Latest news with #BBCEastMidlandsToday
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Yahoo
Nottingham attack survivor: I wish I'd died
A survivor of the Nottingham stabbings has told how she wishes the killer had taken her instead of the two young students who 'had their lives ahead of them'. Sharon Miller was walking to work on the morning of June 13, 2023 when she was hit by a van driven by Valdo Calocane in the city centre. Calocane had already fatally stabbed university students Barnaby Webber and Grace O'Malley-Kumar, both 19, and school caretaker Ian Coates, 65, an hour earlier. Ms Miller and two other pedestrians, Wayne Birkett and Marcin Gawronski, who were also struck by the van, were left seriously injured. In an interview with BBC East Midlands Today, Ms Miller said it was the emotional damage and the guilt of surviving that weighed heaviest. 'When I heard what had happened to Barnaby or Grace, I thought, 'I wish he'd took me instead of them',' Ms Miller, 46, said. 'They were so young and still had their lives ahead of them – you just feel so guilty.' 'You should be able to go to work, and they should be able to walk around. Ian should have been able to get into his van and go to work. It's just so wrong.' Mr Birkett, 61, who suffered a traumatic brain injury and lost all memory of the attack and of his life before it, echoed the same feeling: 'I would have swapped my life for one of those poor students – without a doubt.' The forklift driver spent more than six weeks in hospital and has had to relearn how to read, eat and perform basic tasks. 'It's horrible not having any memory,' he said. 'My legs hurt all the time, my back hurts, I get headaches all the time.' Ms Miller, who had been heading to her job as a cleaner when she was hit, said: 'I saw the van, and the next minute I'm in the air. I thought I was dying – all I could see was white.' She broke five ribs, injured her spleen and was left with a badly infected leg wound. 'I'm still in a lot of pain,' she said. 'I don't like going out. I was never like that before.' Calocane, who had paranoid schizophrenia, was sentenced to an indefinite hospital order in January after admitting three counts of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, and three counts of attempted murder. Ms Miller and Mr Birkett are among those expected to give evidence to a public inquiry into the attacks, chaired by Judge Deborah Taylor. Their solicitor, Greg Almond, said: 'They want to put their story across and make sure they're not forgotten survivors.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Campbell 'working hard' to open gym that can 'inspire'
Great Britain's record-breaking weightlifter Emily Campbell says she is planning to open a dedicated strength-training gym to try to "inspire" more people to take up the sport. The 30-year-old first spoke of her desire to open a gym after she claimed an Olympic bronze medal in the women's +81kg category at the 2024 Paris Games. Since claiming that second Olympic medal - having won silver at the Tokyo Games - Campbell has made history as the first British weightlifter to win five consecutive European titles. She collected her latest gold medal in the +87kg category in Chisinau, Moldova, on Monday and by Wednesday said she was looking for a venue to set up her sporting venture in her home city of Nottingham. "My big aim is to get a strength gym opening in Nottingham sometime soon," Campbell told BBC East Midlands Today. "I'm working really hard in the background to get the wheels in motion. "I definitely need some support from Nottingham in finding a premises. So if there is anybody out there in the council that could help me out that would be fantastic." Britain's Campbell wins fifth European title Weightlifter Campbell wants to 'leave real legacy' Campbell wins final GB medal of Paris Olympics When Campbell made history as the first British woman to win an Olympic weightlifting medal at the Tokyo Games in 2021, she did so helped by the support of the community she grew up in. The efforts of friends and family who spent years helping her raise money to train and compete when funding was scarce, before her breakthrough success in Japan catapulted her to sporting stardom, is something that continues to drive her. "It feels like I have given a present back to everyone in my community that helped me out and believed in me when maybe the wider world didn't," said Campbell. "It still means the world to me." While establishing herself as one of Britain's finest ever weightlifters has been Campbell's way of repaying the faith put in her, she is now looking to use the profile her collection of Olympic, Commonwealth Games and European medals has given her to give back. Campbell has long used the sport she has conquered, and the attention it has brought, as a way to promote body positivity. Running a gym in the city she was raised in is how she now wants to make a direct impact on people's lives. Making it a "humble facility" that is "accessible to everyone" - from beginners to those looking to advance in the sport - is her ambition. "I hope people watch our sport and see that you can be 45kg and 4ft 11in, or be like me, nearly 6ft and 130kg, and you can still perform to a high level," said Campbell. "There is a weight category for everybody in our sport and I think that definitely inspires more people to realise they fit in a lot more than they think they do."
