10/04/2012

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:00:04. > :00:08.Hello, welcome to Midlands Today with Mary Rhodes and Nick Owen. The

:00:08. > :00:16.headlines tonight: As Severn Trent consider selling water elsewhere,

:00:16. > :00:20.can rural communities survive the drought this summer? Our neighbours

:00:20. > :00:27.have been struggling and most of them are not farmers. They are

:00:27. > :00:32.lugging it around in jerry cans. Fighting for survival, RAF Cosford

:00:32. > :00:35.looking to the business community to save its training base. As the

:00:35. > :00:40.size of the services reduce under contract out, the industry is

:00:40. > :00:44.finding it harder to find trained people.

:00:44. > :00:51.A 12-year-old girl who was attacked by a dog says the police were wrong

:00:51. > :01:01.to shoot it dead. And what a comeback, the hatrick

:01:01. > :01:02.

:01:02. > :01:11.hero who gave Kidderminster victory, Good evening. Welcome to Tuesday's

:01:11. > :01:14.Midlands Today from the BBC. Tonight: Severn Trent is in talks

:01:14. > :01:17.with Anglian Water to help to supply around 100,000 homes in some

:01:17. > :01:21.of the worst affected areas in England. It would be the first time

:01:21. > :01:23.such a trade has happened. But in Shropshire, some farms and

:01:23. > :01:27.households which aren't connected to the mains have been struggling

:01:27. > :01:30.to get enough water out of the ground for months. They are already

:01:30. > :01:33.using emergency supplies. So is now really the time for Severn Trent to

:01:33. > :01:36.be selling off the region's supplies?

:01:36. > :01:40.In a few moments, we'll be speaking to a climate change expert, but

:01:40. > :01:50.first Giles Latcham reports on the problems facing part of Shropshire.

:01:50. > :01:50.

:01:50. > :01:54.In these hills, New Life Is born. Like all life though its dependent

:01:54. > :01:57.on water and for the Griffiths's among others, after a couple of dry

:01:57. > :02:01.winters and an unusually dry summer that's a big problem. It is not

:02:01. > :02:08.just the water that they drink, it is the water that falls out of the

:02:08. > :02:11.sky and makes the grass grow that the sheep eat. A spring in the

:02:11. > :02:14.forest which serves the farm keeps drying up and can no longer be

:02:14. > :02:18.relied on, instead they fill up bowsers wherever they can. We take

:02:18. > :02:25.for bowsers to my father, who is going to see as more than he wants

:02:25. > :02:31.to the summer! We also have friends in the village to have offered.

:02:31. > :02:34.Pipes leading from the guttering up their feed directly into this 1400

:02:34. > :02:39.lead to a barrister, ready to go out to the fields to supply the

:02:39. > :02:46.sheep. When your water supply is under threat, it is time to get M

:02:46. > :02:48.genius. The first borehole they attempted was inside the gate here.

:02:48. > :02:53.This retired policeman spent �7,000 sinking boreholes searching for

:02:53. > :02:59.water. When the barns next door were converted to homes his supply

:02:59. > :03:02.from a nearby spring dried up. So he had to find a fresh one and

:03:02. > :03:08.install a storage tank to guarantee the flow, but in providence he

:03:08. > :03:14.trusts. Probably within a couple of years' time, we will get more water

:03:14. > :03:18.than we'd probably do at the moment, which will then filter water tables.

:03:18. > :03:23.That is the thing we really need. Between then and now though, there

:03:23. > :03:27.could be tough times ahead. We are looking at providing central

:03:27. > :03:31.locations where we can provide it had, so that one of their supplies

:03:31. > :03:35.run out, they can fill up. It will be community operated. The of

:03:35. > :03:42.working with the parish council, the fire service, to find the best

:03:42. > :03:48.locations in the areas at risk. Here, few if any take what comes

:03:48. > :03:52.out of their taps for granted. Well, joining us now is Dr Ken

:03:52. > :03:58.Addison, a climate change expert, who lives in Shropshire. Thanks for

:03:58. > :04:01.joining us, Dr Addison. We've had a load of rain over the weekend, and

:04:01. > :04:06.indeed today, but it doesn't alter the fact we have a serious

:04:06. > :04:10.situation on our hands, does it? you're quite right. The fact we've

:04:10. > :04:15.had a lot of intense Rayner... You can see the River Severn is flowing

:04:15. > :04:21.fast behind me. A lot of this water is just heading off down to the

:04:21. > :04:24.ocean. The other ironic thing right now, and this -- and this is when

:04:24. > :04:32.the crops and gardens are coming into their Rome, the plants will

:04:32. > :04:37.take a great deal at. So is this the shape of things to come?

