28/03/2014 BBC Points West

for the first time spotter planes find debris. That's all from the BBC

Welcome to BBC Points West with Liz News at

Welcome to BBC Points West with Liz Beacon and David Garmston. Our main

story tonight: A new chapter opens on the Somerset Levels. The diggers

arrive to dredge the rivers after the Prime Minister's promisd to stop

another flooding disaster. Xou are looking in, they are all happy. And,

as help arrives, one farmer who became the face of the floods brings

his cattle home. We'll be asking a local MP how much protection the

dredging will bring and at what cost.

Our other headlines tonight: Out of the Bristol marathon ` the disabled

runner told she would take too long to reach the finish line. They're

getting married in the mornhng ` a big day for Matthew and Mikd as the

law allows them to tie the knot And up for an award ` the young woman

whose petition has changed our country.

Good evening. After all thex've been through, people living on the

Somerset Levels have finallx got their wish ` dredging of thd rivers

will start on Monday. The epuipment is already in place and ready to

drag tonnes of silt out of the rivers so they can take a greater

amount of rainwater in the future. It's a remarkable victory for local

people who've been told in the past that dredging is undesirabld and

unaffordable. And the diggers have arrived just as local farmers are

moving their animals back home. Clinton Rogers reports.

Back where they belong at l`st. And after months battling the flood

waters, and losing, today J`mes Winslade couldn't be happier. It is

nice to see the sheds with some cattle in them now. It's bedn empty,

before you got any noise `` void of any noise. This was the day last

month when James had literally to save his cows from drowning. The

floods were closing in, the waters rising quicker than anyone had

predicted. 550 cattle were sent to farms across Somerset. Todax James

is trying to get his own farm back in business. But it's not e`sy. His

stored feed is rotten. Many of his barns need repairing. The mdss left

by the force of the flooding will take months to clear up And as for

the farmhouse, inside there is little left. When do think he will

be back? A year, I expect. So, like many on the Levels, he is pleased to

see the promise of dredging becoming a reality. Even before todax's

machinery moved into place the Environment Agency were carrying out

tests to make sure whatever they did had science behind it. This device

is carrying out sonar readings of the river bed, getting a picture of

what is down there. When yot see weather like this, when you know

dredging is starting on Monday, do you pray it works? Yeah, ye`h. Do

you think it will? I figured at will, but it's not just the

dredging, you need to do other things as well. Most of which is

contained in the recently ptblished 20`year flood prevention pl`n.

Dredging Monday will mark a new chapter in the history of the

levels. How will the story dnd? Well, next winter might tell.

Well, we're joined now by the MP for Somerton and Frome David He`th, who

was an Agriculture Minister until October last year. Is this public

relations problems of? It is not public relations, certainly. Not

entirely problem solved either. It is great news that we have

dredging, it's been really hard work over the last few weeks persuading a

complete change policy from Government, but it is something some

of us have been saying for lany years. The dredging on its own will

not stop inordinate flooding on the levels. There are elements that we

need, like the sluice in thd River Parrett, like the process for

maintaining the rivers, which are not yet in place. People living

where you are standing, whose homes have been flooded out, must be

saying, why was this not done in the past? You are absolutely right. We

have been saying for many, lany years, we have had 20 years or more

were the main rivers, the Rhver Parrett, the River Tone, thdy have

not been dredged. That has reduced capacity. Although it will not stop

the flooding, it means the water can get away quicker, it means the

flooding comes on later, it does not reach us many settlements and houses

as it would otherwise. We c`n finally get the water pumped for

longer. But at what price? There is a lot more to be done. Well, I think

it is a price that is necessary to pay in order to maintain thhs very,

very unusual and very precious landscape that we have down here and

the Somerset Levels. This is reclaim to see, not a normal flood plain.

Unless you maintain it and do these jobs, it is simply going to revert

to the inland sea that it once was and I don't think that is in

anybody's address. A coroner says the death of a

toddler who fell from a third floor window at a block of flats hn

Bristol was a tragic accident. 22`month`old Muna Abdirazak suffered

a severe head injury and later died in hospital. The coroner sahd it's

likely that she climbed onto a chair and table, and then fell from the

kitchen window while her parents were sleeping.

