25/03/2014 BBC Points West

all from us. On BBC Two, Newsnight last the full version of that

interview with Good evening. The West Country's

biggest car plant, Honda in Swindon, is cutting 500 job because of poor

sales. Huge parts of the factory are being mothballed following ` lack of

demand for Hondas in Europe. Here's Will Glennon.

They got the glossy showrools and the shiny cars. But there w`s no`one

with their nose pressed up `gainst the glass here at Honda tonhght And

that is a problem because at the factory here in Swindon thex could

make twice as many cars as they are actually going to sell in Etrope

this year. That means job losses on the production line. The workers

were told this morning. Thex were surprised, angry and disappointed.

As workers left their shift at Honda today, the mood was as grey as the

skies. It won't be long before 00 of them don't have jobs any more. I

have got a young family and I don't know what to do, really. Hard times

for us and the company. Just got to go with it and see what happens I

suppose. It is a sad loss again It is not the first time this has

happened. Basically, just w`nt to know what the people at the top are

doing. The announcement has come as a surprise to everyone involved

There is anger and disbelief. Based around the fact that we had only

just completed a redundancy programme last year and the

anticipation was that things were on the up and there would be

recruitment and growth this year. The reason for the cuts is simple.

Honda make too many cars and not enough people in Europe are buying

them. Last year, Honda made 140 000 cars here. This year, it is expected

to make 20,000 fewer. Althotgh the UK has shown signs of growth more

recently, a number of major economies around the world have

shown the opposite trend, or very weak growth. And that has ilpacted

in terms of the demand for vehicles. There are still 3,000 peopld

employed here and Honda inshsts it is confident about the long`term

future of the plant if and when Europe's economy starts to bloom

again. Earlier I spoke to Professor Andrew

Graves from Bath University who is an expert on the motor industry and

began by asking him whether Honda are right to blame this on the

European economy. Well, it hs not affecting everybody. It is `ffecting

French producers but a lot of other car companies are doing verx well,

particularly Toyota, built hn England. Also in this end, Jaguar

Land Rover. You have to havd the right product in the right part of

the market. They have focusdd on southern Europe a lot and that

really has collapsed. But there have been increased sales in even Spain

recently. To some extent, France. You have to have the right lodels

and the right strategy to bd selling into the right parts of the world.

If you are right, is Honda on the case? No, they are not. Thex have

been behind the ball. They dropped the jigsaw in the biggest possible

way. They have known about this for several years, and they are a

dynamic company in some parts of the world but they have not been big

enough `` quick enough bringing those new models to the country ``

to the market. Council`owned land at the Port of

Bristol could be sold off to raise money for the city. The Mayor hopes

the sale will bring in ?10 lillion, but critics of the idea say he's

selling off the family silvdr. Here's our political editor Paul

Barltrop. Up for sale for the second time The

docks at Portbury and Avonmouth were privatised 23 years ago. Now the

freehold to the land could follow, bringing the council ?10 million. I

think this is a win`win. Thdre will be complainants, but there `lways

will be. Oh, you are selling the family silver. But you have to

question if it is the familx silver on a piece of land which if it is

realised is quite likely to be under several metres of water if global

warming goes on the way it hs! This morning on Radio Bristol he came

face to face with one critic. Anthony Negus was part of a previous

council administration who rejected the idea. I'm all for regendration,

I'm all for increased jobs, I want the City Council to play a part in

that rather than just having a fire sale and taking the money ott for

pet projects and ignoring problems which we have in other parts of the

city. That is not the way to do things. The lease on this l`nd has

127 years to run. But the owners warn that may deter investors. In

business terms, it is fairlx short term. It does make a differdnce to

who is prepared to move herd. We have proved to the council over many

years we are not property developers, we don't put up houses.

We use every bit of land for port activities. Selling this bit of land

will not end the council's link to the port. `` selling of the

freehold. It will still ret`in a stake in the company, an investment

which brings the city more than ?1 million a year. The future of the

2,600 acre site will be deb`ted by Bristol's cabinet next week. But the

final decision will be the layor's. Bristol City Football Club have been

given the green light to st`rt work on redeveloping their Ashton Gate

stadium. The deadline for any objections has now expired, allowing

the club to begin the ?40 mhllion project at the end of the sdason.

It'll see two sides of the ground completely rebuilt and capacity

increased to 27,000. In football, it was a dramatic night

at Ashton Gate. Five goals saw City storm to victory over Port Vale in

League 1. Swindon also had ` good night, winning 2`1 away at Tranmere.

In the Championship, Yeovil Town went in as underdogs against leaders

Leicester City, coming away with a draw. In League 2, Bristol Rovers

lost 3`1 at Fleetwood, whild Cheltenham lost 2`0 at to

Scunthorpe. That's it from me. Newsnight is on

BBC Two now. There is on BBC Two now. There's an exclusive interview

with disgraced coal boss Patl Flowers. Now the West Country

weather. A fair amount of dry weather during

the course of the morning. Some showers feeding in from the east and

then the north. Tonight will be chilly and dry. For tomorrow, it

will be a dry start into thd rush hour. Some brighter spells `round as

well. From lunchtime onwards, showers arriving. Towards the east,

there will tend to be heavy in places. There are not many coming

out to the West until the evening. Some of you will hang on to some dry

weather. Here 10 degrees. The outlook, it stays

chilly and temperatures look like they will pick up towards the eight

-- weekend. In early spring, a bit of sunshine

makes the difference. Today we had some sunshine in the far east of the

UK and