:00:00. > :00:00.Welcome to South East Today, I'm Polly Evans.
:00:07. > :00:11.After disturbances at Swaleside Prison,
:00:12. > :00:13.the local MP tells the minister staff there are overworked
:00:14. > :00:23.They have got to pay prison officers what they are worth.
:00:24. > :00:28.defences for a Kent community devastated by floods in 2013.
:00:29. > :00:31.We're live tonight in the village of Yalding.
:00:32. > :00:36.Footage emerges of a rail union official calling
:00:37. > :00:41.for the overthrow of capitalism - an MP calls the comments a disgrace.
:00:42. > :00:44.The Kent midwives who take their expertise to Ethiopia every year,
:00:45. > :00:48.helping to significantly reduce mortality rates.
:00:49. > :00:52.And Herne Bay's cosy crew is back in full effect -
:00:53. > :01:06.knitting Christmas scenes for post boxes across the town.
:01:07. > :01:12.Prison officers are underpaid and would be better off
:01:13. > :01:15.working in warehouses - that's what a Kent MP has told
:01:16. > :01:17.the Prisons Minister today after inmates at HMP Swaleside took
:01:18. > :01:21.over a wing of the jail during disturbances last night.
:01:22. > :01:24.The jail on the Isle of Sheppey has been branded
:01:25. > :01:27.'dangerous' in the past, with inspectors saying staff
:01:28. > :01:35.After 60 prisoners took control of a wing of the prison last night,
:01:36. > :01:37.the local Conservative MP Gordon Henderson has
:01:38. > :01:40.said the ratio of staff to prisoners there is too low.
:01:41. > :02:00.Swales side prison for days before Christmas, 2016. The chance, no
:02:01. > :02:04.face, no case, suggesting prisoners thought they could remain anonymous.
:02:05. > :02:09.Nobody was injured and most of the prison was kept under control. One
:02:10. > :02:13.of the triggers was thought to be when prisoners discovered they would
:02:14. > :02:17.be locked up in their cells longer than expected over Christmas. It is
:02:18. > :02:22.a really dangerous situation for our members and prisoners also. What
:02:23. > :02:26.happens is they start to escalate violence, grouped together and the
:02:27. > :02:34.prison staff realise they are well -- they are becoming outnumbered and
:02:35. > :02:37.the situation is volatile. They know the business well and can generally
:02:38. > :02:44.calm them down using polite persuasive techniques. The prison
:02:45. > :02:48.sits in a remote part of the south-east, housing some of the most
:02:49. > :02:52.dangerous men in the country. The local MP praised the start today,
:02:53. > :03:01.saying there should be more of them. He added this. There is a lot of
:03:02. > :03:04.employment in the area and in the pipeline. It is more advantageous
:03:05. > :03:08.for a prison officer to go and get a job in a warehouse where they will
:03:09. > :03:12.earn more money. I raised that this morning. They need to papers and
:03:13. > :03:19.others is what they are worth. The starting salary for a prison officer
:03:20. > :03:22.is ?20,500. A relative of three inmates said today that the
:03:23. > :03:27.prisoners human rights were not being respected. A report in July
:03:28. > :03:32.concluded that too many prisoners were locked up during the day. 69%
:03:33. > :03:37.of them felt unsafe and big use of force in the prison was high. Last
:03:38. > :03:42.night incidents have echoes of 12 hours of rioting in Birmingham just
:03:43. > :03:47.a week ago and at Bedford and Lewis before that. The Home Office said no
:03:48. > :03:53.extra prison officers had been sent to HMP Swaleside as a result, but
:03:54. > :03:57.extra training would happen. It has been concerning the general public
:03:58. > :04:00.to see this on the television, gaining a real insight into what
:04:01. > :04:04.prison life is like. For those of us that work in the sector, we have
:04:05. > :04:09.been expecting disturbances such as this for some time as conditions
:04:10. > :04:12.have worsened over the last few years. The Ministry of Justice's
:04:13. > :04:14.investigation into what happened here last night under way.
:04:15. > :04:17.The MP Gordon Henderson who we heard in John's report told us
:04:18. > :04:19.there is a problem recruiting officers at Swaleside.
:04:20. > :04:22.There are more than 1100 prisoners held at HMP Swaleside.