:04:37. > :04:42.Currently, this winter, in the Midlands, we are somewhere between

:04:42. > :04:47.60 % to 80 % of normal rainfall. We are down a bit. In East Anglia,

:04:47. > :04:53.where the problems lie, they are down up to 60 % of the normal

:04:53. > :04:57.winter rainfall. This is due to get worse. Everyone is aware about a

:04:57. > :05:01.great risk of climate change. It's a common topic these days. If we

:05:01. > :05:05.look at just the last three or four weeks, we've had wonderful weather,

:05:05. > :05:09.lots of warm sunshine. That is because an anticyclone had been

:05:09. > :05:15.blocking out the Atlantic rainfall coming into Britain. That is likely

:05:15. > :05:22.to be an increasingly recurring feature in the future. By about

:05:22. > :05:26.2030, this summer rainfall in Shropshire could be between 5% and

:05:26. > :05:33.15 % less than now. If the International Committee does little

:05:33. > :05:37.about climate change, we are likely to be down between 40 % and 60 % by

:05:37. > :05:41.the middle part of this century. It will get worse. Should people,

:05:41. > :05:46.particularly in remote parts, be taking further steps to conserve

:05:46. > :05:50.water in the future? From what we've had already this evening, I

:05:50. > :05:54.think on the demand side, they are doing very well. They are very much

:05:54. > :05:59.aware of the need to conserve. It is the supply side that is the

:05:59. > :06:06.problem. As you'll earlier view was pointed out, as the water table

:06:06. > :06:10.drops, in the mid- to long-term future, that is likely to be

:06:10. > :06:16.increasingly a problem. About a third of the water that Severn

:06:16. > :06:24.Trent take out of the catchment is from underground water supplies.

:06:24. > :06:27.will have to leave it there. Thank you very much.

:06:27. > :06:30.We're certainly getting some April showers, but will it be enough to

:06:30. > :06:33.help with our water worries? Shefali has the answer.

:06:33. > :06:36.Well, the problem with showers is that not everyone gets them,

:06:36. > :06:40.certainly not the heavier ones. But at least we're not talking of rain

:06:40. > :06:43.that's mainly nuisance value over the next couple of weeks. There'll

:06:43. > :06:47.be something more substantial than that and after the fifth driest

:06:47. > :06:54.March this year in just over a century, we could do with it. I

:06:54. > :06:56.will have more later. The BBC's learned that RAF Cosford could sell

:06:56. > :06:58.its training expertise to the business community if the

:06:58. > :07:01.Government moves its defence operations. There are more than

:07:01. > :07:06.1,000 trainees at the Shropshire base and a similar number of

:07:06. > :07:09.civilian staff. RAF Cosford was built during the

:07:09. > :07:13.Second World War in response to an urgent need to train people for the

:07:13. > :07:16.front line. Today, it has an uncertain future. Redundancies are

:07:16. > :07:19.likely under MoD plans to train the military in Wiltshire and no one

:07:19. > :07:29.has been able to give a firm commitment that it'll continue to

:07:29. > :07:32.

:07:32. > :07:40.Once a first-class fighter jet, the Jaguar is now a unique training

:07:40. > :07:43.plane for 1,000 engineers at RAF Cosford. But amid waves of MoD cuts

:07:43. > :07:52.and re-oganisations, this historic base could lose most, if not all of

:07:52. > :07:54.it's aircraft training operations. It must change to survive. We're

:07:55. > :07:57.already training people overseas, we already have trained some

:07:58. > :08:00.elements of British industry, and as the size of the services reduce

:08:01. > :08:03.and we contract out more of our services to other people, industry

:08:03. > :08:07.are finding it harder to find trained people, and its very

:08:07. > :08:10.expensive to train people, it makes sense to look at options as to how

:08:10. > :08:14.we can do that in a smarter way, we're in negotiations and its too

