25/10/2011 Spotlight

Six months in Afghanistan - tonight, 42 Commando are heading home to

Plymouth. Good evening. We'll be live at Bickleigh Barracks as final

preparations are made for their return. Also tonight - surrounded

by sewage. The householders calling for urgent action after flooding

four times in four years. Accused of hypocrisy - the conservation

trust planning to build in a conservation area. If this can

happen to a conservation area by the Coast and Countryside Trust, I

would say to everybody in Torbay, who is next? And the unusual

weather events captured on camera by Spotlight viewers. 100 Royal

Marines from the south west return home tonight after serving on the

front line in Afghanistan. It's a homecoming tinged with sadness

because 42 Commando, based at Bickleigh, have lost seven men.

Spotlight's Simon Hall is at Bickleigh tonight. I have been

speaking to some officers this afternoon and there is a sense of

pride about what they have achieved in Afghanistan. But also a sense of

sadness for the men who will not be coming home tonight. Here at the

barracks, a tribute to the seven people who fell in the line of duty.

It was April when members of 42 Commando left BECTU for their third

tour in Afghanistan. With the Marines taking command of a

district in Helmand Province. Their remit was to help train the Afghan

national army and police to take control of security in the region.

But just one month into the tour, the unit suffered its first

fatality when Nigel Mead was killed by a bomb. He was to be one of

seven men to lose their lives during the tour. The others were

Samuel Alexander from Plymouth, Lieutenant Oliver August and, Lance

Corporal Martin Gill, Marine James Wright from Weymouth, Sergeant

Barry Weston and marine David Fairbrother. Their commanding

officer said the deaths were a sad reminder of the daily dangers the

unit faced. For those returning after six months, there will be a

sense of relief but with the insurgency in Afghanistan ongoing,

the role of the south-west Marines might be far from over. We area's

boat to the commanding officer and asked him about the work the

Marines have been doing in Afghanistan and also about

tonight's homecoming. The first thing is there will be excitement

tonight for the men returning and the families who will be relieved

to have them back. Tinged with sadness because there will be some

people not be turning but the overarching message is we had done

seven months of good work and we are all excited about be turning

back. There is always risky in what they do and this is something we

have talked about before redeployed and have cancelled the families in

the UK all the way through and anyone who has been involved in an

incident with casualties have been looked after by the Royal Navy and

the UK forces. The Colonel's be keen to us. The men are due back in

four hours. -- speaking to us. Many families and friends will be there

to greet them when they return. We will be there and there will be

more on the homecoming live at 10:25pm. Thank you. Meanwhile, the

latest batch of Royal Marine officers are already preparing for

their first deployment to Afghanistan. The 36 recruits are

nearing the end of 15 months of basic training at the Commando

Training Centre at Lympstone. Spotlight's defence reporter, Scott

Bingham, caught up with them. It isn't every day you see Royal

Marines on patrol in Devon. This training exercise is about learning

to work closely with the community, be that in Afghanistan or here in

the village of Launceston. It is relatively unusual and there has

been interest from the locals, the local emergency services have been

very keen to support us and we have seen the police and the fire

brigade and even had a visit from the Marines, who are keen to

understand what best practice be using. For the officers it makes a

change from the controlled environment of military training.

It is out of what we normally do in training but it is great practice

because with the current The Archers, it is realistic to what we

do. It is extremely different, patrolling Dartmoor and Wales, but

it is very useful. The local people seem to appreciate it, too. We like

to see them, we feel more confident when they are about. It is great,

they should be in the community because they are part of the

community. Yes, it is good. We like to see them around. It is excellent.

They're giving a good job. It is also an opportunity for the

emergency services to get involved and even the US Marine Corps are

taking an interest. We're not fortunate enough to have training

in the local community like this and we can simulate that on bases

and stations but to do it in the town is at a higher level. These

officers will pass out in five weeks and will joint operational

units. Most of them are aiming for four to command a, already training

for their next employment to Afghanistan. -- 42 Commando.

Residents in a Cornish village are demanding urgent action after their

homes were surrounded by sewage. Yesterday's torrential rain caused

flooding in Par and residents say the drainage system can't cope. As

Eleanor Parkinson reports, it's the fourth time it's happened in four

years. The Mrs Evans is used to being flooded. She has only just

moved back to her house after it was flooded last November. This is

her and her neighbour yesterday. Shovelling Ross sewage away from

her back door. These are the manhole covers. What happened.

have five of them. Each cover just popped up and and out came the

water and the raw sewage. Everything else that was revolting.

