15/03/2014 Spotlight

Good afternoon. Fire crews are overtake them with a large

Good afternoon. Fire crews are working with rail contractors at

Dawlish to force a controlled landslide of around 350,000 tonnes

of soil and rock above the mainline railway. Devon and Somerset Fire and

Rescue were contacted by Network Rail yesterday afternoon after fears

a section of line was too dangerous to work on because of the risk of

collapse. It could take up to seven days to complete to task.

Hundreds of people lined the streets of Exeter this morning, as the crew

of HMS Defender were granted the Freedom of the City. The

state`of`the`art Type 45 destroyer was given the honour, following the

decommissioning of HMS Exeter. Emma Ruminski reports.

In 2009, HMS Exeter was decommissioned and now the city is

embarking on affiliation with a new ship. The commander from that ship

joins me now. How do you feel about being given the Freedom of the City?

We are really honoured, we are proud of our links with the city and today

is a huge honour for us. How does HMS Defender differ from HMS Exeter?

HMS Defender is a brand`new warship capable of meeting today's needs

anywhere around the world. She is manned by 200 highly`trained men and

women, she's about twice as big as HMS Exeter and she will be in

service for about the next 30 years. The crew of HMS Defender have

already started helping out in the city, they have been raising money

for local charities and that money will be given to the Lord Mayor

later today at a civil function. There are calls for a cut in VAT to

help the tourism industry in the south west ahead of next week's

Budget. Figures show hundreds of millions of pounds goes to the

Treasury from taxes on tourism`related activity in the

region. It comes as the idea of a ?1 a night tourist tax has been

suggested as one way for councils to get some extra cash. But one Cornish

hotelier isn't convinced. We are in a time of public cuts and more tax

and demand so I think it doesn't sound like a lot of pound, does it,

but I think it is the straw that would break the camel's back at a

time when we are all trying to recover from a difficult recession.

And you can hear the full story on Sunday Politics tomorrow from 11am

here on BBC One. The last commercial flight between

Guernsey and Jersey on a Trislander aircraft takes off today. The

aeroplane, first used by the company Aurigny in 1971, has connected the

Channel Islands for over 40 years. The Trislanders are gradually being

phased out after Aurigny and rival carrier Blue Islands announced they

were to merge on the route to save costs. Let's take a look at what the

weather has in store for the weekend. Some of us started the day

on a grey note but now the skies have brightened beautifully and for

many of us might it will be the story of lengthy sunny spells for

the rest of the day. We may see some cloud plaguing parts of Cornwall and

the Isles of Scilly at times. We could see up to 17 degrees in parts

of Dorset or Devon. We had into the evening and there will be variable

amounts of cloud, but the breeze should stop things from getting too

cold. It will be a frost free night. Tomorrow we may see some

early brightness but cloud will thicken through the day, and we

could even see some patchy rain. Have a lovely afternoon.

You can keep up`to`date with all of the sporting action this afternoon

over on your BBC local radio station. We will be back a bit later

than planned at 7:10pm tonight, that's because of the rugby, and

Following on from what has been largely dry and settled week with

high pressure in charge, the weekend weather continues on that theme,

too. Things are looking largely dry, not everywhere, but there will

be some warm sunshine on offer, particularly through the afternoons.

It will be feeling fairly breezy as well. The satellite image shows the

cloud has been thinning and breaking this morning, across Northern

Ireland, Wales and Northern Ireland. In terms of the Six Nations

rugby matches today, it should stay dry for all the matches. Cloudy

skies in Paris, but it should tend to brighten up as we head through

the remainder of the afternoon. This afternoon, quite a breeze blowing in

from the West. That bree is helping to break up the clouds. Sunshine

developing for Northern Ireland, much of England and Wales, apart

from the far north of England, where we are holding onto a bit more

cloud. A weather