06/02/2013 BBC Points West

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

Arrests at a care home. Two members of staff at The Granary in Somerset

are questioned about alleged assault and neglect.

A new bust up for the police commissioner - this time she's

challenged over the budget. The contamination of hundreds of

birds. Scientists have identified the substance responsible.

And excitement for Bristol Rovers fans as they snatch a draw against

Good evening. Two care home staff workers have been arrested on

suspicion of assaulting and neglecting an elderly resident.

The arrests follow an alleged incident at The Granary at Wraxall

in North Somerset. It's understood family members who

were concerned about the level of care at the dementia centre

installed secret cameras in the room. Sabet Choudhury reports.

The complaint relates to a resident at this care centre which has led

to the two arrests. Allegations came to light after concerned

relatives used a secret camera in the room. The post, which broke the

story, say the family were shocked when viewing the recordings.

The inspectors from the Care Quality Commission made an

assessment this year and the result will be published later this month.

Last year they made an unannounced visit following concerns that were

raised and that found that improvements need to be made in the

standard of care, treatment and support for patients and the

standard of caring for people safely and protecting them from

harm. Not only from staff, but also from each other.

The CQC has the power to close a facility if it feels it is

underperforming. The Granary did not warrant that action, but was

still being monitored. The owners The company are now helping the CQC

it together with the local council as well as police to investigate

the allegations. The new police commissioner for

Avon and Somerset Sue Mountstevens has had her authority challenged

again today - this time over the police budget. Some members of the

crime panel tried to veto her plans to freeze the council tax this year

even though it was an election promise. It's another bruising

experience for Sue Mountstevens. On her first meeting with the Chief

Constable, Colin Port, he quit. He took her to court claiming he had

been forced out, but lost. Now she's been forced to re-consider

cuts to the police budget, but is sticking to her promise not to

increase charges to council tax payers. Our Home Affairs

Correspondent Steve Brodie reports. What was expected to be simple

formality was suddenly turned on its head and members of the Avon &

Somerset crime panel failed by just one vote to veto the commissioner's

first police budget. They are real concerns for known cuts coming in

and a small increase now would help to bridge that gap without

threatening front line services. Although the attempt to veto the

budget failed, members asked the commissioner to reconsider her

position. But I understand Sue Mountstevens will stick to her

election pledge and freeze the police part of the council tax.

All of our police forces are faced with a cut in the money they

receive from the Government. So what will that mean for our forces

here in the West? For Avon and Somerset, they are down �2 million.

In Gloucestershire, it is down �1 million.

But, crucially, here the amount of money on your council tax bill that

goes directly to the police will go up. Up by 2%. That's the equivalent

of about �4 on a Band D property. In Dorset, the budget is down �3

million and in Wiltshire it is also down around �3 million.

Gloucestershire's new chief constable visits Coleford police

station in the Forest of Dean for the first time. She's taking over

at a difficult time. Former chief constable, Tony Melville, resigned

last year in protest over the Government led cuts claiming the

force was at breaking point. don't agree and I continue to say

to people, yes we will have constraints in the future. We have

demonstrated we can make savings and we will continue to need to do

that. But we need to concentrate on the resources we have got because

we have over �100 million in terms of a budget and that is a lot of

resource and a lot of people. The force hasn't recruited a police

officer for five years and has only just started recruiting again. One

solution could be to use special constables in an entirely different

way. Having somebody who it is a forester that is recruited from

here locally and works delivering things that the communities want

and need in the forest, I think is as important, if not more important

than potentially sitting in a van in Gloucester or Cheltenham.

At today's police and crime panel meeting in Gloucester, commissioner

Martin Surl's budget was approved and Wiltshire commissioner, Angus

Macpherson had a similar success at his panel meeting.

An inquest into the deaths of a father and his three children from

Gloucestershire will be held over three days in April. The bodies of

Ceri Fuller, his son Samuel and daughters Charlotte and Rebecca

were found in a disused quarry near Shrewsbury. A post mortem

examination revealed Mr Fuller died "from multiple injuries consistent

with falling from a height". His son and daughters all died from

stab wounds. The driver of a tour bus, which

crashed off a viaduct on the outskirts of Bath, is to face

criminal charges. Norman Markus, who's from Germany, faces nine

charges - including that of dangerous driving. Three members of

the American band Baroness were seriously injured in the accident,

which happened at Brassknocker Hill near Limpley Stoke last August.

