27/01/2014 BBC Points West

upheaval of August 1914. That is all from us,

Good evening. The environment minister has promised Somerset flood

victims that action will be taken within six weeks. Owen Paterson was

in the county today to make the announcement. But local people say

they're used to empty promises and they'll believe it when they see it.

In a moment we'll hear from one of those campaigning for a solution to

the problem. First, to get a picture of the extent of the damage, we have

been in a helicopter. When you get up here and look out

over the whole area and you see how much of it has been flooded, it

really is an astonishing sight. There's the island community and

when you see it from the air, you realise just how cut off it is, with

little boats having to take people backwards and forwards. We've seen

homes entirely cut off as well, island communities in their own

right. Thousands of acres of farmland utterly submerged ` how

long is it going to be before this land can be used productively again?

The flood water just goes on and on, mile after mile. You lose a sense of

perspective really about what is a river, what is a field, almost where

does the coast begin. It's a very strange sensation seeing this part

of this county from the air. Joining me now from Somerset is Briony

Saddler from a local campaign group. You have the nation's attention and

Government promises, are you happy tonight? Half`and`half. We are, as a

community, I think a little bit down that we didn't get to talk to him,

that he didn't ask our opinion, but that's a bit of an ongoing thing

that the locals haven't been asked and yet, it's us that are farming

the land and conserving it for future generations. It's good and

it's a bit sad too. Should you not wait for at least six weeks to find

out what exactly happens before you be that sad? We've been pushing this

for three weeks and we have worked so entirely hard, all of us

together, as a community, as land owners, all of us have worked so

hard to get to the point of where we've been today. It's great that it

isn't six months. I am grateful to him for knocking it to six weeks,

but, you know, then his decision after that, that could be another

six weeks and then the work has still got to take place. So all in

all, you know, we could be looking at summer again, if not longer. On

the ground, how long do you think communities can cope with this?

Well, you just have to take every day by every day. Some days the

water is up a little. Some days it goes back a little, which is what

happened this weekend. It's just a long`term, the long`term is things

like getting nature people involved and everybody's got to be involved.

Because this is for our future. This is for my children. I don't want to

move. It's for everybody. Thank you very much for joining us.

Now to other news. A three`year`old boy has died after being knocked

down in the street in Bristol. The accident happened in Bedminster and

involved a Land Rover, with a portable cabin being towed on a

trailer. The boy was take ton Bristol Children's Hospital but

doctors were unable to save him The driver of the car is helping police

with inquiries but is not under arrest.

Parliament has tonight debated whether to increase sentences for

drivers who are repeatedly convicted of dangerous driving. The debate,

led by Bristol MP, comes exactly a year after Ross and Clare Simons

died when a serial offender crashed into their tandem while they were

out cycling. A year ago today, Ross and Clare

Simons had just completed a course of IVF treatment, when Nicholas

Lovel smashed into them. Serial offender, Lovel, who had previously

been disqualified 11 times, was yet again driving without a license He

was found to have taken a cocktail of drugs, including cocaine. He was

jailed for ten`and`a`half years The longest sentence available to the

judge. We've actually been told he's going to be released in May 201 .

That's five years, five years for killing two innocent people. Ross'

father and mother are determined that repeat offenders like Lovel

should face stiffer sentences. Their campaign has attracted 13,000

signatures to a petition demanding new legislation. They now hope that

tonight's debate will put pressure on the Government to act. This was a

ticking timebomb, this man. The offence that's he caused, the number

of offences that he caused meant that it was inevitable, as he

predicted himself, that he was, one day, going to cause death by

dangerous driving. Lawyers say that any change in the law must make

clear the difference between prolific offenders like Lovel and

motorists caught newspaper a momentary lapse of concentration. I

think you need, in looking at these offences, to discriminate between

the two and legislation needs to be passed to make them entirely

separate types of offence. For the Simons, the birth of a second

grandson, Josh what, has given them one happy moment in an other`wise

grief`stricken year. A new report claims that Bristol

lost more jobs in the recession than anywhere in the UK between 2010 and

2012. The figures show London, Edinburgh and Birmingham came out

top, with over 250,000 jobs created, but in Bristol, nearly 14,000 jobs

were lost. Today local business leaders and even a Government

minister rejected the research, but the group behind the report stood by

its findings. Let's get the weather now.

Low pressure remains close at hand and circulating around us to the

south come these bands of showers. Much as today. It's a similar

pattern through tonight. We pick up exactly that same theme tomorrow.

There will be drier interludes. For many of you showers coming through

thick and fast at times. Some of them will be heavy. Tonight

temperatures drop to between two to four Celsius, for the most part By

tomorrow morning, already showers from the word go. We have a Met

Office yellow warning across southern districts where the

rainfall might have more impact perhaps up to 22 millimetres of rain

falling through the day. Less than an inch, but nonetheless bothersome.

Blustery beneath the showers. Temperatures six to eight Celsius.

That's it from us tonight. We're back with you in breakfast. For now,

from all of us, good night. It's going to get colder than it's

been all winter. Ahead of that, though, the showers keep going and

going through tonight and into tomorrow. Some of them heavy,

possibly thundery too. Here's the satellite. We can pick out the swirl

of cloud here. The bands of shower clouds that have been streaming into

the UK. All driven and wrapped around an area of low. That is the

driving force for the showers that we have at the moment. The centre

close to Northern Ireland, which is why it's been so wet earlier in the

evening. As the low drifts south, it takes more showers into England and

Wales. With fewer breaks in the cloud overnight, it won't be as cold

as last night. The ice risk restricted