12/09/2011 BBC Points West

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

The drama over Fred West - the police chief who led the real life

investigation says the ITV programmes are far from the truth.

You're nicked - the stolen lead merchants feel the iron hand of the

law. A patient left in agony after her

dentist extracted the wrong tooth, and then tried to put it back in.

I was right to be scared, because it was horrible. To have an

infected tooth was bad enough, let alone the pain that was to come.

And a journey of a lifetime - a West Country balloon crew complete

Good evening. The detective who led one of

Britain's biggest ever murder investigations, the Cromwell Street

murders in Gloucester, has hit out today at an ITV drama about Fred

West. The programme concentrates on Fred

West's relationship with Janet Leach, who sat in on the police

interviews. But today former superintendent John Bennett claimed

the producers did not let the facts get in the way of the story. Steve

Knibbs reports. A drama showing the relationship

between a Gloucester housewife and a manipulative mass murderer was

never going to be an easy one to make.

I love Rose, but she was the one. Appropriate Adult took over three

years to make, and producers had various meetings with the man who

became the public face of the investigation, Detective

Superintendent John Bennett. This afternoon, police officers

performed excavations in Cromwell Street and found, in two separate

areas, what is considered to be two significant and separate finds.

now having seen the drama, he is angry at the way Janet Leach's role

was dramatised. What they have done is wrong people trade how Janet

Leach came into the investigation, the way that she was dealt with,

from welfare, and the way that she interacted and had contact with

Fred West. Her impact on the investigation has been grossly

exaggerated. John Bennett also feels the programme has affected

the integrity of his investigation. It was produced in the way that it

was for the purpose of the story that they wanted to show, and

unfortunately, other than the acting ability that resulted in the

betrayal of both Fred and Rosemary West, it is -- it has achieved

nothing at all. But the writer of Appropriate Adult defended his

position today, saying he in no way manipulated the facts to make it a

better story. Of course it is a dramatisation, compressing two

years of history into 90 minutes of drama, so you have to crunch down

and simplified the story to some extent, but the essence of it, we

absolutely stunned by the essence of the story, and incidentally the

drama itself does not criticise Gloucester police or John Bennett.

Others have, elsewhere. It is not part of the drama. But what of the

woman at the centre of this - Janet Leach? She nearly brought the Rose

West trial to a halt when it was revealed she had done a deal with

the Daily Mirror for her story, despite denying it in court. She

worked with ITV on the drama but did not want to be interviewed

today, although it is reported she feels it was a fair account of what

happened to her. Some more developments on that

story tonight. In a statement, ITV claimed Mr Bennett was interested

in being a paid adviser to the programme but they decided not to

employ him. We have spoken to Mr Bennett who says he met the

producers at his own expense and offered advice free of charge.

The organisers of yesterday's half marathon in Bristol have said they

are deeply saddened by the death of one of the competitors. The

emergency services tried to resuscitate the man, who was 33 and

from Clevedon, but were unable to save him. It is the first fatality

in the race's 23-year history. About 9,000 people took part this

year. A man has been arrested on

suspicion of attempted murder after a woman was hit by a car in Bristol.

The car mounted the pavement on Cannon Road in Bedminster just

after 1pm yesterday afternoon. The victim, who is in her twenties, was

left with life-changing leg injuries. A 25-year-old man is

being questioned by the police. A fundraising website set up in

memory of Anni Dewani, who was murdered on her honeymoon in South

Africa, has suddenly been closed down. The Just Giving site had

raised around �11,000 before it was shut down over the weekend. The

Charity Commission confirmed today it had questioned the charity in

March to check what the money would be used for. Meanwhile, the Bristol

businessman Shrien Dewani is still awaiting extradition accused of

plotting his wife's murder. The mother of a 19-year-old man who

died after escaping from a secure mental ward has told his inquest

that her concerns about his condition were not taken seriously.

Susan Hoskins' son David suffered extensive burns after he climbed an

electricity pylon near Weston General Hospital two years ago. He

suffered a massive electric shock and died at Frenchay Hospital six

weeks later. 40 scrap metal dealerships in the

West were searched this morning by police targeting criminals who deal

in stolen metal. Hundreds of officers from Avon and Somerset

took part in the searches, clamping down on a crime described by police

as attractive to opportunist thieves and organised crime groups.

