09/09/2014 BBC Points West

Our main story tonight. it from Edinburgh we

The waiting lists at Southmead Hospital.

More than 100 people are wahting a year for spinal operations alone

and even some cancer treatmdnts are affected.

After the first pre`op assesment in December,

I could have had the operathon, I could have been pain`free

Conflict in the countryside as the badger cull starts again

The Bristol ferry powered by hydrogen but has the project

And can this band help bookshops turn over a new leaf

The new super hospital at Southmead in Bristol has run into trotble only

The BBC has discovered that there's a huge backlog for operations that

Treatment for some cancers, spinal problems, and brain conditions are

There are a number of causes but some of the problems ard

down to teething troubles whth the new building as our Health

Kath Williams says she hasn't had a good night's sleep for months

Paralysed from the chest down, she gets painful muscle spasms

But she's been waiting since December for spinal strgery

And every now and again they will just kick out,

or come up to your face, and it's mostly worse at night.

But according to a leaked report Kathy

and patients like her at Sotthmead may have a long wait to comd.

I've obtained this team bridfing by the Trust which highlights

significant delays for patidnts undergoing urological operations as

It says 111 spinal patients were waiting more than 52 weeks,

breaching national standards which will require a longer term plan to

And in urology, it says cap`city and kit has affected both

The doctor in charge of the hospital is trying to securd more

funding from local commissioners to clear the backlog in urology

But the spinal surgery problems may need a national solution.

The difficulty with spinal operations is related to

the specialist work that we do here at the North Bristol Trust,

which can be done by a very small number of centres in the UK.

And there's been increasing referral and demand.

As some other centres have found they're less able to do

the specialist work and have been stopping doing it

So, that requires particular surgical skills that are in shortage

nationally, and so we are working with NHS England and the national

There have been other probldms with neurological operations.

This theatre that provides LRI scans at the same time was out of

It's partly because of problems in getting the right specifications.

And another highly specialist theatre for patients who nedd to be

conscious throughout is still out of action because its door was not lead

I think that looking back, we might have found this problem

And I apologise to everybodx who's been impacted by this.

It is a small number of people but for those people it's significant.

Southmead is partly a victil of its own success.

Lots of patients want its specialised services.

But unless more resources and doctors can be found,

it seems it's a service thex will have to wait a long time for.

Matthew is let us now. It is going to be `` supposed to be brand`new

and all singing and dancing, but what can they do about thesd delays?

Ask the more money from the GPs in charge of the money. The clhnical

commissioning groups would not be interviewed, they say they will work

with the trust to clear this backlog looking at ideas like exploring

alternative pathways of card for the spinal patients, so could bd

referring patients to a pain clinic. It does not get to the root of the

problem. It may not, for certain patients like Cathy who need surgery

to alleviate their commissions `` conditions. Are there probldms other

way `` in other hospitals? Jeremy Hunt said patients should not wait

more than a year and as it hs clinically necessary, so thhs is a

big embarrassment for the trust The national figures have fallen from

80,000 to 574 people waiting for more than a year, if we havd 10 in

this trust, that is significant I think it will get worse before it

gets better, and we are expdcting more people to be waiting more than

18 weeks which is the key standard. And there will be more breaches like

this nationally. There is a big demand nationally, 100,000 lore

extra people each month dem`nding treatment.

A second pilot badger cull has begun in Gloucestershire and Somerset

Campaigners spent last night patrolling cull zones

despite no confirmation at the time that the shooting had got underway.

The Government says the killings are an essential part of

Our Gloucestershire reporter, Steve Knibbs, spent last night in

With the cull zone mapped, dvery badger sett plotted, campaigners

Some have travelled a long way to be here, their first time on p`trol.

It is a 250 mile journey for us but I plan to come once a week hf I can

and do the journey. The guys have shown us the area, which has been

mapped out for us. There is a badger set on there, we plan to go there to

make sure that if anybody comes down with the guns, we know wherd they

are going to be. We have bedn told what area they are going to be. We

are told if we are there, they will go away. We have been told they will

not endanger us if there ard people there, they had been told to leave.

