27/03/2017 Spotlight

A billion pound investment to shave 15 minutes off rail journeys.

But tonight, there are questions over where that money

We have the inside track on which part of the line will benefit.

Also tonight: the threats and abuse aimed at health officials overseeing

Staff are being verbally abused when they are going about their business

on the street, when they are not on work time and I think that is wholly

inappropriate. how these beavers could provide

the answer to cost-effective And counting a host

of golden daffodils - work gets under way to record

the number of varieties It's always been the slow train

coming, but today came the news that journeys from Exeter

to London's Waterloo The new operators of

the South West Trains route are set to invest ?1.2 billion

across the network. The Waterloo journey currently takes

just over three and a quarter hours. It's slower than the more popular

Exeter to Paddington route, because most of the line is single

track and high-speed but in future it could be up

to 15 minutes quicker. That news has been applauded

by passengers, but some rail campaigners say there's no real

new investment for the region and rail users west of Exeter

will feel no benefit at all. We'll have reaction

from Cornwall in a moment, The Waterloo line is

picturesque but slow. The news of this investment,

with the new and more frequent trains cutting journey times

from the south-west to London by up to 15 minutes,

has been welcomed by passengers. It would mean we could get up

there quicker to go to the theatre, which is what we like to do,

go there with the children at It would be excellent to get more

options for people to travel I think better trains are required

because they can be a little bit grubby sometimes and more

reliability, obviously if you've got plans in London,

you can obviously fulfil them It's a long journey and there's

a lot of stops there, which leaves us all out

in the sticks a little bit and I believe, obviously,

a direct train between Exeter and London that is a lot faster

would be useful for people. Importantly, the Waterloo line

is less vulnerable to flooding. It doesn't travel through

the Cowley Bridge junction, north of Exeter, nor

the Somerset Levels, both But there is no news of investment

at Dawlish where the line has repeatedly been cut by storms

or further in to Devon and Cornwall. We need to have a second reliable,

resilient rail network here in the south-west and whilst

this is definitely a positive move, it is not something we should

be taking focus of. We need to continue with the efforts

of the south-west campaign, the peninsular task force and keep

very much the government's feet The new franchise for the Waterloo

line has been won by First Group. They also run trains

on the Paddington line, leaving some to raise concerns

about a lack of competition. The new service will be operating

from here to Waterloo in August. In the next few months,

the government are due to announce their proposals

regarding what to do Interesting and important

times are ahead for Well, the announcement today might

be good news for passengers in Devon and the east of the region,

but there's little if any benefit for those travelling

by train from Cornwall. Passengers in the county have been

promised faster journey times to the capital on the mainline

to Paddington, but that's Spotlight's John Ayres has been

in Cornwall gauging reaction. Rail passengers here,

like fare payers right across the country, want to feel

like they are being treated equally. Here in Penzance, it can feel

like the nation's capital is a very, Any rail investment will be welcomed

by passengers, but Cornwall Penzance via Exeter

via Tiverton Parkway and up to Paddington is definitely

the route that needs Let's hope they are able to find

funds to do this part I suppose if that part becomes very

fast, I would probably go to Exeter It is much more economical

and better for me to go The problem with rail travel

in Cornwall is how long it It is about 180 miles

from London Paddington to Exeter. The fastest train does

it in just two hours, that's an average speed of 90 mph,

but then from Exeter to Penzance it's 120 miles

and that takes three hours, so the average speed

has more than halved. What we need to do is get

a time in the morning where a train goes from Truro,

St Austell, Exeter and on to London, that will stop all those stops,

so a real commuter line if you like, for business people travelling

to London and one on the way That will open up Cornwall

to businesses in the The investment this time is private

money from the franchise operators. The Transport Minister,

Paul Maynard, says this announcement is about the South Western trains

franchise and rail passengers in Cornwall will see improvements

to rolling stock by the end Well, Andrew Roden is a rail expert

and author and is live I have been taking a look through

the announcement. There is a lot of talk of improvements east but what

sort of impact will this have on passages in our bit of the

Southwest? I guess passengers from Poole and Weymouth will not object

to faster journeys to London, but on the west, it looks like it is

refurbished rolling stock, free Wi-Fi, it does look thin. What about

this issue of first group now being involved in the mainline franchise

and the South West trains franchise? What are the implications from that?

