10/02/2014 BBC Points West

reputation enhanced. That's it. Starting on BBC Two now,

Jeremy Paxman asks Good evening ` The Environment

Agency has launched its latest effort to rid the Somerset Levels of

water. Huge pumps have been shipped in from Holland and dams have been

built to protect homes, ahead of an ambitious plan to open one of the

main sluice gates on the moors. But it could put homes at risk. Scott

Ellis is there tonight. Yes, the engineers are beavering away in the

darkness, working away. They have high volume pumps here and the big

plan is to pump all the water here to the other side, onto the Moors,

and out to the sea. If you start moving water around the Moors,

somebody somewhere else could lose out. These are the giant Dutch pumps

that it is hoped will ease flooding on the Somerset Levels. They take

water away from the swollen River Parrot. It will be pumped north out

to sea. It means opening a sluice gate on the River Parrot. That

worries some residents, like Ron Smith. His house has flooded four

times since Christmas and he is worried that when the Environment

Agency opens the sluice gate, water will spill on land, perilously close

to his house. We are sacrificial lambs. There was no question about

it. They have to give it a guarantee that if the outcome goes wrong, they

will underwrite the value of the property. A dam is being built to

protect homes from the threat of floods but there are no guarantees.

It is an uncertain business but we will do our best to protect these

homes and properties. Is Ron writes to be worried? Yes. All the

residents are worried. The Environment Agency said it will open

the sluice gate slowly and the water will be monitored. They say they

need to ease the pressure on the river to prevent flooding. The

Environment Agency have said to Ron that they will guarantee his home

will not floods but he wants it in writing and he is even considering

an injunction to stop them opening the sluice gate. We have had 56

homes and businesses flooded in Gloucestershire tonight and another

MP in the region, Nick Clegg, has been in Somerset, and has admitted

that the work of the Environment Agency is restricted by spending

rules set out by the Treasury. Will they be relaxed in the future or

will they be able to afford these high volume pumps? The plan is to

switch them on on Wednesday. Thank you. And you can get the latest on

the floods in your area on your local BBC Radio stations and the BBC

Website. In other news ` It's emerged that six lions have been put

down at Longleat safari park in Wiltshire. One male lion was said to

have been badly injured in a fight, the others, a lioness and four cubs,

had genetic disorders. Park managers said because of those disorders and

an increase in the lion population, putting them to sleep was the

responsible thing to do. Will Glennon has been speaking to the

parks Director of Animal Operations. On the 7th of January, Henry was

beaten up by his brother. The wound that was sustained it was so severe

that, despite treatment, we felt we could not return to normal life and

we humanely euthanasia him on a welfare grounds. What about the

others? They had progressive neurological diseases and they had

been slowly getting worse. The Cubs got to around 12 months of age and

they had similar signs so we thought it was a genetic disease. They were

getting worse and we could not give them a good quality of life. Some

welfare groups are saying that you should not have been breeding from

the Weezer in the first place if there were problems. I agree. ``

Louisa. It is something we do choose but in the case of the Louise, she

was OK genetically but it only became apparent that her jeans were

leading to this problem and it was not nutritional, and it was a

genetic problem. That is why the decision was made, as sad as it was.

The lioness was not read here at Longleat but was born in

Cambridgeshire and then transferred to North Somerset before arriving

here. `` she was not read here. `` read. There was some good news for

the west's digital entrepreneurs today. Two million pounds was

invested in new high`tech firms and there was a

royal visit as well. Prince Andrew came to Bristol to see a centre for

a brand`new web design firms. It is important to see the people

themselves. And you can see the full interview with Prince Andrew on our

Facebook page. There's more news on the BBC Website. We'll be back in

Breakfast tomorrow. But now let s take a look at the weather with Ian.

Breakfast tomorrow. But now let s take a look at Thank you. We have

just learned that First Great Western have announced there will be

disruption on the line between Paddington and Reading juju

flooding. Do bear that in mind if you are heading that way. We have

more rain on the way. `` due to flooding. It will be wet and on

Wednesday night we will have the potential for strong and damaging

winds. We could see gusts of 80 mph, possibly more than that. A lot of

detail to be fine tuned. Temperatures down to two or three

Celsius until 4am. After that, the rain will sweep westwards. Some

squaw Lee gusts of wind is and through the afternoon it will be

dry, right and chilly. A few showers around, some turning wintry

overnight, particularly in Gloucestershire. Temperatures about

six or seven. Here is the outlook. Louise will tell

Good evening. You have my permission to complain about too many repeats

with the British weather at the moment because yet again it looks as

though our winter weather is set to continue with a repeat of last week.

Sunny spells and scattered showers today and this is the next area of

low pressure pushing in from the west. It influences our weather for

the rest of the week. More rain to come and gales and severe gales to

come. Ice is a possible risk. That means a cumulative total perhaps or

40-70 millimetres and that is an extra two to three inches. It will

exacerbate the flooding we have already got across England at the

moment. The cloud, wind and rain is already pushing in from the west.

There will be a widespread frost. Ice could be a problem first thing

in Northern Ireland. Snow in the hills and maybe in the North East of

Scotland we could see snow at lower levels. Rain through northern

England and Wales and Somerset. Some of that rain could be quite intense

coupled with squally, gusty winds on exposed coasts. In the east it

starts off relatively dry, but it will not be long before the wind and

the rain spreads further east. Up into the North the snow showers

continue on the hills, but by the end of the afternoon we could see

wet snow even at lower levels. A cold day. There is a potential for

some snow showers at lower levels across England and Wales on Tuesday

night and into Wednesday. On Wednesday it is this area of low

pressure which is the main factor in Wednesday's weather. More wet and

windy weather. An early amber warning has already been issued from

the South West. Severe gales are likely as we continue to see some

very wet weather coming into central and southern areas. The strongest

winds follow in behind those showers. In Scotland you are

probably wondering what the