04/07/2011 BBC Points West

Good evening and welcome to BBC Points West. In our headlines

tonight: Shot down and left for dead. 23-

year-old Rico Gordon was killed outside a Bristol pub and two

others are still in hospital. Fly-tipping on railway lines, we

discover the true cost of the delays caused by dumping.

Some great apes on the loose, celebrating 175 years of Bristol

zoo. And bee afraid, the swarms

bothering the people of Bath Good Evening. The police in Bristol

are continuing to investigate a shooting which left one young man

dead and two others, a man and a woman, injured. 23-year-old Rico

Gordon from London was killed outside a pub in Easton in the

early hours of yesterday morning. It is the third violent incident in

the area in a week and there has been a strong reaction from the

local community. Police officers continued to scour

the scene on Stapleton Road today. Anything they deemed unusual or

possibly significant is marked with yellow and evidence was taken away

for further examination. We now have a better idea of what happened

here just after 4:00 am yesterday as two rival groups from London

chose this as their battleground. There were more trouble shots fired.

Neither of these groups seemed to come from this area. This

investigation is taking us to London and we are working hard to

arrest those involved. 23-year-old Rico Gordon was fatally

wounded two others are in hospital but their injuries are not life

threatening. They are a man from London and a 19-year-old woman from

Bristol. So far four young men from outside the city have been arrested.

Their ages range from just 16 to 23. The shooting follows two stabbings

last week and there is no link between the crimes but this

community has had enough. One of those stabbings took place here in

Abdul Malik's shop. One of the things that we need on this road is

a major police operation that goes on for a while where people are

searched and made aware that this type of crime will not be tolerated.

This will not be tolerated here. And a local councillor says enough

is enough. We cannot go on with this escalating violence that we

have seen over the last few weeks. I call upon the chief constable to

get a grip on this area. The council needs to give people in the

East the chair and to live their lives in peace and not be

threatened with violence. -- the chance to live their lives in peace.

Senior police officers are keen to stress that progress is being made

investigating all three attacks but they know that many in the local

community are scared and want action rather than assurances. This

is as diverse a road as you will ever find, ethnically, socially,

economically, but there's a consensus on this is that these

violent attacks must stop and they must stop now. We have seen overall

levels of violent crime reduce but this will cause concern and we have

got to work harder to ensure that we can prevent these issues

If you travel by train you are probably familiar with the odd

delay that is blamed on an obstruction on the line and this is

often caused by rubbish being dumped on our railways. It costs

Network Rail more than �2 million a year to deal with the problem and

this week the company's trying to tackle the issue with a mass clean

This may look like a grassy railway bank but nestled in here is tonnes

of rubbish that has been dumped illegally. It is a danger and an

eyesore and it is costing millions to get it cleared.

Sites like this are completely inaccessible. There is no way to

bring a lorry down here and load it up with rubbish. Instead, �30,000

is being spent just on this stretch of road, where people will have to

remove the rubbish by hand. And the rubbish is not just unsightly. Much

of it can pose a danger to the public, like dumped asbestos and

syringes. And household waste attracts rats, chewing through

cables leaving Network Rail with the inconvenience and cost of

repair. Over the next week the clear up will get underway. Network

Rail hope that the public will start to get the message. We are

working very closely with the local authorities and the British

Transport police to stamp this problem out altogether and we are

informing people that they should be removing their waste responsibly.

If anyone is caught dumping rubbish on railways they can face

prosecution and in the worst cases a prison sentence.

A Somerset couple brutally attacked and left for dead while on holiday

in the Caribbean island of Tobago have been offered less than �3,000

each in compensation. Peter and Murium Green say the amount is

beneath contempt. Meanwhile Points West has learned that detectives

from Trinidad and Tobago will be visiting the Greens this weekend.

It does not even cover our legal expenses.

The letter from the Trinidad and Tobago Criminal Injuries

Compensation Board has left them angry and dismayed. Peter and

Murium Green suffered facial and brain injuries that will live with

them for ever. But the maximum amount they will be offered in

compensation is 25,000 Trinidad dollars. That is a little less than

�2,500. It is so unfair. It has affected your wife very badly. How

are you feeling? I know I am a burden to my wife. No, you are not.

I cannot continue to be that burden. I need help. Just a recognition...

We did not deserve this. They call it a chopping. It is great, isn't

it? It was two years ago that the Greens were attacked with a machete

and left for dead at their holiday home in Tobago. The BBC has

followed their case closely ever since. At one time a local man was

arrested but later released and so far no one has been brought to

justice. We have learned that this weekend detectives from the

Caribbean will fly over to meet the Greens in an attempt to resurrect

the enquiry, not that the couple are optimistic. The one lesson we

have learned about Trinidad and Tobago is that it disappears in a

week or two and you hear no more. spoke to someone who has taken up

the case as he was about to board a plane on foreign business. He says

he is disappointed there has it been no progress on this case and

has promised to raise it again with the government in Trinidad and

Tobago. Peter's health is deteriorating every day. He is

finding it harder to walk. But he says he is determined see justice

done. You are watching Points West. Good

to have you with us. Coming up: We will be looking back at this

weekend's St Paul's carnival in Bristol. But before that: $$NEWLIN

Tipping the balance in favour of the Brits. The Gloucestershire

tennis centre determined to find us A man has been remanded in custody

following a fire that destroyed a building in Cinderford. Matthew

Pond was charged with arson after the fire broke out at around 3:00

yesterday morning. It spread along a row of flats and shops in Market

Street and several people had to be rescued by firefighters. The 25-

year-old will appear at Gloucester Crown Court next week.