It is not clear. It may be the competition in markets authority

takes an interest but the key competition is not between Great

Western Railway and South West trains, it is much more about

competition between railways the car and there. There has been talk of

?1.2 billion of investment today. How much of that do you think we are

likely to see in the bit from Exeter up? I suspect very little. The

reality is the vast majority of passengers travel into London from

much closer, so that is where you spend the money, but the Southwest

receives little transport money, joint lowest in England and the

question must be asked, when are we going to get our fair share? If this

is the statement, we may have some problems in the Southwest in years

to come. You are in Cornwall tonight and we have had the concerns from

passages that they do not benefit from this. When can passengers in

Cornwall expect to see the much promised faster journey time is up

from Penzance to the capital on the mainline? I guess it may be the case

that when the new hybrid diesel electric trains coming from next

year we might see some journey times then, but the reality is unless you

want to spend billions, shortening journey times between Cornwall and

London will cost a fortune and the money is not there. In the real

world, journey times for state, four, five hours from London to

Penzance with little improvement is any time soon. Thank you very much

for joining us. Now a brief roundup of other stories

making the news in the South West. The case of a young mother,

who was killed by a speeding driver in a head-on crash near Bodmin,

was heard at Truro Sabrina Bellman, who was on holiday

from Hampshire, was on her way home from a Christmas pantomime

with her family when 31-year-old Daniel Smith, from St Teath,

hit them on Boxing Day in 2015. He's admitted causing death

by careless driving, The trial began today of a Plymouth

soldier accused of stabbing 26-year-old Jay Nava

of the Royal Citadel is charged with murdering 26-year-old

Natasha Wake in The court heard Natasha was stabbed

after she discovered he was being investigated

for a sexual offence. Four small banks in Devon

are closing this week, because they say they're getting

fewer customers through the door Lloyds is shutting its branches

in Dartmouth, Salcombe, It's starting a new mobile service

in the areas affected. Work starts tonight on a ?250,000

scheme to install average speed cameras on the A38 and A380

at Splatford Split, near Exeter. Highways England says the cameras

along a two and a half mile stretch of the eastbound carriageway

will improve safety. Cornwall had a record year

for tourists last year, according to a report out today,

with Tintagel Castle among the UK attractions

with the biggest rise in visitors. The Association of Leading Visitor

Attractions says the castle had nearly 230,000 visits,

that's a rise of 19 %. "Unacceptable abuse",

that's what NHS managers in Devon, involved in controversial proposed

cuts to health services, are facing, according to one local health

commissioning group. The New Devon CCG claims senior

staff are being verbally abused at public meetings and in the street

and that some online comments use language

that is physically threatening. There is no doubt people

feel strongly about In North Devon, even

the clergy are speaking out. But it has been claimed that passion

and opinion in some circumstances We are seeing online

postings of threatening Staff are experiencing abuse

and threatening behaviour in public meetings and much more worrying

really, staff are being verbally abused when they are going

about their business, in the street, when they are not

on work time and I think At the end of this meeting,

local NHS chief executive Alison Diamond had to be escorted

out of the building by the police. There is no suggestion people

shown here were abusive. But there is also concern about some

online comments with social media posts like this one that show

individual members of NHS management under the headline,

"Not wanted by the public." One comment on the same site says

an NHS manager has "a face One campaigner from

Save Our Hospital Services says We would abhor any sort of violence

or threats to other human beings. We have many visitors

to our page, 11,000 in all. We cannot be responsible for those

people who want to put on things perhaps many of us,

most of us would not approve of. No crimes have been reported,

but the CCG says it is getting advice from police about what to do

if things get worse. Beavers could be the answer

to our flooding problems. It's one solution based on fact

thanks to a six-year secret trial in Devon which has proved

the animals' natural It could save millions of pounds

on other high-tech solutions, and as Adrian Campbell reports,

in a region which has suffered its fair share

of flooding over the years, the results make for

interesting conclusions. The return of beavers

to the River Otter in East Devon has But in another part of Devon,

at a secret location sealed off by electric fencing,

another group of beavers The results of their hard work over

the past six years can There has been a dramatic change

in the landscape where they have been living and working,

with the creation of a network This is one of 13 dams along a 200

metre stretch of this watercourse and you can see there is evidence of

recent activity here by the beavers. When you look closely you can see

how big and deep V stands are becoming. Research is from the

University of Exeter have been monitoring the way the beavers have

changed the watercourse. The black lines represent the new dams and the

area of blue our new pools. You can see that damn that runs along the

face there. Mark Elliott says this project has shown how beavers can

provide cost-effective flood defences. When water surges in

during a flood, those palms and the dams hold the water back and it

comes back here much slower as the dams are slowing the flow of flood

water. It can only help to reduce the speed of flood water coming down

into the communities that live in the lower part of the catchment. The

University of Exeter's data shows flooding can be slowed by beavers.