:04:23. > :04:24.There are 138 prison officers in charge of them.
:04:25. > :04:27.According to the Prison Officers Association,
:04:28. > :04:29.there are vacancies for 40 further officers.
:04:30. > :04:41.John, are these figures in line with the national average?
:04:42. > :04:46.According to the prison officers Association, Polly, they are and
:04:47. > :04:51.that is what is worrying them. Let's crunch them a bit more. 138 members
:04:52. > :04:57.of staff but that is the member and the team, if you like. In any one
:04:58. > :05:03.day, that figure could be as low as 58. That means one prison officer
:05:04. > :05:08.for 20 prison -- 20 prisoners. They say that is not good enough. The
:05:09. > :05:11.government seem to be taking this on board, recently recruiting they
:05:12. > :05:15.would -- recently announcing they would recruit 2100 more officers.
:05:16. > :05:20.They know what the problem is, with scenes like we have just seen in my
:05:21. > :05:23.report on the news in the evenings, who is going to want that job? As
:05:24. > :05:31.bike to the prison officers Association's boss what he thought
:05:32. > :05:34.of Gordon Henderson's comment and he was 100% behind them, saying
:05:35. > :05:39.salaries need to be higher to attract people into the job. In a
:05:40. > :05:43.moment, signs of improvement in the health trust which had severely
:05:44. > :05:48.underestimated the threat posed to patients.
:05:49. > :05:50.During Christmas 2013, flooding devastated parts of Kent,
:05:51. > :05:53.The government recently announced action to protect homes there -
:05:54. > :05:57.but residents say it is 'too little, too late'.
:05:58. > :06:00.?2.4 million is being provided to protect homes
:06:01. > :06:06.It will go towards defending around 330 properties.
:06:07. > :06:10.It averages out at ?7500 per property.
:06:11. > :06:16.Ellie Price joins us live now from Yalding.
:06:17. > :06:20.Ellie, people there suffered serious flooding in 2013.
:06:21. > :06:22.They had been hoping for major works,
:06:23. > :06:36.Yes, Polly, and that is basically the prostration here. Those plans of
:06:37. > :06:44.preventative measures up and down the surrounding rivers well what
:06:45. > :06:48.many people here had their hopes pinned on. This money is for
:06:49. > :06:52.households to individually protect themselves but many around here have
:06:53. > :06:55.already taken matters into their own hands, often out of their own
:06:56. > :07:02.pockets. And the bursary they would rather forget. 200 homes flooded as
:07:03. > :07:05.water swept through Yalding and the surrounding areas. In the New Year,
:07:06. > :07:09.the environment agency says they will do a survey for every home at
:07:10. > :07:14.high risk of flooding and that residents will have ?7,500 to spend
:07:15. > :07:20.on protecting their homes. This is actually part of the blood defence.
:07:21. > :07:25.We have got these for all three of the outside doors here. The money
:07:26. > :07:30.could be used to install measures like this, measures many residents
:07:31. > :07:35.already have in place. The bottom beta of bricks were treated with
:07:36. > :07:42.some stuff to make them less porous. We have got fouls which stop the
:07:43. > :07:45.effluent -- we have valves which stop the effluent coming out of the
:07:46. > :07:54.downstairs loo and into the kitchen sink. It was up to this bar on the
:07:55. > :07:57.fence. The top? For many residents remembering the flood three years
:07:58. > :08:03.ago, they are realistic about the future. If you are going to make a
:08:04. > :08:08.property resilient, it is going to flood anyway, so you need to make it
:08:09. > :08:12.properly resilient, not piecemeal, and ?7,500 per property is not going
:08:13. > :08:16.to go very far. The government had announced a blood defence scheme
:08:17. > :08:21.back in 2014, but in August, residents were told that simply
:08:22. > :08:25.wouldn't work and instead it would be more effective to shore up houses
:08:26. > :08:28.individually. Despite disappointment in the village about the sums
:08:29. > :08:31.available, the environment agency insists their plans will make a
:08:32. > :08:35.difference. There are other things we can do, looking at whether we
:08:36. > :08:40.build small embankments or walls around communities as well, ensuring
:08:41. > :08:45.communities are as resilient as possible. We need to look at ways to
:08:46. > :08:50.keep the power on if there is a flood. Community resilience is much
:08:51. > :08:54.wider. Thankfully, residents here are confident these images will not
:08:55. > :09:01.be repeated this Christmas but they are less positive about the future.
