28/02/2017 Spotlight

A police investigation has been launched after a Plymouth councillor

performed a Nazi salute during a council meeting.

Labour councillor Jonny Morris has been suspended from his party's

group on the Council, but is now facing calls to resign.

Councillor Jonny Morris has been feeling the heat ever

since the moment in this meeting to discuss raising council tax

when he decided to demonstrate his annoyance at proceedings

Somebody does something like that in this chamber...

Amid outrage in the meeting, action was swiftly taken.

Afterwards, the leader of the Council's Labour Group

Straightaway after the meeting, Councillor Morris was

immediately suspended, aubject to an investigation.

So we have acted as swiftly and as firmly as we possibly can,

because we take this sort of thing very seriously.

But one of Plymouth's MPs says the Labour Party hasn't been strong

enough in its condemnation of the salute.

This individual has done a Nazi salute in the elected

chamber during the middle of a council meeting.

And, you know, I'm ashamed this has happened in Plymouth.

And when this happens, you need strong leadership

and people to get out there and actually say,

this is unacceptable, this guy doesn't represent

what we stand for in the Labour Party.

Councillor Morris told the BBC that he made what he called

the inappropriate and offensive gesture because he was very

angry that the debate about whether to raise council tax

was, as he saw it, being closed down, with other councillors

He said he let that anger get the better of him,

Devon and Cornwall Police have said they are treating yesterday's

incident as a possible public order offence.

They are now making further enquiries before deciding

Chloe Axford, BBC Spotlight, Plymouth.

Our Political Editor Martyn Oates is at Westminster.

The mere act of giving a Nazi salute is a criminal offence

That's not the case in Britain, but clearly anything

associated with Nazism is toxic and embarrassing.

It remains to be seen of course what the upshot of this internal

Labour Party investigation is in Plymouth, although it might be

observed in passing that Councillor Morris is no

During the 2014 local election campaign in Plymouth,

he tweeted a picture of a defaced Ukip poster with the comment,

From the Labour Party's point of view, in Plymouth,

the Labour Group leader Tudor Evans has reflected today

that this is an unwelcome distraction to say the least

from the mainstream political debate.

He had hoped to be commenting on and criticising the budget

which the Conservative and Ukip administration passed yesterday

Instead, he is in a position of having to defend one

In other news, a manager and the owners of a Cornish pub have

been fined following the death of a woman from food poisoning.

71-year-old Christine Morgan had lunch at the Clock and Key

She died on the way to hospital the following night.

John Danks reports from Truro Crown Court.

Christine Morgan had gone to the Clock and Key pub

with her husband and cousin on the 11th of August 2015.

She ate roast lamb, but soon after, she began to feel unwell.

The court heard that Mrs Morgan suffered vomiting and diarrhoea.

Her condition worsened, and she died in an ambulance en

We were able to secure a quantity of lamb that was served to the party

That was then subsequently sent off to Public Health England

They isolated a type of food poisoning called Clostridium

Diane Burrow from Bude who was the pub's kitchen

manager at the time, was fined ?750 after pleading

guilty to breaching food hygiene regulations.

The pub owners, Lake Inns and Leisure Limited,

was handed down fines and costs totalling more than ?40,000.

In this case, there were multiple failures,

possible failure to cook properly, failure to cool properly,

Judge Simon Carr said there were systems in place,

probably in a brightly-coloured file on a shelf in the kitchen,

Food safety was considered, he said, but not sufficiently emphasised.

There was simply no supervision and control for food handling.

We encourage food business operators to always be vigilant.

Whilst that risk exists, we say, when our inspectors come round,

we're here to help you, we're here to give you advice.

Listen to that advice, act on that advice, and these sorts

John Danks, BBC Spotlight, at Truro Crown Court.

The red deer of Exmoor are being targeted by

organised gangs of poachers. Exmoor National Park says it's

concerned by a marked increase in the number of deer being killed,

This week, park rangers are conducting a survey of the deer

Long gone are the days of that romantic notion of a poacher

going out and having one for the pot.