James Hassam reports. Lead roof tiles, copper cables, and

pipes. All found at this Somerset scrapyard, all hitting the public

in the pocket. It is costing the taxpayer an awful lot of money,

billions of pounds in it, as well as businesses and is affecting the

community at large. We have schools affected, houses affected with

coast -- with broadband dropping out, and last week the coastguard's

system dropped out. The price of scrap metal has risen sharply,

making it very valuable. Copper is attracting a higher value, which is

giving people the incentive to steal it. Police here found that

incentive is working. People are stealing copper wire and other

metals in huge quantities. It is easy to steal because the metal is

around in the community, so people are being able to take any metal

that is available and converted into cash. Police have arrested

more than 20 people so far for doing that, and seized 30 to 40

tonnes of stone and metal. Officers here say the level of metal theft

is lower than anywhere else in the country. By carrying out today's

visible raids, they hope that trend is set to continue.

Welcome to Monday's Points West. David and Alex with you this

evening with all your local news, sport and weather.

Coming up: When you break your back, you break your heart.

A woman trying to raise funds for a special garden for Spinal patients.

A Somerset woman says she will fight for compensation after her

dentist removed the wrong tooth. He then tried to put it back, even

though it had spent several hours in the surgery bin. Kim Green from

Wellington has now lost two teeth as a result of the mistake and is

having to be vaccinated against blood diseases like hepatitis.

Here's Jules Hyam. If you have had any problems with

your teeth, you know that dental pain can be utterly excruciating,

the kind of thing you want dealt with right away. That is what Kim

Green wanted when she came here to have an infected root canal dealt

with. She was not expecting that the newly qualified dentist, Justin

George, would remove the wrong to it. I phoned the dental surgery,

where I was advised that it is all right, come up, they can sort it

out, they have the tooth in the bin. At that point, it did not dawn on

me what she had said, just that she had the to it. The dentist then

reinserted the tooth that had been in the bin, but he did not remove

the tooth that was the original problem. It was pressing on the

infection, like having the worst toothache I could imagine, with

something sharp jabbing in it constantly, and it was just

unbearable. Kim Green then came here to Musgrove Park Hospital

where, the following day, both teeth were removed. They advised me

this should never have been done, and they explain to me the

implications of it being in the bin. Either it was in a normal been or

worse, clinical waste, which I have now found out it was in clinical

waste. The case has been referred to NHS Somerset, who told us Mr

George was subject to the Primary Care Trust's internal investigation

and performance review process. Their findings have been shared

with the General Dental Council and it will be up to them to decide

what action to take. Mr George was immediately suspended from carrying

out NHS work, and has been ever since. Mrs Green is now planning

legal action over her lost tooth and the sizable bill she will face

to replace it. Now, should the worst happen and

you find yourself in an ambulance heading for one of our Accident &

Emergency units, you would probably expect to be rushed straight in

when you get there. However, the reality is that you can be kept

waiting in the ambulance for some time before being transferred to

A&E. The Government target is a turn-around time of 15 minutes, but,

as our health correspondent Matthew Hill reports, there are huge

variations across the West, with some patients waiting much longer.

This patient has very serious injuries. Like all patients this

morning she was transferred from her ambulance into French a

hospital's emergency hospital department in 50 minutes. Another

man is having a stroke and was given treatment, a brain scan and

clot-busting drugs, within minutes of arrival. We have been here for

40 minutes, he has been for ACT scanner already and had DRS around

him constantly, the staff have been brilliant. Frenchay Hospital is

extremely busy as the major trauma unit in the region and at times it

struggles to admit patients from an immense is within the target of 15

minutes. Latest targets show 40% of patients waited longer than this.

Compare that with Great Western Hospital, 13%, and Bath's Royal

United, just 5%. If ambulances are tied up, fewer crews on the row.

is something we want to improve and we are working with the hospitals

to do that to get our crews out and available for further 999 pulls.

The hospitals are also struggling with the patients failing to be

admitted within 15 minutes, but the hospital stresses it is not all

about time. The key is, what are others doing that we can work --

that we can learn from? But I would underline that we are getting the

quality of care that we are giving, the outcomes for the patients are

improving and are second to none. But a technical solution may help.

All main hospitals in the West have installed ambulance arrival screens.

This green is showing we have two patients that are in the handover

process -- the screen is showing. They are in hospital beds and

starting treatment, waiting for the crews to kick the handover button

which will show the episode is finished. That has just gone right

behind you? That means the crews have not been able to press the

button, but they have not had the delay. It is hoped the system will

make a huge difference. A special train service taking day-

trippers from London to Stroud is being given a six-month trial. The

scheme was launched today at Westminster by Stroud's

Conservative MP, Neil Carmichael. He believes it could help the local

economy by giving local businesses new opportunities.

