25/07/2011 BBC Points West

Good evening and welcome to BBC Points West. Our headlines tonight.

The babysitter accused of betraying his trust. He appears in court

charged with indecency against some of the children he was looking

after. A Royal opening for Weston Pier as

the town hopes tourists will breeze Bath considers chopping its chief

executive amid public concern about their pay.

And we go under cover looking for a statue of Tennis Girl.

A court has heard that a former foster parent from Gloucester

sexually abused children as young as five. It is alleged that William

Barber indecently assaulted eight children over a 13-year period. Our

Gloucestershire reporter, Steve Knibbs, was at Crown Court for us

today. The prosecution opened its case

against William Barber by telling the jury that the accounts of what

happened to the alleged victims would be harrowing and distressing

to hear. There are eight victims in this case - seven girls and one boy.

They were all aged between 5 and 12 at the time of the alleged offences.

William Barber is charged with 16 counts of indecent assault against

them and two of indecency with a child - that is that he compelled

them to perform an act on him. The jury heard that this case will, in

effect, be an abstract lesson in the methodology of a paedophile.

William Barber was at one point, along with his wife, a foster

parent, although none of his alleged victims were his foster

children. The court heard he would offer to babysit some of his

victims to help their parents out. The prosecution said William Barber

would make his victims feel special, he would praise them, but then

threaten them to say nothing. In one case, the court heard William

Barber told his young victim that what was happening was perfectly

normal, but that if he said something, then something would

happen to him. Over the next two weeks, all of the

alleged victims in this case, some who live outside the UK, will come

to this court to give evidence. All now grown adults, the jury heard

they have been traumatised by what happened to them as young children.

In police interviews, William Barber admitted he knew all the

children involved in this case, but when faced with the charges he told

police that most of them were lying. William Barber denies 18 charges

against him and the case continues here tomorrow when the first of his

alleged victims will give evidence. A woman caught on CCTV smuggling

drugs into Bristol Prison has escaped a jail term. Lisa Mundy,

who had previously pleaded guilty to smuggling cannabis into the

prison, was made the subject of a two-year supervision order. Mundy

will also have to attend a drugs rehabilitation testing programme

during which she will be tested at least once a week. The judge told

her that if she failed to comply with the order, she would face a

prison sentence of more than 12 months.

Three years after the town's pier was devastated by fire, Weston-

super-Mare celebrated today with a Royal visitor. Princess Anne came

not only to officially open the rebuilt Grand Pier, but also to

name a new public space. So will today mark an important turning

point in Weston's fortunes? Our reporter, Sabet Choudhury is there

for us now. When the weather is like this,

there are very few places in the country that can match Weston-

super-Mare's beauty. That is the kind of whether they were hoping

for when there was a royal visitor here, to show of this town.

Applause greeted the Princess Royal this morning as she began her tour

of Weston-super-Mare. After beating the dignitaries, a quick word in

the visitor's book to mark her visit. A more about what she wrote

a little later. Princess and then went on a stroll all all the

seafront, seeing for herself the views that have made this the sort

so popular. That walk led her here, the newly rebuilt Grand Pier. The

last time she was here, the pavilion was a pile of ashes. Three

years later, it has been reborn and It has been an arduous journey at

times, but now we are at the end of it, you cannot remember the bad

times, only the good times. We are very proud to have reached today, a

fantastic milestone. The people are here, the sun is shining, it is

great. Before leaving Weston super Mare, there was one more engagement.

