09/03/2017 Spotlight

There were passionate calls for a treatment centre to remain

open at a packed public meeting in Bodmin tonight.

Last week commissioner NHS Kernow announced Bodmin Treatment Centre

was closing after it had been unable to agree on renewing a contract

Tamsin Melville was at tonight's meeting.

"Keep it open, the community needs services from this site."

That was the strong message from the general public, patients,

doctors, other staff, the local MP and local

councillors, just weeks before Bodmin Treatment Centre

One patient at the meeting tonight echoed many and he said the closure

It relieves the workload on the alternative centres.

It offers a better service, much quicker appointments,

It's all good stuff for this part of the world and I cannot see any

The centre, run by a private provider, Ramsey Health Care,

specialises in non-emergency daily operations like hernias

The Commissioner NHS Kernow says there are five other options

for Cornish patients to have this sort of treatment at

the Royal Cornwall hospital or indeed Dereford.

There's not the capacity to do several thousand cataracts that

are taken care of in Bodman, elsewhere in the county.

So it means waiting lists are going to go up.

I have been in the heartbreaking position of having to turn people

I'm open-minded, if they can commission more services there,

it might be more attractive for another private provider,

but I also think the NHS can step in and provide those daycare

services, which would alleviate some of the pressure at Dereford.

Those at the packed meeting weren't impressed that either NHS Kernow

Ramsey had previously said that negotiations had been

going on about the contract since September and there've

already been three extensions to the contract.

NHS Kernow says they are going to look at what services they need

in the future in the context of the wider review of all health

After tonight, there are plans that Scott Mann will head up calls

for an urgent meeting with NHS Kernow.

Dozens of women working for the Exeter-based Met Office have

filed a sex discrimination case against their employer.

The 76 women who work at the country's national weather

service say they're not being paid the same rates as men

The Met Office insists it treats all employees fairly.

The business of the Met Office is to predict

But now internally, a storm is brewing with some of its staff.

76 women are taking legal action for sex discrimination

They said they have been given lower salaries than men

The more senior members of staff, the older members of staff will have

been predominantly male and will have enjoyed pay

progression in previous years, which have taken them quite a way

And of course, a lot of the women are probably newer

to the organisation and haven't benefited from the same

The battle for equal pay became prominent in the 1960s,

when women took strike action at Ford's Dagenham plant in Essex.

The Equal Pay Act followed, but still today the pay gap

The women involved in the claim against the Met Office here are not

on-air weather forecasters, but do a range of jobs,

such as helping to prepare predictions and IT support.

Negotiations are now underway to try to resolve the dispute

without it reaching a formal Employment Tribunal hearing.

The Met Office told us they could not directly

comment on the case, but they did say...

More news from around the region now:

An air, land and sea search for a missing junior doctor in Devon

Lauren Phillips, who works for North Bristol NHS Trust,

was last seen in February, her car was found in Woolacombe

Adverts for a Dorset farm's pure milk vodka have been banned.

The Advertising Standards Authority received two complaints

that the adverts for Black Cow vodka were socially irresponsible

for encouraging excessive drinking, likely to appeal to children,

and linked alcohol with sexual activity.

Should people be fined for feeding seagulls?

The Mayor of Truro wants anyone who deliberately feeds the birds

or doesn't bag up their rubbish in gull-proof bags,

Working out which welfare benefits and tax credits you may be entitled

It's one of the reasons the Government says it's trying

But some reforms are controversial and more people are seeking help

As a result it says enquiries are at a five-year high.

I like to settle in with a good cup of tea to start the day.

Citizens Advice Bureau, Tina speaking, how can I help?

It can be very challenging and very upsetting for

The stories you are sort of hearing, can be quite disturbing really.

People ring often in quite stressful circumstances and we are here to try

and work with them to try and find some solutions for

Ten o'clock and the drop in sessions start.

Margaret Newton says she's been to hell and back trying to sort

I thought, I'm not being scared, I'm going to fight this

with the Citizens Advice Bureau backing me, I could fight it.

I was losing it, I really was losing it.

Absolutely terrified, that I was going to lose my

At the moment in the bureau we are full, so all the rooms have

been taken so we have clients waiting in the waiting room.

Good morning, citizens Advice Bureau, how can I help you?

Over 25% of the enquiries we deal with on a regular basis

The next highest enquiry area is debt.

So that is 15 to 20% of the work that we do.

What is happening is, more and more people

Well, as you can see it's pretty busy.

We had a number of drop ins coming through the doors,

Most clients don't want to talk on camera, but one tells me

She's dealing with debt, depression and a phobia of paperwork

and there are hundreds more unopened letters at home.

VOICE OVER: You're just keeping your head above water really

and know there are many other people out there in the same

But having a paperwork phobia, dealing with trying to open mail,

just exacerbates the situation I'm in.

The main thing is, we can only do so much.

There needs to be other forms of support out

there in the community to help these people to live life.

Cases are written up and its home time, but there'll be

A dead whale has washed up in North Devon and people

are being warned not to go near it as it may be a "bio-hazard".

Torridge District Council says it washed up near Hartland Quay.

The body is attracting a lot of interest as Clare Woodling reports.

A forlorn end to a majestic creature's life.

Locals said the fin whale washed up at high tide yesterday.

Normally you see basking sharks, seals, dolphins but not a whale.

First of all, sadness, but also just amazed at the size

It just looks a little sad just slumped over the rocks.

At more than ten metres long, the District Council says it

will take a specialist operation to remove it.

It is urging the public to keep away from the carcass

Records show it is the third dead fin whale in 26 years to wash

This latest carcass is too decomposed for a postmortem

examination, so how and why the whale died will

Hello, good evening. We have had some sunshine. But not everywhere, a

large part of the South West had some glorious sunshine, part of

Somerset and into Dorset. It is clouding over so little respite from

the mist and low cloud and it will probably shroud most of the South

Southwest tomorrow morning. It is a grey start. It will gradually

brighten up but not quite so much blue sky as today. Hill fog becomes

expensive again. It will be poor visibility if you are travelling.

The area of high pressure is blocking everything to the east. A

weather front arrives on Saturday and probably won't arrive until

Saturday. Another weather system follows it and went back get through

on Sunday it is a brighter, fresher and cooler picture but with better

visibility. Let's look at the detail for overnight. Nine or 10 degrees,

low cloud, mist and fog again and that becomes prevalent by the

morning. Bit of drizzle in the wind and we will find temperatures

getting up to ten, 11, possibly 12 or 13 degrees. Saturday we have that

weather front coming in from the West. Patchy rain later in the day

and the outlook is for us to see fresher conditions, brighter

conditions for next week. day. On Sunday, cloudier, maybe

spots of rain. Good evening, in the spring sunshine

we saw temperatures as high as 17.5 Celsius. Not as warm or Sonning on

Friday. Still a lot of dry, settled weather in the forecast for the next

few days. This was the sunset captured by one of our Weather

Watchers. Clear skies there. We have had increasing amounts of cloud

moving in from the West. Through the remainder of tonight we will

continue to see that cloud across the south-west of England, the

Channel Isles, weaving in across Wales, Northern Ireland and western

Scotland. Bringing with it some outbreaks of drizzly rain,

particularly around the coast and the hills. Further east, clear skies

and the coldest temperatures. We are likely to see frost across eastern

parts of Scotland by Friday morning. The west of Scotland will see the

cloud moving in, bringing spots of