Local Democracy Reporting Service

Image source, Owen Sheppard

A West End club which has hosted bands since the 1960s, from the Stones to Amy Winehouse, will trial technology designed to keep people Covid-secure when it is able to reopen.

Jeff Horton who runs the 100 Club said he hopes it will be a "game changer" so entertainment venues can open once London is out of lockdown. He said: “When this is over it will be like the Roaring 20s without any question.”

The ventilation system is designed to wipe out 99.9 per cent of pathogens using high intensity ultraviolet light, similar to systems used to disinfect operating theatres.

Mr Horton stressed other safety measures such as requiring a negative Covid test will also be used. He said it could be some time before the venue is back to its 350 capacity.

Anti-HS2 activists have been living under Euston Square Gardens in an attempt to stop their eviction.

The housing secretary says cladding scandal will end "in a way that is fair and generous" to leaseholders.

Homeless Alexandru Stan has been described by a legal expert as a victim of the "innocence tax".

Image source, PA Media

Protesters objecting to the HS2 rail link have daubed the front of the Department of Transport with pink paint.

Activists from the group Burning Pink claimed on social media that two members had "sent a message of love for our world and disdain at the corporate killing machine".

Police were stationed near the building on Wednesday morning where paint had been thrown over the door, windows, walls and pavement.

Burning Pink said it was "disgusted by the Department of Transport and their complicity in the demise of what little we have left in the way of nature and beauty".

It follows recent protest action that saw anti-HS2 activists dig and inhabit tunnels outside Euston station in a bid to protect gardens at the front of the rail hub.

The housing secretary will make a statement later, as thousands face huge bills for safety renovations.

Local Democracy Reporting Service

The number of patients catching Covid at two hospitals in east London spiked in December because on-site tests were not catching the new variant.

The Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust (BHRUT) suggests outbreaks increased sharply since November because on-site Covid tests were “not fully sensitive to the newly identified variant strain”.

During December, the new UK variant of the Covid virus was thought to be responsible for almost two-thirds of infections in London.

About a fifth of patients who have tested positive for Covid at King George Hospital in Ilford and Queen’s Hospital in Romford since the start of the pandemic, "definitely or probably" caught it in hospital.

On December 23, the trust “urgently stopped in-house testing and sent all tests to outsourced laboratories”. It plans to look into how many of its patients that tested negative in hospital later tested positive for the new strain of the virus at a testing facility.

The force is accused of having a "cover-up" culture following its inquiry into false allegations.

Image source, London Fire Brigade

Firefighters are tackling a blaze at a six-storey block in Greenwich.

Around 40 firefighters are working to put the blaze out which started in a second floor flat on Parkside Avenue. London Fire Brigade were called at 08:12 GMT and crews from Greenwich, Lewisham, Deptford, New Cross, Lee Green and Forest Hill are at the scene.

The cause of the fire is not known at this stage. No injuries have been reported.

The men did not manage to take any beauty spot photos as their phone batteries had died, police say.

BBC Weather

Any locally prolonged and heavy snow showers in the morning should diminish through the afternoon and sunny spells develop.

Cold with a brisk northeasterly wind.

Maximum Temperature: -1C to 2C (30F to 36F).

Survivors of the London Docklands bombing renew calls for compensation, 25 years on from the blast.

The entrance to the 'tunnel' is at Highbury Corner and was disguised by soil and pallets.

The 30-year-old worker was hit by a South Western Railway train on Tuesday morning.

Shauna and Patrick McDonagh both died after being chased by police along the A40 in February 2019.

Seven-year-old Harvey Tyrrell was electrocuted after climbing over a pub wall in Romford.

A fire-retardant product could have been sold instead, the inquiry into the 2017 tower fire hears.

Sahayb Abu rapped to say "I'll send you to the clouds, 10 shots in your chest", the Old Bailey heard.

A charity says there hasn't been enough help for zoos and their animals in the pandemic.

A 16-year-old boy who was also injured in the attack remains in hospital, detectives have said.