10/01/2014 South East Today

from the Atlantic. Thank you very much. That's it from us.

offers after the Christmas power cuts. We live at a village that is

still not back to normal. Also in tonight's programme, the baby boy

that needed brain surgery because of constant epileptic attacks back home

and bouncing. Going underground, how the tunnels of Ramsgate soon could

be reopened. Only about 10% of my stuff is about being based on being

Asian. All right? The other 90% is based on my issues with white

people. They don't teach that in class. We

meet the maths teacher who sought school for stand`up. `` swapped

school for stand`up. Good evening. Children as young as

13 have been used as meals to carry class A drugs from London for sale

in the streets of Kent. Detectives say they are increasingly

concerned that criminal gangs based in the capital as spreading further

afield to try to avoid arrest. Our home affairs reporter joins us from

Chatham now. How much of the county to police say this is affecting?

It is affecting the whole of Kent. It is happening because big criminal

gangs in the capital are wanting to extend their drugs networks. They

often use young people and teenagers to transport substances for them.

Tonight, Kent Police say they are keeping close tabs on criminal gangs

that they know to be living nearby. Police! There has been a police

crackdown in London to break up criminal gangs, so many are heading

to Kent. They are using children as young as 13 to transport substances

like crack retain `` cocaine, heroin and cannabis. Your Mac young people

are becoming involved because the age profile of gangs are getting

younger. There used to transport commodities to different locations.

They don't look like drug users and don't look dependent on drugs, and

we identify these people quickly enter with them through the criminal

justice system, or put them through the social care they need. The

majority of grounds are travelling from London. Police say over the

last five years, drug use have been getting younger and younger. Over

the summer, a big operation in the Medway area led to the arrest of ten

young people. In recent months, Kent Police has carried out a series of

drugs raids alongside the Metropolitan Police. Back in August,

they discovered this, Britain's biggest ever cannabis factory, in a

former officer Bob. Now the force is stepping up its efforts still stop

children selling drugs in socially deprived parts of the county. Young

people who don't take drugs themselves are used by criminals to

transport drugs, because that is the highest risk part of the drug deal.

The dealer can off`load that risk to younger and cheaper members of

staff, and can do so. 4`mac London gang member believes small people

are becoming involved with the drug scene. They are given drugs, alcohol

and cigarettes. It is on the increase. Kent Police say they are

closely monitoring gangs know to then to crackdown on drug deals. The

local force has now teamed up with Metropolitan Police here performing

joint operations. They have made a number of arrests in recent months,

particularly of young people. In light of this trend, there has been

a new role introduced at Kent Police, a gangs liaison officer.

They give very much. Home owners and businesses across

the south`east have reacted angrily to the compensation they have been

offered following their power cuts at Christmas.

UK Power Networks say those that without power on Christmas Day will

receive at least ?75. If they were without a connection for some two

hours, they will receive ?109. For each further 12 hour period, they

will get another ?54. That speak to our environment correspondent in

Sevenoaks. They say this is nothing out of pocket? This is one of many

premises that were hit by the power cuts over Christmas. Pubs and

restaurants perhaps some of the worst affected when it comes to loss

of income, and suddenly, here, they believe the compensation payments

being offered by UK Power Networks are derisory.

It became a cold and dark Christmas when storms brought down cable

lines. The south`east worst hit by the power failures. UK Power

Networks admitted letting down its customers, and some are still not

satisfied by the offer of compensation. Like this man who runs

this pub. The problem with the last stop is in here, where we have seven

fridges and freezers. All of the stock in here had to be thrown away,

which is around ?1000 worth. Everything has been replaced in

here, and it was somewhere in the region of ?500 just enough freezer.

The pub was out `` was without power for 68 hours. But does your own

insurance cover you? We insurance which does cover me for loss of

business through a utilities failure. I have a ?450 excess on

that, so ?450 excess is the problem. I will still be ?450 out of pocket

after the claim. An offer of ?170 for conversation does not cover

that. Campaigners say people who have been badly inconvenienced

should consider legal action rather than except the compensation being

offered. My reaction is that it is not enough, and I think it is being

presented in a way that makes it look as if people are obliged to

accept it, and they have no choice. I don't think that is the case. In

Kent, almost 17,000 people woke up on Christmas Day without power. In

Surrey, the figure was more than 10,000, while in Sussex, more than

four and a half thousand people were affected. It was a total of 31,900

people in the south`east. Although power to the plate and

nearby villages is now on, much of the area is still being served only

by generator. Ministers are now undertaking a review into the

response to the power cuts, which affected 750,000 people over the

Christmas period. Three generators are still powering

this area, and have been since Boxing Day. UK Power Networks have

been around working today. There were hoping to get everyone back on

the mains by the end of today, but now that won't happen until over the

weekend. UK Power Networks say people will be compensated above the

standard rate, and people are now filling out those compensation

forms. Thank you. Later in the programme,

we will find out how people in Yalding are coping after the floods.

