28/03/2014 South East Today

Welcome to South East Today. News at Six

Welcome to South East Today. Tonight's top stories.

A Kent Chaplin breaks ranks to say she would be willing to bless a gay

marriage in a church. Green MP Caroline Lucas defdnds

herself in court, saying her actions at the Balkan fracking protdst were

legitimate and appropriate. A major blow for plans to create a

satellite grammar school in West Kent as parent power stops `

potential sponsor school from expanding.

The loss of Rod at kid `` Rtdyard Kipling's Sun in World War H

influenced the words on war memorials nationwide. `` Rudyard

Kipling's Sun. Good evening. A Kent chaplahn says

she's willing to defy Church of England rules and risk dischplinary

action by offering a servicd blessing gay marriages. The Reverend

Kes Grant, who's chaplain at St Augustine's Academy in Maidstone,

says all married couples should be treated equally, whether thdy're gay

or straight. Britain's first same`sex marriages

will take place at one minute past midnight tonight. But the Church of

England says those unions should not be blessed in church, even though

it's "unreservedly committed" to the pastoral care of homosexuals.

Chrissie Reidy reports. At a minute past midnight Andrew and

Neil will be legally married. The Church of England does not welcome

gay marriage, so this reverdnd says she would defy her church's on rules

and bless same`sex couples `fter the ceremony. I want to bless the

couple. They are made in thd image and the love of God. If I c`n blow

bless `` if I can bless an hnanimate object, why can't I bless a loving

union between two people? It does not make sense to me. It is a view

welcomed by this couple, who will be one of the first to marry tomorrow.

It should be equal for any clergy or member of the church to havd their

own choice whether to do it or not, not have it as an overall, no, you

can't. The Archbishop of Canterbury has indicated the church will no

longer make resistance to g`y marriage but some people sax that

gay activists are trying to redefine the definition of marriage. The

loving thing to do to anybody, heterosexual or homosexual, is to

point them towards the loving beauty and wholeness of truth found in

Jesus Christ. The dioceses of Canterbury said that clergy should

not bless same`sex couples. If they do and there is a complaint, it

could lead to disciplinary sanctions up to and including suspenshon.

Heterosexual people are weakening the institution of marriage by

having affairs, by their behng domestic abuse within marri`ge. All

of that defies the covenant of a loving marriage. Why would gay

couples coming into that ardna weekend it in any way at all?

Reverend Kes Grant says it simply comes down to the love of two people

and the church should welcole same`sex `` same`sex couples who

want to marry without a fuss. Chrissie joins us live outshde

Canterbury Cathedral. The Archbishop of Canterbury is facing a vdry

difficult task to keep the Church of England unified over gay marriage,

isn't he? It is fair to say there are clearly still deep divisions

among the Church of England over this. Some clergy feel therd has

been accepted is, a shift tone. The bill comes due perfect tonight. ``

the bill comes into effect. But Reverend Kes Grant says it does not

go far enough and she once there to come but time when she can bless a

gay couple in a church. You've been commenting on the story.

Dianne Baxter on Facebook s`ys gay couples should be able to m`rry in

church. She says: "It's the 21st century and not worthy of ftrther

debate, the law is passed and AMEN to that!"

But Jill Watson disagrees, she emailed us to say "The Bibld says

that marriage is a union between man and woman. If gay couples w`nt to

'marry' for legal or financhal reasons, there is always a civil

partnership." So what do you think? Should gay

couples have the right to m`rry in church, so they're treated dxactly

the same as straight couples? Or do you think the line should have

been drawn at civil partnerships, and that gay marriage is a step too

far? Britain's only Green MP, Caroline

Lucas, has taken the stand hn court this afternoon to defend her

decision to take part in anti`fracking protests in the West

Sussex village of Balcombe. The Brighton Pavilion MP was

arrested outside the energy firm Cuadrilla's drilling site there in

August. But she denies two public order offences, maintaining her

actions were "legitimate and appropriate", as Piers Hopkhrk

reports. From the Commons to the courthouse,

Brighton Pavilion MP Caroline Lucas arriving to give evidence today in

her trial before Brighton Magistrates. I am arresting you for

obstructing the highway. Thhs is the moment she was arrested last August.

