16/03/2017 Spotlight

Good evening - On Spotlight tonight, the smugglers caught

With a street value of ?84 million, this fishing boat was

Tonight three men have been convicted.

We report on the huge operation to catch them.

Also in the programme tonight - plans to improve Cornwall's highways

four years after a woman died in a landslide.

How many times do we listen on the TV and we hear this? It's too late.

If that was the case they would have been here the day after the inquest.

People saying more needs to be done to make sure it doesn't happen

again. On a mission - the youngsters

in Cornwall broadcasting their message on BBC

school report day. And from motor bikes to ballet,

we'll meet the ballerina getting ready to kick start

Sleeping Beauty in Cornwall. It's one of Britain's biggest

ever cocaine seizures - more than a tonne of the drug

was found aboard a fishing boat off Today the skipper

has been convicted. Two other men had already pleaded

guilty to drug importation offences. The jury at Bristol Crown Court

was told the drugs had a street value of nearly 84 million pounds.

All three will be sentenced next month.

Duncan Kennedy reports. This red trawler is packed

with cocaine, left and right, It's the middle of

the English Channel One of them describes

what's happening. The vessel hopefully

didn't know we were there, We didn't at the time know how many

people were on board, who they were. It took less than five

minutes to take control The biggest seizure of cocaine

in Britain in 2016. One tonne, the street

value - ?84 million. There was no physical

resistance at the time. This undercover Border Force agent

was there and told me breaking up It's no mean feat, it's not

for the faint-hearted. Your adrenaline is running

at the time and you want to get your feet firmly planted on the deck

as quickly as possible. Michael McDermott, David Pleasants

and Gerald Van De Kooij were the three men on the trawler

and are now convicted It's important, ?84 million

at street level value but that's millions and millions of wraps that

would have been in the hands We've saved people from harm here,

we've saved some lives. Training for mid-sea

operations is rarely seen. But so important has this one been,

the Home Office gave us special The only way Border Force

or the National Crime Agency could stop the gang involved

is because they had access to fast boats, helicopters

and cutters like the Vigilant. Put all that together and it's

no wonder that the NCA and Border Force are describing this

as such a success. By combining all their resources,

they made one of the biggest ever seizures of cocaine

in British waters. But the British coastline

is around 8,000 miles long. So what can the handful

of cutters on patrol do? The captain says they can

still send a powerful message I want this to be recognised

by the opposition as hurting their business.

We've got one advantage in the UK, is that we are

surrounded by the sea. And we're trying our best to make

a good job and I think The trawler, the Bianca,

is to be sold, the cocaine found But all the agencies involved know

it won't stop the South American drugs trade and their vigilance

will be tested again. Time now for some other news

from across the south west. The former Plymouth-based Royal

Marine Alexander Blackman, who fatally shot an injured Taliban

fighter in Afghanistan, His murder conviction was reduced

to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility

at the Court Martial Health bosses have refused

to overturn a decision to temporarily close beds

at Holsworthy hospital. It was standing room only

at a public meeting last night when around 500 people got

the chance to voice their concerns. Campaigners fear it could lead

to its permanent closure. Bosses say they're

looking at all options. The first bus has driven past

a new bus gate in Truro, despite a campaign by some locals,

angry at claims 140 buses would pass Cornwall Council says the new

junction will take 90 buses away from the Threemilestone Roundabout

and shorten journey times A decision is expected within days

which could lead to the biggest shake-up in the way Dorset is run

for a generation. The government is considering

whether to get rid of nine councils and replace them

with two unitary authorities. It would be roughly an east-west

split with one authority delivering all local government services

to the more urban areas like Bournemouth -

while another operates across the much bigger and more

rural west of the county. Cornwall of course went down

the same road some time ago. Our Political Reporters

in Dorset and Cornwall - Tristan Pascoe and Tamsin Melville -

have been for a walk with their dogs in both counties to find out

what the changes would mean. Dorset may be about to follow

in the footsteps of Cornwall. Here, ten years ago, all the talk

was about replacing seven councils So if the government decides

they can do something similar here in Dorset,

are there lessons to be learned from Cornwall?