:08:14. > :08:16.early to say what will come from that work. A focus on business

:08:16. > :08:19.comes as it's emerged that �150 million of taxpayers money was

:08:19. > :08:25.spent on MoD plans to transfer operations to St Athan in South

:08:25. > :08:30.Wales. The project was scrapped two years ago because of cost. It is a

:08:30. > :08:38.large sum of money. Defence has an obligation to make sure it is

:08:38. > :08:41.providing best value for money to the taxpayers. In the latest plan,

:08:41. > :08:44.RAF Cosford could lose its role as a Defence Training Centre because

:08:44. > :08:47.the MoD wants to create a new service at RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire.

:08:47. > :08:54.1,100 trainees are continuing to be prepared for service here but for

:08:54. > :09:04.how long? Luke Dougan's 21. He's hoping for an RAF career after

:09:04. > :09:04.

:09:04. > :09:07.twice being made redundant on civvy street. I feel quite positive my

:09:07. > :09:11.job will be kept, purely because in training, they're not going to put

:09:11. > :09:14.a lot of money into me and then just cut me off. I feel that I'll

:09:14. > :09:17.do well. Defence is shrinking and therefore the number of trainees

:09:17. > :09:21.coming through here shrinks and it is inevitable that the size of the

:09:21. > :09:23.staff will also shrink and we're continuing to look at ways of being

:09:23. > :09:27.more efficient. To say the base supports the village of Albrighton

:09:27. > :09:33.is an understatement. It pumps �70 million a year into the local

:09:33. > :09:38.economy. The uncertainty is causing some problems. If Cosford were too

:09:38. > :09:41.close that's effectively going to cut the population by half.

:09:41. > :09:51.Shropshire Council supports efforts to bring new investment into the

:09:51. > :09:51.

:09:51. > :09:54.base. Given the technical expertise there is at Cosford, without a

:09:54. > :09:57.shadow of a doubt, I think there's a great opportunity for Cosford to

:09:57. > :10:05.have a large income generation scheme by selling its expertise to

:10:05. > :10:07.private companies. The Government's delayed a decision on whether

:10:07. > :10:12.Cosford could house soldiers returning from Germany until at

:10:12. > :10:15.least 2020. If it were to happen, the RAF would move out. Senior

:10:15. > :10:24.officers say they can't give a complete assurance that there'll be

:10:24. > :10:28.defence training here in five years time.

:10:28. > :10:30.And BBC Radio Shropshire has a week of special reports from RAF Cosford.

:10:30. > :10:33.Tomorrow morning, they'll be focusing on what difference the

:10:33. > :10:39.base has made to the nearby village of Albrighton and what it could

:10:39. > :10:41.mean if it closed. That's from 7 am on the breakfast show.

:10:41. > :10:45.A man's been arrested on suspicion of murder following the discovery

:10:45. > :10:48.of a woman's body at a house in the Black Country. Police visited an

:10:48. > :10:53.address in Tipton last night, where a young woman was found dead inside

:10:53. > :10:56.the flat. She's yet to be identified. The 27-year-old man was

:10:56. > :11:00.detained by police at a railway station in Bristol this morning and

:11:00. > :11:03.is being brought back to the West Midlands.

:11:03. > :11:06.A woman accused of murdering a 92- year-old war veteran has been

:11:06. > :11:10.remanded in custody. William Davis was found with severe head injuries

:11:10. > :11:13.at his house in Willenhall. 35- year-old Charlotte Frazier-Doody,

:11:13. > :11:16.who's a neighbour, didn't appear in person at the preliminary hearing

:11:16. > :11:21.at Wolverhampton Crown Court this morning. She has yet to enter a

:11:21. > :11:25.plea and was remanded in custody until June 29th.

:11:25. > :11:28.A girl who was attacked by a dog in Gloucestershire has said it shouldn

:11:28. > :11:31.'t have been shot dead by the police.

:11:31. > :11:37.The 12-year-old was bitten yesterday afternoon, along with a

:11:37. > :11:40.man. Police arrested a man after the dog had been killed.