This time across the road at from the Grand Pier to the newly rebuilt

at Princess Royal at square. A quick word from her Highness about

her visit. Can I offer my congratulations to everybody

involved. This has been a fantastic transformation for Western and I

thought that anybody who comes here will appreciate the effort. --

Weston-super-Mare. Thank you very After that, it was time to say

goodbye. Leading Weston-super-Mare to get back to normal. That message

in the visitor's book. It simply said, and at the date. -- her name

and to the date. There are still a few visitors around here on the

Pier, but during the day, it was a completely different place, you

could not walk along the seafront. The beach is actually empty at the

moment, but earlier we spoke to some of the visitors to find out

what it is they like about Weston Super Mare. Lovely ice-cream, the

fish and chips as great, lovely sand. It has got lots of lovely

memories of when our children were young and they used to love coming

here every year. It has improved even. The they get is a wonderful

place to come. -- a rethink. We have not got enough time to go and

do everything. There are arcades, pubs, fish and chips. What more can

you what? We like to come, become regularly and enjoy it. We love the

peer and the shops. Everything. -- we love the pier. If you look

across there, most of those buildings are hotels. They are

hoping for the custom that they so desperately needed to survive in

the next few years. Most of those people I spoke to earlier say they

are on day visits. Why can you not get them to stay for a week?

think that this year they will do. -- that next year. There will be so

much more to do, entertainment around the area and lots of leisure

activities. Are you happy with the way that Weston-super-Mare is

going? The leisure dome, will that bring in more people? I think it

will bring people to the area, bring employment to the area and

bake as an all year round resort. And you are happy with the way that

the place is going? Hotelier's are pleased with the way this summer is

going. There are restaurants that produce a fish and chips up to

Michelin star or restaurants. weather is not too bad here, but if

the weather continues like this, lots more people will be coming

here. Thanks very much.

Figures suggest women giving birth in parts of the West have some of

the lowest ratios of midwives to patients in the country. The Royal

College of Nursing says each midwife should attend only 28

births a year. But, as Health Correspondent Matthew Hill reports,

some are present at many more. The latest satisfied customers at

this maternity unit in Bath. Emma was born through caesarian on

Thursday. We have been very well cared for. There might have been

moments when we had to wait five minutes, but that has not been a

problem, we have never felt that we had been left in the lurch by

anyone. But when it comes to the numbers of

midwives here, there are fewer than what is recommended. The RMC say

there should be one midwife to every 28 births a year, but here,

it is 1 to 33, and in Swindon, it is 1 to 37. I think an appropriate

measure would be the number of times that women have at someone

with them when they are in labour. It is an area that we are looking

to progress. We have started an audit on this. But some mothers are

paying up to �2,000 for independent midwives in order to make sure they

know the person supervising this life-changing moment. I do not want

a stranger. I was told that if I had a home birth, I would not have

a midwife that I know coming to the home.

There's now a drive to give mums- to-be more choice by having more

midwife-led units. A birthing centre in the old Cosham Hospital

in North Bristol is due to open next year. But it seems there may

not be as many as had been hoped. In 2005, there was a document

proposing 10 but centres and it was hoped that the second one would be

in this area. We are working on that at the moment, but it has been

put on hold because of changes in the PCT. The number of midwives per

berth is not everything. In this unit, the insurance risk is two out

of the reef. Numbers are important, This is Monday's Points West with

David and Alex. Coming up on tonight's programme. Hoping to

reach the heady heights of an Olympic medal. We meet the next in

our series of 12 for 2012. And put that fag out. The 19th-

century pipe factory uncovered on the site of a 21st century smokers'

corner. Bath and North East Somerset is the

latest council to try to save large amounts of money by restructuring

senior management posts. Councillors have just been meeting

to discuss the possibility of closing down the chief executive

role. John Maguire has just sent this report from Bath.

Here in Bath, councillors have been discussing the same sort of issues

that their colleagues had been discussing across the country, how

to cut costs. Staff is 11 of the biggest -- staff is one of the

biggest costs. One that bring being mooted here is to cut the chief

Executive's called to save his salary. But the council has decided

against doing that tonight. Other authorities across the West

sometimes share their very senior executives. I went to see how the

system is working. It is very difficult when there are only a few

of you shearing. When we first started shedding three years ago,

it was quite difficult to move things forward. The more you share

within the organisations, the better value you get out of our

whole range of resources and the better expertise in that certain

key areas. That allows you to reduce costs in the services

without reducing quality of services. Senior managers in local

authorities do take home a lot of money, but they do have a lot of

responsibility. If there are jobs are shared, there could be a lot of

savings to be made. But the main challenge for all local authorities

is to try and make savings while providing the same at, decent level

of services that council tax payers expect. That challenge it goes on.