She was charged with breach of the Public order act and wilful

obstruction of the highway. Charges the UK's only Green MP has denied

throughout her trial. Giving evidence today she told the court, I

was exercising my right to peaceful protest in an area where I did not

believe we were causing any obstruction. Asked why she did not

move on when asked by policd, she said, I wanted the protest to end

web is all agreeing to stand up and to have done it on our own terms in

a peaceful and symbolic way. If we had been given another 15 mhnutes we

could have ended the protest and disbursed. Caroline Lucas is on

trial with four other defendants. Speaking on the court steps this

afternoon she thanked her supporters. The support has been

fantastic for all five of us, constituents writing to me `nd I

know they wanted me to be hdre to make the case. All five defdndants

deny the charges against thdm. The case continues.

What happens now that Carolhne Lucas has given her evidence? All that she

and her four co`dependence can do is sit back and wait because the trial

will go into a sixth day but not until April the 17th. We have one

more witness to hear from and in the afternoon the district judgd will

return to deliver his verdict. He will have to decide whether the

actions of these protesters constituted either a breach of the

public order act or obstructing the public highway. The protests at

Bochum last summer cost Sussex Police a lot of money but they say

they are getting some back now. It cost them ?4 million, but today the

Home Office has agreed to p`y ?900,000 of that back. That money

has been welcomed by the police and the crime to hear in Sussex but of

course it leaves a shortfall of some ?3 million.

Coming up, we will be looking ahead to a public meeting tonight in

Sussex where they are discussing the possible impact of future fracking

across the South East. Controversial plans to create the

first new grammar school pl`ces for 50 years have received a major

setback. Kent County Council's been backing campaigners in Sevenoaks who

say grammar school places are desperately needed there.

But when the Weald of Kent Grammar School in Tonbridge offered to

create a satellite site, thd Government said an all`girls school

could not run a mixed`sex annexe. And now parents at Weald of Kent

have voted against plans to make the entire school mixed`sex. Lucinda

Adam has the details. It is a mathematical equation that

nobody seems able to solve. How do you create more grammar school laces

so there are enough for everybody who passes the 11 plus, when the

government will not allow any new grammar schools to open. Thd wheel

book ends school thought it had found a solution, offering to open a

second site in Sevenoaks. Btt the council said the whole school would

have to become mixed. It wotld have been a coeducational annexe at

Sevenoaks. If we lose half of the girls' places here, once thd school

was up and running there wotld be no additional places for girls and that

was a concern for us as govdrnors as well as the parents. Last Jtne it

was found that the Weald of Kent Grammar `` and another school were

bidding to set up satellite sites but the government rejected both

compose all is, `` both proposals. It looked like there was hope when

the Weald of Kent Grammar plans to become coeducational. In Sevenoaks

today the demand for places was clear. All the kids are dre`ming of

going to grammar school. It is important. It is very important My

son goes to school in Sevenoaks and in a few years he will need to go to

secondary school and I would not want to travel to Tonbridge or

further. It depends on the teachers ultimately and the ethos of the

schools. Kent County Council says all is not lost. Can you find a way

to move along the lines of what was suggested but make sure that that

includes additional girls' places, not all of the new places are simply

boys' places. They have talked also about looking for a partnership with

a boys' school. The now it hs back to the drawing board and sole hard

sums for the councillors. Lucinda joins us live from County

Hall in Maidstone. These gr`mmar school annexe plans keep getting

blocked, Lucinda ` so is thd county council giving up? No, they are

certainly not weaving up, bdcause they simply can't afford to. This

year alone nearly 1000 pupils who passed the 11 plus in Kent will not

be going to grammar school because there are not enough places. The

government insistence that this needs to be a satellite mixdd sex

school is a challenge for councillors because in West Kent

where the needs are most actte all of the grammar schools are single

sex. They will need to eithdr change the plans or convince anothdr school

to go coeducational. A 24`year`old woman has been

arrested in Gillingham on stspicion of murder after a man was found dead

in North London. Father of three Mehmet Hassan was discovered with

neck and chest injuries, after the police forced entry to a property in

Islington on Monday. Four mdn have also been arrested in London.

The first phase of the ?25 lillion development of Lydd Airport is under

way, following the appointmdnt of specialists to manage its rtnway

extension. Capita will be m`naging the project at the airport on the

Romney Marsh in Kent. The expansion plans were opposed by wildlhfe and

environmental campaigners, who say it will damage the local arda.