In a moment, why the 100`year`old diary of vacant schoolgirl is

fascinating readers on the Internet. `` they cant schoolgirl.

His parents call him day miracle baby, and with good reason. Shortly

after Finlay Ritchie was born, doctors realised he was having up to

100 epileptic seizures a day. Despite being so small, it was

decided pioneering brain surgery was his best hope of survival. Nearly

nine months on, he is making a miracle recovery. We have met his

family. Finlay is a much loved and loving

little boy who now has a future. He needed brain surgery when he was

just 19 weeks old to Kuwait is constant seizures. He would have up

to 100, perhaps more seizures a day, 24 hours a day, day and night.

A good day, we would get down to about 30 seizures. It was like

losing their fighting things. It was horrible. What was happening? Finlay

had this condition, which caused the left side of his brain to develop

abnormally. It caused sudden bursts of electrical `` political activity

which were making him cry and check uncontrollably. Surgeons

disconnected one half of his brain from the other server seizures could

not spread. There was a strong risk he could be paralysed on his right

side. We know that surgery will have some impact. You can't disconnect

after brain without some impact, and that would be we expect weakness on

the right side of the body. We know that will happen. We know that will

happen anyway. Finlay has made an extraordinary recovery following

operation and the seizures have gone. Move back he is not supposed

to be kicking his right leg, that he can eat a lot his fingers now. Uses

hand. He's not supposed to be elder to do that. We were told he couldn't

do it, but it can. You described him as a miracle baby. He is. He is a

product of our miraculous NHS system, which he would not be here

without. The family are particularly grateful to the Eastbourne District

General Hospital and consultant John Mitchell. It was the speedy

diagnosis and care Finlay received here that helped lead to the

successful operation in London. Finlay has lost some of his site.

You may develop weakness in his right hand side, but there is no

reason he cannot lead a very normal life.

In other news, the trial of a former soldier accused of murdering a

democratic Republic of Congo has been postponed after he was admitted

to hospital. Joshua French, who grew up in Margate, had already been

sentenced to death for killing a man. He is now on trial accused of

murdering his best friend and cell`mate. His new trial date is set

for January the 21st. This Sussex NHS Trust is treated in

of this fit with patients from the end of this month. The majority of

Wales will no longer be prepared on`site at the Conquest Hospital in

Hastings, but will be supplied by an outside caterer and reheated. The

East Sussex health care trust will provide a wider range of meals to

its patients. Earlier, we heard how people in the

south`east are fighting for bigger compensation pay`outs following the

power cuts they suffered at the Christmas. Many others are facing

huge financial losses because of the flooding. The village of Yalding in

Kent was badly hit. We have been finding out how people

there are now crippling. Yalding on a crisp, dry, winter day.

The three rivers which meet here are beautiful in summer but potentially

lethal at times of flood. This Christmas was worse than anyone can

remember. I went to see two people who became friends as a result of

that day. Dave struggled out of his own flooded home to riches can do

and his neighbours. I was paddling as hard as I could, and the currents

were joking me into the vehicles themselves. You can't appreciate

it. David went past and we decided we needed to get out of here. To

stabilise it, we wedged the canoe in the gate. Getting the canoe was not

easy. Down the street, the insurance assessor had arrived to see June.

June and her husband run the village post office. Christmas is now a

muddy tangle of furniture and ruined food. My best present was a tin of

biscuits from one of the customers at the post office. That was my best

present. Some days you are fine, others you to talk to anyone. It is

overwhelming. Across at the post office, Tim and his customers will

be sharing flood memories for a good while yet. Villagers are also

showing their appreciation of the kindness that is getting them

through it. People have gotten closer since this happened. It is a

very close village and everyone does know most people anyway, because it

is a good community spirit. Very much so. We're still going after the

aftermath. It is tough. There will be more tough times ahead, but that

community spirit will enable villagers to weather this storm and

those yet to come. There's a special programme tonight

counting the cost of more than a month of bad weather: Battered

Britain: Storms, Tides and Floods is on at 7.30pm, here on BBC One. Our

top story: Children as young as 13 are being used as mules to carry

class A drugs from London for sale on the streets of Kent.

