06/02/2012 BBC Points West

Good evening and welcome to Monday's Points West. In our

headlines tonight: Teetering on the edge - the cement

lorry that crashed through two sets of barriers, narrowly avoiding the

drop. Why a Christian group in Bath is

forced to remove the claim that "God heals" from its advertising.

Plus - it's all about the money. The new currency for Bristol

that'll keep the cash local. And I am in Bath at a new

exhibition telling the journey from these baggy beige this to the high-

tech swimsuit. -- baggy beige in suits.

First, a rush hour drama unfolded in Bristol this morning as a lorry

was left hanging over the edge of the River Avon 50ft below. No one

was injured in the crash in Bedminster but a car driver told

Points West for the cement mixer only narrowly avoided hitting

pedestrians before smashing into safety railings.

As far as lucky escapes go, this was a big one. The cement mixer was

coming off a roundabout when it hit the back of a car, mounted the kerb

on the opposite side of the road, crashed through one set of railings

and was smashed by a second -- stopped by a second. As the lorry

was carefully moved to safety, it became even clearer how disaster

had been only inches away. You can see on hear just how close

the cement mixer came to going over the edge. The bottom of the rains

have been sheered off altogether. It was empty at the time but have

the police -- but the police said had it been full, it could have

taken it into the river. It unfolded at 9:15am. According to

the car driver, the cement mixer only just missed a mother and child

walking along the pavement, as well as another man. It has been very

fortunate. It could have been a lot worse. It came very close to going

over the edge and dropping down to the water's edge. Fortunately, the

barrier stopped it. It took over two of hours to recover the lorry.

The police want to speak to anyone who saw what happened. This is just

the start of what could be an important investigation.

In other news, a Wiltshire-based Chris Huhne group banned from

claiming back praying for people can heal them. -- Christian group.

The organisation Healing On The Streets was told adverts on its

website and in leaflets were misleading. A woman from Bradford

complain to the Advertising Standards Authority after she was

given a leaflet claiming God could heal outside Bath Abbey. We are

bringing Jesus to the streets of Bath. This is Paul Belton,

promoting healing on the streets. - - Paul Skelton promoting Healing On

The Streets. But not everyone agrees with the group. One local

woman felt so strongly about what the group was saying that she

complained to the Advertising Standards Authority. 24-year-old

Hayley Stevens, who suffered a life-threatening condition when

younger, thought that claims that the group could make ill people

better were it not responsible for substantiated. Someone who is very

vulnerable and did not know they would have been able to have

surgery and get better could buy into something which could lead to

a dangerous outcome for them. I am aware that these claims can provide

false hope. The Advertising Standards Authority upheld Keighley

Stevens' complains and told Healing On The Streets not to advertise on

the streets. It also told the Greek to change the wording on their

leaflet from God can heal today to we believe God can heal today. But

the group says they will not be put off. I do not think you can stop

people praying for people because of his ruling. It is clear that God

can heal. Are they claiming that you cannot promote the Bible?

subject of whether prayer and healing actually work is of course

a difficult and for many a very personal question. A lobster DIS of

patients undergoing Haas surgery in the United States said four years

ago -- a large study of patients undergoing surgery in the United

States found that those who were not prayed for work just as likely

to come through the surgery. Dr Rafa and Sarah Hartley is a priest

at refrained abbey but also a GP. - - reverends. I have seen what a

powerful affect the mind can have on the body. I can see how people

may think that healing is due just to this action. But If also seen,

as a Christian, people so I have witnessed he link in response to

prayer. So it comes down to a matter of belief. Healing On The

Streets, though, say they will appeal against the decision and

continue they were. -- continue their work.

Is there anything wrong with advertises something which is based

on religious belief rather than We will share as many of your views

as began before the end of the A Gloucestershire charities morning

more people will become homeless under Government plans to cap the

amount of housing benefit. The numbers applying for housing in the

County crew last year as the recession bit. It's a challenged

the stereotypical view of those who face losing the roof over their

head. The traditional view of

homelessness, rough sleeping in doorways and subways, begging to

make ends meet. But being homeless does not just mean sleeping on the

streets. If your business collapses, you lose your job or have a

breakdown in a relationship, you can find yourself without a roof

over your head and it does seem to be a growing problem. In

Gloucestershire alone last year, councils dealt with nearly 1000

applications from people looking for housing. The figure has gone up

by half in a year. Bob has just moved into social housing in

Cirencester. He lost everything when his �1 million IT business

collapsed. Losing his home nearly lost him his life. You are

humiliated, degraded. I was suicidal for months. They did not

seem much alternative to anything. But you get through it and funnily

enough, I quite enjoy it this. There is a huge demand for housing

here and the brain is put firmly at the feet of the economy.