Drivers are being warned to expect disruption on a number of

Somerset's roads for the next six months. Work has started out on

sections of the A303 at West Horton, and nine miles of the A358 just off

junction 25 of the M5. The motorway is also undergoing repairs before

roadworks on the A30 begin. The outgoing chief executive of

Wiltshire Council has warned that axing his job could be a mistake.

It was proposed last week that Andrew Kerr and another senior

officer would be made redundant to help the authority save half a

million pounds a year. He told our political editor Paul Barltrop that

it came as a surprise after just 20 months in the job.

She asked me into her office at 9:30pm last Wednesday, and told me

the considerations they were making. Was it out of the book? It was.

shock? Yes, it was. I can understand the reasoning, but I

think there are other ways of saving money which would be better

in terms of organisation and the way it has been suggested.

His departure is expected to be confirmed by a meeting of senior

councillors in two weeks' time. And a reminder that the Politics

Show returns to BBC One on Sunday. Our guest this week is the former

head of the army. We look forward to that, it has

been too long! The father of the boy killed by a

polar bear in the Arctic circle last month is raising money to

create a garden at the hospital where he works.

David Chapple is a consultant spinal surgeon at Salisbury

District Hospital, which treats patients from across the West. His

son Horatio wanted to follow in his father's footsteps and become a

Geoff Holt is the first quadriplegic to sail solo around

Britain the 25 years ago this was his Diouf for 10 months. He was a

patient on the spinal unit after breaking his neck in a swimming

accident. I remember counting the dots on the polystyrene tiles above

my head. I remember staring at the ceiling, I knew different people

coming on the ward by the sound of their shoes and I yearned for

looking up and seeing blue sky. that is why the surgeon who runs

this unit wants to create a garden for his patients. It will be in

memory of his son, Horatio, who was killed by a polar bear last month.

We look for something to guide us forward and give us some strength,

and we feel this was definitely a way we could concentrate our

efforts on getting something good out of this tragedy. Horatio

Chapple wanted to study medicine and had come here to the spinal

unit to do work experience with his dad. More than �50,000 has been

donated in his memory, which will go towards creating this garden.

Annie Maw, from Somerset, was a patient nine years ago after

breaking her back in a horse-riding accident. She is helping to raise

money for the guard and. I say to people, when you break your back,

you break your heart -- money for the garden. You have lost yourself,

lost any chance of doing things in life that you hoped for. To get out

into the garden helped me enormously to assemble my thoughts

and feel better about life. unit is appealing for volunteers to

help with the gardening. It is hoped this space will form part of

the healing process for the patients on the spinal unit and the

surgeon who operates on them. Cricket, and Somerset captain

Marcus Trescothick remains a doubt for the CB40 final against Surrey

this weekend. He has been having treatment in an oxygen chamber to

try and speed up his recovery from an ankle injury. But he was not fit

to play in today's final Championship match against

Lancashire. Somerset's James Hildreth made a season's best 161

not out, as his side finished the first day on 314 for 5 at the

County Ground in Taunton. And in Division Two,

Gloucestershire could not capitalise on -- on a good start as

Northamptonshire finished the day on 316-9. Gloucestershire need to

win the game to stand a chance of being promoted to Division One.

Do you think they will do it? Only time will tell.

Nicely handled! A Wiltshire woman whose brother was

killed in Afghanistan is releasing a song dedicated to the town of

Wootton Bassett. Captain Mark Hale's body was repatriated through

the town in 2009. Now his sister, Tracey Rogers, is

recording a special single to say thank you to the people of Wootton

Bassett. Alice Bouverie reports. When the Union Jack was lowered in

Wootton Bassett last month, it marked the end of an extraordinary

chapter in the town's history. Over 150 times, people gathered for the

repatriations of those killed in action abroad. One of those was

Captain Mark Hale of 2 Rifles. His sister was among the crowd. Now she

wants to pay her own tribute. proud. I am quite emotional today.

She has brought together musicians, young singers and film-makers from

the local area to record their own single. It is a cover of Wake Me Up

When September Ends by the band Green Day. They have just started

rehearsing at Real World studios in Box, in Wiltshire. They want the

single to be released next month. It is a symbol that would inherit -

- Wootton Bassett's faith goes are. I think it is important that this

is a positive experience coming out of a quite difficult time for the

tower. This Sunday, they are making the music video. On the High Street

in Bassett, everyone is welcome. The adventurer and balloonist David

Hempleman-Adams has finished fourth in this year's Gordon Bennett gas

balloon race. The aim of the game is to fly the

furthest, but the event this time was very short. It lasted little

more than a day because the competitors had to fly over the

Alps, and were trying to out-run thunderstorms. John Maguire reports.