There has been a clash in the Commons over the route to be taken

by funeral corteges after repatriations are moved away from

RAF Lyneham. The Armed Forces Minister said the new route had

been chosen in consultation with local people, but the Labour MP

Paul Flynn said they were being denied the chance to pay their

respects because it wasn't going through the heart of the

neighbouring village. Dealing with blocked drains is

about to become less of headache for some people in the West. At the

moment, homeowners are responsible for sewers up to the point where

they join the mains system. Changes to the law which come into effect

this autumn mean water companies will take responsibility for

thousands of miles of sewers which run under private land.

It is a domestic crisis no one wants to deal with. Blocked drains

can be expensive and under the current system you can end up

paying for blockages in sewers that are not event under tour land. At

the moment homeowners are responsible for their own drains

are right up and to the point -- until the point they joined up here

in the middle of the road. This all, what are companies will take

ownership of many more serious. will be taking over the

responsibility of these sewers and relieving the customer of the

responsibility and potentially saving a lot of money. Good news

for some of their customers but extra expense for the water company.

At their headquarters they are taking on 22 new staff to help deal

with the rising workload and they estimate 55,000 more blockages a

year will become a problem. The company says it will cost them

millions but they are welcoming it. We were having to inform the

customer that it was not our public sewer system at fault. The customer

was unaware that they were responsible. The change please the

customer with responsibility for the short length of pipe that is

just under their house. It could mean higher water bills in the

future but the company says that the rise will be small and will not

An 800-year-old listed building in Bath has been given permission to

install double-glazing. St John's Hospital had to convince

conservationists that the scheme would not compromise the look of

the building. The Bath Preservation Trust has published guidance for

occupiers of other historic buildings in the city which

explains how to improve the heating of their homes while staying

sympathetic to the architecture. Bath had the lions, but now Bristol

has aped that with guerrillas. 60 gorillas were let loose from

Bristol Zoo today to celebrate the zoo's 175th birthday. We have

joined in too without own painted primates. Jules Hyam is in Bristol.

Who is your friend? I know you have both met this find

the specimen. This is Custard, the BBC children In Need gorilla. He is

just one of 60 gorillas which will be dotted around the City of

Bristol over the next few weeks. Around almost every corner is a

gorilla. Some are very colourful, some are very cool, but they are

all proving rather popular. A number of the guerrillas have a

real Bristol field to their designs. This one place for City, it would

not be a Bristol Fein without disembarking Dunbar now. Some it

seemed to have an identity crisis. this is just one of 60 gorillas

that have been designed and brought to life by local artists. There is

really quite a range. It is not just be big professionals that have

been getting involved, there are also 100 smaller gorillas and they

have been created by it slightly smaller artist. We were going to go

for a silver back but it was not very interesting. So we thought we

would use buttons in different colours. The we wanted to make it

really colourful. We have used reds, yellows, greens and blues...

have got over 100 schools involved in the project. Not just looking at

the arcs side of it and the in credit -- the incredible creativity

in schools, but also learning about gorillas and conservation problems.

Then of course, there is our very own Custard,. I have not done any

painting for ages. It was like being back at school. This is our

creation and hopefully it will bring some money to Children in

Need. Some of the guerrillas or the static -- saw the city in style on

a boat trip. Who says that television is not quite as

glamourous as he used to be? May be Custard did not have any fun

getting here but he seems to be quite happy year. You can go and

find them if they want to or you can go online and find a map and

that will tell you exactly where they are. How do you do that?

Hopefully, you will see the Web address on the screen now. Let me

just show you a little bit more of Custard because he is going to be

auctioned off for Children in Need. He has been signed. Laurence

Llewellyn-Bowen has taken up all of the head. We have other people here,

they little message from all of us, all the best, up from the Points

West's team. Alex, you have any but one plays! Can we have another look

at it? That is a big kiss. That is my defence. Plus, the boys that

have not left any rooms. We have reached the time of year

again. The Brits have failed to dominate at Wimbledon and the

fingers have started to point out what is going wrong in the British

game. Grass roots terraces looking pretty

healthy in the West. On Friday, we featured 10-year-old Ola Pittak

from Somerset who is already the number one tennis player for her

age. Today, so we got has been to a new tennis club in Gloucestershire

which has got hundreds reaching for their rackets.