recession has had an effect on this, which has had an impact in turn on

people's relationships. They have lost their tenancies, domestic

abuse increases, young people are turned out from homes, all sorts of

things, but the recession is the key driver. Natasha and now lives

in the YMCA in Cheltenham. With no job, her options are limited. A few

months ago she faced living on the streets. It hit me like a brick. It

was hard to start off with and I wondered what I would do. I do not

have any family here. I was just really confused. But this homeless

charity is predicting a grim future. With caps on housing benefit in the

pipeline, Nightstop says many people will not be able to afford

their rent. We will need to find somewhere where we can put these

people to give them a good standard of accommodation so date are warm

and not cold or damp, and make them feel secure. The Government says it

is investing �400 million to tackle homelessness, but that may Penegoes

so far to satisfy demand. It shows no sign of debating -- abating.

BBC Radio Gloucestershire is spending this week looking at the

issues around housing and homelessness. Tomorrow on the mid-

morning show they will be hearing more from Bob Forbes he used all in

the report there and Harold losing his home affected him.

-- he used all in the report and how losing his home affected him.

Coming up tonight: The cover up that did not work. Frustration at

Swindon Town after their match was called off despite all the hot air.

And covering up in style. The exhibition in Bath that celebrates

the coolest sport where in town. All that still to come. First, a

Somerset charity is suggesting that domestic abuse should appear as a

topic on the school curriculum. The charity SEEDS argues that children

even at primary level should be taught the values of mutual respect.

The idea is borne out of a survey carried out by the group which

questioned more than 100 victims of abuse. It revealed a wide --

revealed the way victims were treated by authorities.

The idea was to give victims a pause, to hear their experiences

and learn from them. The survey was carried out by the North Somerset

domestic abuse charity SEEDS. It interviewed 12 -- 112 victims over

Many spoke of a lack of understanding for their plight and

inconsistencies of how they were dealt with by a disease from the

police to social services. Today the findings were unveiled at

a conference in Weston-super-Mare. Social workers, educationalists,

the police, getting a chance to hear from victims like Clare. She

was abused by her partner for two years. There was a lot of

inconsistencies. Some services were a brilliant, others were really

poor. You just want everyone to do a good job and make lives for

survivors easier. Today's conference at the Winter Gardens

heard causes for improved training for all involved in abuse and

prevent Steve education, even for primary children, in due to sink

the subject into the curriculum. Are they not just too young? It can

work and it does. We have trialled at two senior schools over the last

couple of years. A band in to be an excellent resource, really useful.

-- they found it to be. It identified some children that

needed help there and then and it improved behaviour as a whole

across the school. Today's conference did support the idea of

getting the message into schools. Yet turning support into action

will be another matter. The trial has begun of a couple

accused of battering a man to death in Bristol. The body of 47-year-old

Timothy Crooke was discovered in a flat in Fishponds. He had been

living in a hostel for the homeless. The June head that 33-year-old

Thomas Tibbatts and 23-year-old Zarah Bryant were both alcoholics

when they carried out what was described as a prolonged and

vicious assault. They both deny murder.

There are more overnight closures should go before the end for this

evening. Both carriageways will be shut between junction 18 for Bath

and junction 19 for the M32 from 8pm until 6am tomorrow morning. It

is part of the �88 million redevelopment of the Almondsbury

interchange. The overnight closures are expected to last six nights.

The euro is in trouble, the world's financial markets are in turmoil.

Is it time we just forget the rest of the world and print Aaron money?

Now it is happening. Today they launched by the Bristol pack. Local

traders will accept the notes or you can shop online and Bristolians

are being asked to suggest whose face should be on the new cash.

Hi there. How are you? We are here to talk about the Bristol pounds.

In Bristol's local market, they were pitching a local currency.

