27/04/2012 South East Today

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

Tonight's top stories. Are private schools getting an

unfair advantage? A review of the 11-plus in Kent after it emerges

that 6% of the pupils are gaining 30% of grammar school places.

parents can do things, they are fortunate to be able to pray for

private school education and coaching, others are not so

fortunate. Maybe the system is not fair.

A 20 mile an hour limit across Brighton? How the council plans to

create the lowest speed city in the southeast. We'll be live in

Brighton for reaction tonight. Also in tonight's programme.

The Kent businessman Christopher Tappin freed on bail tells the BBC

his experience of jail in the US was terrible. The worst time was, I

think, towards the end of the 10 days. Without reading or writing

material, you start to question your own sanity.

The true story of the Sussex man who fought alongside General Custer

at the Battle of Little Big Horn. # Brown sugar, why do you taste so

good. # And when Mick met Keith, the Dartford school photo that

captures a moment in Rolling Stones Good evening. The 11-plus test is

going to be reviewed after figures revealed a third of offers at some

Kent grammar schools are going to pupils from fee-paying schools,

although fewer than 6% of primary age children in Kent are privately

educated. Tonight the council says the review, which also looks at

education as a whole within the county, will examine whether some

parents may be gaining an unfair advantage by using tutors to coach

their children to pass the 11-plus test. Alex Beard reports.

For more than 60 years, the 11-plus has been it used to decide who

qualifies for a place at grammar school, regardless of their

background. But more than a third of operas at some Kent grammar

schools are going to privately educated pupils. Critics of the

system asked if it is fair. There are a number of questions around

the whole test issue, I wanted to be as fair as possible for all

members of society and take out any advantage that some people feel

they may be able to give their child by throwing money at it.

4491 places were available, more than 10% offered to privately

educated children. In Kent, only 6% of private school children --

children attend a private school. People that to pay for their

education for children, they tend to do better. It is not

particularly surprising. I think most people coach, you coach

whether you are at private school or state school. Critics say the

statistics prove that wealthy families have an unfair advantage.

It is becoming more and more apparent that coaching is making a

major difference. There have been a couple of studies taking place on

this, demonstrating you can improve standards by up to 10%. Their head

teacher of this prep-school in Leyton Green says parents will do

what they can. Life is not fair. If you have a system as we do in Kent

with selection, parents have the choice to do what they can for

their children. Some parents can be do things and are fortunate to be

able to pay for private school education and a coaching, others

are not so fortunate. Maybe this system is not fair. Grammar-school

remain a controversial subject, but the Kent County Council says they

are looking at the coach ability of the 11-plus.

Is this a similar starry for all grammar schools across Kent? There

is quite a split between East and West Kent. In west end there are

the Super selective grammar schools, the ones that take the highest

scoring pupils from the 11-plus. Tonbridge Grammar had the highest

number of places offered to prep school students, 40% of their

September intake. A number of grammar school places is set to

increase here after the council voted to build a new satellite

grammar-school, the first in decades.

Brighton and Hove could be set to become a 20mph city with every

residential road apart from main routes operating within a

restricted speed limit. The Green administration said the scheme will

help improve road safety, reduce air pollution and encourage more

people to use sustainable transport. However the police are warning the

scheme will have to be self- enforcing, and opposition

councillors claim a blanket ban is over the top. Our reporter Jon Hunt

is in the city. Where did this idea come from? Schemes like this have

been introduced in other parts of the country, in fact Brighton and

Hove City Council have been running two pilot schemes in two particular

part of the city. They say they have been a success and they hope

by rolling out the 20 miles an hour zones across the whole of Brighton

and Hove, they will be able to reduce the number of casualties by

as much as 10%. It is claimed that up to 100 road

casualties per year could be prevented by slowing the city down.

I think it is a question of safety first of all. Particularly for

Georgian in domestic areas. There is evidence from other places that

shows that accident rates fall. Also you take pressure off the hope

-- health service, it has been shown you can save money by

introducing 20 mile an hour zones. As is public safety campaign shows,

reducing speed does save lives. me at 30, there is around an 80%

chance I will live. Brighton and Hove council wants to go further.

Introducing ever actually city-wide 20 mile an hour speed limit. It

will cost �1.5 million to induce and opponents say it is over the

top. Is that everywhere? Pretty much, a few exceptions. I live in

Patcham village, and from Patcham village to be here, I have to

bright -- drive at 30 miles an hour, and a worthy I find it quite slow.