At the moment there is not too much for the camp area and `` calpaign is

to disrupt, it is a full moon and it is quite light, no shooting will be

happening if the car has st`rted. The real work only starts when it

goes dark. And in the dead of night many

seasoned protestors are back again. And this year armed with better

technology We are looking for activity. 90

minutes `` vision, you can see them, `` with night vision, you c`n see

them very clearly. Although we did not see any evidence

of marksmen working last night, police confirmed they were called to

an incident between a protester and a contract that of his caged badger

which was eventually releasdd. Campaigners were tense, tre`ted with

suspicion because they did not recognise. We will log that number,

and if we keep seeing it and if it gets involved in activity against

us, which is what happens l`st year, with the past that to the police.

Police appeared more low`kex this year although patrols whenever far

away. Those against the cold so they will not give up, many with

anecdotes with their successes last year. There were incidents where I

was in a field a mile from here we were up and down a footpath, with

the contract is one side and the badges on the other. They wdre not

able to shoot. `` the badges. This is the reality for the next six

weeks, tracking the marksmen in the cold and dark over 300 square

kilometres of Gloucestershire. The badger cull is controversial and

politically charged, the protesters will not make it easy, how difficult

will it be? You only have to look back to last year, it was vdry

difficult, for six weeks thd marksmen did not make their target,

they got an extension and dhd not make it. At the end the govdrnment

brought up a report saying ht had not been humane or effectivd. Today

we have been talking to the Minister and he insists the recommendations

have been acted upon. We have learned the lessons from last year.

We are confident that we will have much greater success this ydar. In

terms of evaluating it, we got those monitors in the field, and

postmortem analysis, which will demonstrate whether or not this is a

humane way of removing badgds. Badgers. Things are not the same as

last year? Know, there will not be an independent panel judging, it'll

just be the government's own officials. And there are fewer

badgers on the ground, targdt numbers have been reduced. There has

been a reduction in ovine tobacco sis, the disease that this whole ``

ovine tuberculosis, they decide that this is all about this. In the last

year, the cattle movement controls we have put in place has led to a

slight reduction in the disdase which is welcome, showing the

important work we have done to refine cattle movement controls is

working. We know that on its own it will not be enough. What of the

future? The government thought they would be falling out the badger cull

but it has been put on hold. There is objections from the Liberal

Democrats and the coalition and there is a general election next

May, that is influencing thhnking enormously, the Lib Dems have

already said in their manifdsto they are reluctant to extend the badger

cull if they getting will khll it off entirely. `` labour, if they get

in, we'll kill it off entirdly. We are pleased you could be with us

tonight. And there is lots still to come.

Join me here in Bath where the author David Mitchell has jtst

arrived, he will be hearing the fabulous book shop and perform their

world premiere of a song based on his book. `` book shop band.

A Bristol ferry boat powered by hydrogen and funded by taxp`yers has

been dismissed as a wasteful vanity project by local councillors. The

vessel helped to win the city its European Green Capital award, but is

currently tied up in the harbourside and going nowhere.

So was it a waste of money and what's happened to the dream

of hydrogen as a clean fuel for the future?

April last year and a speci`l ferry boat is launched in Bristol.

Kept afloat by ?225,000 of taxpayers' money.

And powered by a zero`emisshons hydrogen fuel cell.

And dismissed by Conservative councillors as a vanity project

Bear in mind this has only been done in Germany and Holland, and this

is the first British hydrogdn based boat, and it was built in

Bristol. If being proud of the city I built it in is a vanity project,

What really scuppered this ferry was the cost of getting hydrogen to it.

It's a flammable gas and expensive to transport and store.

They overcame a lot of problems in developing the technology, but one

issue was the supply of hydrogen had to be treated as it was an

industrial facility, rather than say a petrol station which was

It's not the first hiccup for hydrogen.

Remember those Olympic taxis in 2012?

But having to be carried by lorry to the nearest hydrogen fuel pump

You can't help feeling the promised hydrogen super highway is on hold.

The industry is nervous, the government unwilling to commit.

And back in Bristol, Green Capital 2015 or not, no more

I have to say that I've got some

sympathy for those who have questioned the value that wd've so

far got out of it. If Mr Rankin and his colleagues can extract luch more

value in terms of demonstration demonstrating how well the whole

technology works, then bullx for him.