There will be one, five, 10 and �20 notes. If you join the scheme, you

will be charging the same for Bristol pounds as you would if it

was in normal pounds. These traders may some local produce but this man

once more. He wants them to join a new financial system where local is

locked in. It is there to drive more business to people like you.

These are the designs for the new notes. One Bristol pound. There is

a cockerel here. That is a security bonded hologram. When it is printed

it will be forged proof. But what goes here? That is down to the

people of Bristol. And a briefing kit is really important for

Bristol's own currency -- we think it is important for Bristol's own

currency to reflect the people living here. People are welcomed to

submit people for their designs but it is not restricted to people

alone. Will it be him? Or her? Maybe then? Baps a big bunch of

Bristol balloons? The Bristol Evening Post is running a

competition. You have got five weeks to choose some designs. What

is the idea? How does Bristol having its own money held these

traders? If I'd spent a Bristol pound a tenner at the market rather

than a normal tenor and back 10 it will be spent again with a Bristol

person, an independent person living and working in this region,

that helps to the money going round and round the businesses in the

local area. Normally it goes through a big company, through

their financial system and into London. So you are not going to

boost spending in Bristol. You are just taking it from one sector or

one part of the retail economy or the service economy, and putting it

to another part that is more locally-based?

Can this money changed the way the world goes round? Do find out, I

followed a Bristol Tanner. From a bakery to a laptop repairman, to a

ferry boat, even to the council. Hello, I have come to pay you my

taxes in Bristol pounds. Catch the whole story tonight at 7:30pm on

Inside Out on BBC One. Now sport and Swindon Town are

looking for a refund after the covers and heaters they hired fails

to keep Saturday's game on. The club spent �20,000 but say the

equipment arrived too late and some of it did not work. They are

confident tomorrow's important Johnstone's Paint Trophy area final

will be on. Just here it was called off. Today the milder temperatures

have helped the ground start to get rid of the cost, the job the hot

air blowers were meant to do on Friday night, but the heating

equipment did not arrive until 7pm and even then, several of the hot

air blowers failed to work. The club won their money back. I am

writing a long epistle to the company concerned, outlining all of

the events that went on or did not go on, in the hope that they will

arrive with a sensible compromise and allowed us to recover quite a

lot of the investment. tomorrow's Johnson's baits don't

Trophy tie against Barnet he is not under threat. Good news for the

fans who have already bought tickets, hoping to see their side

book a place at Wembley. People think it is a small trophy but to

Swindon Town it is a big thing. It brings money into the club. It will

not be as easy as some people think that we will get through. Swindon

are favourites and the manager has urged his players to seize their

chance. You have a real chance, so today relax, rest and tomorrow

arrive here liked you want to get someone who stole something from

you. You have to defend your house from a nasty dock. There is plenty

at stake for Cheltenham as well. Surprise League 2 leaders, they

have their chance to show that is no fluke against promotion

favourites, Crawley. Rugby and Gloucester have confirmed

that flanker Alasdair Strokosch will leave the club at the end of

the season. The 28-year-old Scotland international, currently

on Six Nations duty, were joint French side Perpignan. He arrived

at King's home from Edinburgh in 2007 and has made over 100

appearances for the club. For all those Team GB athletes

preparing their bodies for the Olympics, probably the last thing

on their Bines is what we are there for the opening ceremony? So it is

looking them that they have topped British designer Stella McCartney

on the case, and tonight in Bath, they are celebrating all things

lycra, with a special exhibition dedicated to sport fashion.

Yes, sport and fashion. Not the most obvious relationship. This

exhibition shows just how close the two are. This goal creation here,

this is one of Stella McCartney's early attempts as she partners

Adidas to bring us the Team GB kit for this summer's Olympics. If I'd

just take a step around here, you might recognise this outfit being

Amy Williams' gold-medal winning one when she was out in Vancouver

in 2010. Another of our west Olympians is the person opening

this exhibition, Heather Fell. No tracksuits for you tonight!

Definitely not. It is a great opportunity to get to wear

something glamourous. And you got the silver in 2008 in the modern

pentathlon. Five different sports, five different outfits. Yes. We can

see pretty much all of them modelled here. I do not really look

quite as cameras as the fencing a woman in there but she is actually

wearing my kit. Yes, you have leant back to the exhibition. Yes. There

are all sorts of sports around here. Just behind me, I got to do a

photo-shoot with Stella McCartney and I modelled that jacket in a

water-based environment, which was quite an interesting photoshoot.

for you, fashion and sport are pretty close? Yes, and with 2012, a

lot of the designers are jumping on this opportunity for great

publicity and a great chance to work with sport. As an athlete, it

is really exciting and great fun. And a bit of time off from that

all-important training to equip try to get back gold from London.

