28/12/2011 South East Today

Good evening. The insurance company Hastings

Direct has announced it is creating 140 jobs in Sussex. The insurance

broker employs over 1100 staff at its site in Bexhill. These new jobs

follow 300 roles already created there in recent months.

It is the largest employer in this part of Sussex with over 1,000

people working here already. announcing we are recruiting in the

next few months. Mostly in the local area. There will be a range

of positions available up to senior managers, so it is great news.

asked month, nearby Hastings failed to win millions in investment from

the government. Earlier this year, the Saga group opened a centre in

the town with the creation of 800 jobs. Will today's announcement

boost the fortunes of Bexhill? is fantastic news for local jobs.

There is not much employment here. It is positive. Probably not enough

to make a difference. Everybody needs jobs, especially young people

like me. A lot of people work there. It might low unemployment here.

to an increase in customers, there will be an extra 140 chances to

find a job here in the new year. A man has been charged with the

attempted abduction of a 12-year- old girl in St Leonards. It is

after the girl was approached and allegedly grabbed by a man in a car

on Eversfield Place yesterday morning. 45-year-old Raymond Paul

Slack, of St Leonards, has been bailed to appear at Lewes Crown

Court in April. Just a quarter of 999 calls

received by Kent Police in the last year were genuine emergencies.

Figures released under the Freedom of Information Act show the force

received more than 260,000 emergency calls in the period 2010

to 2011. But only 67,000 required an immediate response. The Home

Office asks people with less urgent inquiries to dial the non-emergency

number 101. Star For Gillingham Football Club

have expressed relief that police have dropped an investigation into

alleged racist abuse by the manager towards Crawley Town manager Steve

Evans. It was said to have taken place after the teams met on Boxing

Day. Five bookings and two sending as

off. It was a robust if not a very festive clash. But what followed

was a claim of a racially aggravated comment, which could

spark more unwelcome debate. In a statement today, Gillingham said

they were aware of the unfounded allegation made by a member of

staff at Crawley Town football club, but they were prepared to defend

the club and manager Andy Hessenthaler. They said they were

disappointed that the allegation has been made and put in the public

domain. Over the past few months, allegations of racism in football

have dominated the back pages and now the front pages. Last month,

the Fifa President said that racism should be settled with a handshake

after the game. The England captain John Terry is facing a racially

aggravated public order charges. And another player was banned for

eight matches after an incident. Tonight, Sussex Police said the

original complainant did not want to take matters further and the

case has been dropped. An ancient yew tree has amazed

experts at Wakehurst Place in Sussex. Nobody had paid much

attention to the tree, but experts say it dates to 1391 and the

discovery has rewritten the garden's history.

A symbol of immortality and rebirth. The yew tree's colour in winter

gives hope at a time that the landscape is brown. The collection

of trees here is renowned, but the yew trees have a new importance.

This one dates back to 1620 and is a clue to what lies a few yards

away, the jewel in the ground. landscape architect said those

trees are in a straight line. I have not notice. The challenge is

how to find out how old they are. There is a technique, the age of

trees, and it looks at the annual rings and how far apart they are.

This one goes back to 1391. discovery of such an old tree has

effectively rewritten the history of Wakehurst Place. It's was a

shock and revelation. We are in a flat part of the garden. When we

did archaeology, I can tell you we are six feet above the normal soil

level. I imagined that was done by manual labour in Elizabethan times,

to know it was 200 years before his startling. It seems the way curse

family built themselves a landscape gardener earlier than thought --

the family resident at Wakehurst Place. I found in old archive

photographs in the 1950s, an old tree, and I will stop you on this

lot. It is just about here. -- this spot. We thought the garden should

be celebrated for the plant collectors in the 19th century. We

now think this is a rare example of a garden 600 years earlier. It is

just unlocking the key to the past. More history is yet to come.

More history is yet to come. We can check the weather.

It has been cloudy and mild. The rain will clear tonight. It will be

back tomorrow. We are holding on to the winds, but it is mild for the

time of year. We had a cold front spreading eastwards. You can see

the isobars. The winds have been breezy for everybody. The

temperatures are still in double figures. They are well above

seasonal averages. Clear skies, but despite the temperature staying

mild, initially, a dry start, but it will not stage dry for long. We

are holding on to the winds. Up to 25 miles per hour. Temperatures

might be one degree down on today. And the rain will stay in to