A question for you, Tamsin. Bin collections, street

cleaning and dog waste - back in 2009, there were concerns

the Council changes would have an impact on local services

and that they would have an impact on the sense of identity

of places like Penzance. Penzance was at the heart

of what was Penwith District Council and Jim McKenna, now a Cornwall

councillor, was once Certainly, there are some advantages

to having the whole of Cornwall's You've got more consistency in terms

of identifying where development should be across Cornwall rather

than simply seeing things I think that's really,

really helpful. Some of the fears of people

at the time have been borne out. There are still too many

decisions taken in Truro. There's no control, for example,

over things like car park fees which is a real issue

for the business community. And I think it is difficult

when you're jostling for space with another 122 councillors,

to get your voice heard. If the population, human or canine

is all mixed together in a much more centralised system,

do some people get left out? Lyme Regis is on the

edge of West Dorset. It's not exactly headline news

here but if the District Council is packed away, then there are fears

about what could be lost. There's a togetherness now

in the area of West Dorset. And it would be a shame if we expand

beyond those boundaries. As long as any unitary authority

doesn't affect what we have here, the degree of autonomy the town

Council have, I don't think people are going to worry too much

about who was controlling what and where they are

controlling it from. We're very short of money,

were strapped for cash and people like myself and others want more

and more services. There was a huge amount of dissent

to the plans in Cornwall and the same is true of some

councils in east Dorset which have rejected the idea amid fears

the urban areas of Bournemouth and Poole will spill

over to Christchurch. I don't think you get quite as good

a service down this part as mainly North Cornwall and further upwards,

more noticeable, as I think they can to put the money where they think

they can attract more money. I haven't really noticed

the difference, I've lived here for a long time and it hasn't

really made a vast difference. The control might change slightly,

a bigger unitary trust, but generally, as an individual,

as a Cornish person, The idea of making new friends

in the delivery of local services is principally that it saves money,

possibly more than ?100 million over the first six years

if Dorset gets the go-ahead. It's not clear how much has

been saved in Cornwall and Dr Darren Lilleker

of Bournemouth University says there are no guarantees the way

central government funding is calculated will stay the same

if the setup changes. How much money are

they going to give? Is it all coming locally

or from government? How will the grants

work for the Council? And so will the money

that is being saved by all these councillors' jobs being lost,

will that then go straight into public services?

We don't know if that's the case. Sniffing out the perfect

solution is not easy, a trade-off perhaps over

whether your local beaches are more or less likely to be cleaned

and how well represented you are if you want

to complain about it. But soon, there will be answers,

as there were in Cornwall. Changes to the way Cornwall's road

network is managed have been introduced following the death

of a woman in a landslide in Looe. Susan Norman was crushed

to death four years ago. An inquest said the council should

have known there was a "real Today the council said

lessons had been learned from Susan Norman's death.

Christine Butler reports. Sandplace Road in Looe -

March, 2017. Cornwall Council stabilising the

slope. And this is why. But years earlier, a scene of devastation.

Grandmother Susan Norman was killed in bed when tonnes of earth

Today, Cornwall's cabinet met to discuss the problem.

Today, we've agreed some changes to the way in which we will manage

and maintain our road network in the future.

This is in response to the new national code of practice

for managing highways infrastructure which was published

We've also taken the opportunity provided by this review to take

account of the lessons learned from the inquest into the tragic

BLEEP It's clear the Council is carrying

work out on the residents say it's not the right action to protect

their homes and their safety. If they do everything

they say on that document, it'll be quite a positive thing

in my opinion but we've still got to make sure that we ensure

that the things are actually being done and it's not

just being paved over. But they are trying to say

that they've done it already and they haven't.

Nothing at all has been done since the inquest.

No, no, I agree. No extra drainage, no tree curbing

down the back of the whole length of the properties

which was recommended. It's not been done, nothing has been

done since the inquest. We've all been living in the houses,

under the same conditions They are not convinced by the new

code of practice. The Council says it has taken out improvements in

Susan's death. It says it will install additional drainage systems

in the autumn when the summer season has finished.

Saddle up - we're off to the races in a moment and we'll be handing

over our reins to the teenagers taking part in school report.

We'll also find out if the weather is going to be stable.

And you can see from the satellite picture the skies

Colder tonight and turning unsettled as we head towards the week.

Half of the horses involved in tomorrow's Cheltenham Gold Cup

Most of the chatter is about Colin Tizzard,

the fairy tale of the farmer whose stables get bigger

Tizzard has two of the favourites for the race -

Cue Card and Native River. So what's his secret?

Alastair Durden has been to his stables

Work starts before sunrise at the stables in Milborne Port.

Just keep in a straight line, nice and steady trot.

Colin Tizzard leads a thriving yard - it's earned ?1.5 million in prize

There is still an air of modesty about the former dairy

farmer who's become one of Britain's leading trainers.

