10/02/2017 Spotlight

Tonight in the South West, increasing anger over

Why should a Devon child be worth that much less than somebody

Critics say a plan to make funding fairer doesn't add up and many

Also tonight - removing eco boilers from social housing.

They're being taken away after elderly tenants struggled

to fill them with sacks of wood pellets.

At this beauty spot in Exeter, a swan has been killed

in what police believe was a deliberate

A new way is needed, you just can't see it!

And the amateur actors hoping that they'll soon be

Headteachers in Devon and Cornwall are writing to parents asking them

to get involved in a campaign to change the way

After years of criticism that children in the South West receive

less money than those elsewhere the Government has introduced

a new way of working out how much each child will get.

Unions say this will actually leave the region more

In Devon, the county council says almost two thirds

Our political reporter Anna Varle has more.

Does anyone remember the difference between the people that sat

on either side of the room when we are having the debate?

It's never too young to get engaged in current affairs.

But this school is amongst hundreds across the region which is taking

politics out of the classroom and direct to Westminster.

In Devon, pupils like me are currently worth ?290 less

To make it fairer, the government is looking at changing

They say we will be better off by a little bit.

What we're trying to do is make sure that every single child,

wherever they're growing up in England gets the same amount

of funding, with then top up in relation to additional needs,

whether it's in relation to deprivation which has been based

on out of date data up until now, or indeed additional funding

But Devon County Council is one local authority which has

And it says far from being better off, 61.9%

Why should a Devon child be worth that much less than somebody

The government's got to do something about it.

Unions claim the formula, coupled with increasing

costs such as inflation, could lead to the region's schools

being ?105 million worse off in the next three years.

Which will result in fewer teachers and larger class sizes.

We've cut right the way back in recent years anyway.

The only thing left to cut unfortunately will be staffing

That's why headteachers across Devon and Cornwall are sending out letters

to parents asking them to get involved and write to their MP.

You can't sit there and say that it's the school's job to do

Your children go over, so you've got a bit of a responsibility

to make sure you support the school your children go to.

The more pressure we put on, hopefully the more

Even Devon's Tory MPs are threatening to oppose

If these proposals are adopted, we're going to have 15

primary schools gaining, 20 losing out, and all the secondary

This is clearly neither fair nor acceptable.

The government says that under this new formula,

schools in Devon, Cornwall, Somerset and Dorset will benefit.

The consultation runs until the 22nd of March,

and it's keen to hear from parents, schools, governors -

Our Political Editor Martyn Oates is here now.

How have we arrived at a situation where Devon is even worse off?

We should be clear that this does vary from one local authority to

another, and from school to school. So Cornwall Council for instance,

says that overall Cornwall would gain from this. But as we heard

there, there will be winners and losers among individual schools. A

similar situation in Somerset. In Devon, which is an authority which

historically has been one of the worst funded in the country, clearly

the council believes overall it will be worse off. As one Devon MP said

recently in Parliament, after all the years of campaigning to change

this, it has ever anticipated that when the changes finally came, Devon

would be worse off. And Devon is far from alone. Looking across the

country, looking across the Commons more particularly, there are lots of

furious MPs who say the outcome for their schools in real areas is less

fair. Is the government likely to change its mind? The rural MPs, tend

to be Conservative MPs, so it is not great for the government to have a

lot of discontented MPs on its own backbenchers. Many of the same MPs

also very angry at the moment about the level of grant that the

government's offering to local authorities, and that'll be signed

off in a couple of weeks. The focus for

a lot of this is something called the rural fair share group, which is

now almost entirely run by MPs from Devon, Cornwall and Somerset. As the

Prime Minister said at premises questions this week, this is still

only a consultation, not the final offer. Over the last few years we

have seen all of these MPs making a fuss about this kind of thing,

threatening rebellions and very often have to say, have been brushed

off, sometimes quite briskly by the government. The question is whether

this time they can be more successful. Thank you very much.

And the debate continues in this weekend's Sunday Politics,

that's at 11 o'clock on Sunday Morning here on BBC One

with guests Peregrine Mears, Sheryl Murray and Gareth Derrick.

A housing association is removing eco boilers from some

of its properties after complaints they were unsuitable for the elderly

The boilers need to be filled with sacks of wood pellets,

but some residents struggled to lift the bags.

The equipment had also broken down repeatedly.

Westward Housing in North Devon says its dealing with

Tony Walker and his wife Jen, who is 68, dread having

But if it runs out, their central heating stops working.

Jen now has a bad back, and says the couple just can't cope with it.