This would be too slow for my joke. Getting around town, from job to

job, dropping the bluff, just to slow. The pedestrian and cyclist I

spoke to were more convinced. Excellent, because the children who

were hit it would not get anything like the damage that they do. If it

is at 30 or 50. I cycle quite a lot so I am wary of drivers. It is just

residential areas, so I do not see why not. The city is being

consulted on the idea. The council leader says if the overwhelming

response is let -- negative, the plans will be shelved.

The schemes would be introduced mainly in residential areas, but

main roads like this one down to the seafront and the London road

behind you up to Preston Circus would also be included,

interestingly the police say the schemes would have to be self-

enforced. The council had to rely on the goodwill of motorist. --

hopes to rely on the goodwill of motorists. In a moment: They built

their house from straw, the Kent When Christopher Tappin was

extradited to the US earlier this year on charges of plotting to sell

weapons parts to Iran, it re- ignited the row over whether the UK

hands over its citizens to other countries too easily. The retired

Kent businessman has now spoken about his time in prison,

describing his first 10 days in solitary confinement as terrible.

Mr Tappin, who's been released on $1 million bail, says he's never

had any connection with terrorism and claims he is the victim of a

sting operation. Our political editor Louise Stewart has more.

Christopher Tappin was released from prison in New Mexico on bail

on Wednesday. Now he has spoken out about what it was like being kept

in solitary confinement. Without reading or writing material, you

start to question your own sanity. I felt that I was reaching a stage

where I needed professional help. And I was going to ask to see the

doctor. At one particular stage, because mentally, I felt, it was

very difficult to cope with. belt comes with conditions. He has

to wear a tracking device, he can only travel in Houston and a pastor,

and has had to surrender his passport. The United -- the United

States Attorney's Office have published documents supporting his

release, and his wife wrote to the Mr Tappin says he wants to clear

his name as soon as possible. not a terrorist. I have never had

any connections with terrorism. I am just appalled that things could

come to this stage, especially in my life now, when I'm 65, been

retired for four years. Mr Tappin faces trial for conspiring to

export batteries for surface-to-air missiles from the US to Iran,

charges he devised -- denies. not know the batteries were fork

missiles or destined for Iran. case of Mr Tappin, who has already

spent eight weeks in prison without trial, highlight the issue of the

extradition treaty between the UA - - US and UK. Mr Cameron recently

rated with President Obama. Mr Patten will face trial in autumn

and if found guilty will spend the rest of his life in jail.

Brighton & Hove City Council has backed down over plans to

dramatically increase parking charges. The cost of seafront

parking rose from �4 to �20 a day just over three weeks ago, angering

business leaders. The Green-run council hoped it would encourage

visitors to use public transport, or park elsewhere. They've now

decided to introduce a new 8 hour tariff costing �15 in the seafront

high zone, where there is high congestion and pollution.

People living in the south-east have higher than average rates of

depression and self harm. The latest figures from mental health

analysts show that an increasing number of people are reporting to

their GPs with depression and related problems. The Sussex

Partnership NHS Trust says it's particularly concerned about the

number of young people not in education, employment or training.

East Kent is to get a �35 million boost as part of a scheme to try to

get the economy moving again and reduce unemployment in the wake of

last year's Pfizer pullout. Expansion East Kent, launched this

morning, will offer interest-free loans to businesses in the hope it

will create 5000 sustainable jobs and stimulate more than �300

million in associated investment over the next four years. Ellie

Price reports. We are going to do away with some

of the old buildings, building a hand -- brand new health spa.

Thinking big, with the prospect of a free loan on the horizon,

Baypoint have already worked out how they might spend the money.

will be creating about 20 jobs by the time we open this summer anyway,

and that is fantastic in itself. We will be able to create another 80

plus casual work on top of that if we get funding. 15 sec downsized

its operations its -- when adviser downsized his operation in Kent, it

came at the cost of 5000 jobs. have got to make the very best use

of every pound of that �35 million, to make sure we support the right

enterprises, the right businesses, but will grow it and survive in

difficult trading conditions. And most importantly have them but

ability to repay. The South East is considered to be paved with gold.

And government in the past have never realised that East Kent has

got deprivation that looks quite similar to some part of the North.

But we have got the opportunities of the south-east and that is what

we have got to maximise. Companies here welcomed the scheme. But this

week it was announced Britain was in a double-dip recession. The road

to economic recovery is still a long one.

