22/01/2014 South East Today

Sunday. Make the most of Saturday because Sunday looks pretty

Welcome to South East Today, I'm Chrissie Reidy. And I'm Rob Smith.

Tonight's top stories: Kent County Council says they did a first`class

job responding to recent flooding ` something people in Yalding say they

find hard to believe. Simon Jones reports live from Maidstone.

An exclusive report on record numbers of fines for parents who

take children out of school during term time. This is completely wrong.

There's no two ways about that. I am not a criminal for taking mx

daughter on holiday. It's absurd. Also in tonight's programme:

Breakthrough, 21 years after her death could someone finally be

charged with Claire Tiltman's murder. ?

The canteen visitors book shgned by thousands of soldiers as thdy headed

off to France during the First World War.

And, weapons used in one of the most shocking battles of the Anglo`Zulu

war dating back 135 years ago, are going under the hammer.

Good evening. Kent County Council says its response to the Christmas

flooding was first`class after violence storms left hundreds of

homes across the south`east having to be be evacuated.

Residents in Yalding which was one of the worst affected areas says the

council's response was far from adequate. A report today did

conclude lessons must be le`rned. Simon Jones reports.

Described by councillors as carnage across the County but they hnsist

dealt with effectively. I am very proud of the response of

the County Council on a particularly difficult and complex operation at a

particularly difficult time of the year. Almost everything was a

perfect storm, high winds, very heavy rain, absolute toxic lix.

Yalding is still bearing thd scars of the Christmas flooding and many

residents here do not see the situation as first`class.

Essentially they need to rip up a few of these... Gavin was flooded on

Christmas Eve. He is now having to move out for six months. He is not

impressed by the councillors' assessment I think he didn't get

flooded because if he would have got flooded he wouldn't be saying that,

unless he is trying to keep his job. Because I have ` I would be

embarrassed if I was him to say it was first`class in terms of what

they put in place. It just wasn't. In total, 647 homes

and businesses were flooded, more than 28,000 homes were left without

power. And there were nearlx 19 000 calls to the council. Yes, there

will be lessons to learn but when I look back I look back on a flood

event that was very demanding. It involved many people, affected lots

of different communities. I think that we can be very proud of the

effort that we put in alongside our partners. The use of sirens such as

here in Dorset should be considered according to one councillor whose

home was flooded. We need to look at alternatives such as sirens, loud

hailers or whatever means possible to make sure people know wh`t to

expect. The council says it will now look at whether there are additional

flood defences that can be put in as long as they're affordable.

Simon Jones joins us now. Ghven that the council say they're protd of

their response, indeed that it's first`class. What lessons c`n be

learned? Kent County Council says it doesn't want to play the bl`me game

but the leader of the counchl says that there is a perception that the

Environment Agency failed to warn the people of Yalding early enough

about the potential flooding and the Environment Agency say they issued

that warning 12 hours beford properties were affected. They are

not keen on the idea put forward today of sirens, they say that's a

blunt instrument, it doesn't give any detail of the potential danger.

The river here is much lower than it was over the Christmas period. But

the warning is there could be more rain on the way with a parthcular

concern ahead for Sunday. It's estimated that following flooding

over Christmas and New Year the clear`up cost across the UK could

rise to more than ?400 millhon. In the south`east the figure could be

close to ?100 million. And, the Government's confirmed that an extra

?7 million will be made avahlable to local councils to help pay for the

clean`up. Our political reporter Ellie Price joins us live from

Westminster where I underst`nd the issue of the Christmas floods has

been front and centre today? I gather that the flooding has been on

the agenda for much of the day. Yes, this time a select committed

grilling the boss of the Environment Agency, he was asked whether cuts to

the funding would effect frontline flooding services and he conceded

yes. Now, he warned MPs that frontline jobs would have to go he

didn't say how many and he said put simply that means we will bd able to

do less. The floods Minister was also there and he said that despite

the cuts flood protection would still remain a priority and he also

said he was pleased with thd way our councils had worked with other

agencies during the floods hn December. Here is an eye`watering

figure to leave you with, hd estimated it will cost ?30 lillion

to restore flood defences n`tional nationally, to how they werd before

December, let alone making improvements or changes. Th`nk you.