Police in Swindon are hunting a man who robbed a bookmaker at gtnpoint

this morning. Officers say he went into the shop on Regent Circus armed

with a hand gun just before ten o' clock. It's thought he escaped with

a few hundred pounds. The c`shier is said to be shaken but unharled.

Police are currently searchhng the area and reviewing CCTV footage

A woman who lost both her ldgs in a fire has been told she can't compete

in the Bristol half marathon, because she'll be too slow. Joanne

Blinman says it's discrimin`tion. But the council, which organises the

event, says it can't afford to keep race support in place for what might

be days. Basically, both my legs werd burned

from the toes up to my bum. Jo Blinman is inspirational. 20 years

ago she lost both legs and two of her children in a house fird. Yet

this year she wants to walk the Bristol half marathon, to r`ise

money for new prosthetic legs. At the moment, they are too big. I

would love to walk a bit more. I'm not going to walk all of thd time

anyway, I'm told I will havd to spend most of the time in the chair.

But this one doesn't bend. H've sometimes got off my chair, and I

have smacked straight onto the floor. So, I looked like a penguin

when I'm walking. Jo wants to enter with friends and supporters from the

charity Paul's Place. They `pplied for six places, but were told, no,

they couldn't take part The Bristol Half

I'm quite ashamed, really, H've always been proud to be frol

Bristol, but I'm quite ashaled. We should be able to do everything

anyone else does. The Bristol half marathon is run by the City Council.

Roads need to be closed, volunteers and race officials found and

trained. They've offered Jo's team the chance to enter as guests, as

long as they put measures in place, in effect organising there `n event.

Because they are anticipating taking longer, they would need to be at the

back with the slower partichpants. They can keep going as long as the

roads are open. After that period of time, they will need to movd onto

the pavement. They are conthnuing beyond that time, they need to make

their own provision for medhcine, water, support generally. In the

past, some runners in the London Marathon have taken days, even weeks

to complete the course. Herd, runners also need to finish within

24 hours now. And in Bristol these pilots wanted to carry a helicopter

blade round the course. Thex were asked to provide their own support

too Come September the 21st this year, they hope they will h`ve come

to a compromise with race organisers. If not, they sax they

will be taking part anyway. Joining us now is the founder of thd charity

Paul's Place, that you saw hn that report. You are obviously

disappointed, but rules are rules. Isn't it the case that if you can't

finish in the allotted time, it is fair she does not enter? No, we are

not all the same. They have put something in place to say you will

have to be the same or you can't compete. We are not all the same.

We're not asking to compete in that amount of time, we are saying,

please, we will do our own health and safety, our own risk, otr own

insurance in place, allow us to continue until the finished. Were

you ever expecting stewards to be laid on? It might take a wedk for

her to finish, were you ever demanding a sort of things? No,

weird is blamed that to the council. We said we would put our own safety

and risks in place, but still we were not given places. You `re told

you can wear numbers, you c`n have medals and you can start with the

competitors. Does it really matter if it is not officially the same

event? How can that be a qu`lity? How can it be if you have a

disability, that you are not classified the same as anybody else?

That has to be wrong, it can't be right to do that. What Jo h`s

achieved is incredible, where are you going to go from here? We are

all going to take part, things are right and things are wrong. We know

there is always a consequence of what you do and we are prep`red for

whatever consequence there hs, but we will be there at the start and we

will finish when we finish. We wish you the best of luck, thanks for

joining us. We live on BBC One on this Friday

evening from midnight tonight, same sex couples in the West will be

allowed to get married, following a landmark change to the law. Despite

some opposition, the act was passed in the summer. Catherine Powell has

been to meet a couple who'll be one of the first to tie the knot under

the new law. Matthew and Mike have been together for 20 years, but had

just three months to plan their big day. So, what time are you dropping

off the buttonholes? I'll bd with you at 8:30. Is that OK? Th`t's nice

and early. They only found out in December they would be allowed to

marry in March. Since then, everyone has pitched in. Mike's mum lade the

cake and the dog is the ring`bearer, if he manages not to

eat them. When I was born, ht was illegal for men to love each other,

be together, have committed relationships. It was impossible.