BBC News
25-04-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Campbell 'working hard' to open gym that can 'inspire'
Great Britain's record-breaking weightlifter Emily Campbell says she is planning to open a dedicated strength-training gym to try to "inspire" more people to take up the 30-year-old first spoke of her desire to open a gym after she claimed an Olympic bronze medal in the women's +81kg category at the 2024 Paris claiming that second Olympic medal - having won silver at the Tokyo Games - Campbell has made history as the first British weightlifter to win five consecutive European collected her latest gold medal in the +87kg category in Chisinau, Moldova, on Monday and by Wednesday said she was looking for a venue to set up her sporting venture in her home city of Nottingham."My big aim is to get a strength gym opening in Nottingham sometime soon," Campbell told BBC East Midlands Today. "I'm working really hard in the background to get the wheels in motion. "I definitely need some support from Nottingham in finding a premises. So if there is anybody out there in the council that could help me out that would be fantastic." When Campbell made history as the first British woman to win an Olympic weightlifting medal at the Tokyo Games in 2021, she did so helped by the support of the community she grew up efforts of friends and family who spent years helping her raise money to train and compete when funding was scarce, before her breakthrough success in Japan catapulted her to sporting stardom, is something that continues to drive her."It feels like I have given a present back to everyone in my community that helped me out and believed in me when maybe the wider world didn't," said Campbell."It still means the world to me."While establishing herself as one of Britain's finest ever weightlifters has been Campbell's way of repaying the faith put in her, she is now looking to use the profile her collection of Olympic, Commonwealth Games and European medals has given her to give has long used the sport she has conquered, and the attention it has brought, as a way to promote body a gym in the city she was raised in is how she now wants to make a direct impact on people's it a "humble facility" that is "accessible to everyone" - from beginners to those looking to advance in the sport - is her ambition."I hope people watch our sport and see that you can be 45kg and 4ft 11in, or be like me, nearly 6ft and 130kg, and you can still perform to a high level," said Campbell. "There is a weight category for everybody in our sport and I think that definitely inspires more people to realise they fit in a lot more than they think they do."
BBC News
16-03-2025
- Business
- BBC News
A hope for Nottingham Broad Marsh after years of false dawns
"This is the year when we're going to see progress." East Midlands Mayor Claire Ward sounded confident the long-awaited redevelopment of Nottingham's Broad Marsh was on the horizon as she spoke about the project this decades of grand plans - always accompanied with the customary artist's impressions which have always failed to materialise - city residents would be forgiven for being with two seemingly important announcements this week, can Nottingham finally wave farewell to the mound of concrete and twisted metal the Broad Marsh has become? Plans, proposals and promises "There are more development opportunities here than anywhere else, and this development will act as the catalyst for all of them."That might sound like a politician or city planner talking about the site as it is in 2025, but it's fact, that was an architect speaking to BBC East Midlands Today about redeveloping the Broad Marsh in November then, the concrete monolith, built in the brutalist style common of the 1960s and 70s, was already looking at the time would have seen nearby Collin Street "put under glass", with new shops and a paved square."Work could begin next year," the BBC report marked the beginning of a string of proposals that all came to 1998, further plans promised 104 shops, a multiplex cinema, and a nightclub."I think it's the latest stage in Nottingham city centre's quite long battle to continue to be the leading shopping centre in the East Midlands," said retail expert Paul Whysall at the time. By 2002, a £400m expansion scheme had been approved by city planners, with then-owners Westfield declaring it an important "milestone" for the entrances at Lister Gate and Collin Street both saw refurbishment work, but the bigger plans once again never came to fruition, with the financial crash and recession blamed for further proposals submitted in 2010 were proven to be shortlived when just a year later, Westfield announced it was selling its stake in the was bought by Capital Shopping Centres - later renamed intu - which already owned the city's other major shopping venue, the Victoria years that followed saw back-and-forth rows with the city council over which centre intu would redevelop more and more units were left vacant, it took until 2015 for intu's own vision for a revamp to be company planned to spend £114m turning it into a "leisure destination" with more restaurants, cafes and a cinema, and 2018 was touted as a possible opening date. That - of course - wasn't to be, but by the end of the decade the city council had committed £50m to the scheme and work was finally under long last, it looked like it was for real, with redevelopment taking place in front of people's eyes rather than just on is until 2020, when the Covid pandemic meant work was meant more than just a pause in construction. Intu was already struggling financially and the first lockdown seemed to finish off the shopping centre company entered administration in June of that year, leaving the Broad Marsh