23/03/2017 Points West

Welcome to BBC Points West with Alex Lovell and David Garmston.

Our main story tonight: The children in lockdown.

They were in Parliament when the lone terrorist attacked.

Their relieved parents pay tribute to the teachers who got them to sing

My message for the Prime Minister is at this school and those teachers

need to be honoured. In the West country,

leaders have been meeting Our other headlines

tonight: Arrested 50 years after the disappearance of a Bristol girl,

who vanished when her family I'm not getting into the specifics

of the actual details of the offences, but I can say they are

quite horrific and they will be unfolding tomorrow at court.

And the rents that take half your salary.

The parents of school children who were caught up in yesterday's

attack in London have called for their teachers to be

More than 50 pupils from Bridgwater spent two hours trapped

inside Westminster within earshot of the carnage

They kept their spirits up by singing to hundreds of others

who were told to stay inside the Central Lobby

For some of these ten-year-olds, a very first trip to London.

But shorlty after these photos were taken, they were trapped

Today, a parent of one of those children was still visibly upset.

If the first time I've ever let my son go

anywhere so far away without

He was very cuddly when he saw the first

The 53 children and seven staff were ushered to

A safe place, but still within 50 metres of where the police

The deputy head kept spirits up by singing hymns.

We had a lovely ripple of applause at the end.

And beautifully, loss of MPs and people

of the layout congratulated our children on how they sang and

Meanwhile at the school, texts were sent to worried parents.

We said to parents they could come in and we set aside a

room and had tea and coffee and the Salvation Army were here and our

local vicar all helping parents to process what was unfolding in front

Today at the school, we're told everyone's well,

the hymns having helping to drown out the gunshots.

And back in the Commons, the Prime Minister also impressed

It must've been particularly difficult for those

children who were here and being caught up in this the work of their

We should commend that their teachers in offering them that

The deputy head is more modest and thinks it

Safety in numbers inside the Central Lobby.

There may have been some horrific things

happening outside, but we were having a lovely time.

We were completely unaffected by it and it

certainly will not stop us from doing things we want.

But in the very worst of circumstances.

Today, people have been paying tributes to those

Aysha Frade, a mother who worked at a London college,

Courtney Weeden from Gloucestershire is a former colleague.

Kind, funny, very respected member of staff, definitely, she had been

And just a dedicated colleague, really,

she came to work, did her job, went home to her family.

Security around the Houses of Parliament has remained

tight, but the message from inside the Commons today

Staff and MPs were being allowed through to get to their offices.

Our reporter Steve Knibbs is in Westminster.

It has been an incredible day today to be in London. We've been driving

around and looking at a city when nothing much has changed. This city

has got back to normal and got back on with business. Within the houses

of parliament, that is very important, too. I spoke earlier to

one of our local MPs for Taunton Deane and said it was important to

get back to normal. It is crucial to show solidarity amongst politicians

and prove everyone that we will not be deterred in our free speech and

running our democratic society and in running efficiently and

effectively and in a calmer manner our oldest parliament in the world.