:09:02. > :09:03.To give you some idea of how bad it was back in 2013, the man that lived
:09:04. > :09:08.in this house here said the water level was right up here. I spoke to
:09:09. > :09:12.another homeowner just up the road he said he had come up with the only
:09:13. > :09:16.solution he could think of to avoid flooding in the future. He is
:09:17. > :09:20.selling his house. There is no doubt that they are great for hearing
:09:21. > :09:26.Yalding, but not necessarily for the environment agency money. They are
:09:27. > :09:30.grateful that it is not raining as hard here as it was in 2013.
:09:31. > :09:32.A Sussex police officer who advertised himself for sexual
:09:33. > :09:35.services on an adult website while he was off sick
:09:36. > :09:38.39-year-old PC Daniel Moss was based in Hastings
:09:39. > :09:41.when he was suspended from duty at the beginning of December.
:09:42. > :09:43.Today, a public gross misconduct hearing at Sussex Police found
:09:44. > :09:45.he had behaved in a manner to discredit the police
:09:46. > :09:54.A father from Rochester who has been fighting to get his son home
:09:55. > :09:56.from Poland for more than a year has been reunited with him.
:09:57. > :09:59.Eight-year-old Max Bagnall has not seen his father Alex
:10:00. > :10:01.since his mother took him back to her home country.
:10:02. > :10:05.Despite a Polish court ruling in March that Max should be
:10:06. > :10:07.returned to his father, it has taken until now
:10:08. > :10:17.It is understood that Ms Majda has been arrested in Poland.
:10:18. > :10:18.A Sussex mental health trust, recently criticised
:10:19. > :10:21.in an independent review, has improved according
:10:22. > :10:27.Earlier this year, the Sussex Partnership NHS Trust
:10:28. > :10:29.was told it severely underestimated the threat posed by
:10:30. > :10:35.In today's report, inspectors from the health watchdog
:10:36. > :10:37.the Care Quality Commission said services at the Sussex Partnership
:10:38. > :10:43.NHS Foundation Trust were: Good for being caring and responsive.
:10:44. > :10:46.And they added that: Child and Adolescent mental health wards
:10:47. > :10:50.But they also highlighted the need for improvements in managing
:10:51. > :11:03.It's disappointing that the report overall is requires improvement but
:11:04. > :11:11.we were very close to achieving good and I believe in the CQC and they
:11:12. > :11:15.have given a commitment to come back soon and I will -- I'm very
:11:16. > :11:17.optimistic that it will be good when they do come back.
:11:18. > :11:19.Inspectors identified a number of issues where the trust has been
:11:20. > :11:22.told to make improvements including eliminating the use of mixed sex
:11:23. > :11:24.wards for adult and psychiatric intensive care patients,
:11:25. > :11:26.making sure all patients have updated risk assessments
:11:27. > :11:34.and ensuring that all medicines are handled safely.
:11:35. > :11:42.It is good that they were praising the nursing staff in certain areas
:11:43. > :11:46.like child and adolescent mental health, because it shows that with
:11:47. > :11:50.the right incentive it can be turned around. We have concerns that it
:11:51. > :11:54.still has failures in the community mental health services for adults
:11:55. > :11:57.and we are particularly concerned as to whether enough work was done in
:11:58. > :11:59.seeing that families were involved. Our Health Correspondent Mark Norman
:12:00. > :12:01.is here now and Mark, the charity there saying
:12:02. > :12:04.it is worried about the Trust not talking enough to
:12:05. > :12:14.the families of patients That's right and that's because this
:12:15. > :12:17.goes back to that review in October when the trust were really
:12:18. > :12:22.criticised. It involved ten killings committed by patients of the trust
:12:23. > :12:24.and the review said some of those killings were preventable and
:12:25. > :12:28.predictable. That's because the families had been raising concerns
:12:29. > :12:32.over many years and the trust had simply not listened or acted. The
:12:33. > :12:36.trust were told to get much better at involving families and carers and
:12:37. > :12:42.to embed that across the trust. Today's report wasn't looking at
:12:43. > :12:45.that but it did touch some of the issues and the charity said not
:12:46. > :12:49.enough was being done as they felt. There will be a new boss of the
:12:50. > :12:52.trust in the New Year and I think he will be much happier taking over the
:12:53. > :12:54.trust after this report and he would have been a year ago.