The chopping down of trees and building of dams seems to work.

Conservationists are keen to persuade politicians that areas of

flooding might benefit from this type of natural engineering.

David's here with the weather later and he's making the most

Not that way, this way. We find out about the exciting future of

bounty's and. And join me as we try to identify how many types of

daffodils there are on the tame are badly.

It's time for the sport now - and there was a lot

Just three wins from their last seven games is all Plymouth Argyle

need to guarantee promotion from League Two.

Victory over league leaders Doncaster has also thrown the title

Exeter City are one of the teams in the chasing pack

and they produced an incredible late comeback in the South West

derby with Yeovil, as Andy Birkett reports.

The childhood friendship between Darren Ferguson

and Derek Adams was put on hold when their teams met on Sunday,

and the home side being denied an early penalty did nothing

to improve the atmosphere in the dugout.

Then it was down to skipper Luke McCormick to keep denying them.

First, a reaction save from close range.

Then more of a team effort to clear this shot off the line.

It's not the number of chances you create that people remember.

It's the number of chances you take and Argyle took theirs.

Sonny Bradley left unmarked at the back post and his bullet

There was some more nervy moments, but the defence held firm.

The only thing to hit the back of the Argyle

The win narrows the gap at the top to three points,

but more importantly it means the gap between them

You've got to be a bit careful about ccelebrating too early.

As Yeovil found out at St James Park.

It took an hour for this match to come alive and before

the Glovers move it, they were two up.

You could be forgiven for thinking it was all over.

However, on the stroke of full-time the unthinkable happened.

In just 238 seconds, Exeter scored three goals.

It probably took radio Devon's Alan Richardson a little bit

longer to get his heart rate back down.

The shot has latched onto the post and into the back of the net

and City do get one back very late on.

They've committed everybody forward for this corner.

And it's a header and City has another one!

It is Exeter City's 3, Yeovil Town 3.

That result has kept Exeter City in the last of the play-off

Who knows how important that point might be at the end of the season.

The Exeter Chiefs staged a decent comeback to beat

The win boosts their hopes of securing a home semifinal

Despite an early Kai Horstmann try, the Chiefs found themselves 14

Then Luke Cowan-Dickie, Olly Woodburn and Don Armand crossed

Conditions at Sandy Park were blustery and played their part.

For a while, Exeter were level on points with leaders Wasps,

but are still in second place after Wasps won yesterday.

There are four games left, so their destiny

And all our other rugby sides won too, so well done

to The Cornish Pirates, Jersey and Plymouth Albion.

The Plymouth Raiders came out on top of a game that has huge implications

They brought south-west rivals Bristol Flyers down to earth

They needed to bounce back from last weekend's trophy final defeat

and did it in style in front of a home crowd at the Pavilions.

A win for Bristol would have put the two teams level in the league,

but it's the Raiders who pull away from their rivals with the important

Getting to the business end of everyone's season now -

All to play for. Exactly. I hope Alan Richardson is resting his

voice! Now, you may remember a while ago

we spoke with international professional sailor Conrad Humphreys

about his epic 4,000 mile He had been part of the TV series

Mutiny, which recreated the conditions of Captain Bligh's

crew as they were Now, as the series comes to an end,

Johnny Rutherford has been discovering what the replica boat,

now belonging to Conrad, More to starboard. Are you sure?

Come on. When are you going to let me have it out on the water? Who

survived in this? It is remarkable when you stand here and think, seven

metres long, nine of us, a metre of space each, this is what we lived on

for 60 days. And the rough sea conditions matched Captain Bligh's

journey. Nine men crammed into this boat as part of a reality TV series.

Conrad Humphreys now owns the vessel. Get in and have a sleep.

