09/07/2014 BBC Points West

The headlines: Everybody out, thousands of public sector workers

prepare for tomorrow's day of action. The cyclist who fell into

the Bristol docks. White officials decided not to put up safety

railings. And going where humans fear to tread, the West Country

drawn inside a Japanese nuclear disaster zone. Good evening. A lorry

has burst into flames on one of Bristol's busiest roads just as the

city was gearing up for rush`hour. Eyewitnesses say they heard three

big explosions. There are no reports of any casualties. Andrew Plant is

at the scene. Some of the recovery trucks, they have got a bigger

scripting stuff off the road. You can see what a massive job they have

got ahead of them. The lorry has melted itself into this road. It is

one of the busiest arteries in and out of the city. At this time of the

issued be completely busy but the police have spent the last few hours

clearing cars often either way of what you can see is that some of the

roads either side are still blocked with cards. Problems for people

getting in and getting home from Bristol. The driver spoke to us

earlier, he said he had seen the fire in his rear`view mirror. He

tried to tackle it with a fire extinguisher but realised it was too

big and too quick. His car go probably added to the problem

because he was carrying candles and wood covered in resin. That was

highly flammable. Luckily, he was not harmed. I looked in my mirror

and I saw smoke. I thought I would get out the cab and try my best, but

it just went up in flames. A lot of flammable goods on it. I had to get

those feet away. We just heard a lot of noise and calm ocean. You could

see lots of black smoke in the sky. It is a lorry fire. It is the

traffic jam what is bad. I am bored and tired and hungry. What the

really need is a recovery truck and that is stuck in traffic. They said

a police escort out to get it here more quickly. After this lorry has

gone they will have to stress test the bridge because they need to know

if there has been any permanent if there has been any permanent

damage to the surface. Thank you very much. There will be

traffic updates on BBC Radio Bristol as well.

Parents are being warned that many schools in the West will be

The National Union of Teachers is staging a one`day

They're being joined by five other public sector unions,

Here's our political editor Paul Barltro.

Barton Hill Primary in Bristol will be closed, causing childcare

I'm a single mum. It will be hard for me. It is bang out of order. It

is inconvenient for people who are working. The National Union of

Teachers and firefighters are in a dispute over pensions. He is an

issue. For the PCS, GMB, Unison and the Unite union it is the issue. It

was frozen for two years, since then it has gone up a less than

inflation. That has hit this family from Bristol hard.

Ian has worked for the Ministry of Defence for 25 years.

Trudy works at South Gloucestershire Council.

With two sons to bring up, their pay has in real terms been

The morale is low, lower now than the 25 years I have been in the

Ministry of Defence. The amount of job losses we have had. There is no

stability. We don't know whether the Wii will have a job next year. I

just had to try to apply for my own job. Luckily I got it. They have

both experienced the cuts that have seen the loss of 400,000 public

sector jobs. I am currently under threat of redundancy. The

uncertainty that I have had over the uncertainty that I have had over the

last few years as long as thousands `` along with thousands of my

colleagues, it preys on your nerves. Chooses the most attic dispute. This

zombie protest was to highlight what they say are excessive demands. The

average teacher is working over 48 hours per week which is unsafe,

unhealthy. So what we want to do is make sure that Michael Gove can talk

to teachers and listened to us. It is going to disrupt their children's

education. The strike ballot took place in 2012. It is based on a 27%

turnout. How can it possibly be right for a rude education disrupted

by trade unions acting in that way? It is time to legislate and it will

be in the Conservative manifesto. The government insist pay must be

held back to help the country get out of debt. That will not go down

well with unions, who will repeat the marches they held three years

ago. They are warning of more strikes to come.

So are public service workers losing out from the recovery?