Record numbers of parents h`ve been fined for taking their children out

of school in term time in the last year raising over 2 hundred,000 ``

?200,000. He received a fine. This is

completely wrong. No two waxs about that. I am not a crim malfor taking

my daughter on holiday. It's absurd. In Kent and Medway last year over

3,000 fines were issued. Do you feel morally comfort`ble

raising that amount of monex out of parents? I think we feel th`t it's

given that education matters. The given that education matters. The

council is not in the busindss of making money out of it. We `re

implementing a scheme, the `im of which is to ensure there is good

attendance at schools. Councils use the money raised to fund thd

selection of fines and prosdcutions. Latest figures show there's been a

17% increase in penalty nothces in Kent and Medway. Both counchls

believe it's down to a Government crackdown that removed the

discretion teachers had to `uthorise term time holidays. With holiday

prices rocketing come the school holidays, some parents are ht seems

actively choosing to remove their children from school during term

time and pay the fines becatse they realise they can save money. A

seven`day family holiday to Spain next week costs ?396. An iddntical

holiday during half term costs over ?700. Almost double. Parents in

Brighton told us the inflatdd prices leave them no choice. You got to

look at it from our side, when you have three or four children and they

want to go on holidays, you can t afford ?600 to take them aw`y. I

would rather do it in school term. A ?50 fine isn't that bad. It's the

responsibility of parents to ensure children are educated. If they

choose to educate their children within a state school, they need to

obey rules which means children should be in school. Chris broke the

rules and now has a criminal consreks for it. Would you do it

again? `` conviction. There is no way when I get working I will be

able to afford to pay the holiday prices during holiday time. I am

going to have no alternativd but to take them out of school. Thd

Department for Education sax parents who do that risk prosecution. Poor

attendance they add has a htgely damaging effect on children.

In a moment, how a gay man from Kent is to be deported at 12 hours'

notice from his home in Uganda. It's one of the toughest endurance

events in the world ` a racd, rowing the Atlantic, dealing with sleep

deprivation, sharks and 50 foot waves. But as well as battlhng the

elements, team Row 2 recovery had some additional factors to contend

with ` two of the crew lost limbs while serving in Afghanistan.

16 teams have been competing in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Ch`llenge.

After 48 days, 9 hours and 03 minutes at sea, the boys, including

Captain Mark Jenkins from Brighton, finally finished their 3,000`mile

odyssey from the Canary Isl`nds to Antigua this morning ` in third

place. Piers Hopkirk has tonight's special report. With a celebratory

flare and welcoming blast from other craft, the road to recovery team

arrived after nearly seven weeks at sea. Thinner, hairier, happher. And

little wonder too as they wdre reunited with friends and f`mily on

the stable comfort of dry l`nd. Welcome to Antigua. All sorts of

emotions, I had to make surd I didn't embarrass myself when I

arrived and seen family and friends T will sink in over the next few

days. It's a shock what we have achieved. Remember thinking I have

rowed across an ocean. Rowing 3 000 miles in a boat 30 foot by 6ft would

be an extraordinary feat for anyone, let alone four soldiers with five

legs between them. There were a few low points but there was ` we were

always pushing to keep open other motivated the whole way throughout.

For all of them it was a personal battle, particularly for thd two

crew fighting to prove their injuries were no limitation. Raising

awareness of injured servicdmen that's the big point. It shows

courage and determination and grit just to do it. The message we were

trying to put out is what you can achieve and what you can be done if

you throw your hat into the ring and push yourself beyond against what

you think you could achieve or what you can do. While they've lost as

much as 20% of their body wdight, they gained thousands of potnds in

sponsorship for injured servicemen. The head of the Army telling them,

this is the most stunning example of courage, grit and determination the

Army has seen for a long tile. A driver's come forward aftdr a

12`year`old boy was knocked down as he walked to school in Sheerness.

His parents had branded whodver drove away as call louse and

immoral. Police say they will speak to the

driver. A Kent man who'd been facing jail in

Uganda after a stolen video of him in a gay relationship was ptblished

in a newspaper there is to be deported. Bernard Randell from

Faversham had pleaded not gtilty to trafficking obscene images. Today,

the 65`year`old was told by a judge he had 12 hours to leave thd

country. The BBC's reporter in Uganda is Catherine Byaruhanga. Has

he left yet, do we know? Yes, the court said he should be deported

within 12 hours, so by tonight. What we are hearing by the policd it

might happen tomorrow. It ddpends on being able to get the right flight

from Uganda back to the UK. Now immediately after he left the

courtroom he was taken to the cells and spent several hours there. As

far as we know he is still hn police custody now. Do we know why he has

to be deported? Well, the rdason is this case has brought a lot of

international attention to Tganda. The Government really wants it to

disappear. The easiest thing to do is to drop the charges against

Bernard Randall and send hil back home. That way the bad press stops.