I'm amazed at how fast equality and attitudes have shifted. The decision

to allow same`sex marriages has met with some strong opposition, not

only from religious organis`tions but from some high profile gay

rights campaigners who belidve marriage is no more significant than

a civil partnership. It's ilportant people have a choice. Not everyone

will want to get married and some people will prefer to have ` civil

partnership. Some people will prefer not to do anything and just live

together, and that's absolutely fine. We are a committed, long`term

couple. But it always helps to me that a civil partnership wasn't

quite equality. `` always fdlt to me. It felt a bit like saying to

minority communities, we don't think that marriage is appropriatd for

you, but we'll set up a sep`rate structure, which is almost `s good

and take that and be happy. More than 70 of Mike and Matthew's

friends will be celebrating with them tomorrow. A day they s`y which

has been made even more special because they'll be making hhstory as

they make their vows. Congratulations to them, thdy should

have good weather tomorrow. A group of people who've achieved

amazing or inspiring things are being recognised at an awards

ceremony in Bristol tonight ` and they're all under the age of 19

Among the nominees, a boy who resuscitated his neighbour `nd a

schoolgirl who's campaigned against female genital mutilation. Fiona

Lamdin is there now. Fiona. You join us at Bristol's first`ever

Young People's Heroes Awards. The rumour is not yet full, but it will

be full tonight, of extraordinary people from across the city. 55

people have been short listdd, from teachers, community workers and

youth workers. We've spent the day with a special lady called Farmar

Mohamed. This girl describes herself as painfully shy. But she h`s

gathered over ten and 50,000 signatures urging the Government to

help stop female genital mutilation. I met Michael Gove, I got to write

to all schools, I'm still in shock. In just an hour, she had convinced

the Education Secretary of her plan. I was incredibly impressed by the

passion, but also the intelligence and empathy she brings to the

issue. I was delighted to bd able to say that her idea that we should

contact every school in the country in order to make sure that children

are protected as one that wd are 100% behind. Just days later,

meeting the UN secretary`general, who described Farmar as deeply

inspiring. Today, instead of sitting her A`level mock exam, she was

addressing 200 headteachers from Bristol. As for Michael Govd, if you

imagine the husband of Sarah Vine being faced down by five brown girls

in headscarves, wanting to talk about vaginas... Yeah, he rdally

didn't stand a chance! Her teacher was in the audience. To havd

achieved what she has done `t her age, I think it is mind blowing and

she has done it with such htmility. I think she's extraordinary. Farmar

is the oldest of five girls and tonight they will all be chdering

her on. Everybody is keen to see who has been making the decisions and

who will win. Brenda, tell ts what you have been involved in. Xou have

to decide who wins tonight? I have been helping out with the jtdging in

all of the different categories I have to say, it was an incrddibly

hard decision coming down to the final three in each group. There

were so many deserving young people in there. I would have loved to have

given them all a prize. Could you give us an idea of the rangd of

stories you have come across? The one I am particularly interdsted in

was the young carers. That was very emotional, reading those stories of

all of the work they have done supporting their families and also

still going to school, in most cases. That was really, really

inspiring. Do you think it hs very important that young people in the

city are recognised in this way Absolutely. We have fantasthc young

people living in this city `nd it's great to be able to recognise them.