Detectives say they're increasingly concerned that criminal gangs based

in the capital are spreading further afield to try to find new markets

and avoid arrest. Also in tonight's programme: you genuinely have been

adequate. Well, what else would a former

schoolteacher say? We meet the maths master with a much larger classroom

these days. Great news for the weekend, Saturday

looks dry and bright, rain on Sunday, but mostly decent.

The Port of Ramsgate was on the front line of German bombing raids

during the Blitz, but countless lives were saved because people

there were able to shelter in a network of tunnels, which created a

makeshift underground town. Those tunnels have been shut for the last

75 years, but there are now plans to open them to the public this summer.

Natalie Graham has been taking a look for tonight's special report.

Saturday, August 24, 1940 was a day that is etched on the memory of many

who lived in Ramsgate. 500 bombs were dropped in five minutes. Over

1000 homes were destroyed, but only 28 people died. The others had

escaped underground to a network of tunnels. The geology allowed a plan

to build 2.5 miles of tunnels around the town which would link up with

this former railway tunnel. The mayor of Ramsgate took up the

cause. He was known as the mad mayor. He pushed this project for

the tunnels really hard. That first attack became known as

the murder rate. After that, hundreds stayed in the tunnels and

made homes there. Marjorie Woodward was 17 and training to be a teacher.

She wrote an assignment about the families who lived there. Some

people went down there for various reasons, they couldn't live in their

home, that they didn't like... That they were frightened. They would not

want to go out of the tunnels, . The makeshift town was made in disused

railway line. People took chairs and beds down. There wasn't much

privacy, so partitions were put up. One family created a full home.

Soon, the tunnels of Ramsgate became global news. Famous people came to

visit, just to see what it was about. Perhaps the most famous was

Winston Churchill. He was told by the mayor to put his cigar out

before he entered as there was no soaking. He was put in his place.

The tunnels provided shelter for 26,000 people. If all goes to plan,

today's residents of the town will be able to visit them when they open

to the public in the summer. That was Natalie Graham reporting

from Ramsgate, and you can hear some remarkable anecdotes from people who

actually lived in the tunnels during World War Two on Inside Out at

7.30pm on Monday, here on BBC One. Imagine the scene: 100 years ago, a

16`year`old girl is excitedly setting off on a journey from

Margate to start a new school in Paris. Fortunately for us, Olive

Higgins kept a diary. Within eight weeks, though, Olive

had died suddenly while in France, but a century later her entries have

fascinated a journalist who's turned them into the twenty`first century's

answer to a diary, a blog. Charlie Rose has been leafing through.

Snow, very thick between Margate and Dover. At first, he didn't pay much

attention to this diary given to him by a friend who collects

bric`a`brac. Inside, he found an old slip of paper. And Olive Higgs's

story became an obsession. Reading the report for the funeral

captivated me as I learnt that she was buried in Brockley Cemetery. It

is the exact symmetry that I looked upon when I was a little boy. There

was that geographical connection. It blew my mind. She lived in Margate

in the early 1900s. A premier holiday destination where hell

wealthy father on the unique and exclusive Hydro hotel. It had

various bars. `` it had various Baths. The Hydro housed people from

55 conferences one year. Thomas Higgins was a man ahead of his time

and in 1914, he sent her to school in Paris. Back in those days, France

seemed a far`away place and a lonely one for a 16`year`old who struggled

with the language. Aweful model with luggage. It breaks your heart

hearing what she went through. Then you realise the diary stops and from

my research, I found she fell ill and was ill for 12 days. There was a

huge panic from her father in England, he managed to get his

friend who was a doctor to the Royal family in England to go to Paris

with him to attend to her and this went on for many days. But they

could not save her. The diary only last six weeks, but Rob has spent

more than a decade painstaking research in her life. His book

remains unfinished, so for now he has set up an online blog to allow

Olive Higgs to speak for herself. A poignant story there.

Onto football, and there has been more transfer activity at Brighton

and Hove Albion today. The Seagulls have sold striker Ashley Barnes to

promotion rivals Burnley. Barnes will be best remembered for scoring

the goal which guaranteed the Albion promotion to the Championship. But

Tottenham Hotspur striker Jonathan Obika has joined on loan, after

impressing Brighton's assistant manager, Nathan Jones.

Nathan told me about him. He knows him from his time at Yeovil and

Charlton. He's a good finisher, he is young, he wants to prove himself.

Elsewhere Charlton play their first game since their recent takeover.