:11:40. > :11:45.Despenser Road in Tewkesbury, the scene at the start of a series of

:11:45. > :11:48.events. Police had been called after reports that the dog, a

:11:48. > :11:52.staffordshire bull terrier, had bitten two people. One of the them

:11:52. > :11:55.was Sydney Ryan. She knows the dog owners and had gone to see if

:11:55. > :11:58.everything was OK after seeing the dog running around outside. She

:11:58. > :12:07.says she wasn't too badly injured and is angry the dog was eventually

:12:07. > :12:11.shot dead by the police. If they should have either grabbed the dock

:12:11. > :12:16.and can't do it for trotted with something that put it to sleep for

:12:16. > :12:20.an hour, and then calmed it down. They said they would have to shoot

:12:21. > :12:29.it but the dog wasn't exactly going to come down if you have tasted it

:12:29. > :12:33.twice. -- tasered. Police say their efforts to calm the dog with the

:12:33. > :12:36.taser gun didn't work and that it had tried to attack the officers as

:12:36. > :12:39.well. Eventually they tracked it several streets away and felt they

:12:39. > :12:42.had no option but to shoot it. They say, as a last resort. The report

:12:42. > :12:45.be had were that it was being aggressive. It had been -- it had

:12:45. > :12:50.injured two people, one of them quite badly. Police officers were

:12:50. > :12:53.not able to calm it down because it ran off into one area with children

:12:53. > :12:57.playing. They thought it was appropriate and necessary to make

:12:57. > :13:06.sure there was no further harm. Unfortunately, they took the action

:13:06. > :13:09.they did do which was to shoot the dog. Police are still questioning a

:13:09. > :13:11.38-year-old man from Gloucester on suspicion of having a dog

:13:11. > :13:15.dangerously out of control in a public place and for criminal

:13:15. > :13:22.damage after windows were smashed at the Black Bear pub in the centre

:13:22. > :13:25.of town. Lambing is a stressful time for any

:13:25. > :13:28.farmer but this year they have the added complication of a new disease,

:13:28. > :13:30.the Schmallenberg virus. The disease can affect both cattle and

:13:30. > :13:33.sheep. It only causes mild symptoms in

:13:33. > :13:36.adult animals but can have a disastrous effect on unborn young.

:13:36. > :13:39.It's an effect that only becomes apparent months later in the

:13:39. > :13:42.lambing season. Our Environment Correspondent joins us now from a

:13:42. > :13:50.farm in Gloucestershire. David, what is the situation with the

:13:50. > :13:55.virus in our region? At the moment, there are two

:13:55. > :14:01.confirmed cases in Warwickshire. Otherwise, we seem to have escaped

:14:01. > :14:08.unscathed. This is a disease that only becomes apparent as the she'd

:14:08. > :14:12.start to give birth to the Lambs. With meat is Jake, the farmer here.

:14:12. > :14:20.No sign of the disease on your farm but you know farmers of -- to have

:14:20. > :14:24.had it. Yes, I do. There have been nine or 10 cases and it is

:14:24. > :14:30.distressing, not just for the chic but for the farmers as well. It

:14:30. > :14:34.should be a time of joy and turning lambs out. To have these deformed

:14:34. > :14:38.lambs that you have to try and help get out is distressing all round.

:14:38. > :14:44.There is also a financial loss of having lambs you cannot sell.

:14:44. > :14:49.is a disease that comes with infected insect from Europe. It is

:14:49. > :14:53.taking hold in Europe. potential is there, certainly with

:14:53. > :14:56.climate change, you see it's now in Germany, Belgium and France. It has

:14:56. > :15:01.been spreading from the south-east of the country, towards our

:15:01. > :15:05.direction. As we going to this coming year, the period of

:15:05. > :15:09.infection will not be for us until November or December. But I think

:15:09. > :15:14.with the climate change, more midges around and more infection

:15:14. > :15:18.from the livestock this year, the risk is quite significant. It is

:15:18. > :15:25.not a disease people have to worry about. Absolutely not. And no harm

:15:25. > :15:29.in being around sheep and cattle. Certainly no problem in eating lamb.

