20/02/2012 South East Today

Welcome to South East Today. I'm Polly Evans. And I'm Rob Smith.

Tonight's top stories. It's officially a drought after the

driest 10 months since 1888. The Sussex woman who gave birth on

her sofa after being turned away from two hospitals.

Upson and the terror fight. I was in quite a lot of pain. As soon as

I heard the paramedics come to the door it was a relief.

Also in tonight's programme: Eurotunnel accused of being

unsympathetic after him refuses to let a woman suffering from cancer

to postpone her trip. Barely old enough to drink a pint -

the 18-year-old from Kent taking on a pub of his own. And FA Cup

meltdown - Brighton self destruct as they score not one, but three

own goals against Liverpool. Good evening. The south east is now

officially in a state of drought. The water companies have been

meeting government ministers after parts of the south east have gone

through the driest 10 months since 1888. Southern Water has already

applied for permits to take water from the River Medway to fill Bewl

Water Reservoir, while the River Darent is already at "exceptionally

low levels". There are warnings that the situation could become

worse than the great drought year of 1976. Robin Gibson reports.

It is February, a winter months, but the water looks wrong, even

parched. The reservoir is a key asset providing water for Kent and

Sussex. Today there were crisis talks with ministers. It is

potentially very serious if we do not get rainfall. The purpose of

having a drought summit this morning was to assess the situation

on the basis that we are not going to get it and we are fully prepared

for a serious problem affecting businesses and households this

summer. This is how the rise of work might be expected to look at

this time of year that the picture to date of the reservoir of is very

different. For Kent and East Sussex it has been the driest 10 months

since 1888. The reservoir is just 41% full. Equally alarming, south

East Water says underground acquire -- aquifer levels are almost dry.

Without rain in the next few weeks, water restrictions looks certain.

We would initially see the use of hosepipes being restricted for

domestic customers. We see domestic restrictions being brought in in

coming summer. We do not at this stage sea restrictions for

commercial use but we will have to see how the summer pans out. 1976

was the year went standpipes were used in the streets. Water levels

are said to be even lower in some places this year. Water companies

are already considering hosepipe bans this summer. And there is

advice about domestic use such as taking shorter showers and insuring

full loads of laundry in washing machines. The government will

increase pressure on companies to reduce leaks in the water supply.

The problem is the restrictions and all the advice look definite unless

nature comes to the rescue with a huge increase in rainfall within

six or eight weeks. Well, let's cross to our reporter

Fiona Irving, who has been in Westminster where there the water

summit was held today. The government have come in for

criticism, this situation did not happen overnight. The reservoirs

was at 41% capacity, visible signs that something was wrong. And the

government were criticised for delaying their long awaited water

bill in December. Today the environment secretary said that

they had been tackling the problem. The water companies are already

taking measures which are having an impact. They're making it easier

for farmers to draw water from the rivers during winter time when

there is a better chance of refilling their reservoirs. But it

always makes sense to come together, the different groups, to speak

together about how together we can find the best way to make water go

around. So for customers, being advised to take shorter showers,

watched Paul Myles, what else are they being told to do?

The government are telling us today a whole list of other things we can

be doing. Some of them are very obvious - wash your car with a

bucket and sponge instead of a hose. When we peel vegetables, not to

peel them under a running tap. A Sussex woman says she had to give

birth on her sofa, after being turned away from two hospitals.

Tracey Morris claims she was told a maternity unit at the first

hospital she went to was full and the second hospital told her she

wasn't in labour. Mrs Morris, who's from Hassocks, was told by staff at

the Princess Royal Hospital, in Haywards Heath, that there was no

room on the maternity ward. She and her husband then set off for the

Royal Sussex County Hospital, in Brighton, where they were told

their baby wasn't due imminently, so the couple returned.

Our News Correspondent, Paul Siegert, reports.

Baby a fee is just eight days old but has already had plenty of media

attention. He was due to be born at the Princess Royal Hospital but

when his mother went into Labour the hospital was full so they were

sent to the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton. Staff there

send them home again saying that the breath was not imminent. But

within minutes of arriving home, Tracey went into Labour and have to

call 999. Absolutely terrified. I was in quite a lot of pain. As soon

as I heard paramedics come through the door it was a relief. Lisa

asked if I needed pain relief, which was good! The couple stayed

there surprised that staff at the Royal Sussex County Hospital did

not spot the breath was a imminent which make the whole process much

more stressful than it needed to be. It was very scary. I think if it

was planned and there were midwives than I do not think it would be as

scary. We are disappointed with the system but if there is a baby-boom

a good time you're pregnant then these things can happen. But

everything turned out OK in the end and we had the paramedics here on

time. So the start of of the's life may have been unconventional but

the family are just glad that this is one story with a happy ending.