site was immediately handed back to the city council, which was quick to say it didn't have the resources to take on the redevelopment on its leader David Mellen called the collapse a "major blow" for the city - and millions of pounds of taxpayers' money appeared to have been lost - but it did at least provide an opportunity for a rethink. An advisory group was assembled, bringing together experts from different sectors, and in 2021 a new "vision" was created with the help of world famous designer Thomas involved retaining some of the old shopping centre frame and reconnecting ancient streets with a green space at its the biggest barrier remained - council applied for grants from the previous government's Levelling Up Fund, but missed out on three surrounding area saw progress with the opening of the new Broad Marsh car park and central library in 2021 and 2023 in 2024, part of the vision became a reality with the opening of the new "green heart".But however welcome the new additions may be, the elephant in the room at each unveiling has been the shell of the shopping centre itself, still casting a shadow over the grey concrete may have been hidden behind green hoarding - but it's still there. The idea to retain the frame was dropped late last year, and this week's approval of funding for demolition work does make it seem like its days are again, Nottingham is hearing politicians' promises that it is for real this time, but after all the false dawns, there will be those who only believe it when they see Whysall, who was quoted in the BBC report from 1998, is now 77 and an emeritus professor of retailing at Nottingham Business many false dawns, he feels the saga is now finally drawing to a felt the decline of retail on the site was "inevitable", having always been the "second best" of the city's two shopping venues."It's a highly strategic location for the city, between the centre and the railway station, but it's never quite lived up to its potential," he added a change towards more residential use made sense."I think it's about the city coming to terms with the changing role of a city centre," he said."Retailing cannot be expected to do as much as it used to do."We expect to hear more about how exactly it is set to change in the coming weeks, but with construction work now set to start in 2029, according to the city council, there is some way still to may not be the end of the Broad Marsh nightmare, but perhaps it is the beginning of the end.
BBC News
09-02-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
'People are dying', say ex-miners waiting for pension cash
Several former mineworkers have expressed anger after a senior minister said they would have to wait until later this year to find out if they will receive some of the surplus money in their pension Rachel Reeves announced in last year's Budget members of the Mineworkers' Pension Scheme (MPS) would receive extra said it would mean "working people who powered our country receive the fair pension they are owed".But there was no mention of the British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme (BCSSS), which includes ex-miners as members along with people who held other roles in the industry. Speaking to BBC East Midlands Today, the chief secretary to the Treasury, Darren Jones, indicated there would be an announcement in the next Budget, saying "we'll be able to say more towards the end of the year". 'We don't have time' But former miner Dave Drury, who worked at Welbeck Colliery in Nottinghamshire, said he was angry at the minister's comments."It's just somebody sat down with a pen who just needs to sign that off," he said."Probably 2,000 miners a year are dying of old age and respiratory mining-related diseases. "They ain't got time to wait. It's six-a-day I think it works out at. So whoever's got the pen, get it signed."After 14 years at the coalface, Mr Drury became a training officer for a year and his pension was transferred from the MPS to the BCSSS."We were all fighting together, but I do think it's as simple as someone's looked down at a piece of paper and seen 'mineworkers' pensions' and they've added the word 'scheme' on the end," he said."And adding that word 'scheme' has excluded the BCSSS." Of the roughly 40,000 BCSSS members, about 40% are Smith, who worked at the Coal Board, based in Mansfield, said: "It's not government money, it's not taxpayers' money, it's the scheme members' money and we'll like that money back to improve our standard of living."We're losing five or six members a day so every day that this gets dragged out more people are not going to benefit and I don't think that's fair."Mansfield's Labour MP Steve Yemm – whose constituency contains the highest number of BCSSS members in the country – also questioned why it was taking so long."This requires a signature by a civil servant to sign over the reserve, and I can't really understand why it would take any length of time to do that," he was one of 41 Labour MPs from coalfield constituencies who wrote a letter to Darren Jones in January, warning "the matter of securing pension justice for mining communities remains incomplete"."We urge you to prioritise this issue and address it without delay," they Jones argued there were various issues still to be said: "You've got to do the work around how much money is in the scheme, how much is guaranteed for pensioners, what's the risk profile."All of those conversations for the Mineworkers' Pensions Scheme had happened before the election…which is why we could move quickly."Jones confirmed that the government was in "active conversations" with the BCSSS trustees and asked if that meant there would be an announcement in the next Budget, he said: "That would be a time to pay attention, yes."