Ellie is at Baypoint in place -- Sandwich, how is this scheme being

received? Do business people I spoke to in the meeting in Margate

seemed optimistic, and they are here at Baypoint as well. It that -

- that is significant because the company's business plan is based on

redeveloping this side which used to be the social club for the

company finds it. The unemployment rate is one of the highest in the

south-east in Thanet, so there was under Mr of hope but there is still

a long way to go. -- there are some glimmers of hope. This is our top

story tonight. Kent County Council is to review

the 11-plus test after figures revealed a third of offers at some

Kent grammar schools are going to pupils from fee-paying schools,

despite fewer than 6% of primary age children in Kent being

privately educated. The review will include looking at whether some

parents are gaining an unfair advantage through coaching their

children. It's not just any school photo,

this was when Mick Jagger and Keith After a wet and windy week, further

heavy and persistent rain around Ever since the Big Bad Wolf

threatened to blow down the little pigs house by huffing and puffing,

the idea of using straw as the primary building material for your

home hasn't seemed like a particularly great one. But, that's

not stopping them at a farm near Canterbury from building what's

believed to be the world's first terrace of houses out of straw,

which will be used as holiday cottages. Our environment

correspondent Yvette Austen has tonight's Special Report.

Deep in the heart of the Kentish countryside, a couple's rural idyll

and the dream turned to Reality. The Straw come from just five miles

down the road, and all the wood we are using his copyist locally.

is eco-friendly but it is also a serious construction being made to

last, and the builders are learning on site. We are the world's first

ever terraced straw bale houses. We are all learning together. We are

being taught how to put the Bale's together and keep the walls are and

it is very exciting. For the past 15 years, Ray has been refining

straw bale building techniques. It's definitely not going to blow

down, it is very starlet. There are Pham -- houses in America built in

exactly the same way as this that had been in existence for over 100

years, so they are pretty solid. It is all fastened together with long

wooden poles, and then we get up seven bales high, there will be a

box that goes all the way round. Straw buildings are getting popular.

There are straw council homes in Lincolnshire and this is the Romney

Marsh visitors' centre. The heating is just a wood-burning stove. So

given the straw bale walls, which, you can see, there is a cut out

here, which provide excellent insulation, it all so, as we are

close to a wheel main road it provides sound insulation so you

cannot hear much. The colleges will be led to people for holidays,

giving them a straw experience. are not on a mission to change

anything, it is just nice that people can holiday and see what it

is like to live in a straw building. See that it works just as well as a

conventional building, but gives you a really nice building to live

in. The homes are to be lime and rendered and ready for use in the

In his day the author Rudyard Kipling was one of the biggest

stars in the British Empire, and when relaxing at his home at

Batemans near Burwash, he liked nothing more than pottering around

the pond on a little paddle boat. Sadly the original was lost many

years ago, but today an exact replica was launched. And guest of

honour at its launch today was the 82-year-old godson of Kipling's

wife, who played on the original boat all those years ago. Robin

Yes, this really is Rudyard Kipling, author of the Jungle Book, and the

Just So stories. The first Englishman to win a Nobel Prize for

literature, and he is messing about in the boat he spent the money on.

He was Uncle to me, and I knew he had written books, because I was

given them by his wife at Christmas and birthdays. But it never

occurred to me he was any more than an uncle, and he wrote books.

remembers playing in a boat in the 1930s, aged just six or seven. But

now in his eighties, Miles, godson to a red jacket and's wife, has

returned to Obama to whip -- witness its -- he has returned to

Batemans to witness it reincarnation. There was one

occasion when he join me in the boat, and I remember the day. I had

difficulty in turning! We had a photograph of Kipling in the bird -

- boat. It is all we had, and from that, we scaled up, we thought he

was about five foot six and three scaled everything from that.

Appropriately, the National Trust's manager here went on a sponsored

three men in a boat style grow on the Thames to raise the money.

is bringing history to life, it is something he used and had fun in,

so the public to come to Batemans should have the same experience.

past master of children's story writing, offering a simple pleasure

to youngsters of the future. Tippling in a boat!

All the south-east's leading football clubs are in action

tomorrow with both Crawley and Gillingham still in the hunt for

promotion from League Two. The Gills know that they must win at

Northampton to have any realistic chance of making the promotion

play-offs. They go into the game four points adrift, with two games

to go. Crawley Town will be promoted for

the second successive season if they beat struggling Hereford and

rivals Torquay fail to win. It's 13 games since the Reds' last defeat

in League Two, and the club is expecting a big crowd at the

Broadfield Stadium Brighton complete their first

season back in the championship with a trip to Barnsley. The Albion

will be aiming for their first victory for over a month and even

though they can no longer be promoted, manager Gus Poyet insists

it will be a good test of the players' character.

