31/08/2011 BBC Points West

Good evening and welcome to the town of Wootton Bassett, where, as

the light fades this evening, hundreds are gathering for a moving

ceremony to mark the end of military repatriation through the

high street. We have a special edition of Points West tonight as

the town pays its final tribute to the war dead. At sunset, 7:58pm,

the Union Flag will be hauled down for the last time, and handed over

to the people living near Brize Norton where the fallen will be

returned in future. And, in the studio, Alex will have the latest

regional news, including the park- and-ride that cost a fortune, but

is barely used. First, take a look along the High

Street tonight. You can see people already queuing here to witness

tonight's ceremony. In a symbolic and poignant gesture, the Union

Flag, which flutters next of the war memorial, will be lowered for

the final time. It will then be carefully folded and presented to

another community near RAF Brize Norton, which is taking over from

RAF Lyneham as the centre for repatriations. The people of

Carterton in Oxfordshire have promised that bereaved families

will not be left without support. Over the last four years and four

months, there have been 167 repatriations and 345 coffins have

passed through here. The tributes started when a few people simply

paused, but as the weeks went by, the crowds grew and Wootton Bassett

is now known throughout the world for its dignified and uniquely

British salute to the dead. Will Glennon has our first report.

The bell tolls. The town comes to a standstill. 167 times in total they

have shown this display of respect. It has never been something they

were told to do, it's just grown thanks to the people who cared. The

first coffins to come in to RAF Lyneham were 10 of its own

servicemen. They were killed in 2005 when their Hercules was shot

down in Iraq. All other bodies had been flown home to RAF Brize Norton

in Oxfordshire. But special dispensation was given by the

Ministry of Defence to allow these men to come back to their home base.

That day, 8th February 2005, the procession came through Wootton

Bassett and members of the town stood and paid their respects. At

the time it was a one-off, a special circumstance, but two years

later, things changed and that one- off would become terribly regular.

In spring 2007, building work at Brize Norton meant repatriation

flights were switched to RAF Lyneham. With no bypass around

Wootton Bassett, the bodies of all service personnel would pass

through the town on their way to John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford

for post-mortem examinations. An ex servicemen, Percy Miles, was mayor

of Wootton Bassett at the time. of the clerks from the town council

and said that a body was coming through. We rushed home and got

dressed, and we've lined just here somewhere. We gathered a few people

around us. They must have been about a dozen, I suppose, when the

first coffin came through. At that time it didn't stop at all, it just

Kathleen went through Wootton Bassett. I think they just got in

and stood still, and most of them cried. They did it without being

told. This is the second repatriation in April 2007. After

the first, the local Royal British Legion had met and decided to mark

each passing from now on by standing quietly. It was the custom

that I grow up with as a young lad, that if you were ever in a street

and a hearse went by, you stood still, about your head, paid your

respects to the dead as they went by. That is what we did. But, of

course, this time it was a little different. It was the fallen at the

battlefield. As others in the town saw what was going on they began to

join in. Just ringing to let you know there is another repatriation

on Friday. Yes, it is tomorrow at 3pm. Anne Bevis took on the task of

relaying the information from RAF Lyneham. I started with a list of

about 14 people. Then other people wanted to have their name but on

the list. And so it grew. I ended up with over 200 e-mails, and about

65 phone calls. So, it really grew rapidly over the four years. In a

short space of time, the respect being shown by this small Wiltshire

town had gained not just national but international recognition.

has touched so many about what this town is doing is that it was all

spontaneous. There were really no politics involved, and what has

happened here is without precedent. It's a simple and spontaneous show

of respect from Wootton Bassett. want to honour our fallen warriors

with the respect and gratitude that they deserve, whether it is here,

at Dover, or in the small British town of Wootton Bassett, where

people line the streets in the solemn tribute that dress --

represents the best of British character. Everyone I have spoken

to in the town has told me they don't think they have done anything

special, just their own small bit, what they felt was the right thing

to do. Take Kirsty Lambert, who runs the pub here on the High

Street. She began providing tea, coffee and sandwiches for the

grieving families, and a room where they could be alone. They wanted

somewhere out of the way of the press, out of the limelight. It is

very stressful for them. They are in a strange town, so it was just

nice to look after them. Through all kinds of weather they have

turned out, in the day and even the night. And so many families have

taken great comfort from the support of strangers. I know that

the family would like to thank Wootton Bassett today for what they

have done for the family. I know the family have got all the

gratitude in the world for Wootton Bassett today. And, though the

focus has been on Wootton Bassett, people line up all along the 40

mile route. There are people outside the gates of RAF Lyneham,

people along the road, at Shrivenham, and all the way into

Oxford you will find appeared -- pockets of people there paying

their respects. Something that grew from nothing captured a nation.