:12:55. > :12:57.A video's emerged of a senior official of the rail union the RMT,
:12:58. > :12:59.calling for an "overthrow of capitalism" to create
:13:00. > :13:03.Steve Hedley, who's the Senior Assistant General Secretary, made
:13:04. > :13:06.the comments on the television network, Russia Today.
:13:07. > :13:14.It comes after eight months of disruption and strikes
:13:15. > :13:16.on Southern Rail over the role of the guard on the train.
:13:17. > :13:18.One MP has called his comments "fundamentally
:13:19. > :13:24.Train experts say both sides in the dispute are political
:13:25. > :13:33.and have their own agendas. Maria Ramos reports.
:13:34. > :13:45.Amid the rail strikes suffocating the South of England... Bold
:13:46. > :13:54.comments have been made about his union's aims. Our union, it is clear
:13:55. > :14:00.in our pull-back that we are in a -- and antagonistic relationship with
:14:01. > :14:07.the bosses. We want to overthrow capitalism and make it a socialistic
:14:08. > :14:11.society. These comments have been met with outrage by a Kent MP. I
:14:12. > :14:16.think it is extraordinary that somebody who claims to represent the
:14:17. > :14:21.views of the United Kingdom decides to go on Russian television to admit
:14:22. > :14:26.that what he is a chilly doing is holding 300,000 people hostage now
:14:27. > :14:32.and southern rails. Other political aspects of the strike really
:14:33. > :14:36.relevant? The workers on southern railway, whether they are gods are
:14:37. > :14:43.not are probably not political. They feel they have a grievance but the
:14:44. > :14:50.bosses or the government in this case like to use that as an excuse
:14:51. > :14:57.so as not to address the issue. At Crawley station, we showed commuters
:14:58. > :15:04.his interview. I thought that was a scandal. I really did. An excuse for
:15:05. > :15:16.what they are doing. It is a big issue, obviously, but overthrowing
:15:17. > :15:18.capitalism, I don't know if that is the way to go? I don't mind over
:15:19. > :15:20.growing capitalism, but what I am saying is that it's not affecting
:15:21. > :15:23.them themselves, it is affecting us because we have to go to work.
:15:24. > :15:27.Commuters face more southern rail strikes from the 31st of December to
:15:28. > :15:33.the 2nd of January. They New Year but no new resolution.
:15:34. > :15:43.Well, BBC South East Today is hosting a special
:15:44. > :15:45.special Question Time-style debate about the ongoing crisis
:15:46. > :15:47.on Southern's rail services on Sunday the 8th of January.
:15:48. > :15:50.If you live or work in the south east and want to be
:15:51. > :15:52.in the audience, send an email to bbcraildebate@bbc.co.uk
:15:53. > :15:55.with your name, address, daytime phone number and how
:15:56. > :16:01.A Kent MP has told the Prison Minister today
:16:02. > :16:04.that there are not enough prison officers in Swaleside Prison,
:16:05. > :16:07.and they need to be paid more - Gordon Hendersen's comments come
:16:08. > :16:10.after after inmates at the prison took over a wing of the jail
:16:11. > :16:32.the lovely sound of the Rochester Cathedral choir who will have a very
:16:33. > :16:38.special rendition of once in Royal David's city for us.
:16:39. > :16:42.And although it stays very windy for the weekend, Christmas Day itself
:16:43. > :16:48.will be very mild and mostly dry. Are the details for you later in the
:16:49. > :16:51.programme. -- I'll have the details for you.
:16:52. > :16:54.One of the highlights of the BBC's Christmas schedule this year
:16:55. > :16:55.is Call The Midwife, when the nurses travel
:16:56. > :16:58.to South Africa to help out at a mission hospital.