And with me now is the MP for Bath. Rebecca said about back to normal,

but what was the mood like within the house? Not nervous, but a great

deal of respect for what happened yesterday, but it really was

business as usual. As the Prime Minister said, the country deserves

for us to go back to work just as everybody else must and carry on

with their lives, otherwise the terrorists get their own way. We saw

emotional scenes today when remembering the victims. Yet I been

working in and around Parliament for ten years and I've seen Keith and

his colleagues every day and every day the public walk up to them take

photos with them and but through the gates every day. We were incredibly

sad to have lost him. As we drove around today, we saw on the

billboards the adverts and we are not afraid slogan comes up. They are

very defiant. Indeed they are. There are tourists back on the bridge

again as if nothing has happened. And that is the best thing about

defiance against terrorism. They will never win against us. Howard

does this resonate away from the capital? What does it mean for the

people in the West Country? The vigilance carries on outside of

London doesn't it? There's been no change very security information but

please keep vigilant and keep on with your lives also. Residents of

Bath need to be aware that they are in an internationally famous city

and they need to be careful, but we shouldn't change our behaviour on a

day-to-day basis. This is a city and you can see the Houses of Parliament

behind and Westminster Bridge and everything is back to normal after

an incredible 24 hours. The police at the House of Commons and in

Downing Street are amazing. They treat you in a very respectful and

friendly manner. You're watching Points West

with Alex and David, with you a little later this

evening, due to an extended Still to come on this

evening's programme... Our Home Affairs correspondent asks

what's being done in the West And the cost of a cottage

in the Cotswolds. We reveal how much of your salary

you'll have to sacrifice. A man's been charged

with the murder of a three-year-old Cheryl Grimmer's family emigrated

to Australia in 1968. At that time, thousands of Britons

were encouraged to start new lives down under by the offer

of cheap passage. They were known as

the "ten pound poms". New South Wales and in 1970

were enjoying a day out at the beach Give us something so

we can go and mourn. A heartbreaking appeal to the public

from Cheryl Grimmer's brother speaking in

December last year. Part of a reconstruction by police

of her last movements before the three-year-old

vanished into thin air. That appeal that led to fresh

information and this morning, Do you know anything

about Cheryl's disappearance? A man charged with

Cheryl's abduction and murder 47 years

after she disappeared. The man we have in custody

was a person of interest. We centred our

investigations around him. As a result, we have gathered

information and corroborated certain information and stamens

back in the original investigation and it

will Cheryl's family emigrated

from Bristol in In January 1970, she was

an Fairy Meadow Beach in the seaside town of of Wollongong, with her

mother and three older brothers. Her father was away

working in the Army. The children went

to the shower block, boys on one side, Cheryl

on Decisions I made

on the day were wrong. In this appeal last year, it was

clear the pain of losing their sister has never softened

in the decades since. Cheryl's parents died never knowing

what became of their daughter, like the Madeleine McCann

case here in the UK, every Australian parent knows

Cheryl Grimmer's cautionary tale. The media interest

has never gone away. The 63-year-old suspect

would have been He will appear before

a judge in Australia Rents are rising sharply, according

to new research by Points West. In parts of the region

tenants are spending With so many finding it hard

to afford a place of their own, we asked our business correspondent

Dave Harvey to find out just how And Dave - the numbers

are pretty high, aren't they? Through the roof pretty much

describes the rental market. I've looked at the official

stats on average rents Bath and the Cotswolds,

both over a thousand pounds a month. Around Bridgwater and Gloucester,

both around ?600 a month. We compared this to the same

figures five years ago - It's particularly tough in

the Cotswolds, which is constantly being voted the "loveliest

place to live in the UK", but as I found out, that only

seems to push rents even If you are earning average wages

or part-time because you have A busy medical secretary

in the morning, Natalie is even busier with little Oliver

and his big sister Heidi She and her husband

moved five times in the last eight years, battling

ever rising rents. I do not know anyone privately

renting, because the And what you are getting

for your money is not Our last place was quite expensive

and the heating did not work properly

and it was just not ideal for

bringing kids up What really matters is how much

of your income goes on rent and that's why we have come

here to the Cotswolds, because here, we've discovered that rent takes

a bigger chunk out of people's

which than anywhere else In fact, announces a Government

official figures showed that for every ?100 of wages here

in the Cotswolds, ?46 goes on rent. Firstly because it is

the Cotswolds, then because there is been

a shortage of housing in the recent past,

so therefore prices are being forced up

on supply and demand. How can young people get

on the housing ladder Prices may be high,

but there's a queue Landlords tell me they are finding

tenants faster than ever. When the property became empty

in November, I thought, this is a great time, with Christmas,

nobody will want to move. But actually, we were

incredibly lucky, and within three weeks,

we had some new tenants moved in. A few miles outside Tetbury,

we look around a typical ?1200 a month -

and you'd better be quick. We would be hopeful

of getting somebody in in And that is the sort of turnaround

we've seen recently, properties go What about those who live

in a town and do not However, properties are still

renting very quickly. with so many positive

factors, it really helps property fly off the shelves

on they go quickly, in a We can't really argue

with that, as estate agents. Tetbury's answer is to

build like never before. Literally - 900 new homes

are going up, and if you live there, you don't need me to tell

you how controversial that's been. Some - around 250 -

are what they call affordable homes, in fact Natalie and her family have

just moved into one of those. Plenty of you getting involved

on our Facebook page on this. Cathy says she left Cirencester

solely because the rents were so extortionate -

"I now live in Torquay in a lovely We'll take a look at some other

solutions tomorrow night, How about knocking down old church

halls and vicarages to make way Police investigating a fire survey

found a body in the property. Earlier today one was rescued from

the house and taken to hospital with serious injuries. Emergency services

were called to this street just before 8am and police said they are

treating the death and because of the ballets unexplained.