Despite already clinching the League One title, Charlton will be

keen to increase their lead at the top with victory at Preston. The

Addicks have won their last five games and need just three points

from their last two matches to reach 100 points for the season.

The Battle of Little Big Horn is one of the famous ones in the Wild

West, where General Custer and his troops were wiped out. But there

were a few survivors, and among them was a Brighton man called

Henry Holden, who was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honour and

returned to live in Sussex. The Battle of Little Bighorn, also

known as General Custer's last stand against Native American

triumphs. -- tribes. It ended in defeat. Until now, little was known

of a man from Brighton called Henry Holden who served alongside Costa,

but historians say his role should be recognised. He was awarded the

Congressional Medal of Honour, which is American's highest honour

for bravery. In fact, 15 it soldiers were awarded that medal.

General Custer was outnumbered, outwitted and was killed during the

battle. Henry Holden, who was part of the Seventh Cavalry, played a

key role helping other troops. went under appalling fire from some

Indian sharpshooters to get ammunition for people on the line.

He did that several times. He was slightly wounded in the process.

Henry Holden spent 20 years in the US military. In 1891, he returned

to Brighton and lived here in white hawk road with his wife of. Henry

Holden's wife Anna died in April 1884, but six months later, he

married his second wife, Frances little, a widow who was his next-

door neighbour. They moved here it took 45 Rugby place, where they

lived with her two children. He died on 14th December, 1905, and is

buried in Brighton. Historians are hoping his bravery and terrorism

will be remembered. -- bravery and heroism.

Mick Jagger and Keith Richards are of course among the biggest rock

stars in the world, and their musical partnership famously

started after they bumped into each other as teenagers on the platform

at Dartford railway station. What's less well known is that they

already knew each other from primary school. And now the class

register, and a photo of the first intake of pupils at the then new

Wentworth Primary School in Dartford 61 years ago, including

Mick and Keith, has turned up. Roz The Rolling Stones formed 50 years

ago this year. It was the beginning of a legend. Happy to oblige, Mick

Jagger, Keith Richards... volatile friendship between Mick

Jagger and Keith Richards is older still. Here they are, aged seven,

at primary-school in Dartford. Wentworth School has released their

class photo from 1951. Mick Jagger's highlighted on the look

left, Keith Richards is on the right. Both have cheeky schoolboy

grins, and look at those knees! Not so different from the seven year-

old at the same school today. The pupils here may not listen to the

Rolling Stones but they are proud to be linked with them. They went

to Wentworth, which we are going to now, and also it make grammar went

to proper grammar and I'm going there as well. -- Mick went to

Dartford Grammar and I'm going there as well. You think, they

might be sitting in the same seats that he was sitting in! It is the

first time that this photo has been shown to the public, along with

this register featuring its famous alumni. We have an injury for

Michael Jagger, his father was Basil. -- an injury. Two places

underneath him, we have Keith Richards. Who was also brought up

in the same road. With such icons in their school

Heritage, who knows whether two musical legends of the future are

in class at Wehmeyer today! I think they might be a bit of wet

weather this weekend. After a wet and windy week, today

was not too bad. Adria and brighter picture but it will not last. Rain

is on the way for the weekend, heavy and persistent. It arrives on

Saturday and stays throughout Sunday. The bulk of the unsettled

weather stayed to the rest of us today. The south-westerly winds

eased off, and even some decent spells of sunshine for us all

throughout the afternoon. In the best of the bright is, temperatures

not feeling too bad. 30 tonight, plenty of sunshine through the

evening. The cloud is feeding through until dawn, it will stay

dry but breezy. A mild night. Initially dry for Saturday but very

quickly a band of heavy and persistent rain is pushing

northwards, it will stay bright throughout the day. The winds will

be picking up as well. -- it will stay eight rainy throughout the day.

Very blustery winds. With the wind and rain, it will be feeling cooler.

It stays wet and windy overnight into Sunday. Temperatures it's

pretty mild as a result. For Sunday, a wet and windy picture. Eventually

by the afternoon, the rain will be clearing. Cloudy and damp afternoon,

temperatures about 12 degrees. Monday sees blustery showers, and

the heavy rain will be back for Tuesday. Similar story will be back