:16:59. > :17:00.For a group of midwives from East Kent, the fiction became
:17:01. > :17:03.a reality eight years ago, when they were invited to Ethiopia
:17:04. > :17:06.by the country's health minister - to help save the lives
:17:07. > :17:09.The group were shocked by the conditions they found
:17:10. > :17:13.in the hospitals there - and have been back every year since,
:17:14. > :17:16.helping to significantly reduce mortality rates there.
:17:17. > :17:19.Amanda Akass has been to meet them at their home in Thanet
:17:20. > :17:34.It's more than 6000 miles away from Thanet and in terms of health care,
:17:35. > :17:39.Ethiopian could be in another century. But for this group of East
:17:40. > :17:45.Kent midwives, its challenges have become very familiar. Women are more
:17:46. > :17:48.likely to suffer death through haemorrhage, pre-eclampsia, have
:17:49. > :17:51.difficult labours, obstructed Labour's, Labour is becoming very
:17:52. > :17:57.long, so instead of having a baby within perhaps 12 or 18 hours, they
:17:58. > :18:03.may still be in labour day or two later. In their first trip back in
:18:04. > :18:10.2012, conditions were atrocious. This lady, the court have come down
:18:11. > :18:15.below the baby's head. Good for her, but for the baby, not so good. But
:18:16. > :18:22.the group's practical hands-on training is really making a
:18:23. > :18:28.difference. Two units. As somebody gone to get it. Hurry up, we need
:18:29. > :18:32.the blood. We go there and then later we go back and the midwife
:18:33. > :18:37.will run to us saying, look at our notes, look at what we do. Look at
:18:38. > :18:42.our hospital, how we have improved it. So it is very good to see them
:18:43. > :18:53.putting into practice what we taught them. 750 Ethiopian mothers died --
:18:54. > :18:58.die in childbirth out of every 100,000 children born in 2005. That
:18:59. > :19:05.has halved over the last ten years. Although that is far, far higher
:19:06. > :19:12.than the UK, where the figure is only nine. The conditions at the two
:19:13. > :19:17.new hospitals are very basic. We saw a young woman in hospital who had
:19:18. > :19:20.got pre-eclampsia, very high blood pressure, at the end of her
:19:21. > :19:25.pregnancy. She went on to have Atlantic fits. All she needed was
:19:26. > :19:30.some medication and then she and the baby would have lived but they
:19:31. > :19:35.didn't have any medication and editor in a room on her own, on a
:19:36. > :19:41.mattress on the floor, and she fitted and died. That was for the
:19:42. > :19:47.lack of something that cost only ?7. It is things like that that further
:19:48. > :19:58.on to do more. The preparation is already in place for their next trip
:19:59. > :20:03.in March. They call themselves the cosy group, their aim to create
:20:04. > :20:10.cheer across Herne Bay. The decorations have been so popular
:20:11. > :20:12.that the number of cosies, as they are called, has more
:20:13. > :20:15.than doubled to thirty and are drawing sightseeers
:20:16. > :20:20.from across kent. Christmas is all stitched up in
:20:21. > :20:27.Herne Bay. Every postbox in the seaside town has been transformed
:20:28. > :20:31.into a woolly wonder. This is all grey shade. If you can follow a
:20:32. > :20:34.pattern, it is fairly easy once you get the hang of it. And if you
:20:35. > :20:40.haven't got a pattern, you make it up as you go along. Each Christmas
:20:41. > :20:47.topper takes a month to make. They come in all shapes and sizes,
:20:48. > :20:51.crocheted. The idea was to create a giant pudding and then I thought, we
:20:52. > :20:56.will have a carol singer and have him saying, bring us a biggie
:20:57. > :21:02.pudding. He was meant to stand aside but it wasn't good enough, so he had
:21:03. > :21:07.to stand on the top. Last year we made 11 and we had a massive
:21:08. > :21:12.response to that, really. Lots of ladies saw them and wanted to join
:21:13. > :21:16.the crew and do some knitting and decorate the postbox, so this Deal
:21:17. > :21:22.we have made 30 and one lady has made five. The idea was to spread
:21:23. > :21:32.some Christmas cheer across the town and it has certainly done that. It
:21:33. > :21:38.is just such a lovely community idea that we have come to have a look. I
:21:39. > :21:42.think when you pass by, even if you are in your car, you smile as soon
:21:43. > :21:48.as you see it. You see lots of people taking photos, so it has been
:21:49. > :21:53.a very positive thing for the town. We don't get that in Sussex. I've
:21:54. > :21:57.not seen that at all. I think it would catch on. A town dressed for
:21:58. > :22:04.the festivities helping spin a yarn this Christmas.