I am joined now by Kevin Butler who is an economist who used to work

Mr Butler ` there doesn't seem to be much of a feel good factor

We have had an economic recovery now for about a year and a present `` a

pretty decent recovery. That is tied up with recovery in the housing

market. Unfortunately, wage growth and salary growth in the private and

public sectors, including those affect it by tomorrow's working

straight, has been held back. Inflation has been running faster

than those increases in income and that means that people incomes

continue to be squeezed. How long will the austerity have to go on

for? The government expect that they have a strategy to rebalance the

public finances, to try to and expenditure in balance. Originally

there plan was to try and achieve this by 2015. They are not going to

do that. The expectation now is that they will not achieve that until

2018. It appears that we will be in a period of austerity for some time

longer. The public services industry will seal, we did not cost this,

this was down to the bankers, why should we pay for it? I have

sympathy for their point of view. I am married to a teacher. But I also

recognise that the government have a job to do in getting the economy are

gone to a sustainable footing. I feel I have got a foot in both

camps. Briefly, are public sector workers doing better or worse than

their colleagues in the private sector? In the private sector also,

although we are seeing new jobs being created as the economy starts

to recover and recover in a decent manner, actually private sector

workers are facing a squeeze on incomes and salaries as well. So it

is actually most of the workforce are seeing very little increase in

at the moment. Thank you very much for joining us.

We are pleased that you can join us. We will have a full weather forecast

later. There is much more to come on the programme tonight, opening the

Royal Christmas presents meant for World War I troops in the trenches.

The BBC's learnt that Bristol's tourism board objected to safety

railings being put along a stretch

40`year`old Sean Philips fell into the docks after losing control

of his bicycle on sunken railtracks near the M`Shed last year.

The tourism board ` and other groups ` thought the

Scott Ellis joins us now from the harbourside.

First things first, barriers ` but temporary.

This is because of the summer festivities. Let's have a look at

the problem down here at ground level. It is these sunken levels.

This is a historic working corner of the harbour`side. Following the

inquest into Sean Phillips, the BBC has teamed it ten years of

documents, e`mails, safety reviews, finding out who is in favour and

against permanent railings down here. A remainder of the risks are

long Bristol's waterfront, Sean Phillips' death last year in UN

calls for permanent safety barriers here. The BBC has discovered

destination Bristol thought railings would seriously undermine the

heritage value of the site. Managers at the council owned M`Shed said

they were reluctant to see railings weeks before the death. There is a

question of these large numbers of people who we have encouraged down

here with this development when you have to balance the heritage

argument against the risk of a child dying. There is still an arguing

here for barriers. Especially where the entrance' are. The objections

from various groups came after an independent safety review in 2012.

And a subsequent ROSPA report said railings were NOT needed.

So long as cyclists were diverted away from the area.

The signs ` missed by Sean Philips ` have been made much clearer.

Crowds going to and from the M Shed remain an issue for some, though.

I think it would be good, permanently, because you never know

when a child will go near the end, they are very fast`moving. I don't

think they should. It spoils from the atmosphere of what it is which

is where the harbour is were the boots need to dock. The argument

against railings is that it is still a working dog and permanent barriers

could endanger the lives of those working on the books and cranes. ``

on the boats. That speaks to the counsellor. You are seeing all of

your members would object to permanent barriers. Last thing we

organised a meeting to discuss this, the people that came, the members

were unanimously opposed to permanent railings. You are willing

to put athletics before people's lives? It is much more complex than

that. This is a working harbour, a working railway. These creams do

things for the people working here, holding another boarding and

welding, permanent railings are a major hindrance. It makes their jobs

more dangerous. 's temporary railings are fixed into place.

Surely you do need railings. These are here during the summer because

we have a lot of events like the Humberside festival where it is

necessary to block off the harbour got up the volume of people but also

because the council is not quite finished putting in the measures to

prevent cyclists coming in here and getting into trouble. So you do not

think there will be permanent railings here ever? Never say never.

But there are no plans at the moment. It was not recommended that

permanent railings were needed. You are not worried about being sued?

The councillors was worried about being sued. The risks have been

assessed. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents said that

the risks were manageable and if the council puts in an age as it is

going to, they think it is thank you. Whatever the health and safety

implications, certainly a beautiful place to spend a summer evening,

perhaps on two feet instead of two wheels.