As the sun went down over the French Alps on Saturday evening,

the pilots prepared to go up. The balloons are treated with extreme

care, filled with the potentially explosive gas hydrogen. From the

off, they knew it would be a short race. Having to dump so many sand

bags to climb clear of the mountains reduces their options as

ultimately they need the weight to land safely. It was a fantastic

race. It was a difficult decisions for the organisers to allow us to

race, because we had bad weather coming in and we knew they were

going across the Alps, but it was a technically difficult race. They

were taking off from 2000 ft but had to climb immediately to 16,000

ft, which used to sets of the ballast. -- which she used two

thirds of the ballast. The race is won by the team that flies longest

and furthest. Hempleman-Adams and his co-pilot Simon Carey landed in

fourth place after being advised that thunderstorms were on their

way. Lightning and hydrogen can forge a fatal combination.

weatherman said they were about two hours away, so we decided to land

before it got too dark, and on landing, within 20 minutes, there

was a lot of thunder and lightning, so we were pleased to be on the

ground. But the French team took the risk, flew the furthest to win

and will host the event next year. But the Brits were more cautious.

We landed just two hours before the first thunderstorm came over. The

French, who won the race, got big luck because the thunderstorm

diminished just when they flew through. Last year's race was

marred when an American balloon got lost and its two pilots died, and

the difficult conditions meant this year many teams stayed away.

Hempleman-Adams, a previous winner, says he is disappointed with fourth

place but has vowed to compete again in the 2012 event. He is a

difficult man to keep down. Fourth sounds pretty good to me.

And speaking about adventure, here is the moment that comedienne David

Walliams ended his epic Thames swim, which began at the Gloucestershire

source last Monday. Since setting off from Lechlade, he

has completed 140 miles, the equivalent of some in the English

Channel about seven times. He has raised nearly �1 million for

Sport Relief, and burned more than 65,000 calories as well. And you

can still sponsor him, as well. Well done. With the "Thames tummy"

and everything. And he rescued a dog.

It would have be easier to take the motorway!

Before we go to the weather, strong winds battered parts of the country

today and closed three tourist attraction.

The National Trust show at this house in Somerset, an estate in

Wiltshire and a part in Bath. They took the decision because they

said visitors could be at risk from debris falling from the trees. We

were actually downgraded from the yellow warning and yet we still got

battered, didn't we? We did, it was nothing exceptional

for our district. You have to go back to the Burns Day Storm are

January 1992 C winds of a different nature in the West Country, 100

mile an hour gusts through the seven in that instance. Today, by

contrast, and not less than that, but it will be different in

Scotland later on today, gusts of The yellow warning was withdrawn

Friday into Saturday, not long after we had been on air, but

having said that we have had some trees down in Gloucestershire and

Wiltshire and elsewhere. A health warning now because I expect these

graphics to sail, courtesy of Bill Gates' Microsoft playing havoc! But

these waves which are a classic herringbone pattern were widespread

across the British Isles. Date literally where waves, where the

air is being turned into waves to form cloud in a distinct pattern.

We might see something similar tomorrow, but before that, we have

showers to deal with, particularly in the first half of the day, the

potential for some of them to be heavy and then drip. The graphics

not working as I was expecting! But what I was hoping to show you is

the chart of what will happen tonight and tomorrow, the winds

starting to feel a bit lighter. Bol Gatkouth -- the gusts of around 30

miles an hour eventually. This will move towards the east. Beyond that,

and I expect them to jam at this point, we are into an evening which

will be drier with bright and sunny spells tonight. Clear skies for the

first part of the light, the winds a feature but nothing like the

second half of last night. The first signs of that starting to

arrive tomorrow morning, showery outbreaks and light rain before

daybreak. Temperatures tonight, the air being turned over so readily,

12-13 Celsius will be typical. Tomorrow, that traps starts to

activate said the showers will turn heavier, crossing eastwards. A

flash or two of lining cannot be ruled out, and some hefty downpours

here and there -- a flash of lightning. Not dissimilar to this

afternoon in many respects. I think the cloud will dump -- will

completely go by the evening. Temperatures broadly similar to

those we saw today. The sea will be quite rough, not a day for beach

fishing in parts of North Somerset. The middle of the week will see

higher pressure on Thursday, the quietest day of the week, but low-

pressure growing on Friday and into the weekend. Back to square one,

but not as wing. Thank you very much, and for

sharing your angst with -- but not as windy on Friday.

When I started, the weatherman had a magnetic symbols. Those were the

days. An update on our main stories from