A West Sussex secondary school has been put into special measures,

following a damning Ofsted inspection. The watchdog saxs

students at Oakmeeds Communhty College in Burgess Hill are not

achieving their academic potential because of poor quality teaching and

inadequate leadership and management.

Supporters of fracking say ht's the best way to guarantee cheap and

plentiful energy for generations to come, but opponents of the

controversial process of sh`le gas and oil extraction say they believe

it has a devastating impact on the local environment.

Tonight a public meeting's taking place in Wadhurst, to discuss the

possibility that fracking could take place in future across huge areas of

the South East. The governmdnt's public consultation process for

onshore oil and gas licensing ended today, as Roz Upton reports.

Wadhurst sits in the high Wdald area of extra `` natural beauty. It falls

within the 14th licensing round for exploration of oil and gas hncluding

shale gas, which can be extracted by fracking. We can see 30`year

licenses handed out to fracking companies, we can see water affected

which we can't afford to lose in a drought year, lorries haring up and

down the roads. It will not even bring down fuel prices, all it will

do at best is used the profhts. Some parts of the South East including

bulk are already licensed. This draft plan covers the rest of the

region. It is an opportunitx for energy security, lower bills and a

lower carbon footprint. In Pennsylvania energy cup and have

been fracking since 2007. It would be good to have the same ratio of

Wales to area. `` wells. Here we do not have the water or the space

Communities do not want it here Most Wadhurst residents we spoke to

were unaware that energy can these might soon be bidding for lhcences.

I thought it was all West Stssex. I think it is a very good ide`. I

think we need it because we have free energy, basically, it hs all

there in the ground. People will be drilling in the passages, the

fields. I am concerned. `` drilling in the past year `` .

Residents from bulk, where Cuadrilla carried out exploratory drilling,

will be speaking at tonight's public meeting.

This is our top story tonight. A Kent Chaplin says she is willing to

defy Church of England rules and risked disciplinary action by

offering a service to bless gay marriages. She says all couples

should be treated equally, gay or straight.

The poster boys of Sussex btsiness. A portrait of the company changing

the landscape of the art world. After a rather chilly week we have

some warm and dry weather jtst in time for the weekend. Join le for

the forecast at the end of the programme.

He was one of the biggest celebrities of his day, the author

of The Jungle Book and Kim, with homes in Rottingdean and thdn

Burwash attracting day`trippers by the thousand. Rudyard Kipling's

books reached millions across the Empire. But during World War I he

suffered personal tragedy, `nd when words were needed for memorhals to

offer comfort to a grieving nation he was called upon to write them.

Sara Smith has tonight's Spdcial Report.

Deep in the Sussex countryshde, this was the house Rogic Kipling chose as

a century for his family. 100 years ago no family was protected from the

darkness enveloped in Europd. Anyway, Kipling believed in the war.

He used his celebrity to support the call for men to fight. It c`me as a

shock when John, his own son, could not join up. He was not fit, and it

crushed John. It upset Rudy`rd but also John. His father steps in? Yes,

he is able to pull a few favours and he gets John a commission.

His first experience of battle would be at the Battle of loose. Possibly

because of his poorer at `` eyesight, alongside many others he

died. Rudyard felt a lot of responsibility

for John's death but it was not entirely his fault. The statistics

say he probably would have perished regardless.

Roger and's grief was shared by so many others but as a writer he was

able to help the rest of thd nation, indeed the Empire, commemor`te those

who died. `` Road yard `` Rtdyard's grief.

They needed somebody to put words alongside the commemorative

structures being built and really Kipling was the best possible

candidate. It is 1917, who dlse do you want involved? He is very

famous, a wordsmith, a famots author. Words were found so that all

would be treated equally. Hd managed to come up with you to full phrases

to supply that need. He suggested that the phrase be used, thdn namely

of for evermore. `` their n`me live. The commission wanted to make

sure that that happened. For all of his high profile work, showhng King

George the places where men were buried, Kipling was equally

concerned for families who would never get to see their loved ones'

graves, so he helped villagd after village raise funds for thehr own

memorials. A large proportion of the British population were not able to

travel to France so they cotld pay homage to their sons, husbands and

fathers at home. For Kipling there was one Memorial he could not bear

to see, the one in his own village of Burwash, the one that bore the

name of his son. And you can find out more about the

centenary of the First World War and its enduring impact to this day on

our website, bbc.co.uk/ww1. Since the advent of the Intdrnet the

way we change `` by all kinds of things has changed. Now a Stssex

business is allowing people to do the same with art.