West Country scientists have managed to identify the mystery

substance that's affected hundreds of seabirds along the south coast.

Around 300 birds, mostly guillemots, are being treated at the RSPCA

centre at West Hatch near Taunton. They say identifying the pollutant

is a key development. Our Somerset Correspondent Clinton Rogers has

the latest. The frailest birds are being tube

fed. Day by day the 300 casualties here are building their strength

and staff are hopeful most will be released back into the wild

eventually. But there's a long way to go yet.

For now, the cleaning goes on. Because this centre is used to

cleaning black crude oil from sea birds, they've had to bring in new

techniques for removing this sticky substance even using lard. Finding

out now exactly what it is will help long term. We are going to

look back and analyse this event and how we dealt with the birds and

it will be crucial to know what it is week when dealing with in

reference to that later on. In long term it is very important, short

term we will carry on with the way we are doing it.

The BBC has been involved in identifying the oil - taking one of

the West Hatch casualties to marine scientist at Plymouth University.

Today they said they were pretty sure it was something called

polyisobutene - in simple terms an additive used to enhance the

performance of lubricating oils. And it's hoped coming up with a

name might help someone to come up with a culprit. The biggest

manufacturer is in Germany and it is probably transported from there

around the world. I guess that is the remit of the Maritime

Coastguard Agency. They will know what vessels are carrying an can

make use the data in that way. But the feeling is that whoever was

responsible for this may never be caught.

This is Wednesday's Points West with Alex and David. Coming up a

little later in the programme: How one small business in Frome

managed to raise funds even when the banks had turned him down.

And we meet the life-saving dogs as they're put through their paces at

a special training day in North Campaigners fighting plans for a

half a billion pound waste incinerator in Gloucestershire

claim the plans break EU law. GlosVain raised �7,000 to

commission an independent report which they admit could have gone

against them. The County council says the authors of the report

didn't contact them for information and they've got several facts wrong.

Here's our Gloucestershire reporter, Steve Knibbs.

This huge project on the outskirts of Gloucester is the council's

dream answer to dealing with the rubbish that would normally go in

the ground. Today, those against it turned up the gas with a damning

report claiming legislation has changed so much, the project is now

outdated. Although this is very detailed, one of the main concerns

is to do with the waste hierarchy. The measure of how high councils

should aim when it comes to dealing with waste. This reports say the

plans for the incinerator is right at the bottom. Its campaign is

saying it means a landfill and that breaks regulations. GlosVain

revealed today that they're also launching a complaint to the EU and

the council now needs to take stock. They need to stop pursuing

something that will bind us up for 30 years in a solution that is

expensive and wrong for the environment and illegal. They need

to look at the other solutions available that would be cheaper and

better. I showed a copy of the report to

the man in charge of our rubbish. He was disappointed that the

authors hadn't spoken to his team because he says it's factually

wrong and fundamentally flawed. they come to talk to us, they would

have found out that the plant does not break the waste hierarchy. It

has what is called and all one status. It qualifies for that. It

is therefore a recovery plant, rather than an incinerator.

The campaigners stand by their findings in what they say was from

a fiercely independent report. They'll now be watching closely as,

with half a billion pounds at stake, the council soon makes the biggest

The Brandon Trust helps those with learning disabilities to travel

independently but once more support for its work. In a moment we will

speak to the trust, but first we can follow Daniels journey. His

main problem was trying not to fall asleep on the bus.

I go to town, I might go shopping. It is a little bit scary at night.

You go out and meet people. It is really good at the moment. It is

really good working with Jill. We get on like a house on fire. Good

firm, very good firm. And nice easy person to get on with and someone

who is interested in having a go at this. Sometimes I fall asleep.

