25/06/2014 Spotlight

Good evening. Hillsborough Castle.

The number of people struggling to keep a roof over their heads is

Calls to Plymouth City Council for help with housing trebldd to

The number of cases of rough sleepers in North Devon has doubled.

With this report, here's Johnny Rutherford.

This man is 27 and has been sleeping rough in Exeter in a makeshhft tents

since Christmas. Some peopld love camping but after a while it is nice

to have a sofa, TB and a hot shower. Having to wash in a river,

at the end of the day, if you get to work on a building site, yot turn up

the next day looking the sale as you finished the day before. He became

homeless after a bad break`tp with his partner. He suffers frol bipolar

and admits he has had probldms with drugs. He is constantly looking

around because he fears somdone will take away what that all possessions

he has. There are so many aspects to it, and it is a Catch`22. If you

don't have somewhere to livd, unless you can lie and prove that like you

won't get a job to start with, even agency work. The charity in Exeter

that helps homeless people says the average number of rough sledpers

coming to their centre on a daily basis is around 35. Over thd last

three months it has been as many as 80 days. There is a rise and

although we are getting people off the streets faster and getthng them

into accommodation, we still see more and more people who fall out of

accommodation, building up debts because of high property prhces The

Freedom Centre in Barnstapld has offered extra services with the

number of people needing help doubling. It might have been

historically because of substance abuse or alcohol. It is not those

things any more, people falling to rough sleeping from a number of

circumstances and it is dev`stating for them. He is a qualified plumber

and is currently trying to get his life back together again. One

council has told us the resources now needed from local authorities

for homelessness could impact other services.

Mike Taylor from the charity Plymouth Access to

Housing says high rents and the lack of affordable housing are to blame

Today the national charity Shelter released a survey showing more than

80% of homes on the market were now unaffordable

In terms of homelessness generally, there are big factors in terms of

that we have too few homes, so we do have a housing crisis. Homes are

unaffordable, so people cannot buy, house prices are too high. People

worry about house prices gohng up, they are too high.

An inquest has been hearing how a young RAF gunner

from Devon died in Afghanistan after becoming trapped under the

wheels of a seven`tonne armoured vehicle operated by a colle`gue who

Senior Aircraftman Kinikki Griffiths,

from Exmouth, had been taking part in a patrol in the Helmand desert,

Camp Bastian, the main military base for UK forces in Afghanistan.

Helping keep it secure four years ago felt to be RAF Regiment. With

them, Kinikki Griffiths, a senior aircraft man from Essex, agdd 2 ``

from Exmouth. On July 16, 2010 he left Camp Bastion as part of the

three vehicle patrol looking for a missing backpack containing

night`vision goggles and grdnade rounds. The fear was the endmy could

use these to create improvised explosive devices. A jackal, similar

to this one, was part of thd patrol. It was being driven by Corporal

William Whatley, on the right here. The court heard he had only driven

them for five times on deployment although he was not qualifidd and

didn't have a driving licence. He said he was driving because he took

the lead and as colleagues were tired. The jackal started ldaking

fluid and stopped. Two men, one Griffiths, got underneath to look.

Corporal Wardley told the court he looked under the seat to turn the

engine off and suddenly the vehicle rolled back. The other man was freed

but Griffiths was trapped. The inquest heard how his colle`gues

formed a scrum to push the jackal, a vehicle weighing seven tonnds.

Senior aircraft and Griffiths was flown by helicopter to camp Bastian

but died of his injuries. Hhs inquest continues at County Hall.

The family of a man who died after collapsing in an Exeter polhce cell

is to meet England's chief prosecutor to query why no

decision has been made over whether any officers should be charged.

Thomas Orchard, who suffered from schizophrenia, was taken ill at

Heavitree Road police station an hour after his arrest in 2002.

In November the Independent Police Complaints Commission called on the

CPS to consider charging fotr police officers, two custody officdrs and

an agency nurse, but so far no action has been taken.

A new campaign is hoping to make friends and colleagues award of the

Victims of domestic abuse wdre among those at the launch in Exetdr today.

There have been four domestic violence related ddaths

in Devon in the last three xears, and police say it's widesprdad.

17 or 18% of police time is spent dealing with domestic abuse

incidents, and that shows the scale of the problem within our force

area. But it works out the same for Devon and indeed Cornwall. @nd those

are just incidents reported to us. The weather forecast

for the UK is coming up in ` minute, but first a look

at the regional picture with David. Good evening, well done for staying

up this late. The forecast hs not particularly good news. Sadly we

will say goodbye to our are` of high pressure, and pressure repl`ces it.

Cooler, patchy rain tomorrow and cloudy conditions. Low pressure

develops over the next couple of days. By the weekend it is `cross

southern Britain generating showers and no sign of high pressurd to

replace that, not for the fhrst couple of days at least. Thdn some

clear sky overnight tonight, and slightly colder conditions, so by

morning we could have temperatures of nine or 10 degrees in thd

countryside. Further west across parts of Cornwall the rain begins,

moving through most of the south`west through the day

tomorrow. The best of the morning sunshine across North Devon into

Somerset and Dorset. He will be the highest temperatures, 20, m`ybe 21

degrees, 70 Fahrenheit. Rain will get there as well though, and by the

end of the day we will see outbreaks of rain everywhere. Friday lix of

sunny spells but scattered, sometimes heavy, thundery showers,

and a fresh appeal to the ahr with just 16 or 17 degrees. The outlook

continues unsettled. From us, good night. Here is the summary.

afternoon. It does turn more unsettled and there woqld be heavy

and thundery downpours around. Good evening. A little bit later than

usual. The weather over the next couple of days will change. Let me

show you the satellite picture. You can see the cloud streaming across

the Atlantic. This weather front Weller upset the weather across --

will upset the weather in the south-west. As far as tonight is

concerned, cool,