This is where I would have been sleeping. Pull yourself in. You lie

down like that, feet that end. And there were certainly plenty of

waves. Surviving on the same small rations as Captain Bligh's crew,

Conrad and his team struggled. The hardest thing was dehydration. Paul

the barn out. We planned on two litres a day but by the end we were

down to half a litre a day. You survived but what are you going to

do with the boat? IM with the bounty project and the idea is to put it

back on the water with young, disadvantaged and disabled children.

A chance to experience a little bit of Captain Bligh magic. You can also

go off and visit schools. That includes talks this week at Exeter

and Plymouth universities. From the South Pacific to the seas of the

Southwest. Now, do you know the difference

between your paperwhites, Well, they're all different types

of daffodils and a group of volunteers in the Tamar Valley

have been taught how It's all part of the Heralds

of Spring project and as Heidi Davey's been finding

out, the group have been using their new skills to record

the different varieties. There are thousands of different

types of daffodils, but trying to find out what thrives where,

that is the tricky bit. Thanks to funding from

the Heritage Lottery, a survey is now underway

in the Tamar Valley to look People don't necessarily need

to know what they are. As long as we can photograph them

and we can get the measurements and the total colours

and everything, then we can go to a local expert who has more

of an idea of what they all are. We were saying earlier that these

could date back 30-odd years, We have one local landowner

who thinks there are over 60 varieties on his land and,

of course, they were grubbed up And for the volunteers,

it has been back to the classroom to learn how they can help preserve

this area of outstanding I wanted to find out more

about them and particularly We are trying to find older ones,

so bit by bit, we're learning which are the modern-looking ones,

which are the older-looking ones. That particularly has

a lovely long trumpet. And the petals as well,

the way they are starred. It is those beautiful

characteristics that make daffodils just so popular over the centuries,

summed up best, of course, "I wandered lonely as a cloud, that

floats on high over vales and hills, "when all at once I saw a crowd,

a host of golden daffodils." Gorgeous! Beautiful! A real sign of

spring. Because it does feel like spring, we thought we would elevate

David to the roof of the studios. Good evening. You are not seeing me

right now because we thought we would show you the view out towards

Plymouth. It is a bit bracing up here, there is a cold wind from the

East but the sunshine has been glorious today and we have had

temperatures of 16, 17 degrees. This is from one side of Plymouth Sound.

This is from the other leg and we have had some lovely sunshine today.

That sunshine is pretty hazy, there has been quite thick haze right

across the Southwest and there is a fair amount of medium and high level

cloud coming into night but for many of us, a lovely end to the day. The

forecast for the next couple of days is to see a bit of a change. These

were the scenes from earlier today, down in Cornwall where we had some

Boreas sunshine. Some lovely sunshine across other parts of

Cornwall, into Devon. The sunshine continues to be pretty good for the

last hour before the sun sets, but overnight tonight we will see more

cloud coming up from the south and the sunshine is bringing out the

flowers. This week it is unsettled. There will be some showers dotted

around and towards the end of the week, it will turn colder. The veil

of cloud that is approaching from the West, it is a long way off and

it will get closer through the night to come, introducing more cloud. A

week weather front will drift past us, a few showers associated with

that, right conditions in the afternoon tomorrow but by Wednesday

and Thursday, more unsettled conditions. Winds from the Southwest

and the chance of outbreaks of rain. Until the cold front goes through on

Friday, some warmth still with us as well. You can see most of us have

been unbroken sunshine today and that continues this evening and

through the night to come, until the end of the night when more cloud

will arrive in the West and that might be capable of producing a few

showers. Overnight temperatures of five or 6 degrees across parts of

Somerset and Dorset, most of us holding up at 7 degrees. A few

showers in the morning but brighter tomorrow afternoon. Temperatures up

to 15, 16 degrees. For the Isles of Scilly, there is thick cloud capable

of producing a few spots of rain especially during the latter part of

the day. There are our times of high water. Those times are in British

summer Time and for our surface, the north coast will be rather choppy.

We are seeing some choppy sea conditions developing and the winds

increase and they could be well backed up to a force five or six.

Some warmth still until we get to the end of the week when we start to

see a few showers, especially on Friday and into Saturday. From the

roof here, back to that one studio. Thank you, David. It looks very nice

there. Nice to end the programme with lighter evenings. From all of

us here, good night.