The price of venison has increased, the demand for venison has

increased, hence we seem to have these organised gangs coming

in and targeting our red deer population.

A couple who built their own mud house in North Devon have been told

Kate Burrows says she's allergic to modern life and can't return

But the Council says the building is in breach of planning rules.

You have to look closely, but there are people

Being plugged into a virtual reality machine, that's not normal life.

We're collecting water, we're chopping wood,

Kate and Alan may be hidden from view, but they are still

You can't, of course, just put up a house where you want.

This is our nest, this is our everything.

We've sculpted it with our hands from the soil.

If it is the good life, it doesn't come easy.

They have to keep on topping up the mud used to build their home.

But for Kate, it's a much better life than she had before.

She goes as far as saying that modern day living

I think it was the water and the electricity and the Wi-Fi

and the paint on the walls and, you know, a build-up.

I didn't realise how ill I was until we moved here,

There are now many medical conditions, so is this one of them?

Can you be intolerant to the modern day?

Some doctors believe you can, but the NHS doesn't

Multiple chemical sensitivity is a condition where the body's

immune and detoxification pathways become overloaded.

We've got people that simply find they have an allergic reaction

to bleach and try to avoid perfumes and traffic fumes.

Living in an ordinary house, especially a new build or a house

that has just been decorated furnished, it becomes a big problem.

But it's not the medical landscape which is important here.

And the local authority says they've got to abide by the law.

Kate points to examples in Wales where the One Planet planning laws

can allow low impact homes like theirs.

Even if we lose everything here, I feel it's really important

for people like us to be able to live on their own land

sustainably without creating any damage.

But having lost all their appeals, the couple now have

Jonathan Morris, BBC Spotlight, River Cross Meadow.

There was only one win for our main football teams this evening.

Plymouth Argyle were hoping to end their run of Tuesday evening

defeats, but lost 1-0 at home to struggling Notts County.

Exeter returned to winning, with a 2-1 victory away to Crawley.

The first win in five games for the Grecians.

And it was a goaless draw for Yeovil at home to Mansfield.

In the National League, Torquay's game aginst Solihull Moors

was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch.

Thank you, Claire. Good evening. Meteorologically speaking, this day

is the last day of winter. And winter it certainly has been. We

have had snow in quite a few places, a dusting over the high ground of

Dartmoor, and some also in Somerset, where we saw a thick layer briefly

this morning. The snow has now moulded, and it is likely less cold

air arriving tomorrow, most that falls out of the sky will be rain.

Patchy rain, less windy, a little bit brighter later in the day. The

winds increase as we move into tomorrow evening. A couple of

weather fronts and a small area of low pressure developing in the

English Channel tomorrow, bringing us rain. Once the area of low

pressure moves away, the winds become quite strong, reaching gale

force tomorrow evening, a blustery end to the day and a blustery night

tomorrow night and into the early hours of Thursday. There are a few

showers around this evening, but they are very afflicted. For many of

us it is a dry night, winds continuing to drop, temperatures

getting down to just two or three degrees in a few places. Patchy rain

moving across the south-west tomorrow morning. Brighter later in

the day. But also becoming windy. Have a good night. Thank you, David.

Spotlight's back in Breakfast from 6:25am.

From the late team, have a good night.

Good evening. We are about to head into March, the days are getting

longer, but are they getting any warmer? Not really. We will get

there in the end, but we will have to be patient, not very springlike

at the moment. Some showers scattered around across England and

Wales will tend to diminish in number, a few left behind, wintry

showers across the north of Scotland, snow at low-level is, ice

as well as temperatures fall close to freezing. A cold night with a

touch of frost in a number of places. Plenty of sunshine across

southern areas first of all, but it will not last, rain spilling from

the south, the best brightness and eventually further north across the

UK. Mostly