never did this for any recognition. It was just the way that we felt,

as ex service personnel, that we could pay our respects to the

fallen. I definitely feel proud of a part of what would and bass and

Rastan as a whole. I like that I have been able to give something

back. It is all over the country and all over the world, but it is

respected, and that is the main thing. This was the last

repatriation almost two weeks ago. Wootton Bassett has seen his last

one, the country has not. A Marine from 42 Commando was killed

yesterday in Afghanistan. His body will be flown home to Oxfordshire

The Government wants British troops out of Afghanistan by 2015, and

sadly, as well said, we haven't seen the last of the casualties.

Just a word about the ceremony tonight. It will be led by the

mayor of Wootton Bassett, the local vicar and Royal British Legion. We

have been told it will be a brief and simple process. The words of

the Exhortation will be said, "we shall not grow old as those who are

left grow old". The flag will then be blessed. It is a ceremony in

keeping with the dignity of the repatriations. And, in some ways,

Wootton Bassett has changed the way we relate to the armed forces.

Scott Ellis reports. Images that have been seen at the

world over, ensuring the name Wootton Bassett will resound

through military history. The ceremonies crew from humble

beginnings. Spontaneity was the key, according to butcher war historian

Peter Caddick-Adams. The took world wars, the context we have involved

in since, for all about the way the Government dictated that the dead

were commemorated and buried. Wootton Bassett is a public

ownership of grief taking that out of government hands. Wootton

Bassett became a mass movement, the political not a statement on war,

but individualising each soldier's death has certainly borrowed those

in Whitehall. The sense is that when everybody comes back and there

is a ceremony for every single person, it looks as if there is

another person dead in the service of the Government. They can have a

downside in terms of public opinion of the whole operation. General Sir

Mike Jackson has recently retired to Wiltshire. He says Boughton

Bassett has drawn a nation closer. -- Wootton Bassett has drawn a

nation closer to its soldiers. Wootton Bassett has drawn our

attention more sharply to what the armed forces are doing and the

risks they are taken. The fact that units marched to the streets of

their local town with the population out there to cheer them

on, that is another very vivid example, I think, of a closer

relationship between the armed forces and the nation. Through it

all, Wootton Bassett has been about the fallen and their families. It

is a very public place, but that helps. These are the parents of

Major James Bowman, killed in Afghanistan last year. To go

through Wootton Bassett was an amazing experience. To have all

those people who were there to pay their own respects, to people they

didn't know, to the families, it was, without doubt, a comfort. It

was a comfort to us. I think it is going to be very difficult to

achieve the same sort of thing elsewhere. We all know that it is

moving to Brize Norton. I think that Wootton Bassett is unique.

There will be more grief to come up more fallen to honour, as we ponder

the future of repatriations post Wootton Bassett and don't forget

those whose job it is to soldier on. It was an accident of geography

that put this town at the door of RAF Lyneham. Now the base is

closing, and I am joined by its last ever commanding officer. John

Gladstone, thank you for coming this evening. What do the tributes

that the people of Wootton Bassett give me into the military? They are

enormously important. More so than ever before in history, probably,

the military has enjoyed the support of the British public.

Nowhere more so than here in Wootton Bassett. Your team at RAF

Lyneham has had to deal with hundreds of repatriations now. It

must have been a very stressful thing for them to do. It is, it is

immensely stressful and they have coped enormously well throughout

every one of the 168 repatriations that we have carried out here from

RAF Lyneham. We are a good, tight team. We are well trained, and I

like to think we do it as well as we possibly can. Now the

repatriations are moving up the road to RAF Brize Norton, a couple

of people have said to me that at RAF Lyneham the coffins came

through the front door, but at Brize Norton they are coming out to

the back door and they don't approve. Nothing could be further

from the truth. I don't know if you have been to Brize Norton to see

the gate, it is a purpose-built facility where the needs of the

families are absolutely foremost. When the cortege leaves through the

Britannia gate, it is the most appropriate route for it to proceed

to the John Radcliffe Hospital. poignant time tonight here.