Easyart say they hope to do bubble their business within a couple of

years. But there are those who say that being able to buy art online is

another nail in the coffin of the high Street.

Within a click, art is creative Easyart wants to be the iTunes of

the art world. Technology is driving the business. You take an order from

somebody's laptop and communicated directly to our centre in Ndwhaven.

They printing individual im`ges not having to print 250. We print on

demand. There are almost 65,000 works on Easyart. It holds licences

from almost 9000 artists, including Picassos and Andy Warhol, and the

company has partnerships with 3 museums and galleries across Europe.

It started in a Brighton race meant 25 years ago. `` basement. The

company now employs about 70 staff. We have come long will `` come a

long way from Athena. The chain failed in the mid`90s but this chain

in Brighton is doing well. Despite having an online resonance ht

believes buying art in person is crucial. In the gallery we offer

more of a per spoke service. `` Bis spoke. Although Easyart has deals

with some of the biggest nales in the art work it does back elerging

artists. I have been able to get my work into John Lewis. For an

up`and`coming artist it is puite hard to get into. Newhaven light not

currently be seen as the ephcentre of the art world but this company

hopes to change the way manx people by a piece of art. It hopes to

double its turnover and its workforce within the next two years.

On to football, and three of our four league sides are in action

tomorrow. There's two games in the Championship on Saturday, whth

Brighton taking on Middlesbrough and Charlton travelling up to Ddrby In

League One, Crawley Town tr`velled to Deepdale to take on Preston North

End, but Gillingham are not in action this weekend. `` travel to

Deepdale. A skier from Sussex who took French

nationality to compete at the Winter Olympics last month has now become a

junior world champion. Ben Cavet, who is 20 and from Crowborotgh, has

won gold in the dual moguls event at the Junior World Championshhps in

Italy. He came eighth in thd men's Olympic final in Sochi in Fdbruary.

Now back to our top story tonight. A Kent Chaplin says she is willing to

defy Church of England rules and risk disciplinary action by offering

a service blessing gay marrhages for any couples who want her to.

Britain's first gay weddings will take place at one minute past

midnight tonight. And the Rdverend Kes Grant, who is chaplain `t St

Augustine's Academy in Maidstone, says all married couples should be

treated equally by the Church, whether they are gay or str`ight.

Earlier we asked what you think Thanks for all your comments.

John Cooper says he is in f`vour of blessing gay marriage, loving

relationship involves two pdople, that is all.

Others say Somma `` say, sorry, marriage is for a man and woman it

takes a man and woman to have children.

I think it should be allowed, the same`sex community have had to fight

for their rights. Molly Byford, who is 14 and a

Quaker, says, I believe gay marriage should be allowed. The main role in

Christianity is to do the most loving thing. The Bible says we are

all one in Jesus Christ. Another one says, the vicar is going

against gods commandments and if she does so should be excommunicated. ``

God's. Another one says, most people should

want to avoid going to church if they are gay, religion has been one

of the biggest impediments to gay liberation in history.

We are going to be staying dry and it is feeling warm, temperatures in

the mid`to top teams. `` tedns. One or two of us saw some fairlx hefty

showers today but for the most part staying dry. Top temperaturds of 12

or 13. The winds stay with ts over the weekend, with drier and milder

air. Tonight we will stay dry, the cloudy skies starting to cldar and

we could see some mist and fog patches developing. Lows of eight or

nine on the coast, five or six in land. We start the day mildly

tomorrow. By the afternoon we are going to see plenty of hazy

sunshine. It is a lovely dax to be out and about, plenty of sunshine,

feeling warm, and temperatures in the mid`teens, potentially tp to 18

or 19, but widely 14 or 15. The winds around ten to 15 mph, a mild

breeze. Tomorrow night, staxing dry with some mist and fog formhng but

it stays mild. A mild start on Sunday and more of the same, plenty

of sunshine by the Dunoon 's `` by the afternoon. It will stay mild

into the new week but the rhsk of showers is back, particularly by the

time we get to Tuesday. Over the weekend, lots of sunshine, lake the

most of it, and it is feeling warm as well.

Thank you for watching. We will be back next week. Claudia will be here

with the late news.