Another year, another British disappointment. Britain's only

Wimbledon victory came in the boy's doubles. Maybe there is hope in the

form of this brand the new tennis club, formed by villagers raising

�40,000 and beat Lawn Tennis Association throwing in �100,000

more. A quarter of the village has already signed up. You see people

walking around the village with tennis racquets on their back. It

is lovely to see the excitement. Today's players are from the nearby

primary school. They also benefit from the Lawn Tennis Association's

cash. In return, the club needs to keep its numbers up and it looks

like they might be succeeding. Hopefully I can do a bit more if I

can bribe my parents to pay for it. As well as starting them young, the

club's professional coach is also hunting for talent. His is also a

numbers game and says that the facilities are inclusive.

junior rates are cheaper. And the coaching rates are affordable. I

can still offer more and more things within the price as the

programme grows. Interest could not be higher after the weekend's

heroics but naming a champion is even trickier. I do not remember

his fame. -- names. Novak Djokovic. The club emerged against the odds

and aims to become a shiny example of what is good about British

Bath's Recreation Ground is hosting tonight's Twenty-20 match between

Somerset and Essex. The pitch is new and has been prepared on the

rugby side of the ground which enables them to use the permanent

stands for spectators. Essex won the toss and have decided to bat

first. They have scored 209 for five.

What do way grip of scored will -- schoolchildren have in common with

EastEnders? Children from Chapmanslade Primary are joining

together with children from Tower Hamlets to write a musical. Clara

Grant was one of the first pupils to attend Chapmanslade Primary in

the 1870s. She went down to become a champion of the poor in the East

End. Break time at Chapmanslade Primary

in Wiltshire. While they play, some of their older brothers and sisters

are hard at work recreating life in the pubs of the East End. This is

when you stand on the cockroaches. That is be cockroaches legs. This

is them scuttling across the floor. This is the rubbish in the street.

That is the sound when you get drunk and your head hurts. For the

past three days, these children have been working on a musical

about one of the school's first pupils. Clara Grant was drawn and

brought up in this house opposite the school gates. She became a

teacher and moved to London. She transformed the lives of people in

the East End and built a school and a community centre. She fed them,

cloaked them and gave Tories to children who knew nothing but

poverty. She became known as the lady of Bo. She helps the children

who did not have much. She built this arch and children that were

short enough to go under the arch, were giving a farthing to get a

bundle. For boys, it had blue ribbon and for gulls, pink. It made

the children feel like they had something. I think she is really

good, helpful and nice. It is quite amazing because she came from the

school and she went so far. pupils from her village and the

pupils from the Tower Hamlets's primary school are working on a

musical. It will be performed at a festival on Friday. At Clara

Grant's funeral, the streets of London were lined by families who

had been helped by her. Now the children from two different

communities will come together to Do not be afraid, swarms of bees

have been spotted in the centre of Bath. Lots of people came across

them on the weekend and have been posting their pictures on Twitter

and Facebook. Why are the bees swarming?

They certainly look dramatic. These be swarms were swept -- snapped

over the weekend. Even Bath's Olympic gold medallist Amy Williams

tweeted a snap from her phone. The police put a cordon up but today

only a few stragglers were at home. What causes these swarms? They are

about having enough room in the hive. When there is a new queen and

she takes off, with part of the hive, to establish a new colony,

based warm. Or a new queen takes her loyal group and establish his

another colony elsewhere as the younger Queen asserts her. These

bees show us that they are on the lookout for a new home. What should

we do? The main thing to do is not to take off your jacket and start

waving it. It is best to stand back. Swarming bees are not there to

attack members of the public. Or way want to do is find a new home.

When they are in a ball, they are deciding their next move. You have

been sending in your pictures too. This was taken at Horton graveyard

in South Gloucestershire yesterday. And today, they have been spotted

at Bristol's Corn Street too. If they make themselves a home in your

home, you need a beekeeper did take them away for you because they are

a protected species. If you have seen any in unusual

places, do let us know. They showed in Clevedon has been

named shed of the year after becoming a cult music venue. A

reporter went to see the shed last month when it was nominated for the

award. John L set up a Songs From The Shed website two months ago and

invited musicians to record their. Do stay with us for the best bits

of the carnival. First of all, now It is all change. A pleasant

evening to come. Get yourself down to the big screens if you are into

the opera because that millennium's square in Bristol, there will be

Madam Butterfly. Different story tomorrow as a band of rain comes in

from the West. We will have an unsettled spell of weather through

the second half of the week. Tomorrow morning, of you can see

the band of rain moving in. This evening, by contrast, pleasant

enough with a lot of hide serious cloud. The sunshine is

progressively hazy. Light winds. The first signs of the Cold Front

moving in. A noticeably mild night. Tomorrow morning, by a bout 6:00am,

7:00am, the rain will have moved into Lynmouth. Just after the rush-

hour, it will slip its way to the east of the M5. It will stay over

our district until the middle part of the day. By late afternoon,

through the evening, some dryer, brighter spots. Still the chance of

one or two showers. Temperature wise tomorrow, it will be a lot

fresher. It will also be breezier. Sea conditions, a fairly flat. That

is positive if you are heading out. The graphics say it all. A breezy

set up with further showers to come. That takes us all the way to Friday

and the weekend. The low-pressure will be with us right until the

weekend. For the British Grand Prix, take an umbrella and tent.

That is it from us. Before we go, we will leave youth brought -- we

will leave you with some pictures from St Paul's Carnival this