Massively pawing it, very emotional. It is a chance for me to say thank

you to the town council and British Legion and the local community for

the support they have given us over There is a high street, and I am

told 13 pubs, but the time has come to symbolise all that is best about

England. Some towns are born great, some have greatness thrust upon

them. Join me again later, but first let us join Alex for the rest

of the day's news. Well, in other news here in the

West a controversial new park-and- ride service near Bristol has seen

fewer than 150 people Pike there in the last three months. Opponents to

the car park, which cost South Gloucestershire council �1.3

million, have questioned whether it was ever needed in the first place.

We all know how frustrating it can be driving around trying to spot

that free space in a parked car park, but here, at Bristol Parkway,

the park and ride car park, that is not such a problem.

So why is this new car park empty? Well, firstly, to park your car

here for the day on a weekday will cost you �5, but to Parker on this

side of the road will cost you absolutely nothing.

Secondly, it is a park and ride, without the ride, because as yet no

buses actually pick up from here. So once you have parked, you have

to walk the half-mile to Bristol Parkway station.

Let us do the sums - the car park opened at the end of June at a cost

of �1.3 million. In the last three months a total of 139 people have

parked here. By my calculations that work out to a round �9,400 per

car. That is a lot of change to have to find for the machine.

But those behind the scheme insist it is not a waste of money. This

stress that the two other parts of the plan - the introduction of new

parking restrictions near by, plus the bus rapid transit scheme, have

both fallen behind schedule. It is frustrating for me and everybody

else. I would have liked to see the two things going together, but it

was not to be. Stick with it, we will show them at the end of the

day that that car park was necessary. We may even have to

consider a larger part in the fullness of time.

For the moment though, finding a parking space here is not a problem.

The father of a teenager who died in a plane crash is hoping to raise

thousands of pounds in his son's name by water-skiing across the

Irish Sea. Charlie Frowd from South

Gloucestershire died in the crash in Ireland in 2000 and it. This

morning his dad, Dave, and three friends have been training in South

Cerney. They make it look easy, but the

calm of a Cotswold lake does not compare to the rigours of the Irish

Sea. Skiing in relays they will face 61 metre high waves every

minute - a challenge for the team of endurance, and not without risk.

We are all prepared mentally and physically as well as we can be. I

think on the day, there will be moments when we think what are we

doing this for? But as long as we get across safe and sound and

complete the challenge, that is the him.

Dave has special reason to do this. His son Charlie, also a keen water-

skier, was killed in a plane crash over the Wicklow mountains in

Ireland. The accident also claimed the lives of his friend and his

parents. Hopefully it means a substantial

amount raised for the volunteer services who tried to rescue the

guys, and also for Children's Hospice South West, something which

is also a dear to our heart. Friday morning, the team leave

Fishguard to water-ski nearly 70 miles across the Irish Sea. An

opportunity which Dave's friends could not refuse. Did you think

this was crazy? No! I think we are all going through a mid-life crisis

and we need to prove we can do something like this.

It should take the team five hours to get across. They may finish up

cold and achy, but they will have raised thousands of pounds and set

a new world record. I admire their courage and tenacity.

To some football news - the future of Swindon striker Leon Clarke is

in doubt after a public bus stop with manager Paolo Di Canio. The

incident happened after the players were coming off this field after

their defeat to support Southampton. Clarke, who only signed a fortnight

ago, did not train today. Leon Clarke was the last player to

leave the field. He was clearly upset after an argument with the

club's fitness coach about extra Paolo Di Canio tried to assure

Clarke down the tunnel, but in front of supporters the team began

to argue. -- the two began to argue. The heated exchange continued in

the tunnel. Clarke left the ground still wearing his kit after Canio

left the ground after -- without talking to the media.

These things are better sorted out behind closed doors, when everybody

has an opportunity to save their bit and everyone comes down. That

is not what happened. Leon felt that he was being manhandled, and

he was being manhandled down the tunnel. The key thing was quite

rightly that the manager did not want this to be played out in front

of the public. But scuffle overshadowed the match.

Mehdi Kerrouche provided late hope for Swindon, and the Saints had a

goal from Rickie Lambert. Bristol Rovers had to fight back

from 2 to nail down at Leyton Orient. As the game appeared to be

heading for extra time, the home team grabbed a winner.