Let's cross to our News Correspondent Paul Siegert who's

outside the Royal Sussex Hospital in Brighton. How have the hospitals

responded to this, Paul? While the Trust responsible insists

they did nothing wrong and when Tracey arrived, she was having

contractions but was not close to Labour. The hospital say some

people can go on like that for several days and that is why she

was sent home. Of course we Tracey things did move quickly but the

hospital say that a bed would have been available for her here but of

course she had to phone the paramedics because things were

moving a lot quicker than anyone would have liked.

Coming up: The bedside computers revolutionising patient care at

hospitals in Kent. A Kent man is tonight accusing

Eurotunnel of a lack of sympathy, after it refused to allow him to

postpone his family holiday for a year while he wife has treatment

for cancer. Mark Everest's wife Susan, from

Bearsted, was diagnosed a month after they had booked the train

tickets to France for this summer. But Eurotunnel say if they don't

travel this year, they'll lose the booking. Simon Jones reports.

So isn't Everest begins treatment for breast cancer on Friday,

meaning the family holiday to France this August cannot go ahead.

They asked Eurotunnel if they could use to ticket next year but the

company said no. I was apprehensive about telling Susan because there's

enough at the moment for her to deal with without that. And we were

so pleased with ourselves for having organised it fairly and paid

for it early so we did not have the annual question of where we were

going to find the money. Can you afford to blow could again? Note, I

cannot do that. It is not going to happen this year because of

chemotherapy and radiotherapy that she faces. And after all that, next

summer she really will need a holiday. An e-mail to the family

from Eurotunnel representatives said they were sorry to hear of the

When you buy any kind of ticket for any journey, you are effectively

saying, either I'll pay a lot of money to get flexibility or I'm

prepared to accept some quite stringent terms and conditions in

return for a good price. And I'm afraid it's a tragedy strikes, it

is up to the company to decide whether or not to be flexible.

family say they are not asking for a refund, just a bit of

understanding. I think Eurotunnel has been a jobs with about this.

But Eurotunnel says in fairness to all customers, they have to uphold

the terms and conditions of tickets. Simon Jones joins us. What have

Eurotunnel had to say this evening's lone the past hour they

said they had to treat all their customers the same. They say if you

book your tickets well in advance then you do get them cheaper,

sometimes three times as cheap as of the last minute. But with that

comes a reduced flexibility as in this case. Eurotunnel's say the

family can transpire that tickets to other members of the family or

give them to friends. Other family say they do not want to do that,

they say they want to get some kind of quid note from Eurotunnel. They

say they're not trying to get adult paying for the ticket but simply

want to travel in one year's time. They say a credit note would allow

them to do that and they would be happy to pay any increase in ticket

price. The British National Party has

stated its intention to field candidates for the newly created

job of Police Commissioner in Sussex. BNP leader Nick Griffin has

said that criminals should live in fear, not the innocent victims and

that people want an alternative to what he calls the present

"politically correct PCs". A Labour candidate for the job says it would

be a disaster for community relations if the BNP was elected.

A radar station in Kent which played a vital role in the defence

of Britain during the Second World War goes up for auction today.

built to provide long range early warning for the Thames Estuary and

the south eastern approaches to London. It had a guide price of

�135,000 to �140,000. The former wife of Lord Lucan has

denied claims that her children may have travelled to Africa and that

her husband had set up a new life there. The Lord infamously

disappeared in the 1970s after the murder of his children's nanny. The

claims of an African connection have been made by a witness who

worked for Lord Lucan's close friend, John Aspinall. Lady Lucan

has said her children couldn't have travelled abroad as they were wards

of court. But lawyers have told the BBC that in fact a court could have

allowed them to go to Africa. Instructions were to make

arrangements for John Bingham, also known as Lord Lucan, to see his

children. And to do that I had to book his two eldest children on

flights to Africa. And you can find out the full story of what may have

happened following Lord Lucan's disappearance on Inside Out on BBC1

A Hastings publican has been jailed after he admitted imprisoning his

girlfriend and subjecting her to an attack that lasted for several

hours. Having beaten her unconscious, Toby Goater branded

his partner on the leg with a fork, heated with his cigarette lighter.