And it was backing up to the back door. If we had not had shovels and

brooms and anything we could get hold of, just to sweep the water

away, it would have been in the house. This area is notorious.

People have now formed an action group. They say that money needs to

be spent on the drains. There are some bottlenecks, which is the best

way to describe this and they need urgent work. Some properties in

this area have been flooded four times in four years. We apologise

to our customers that we did not get here any quicker due to us

having other priorities, but I would like to assure our customers

that we will offer them every assistance to help tidy up. They

have done the tidy up themselves and they want something done about

the drains, they say they cannot cope? It is relating to the weather

that the experienced and the surface run-off contributed to the

sewers being overwhelmed. It is just due to the nature and volume

of the rainfall. Some residents have also been offered extra

protection for their homes, such as special flood stories. But this

work has yet to be done. -- floored doors. The Exeter based airline

Flybe is calling on the government for a better deal for UK travelers.

At the moment, passengers pay airport duty twice on return

flights within the UK while many European countries pay no duty at

all. There are fears the charges are discouraging air travelers and

could damage the regional economy. Spotlight's Leigh Rundle reports.

Travelling with the budget airline could mean forking out more in

government tax and you pay for your ticket. Airport passenger duty will

cost these customers heading out of Exeter this morning and minimum of

�24. It is a hidden charge. Everything these days is text, you

would be naive to us saying it would not be like that. It is

unfair. Everything is taxed. People were probably put off but it's the

only way to travel. You cannot travel from here to Edinburgh by

car. It would cost me more than �12. It is disgusting. Very poor. Should

the Government lower taxation? Or abolish it. Under the present

system, passengers are charged twice on return flights within the

UK. But in this into perspective, someone flying from Birmingham to

Belfast and back will pay �24 in passenger duty. Recent concessions

by the Treasury have cut the tax for long-haul flights from Belfast

to New York to just �12. Now the domestic market once a look-in.

are already highly taxed, the most in the whole of Europe. The UK pays

more tax and Germany and France and Spain, all others. Germany has

reduced the tax, like the Republic of Ireland. I would like to see the

UK to the same. There is some good news, the tax has been frozen by

the Government consults on reform. That will likely include reviewing

the banding system and extending duty to private business jets. The

results are expected later this year. The Torbay MP Adrian Sanders

found himself in the national spotlight last night when he became

the only Liberal Democrat MP in the country to defy his party in the

Commons vote on Europe. He was joined by six south west

Conservatives in voting for a referendum on Britain's membership

of the European Union. Spotlight's Political Editor Martyn Oates has

been following events in Westminster. As previously

advertised, more than one-third of the region's MPs survived a three-

line whip and voted against the Government and for a referendum on

the UK's relationship with the EU. Last night, most were conservative

but the south-west candidate was the only Liberal Democrat rebel.

think there were two principles at stake. One is that government

should be accountable to Parliament and not the other way around. What

was backbench business was taken over by the Government and turned

into a three-line whip, which I thought was completely wrong. The

other principle is an old liberal principle of trusting people to

take decisions that affect their own lines. While Adrian Sanders was

making a solo protest, half of the region's Conservative MPs voted

against the Government. Most of them were drawn from last year's

new intake, which makes it impossible for David Cameron to

shrug this off as a last gasp of the old guard. Absent from the

ranks was the man who was arguably the most vocal Euro-sceptic MP in

the region, George Eustace. He has an eye-catching CV including a

stint as David Cameron as press secretary and a candidate for the

United Kingdom Independence Party. He was trying to broker a

compromise between the rebels and the government in the run-up to the

vote. It was based on offering a referendum on the repatriation of

specific powers from Brussels to Westminster. The Government

rejected that and he had talked about voting against the Government

if that happened. In the event, he did not vote at all. A group of

residents in Torbay is accusing a conservation charity of hypocrisy

over its plans to build new homes in a conservation area. The Torbay

Coast and Countryside Trust wants to build luxury homes and a village

hall, but the residents of Maidencombe are having none of it.

John Ayres has more. It is the quintessential English village with

a thatched pub, honesty box and a stunning beach. Like many rural

places, residents are not an arms about plans for development but

what is unusual is it is a conservation charity that wants to

do it. The Countryside Trust is proposing to build a village hall

here and for a four-bedroom houses over there. But there is no

question about what the locals think. One of the great things

about the area is that no one has boiled it and there are not many

places like that. You look around and there are no tourist areas, so

when I heard they were going to mess it up, I got upset. If this

can happen to a conservation area by the Coast and Countryside Trust,

who look after many other places in Torbay, I would say to everybody in

Torbay, who is next? The Torbay Coast and Countryside Trust is a

charity supported by many local people. Including some of the

Maiden, residents, who are surprised by the charity's stance.