The Addicks face the Championship's bottom club Barnsley at the Valley.

In League One, Gillingham travel to Colchester United, while on Sunday

Crawley are at Coventry with Matt Tubbs likely to play his first game

since his return to the club. An impressive innings of 68 from the

Sussex player. Arran Brindle rescued England's Women on the opening day

of their Ashes Test Match against Australia in Perth. The England

team, which features four players from the South East, were dismissed

for 201, but the Sussex wicketkeeper Sarah Taylor's catch in the last

over of the day helped reduce Australia to nine for two in reply.

They look pretty happy. Kent's winter sports star, Lizzy

Yarnold, will be confident of continuing her brilliant season this

weekend in Switzerland. The 25`year`old from West Kingsdown, who

currently leads the Skeleton World Cup standings, is hoping to improve

on her performance at last year's World Championships in St Moritz,

where she narrowly missed out on a medal.

Most of us can remember a favourite teacher who knew how to make the

class laugh. But Romesh Ranganathan can top the lot. He's given up his

career as a teacher in Three Bridges to become a professional stand`up

comedian and he's winning critical acclaim for his performances on tour

and on TV. Juliette Parkin joins us now from Brighton and, Juliette,

Romesh is on stage there tonight? Yes, he told me he is very excited

to be back here. He started coming here as a customer, then started

coming here as a hobby and now he is carving out a career for himself in

comedy and he seems to be doing pretty well. The first subject is

education. One year ago, he ditched the classroom. I used to be a

teacher. I was a maths teacher, not a very good one. It doesn't matter.

You can get away with it for quite a while.

It was difficult. I did not dislike teaching. It was not that I was

doing something horrible that I could not stand. I enjoyed it. It

was great. Since making his debut, he has quickly made a name for

himself. Very excited to be here. I got the

phone call and they said, high, wonder if you'd be up for doing Life

At The Apollo. My wife, it is upsetting for her, as she said she'd

never seen me as excited about anything before.

Only 10% of my stuff is based on mediation. All right? `` Asian. The

other 90% is my issues with white people. The gags have not always

gone down well. I did a TV spot and I said that I come from a really

rough area of Crawley, it was called Crawley. Some people said it is

disgusting that you slate it like that. It is your hometown. Other

people said that they felt exactly the same way. I wasn't making a

statement, really, it was just a joke. All of a sudden, I became the

anti`ambassador for the town. Some aspects of his former career he is

happy to leave behind. Talking to sixth form girls. About what they

are wearing. Something I felt much less comfortable about. What I found

was that if I looked at them for long enough they covered themselves

up. No grits for the full`time funnyman. `` regrets. With all of

his TV appearances, he told me that he wants to get recognised in the

streets. An air hostess recently recognised him on a plane not

because of his celebrity status, but because he taught her algebra five

years ago. He will be on here all weekend.

Now, take a listen to this. LION ROARS.

That is the sound of one very happy lion, because it's about to be

treated to a Christmas Tree! Yes, apparently lions and leopards at the

Wildlife Heritage Foundation at Smarden in Kent love them. It's

something to do with the chemicals in the pine, apparently.

Must drive them wild. He seems pretty focused. To the weather.

Tomorrow is the anniversary of the 60th year since the very first TV

broadcast. `` weather broadcast. Without a rubber magnet inside, I

can tell you that we have some good news. Saturday has high pressure, so

dry and light winds. A frost as they go into Sunday. Rain later on

Sunday. Much of the day should be dry. Earlier, we have sunshine

during the morning. More cloud covered by the afternoon, one or two

a patchy showers. Temperatures not too bad, about in double figures.

The Windies will be lighter. If you fancy stargazing, not a grey night

for it, it would stage right. As they go through the night, the band

of rain will track East. Not too heavy. It will stay mild as a

result, temperatures only dropping 26 or seven sources. The rain clears

out of the way and as you can see we have high pressure. We have

sunshine, lighter winds and temperatures may be down to seven or

eight Celsius, but it should feel pleasant with the sunshine. As we go

through tomorrow night, it means temperatures will be cooler than

they have been, dropping to or three Celsius. Temperatures always holding

up along the coast. It will be a lovely, bright, if cold and frosty

start to the day on Sunday. It won't stay dry, by the end of the

afternoon we will have cloud cover and there will be rain on Monday.

But temperatures will be nine or 10 Celsius. A wet start to the working

week, it should clear the way for a drier end. Wet and windy again next

week, MJ Saturday. `` enjoy Saturday.

Rob is back next week.