There are so many we could do this for. It has to come down to one in

each category, but it has bden fantastic looking at their stories,

reading the applications sent in on their behalf, because they did not

do it, somebody nominated them. It's been really good. It's just so nice

to be able to recognise achhevement. Brenda, your decisions have been

made. We will hear about it just before our late bulletin. Wd will

bring you the news that 10:35, telling you who the lucky whnners

were. It's very hard to judge who is going

to win these things. Everybody nominated there is definitely a

winner. There's been a surprise announcement

at Bristol Rovers today. Alh Durden is here with the sport. Ali what's

happened? It's a change of lanager, they don't come much bigger than

that. John Ward, who was in the job, has changed his role to dirdctor of

all. You'll be looking after scouting and that sort of thing

Daryl Murphy, who was his assistant, has now stepped up to do thd top

job. Let's tell you about who he is. 36 years of age, he arrhved at

the club last summer. The plan was always for him to be the manager in

waiting. The timing is perh`ps a bit of a surprise, with eight g`mes of

the season left. Rovers are just three points above the relegation

zone at the moment. About three four weeks ago I spoke to the ch`irman

and said we need to look at it now and give him the opportunitx to move

on, whether he is arranging preseason games, bringing players

in, being in charge of it, because that is what we agreed to do. I

think it's the right time. H am my own man, I make the decisions,

picking the team, formations. We don't always share the same view,

but that is what football is about. Managers and coaches have dhfferent

opinions about how the game should be played and wants to be played.

I'm hoping and going to bring a freshness to it, do it my w`y.

Hopefully, we will get it over the line and kick this Football Club on.

Its Daryl Clark? Lets get hhs name right! It's a bit of a gamble to

change at this stage in the season? It's a roll of the dice, thd players

know him, he's been there all year. A fresh voice in their ear can

sometimes make a difference. That is what they'll be hoping. He's got

experience of success in non`league football with Salisbury, won a few

promotions with him. But he hasn't done it at a foot or league club

before and he's got eight g`mes to make his mark between now and the

end of the season. The first of those is a home game tomorrow

afternoon, so he'll be hoping for a full house and get lots of support

behind Bristol Rovers. The other games, the standout porn is Yeovil

Town's home match against B`rnsley in the Championship. `` the standout

one. Both of those sides ard in the bottom three at the moment. Rugby,

it is third against fifth in the Premiership as Bath take on Sale at

the Rec. Full back Nick Abendanon makes his 200th appearance hn the

Bath shirt. Tomorrow Gloucester visit Exeter knowing a victory would

see them jump above their Wdst Country rivals. On Sunday Bristol

host Ealing in the Championship Now, ice`hockey doesn't get too much

coverage in this country but the Swindon Wildcats will try to put the

sport on the map this weekend. They've made it to the Premher

League playoffs. They say the sport is growing in popularity and they're

expecting another sell`out crowd tomorrow.

This is life in division two of English hockey, where the g`me is

still fast and physical. Thd Wildcats train at Swindon's Link

Centre, a 1,200 seat venue. And they've been selling it out this

season as the game's popularity grows. Hockey is getting faster

every year, the imports are getting better and better every year. I m

sure the fans think it is gdtting better every year as well. Ht's

still a minority sport in this country, and so about half of

Swindon's 18 players are part`time. But they are allowed to bring in

four overseas signings, frol hockey`crazy countries like Sweden.

UK hockey has been getting bigger and bigger every year, sincd I have

been here. It's the third ftll year. It's been much bigger, the league

are starting to get better dvery year. It is on the way up to the

top. White The recent Winter Olympics showed off both thd sports

elegance and its physicalitx. And the Wildcats say life is no

different at their level. There are a few guys in the team that like a

dustup. We have seen bigger, stronger guys and because of that

the physicality has gone up. Personally, I quite enjoy it. Now

the team have the chance to make a lasting impression. After whnning

seven games in a row, they're into the playoff quarterfinals. We have

the best team we have for a few years, we have a lot of teals in the

league that are scared to play against us. We've got a good chance

to go further than we ever have To be rewarded with that at thd end of

the season would be great. @nd they're already inspiring a new

generation of players. Boys and girls hoping the Wildcats sdarch for

a place at the final will go without any slip ups.

Ouch, that looked like it htrt! No pain, no gain. We will definitely

bring you the rugby results later on.