Sometimes I sleep all the way up to a jamboree. I sometimes wake up and

think, and my home yet? And then I realise I'm not. So I got off the

bus and walked over the road and bottom of the bus to get home.

have to pay attention to way you are going. Yes. Look for landmarks

and see where you are. The feedback, especially from your

mum, has been brilliant. She is so happy that Dan is able to do this

and go places and have a social life. Certainly whenever I have

seen your mum, she has been very appreciative and praised what dam

has managed to achieve with the input from this project. It is all

good. Very interesting. Joining us from Westminster is Steve date from

the Brandon Trust. Thank you for joining us. It was a well attended

meeting today. How did it go from your point of view?

We had well over 20 MPs. We had a transport providers, George

Ferguson himself from Bristol. The Lord Mayor, it was people really

getting engaged in the subject. What do you want, what were you

putting forward to these people who were there to listen to your views?

We were putting forward a series of issues. Issues about basically the

cost of public transport, the availability on routes. There are

issues about concessionary bus passes, they don't kick in until

9:30am. If you are trying to get to college or even into employment, a

bus pass does not kick in until mind 30 am so it is useless. There

were a number of issues, issues about people with learning

disabilities and how they are treated. We are asking for

Parliament, the Transport Select Committee, to get involved. We are

asking transport providers to get involved and we want the general

public to pick up on these issues and support people with learning

disabilities. What kind of feedback did you get?

The movers and shakers were there, are they going to make any

decisions in your favour? People were certainly talking.

There was a lot of talk. George Ferguson was committing himself to

bringing the disability agenda into play in his own transport policy. I

was talking to various MPs today he were really impressed that people

with learning disabilities themselves were speaking out at

this meeting. This wasn't just a sort of reception for the good and

the great, people with learning disabilities were out there

themselves representing themselves. It is not very often that that

happens. Clearly you got a good reception, so now we need to see if

it will turn into action. Increasing numbers of businesses in

the West are turning to alternative ways of raising money as it becomes

more difficult to get bank loans. They're using a scheme called crowd

funding in which they ask complete strangers to invest their cash, in

return for perks from the company. Laura Jones has been to Frome to

meet one firm which has taken up the idea.

Never mind getting on your bike, here in Frome they are learning how

to make them. This is the town's new bicycle Academy and today,

student Lewis is in the hot seat. am from Australia and there is no

place you can do this there. Very keen to take advantage. The man

behind it all is Andrew Dunham. He always wanted to learn how to make

bikes but couldn't find anywhere suitable to do it so he set up on

his own. We have wonderful feedback. Because of the way we teach, it is

not a one-time thing. We never do anything for them. We make a point

of teaching them how and why and they leave with great skills.

bicycle Academy doesn't make bicycles to sell. It is about

teaching people to make them in the first place. It is an unusual idea,

but that is not the only interesting thing. Normally when

you have an idea for a business you go to the bank for funding, but

that is not what happened here. Instead it was financed by a crowd

funding which is becoming more and more popular. When ordinary people

put in their own cash. In return, they get anything from a company T-

shirt to a place on a course, depending on the size of their

contribution. In total, 183 people contributed

�40,000, enough to cover start-up costs.

I thought it was an intriguing idea. Frome has a rich manufacturing

history so it was exciting that someone as young as Andrew wanted

to open a new enterprise. I decided to put money into this because it

was a scheme in my hometown. I have a little girl who I think, I would

love her to be able to learn how to make a bike one day.

The frames made by students are donated to charity and will end up

being shipped to communities in Africa where they will make a huge

difference to people's lives. According to Andrew, it is a win-

win situation and his many backers agree.

One of the West leading businessman has offered to help sort out the

council's budget. Peter Hargreaves told me on BBC Radio Bristol today

that he could balance the books in a morning's work. The Bristol mayor

has to find �35 million in spending cuts. His office says he would be

happy to meet Mr Hargreaves. Four months, 20 days and counting

until the start of this year's Glastonbury Festival and organiser

Michael Eavis has plans well underway. He's investing almost a

quarter of a million pounds in a thousand British made tents.

They're being manufactured at a factory in Bradford and won't

contain external guy ropes so people can return to their tents

without the danger of tripping over them. Mr Eavis is hoping people

will hire the tents instead of buying cheap ones, which are often

left behind after the festival. would actually like to see in 10 to

15 years' time, the situation where every single tent is provided by an

and we can make sure that we can clean them and keep them and store

them for the following year. The tent means festival goers can

travel to and from the five day event with nothing but their bags.