:22:05. > :22:07.Christie is in Herne Bay now. People have been travelling from all over
:22:08. > :22:12.the place to see these things, haven't they? They have proved
:22:13. > :22:15.incredibly popular. A couple today came from Uckfield in East Sussex
:22:16. > :22:19.and a mother and son who had driven from Ashford. You may not know but
:22:20. > :22:25.there is actually a topper trail, so if I show you very quickly, you can
:22:26. > :22:31.literally go round, oh my golly, it is so windy out here, you can go
:22:32. > :22:38.round and see all 30 of them. This one is my favourite, the nativity
:22:39. > :22:42.scene, that was stolen last weekend but it has been returned, as you can
:22:43. > :22:48.see. Thank you. You might want to get that laminated for this weather.
:22:49. > :22:50.Throughout the year we've been speaking to celebrities who live
:22:51. > :22:53.in the South East and those who've been passing through...
:22:54. > :22:56.We always like to ask them to share a festive Christmas
:22:57. > :22:59.message with us all - today we're kicking off with acting
:23:00. > :23:06.A very Merry Christmas to all the BBC South East viewers. Have a
:23:07. > :23:12.wonderful time. I would like to wish all of you are very, very happy
:23:13. > :23:16.Christmas. Hi, I am Rick Astley and I'd like to wish all the BBC South
:23:17. > :23:24.East viewers a great Christmas and a fantastic New Year. Lots of love.
:23:25. > :23:26.Ah, lovely. Snow globes there. But no sign of snow. In fact, possibly
:23:27. > :23:34.the warmest Christmas and record? It is
:23:35. > :23:41.very windy and very mild as we look toward the Christmas weekend. Today,
:23:42. > :23:46.we had gusts of wind and excess of 40 mph. Storm Barbra is to the north
:23:47. > :23:51.of us but mostly it is dry for us. There aren't any warnings in place.
:23:52. > :23:55.Earlier we were dry but there is a band of rain coming in, intensifying
:23:56. > :23:58.through the first part of this evening, but because of the strength
:23:59. > :24:02.of the winds, it will go through quickly and behind it we have
:24:03. > :24:08.clearer skies. The winds will be picking up, so we shouldn't see a
:24:09. > :24:14.frost, but even so it will feel bitterly cold with the winds making
:24:15. > :24:18.it chillier than the minimum temperatures. It is a decent day for
:24:19. > :24:23.Christmas Eve if you have shopping to do. Decent spells of sunshine,
:24:24. > :24:28.with those tightly spaced isobars indicating the strength of the wind.
:24:29. > :24:32.Gusting along the south coast at 30 to 40 mph. Temperatures by the
:24:33. > :24:38.afternoon raging between eight and 11 degrees. A pleasant afternoon. As
:24:39. > :24:42.we go from Saturday into Christmas Day itself, we are going to be
:24:43. > :24:49.seeing a warm front bringing a bit more cloud cover with patchy drivel
:24:50. > :24:53.at times. -- patchy drivel at times. We start Christmas Day with
:24:54. > :24:59.temperatures already at around eight or 10 degrees. Very mild. Mostly we
:25:00. > :25:04.will stay dry as we had the D-Day and by the afternoon, yes, it will
:25:05. > :25:09.be blustery, but the afternoon could see highs of around 14 degrees. The
:25:10. > :25:14.warmest Christmas and record was 15.6 degrees. As you go into Boxing
:25:15. > :25:18.Day, a band of rain clears through, it is chilly but settled as you head
:25:19. > :25:22.through Boxing Day. Perfect for a walk.
:25:23. > :25:29.Thank you very much, Rachel. Join me. I am lamely on the sober. We are
:25:30. > :25:35.going to leave you -- I am lonely and the sober. We are going to leave
:25:36. > :26:04.you with a beautiful carol. Have a very Merry Christmas.
:26:05. > :26:23.Cash he came down from Earth to heaven