Ram-raiders have struck at a shop in Bristol.

They drove a blue van into the front of the premises in Alma Vale Road

Police said they escaped with a large haul of cigarettes

The chairman of Network Rail has said the line through Bath may

Last autumn, the Government deferred electrification

work between Chippenham and Bristol Temple Meads

New trains will have to be converted to run on diesel

Today Sir Peter Hendy, who lives in Bath, said he wouldn't

worry if the missing section was never completed.

Won anti-terrorist experts say the keys to report anybody at risk of

being radicalised. A bomb plot was foiled after a member of a mosque

report suspicious behaviour to the police.

A sign of respect and support from Bristol to London.

Here in the West, like in in Westminster,

there's a sense of calm reflection and a determination not

Kalsoom Bashir advised the Government on preventing

extremism and has worked with counter-terrorism

We can't let terrorism divide us and undermine the stability

In Bristol today, life goes on as usual, that

we all have to be aware that there are those who are looking to

radicalisers anybody that they can reach.

we are kept safe by a constant web of surveillance,

be that from CCTV cameras, the police

Here at Bristol's newest shopping centre, they've even been

But the most important information comes from within

from blowing up the Galleries Shopping Centre in

and caught here on CCTV planning his attack.

Had he succeeded, I think Bristol would still be suffering

That was a call from a representative of a mosque saying,

we don't like what we are seeing, we don't

like what we are hearing, we

the police and fire and ambulance regularly train to deal

they are monitoring events in London and remain committed

And among those on Westminster Bridge who witnessed the attack was

the Somerset author, Steve Vogue. You may have seen among the national

news yesterday. As the chaos of older Commies Eddie try to stop

people going on the bridge. He joins us now from his home. How all the

events of yesterday resonating with you now? Is still seems surreal. I

just keep remembering what a beautiful afternoon it was and I

walked past Parliament Hill saw the police laughing and joking with a

group of teenage pupils walking past and it seemed like a very happy

scene and I walked onto the bridge and within a few seconds, everything

changed. Reminders about your part, what you did. -- remind us. I had

everybody screaming and above that stopped next to me and people are

getting off and there was screaming and crying and I thought some TDL is

further away was also screaming, so I thought that somebody had been

knocked over, so I ran to see what had happened and if I could help at

all and I saw a shoe in the red underbody in the road also and I saw

another body a bit further up when I looked over the side of the bridge,

I saw a body lying in the water and I realised something really bad must

have happened all be happening and I could see people are still coming

onto the bridge and I realised that it wasn't a safe place to be, so I

just try to stop people and pushed them back until the emergency

services arrived. Very brave, because she didn't know what else

was going on. It must be harrowing to talk about, but in these

situations, nothing will ever be the same. The message coming out of

Westminster today is business as usual. What have you thought some of

the rhetoric? Well, one of the things that was so strong about the

whole thing was the children and the way that they carried on. They were

inside and stuck and one of the things I would say to young

children, because it is difficult to try and explain these things to

them, my thought would be to try and say these things are thankfully rare

and bad things do happen, but just look at all the good things. It was

an awful afternoon, but I saw so many good people and brave people

trying to help. That is the thing we have to hold onto. While a gradual

children's author. That is good advice. Thank you for joining us. --

and you are a children's author. Now for the weather.

Bit of rain in the south to start things off. A lot of cloud, too.

Brighter spells through because of the day and less windy. If the sun

breaks through, it will feel comparatively mild. Here is a wider

look and out of the south, low-pressure running up these bits

of rain it southern districts. Through tomorrow, high pressure

builds from the north and that bodes well for the weekend. For this

evening, again, the chance of some of these patchy outbreaks of rain

toward the south may creep a bit further north and you have seen

their run up a bit of uncertainty. The further north you are, a better

chance of staying dry. Remaining windy tonight and temperatures 5-6

else's. Into tomorrow, a cloudy start. Through the afternoon, that

becomes more fragile and lifts outbreaks with uncertain scope, but

by the evening, the skies will clear. Temperatures tomorrow getting

up to about 12 Celsius. Maybe even a 15 given the sunshine. It looks good

for the weekend. Bullock on Saturday, looks like a beautiful

day. Still a bit breezy, but pleasantly warm in the sunshine. A

similar story Sunday, too. And that is where we have to leave

things tonight. We are back tomorrow. Goodbye.