It won't be long until Glastonbury. Now, some fascinating pictures

coming up. Dogs from the fire and rescue

service have been searching for survivors and training on zip wires.

These special rescue dogs came from all across the country to train

today in the grounds of a derelict hospital near Bristol. Tracey

Miller went to see these enthusiastic rescuers.

This is Spencer from Tyne and Wear. This is Bremner from Avon and

Somerset. This is Kirby from Essex. All highly trained dogs for the

fire and rescue service. They began their journey at just 12 weeks old,

even learning to abseil on a zip wire. Kirby here had just finished

his initial training and was called to a gas explosion. There was a

guide buried under the rubble and it took under a minute to locate

him and we got him out. Searching for report is crucial. Brain and

his handler have already spent a week in Japan after the tsunami

searching. It is the speed he does it. It is not what he can do and

what equipment we have, it is the speed he can do it. He is a laid-

back target, but 1 Very focused and only trained to

search for the living. Spencer is released and takes only minutes to

find a survivor. His reward, a toy and of course lots of praise. Isn't

that amazing. A toy and a lot of praise, isn't that all we need?

Now despite the uncertainty surrounding manager Paolo Di Canio,

Swindon extended their unbeaten run to ten games with another win last

night. And in last night's West Country

derby, a contender for goal of the season earned Bristol Rovers a

point at Cheltenham. Here's Alistair Durden.

Two teams at opposite ends of the table, but both in good form.

Promotion chasing Cheltenham were looking to strengthen their hold on

an automatic promotion place and all was going to plan when Shaun

Harrad put them infront. But Bristol Rovers are no pushovers

anymore. Into the fifth minute of stoppage time, Oli Norburn fancied

The clock was ticking and I thought if I made another passer-by referee

might blow the whistle so I thought I will hit this one and it ended up

where it ended up. We didn't deserve to lose the game. For us to

get a point is a great result, but in the way we did, I will have to

keep taking heart tablets. I feel for the boys and the supporters.

I'm pretty devastated. All eyes were on Paolo Di Canio at

Colchester - the manager still mulling over his long-term future

at Swindon. He was down to a squad of 15 fit players for this one, but

it was still enough. A goal from James Collins won the match and

took Swindon up to third in the table. Typically flamboyant

celebrations from Di Canio on the final whistle. He's waiting for the

takeover of the club to be completed before deciding on his

That is the kind of praise you want. Yes, a big thump in the chest. What

would he do when they lose? David has our forecast this evening.

David has our forecast this evening. Good evening. We have bright and

dry weather to look forward to. It will be cold though and as the wind

continues, it temperatures will drop fast. By the morning, we will

see temperatures at or below freezing. It will cloud over

through the afternoon and into the evening. A risk of patchy rain or

sleep. There is a fair amount of dry weather and told them. This

ridge of high pressure extending across western Britain overnight.

It will gradually weaken as this weather front comes in. That will

bump into cold air and become slow- moving by Friday. There is a

possibility on Friday of the cloud thick enough to give us a few

flurries in the wind. Tonight is largely fine, dry and clear. Any

showers we have now or will fade away and there will be a good deal

of clear sky. The wind will continue to drop. Tonight forecast

is one of frost and clear skies. The wind steadily dropping and

morning temperatures starting at around zero or minus one degrees.

So a cold start. Through the day tomorrow it will gradually cloud

over. We will hold on to some sunshine, but it will gradually

cloud over from the West. By the end of the afternoon there will be

a few light showers of rain, perhaps over the Forest of Dean and

over the Mendips. Not a warm day despite light wind. 5 or 6 degrees

the maximum temperature. Into the weekend there is a real mixture to

look forward to. Cloudy on Friday with a few flowers possible.

Saturday will be dry, but wet weather on Sunday. That gives us a

weather on Sunday. That gives us a risk of snow.

Our thanks to David. It has been called today. Will winter ever end?

I don't know, I keep thinking spring has come and it hasn't.

The last part of Africa at the series is on tonight at 9pm on BBC