:15:29. > :15:36.Like many farms at this time, there is an open day here and if you want

:15:36. > :15:41.to come down and see something happening, check out our Facebook

:15:41. > :15:49.page. Good to have you with us this

:15:49. > :15:52.evening. Still to come here on Midlands Today: they're murderously

:15:52. > :16:00.difficult to ride but here's a unicycle that does the balancing

:16:00. > :16:05.for you. All part of the Gadget Villagers in Herefordshire are

:16:05. > :16:09.celebrating after saving their village pub from closure. Dozens of

:16:09. > :16:10.people have joined in the clean up of The Crown Inn in Dilwyn after

:16:10. > :16:14.the parish council was handed the keys.

:16:14. > :16:21.They borrowed the money to buy the site fearing it would be taken over

:16:21. > :16:30.by developers. Armed with brushes, Hoovers,

:16:30. > :16:33.Saul's... -- saws and lots of elbow grease. The people of Dilwyn in

:16:33. > :16:36.Herefordshire set about reclaiming the Crown Inn, their village pub.

:16:36. > :16:41.It has been a brilliant pub in the past and will be again. It will be

:16:41. > :16:44.nice to be able to walk back here. When the last tenant left recently

:16:44. > :16:47.there were concerns the site would be sold to developers so the parish

:16:47. > :16:52.council stepped in. They borrowed �250,000 from the public works loan

:16:52. > :16:57.board to buy the pub. We know people use this power band so, we

:16:58. > :17:00.know it will make a good profit. If we get the right tenant, they will

:17:00. > :17:05.do well and the community will do well hopefully. The villagers have

:17:05. > :17:08.big ambitions for this place. Once the pub is up and running they want

:17:08. > :17:11.to use this building as a shop and have a restaurant at the back. It's

:17:11. > :17:18.not the first time people here have pulled together. Last year they

:17:18. > :17:26.saved the village school from closure. How has this place

:17:26. > :17:35.succeeded? Sheer determination, bloody-mindedness. We are not

:17:35. > :17:39.prepared to accept and we feel so strongly that the rural community

:17:39. > :17:42.around the country are under threat. We are not prepared to take it.

:17:42. > :17:47.is wonderful that people are pulling together and we will make

:17:47. > :17:57.this a wonderful pub. We all pull together, that is not a community

:17:57. > :17:58.

:17:58. > :18:01.is for. -- what a community is for. They're inviting applicants for the

:18:01. > :18:05.tenancy and are planning to open the pub for the village show in May.

:18:05. > :18:07.Dan's here with the sport, with the story of one of the best football

:18:07. > :18:10.comebacks in recent memory. Picture the scene. Your team is

:18:11. > :18:14.trailing 2-0 in a game they must win to keep alive their play-off

:18:14. > :18:17.dream. There's only four minutes left, so you get away early to beat

:18:17. > :18:20.the traffic. Then you turn on the car radio to find you've actually

:18:20. > :18:28.won 3-2. And your super-sub scored a hat-trick. That's what happened

:18:28. > :18:33.at Kidderminster Harriers yesterday. Lunchtime at the Malt Shovel in

:18:33. > :18:38.Great Barr. Time for a quick drink with Nick Wright, his brother Billy

:18:38. > :18:48.and a very special matchball. The same ball that produced a late late

:18:48. > :18:53.hatrick for the Harriers supersub. The unreal, quality. You are the

:18:53. > :18:57.best. With 20 minutes left, Kidderminster were trailing 2-2.

:18:57. > :19:02.And that's when Nick got the nod from the boss to stop warming the

:19:02. > :19:09.bench, and start worrying the Newport defence. He said to me, go

:19:09. > :19:12.and do something, anything. He said, do what you can do. With four

:19:12. > :19:15.minutes remaining, Nick rifled in a penalty to give a glimmer of hope

:19:15. > :19:18.at 2-1. In the first minute of stoppage time, he scored again to

:19:18. > :19:21.level the score at 2-2 and then seconds before the final whistle,

:19:21. > :19:27.Nick triggered pandemonium on the airwaves of BBC Hereford and

:19:27. > :19:37.Worcester. The key premise is it! It is there. Kidderminster

:19:37. > :19:38.

:19:39. > :19:45.Harriers! They've won it! The hat trick! It is the stuff of dreams,

:19:45. > :19:48.isn't it? Dreams are made of those sort of things. It was a great day.