A teenager who went on a schools' expedition to the Arctic Circle

One after another, the young people friend was killed by a polar bear.

One after another, the young people who were on that expedition to the

Arctic with Horatio Chapple three years ago described what happened on

the night that Wiltshire teenager was killed. First was Patrick

Flinders from Jersey who still has the scratch marks on his face where

he was clawed by deed poll or bare when it ripped its way into their

tent that night. He said he was terrified, he closed his eyes

The earthquake and tsunami in Japan killed more than 16,000 people.

And on the northeastern coast, the loss of power to the cooling

systems at Fukushima power station created one of the biggest nuclear

More than 500,000 people were moved from their homes.

Surrounding areas are now ghost towns.

It's such a shame that you have all of this

beautiful countryside poisoned by this radioactive fallout.

Realising this was an international disaster, a team of scientists

from Bristol began designing a piece of technology to help.

And now their drone is being used to work out if it's safe enough

We are looking to measure the distribution of the radiation to

understand where the hotspots are so that they can be removed first

before the rest of the land is cleaned.

They're also working with Professor Yamashiki from

Kyoto University who plans to use the drones to help measure the

where it wouldn't be safe to send a human.

This system is extremely helpful to catching a profile of the whole

Armed with the latest data collected in the exclusion zone,

the team heads to Tokyo to convince the company that runs Fukashima to

They want evidence first it can be safely flown around the tanks that

the team is back in the UK running test flights around sewage tanks

already successfully mapped parts of the Sellafield nuclear site

The company in charge of the decommissioning is now

But what this team is really waiting for

is permission to fly these drones over Fukushima,

He retains. It gives you an idea of the scale and here is Doctor Scott.

This is, this has received an enormous attention internationally.

Has it surprised you? Yes. It was two years ago we had the idea of

developing this system. With no proof of concept or principle so it

has been a quick timeline to take it from an idea through to a product

now that we can spin out as a company for the university and use

all over the world. Who was it in the university that was thinking

about this? My department in the School of physics is

multidisciplinary. We brought together a team of engineers and

physicists and geographers and even geoscientists. It was a diverse

group we brought together and everyone else brought a different

skill that we could all focus on to complete the project quickly. Why

does it have to be this particular design? Why could you not fly a

model helicopter over it? The design for this is specifically to fly on

nuclear sites. If you flew a helicopter or aircraft over a

nuclear site, if it crashed onto a building, it could cause a lot of

problems for the building structurally. The design for this is

such that it is a certain weight, and 70 Legrand 's which is a weight

that would not damage a building if it fell on it. We have eight engines

and four legs because if we lose one engine, we still have one spare.

Through testing we know we can turn off half of the engine that it will

still be in the ear fine. It is that deliberately designed redundancy

that is required for flying. There are so many more things we want to

know. But we don't have enough time. I want to have a play with it.

Five brass boxes which were meant as Christmas presents

for soldiers serving in the First World War have gone under the

They were sent by the Royal Family to troops in the trenches

Our reporter Sukhy Batchada watched as one of the boxes was opened.

Lost for 100 years. The gifts that have never made it to the front

line. It is great you are all sharing this. I would see it is

probably pretty unique this. Lady any `` Lady Emma Kitchener invited

to open the 100`year`old parcel under the watchful eye of her

ancestor. I think for many of the soldiers it was the very first time

they had ever been away from home at Christmas which is scary and then to

be in the trenches, it must have been unimaginable. I think to

receive something like that was a real big thing for them. Boxes from

the time contained boiled sweets and tobacco but in these boxes, you just

get a pencil. The most important tool for keeping in touch with loved

ones. The maximum most of the tins that survived, a pencil is missing.

The pencil is very rare. It has a The pencil is very rare. It has a

sterling silver top. I think it is marvellous. Obviously it would have

been great if there had been chocolates or more sweets or

cigarettes but no, delighted that the pencil is there. And it is

delighting collectors. For the guide price of ?300, a number have already

been sold. Children from Bath are

among those who've been invited to write what they imagine

the unknown soldier at Paddington railway station might be reading

in his letter sent from home. Everyday thousands of people, many

of them catching trains to and from And Bath Spa University are

behind a new project to help create a permanent memorial to

the unnamed fighter. Here's what these youngsters

from Weston All Saints Primary think Dearest father, my fear is not the

same without you but we manage. How are you out there? Is everything OK?