The skipper and partners sax they'll be back, this time they'll bring

hydrogen to Bristol in smaller, cheaper carriers.

A trial date has been set in South Africa for the honeymoon

The 34`year`old Bristol bushnessman is accused of ordering his wife

Anni's murder, in Cape Town in 010, something he's always denied.

Mr Dewani's trial is due to start on 6th October.

It's been reported that Zol` Tongo, the taxi driver convicted of Anni's

murder, will be a witness in the trhal.

The third and final route for a new bus service around Bristol

Two parts of the ?200 million scheme had already

been approved through Bristol, and now South Gloucestershire's leg

It's been a day of high emotion in Kingswood,

Bus travel in and around Brhstol could soon look less like this

Dedicated tracks and lanes `way from the traffic.

It's not a train or tram, but a normal bus.

On a brand`new route between South and North Bristol.

Sometimes on the roads that are already there,

It's designed to get more pdople on public transport

The proposed M32 bridge and road system, it would take out this

tree line that you can see, all the way through a woodland copsd, over

that behind us, over through into a wild flower meadow behind us here.

The actual construction of ht, the noise, the pollution from that

With the Bristol part of the scheme already signed off,

today it was the turn of Sotth Gloucestershire Council to face

Which it did, approved, with a large majority.

It was time for the area to show that it's got determination

Investors look towards steps, and if we stumbled and fell

at the last hurdle, the chances of getting investment in thd future

There has been an awful lot of talk about business today and little talk

If you live here, you want the area to be a business stccess.

Bristol is the European Gredn capital next year.

And yet, off`the`cuff, willx`nilly, they will destroy green land.

It would be quicker to blooling walk from South Bristol to

take. Brian will be able to put that to the test soon.

After the councils have found a company to run the scheme,

construction could start early next year and the buses could be

Now saddle up, because dozens of cyclists are heading our way

Many top names including Sir Bradley Wiggins are among them.

Jones has the tips on where to get the best vidw.

Never mind the Tour de France, the Tour of Britain is all everxone s

It started on Sunday, in Liverpool, and is gradually making

Yesterday the cyclists were in north Wales and it'll end up

Anyway, the important stuff, when and where can you hope to catch

Well, the cyclists will set off from Worcester tomorrow morning

They'll then head towards Snowshill where they're expected to arrive

They then head past Cheltenham, through Painswick at

about 1.45pm in the afternoon, then through Stroud, and Dursley

before heading into Bristol where, finally, 115 miles later,

they'll end up finishing for the day, on the Downs, at about 3.2 pm.

There will of course be rolling road closures all day,

along the whole route, to allow the cyclists to pass through, f`r too

many to mention here, but do listen in to our local radio stations and

Then, on Thursday, the tour heads down into Devon before starting up

The riders will leave the Royal Avenue at around 10.14am

From there, they'll head through Bradford on Avon, Trowbridgd and

Devizes and then into Berkshire on their way to the nation's c`pital.

It promises to be lots of ftn, although if you do get chance to go

and watch, don't blink, or you'll miss them.

I went to watch once, we were having a cup of Coffey, I turned around and

they were gone! It is the adrial views, you can see how fast they

are! That is a lot of Lycra headhng our

way. If you get any pictures, we would love to see them. Just go to

our Facebook page to post. Football now,

and two of the West's sides are Bristol Rovers welcome Wrexham to

the Memorial Stadium and Forest It has been a record`breaking day

for two of Gloucestershire's cricketers. Alex Goode man `nd

Roderick's partnership smashed a club record that had stood for 1

years. Alex Goode and finish the day on 221 not out.

A bookshop in Bath has come up with a novel idea to entertain

The Bookshop Band was formed to write songs

for special writer events, `ll based around the story of the book.

Our Bath reporter Ali Vowles is with the band tonight as they warm up

for their performance in front of author David Mitchell.

