:00:00. > :00:00.me now on BBC Two. That's Newsnight with Emily in
:00:00. > :00:00.Washington. Today's main headlines
:00:00. > :00:07.in the South East: A call for urgent action to tackle
:00:08. > :00:24.the gangs exploiting children Children as young as 11 are being
:00:25. > :00:26.used as drug mules. Selling drugs or hiding drugs for major drug dealers
:00:27. > :00:28.coming from London. Accused of breaking legal
:00:29. > :00:30.limits with a mountain of discarded mattresses,
:00:31. > :00:32.a Kent man claims the figures And we have another bitterly cold
:00:33. > :00:36.night tonight, with warnings from the Met Office this cold
:00:37. > :00:52.weather lasts till Tuesday. A national plan is needed urgently
:00:53. > :00:58.to crack down on the criminal gangs exploiting inner-city children
:00:59. > :01:00.as young as 11 to sell That's the view of councillors
:01:01. > :01:06.from 19 local authorities who've written a joint letter
:01:07. > :01:09.to the Home Secretary, claiming the issue "has the potential to be
:01:10. > :01:11.the next grooming scandal". It's been likened to a poison
:01:12. > :01:25.spreading out from the capital At the last count, more than 181
:01:26. > :01:28.urban gangs sending upward of 800 people into counties like Kent,
:01:29. > :01:40.Surrey and Sussex. Children allegedly, as young as 12,
:01:41. > :01:42.acting as carriers. From London, it's very easy
:01:43. > :01:46.to travel into Essex, into Kent, Sussex, Surrey,
:01:47. > :01:47.Hampshire, Wiltshire, Thames Valley. They are not travelling
:01:48. > :01:49.any further than that Francis is a former gang member,
:01:50. > :01:54.who now runs a charity helping They are exploiting young
:01:55. > :02:00.children to sell drugs. The impact on that
:02:01. > :02:05.young child is huge. They are grooming children
:02:06. > :02:09.to become drug dealers, or to sell drugs for major
:02:10. > :02:11.drug dealers from London. So it's a safeguarding
:02:12. > :02:13.matter, we can't just Today, in what was called
:02:14. > :02:18.an unprecedented move, 19 London boroughs have written
:02:19. > :02:20.to the Home Secretary They say gang leaders
:02:21. > :02:27.are using serious violence, kidnap and weapons, and ruthless
:02:28. > :02:29.debt control to They say they believe it
:02:30. > :02:33.has the potential to be We've been worried for some time
:02:34. > :02:43.that there have been London gangs coming down to Kent,
:02:44. > :02:45.particularly in Thanet, where it is often reported London
:02:46. > :02:48.gangs are responsible for a lot But the thought of young vulnerable
:02:49. > :02:58.children being sent for this Nick is the former head
:02:59. > :03:02.of Kent Police's drug squad. They are using vulnerable people,
:03:03. > :03:05.people who they know have probably got no-one to report to,
:03:06. > :03:08.come back to, their parents, it's probably a dysfunctional family,
:03:09. > :03:10.and they use that vulnerability to their own advantage
:03:11. > :03:12.and don't give a damn With the threat of drug gangs
:03:13. > :03:21.seemingly driving deeper into the South East,
:03:22. > :03:25.a call today for new measures, to battle a trade now
:03:26. > :03:28.using child exploitation Our reporter Charlie Rose
:03:29. > :03:31.has been following the story ? Charlie, what has
:03:32. > :03:41.the Home Office had to say? Just to be clear, those 19 London
:03:42. > :03:45.borough is called for a clear national strategy and action plan
:03:46. > :03:49.from the Government. Tonight we put that to the Home Office, they said
:03:50. > :03:57.this issue is being addressed and they have a programme to end gang
:03:58. > :04:00.violence. They told us they are working with law enforcement
:04:01. > :04:04.agencies and local charities to tackle the problem, and she says
:04:05. > :04:05.they have formed a new partnership to support local areas facing gang
:04:06. > :04:08.problems. A businessman accused of blighting
:04:09. > :04:11.a Kent village with a mountain of discarded mattresses has told
:04:12. > :04:13.a court his personal life was "an absolute living hell"
:04:14. > :04:16.at the time he was trying Lewis Bertram - who ran a recycling
:04:17. > :04:22.business in Smarden near Ashford - is accused of having more
:04:23. > :04:24.than double the amount He told Canterbury Crown Court today
:04:25. > :04:32.that that figure was "impossible". Piled high, a potential fire
:04:33. > :04:36.risk and environmental Lewis Bertram's business took
:04:37. > :04:45.on mattresses, and recycled The jury was told he had a strict
:04:46. > :04:50.limit of possessing 1,000 tonnes of textiles at a time -
:04:51. > :04:52.the Environment Agency believes the total weight
:04:53. > :04:55.on site was 2,300 tonnes. Lewis Bertram, though, described
:04:56. > :04:59.that as an "impossible" estimation. Physically, he said,
:05:00. > :05:01.it's impossible to carry that sort He told the court there was
:05:02. > :05:09.500 to 800 tonnes maximum. He said he didn't store
:05:10. > :05:12.mattresses outside. He admitted he'd been going
:05:13. > :05:28.through a difficult time personally. He said he had been surviving
:05:29. > :05:31.on two hours' sleep per night. Mr Bertram admitted the site
:05:32. > :05:33.was never going to look He said he'd paid for
:05:34. > :05:37.a shredder to help clear it, He insisted he had been
:05:38. > :05:41.trying his level best to appease He described himself
:05:42. > :05:46.as passionate about his business. Lewis Bertram denies knowingly
:05:47. > :05:48.permitting the deposit of waste on land without an environmental
:05:49. > :05:50.permit, and failing to comply The notorious road rage