A short drive from his stables are the picturesque gallops,

He's come a long way since getting his licence back in 1998.

It's not an easy profession, I tell you that.

It's every morning, seven days a week, every day

of the year to be fair, so it's not easy.

But I've got to try to make sure I enjoy every bit of it.

The last ten years, it got out of control and you have to deal

with a lot of staff, you've got to delegate,

If a good horse comes up and someone half makes some remark

that they wouldn't mind another one, we've got to do it.

If you don't take it on straightaway, someone else

will buy that horse. Colin admits he's still getting

used to the spotlight his successors created.

But his story is one racing has fallen in love with.

It's been a tremendous rise from relative obscurity

and the fact that this story is here in the grassroots

of the British countryside, it's fantastic for the sport.

Those hours of milking cows are now a thing of the past.

And he's right at the top of the tree.

12 months ago, this fall denied Cue Card and Tizzard Gold Cup glory

and the hugely popular 11-year-old has picked himself up to have

And then there is Native River who has taken everyone by surprise.

We thought if we just had a horse good enough to run in the Gold Cup

it would be quite an achievement, and to suddenly find it's favourite,

As for Colin Tizzard, he's refusing to pick his favourite.

Whatever the result, he'll be back in the yard first

light on Saturday to start all over again.

We've spent much of today looking over our shoulders ad hoping

We've spent much of today looking over our shoulders and hoping

we've still got jobs, as we get to meet potential stars

It's School Report Day when teenagers have a go

at reporting the news. This year it's had quite an impact.

One group of youngsters from St Austell have made

it their mission to try and help the people of Sierra Leone.

They've filmed their fundraising, but rather than us telling

you about their efforts, let's hand you over to Bella

For BBC School Report, I'm reporting from Penrice Academy

where this year, we raised over ?12,000 in just four weeks

This year, at Penrice Academy, our mission is to send a donation

box container of clothes, books, toys and medical equipment

to children in Kissi Town in Sierra Leone for project 3580.

Mr Knight who works with Project 3580, told us in assembly

all about the children in Kissi Town.

As a school, we were really affected by this story

and were proud to do our part. So what is Project 3580?

Project 3580 is a charity set up by a former colleague of mine

helping people in Kissi Town in Sierra Leone.

The name of the project - 3580 - comes from the amount of children

by the age of ten that died in acamp of 12,000 from malaria.

So 3,580 children died from malaria at the age of ten in just one year.

It all started with a fun run to raise money for a shipping

container to be sent from Cornwall to Sierra Leone, which is one of

Today, we're out here to raise money for Penrice Academy Project 3580.

We've had loads of students, over half the school has come out

on the run for this great cause and we think that we've raised

We raised over ?12,000 in just four weeks.

In Penrice Academy, staff and students decorated this donation

box and it's already been filled once to the top by the

I spoke to Dennis, pastor of the school in Kissi Town to hear

more about how fundraising will help the children.

How are you? I'm good, thank you.

Thank you for the hard work. I know it's very hard.

You work very hard to support us here.

There is a long way to go and a big container to fill but it's amazing

to hear how students at Penrice are changing young lives,

especially from the children of Kissi Town themselves.

You will definitely get footballs. Are you sure?

Yes. OK, thank you.

I promise the footballs. OK.

This is Bella for BBC School Report, Penrice Academy, Cornwall.

Bella is in the studio. Thank you for coming in. Did you forget the

footballs? I definitely won't forget them! Television is such a powerful

instrument for getting your message across, particularly for

fundraising, did you enjoy the experience? It was amazing and I

would love to have a job when I'm older in TV so it was an amazing

experience. Your head boy, what did you find... It must have been easy

view? It was far from easy at times because we had constant challenges

and we had to make sure people were bringing their money in on time for

the fun run on so many things could have gone wrong. But it went

perfectly smoothly on the day. You had an exam today? What was it?

English literature. It went fine. You are doing English, do you want

to do journalism as a career? Not particularly that I'd quite like to

go into medicine. This has been a fantastic opportunity today to

experience a different job. Were there any scraps or fight over who

did what? Who would present, produce? I don't think so, we all

kind of knew what we wanted to do and we all slotted in perfectly. You

look very calm and collected, Bella, did you take to it naturally? Yes, I

love acting and being in the spotlight so it was nice being on

camera. We are constantly told young people like you get their news and

information not from television buck from things like Facebook and

Twitter and is that how you get it? Quite regularly. That's why we set

up a Facebook page for our project. The project is everywhere online so

we can raise awareness. Television is still very important now! Our job

is very hard, isn't it? I found that out today! Quite a lot of pressure

on you guys. Can you tell everyone that?!