The former Swindon MP Anne Snelgrove has been selected to try

to regain her South Swindon seat for Labour. Ms Snelgrove lost the

last election after five years as the MP there. She was chosen as the

party's Prospective Parliamentary Candidate by Labour members at a

meeting in the town on Saturday. If the selection is approved, it means

Ms Snelgrove will fight against the Conservative MP Robert Buckland at

the next election. It has now been confirmed that a

man who died when the helicopter he was flying crashed in North

Cornwall is from the Bristol area. The accident happened at about 3.30

yesterday afternoon in a field near Bude. The pilot, a man in his 40s,

was the only person on board. lucky it did not cause any other

fatalities. There was debris on the road. It could have caught a car,

it was lucky there was no animals in the field. It narrowly missed a

property. It was lucky that it did not cause any more damage. But it

was shocking. Work has started today on a �270

million redevelopment in Taunton. It is part of the regeneration of

the town's old cattle market. The first stage of Project Taunton, one

of the largest town centre renovation programmes in the South

West, is the building of the new headquarters for waste company

Viridor on the Firepool site. Those behind the project say it will

eventually create 4,000 new jobs and 800 new homes in Taunton.

is the start of long-held ambitions to turn this into army jeep

strategic employment site and I welcome -- into a major strategic

employment site and I welcome Viridor here.

They were a must-have item for any Georgian smoker and their

popularity continued all the way through Queen Victoria's reign.

Delicate clay pipes were the most common way to smoke before

cigarettes were invented. Now a small pipe factory has been

uncovered by archaeologists in Bath and they're hoping there could be

more secrets hidden beneath the ground. Here's Jules Hyam.

Archaeology really is a little bit like time trouble. That is a

Georgian fireplace. -- a time of travel. Under the threat is

evidence of medieval housing. Beneath that is a Saxon dumping

ground. Then it is the Roman level. A already, they are starting to get

a really good picture of how it would have looked in Georgian times.

A row of Georgian housing, quite small houses. A few gardens in

between. One of those gardens was used as a cottage industry where

clay pipes were made. They would have been originally bad along. --

that long. They are marked with the manufacturer's name. These are

early 19 century. The pipes are uninteresting find. But it is the

prospect of finding something even grander that is intriguing the team.

A few yards behind me, all around me, there had been a Roman finds.

We are hopeful that we might find some were down there. Fingers

crossed. But this is Bath and you never know what you might uncover

underneath the surface. And staying in Bath, about 100

people were evacuated from Bath Spa yesterday afternoon after a fire

alarm. As you can see from this picture, sent in by a viewer,

customers waited outside in their bath robes. After 30 minutes, it

was confirmed as a false alarm caused by a technical fault. The

spa apologised and offered people the chance to extend their visits.

Bristol's oldest building has reopened its doors today after a �4

million restoration project. St James Priory, a medieval church and

now rehabilitation centre for recovering addicts, dates back to

the 12th century when it was founded by Benedictine monks. The

restoration has taken two years to complete.

Turning to sport and we're continuing our series looking at

the West's athletes hoping for Olympic glory at London 2012.

Tonight we meet trampolinist Laura Gallagher from Westonzoyland in

Somerset. The 22-year-old is aiming for a medal at the games but has

had to battle back from a serious crisis of confidence which saw her

unable to jump for an entire year, as Zoe Gough has been finding out.

It is a career always spent high in the air. Turns and flips timed to

absolute perfection. But Laura Gallagher's journey hasn't always

run to plan. I won my first major thing in 2007, and just a few weeks

after that, I lost all my confidence and could yet get on the

trampoline. -- could not get. I used to wake up and nightmares.