Sara Smith is in Hastings for us now. This all took place inside the

pub Goater managed didn't it? That is right. It was after hours

and in the pub that he punched and kicked his girlfriend during

argument until she was unconscious. She lay on the floor in the pub and

he used his cigarette lighter to he Tupper four, an ordinary dining

four, and he branded her on the leg with it. He did it several times,

also burning her with a cigarette lighter. Several hours later she

managed to get to where call for help and he denied he did anything

and tried to damage the CCTV footage in the pub but police

marriage to recover the images and they showed the entire assault. The

officer explained what the victim had been through. She was rendered

unconscious from one of the blows during a 4 1/2 hour period. She was

somewhat unaware of what was going on during that period but in the

days afterwards she was particularly traumatised for not

knowing what had actually occurred while she was unconscious. What

actually happened in court? He was given a two-and-a-half year

jail sentence and a restraining order to stop him contacting his

fictive. She said today that was she was pleased he had gone to

prison, she had been damaged both mentally and physically by the

ordeal. This is our top story tonight.

The South East is now officially in a state of drought. The water

companies have been meeting government ministers after parts of

the region have gone through the driest ten months since 1888.

Southern Water has already applied for permits to take water from the

River Medway to fill Bewl Water Reservoir.

Also in tonight's programme: He was only 18. The Kent teenager

who's barely over the legal drinking age, taking on his own pub.

And talk about an own goal! Brighton lose 6-1 to Liverpool in

the FA cup, hitting the back of their own net three times.

If you have a story you think we should be covering on South East

Today, we'd like to hear from you. Today, we'd like to hear from you.

You can call us, send us an e-mail, or text us on 81333 - making sure

your text message starts with the Could the days of the traditional

paper chart at the end of your hospital bed be numbered? A new hi-

tech system being brought into use at hospitals in East Kent means

computers will monitor patients' welfare and alert their doctors if

there is a problem. The system works by recording patients' vital

signs onto bedside computers which can actually analyse the data,

compare it to information held on other computers across the hospital

and, should it find anything out of the ordinary, send out an urgent

alert to medical staff. Peter Whittlesea has tonight's Special

Report. While in hospital every patient is

observed to ensure their condition does not deteriorate. From March,

instead of writing a crucial data down on paper, it will be put

straight into an iPhone which will automatically alert doctors if the

patient is in danger. We do not have to go to the telephone and

make a call to the doctors and wait for the doctors to ring us back.

This will go straight through to the doctors and they will have the

observations in front of them so they can interpret the more clearly

and action them in a much quicker way and a much more effective way

for the patient that we are looking after. Training is under way and

the trust which runs the hospital says research that shows clinical

observations can be done 40% faster using specially designed

applications. Patient data will be encrypted so confidentiality is not

compromised. Each member of staff will have a unique password. He it

is about keeping patients safe. This will cost �500,000 but it will

keep patients safe and ensure they have a good experience while they

are in hospital. The current system causes a lot of extra work for

nurses and this will give them more time and freedom to give hands-on

care to our patients. The system will go live across hospitals in

East Kent next month. The trust says it is an early morning system

-- early warning system which will save lives.

He's barely old enough to have a pint himself but a teenager from

Gillingham looks likely to become one of the youngest pub landlords

in the country, just three weeks after his 18th birthday. Lewis

Marriott has recently been granted a license and says he's looking

forward to taking over behind the bar at The Cannon in Garden Street.

It's been run by his grandmother for 30 years, but now she's in line

for a well-earned break. Katherine Downes has been to meet him.

There is always something to do in a pub and if you think there is not

anything, look for it, find it and clean it! Learning from the best,

Lewes Marriott has his licence and is now his grandmother's apprentice

behind the bar in the family pub. We have had the pub for 30 years

and I have always been in the pub. We have always been in here and

grown-up in the pub. We worked in here when we were little, we used

to bottle up. We have always been here and based around here.

miss walked down to Medway Council on the day he turned 18 two-handed

his application for a licence and it arrived three weeks later. He

works behind the bar every Saturday learning his trainer -- learning

his trade. He poured a pint very nicely. Very polite and treat

everybody with respect. It is nice that a lone man is trying to show a

bit of ambition and do the right thing. I know how hard it was for

him at home to try and do the exam and everything that now he has

passed it he can be a landlord which is a big achievement. Are you

proud? Yes. A backstreet pubs like this are a dying breed and his

grandmother hope that handing the pumps over to her grandson was

secured his future. This week two pubs are closing and I feel it is

such a shame. Maybe it is an age thing but I think a pub is a

community and we have to look forward, not back. You is also

dreams of a career in the police but he says he will be the one

behind the bar. Now here's a question for you, name

a football team that scored four times but still lost their game 6-1.