:05:51. > :05:59.killer Kenneth Noye, who stabbed a man to death on a Kent
:06:00. > :06:03.motorway, has launched a High Court appeal for the right to be moved
:06:04. > :06:11.to open prison conditions. The 69-year-old was given a life
:06:12. > :06:15.sentence for the murder of Stephen Cameron on the M25
:06:16. > :06:18.at Swanley in 1996. Southern Rail managers have urged
:06:19. > :06:21.the RMT union to call off a 24-hour It follows the suspension of three
:06:22. > :06:29.days of strikes that the Aslef union Aslef and Southern have spent
:06:30. > :06:36.a second day in talks aimed at ending their industrial dispute
:06:37. > :06:38.over the safety of driver-only operation - but the RMT are angry
:06:39. > :06:45.that they've been excluded. Council tax in West Sussex is set
:06:46. > :06:48.to rise by almost 4% under proposals put forward
:06:49. > :06:53.by county councillors today. The authority is facing a budget
:06:54. > :06:56.shortfall of more than ?41 million - and says the council tax increase
:06:57. > :07:05.would raise more than ?15 million. The Historic Dockyard in Chatham
:07:06. > :07:08.is to receive almost ?5 million of Heritage Lottery money to restore
:07:09. > :07:14.one of its most important buildings, The Fitted Rigging House,
:07:15. > :07:16.which dates back as early as 1793. The lottery funding will enable
:07:17. > :07:22.its conversion to become the dockyard's archive
:07:23. > :07:24.and volunteer centre. Transformed by the magic
:07:25. > :07:31.of television into a street scene from the East End of London
:07:32. > :07:35.in the 1950s. But inside the brick
:07:36. > :07:37.buildings made famous by Call The Midwife,
:07:38. > :07:40.is an empty shell, unused since the dockyard closed in 1984 -
:07:41. > :07:44.but now it's going to get its own dramatic new lease of life,
:07:45. > :07:50.thanks to a lottery grant. The Heritage Lottery Fund that has
:07:51. > :07:53.been announced today is absolutely essential in bringing these
:07:54. > :07:57.buildings back to life. It will help with the initial
:07:58. > :07:59.restoration and repair, but in turn it will make
:08:00. > :08:02.sure that commercial opportunities can come in here,
:08:03. > :08:04.businesses can come in here Built just after Victor Hugo
:08:05. > :08:09.wrote Les Miserables, it was a fitting tribute
:08:10. > :08:13.the Hollywood movie was filmed here. But these naval buildings
:08:14. > :08:15.will no longer just be Part of this project
:08:16. > :08:21.is about commercial return - creating offices, basically -
:08:22. > :08:23.but also of course, being a charitable trust
:08:24. > :08:26.that is about education, we want to develop the museum,
:08:27. > :08:32.the reading room and the library and archive, and make that
:08:33. > :08:37.much more publicly accessible. ARCHIVE: If all 7,000 people
:08:38. > :08:39.in the dockyard are dismissed, Chatham's unemployment rate
:08:40. > :08:41.would shoot up from And when that happened,
:08:42. > :08:49.the Rigging House was redundant. But finally finding a new role
:08:50. > :08:52.for this Grade I listed building, The building was used
:08:53. > :08:56.as a storehouse right up until the Navy board left in '84,
:08:57. > :09:00.and this is how we found it, nothing Its sheer size has
:09:01. > :09:11.hindered its restoration - but now, thanks to millions
:09:12. > :09:13.of pounds of funding, Peter Whittlesea reporting,
:09:14. > :09:16.and Chrissie Reidy is Chrissie, it's a building well known
:09:17. > :09:33.to millions of TV viewers, isn't it? I used to think the historic
:09:34. > :09:37.dockyard was one of the best kept secrets, but it does seem that more
:09:38. > :09:44.and more people are cottoning on to this little gem, especially
:09:45. > :09:51.movie-makers. Kanye West filmed a music video as well, Mr Selfridge,
:09:52. > :10:00.and you might recognise this street from: the midwife. -- call the
:10:01. > :10:01.midwife. The new series starts on Sunday evening on BBC One.
:10:02. > :10:03.That's it from me; we'll have the national weather
:10:04. > :10:06.in a moment, first here's the forecast for the
:10:07. > :10:15.It's been a very cold, crisp day and we've got warnings out from the Met
:10:16. > :10:20.Office that this cold weather is set to continue. Very cold air from the
:10:21. > :10:25.near continent is being dragged up towards us, and we have an area of
:10:26. > :10:29.high pressure giving as very settled, bright days, but those
:10:30. > :10:33.clearer skies mean particularly overnight those temperatures are
:10:34. > :10:38.plummeting. Overnight lows in more readable sports tonight once again
:10:39. > :10:43.dropping as low as may be minus six degrees and even in towns and
:10:44. > :10:48.cities, -1 or minus two. Once again a frosty start of the day, lots of
:10:49. > :10:54.sunshine from the word go. This area of high pressure giving us a settled
:10:55. > :10:59.day. Light, easterly winds, and by the afternoon temperatures creeping
:11:00. > :11:02.just about to 45 degrees. But if you wrap up warm, a very pleasant day.
:11:03. > :11:06.Very similar as we look towards looks as though we can, a bit more
:11:07. > :11:12.cloud on Sunday. Now the national picture.
:11:13. > :11:17.Good evening, it will gradually get colder in the UK in the next few
:11:18. > :11:20.days, something we don't have to worry about in Australia at this
:11:21. > :11:23.time of year. Of course it's the Australian tennis open at the moment
:11:24. > :11:30.and there's a big storm moving through Melbourne at the moment.
:11:31. > :11:32.Hopefully it will have cleared through by the time of Andy Murray's