Laura's 22. She still lives and trains in Somerset. Her event made

its Olympic debut at Sydney in 2000. At the same time, Laura's talent

was spotted. Mum Sarah has watched every bounce since. It has its high

points and its very low point. It is a bit of a roller coaster. Ups

and downs. She can come home and it Away from the trampoline, Laura

makes and sells jewellery. She receives cash from the lottery and

a sponsorship deal, but her craft allows a little extra for herself.

This is a good little sideline. I enjoy it. It is so come here, does

that help when you have been at the height of competition? Yes, and it

gives be something to do in the evenings, in between training. It

allows my body to recover as well. This year has seen Laura finally

return from a long injury. After her past problems, she believes

she's back to her best. There are about five girls who are very

strong in the world and she set somewhere in there. We are not sure

yet, probably top two. Laura hopes to make things certain

in the coming months. How does she do that?

Momentum. You have to be very fit as well.

I am glad she is getting her confidence back.

It is one of the most iconic images of the 20th century. It has graced

many a teenage boy's bedroom wall. It has sold over 2 million copies.

Have you guessed what it is? Well, it's that poster of the tennis girl,

and she has now been recreated as a lifesize gold statue. Simon Lewis

went to find out more. Now, I can see it, but you can't!

Because of copyright restrictions, I am unable to show you the picture.

For many, many men of a certain age, it needs no introduction. But for

the rest of you, I can show you this.

The original model Fiona Walker has been recast in gleaming gold. It's

the work of Bath based sculptor Ben Dearnley, who was commissioned by

the art director on the original shoot back in 1976 for his new book

about the infamous pic. Fiona was willing to do this shot, but she

could not to play tennis. She had not got the swing. In desperation

at the end of the day, with the light fading, the got her a

standing on the tennis court, looking like she had finished a

game of tennis. -- we got her. think it was cheeky more than

anything else. And that is how it has carried on.

Because of copyright restrictions, Chris, unable to use the photo

decided to recreate it out of his own pocket. Fiona has long kept

quiet about being "that girl", but she agreed to be covered in plaster

and cast in gold. I am working of our life cast. 30 years of time

have passed and I need to make the sculpture have a youthful nature to

it. She performed like a supreme athlete, holding her posture.

Many pub debates have raged about the merits of Tennis Girl. But

perhaps, if it's not too cheeky to say, the answer is quite simple.

I am really pleased that that has captured the essence of the

original. Many hours of study. That is a shot to finish on. I am

surprised the model kept it quiet. If that was me, I would have told

everyone. Generally speaking, we have a

largely dry and settled picture for the rest of this week. A good deal

of sunshine yesterday. This is a These are the sort of scenes you

might be seeing if you head out tonight. And it tomorrow. It should

be a decent day. A fair amount of cloud has been spilling in through

the course of today. That trough is being stretched out and showers are

becoming fewer and further between. Under the satellite image, you can

see how that cloud associated with the trough has become quite

extensive. The rainfall sequence will show a bit of a glitch.

Effectively, light showers for the most part. We will see some of

those for the rest of this evening. But they will become fewer and

further between. Elsewhere will be dry. Tomorrow morning, temperatures

will have dropped back to around ten Celsius. Tomorrow, we could

still start with cloud thick enough to be giving a sprinkling of light

showers, particularly in eastern and central spots. After that, the

sunshine gets to work and the rest of Somerset should be favoured.

Reasonable amount of sunshine for most of us. Driver of the rest of

the afternoon. Temperatures tomorrow up to 21 Celsius. -- dry

for the rest of the afternoon. Looking beyond that, Wednesday

brings a broadly similar day. These weather fronts are trying to come

in from the West, but dying a death as they do so. By Friday, and into

Saturday, it is looking decent enough.

Lovely, thank you very much. If it you want to watch the Panorama