I think she caught a cold when we were a skating. The doctors say she

will return to normal health in one week. So that is all right. You know

that cheeky boy I told you about? He got the keen place today. He gave

teachers such cheat. Mother is proud of you although she wishes you did

not go. She tries to hide it but sometimes I hear her crying at

night. I have told all my friends that when you come back I shall like

lots of candles around the house. Very good writers, aren't they?

People are still submitting their ideas of letters, even well known

people like Stephen Fry. Now, what kind

of things do you throw away? Well a recycling centre in

West Somerset had to be sealed off today after a member of the

public brought in a mortar shell. An Army bomb disposal team was

called But then when someone brings

in a mortar shell for recycling So around midday the site

at Williton in West Somerset was closed to the

public. And about three hours later They took one look at the shell `

and decided it was safe enough to load into the back of their van

and take it away ` so What isn't clear is who

the person was who brought in the shell or why they would want

to bring a mortar about this size to But the people who run these places

say while they'll take most things That was a bit of a surprise. Let's

get the weather forecast. Ian is up on the roof. We had some dramatic

weather last eight. We certainly did. The number of

people tweeting pictures of storm cells moving down through south

Gloucestershire with some pretty dramatic clouds attached to those.

No threat of that as we head through this evening or indeed as we head

into tomorrow as well. Effectively we will be in this grease between

two weather systems, one from the east, one from the West but the net

result at least will be effectively a finance increasingly warm day

across the West Country, albeit with more clouds starting to appear as we

get through the course of the afternoon. The reason we have this

grease is a warm front out towards the east of us and secondly a rather

weak front coming the other way from the Atlantic. You will see that

running up through the West Country into the West Midlands is a sort of

spine of clear whether, in our rowing slot that will keep us into

this dry, warm set of conditions through the course of tomorrow but

the warm front to the East make some inroads towards us on Friday.

Through the course of this evening it is a fine if breezy evening,

pleasantly warm, it will continue tonight with no significant change

in the broad setup. A quiet night under a largely clear skies and

temperatures will be sitting somewhere between about ten to 13

Celsius. Tomorrow should start with clear skies for a good number of you

as we ran through the day, yes, more cloud out to the extreme west of

Somerset including those of you who watch us from Lynemouth but even

here a fairly bright picture and conversely out towards the east you

will notice the signal for clouds getting as far as Reading with some

patchy rain out in those districts. We don't expect that to impinge on

East Gloucestershire and it's torture. You will have more cloud

here. All of us is seeing more cloud later on through the course of the

afternoon. A high pollen count tomorrow and high UV levels.

Temperatures on the rise. 12 spots could see 24 or 25 Celsius into late

afternoon tomorrow. As we get past that, we will find through the day

increasing amount of clouds, in the morning some showery outbreaks of

rain in the East. One or two showers in the afternoon, but the weekend

will be characterised by warm, humid conditions, the threat of some

thundery downpours as well. It has felt humid. It has. It has

been lovely today. Before we go, let's return to the top story this

evening. We want to show you pictures of what happened when that

lorry caught fire and exploded on the Cumberland basin in Bristol. It

dramatic side as you can see. You have been sending in footage, thank

you. As you can see, it was an extensive fire because they had

those candles on board. The large plume of smoke caused traffic chaos

which has now spread. The good news is, the driver did get out safely

and there were no casualties that we have heard about. We will put this

on our Facebook page so please take a look at it. Luckily no one was

hurt, that is the main thing. Have a nice evening.

and this time the challenge is bigger than ever.

Six young songwriters mark a major anniversary.

It'll be really difficult to write a song for World War I.

They're really going to have to put themselves in those people's shoes.

Guys, did that go perfectly? Did we forget the tune?

I just don't want to mess it up. There's a lot of pressure.