Thank you. I do apologise, the BBC has learned

that the Crown Prosecution Service is considering charging a m`n over

the unsolved murder of the schoolgirl Claire Tiltman 20 years

ago in Kent. The teenager w`s stabbed more than 40 times hn an

alleyway at greenhithe. Our top story. Kent County Council

says it did a first`class job in responding to recent flooding after

violent storms over the Chrhstmas period. Residents in Yalding, one of

the worst affected areas, s`y the council's response was far from

adequate. A report concluded that lessons must be learned.

Also in tonight's programme: I am in Germany where Lizzie Yarnold is

celebrating a call`up. 135 years since the famous battle of

Rorke's Drift, artefacts go under Rorke's Drift, artefacts go under

the hammer. If you have a story you think we should be covering we would

like to hear from you. During the First World War, a

canteen on Folkestone Harbotr offered a last taste of homd for

tens of thousands of troops on their way to the front in Europe. It was

run by Flora and Margaret Jdffery, sisters who volunteered to bring

some cheer to men and women who might not see home again. They kept

visitor books which, by the end of the First World War, contained more

than 42,000 names ` including one Winston Churchill. It's now being

put online as a fascinating research tool. Robin Gibson reports.

It's eerie, wind`swept, desdrted but for thousands during the Grdat War,

this was a bustling place. Ht was a key embarkation port and a small

canteen run by two centres provided tea and bun, a taste of homd. We are

walking on the platform that soldiers would have got off the

trains, these are the original rails and tracks run along there. This

building is where the harbotr canteen stood. More than 42,000

signed these visitors books kept by Florence and Margaret. They would

have been here and they could have heard the guns going off in France

and the thought of leaving here and passing by the White Cliffs may have

thought, is this the last thme I am going to see my country? Page after

page, men and women who went to war, many of whom would be killed or

wounded. A team has worked to put this extraordinary record on a

digital archive. He has adddd on June, first deed of kindness on

landing. The originals at the Kent History Centre in Maidstone show

famous names, Churchill, Lloyd George, alongside those forgotten by

history. Many of these men would have left school probably at the age

of 12. You get the impression that the writing was an effort for them.

Nevertheless, for whatever reason, they made the effort to record their

names in this book. They give people an opportunity to perhaps sde where

a great uncle or a grandfather was on a particular day. Partictlarly if

he went to France and didn't come back. It may be wrecked and ruined,

atmosphere of this place certainly atmosphere of this place certainly

echos around. You have a fedling there are more than a few ghosts

Kent's Lizzy Yarnold has bedn Kent's Lizzy Yarnold has bedn

selected for Team GB to compete in her first Winter Olympics. The

25`year`old from West Kingsdown will be in the skeleton squad at the

games in Sochi in Russia next month. She's already won four gold medals

in the World Cup season so far and leads the world rankings. Ndil Bell

is in Klaniczay in Germany where the European Championships are being

held. It sounds like she is on a bit of a roll. Absolutely. Therd may

never have been a more fant`stic sport sporting ambassador. Five

years ago she had never seen a skeleton sled. A good performance

will see her go to Sochi as champion, not just as a contender

but one of the favourites for gold. Lizzie Yarnold embodies the ideas of

skill and sportmanship, her skill and sportmanship, her

remarkable performances madd today's confirmation of her pike pl`ce

gratifying. `` Olympic placd gratifying. It's a sentence I have

been waiting to say for a long time. I am happy the hard work has been

the age of about 12, 13, as an the age of about 12, 13, as an

athlete, it's a dream I havd wanted for a long time and I can't wait to

put the kit on and be a part of the team and go out to Sochi ag`in. One

of Lizzie's rivals will be team`mate and world champion Shelley Rudman

who won silver in her first Olympics eight years ago. Everyone that's

been to an Olympics has had that beginner's luck which will be really

good for Lizzie. This the pdrfect place to fine tune for Sochh but she

knows the Olympics will be very different. There is a lot of

expectation. We have been pdrforming really well this season. Especially

myself getting on the podiul all seven times. So far the World Cup

season. But all I can do is just go there and focus on the job that I

need to do, all my processes are exactly the same for the winter

Olympics as for the World Ctp races all seasons. As long as I al ticking

all the boxes, getting my slall goals down, that will give le the

building blocks to perform hn Sochi. And win a medal? And win a ledal.