In the Johnstone's Paint Trophy Cheltenham saw of Torquay by two

goals to one to move into round two. Somerset's cricketers are still in

contention for two trophies this season. They are in the semi-final

of the 40 over game and in with a chance of the County Championship.

But they may have to do it without their injured captain. To assess

reaction to that, Clinton Rogers has been to the County Ground where

he met one man who is their loudest fan.

Come on! For the last ten years he has been

Somerset's most vocal supporter. You cannot miss him, home or away

he rarely misses again. To everyone he is known simply as "Tractor". So

what is his real name. Well, it is Tractor driver. To you,

Mr Rogers! Well, that settles that. He is a

great character and knows a lot about the game. But very few doubt

his knowledge of the game or his enthusiasm for his team... Who, by

the way, know him rather well. I often get a little reaction from

the team. It might be to say shut up, but... No, it is never that, to

be fair to them. They love the support.

So as Somerset strive again to win a trophy this season, who better to

ask whether there is hope? I have every confidence that we can

win this championship for the first time in our history.

But the director of cricket had bad news to deliver today - Marcus

Trescothick has ligament damage and will likely miss the next couple of

weeks. If there is potential for him to

play towards the end of the season, he might. But in the short term, I

doubt he will be fit. Well, it is enough to turn any fan

to drink! It has been a disappointing day,

with Somerset bowled out for 204, and Hampshire reaching 124 for 1 in

reply. There was good news for Jos Buttler, the Somerset player making

his England debut this evening against India. He received his cap

from Kevin Pietersen before taking to the field for the first time in

To bat, Ian is solving a mystery for our viewers.

We had viewers querying a curious cloud they saw yesterday - the clue

here is Avonmouth, because this is basically the outflow which

typically does cause dramatic cloud. This photo shows that during...

During the winter, that does produce sometimes man-made snow

showers. Not so many clouds around tomorrow,

a brighter day generally. The first day of all to me to run logically

speaking. That will be the start of autumn tomorrow. High pressure over

the British Isles - the winds come in from East to south-east treading

in drier air. The cloud will break up during the course of this

evening. Before that, the cloud will break up northwards, some

showers creeping up from medium level cloud that could conceivably

cross to Dorset and will show later on in the night. Otherwise, a dry

night for us all. Variable amounts of cloud that will thin and break.

Light winds as well. Towards tomorrow morning, a bit of mist and

fog. Temperatures anywhere from about seven or eight Celsius in the

countryside to ten or 12 elsewhere. Tomorrow a completely different to

the last few days, and more sunny breaks throughout the course of the

day. Variable cloud, yes, those windy macro shifting towards a

southerly direction. Temperatures 20 or 21 Celsius through the course

of tomorrow, and warmer still going into Friday. Rain later in the day.

Send your questions de Ian! That is it from us here in the

studio - Sabet Choudhury will be back at 8:00pm. Now let us return

to Wootton Bassett and to David. I am joined by the Old comrades

Association. In one hour's time, the Union flag will be lowered and

heads will be bowed, as was an Bassett completes its duty to the

foreman. -- Wootton Bassett completes its duty to the foreman.

Of a two years it has did in the name of unity for those who grieve.

We leave you tonight with images of the servicemen and women who have

made the journey home via this High Street, starting with a soldier

whose cortege passed here just last week. As the poet Wilfred Owen said,

"These men are worth your tears". Goodnight.

In that little Wiltshire town, where the houses of the four-man

trundle through, they decided those who were martyred to the country's

cause, should be honoured. We want to honour our fallen

warriors with the respect and gratitude they deserve, whether it

is here or in Wootton Bassett, where people line the streets in

solemn tribute that represents the best of the British character.

We just like to stand here, bow our heads, as a mark of respect to

those who have given their lives. It is a bit of kindness and human

nature to do what you can to help other people.

You do not know them personally, but I have two young boys of a

similar age, and it is very emotional.

It is not something that is a pleasure, but it is a privilege for

Wootton Bassett to be able to pay our respects.

These are towns fork with a mission of their own - expressing via their

actions to the grieving and the lost, there are strangers who will

ensure they are not alone. We thought it would just be us, and

the other families here today. We did not realise it would be like

this. To do not what they have done, I

thought it was fantastic and to go through Wootton Bassett was a

fantastic experience. Wootton Bassett it one of those

places I had never heard of before, but how can I forget it after that?