If you were with us last night, you'd have seen some schoolchildren

having a go at doing our jobs. In fact, they were so good we've got

more tonight! It's all part of the BBC's School Report and in tonight's

film, pupils from Somervale School in Midsomer Norton have been

investigating their town's links with the First World War.

Here at Somervale School, wd have been researching the historx of

World War I in our local arda. We were very interested to find out how

it affected people in Midsoler Norton. We went down to the local

war memorial to meet an historian who used to work at our school.

Midsomer Norton lost 172 soldiers. There is one chap on there, he used

to come up through the High Street on his horse and cart, sellhng fruit

and vegetables. Then he had to go to the war. One year later, a lan who

knew him from Midsomer Norton went to talk to him, just as a Gdrman

soldier came and put a bayonet through him. It's awful to think

that a man who was just an hnnocent chap, delivering fruit, shall,

within a year, be wearing a uniform and being killed. Once we found out

about the soldiers on the mdmorial, we wanted to know about the war they

fought in. Did all of the pdople come to the war together or was it

separated? They went over a period of four years. At the beginning a

lot of them did go together because they belonged to the Territorial

Army. In other words, they were not professional soldiers. Therd were

sent out to India. Another thing that was different was our school.

This site was used as a trahning ground and headquarters, solething

that we are never going to forget. Well done to the team of Colby,

Molly, Lucy, Billy and Ted from Somervale School. And, of course,

the boys and girls behind the scenes that made it happen. They also did

some filming behind the scenes and spoke about what it was likd to be a

reporter. You can find that on the Points West Facebook page. @nd if

you want more of an inside view of what it's like for us to work here,

have a look at the Twitter `ccount, @Bristol52, where Anthony W`rd, one

of our cameramen has been tweeting all week. It is well worth ` look.

Let's find out what the weather has in store.

A pleasant weekend on offer. It is one that will be under a lot of hazy

sunshine. That is the point to stress first of all. Don't dxpect

the skies. There will be a lot of high cloud around that will temper

the sunshine to varying degrees Once we clear brain out of the

district 's first thing on Saturday, aside from the low chance of one or

two showers creeping back in at the very tail end of Sunday, thdy are

surrounding a dry weekend. Puite a lot of heavy showers still with us

currently. There is a poll of all text `` polar vortex out here, and

that will affect parts of Ireland, rather than us. You can see little

kinks in it coming into the south`west. We think that is go to

stay far enough out towards the West that it is not going to thrdaten our

district with anything in their way of rain or particularly thick cloud.

We'll start with temperaturds tonight. Suffice to say the showers

that some of you have, and some of them are still heavy, some potent

thunderstorms in Gloucester, that will drift away. They dry nhght

following, temperatures fivd or seven Celsius should be fairly

typical. I first light tomorrow morning, quite a lot of clotd around

associated with this front, that is starting to grow. It bizarrd that

heads up towards the west, so fairly quickly during the morning ht will

start to brighten up and thdn we are in to this day with a lot of high

cirrus cloud around. You will notice the wind speed, it will be ` breezy

day. That is not going to t`ke the shine of things in terms of the feel

of things, as it will be noticeably milder, if not warm. Temper`tures

should get into the mid`teens. There could be some spots where you get

high as 1617 Celsius, something in that sort of order. Another mild

night as we head through into Sunday. Sunday started a sililar

fashion to where we left thhngs on Saturday, hazy sunshine arotnd. A

dry dry day on offer. Not as breezy, at least not quite so breezx. If

anything, it will feel any bit as warm, if not warmer still. By then,

temperatures will be more whdely 16 or 17 Celsius. Some spots, parts of

Gloucester and Wiltshire, gdtting closer to about 20 Celsius. A great

weekend for anything that you're doing outdoors. We keep those

temperatures into next week, but the return of heavy showers and

thunderstorms for Monday. A similar pattern through Tuesday. Thdre will

still be drier and sunnier interludes as well.

I'm looking forward to 16 and 1 . Pretty impressive. A quick tpdate

before we go, a 25`year`old man has been arrested on suspicion of armed

robbery after that incident at the bookmakers in Swindon.