05/05/2014 BBC Channel Islands News

There is more throughout the evening on the BBC News Channel. We are back

Good evening. A couple are lucky to with the

Good evening. A couple are lucky to be alive today after their new boat

broke down off the Devon coast without any safety equipment on

board. Coastguards in Brixham helped rescue the man and woman after the

vessel became stranded off Plymouth, near Mount Wise. The boat didn't

even have a VHF radio on board. Now Coastguards are warning new boat

owners to think twice before going to sea without the right safety

knowledge. It means that, if you do not have the right equipment in

terms of communication, we don't know where you are and have to send

somebody out to go and find you, tow you back in again, and it ties up

people who should be looking after people who are possibly in serious

trouble and need our assistance. Business leaders estimate up to ten

thousand jobs could be created across Devon after the government

announced that parts of the county including Torbay, have been

recommended for Assisted Area Status. It means firms in

economically disadvantaged areas could benefit from more EU funding

and government help to recruit more staff. It is going to help

employment, and that has got to be beneficial. It is going to help

businesses. Businesses will need to apply for the various pots of money

that are available but it is trying to bring the economy up to speed in

those areas that have traditionally lagged behind the rest of Devon. An

extremely rare collection of Military vehicles will soon go under

the hammer in Cornwall. Retired farmer Bob White from Millbrook has

been collecting and lovingly restoring old World War Two

transport vehicles for more than 25 years. There's already been

international interest in the retirement sale. I shall be very sad

to see them go. I have had many years of enjoyment out of them and I

think it is time now to let them go to other people who I am sure will

look after them just as much as I have. Hundreds of people have

descended on the Rame Peninsula in South East Cornwall for a

traditional May Day celebration. The Black Prince flowerboat procession

makes it way through the streets of Millbrook, Kingsand and Cornwall.

Alison Johns reports. The villages are decked out in red and white for

the procession. The flower boat is carried through the streets before

being launched into the sea later in the day. The children come and dance

every year and learn the maypole. It is a wonderful community spirit,

lovely for the children to have their own festival. It is important

to keep the tradition going. Troops of Morris dancers from across the

South West follow the boat with stops at local hostelries across the

way. They are joined by children from local schools. Today is a

special day for Millbrook's town crier, who is recovering from cancer

in his tongue and neck. Are you in full voice? Not quite full voice but

a lot of people are pleased about that, I shall be a lot quieter! The

children's prizes have been judged... This tradition started

before the war but died out when so many local men failed to come home.

It was revived years ago and is now a major part of the local calendar

as people banish winter and welcome in the spring. A spring festival has

also been held on the Somerset Levels today. After the devastating

floods, today's festivities at Kingsbury brought a much needed

break from the recovery work, as well as raising money for local

charities. Sisters with a combined age of 200 have been celebrating

their birthday with family and friends in North Devon today. Freda

and Doll are identical twins who were born on the 5th of May 1914.

Spotlight's Leigh Rundle was invited to the party. They were born five

minutes apart, but today arrived together in style. They treated me

like royalty. When the car pulled up, I said I am not royalty, you

know! You did not know that the Rolls`Royce was picking you up? I

did not know. They kept it all a secret. This is marvellous. Are you

enjoying yourself? Yes, very nice. I did not expect all this. Among the

guests, they're two younger sisters who are both in their 90s. A full

five generations of the family were here. It is absolutely amazing,

identical twin sisters, to be 100 years old. Two of their sisters are

here. What do they put their longevity down to? Well, their dad's

home`grown veg. We were brought up in the country, we had all fresh

veg, because money was scarce. We always used to get plenty of

vegetables. That is what it takes. I think we started in life well. And

it shows no sign of letting up. Time now for the weather and David has

the latest. Hello, good evening. After a

reasonable weekend, it is going downhill this week, a change to much

more unsettled conditions and there will be quite a breeze blowing as

well and that will see plenty of showers, as well as some persistent

rain. Some of that rain coming our way tonight, it is moving fairly

steadily, but as you can see, it is low pressure taking charge of wet

weather patterns, right through this corner of Europe and it means we

will stay breezy and unsettled. The rain overnight could be heavy, but

it will move swiftly, last to clear from the Channel Islands, so

temperatures overnight should not fall below ten degrees. Tomorrow

will be bright, showers developing through the morning and into the

afternoon, falling in lines as we move to the second part of the day,

where we get some sunshine, possibly up to 16 degrees, the top

temperature, but a brisk south`westerly breeze will make it

feel cooler along the coastline. When the showers show, it will feel

cooler. The week is unsettled, we will see more cloud around on

Wednesday and the risk of showers developing on Wednesday afternoon,

one or two of those could be heavy, but a lot of dry weather for the

middle of the week, more persistent rain on Thursday and that will turn

showery as we move into Friday. Have a nice evening. Goodbye for now.

Don't forget Late Kick`Off tonight at 11:35pm, but i'll be back with

the late news just before 10:15pm. In the meantime, do enjoy the rest

of your Bank Holiday. The sunshine today for the bank

holiday produced the highest temperature of the long weekend in

eastern England today, at 20 Celsius. But to the west, the cloud

has been gathering. We have seen a bit of rain in Northern Ireland and

western Scotland, but the thicker cloud now pushing into the

south-west of England is delivering more rain. It will become more

extensive over the next few hours. A ragged area of rainfall will move

east as the night goes on. If