I have just come back from the French Pyrenees where we did not

see a sigh of fashion! So to get the evening off and to get to where

the Stella McCartney dress and some jewellery is fun. If you want to

take more of an in-depth look at this wonderful exhibition, we have

any giving you a sneak peek, but it is are all through the Olympic year

of 2012, so there is absolutely no excuse for you not to come and take

a look. Thank you. It was a bit more

glamourous than I thought. Back to our story about the row in Bath

over a Christian group forced to remove a claim from its advertising

at BAA heels. We asked what you think. Laura Jones has been looking

at some of your responses. -- That Got heels.

David said, drugs require trials. The same thing should apply to

religious healers. Another viewer says, praying may be good that as a

cure that is ignorant and dangerous. Colin is more sympathetic, if they

are banned from claiming back on heels, it is a slippery slope which

will lead to the end of religious region -- freedom. Allen says, the

major issue is they may actually cause harm to someone who turns to

their superstition instead of medicine. It is irresponsible and

bordering on criminal. Kate said, it is bureaucracy gone mad but they

have done well to get God in the news.

Sonae people have got in touch. It is a shame we do not have time to

read all of them. -- so many people. There is a debate in the

archaeological world tonight over the history of a wrought iron

object found in a Gloucestershire garden in 2008. It is on display at

the Stratford Park Museum in Stroud. Initially it was thought to be a

biking axe, dating back to 894 A D, but after much discussion, experts

now believe it is a wood working tool dating from the 18th century

or 19th century. This is the artefact. But it was

actually found here in the back garden of this house in Slimbridge.

A great find, which sat on his porch for two years before it was

noticed by visiting archaeologists. He said that for 100 years, they

have been looking for the site of where the Vikings could have landed,

so here we have an axe head and a suitable site where the Vikings

could have landed. We have always known that Vikings were here. There

was a great rate 1,100 years ago at the River Severn. But so far,

archaeological evidence for this has been very feeble. Now we have a

fighting battle axe. It got everyone excited. It was taken to

the local museum where staff got quite excited about what they saw.

It is quite thin. It has corrosion on both sides but it is very heavy,

so there is still a lot of metal in net. If we turn it around, you can

see that the wooden shaft fitted into a socket here but of the

socket has broken away and that maybe habit got dropped or lost. We

are not experts on the period and so we have simply relied on the

suggested identification that was made to the finder. So is it a

Viking axe? No, I'm afraid it is an eighteenth-century agricultural

implement. Ideas about biking battles, I am afraid they are all

imagination. The description has now been changed at the museum. But

I am sure there will be further discussions at a meeting being held

at Slimbridge village hall on 21st February.

I loved the description there. Is it a Viking axe? Now. Pretty simple.

Let's have a look at what the weather has in store. We have snow

at the weekend, we have had ice The Love Parade prospects into

February are starting to look just that bit wild. -- the long-term

prospects. It may be we are out of No repeat of that tomorrow. We are

more likely to see something akin So largely a cloudy story. Mostly

dry. One or two receptions in the South East. If we look through the

week, it is a pattern which starts to pick up again, the easterly,

cold, dry air, and as we get through the later part of tomorrow

and into the rest of the week temperatures will drop away. We are

not expecting anything specifically in the way of much rain or snow. We

have had some rain today, showery outbreaks, some in Bristol to stop

late but they are tailing away to the south. That cluster a pretty

East Anglia will bring some snow and that will move towards us in

the Cotswolds tomorrow. But for the rest of tonight, fog forming a

Brett Lee. There is already a fair amount of VAT across parts of the

Cotswolds, for example. Light wind remaining dry through the cause of

Tomorrow will start grey and uninspiring. The fog will be around.

In the North East, the hint of some light flurries of snow. It could

just extend to the Cotswolds, but not in a meaningful sense.

Elsewhere, it is dry. The wind is light. The sky is clearing. It will

be much colder tomorrow night. Once again, thank you so much for

getting involved with our debate a bit earlier on. We have had so many