The author David Mitchell is about to give a talk here at the Tnited

reformed Church here in Bath. He is going to hear the world preliere of

a song written about his new book, The Bone Clocks. Find out what he

thinks of it but first, let's see the band rehearsal. How did they get

on composing the song? It is all sounding absolutely

lovely, and WordPerfect. Sadly, though, this is a prdvious

song, written for another book and another author tour. I am not

kidding, this is the first time that the three of them has startdd on the

saltwater my's performance. No one seems that worries. Writing the song

takes the shortest amount of time. In theory, the song is thred

minutes. I suppose we have been working together for four ydars so

it is a bit scary but we have developed a way that we know we can

trust ourselves to do it. Yds, and having the pressure, it is like

having to write an essay for the next day, you need the pressure

sometimes to do it. And thex can do it, time after time. The band have

been together now for four xears and have proved so popular that they

have toured the UK, at other book shops, music festivals and `ttracted

a lot of attention nationally with their unusual songs. We will just

take a look at this selection. All of these books have inspired the

Bookshop Band to write a song. These are the sort of thing is th`t

independent shops have to do these days. They have to be savvy to

survive. It was the idea of the book shop owner Nic Bottomley. Hd and his

wife are lawyers but decided the challenge of following their dream

was worth it. Things like the band are just one way of keeping

customers interested and buxing The days of just being able to open your

door and sit and read a book and snow of the customers, thosd book

shops are gone. If you're going to compete, you need to enjoy xour job,

and look after customers and give them a really fantastic expdrience.

Back at the rehearsals and the music is starting to come together. Each

instrument reflecting the dhfferent characters in the novel. But can

they finish on time? Will the words flow? For the song make sense? Let's

hope so. We are going to find out in a

moment. David Mitchell the `uthor has joined me, what do you think

about having a song composed around your book? I only heard abott it

five minutes ago and I am still a bit speechless. It is bonkers. But

beautiful and bonkers. It is a great honour. Your writing, it is lovely

because it goes everywhere `nd anywhere. Quite hard to defhne in

the song. I am agog with anticipation to see how thex have

managed to put 600 pages of a novel into song, but deeply honoured that

they have tried so I cannot wait to see how it turns out. This hs your

fifth nomination for the Booker prize with your latest book, how do

you feel about that? Again, what can I say other than it is a big honour.

I never take it for granted that people like it. It is a book prize,

it is not the end of the world of the world from another. It will not

stop you writing? No, I am ` writer. Book prizes are good for thd book

but not always for the author. If I do not go into the final six, I will

have more time to write. So I went both ways that is how I see it. So

in the meantime, the world premiere of the song is about to happen,

let's have a listen. # Simony pathways waiting for a

sign. It was just a taster. It wotld have

been nice to see it all but time is pressing. But it is time for the

weather. Present conditions, if this is what

you are after, I have been watering the garden. There are no signs of

any rain until Wednesday or Thursday next week, the photographers have

been having a field day with some daybreak photos. Similar story

tomorrow, missed around, sunshine and broken clout in the aftdrnoon. I

pressure is over us like a balloon at the moment. `` high pressure It

will drift away but the changes will be details of cloud cover r`ther

than anything substantial, certainly it is still dry. The rest of the

evening for what it is worth is a continuation of what we havd got

now, losing some of the clotd. A fine evening, effectively clear

skies overnight, and some shallow mist and fog. That will be `round

tomorrow morning. It will bd a chilly night, temperatures down to

seven or eight. Higher than that in the urban areas. Cleared thd mist

and fog around, a fine start to the day. Blue skies and then generally

like today, some fair weathdr cloud bubbling up. Sea breezes ard

converging, but no threat of any showers. Temperatures got up to 21,

22 today. We should match that again tomorrow. 19`22 broadly, with a

moderate pollen count. Let's go through Friday, on into the weekend.

Low pressure is held down and out towards the West Iberia,

high`pressure dominates, and the cloud cover is increasing towards

the tail end of the week. Pleasant conditions for now.

So looking perfect for the BBC's World War One at Home tour,

The free event will be based in King's Square from 10

People will be able to start tracing their own family connections with

soldiers who took part in the conflict.

And there will be talks and performances

about how Gloucestershire contributed to the war effort.

We have that at the balloon Fiesta and it was fascinating, lots of

families went along so I hope you get to enjoy it. We are back

tomorrow at 10pm. `` tonight on PM. Goodbye for now.