The trust says plans are in keeping an will provide residents with the

village hall. It insists that it is sympathetic to the residents'

concerns and will seek a compromise. If you look at the old maps, there

were structures and dwellings. It isn't totally out of the blue,

we're not doing this in the middle of a green field in the wild. There

is scope to do something and because it can be balanced, it can

enable development to generate other improvements. There is a good

case for it. The Trust is meeting with President this evening to

discuss their concerns. -- residents. All this week we're

looking at the changing fortunes of three south west cities - Truro,

Plymouth and Exeter. Tonight, we look at the big changes which have

happened in the last few years in local newspapers, radio and

television. Exeter may have the up market shopping developments but

it's not going up in the world of local news. With tonight's Tale of

Three Cities, here's our business correspondent, Neil Gallacher.

Still the flagship. The Western morning News internet. The engine

room is empty with the printing press up country, and the crew on

board is smaller. But this is still resolutely at daily paper which

nowadays is saying something. In fact, Planet has two daily papers

in the city. Exeter, which likes to style itself the regional capital,

no longer has its own daily. The Express and Echo went weekly last

month. A change forced by recession and the internet. That is history,

according to the editor, who preferred not to be interviewed.

This is a numbers game and the Ecole's last circulation as a delay

had stood at just 16,500. In Plymouth, twice the size, they

hurled it is still delay. It sells just under 30,000. The morning news

sells 31,000 across the region. And the editor of the morning news is

confident that both papers do not need to go weekly as many smaller

circulation dailies have done. Those below about 15,000 each day

are now weekly. Because of the reduction in cost, distribution,

newsprint, those models become sustainable and we see long-term

futures. We are nowhere near that point. That is that... The chairman

of this Plymouth radio station says that having daily papers is

naturally enough and gives extra cloud to a city that cannot rest on

its laurels. We are not as rich as Exeter, we don't have the money

around us that Exeter does. We have to work harder. But we do have a

critical massive a population. We do have a great central geography

for the region. And I think that makes Plymouth and natural centre

for the south-west. Plan its role as regional media capital would

have been stronger if ITV had not switched the hosting of its

regional news programme to Bristol. But there has been no change to the

hosting of Spotlight. That role is 50 years old and the head of the

BBC here is confident the spotlight will stay, despite recently

announced cuts. We will have a 20% bite your budget by 2016. But I can

absolutely guarantee that there will be at television news service

from the BBC from the city's serve in the wider South West and that

goes for radio and on mine. No question. And Plymouth is also home

to one of the biggest independent television producers outside London.

The founders came out of BBC plumber. And what about Truro?

Cornwall has never had a daily paper in the county. Curious, given

that when the BBC set up Radio Cornwall, it was a runaway success.

The West Briton, their weekly newspaper, is going strong, selling

32,000 copies. And the editor knows he isn't saddled with the problems

many locals face. They have had to keep putting out a newspaper every

day so they have to have a lot of staff and as things have become

more difficult, that is more expensive. And it starts to not

make so much sense. If you put out a weekly newspaper, we have

property, motoring, jobs, all-in- one package. So, it turns out to be

a sort of template for the future of small local papers. Not bad for

a publication that is 200 years old. And the series continues tomorrow

on a health theme, with a look at research work at the Peninsula

College of Medicine and Dentistry. Our League football sides are all

in action tonight. Plymouth Argyle play at Oxford United in League Two.