It's not very easy at all, especially if you're

not well or, you know, I suffer with asthma and breathing.

And, you know my husband, he's not very well.

Well, it's not appropriate because we're too old.

We're just too old now to be able to cope with it.

There are around six Wesward Housing tenants who are either disabled,

have limited mobility or are elderly, who have had these

There have also been complaints about them not working properly.

Up the road, tenant Robert Smith's house now has

No one told us what we're going to have to do

No one said, you're going to have to fill it up day or every other

day, and there was no way would have managed to ash it out once a week.

And there was no consultation with us all.

In a statement, Westward Housing told us...

The manufacturer, Warmflow, told us...

Back at the Walkers, and Tony Walker is pretty clear

about what he wants done with his wood pellet boiler.

I don't want it on site, because it's no use to us.

A swan has been killed in Exeter in what police say appears

It's the second swan to have been found dead in the past week.

The news has shocked and angered people who regularly

The birds are a protected species and its' illegal to harm them.

Our Environment Correspondent Adrian Campbell reports.

Exeter's Swans are familiar and popular site, but in recent days

there have been concerns for their welfare after two deaths. On

Wednesday this week, Devon and Cornwall police say the body of a

swan was found close to this footbridge. Exeter City Council have

also told us that on Saturday, the body of a swan was taken to the

offer is not far from here, and it is understood that the swan had been

decapitated. The RSPB says suggestions that the birds may have

been deliberately attacked are disturbing. We don't quite know what

has happened here. These animals can be attacked, obviously by other

creatures, like foxes. But if it is a person that has done this, then

this is a really heinous crime, and it does unfortunately happened to

Swans. They do get attacked. Of course, it is against the law. In

wild birds in the UK are protected under the wildlife countryside act,

so people do see any crimes against bugs, please report it to the police

-- if people do. People who live here say they are concerned. I think

it's sad and disgusting behaviour. However, it is very unusual.

Everyone ranter care about the wildlife, and the majority of people

coexist very well. Defra has been informed about what happened, and

went a's incident has been reported as a crime. Police are appealing for

information from the public. Potholes are the curse

of motorists across the region, as council's struggle to keep up

with the backlog of repairs. In Devon the local authority has

turned to volunteers to help patch up the roads in the first scheme

of its kind. Jenny Kumah has been to see

what progress they're making, but not everyone is happy

with the idea. Ken lives in the village

of Halberton, and he's part of the yellow army

of volunteer road wardens. He's got training and insurance

from the county council, Some people say it's double

taxation because, you know, we pay our council tax,

all this should be done. The trouble is, when the money

won't go round, the money is being spent on childcare

and adult social care, So, maintaining the roads

is an expensive business, especially in Devon,

which has the largest road According to the county council,

it would cost ?750 million to complete the backlog of repairs

and to get the roads This year, the council

got ?45 million from But the council says that it

needs around ?15 million So is the scheme a form

of cheap labour? I mean, we're finding

that the parish councils are coming to us and they're taking pride

in their communities, and they're saying that they would like to come

and help the county council doing The road wardens scheme means

that they are expecting free labour to fill in holes in the road,

dig out the ditches and clean signs, but we're all

paying our council tax. 11 other local councils have shown

interest in the volunteer scheme, It's a big Devon Derby

football match this weekend. Our intrepid sports

reporter has gone to great lengths to catch a glimpse

of the top secret training. And this is how cold

it is going to get tonight, Also, more cloud coming

in from the east. The Devon composer who

wrote the music to one of the most watched -

and poignant films in the country has today been back

to the Teignmouth School that helped Laura Rossi was asked

to compose the soundtrack to the Imperial War Museum's film,

The Battle of the Somme. She's been holding workshops

with music students to help them understand the film ahead

of performances with a live symphony After its release in 1916, The

Battle Of The Somme quickly became a must see film. It remains the

biggest box office success, it was seen by over half the population,

and in the first six weeks it was seen by nearly 20 million people. It

was a box office record which wasn't beaten until Star Wars in 1977. Just

over 100 years on, it is as relevant today as ever. Over an hour and a

quarter of life on the front before and after battle. This film was

before censorship came in, so it is the only footage of the British dead

and wounded to this day. We still don't see any at all. I actually

went to the school long time ago, so I'm from Teignmouth. It is really

great to be back. Ten years ago, Laura was commissioned by the

Imperial War Museum to score the film for its 90th anniversary. A

year after its Centenary, it is now being screened 100 times around the

country. The film screenings are in partnership with the Imperial War

Museum, through the First World War Centenary partnership. Today, Laura

was back at her old school, having a workshop with people. Sometimes,

they might have been in a more high-spirited moment. It isn't

necessary because it's the war that you want to write something very

does present. You want to fit the scenes, and when I was scoring this,

there are busy some winded, but in this team they seem quite happy. So

let us think how we can relate that -- there are obviously some winded.