Hurtling down at over 80mph comes easy to Lizzie. Olympic competition

will be the ultimate test of her nerves. Mixed news for bobsleigh

competitors. Craig Pickering becomes one of an elite group of eight

competitors who represented GB in summer and winter Olympics. For him

getting there was enough. For Lizzie, it's a medal now.

It's 135 years since three of the most shocking battles of thd

Anglo`Zulu War took place ` including the famous Rorke's Drift

that inspired the Michael C`ine film Zulu ` which itself is 50 ydars old.

Today, an auction house in Lewes has been offering a large collection of

Zulu artefacts from the collection of the late David Smith, a Royal

Marine Commando from Kent. Lark Sanders reports. Think Zulu and the

classic film is almost cert`in to come to mind.

A battle happened 135 years ago today along with a battle of, and

today at this auction house important artefacts from thd

Anglo`Zulu war were sold. This is a sword, it represents the sotnd it

makes when you pull it out of somebody's body. It's a verx iconic

weapon. What does it feel to handle these things? It's quite an

extraordinary evocative emotional experience, certainly for md who has

lived my life researching the story behind it and to think that Zulu

hand was where my hand is now it connects you in a kind of profound

way. Zulus to the south`west, thousands. The film was reldased 50

years ago today. It's part of British popular culture and

artefacts from the Anglo`Zulu war are important in South Africa. In

fact, the provinceal Governlent sent a buyer. It's like the Elgin

Marbles, people want them to come back to where they block. Bdlong ``

they belong. They're symbols of how the British underestimated the

nation. They shouldn't be ott of the country. There is a sense of

bringing them home. This shheld is going home, bought for ?5,000. This

auction is more than the we`ponry of war. The sale also includes a

poignant letter from a young British officer who served in the c`mpaign.

The letter from a 19`year`old Captain describes the horror of

clearing the bodies after the battle. It is exoertd to thhnk that

observation `` extraordinarx to think that years ago today these

weapons were in the hands of warriors.

Extraordinary stuff. Let's look at the weather now.

We were seeing at the top of the programme all the flooding `nd the

responses the council had to put in place, they might have to think

about it again because therd's more on the way.

Particularly for Sunday, we`ther warnings out, Gail force winds and

heavy `` gale force winds and rainfall. We are going to bd seeing

rain at times, too. Saturdax looking dryer

Earlier we had that rain, it cleared out of the way this morning. Quite

bit of cloud cover around btt also bit of cloud cover around btt also

brightness, too. Temperaturds in single figures. Always breezier

along the south coast. Into tonight we are going to be

mostly dry for much of the night. This is heading our way into

tomorrow. The winds easing off a little bit. Initially one or two

showers around, then with the clearer skies temperatures tumbling,

in rural spots lows around freezing. Don't be surprised to see a touch of

frost. Cold but dry as we start thd day

out of the way and again by the out of the way and again by the

afternoon we start to see stnshine. The winds are going to be phcking up

again, as well. The day will have a again, as well. The day will have a

cold bite to it. Initially dry, then all of us seeing cloud cover and

outbreaks of rain, not heavx, though. It clears through qtickly.

Through tomorrow night dry `gain for much of the night. Temperattres

falling quickly again. Towards the early hours of Friday morning we are

expecting this weather front to move through very quickly and it's going

to be heavy rain. Temperatures to be heavy rain. Temperatures

lifting a little bit as we start the day. You can tell from the tightly

spaced isobars it will be blustery for Friday. Top temperatures around

eight or nine but feeling significantly cooler. For p`rts of

west Sussex we are expecting to have a weather warning out about heavy

rain, as well. Towards Saturday we are going to see rain clearhng out

during the first part of thd day. Behind it further outbreaks of rain.

The heavy rain now we are expecting for the weekend is for Sund`y. We

have warnings out about gald force winds and heavy rain. It st`ys

unsettled into the new week, as well.

Thank you very much. That's all from us for now. I will

be back at 10. 25. Until thdn, enjoy your evening. Have a good nhght

bye. We all have hopes and fears

for the future