Torquay look to end their poor recent run when they meet AFC

Wimbledon at Plainmoor. In League One, Jake Taylor, who scored on

Saturday, has extended his loan spell at Exeter and could play at

Walsall tonight. Yeovil, who are bottom of the League, are at home

to fellow strugglers Leyton Orient. There will be coverage to light on

your local BBC radio station. -- tonight. The last surviving member

of Thomas Hardy's original theatrical group has died at the

age of 105. Norrie Woodhall used to rehearse at Hardy's home in

Dorchester. Till the end, Norrie continued to be involved in

performing his works and her death has come as a huge loss to the

local theatre community. Catharina Moh has her incredible story. Nouri

would always fond of the stage. She died aged 105 and with you're, went

the last person to know Thomas Hardy first hand. In her youth she

belonged to his theatrical group. He did not criticise anyone. He was

a very shy man. And very sensitive. They rehearsed at his home in

Dorchester Town. In 1928, she played Test's younger sister in

Tess of the D'Urbervilles. She even had a few extra lines created for

her. I had to rush across the stage, throw myself into my sister's arms

and say, Tess! That was all. He asked me for my script and he rode

into a... I am so glad you have come home. And he looked at me and

he said, that is better, isn't it? Age did not stop her continuing

their legacy, becoming president of the newly formed hardy players and

performing his work to the end. Digging potatoes... What an

incredible story. It's not exactly your usual underwater expedition,

but divers at a sea life park in Dorset have begun searching for

teeth. They're the ones which have naturally dropped out of the mouths

of sharks. Sharks continuously loose teeth, which are quickly

replaced. It's hoped the research in Weymouth will help understand

the lives some of their prehistoric ancestors. Our Dorset reporter,

Simon Clemison, has the story. are looking for the teeth... Yes,

they're off in search of teeth. Shark teeth. But why there are two

breeds swimming around below the waterline, they're not bothered by

the divers. And in any case, the teeth they need to look at are ones

which have already fallen out. The hope is that they drop to the

bottom and can teach something about the life of the Megalon Don.

It looked thousands of years ago and could grow up to 52 feet.

Eating anything it shows. These nurse sharks look less menacing.

And the centre is trying to change the image the species has. For a

start, their teeth or know where the same size. But they might prove

very useful to this research. Sharks lose their teeth more often

than we do, because they rip into their food. This is what the

prehistoric shark's teeth would have looked like an these are the

tiny teeth they are recovering today. But we know about the

conditions Sharks led then so by examining the state, we can check

whether assumptions about the conditions these sharks live 10

were true. We know that the parameters, -- about the parameters,

the water, so the current basis for those two. And we hope it will take

us to look at the teeth of the Michael it on and see if there are

assumptions around the estate. that end, they will dive and scour

for the next two years. -- megalodon. So far, no teeth have

been discovered. We will have to wait until they ripped apart their

More heavy rain? Showers but the worst is over. There could be show

us again tomorrow but that last 24 hours have been particularly wet.

This was yesterday. The wet weather formed a line that went across the

south-eastern parts of Cornwall, particularly over Bodmin Moor. And

by lunchtime, 70 mm. In old money, almost three inches. Not a record

but in the space of one day, very wet. The streams and rivers are

badly swollen and there has been a lot of surface water. Today,

showers, some quite heavy, and unusual cloud formations. Thank you

to all the viewers who sent in pictures. This is a funnel cloud.

Not far from the more grey area. These are a precursor to a possible

tornado. Thankfully, Tornados did not develop. Also, yesterday's

strength of wind has really whipped up the sea. This was East Devon.

Thank you to everybody for the photographs. It really does help

tell the story. That wet weather has proved quite a way north, you

can see the line of cloud covering the north of Scotland. Difficult to

make out what the UK is. Spain and Portugal, the western tip of France

and we are underneath all this lumpy cloud. There have been some

clear skies and places, this was earlier at Charlestown in Cornwall.

We did have some sunshine, relatively quiet weather. At least

people were out and about. And much lighter wind. This was completely

different yesterday because of the strength of the wind. Tonight and

through tomorrow, the wind will not be overly strong. And the chance

for things to come down. And the showers will never be too far away.

The low pressure is continuing to dominate with two systems. One to

the west of Ireland generating showers and that will move closer

over the next 24 hours. But also, this the area of low pressure,

quite vigorous, brushing up the western side of Spain and Portugal

tomorrow and as this weaker area of low pressure brings in more wet

weather on Thursday, it could be quite a wet day. The showers have

been quite lively today. They have been moving northwards. Still some

heavy downpours. Standing surface spray on faster rates might make

for some dangerous driving conditions. Although the showers

continued overnight, they become isolated and a tin of clear skies,

two things happen. Mist will form, even fog patches and also turning

cold, for and five degrees. Tomorrow, the risk of showers

through the day but largely the showers will die away by the end of

the afternoon so a better chance to drive. And temperatures of 14

degrees with light wind. The Isles of Scilly, morning showers and then

sunny spells developing. The times of high water... Not a great deal

for the surfing. Three, possibly four feet. Slightly choppy on the

south coast. And the coastal waters... Becoming Fir label for a

time. -- variable. And we will see some wet-weather on Thursday. Heavy

rain to start the day, perhaps an improvement later on in the Far

West, fine on Friday and back to square one with showers on Saturday.