The answer remarkably is Brighton and Hove Albion. It was, its fair

to say, a disappointing day for Sussex football as both the Albion

and Crawley Town crashed out of the FA Cup. And Brighton's 6-1 defeat

at Liverpool was especially memorable, for all the wrong

reasons, Neil Bell reports. The Brighton players were well

aware that their trip to Anfield was a bit special but few could

have guessed what was in store for them even though they found

themselves a goal down thanks to a header. They held their nerve and a

low drive level things up. Gus Poyet seemed happy on the sidelines

but he was powerless to prevent the forthcoming onslaught which began

just before half-time -- half-time with Liam Bridcutt's opening -.

Then he scored another. And another. It is FA Cup history. A we have had

six goals tonight and Brighton have scored four of them! There was

still time for Lewes worries to grab a goal for Liverpool on a

sobering afternoon for the thousands of Albion fans watching

in pubs back in the city. It was a fantastic achievement to get this

far and there is a great season and a new ground. It is great for

football. A day like today, one of those things. Three own goals, we

are in the history books! Earlier Crawley to con Stoke City in the

biggest game by far in their stadium. An early sending-off

raised emotions and expectations. A hot it disputed penalty,

confidently dispatched but Crawley behind. Surely behind the interval

stoker doubled their advantage. Crawley put in a stormy finish but

could not reduce the deficit leaving fans to reflect on another

memorable Cup campaign. messages I am getting is that we

did ourselves pride today and sometimes it does not work for you.

If it doesn't work against a Premier League club, never mind.

further Cup glory for Brighton and Crawley but promotion still very

much on the cards. Brighton do not do things by

halves! Charlton's lead at the top of

League One is down to six points. The Addicks went behind in the

first half at Tranmere following Ryan Brunts first ever goal but

rallied after the interval and levelled things up when Michael

Morrison's header hit the crossbar and just crossed the line.

Gillingham must have hoped their recent poor run was over on

Saturday when Chris Whelpdale gave them the lead at Port Vale, But the

home side hit back with two goals in the last nine minutes. The

Gills' losing streak now extends to six league and cup games.

A pair of young lions have arrived in Kent to start a new life, after

being rescued from a travelling circus in France. Brutus and

Clarence are twins, born on Christmas Eve four years ago. Both

suffered injuries while in the circus, having been whipped and

beaten as cubs. They will now live at Wingham Wildlife Park near

Canterbury. That sounds like a Disney story! We

need to find out what is happening with the weather. After the drought

announcements, do we have deluges announcements, do we have deluges

of rain? Not yet had not for a long time. We

have been declared a drought area as has most of the South East of

England. I have found out where the water has gone. Scotland has

pinched it! During the course of the last year they had 25% more

rainfall than average whereas we had a 25% less than average.

Normally we get far less this column but there is not always that

great a difference. We will get a bit of rain on Wednesday but it

will only be a little bit. It is nothing like what we really need.

We need weeks of steady and heavy rain and we will not get that in

the near future. What we will have his some warm weather. We have warm

air coming up from the Azores and the tropics. It will come over the

country in a few days' time. It will relieved if the temperatures.

As Forest the rest of the evening and the night are concerned it will

be dry with some breaks in the cloud from time to time. It could

well be that we get temperatures very close to freezing, just a

touch of ground frost in a few spots. Most places should stay

above freezing. Tomorrow there is a fair amount of cloud but it will be

thin cloud and then maybe some hazy sunshine coming through from time

to time. It will be mild. But there will be quite a stiff breeze

picking up during the course of the day. That will temper the feel of

it and it will feel a bit chilly. Tomorrow night we will stay dry

again with more in the way of cloud. Those temperatures are not far from

where they should be during the daytime, and let alone it during

the night! We will stay in the mild side for the next few days. Monday

will be a chilly night. Tomorrow will be mostly cloudy but mostly

dried. There will be a weather front coming through on Wednesday

to give us a very different day. They will give us some cloud that

some outbreaks of rain. It is only a warm front so we will suck up

that warm air that a short -- showed at the beginning so there

will be temperatures into double figures towards the end of the week.

We will take that mild weather. We will take that mild weather.

Thank you very much! Let's recap tonight's top national

and local news stories: The Home Secretary Theresa May has

told MPs that the relaxation of Britain's border checks went far

further than revealed last year. Ms May said the official report found

that border security checks had been suspended regularly and

applied inconsistently since at least 2007.

The South East is now officially in a state of drought. The water

companies have been meeting government ministers after parts of

the South East have gone through the driest ten months since 1888.

And teenager Lewis Marriott from Gillingham looks set to become one