residents

to report incidents and taking

action against those who dump waste.

Our Staffordshire Reporter Liz

Copper sent us this report.

This is part of a concerted effort

to deal with thousands of complaints

that come in from members

of the public about fly-tipping.

We are joined by Dominic Gratton

from Stoke-on-Trent City Council.

Dominic, explain

what we have got here.

This appears to be builder-type

waste, so you have got

wood, plastics, paints.

Generally waste in the wrong place

blighting on the community.

Even though you have thousands

of complaints that come in,

in the last year or so you have only

had 26 prosecutions.

What would you say to those

who say that is a very low

rate of prosecution?

You have to remember 26 prosecutions

in court for environmental offences

including fly-tipping.

There are other methods of disposing

of offensive materials,

fixed penalty notices

and Stoke-on-Trent has

a zero tolerance approach

and we have issued a number of fixed

penalty notices for fly-tipping.

How do you go about tracking down

the perpetrators of this?

A number of methods including

evidence from the waste itself,

by looking through

the wasteful letters.

CCTV, the signage behind

us says we use CCTV.

And assistance from the community.

People see people depositing

waste coming forward

and reporting that to us.

Thank you very much

indeed for joining us.

Now, the council has five teams

working five days a week to clear up

this waste and they insist

they continue to adopt

a zero tolerance policy.

Hundreds of new jobs to be

created here and abroad

by a Solihull-based estate agent.

Hundreds of jobs are set

to be created at online

estate agent Purple Bricks.

The Solihull-based company

is expanding rapidly,

both here and abroad.

The growth of online agents has also

meant big changes in the way

traditional estate agent operate.

Our business correspondent

Peter Plisner is at the Purple

Bricks HQ this lunchtime.

Peter, what's the attraction

of selling your house online?

Well, Nicola, it's cheap and

convenient although you do pay

regardless of whether or not you

sell your house. This lunchtime, we

are in the Purple Bricks call centre

where they have around 3000 calls

every day. It's an office growing

fast, expanding into new offices

fairly soon. Online agents have

shaken up traditional estate agents.

Earlier we spoke to one agent

offering a similar package to Purple

Bricks.

If you can't beat them, join

them. We could have sat back and

said, it will all go away, people

when stand for this. But in this day

and age where people have a screen

stuck in front of their face, people

want it quick, easy, cheap and value

for money.

Joining me here from

Purple Bricks is the co-founder

Kenny Breeze. Please tell me, rapid

expansion, expanding into the US now

as well.

Indeed, Purple Bricks is a

well-established company now trading

for three and a half years selling

three and a half thousand claims --

selling thousands of homes every

month.

With estate agents, you don't

pay until you sell often but you

charge an upfront fee.

As I said...

We invite all of our customers to

take full advantage of our customer

service, and we transact thousands

of homes every month and our service

is the best in class.

Many thanks.

Purple Bricks currently have a 75%

share of the online market, which is

7% of traditional sales.

Thank you very much. We had a few

technical problems there, so

apologies for the sound quality.

A senior West Midlands Police

officer has been suspended

on suspicion of an offence under

the Official Secrets Act.

Assistant Chief Constable Marcus

Beale faces allegations

relating to a failure to safeguard

sensitive documents,

which were stolen from

an unmarked police car in May.

He'll appear at Westminster

Magistrates' Court next month.

A soldier from Lichfield is among

a group of six women

who are preparing to undertake

a race against the clock

to the South Pole

and write their names

in the history books,

as the first large group of women

to achieve the feat.

The Ice Maidens have been preparing

for the trek for two years.

Lee Maden reports.

The ice maidens have hit the ice in

Antarctica. And when the weather

clears, their mission will begin.

These pictures are from a recent

training expedition in Switzerland,

making sure they know how to get out

of crevasses and can last the 75

days it's expected to take to trek

coast to coast across the continent

via the South Pole. After leaving

Heathrow Airport and their loved

ones 11 days ago, the ice maidens

headed south. First to Chile, where

they told me on Skype just how they

are going to cope.

It's definitely

going to be repetitive and that's

one of the harder aspects of the

expedition. Its day in, day out,

your body aches and you have to get

up the next day whether you want to

get up or not because no one is

coming to get you. You have to carry

on with your journey. Everyone has

different ways of coping. I like to

break my day down into different

sections.

The six soldiers will be

monitoring how their bodies change

compared to men's in the conditions

of up to minus 40.

We will be

looking at how our body consumes

energy now and what it does at the

end of the expedition, whether

changes at all, and we also have

sensors detecting our heart rate,

breathing rate, how hydrated we are,

that sort of thing.

250 soldiers

applied to be an ice maiden and

gradually they got whittled down to

the final six, who have now spent

two years training for this maiden

-- moment.

Time for the weather now

and it was a crisp and clear

start this morning -

are we in for more of this

start this morning -

are we in for more of this

chilly weather, Shefali?

We probably will have more frosty

mornings, yes. It was a very frosty

morning, very crisp and cold, but

plenty of sunshine around and we

will see more of that sunshine

through the rest of the day.

However, we are looking at

fluctuations in temperatures over

the coming few days. It is cold

today, it will be warmer tomorrow as

this bank of air starts to move in

from the north, and cold again by

the time we get to the weekend. We

could be in for a spell of cold

weather by the time you get a Friday

night as well. This was the

satellite picture earlier. A slice

of clear skies sandwiched between

two areas of cloud and that cloud

will slowly close in on us over the

next three hours. Enjoy the sunshine

busted lasts. It is beautiful out

there. A little bit chilly. It is

three tonight that that cloud starts

to make inroads and it will move in

from the north-west, spelling

southwards, with a little bit of

rain to go with that. Not very much

but temperatures falling a milder to

25 Celsius. For tomorrow, a milder

day to begin with, brighter skies by

the afternoon, but as I said, it

will be milder. Highs of 15 degrees

in the south-west.

Thank you.

Later on Midlands Today,

we will hear from comedian

Adrian Edmondson and actress

Kara Tointon who are both starring

in the RSC's forthcoming

production of Twelfth Night.

The production also

features Dinita Gohil as Viola.

Now Dinita, grew up

in Birmingham and went to school

in Sutton Coldfield.

She'll be making her RSC debut.

She'll be making her RSC debut.

It's really amazing. I mean, I grew

up coming to see stuff on this stage

and so many performances that were

so inspiring, yeah, so to be back

here playing Voeller, really, I

mean, it's a dream come true.

That's all for now.

Amy Cole will be back

at 6.30pm on BBC 1.

Do join her later if you can.

Have a lovely afternoon.

Bye for now.