I was convinced that I'd found my relative who was injured in the

Somme, and the War Museum says that they are inundated people thinking

it is him, but it is probably not him, so I'll keep looking. Will be a

chance people into mass on Sunday to see a screening of the film and here

it with the orchestra at Exeter Cathedral tomorrow evening. In the

cathedral, be absolutely wonderful. You have the have the acoustic, the

space and that whole idea of course with the Cathedral itself. And when

this film was originally made. I think the music at a tremendous

amount. With many people watching the film and perhaps going away from

its thinking what it was about. Though often remember they were

moved by piece of music that appears and is suitable for the picture

didn't. -- for the picture it is in. There are performances of the Battle

of the Somme film with live music at Exeter Cathedral tomorrow

and Teignmouth Pavilions on Sunday. It's time for the sport now,

and Andy's been going to great lengths and heights to find out

about this weekend's Devon derby. Some people are calling this game

the biggest match ever played between Plymouth Argyle and Exeter

City. It's no surprise to hear it's

another sell-out at Home Park with around 15,000 fans

expected tomorrow. Local bragging are always at stake

when these arch rivals meet, but with both sides in the top four

of League Two, they're vying for something far more

valuable in the long And both were playing their cards

very close to their chests. Well, you can tell

this is a big game. We're not even allowed to see

Plymouth Argyle training. And it's not just Argyle:

Exeter City have been just as cagey. And they're the form team

in the whole of the country, 12 games unbeaten, seven wins

in a row and a player whose form in front of goal has seen him break

a record that stood at the club I didn't know until I'd equalled it,

you know, what the record was. So, yeah, there was a bit

of pressure before But yeah, it strange pressure,

because, you know, you can't Despite five goals in five wins

in January, it was his team-mate Ollie Watkins who is named league

two Player of the Month. Yeah, some of the lads give him

a bit of stick, but no, Loads of assists and

a couple of goals. So I don't begrudge him, but I think

scoring every game in a month, It shows you how well we've

done the last month. Good form in January,

great, but it's about And we're all focused on getting

to the end of the season The end of the season,

the chance to relax. Well, the Argyle squad couldn't wait

that long and jetted off to Spain His plan was a bit different

to the one you would think, so it was a lot of training up

there. Just nice to train in

warm weather, really. So does the form Exeter's players

are showing at the moment hold any They're not looking

as dangerous as us. You know, we've got, you know,

a lot of dangerous players, We're obviously ahead of them

in the league for a reason. You know, we'll have to be

playing at it some more. -- we will have to be banging at it

tomorrow. Neither side giving

too much away here. For Argyle, they'll be hoping 13

is unlucky for Exeter is the Grecians look

to extend their unbeaten run. For Exeter, they'll be hoping

Argyle are still in Siesta It's good to see you starting to

branch out with your reporting. I think we'll have to move on quickly

from that! Exeter Chiefs' Jack Nowell

and Tomas Francis will line up against each other tomorrow

when England take on Wales in Cardiff, in round two

of the Six Nations. The 23-year-old Cornishman will be

hoping to add to his nine international tries when he replaces

Jonny May on the wing. While Francis has also been called

up to the Welsh starting line-up. On Sunday, their club team-mates

are back in Premiership action The Chiefs beat them the last time

the two sides met at Sandy Park in the Premiership semifinal

and with Wasps providing five of the England squad,

it looks like a good time to play You know, you can't run away

from it, they've got a few But I think regardless of that,

everyone's where they've got You know, they've got

numerous international So it'll be a tough

game whatever happens. That match kicks off at one o'clock

on Sunday and Radio Devon will have It's a rest weekend

for the Championship, but Plymouth Albion are back

at the Brickfields - Finally, our south-west sports

personality of the year is one of five gold medal winners from Rio to

be named in England team for the upcoming tour to South Africa. In

four Riaz, hopefully another gold medal. Thank you very much, Andy. I

hope you filled in a health and safety form when he climbed the

tree. I'm going to take myself back a few years at home and play hide

and seek. Thanks, Andy. A film self-funded by a group

of amateur actors from Torbay has been short listed for a film

festival in Los Angeles. It's about the life of Mordred -

the illegitimate son of King Arthur. It's been filmed at locations

around the South West Spotlight's Janine

Jansen has the story. One day my father will rule these

lands, as well I. Who needs a multi-million pound budget? This

group of South Devon amateur actors had a dream and just ?3000. And to

act as he would, not to make your own rules. What am I supposed to do

now? Dan Leavy has now impressed Hollywood. Mordred is short listed

for a film festival in Los Angeles -- their film has now impressed. You

don't have to look hard to see it was filmed entirely on location in

Devon and Cornwall. I play Guinevere, and basically when

Mordred arrives, I don't trust him at all and I have a bad feeling

about him. I can't put my finger on it. But I feel like he's going to be

a danger. His idea of what's right isn't necessarily the same as one

as's. He sees it black and white, whilst they will see the shades of

grey. With no grant funding, the South Devon players didn't give up.

Through blood sweat and tears, panicking, we have done car-boot

sales, jumble sales, crowdfunds. Some of us did a burlesque night,

including Mordred. With such a tight budget, everyone mucks in. One of

the most brutal characters also had the job of teaching his colleagues

how to fight. How hard is it to drum up the rage that they need for the

fight? Did it come quite naturally? I think for a lot of people it came

naturally. I think everyone was enjoying it, they were having a good

time. They're already psyched up anyway. It was a very brutal style

of fighting, so, you know, a lot of shield grubs and kicks and very sort

of violent stuff. It's going to look very impressive in the film. Could

the Southwest's answer to Game Of Throwing take these budding actors

all the way to the top? -- Game of Thrones. A lot of violence, and

that's just in the studio! A very chilly weekend.

It is cold outside. You need to cuddle up this weekend because there

is a very cold easterly wind and low temperatures, some of the coldest it

has felt so far this winter. Very chilly. There will be a breeze, and

wintry showers around. So those will leave some snow over high ground. At

the moment, we have high-pressure -- low pressure over Spain and

Portugal, dreadful weather. High-pressure to the north, easterly

winds. One weather front trapped in the flow. It has the can of cloud to

produce snow showers at the moment. They're coming through central parts

of Britain and will travel towards us by the end of the night. The risk

of a few flurries in the wind, certainly for Dorset and Somerset.

By Sunday, the wind is stronger. A similar setup, with a lot of cloud

and potentially more wintry showers, too. We continue to see some pretty

low temperatures over the next couple of days. We can is definitely

a cold one. There are showers and more cloud coming in from the east.

In the second half of the night. Some clear skies, and certainly

frost possible. This was earlier today on the south coast of

Cornwall. Call having some of the best of them join today, will hazy

in places. There is quite thick haze, so reduced visibility because

of that. For all of us, it is the wind that makes it feel bitterly

cold. It will be with us on Saturday and Sunday. The holes you saw in the

cloud are already out there, and that means many of us tonight that

temperatures will fall very quickly indeed. Possibly as low as -2, if

not -3 overnight tonight. For all of us, bitterly cold, in places rusty

start to the day. If you are on the terraces watching that important

football match, need to wrap up warmly -- frosty start. The showers

falling readily as sleet and certainly over high ground, falling

as snow. The amount is likely to be small, but you will notice what is

falling out of the sky. Temperatures no more than three or four degrees.

If you add wind strength, it will feel a lot colder than that. That is

the forecast for the Isles of Scilly. A cold wind and wintry

showers, quite blustery wind across the island here. Times of high

water, here they are for ports and harbours. Portland at 6:47am,

Penzance at 440 7p. If you're brave enough to be at the the show this of

year, these are the temperatures. That us look at the coastal waters

forecast, pretty lively winds. From the East and North East, Force 5-6.

A few showers around, Margaret visibility. There is thick haze at

sea at the moment. It is the wind direction that dictate our

temperature as we move through the next few days. This is Tuesday.

You'll notice we have changed the colour. It has been very blue over

the last couple of days. By Tuesday, there is some yellow. Those at high

temperatures, temperatures in double figures. You'll notice that the far

south-west of England has some as well. Be patient, because will lose

the court, it will warm up eventually. It may take all the way

through to the middle of next week before we get some appreciable

sunshine and higher temperatures. The next two days are bitterly cold,

exacerbated by the strength of the wind. You will need to wrap up very

warmly. Have a nice weekend. Thank you very much, David. Wrap up only

if you are going to the Devon derby tomorrow. If not, full match

commentary on BBC radio Devon from TPM tomorrow. From all of us on the

programme, have a good weekend. Goodbye. -- from two PM.