And if you'd like to find out more about BBC School Report including

how you and your school can get involved, we've got you covered.

Just head to bbc.co.uk/schoolreport and there you'll find resources

Hundreds of dancers from across Cornwall are in final

rehearsals for a production of Sleeping Beauty.

The Duchy Ballet cast includes an 18-ear-old ballerina who's

just been awarded a place at the prestigous Romberre School.

Alabama Seymour from Truro also rides motorbikes - sideways!

This report on ballet and bikes from David George.

Duchy Ballet in the studio dress rehearsal for the performance.

In the red costume is Alabama Seymour from Chasewater.

When she's not rehearsing or studying at college,

she performs in her family's Wall of Death show.

My parents own the Demon Drone Wall of Death.

My dad and my brother are the main riders but I also sit

Soon, Alabama will be off to the world-famous rum

It's incredible, I was so over the moon.

I didn't expect to get in. Hopefully, it means one day I'll be

in the Romberre Company which will be my dream.

Alabama and the 100 dancers from Cornwall have now been

joined by Princess Aurora, the sleeping beauty herself

and Prince Desiree. Professional principal

dancers who have come to Cornwall from South Africa.

I think the kids are always so enthusiastic and I love helping

out wherever I can and it's really great working with younger kids.

I think always working with children especially,

they get very excited which is lovely to see

but you don't always know what's going to happen on the night.

But we work with kids all the time in Cape Town and I even

remember when I was a child, I used to love doing this sort of

thing and it was so inspirational, so I hope to do the same thing

for them and be something they can look up to hopefully.

The dancers are aged from seven to...

Well, a lot older. Darcy is one of the youngest.

I just like dancing, because I quite like it

because you get to do a lot of moves and stuff and you get to perform

on stage and I quite like performing in front of lots of people.

Lots of people will be watching Sleeping Beauty at the Hall

for Cornwall in Truro tomorrow and Saturday.

Isn't Ballet gorgeous? It's stunning. It's time for the weather

forecast. David is here, is the weather looking good?

Not brilliant to be honest! It's looking all right for tomorrow.

Tomorrow probably a much better day than we would be used to with all of

this low cloud and mist. But it may be just the one day because the

weekend, a bit of change coming. This was the sunshine in Cornwall

this afternoon. Glorious shot of the daffodils growing. Other parts of

the south-west have been very grave. Fog and mist causing all sorts of

problems. That is all about to change. The reason is because we've

got a cold weather front coming in this evening that will introduce and

has started already, clearer skies and lower temperatures and better

visibility. A bright and dry start tomorrow, it will cloud over and

some patchy rain later in the day. Most of the day will be dry. Lots of

rain to the north of us but very slowly coming south. A largely dry

day mostly. Saturday, doesn't look too hopeful. Sunday is similar with

another weather front approaching from the west to give further

outbreaks of rain. Satellite pictures showing two stripes of

cloud, this is the one with all of the low cloud in it moving to

central parts of Britain. That is already clearing from parts of

Cornwall. The next one, the main front has a hint of blue and will

come through fairly swiftly this evening. Some rain out of that, that

pushes through and then it clears up in the second half of the night

which will drop the temperature. It will be much colder than it was last

night. We have been used to mild nights so far this week. We start

the day tomorrow morning, a few places at three degrees, even called

an affray touch of frost. Tomorrow, the best of the sunshine will be in

tomorrow morning and it will generally cloud over. With a top

temperature of ten or 11 degrees. More of a breeze, it will feel

colder. The Isles of Scilly will have some brief brightness and some

patchy rain turning up. Turning quite windy also.

Like we've seen all week, the waves pretty big Fathauer surface.

Tomorrow, much more of a breeze so the surf and waves will be there but

not as clean as they have been. Pretty messy conditions. That is the

coastal waters forecast. Not a lot of cheer in the weekend

forecast. Lots of cloud, slightly less cold, 13, top temperature.

Quite breezy at times. Have a good evening.

That's all from us. The late news will be at 10:30pm. Goodnight.

It was the most beautiful view I've ever been through.

For one second, I was swimming on my back, and I was looking to the sky.

I was swimming across the Aegean Sea.

I was a refugee, going from Syria to Germany.

MasterChef is back, to find the country's best home chef.

The MasterChef kitchen is alive once more. Come on, let's go!