:19:48. > :19:51.Surely the Harriers boss Steve Burr will never make a more dramatic

:19:51. > :19:57.subsititution if he's still managing football teams. At the age

:19:57. > :20:03.of 92. They told me a hat-trick had made the national press but

:20:03. > :20:06.something is missing! Harriers now have three games left to cement

:20:06. > :20:09.their place in the play-offs, starting on Saturday when children

:20:09. > :20:12.under 16 get in free to witness another day of high drama against

:20:12. > :20:15.Kettering. And as for the missing piece in the jigsaw, look no

:20:15. > :20:22.further than Billy Wright's scrapbook, on the day his big

:20:22. > :20:25.brother Nick made hatrick history for Kidderminster Harriers.

:20:25. > :20:27.After the busy Easter programme, Aston Villa are still looking for

:20:27. > :20:31.their first home win since Bonfire Night, following yesterday's 1-1

:20:31. > :20:33.draw with Stoke City. Villa were leading at the break thanks to a

:20:33. > :20:36.super goal from their Austrian under-21 striker Andreas Weimann.

:20:36. > :20:43.But Stoke equalised in the second half through Robert Huth, leaving

:20:43. > :20:50.Villa on 35 points, and still not quite safe from relegation. Home

:20:50. > :20:56.game, three points, and that would be a huge plus for us and the last

:20:56. > :21:02.few games. We knew Stoke Wake that type of team to put them away. They

:21:02. > :21:05.are very difficult to stop. There were contrasting fortunes for our

:21:05. > :21:08.two Championship sides over the Easter weekend. Coventry City are

:21:08. > :21:10.now four points adrift of safety after losing 3-1 at relegation

:21:10. > :21:20.rivals Bristol City yesterday. But Birmingham City are on course for

:21:20. > :21:21.

:21:21. > :21:24.the play-offs. They led 3-1 at half-time at West Ham yesterday.

:21:24. > :21:30.They were denied victory when West Ham earned a late penalty for

:21:30. > :21:35.handball against Chris Burke. And Ricardo Vaz Te scored to draw the

:21:35. > :21:45.game 3-3. But the Blues they remain upbeat after consolidating their

:21:45. > :21:50.

:21:50. > :21:54.position in fourth place. Go to the BBC's Board website for more.

:21:54. > :21:57.-- BBC Sport website. A self balancing unicycle, new

:21:57. > :22:04.innovative bus stop adverts and hundreds of new ways to use your

:22:04. > :22:07.smart phone. It's all on display at this year's Gadget Show at the NEC.

:22:07. > :22:10.Advances in technology are making it easier and cheaper for everyone

:22:10. > :22:12.to own the latest gadgets and our Business Correspondent, the

:22:12. > :22:15.ultimate gadget anorak, has been sampling some of the products on

:22:15. > :22:18.show. As usual packed full of the latest

:22:18. > :22:22.hi-tech gadgets and gizmos including a new way of advertising

:22:22. > :22:26.at bus stops. It is giving you technology in the palm of your hand

:22:26. > :22:32.and you can choose different buttons at the top of your screen.

:22:32. > :22:42.If I go for through animation, there is a close-up of all of your

:22:42. > :22:45.

:22:45. > :22:48.dogs jumping into the back of the car. Press this button and all of a

:22:48. > :22:55.sudden you get the smell of their product, in this case a baked

:22:55. > :23:04.potato. It adds fund to a normal.. They can be quite dreary first

:23:04. > :23:08.thing in the morning. Got a smart phone? Then you'll love the latest

:23:08. > :23:12.in so called Augmented Reality. They led to bring together the

:23:12. > :23:15.physical and virtual worlds. We are familiar with the internet. In 20

:23:15. > :23:21.years, it has changed the way we live and work. Now what we are

:23:21. > :23:25.looking at is the outer net. Fat content will be woven into the

:23:25. > :23:30.fabric of the real world. We will use our smart phones to see and

:23:30. > :23:39.interact with it. It is evidence that the mobile phone is changing

:23:39. > :23:46.our lives. They have accelerometers, gyroscopes, GPS, biosensors and

:23:46. > :23:52.with all of these sensors in a inexpensive price, it makes the

:23:52. > :23:55.software that goes on it... It makes it do so much more than just

:23:55. > :23:57.handle phone calls. But my favourite gagdet at this year's

:23:57. > :24:05.show has to be the self balancing unicycle. Costing nearly �2,000,

:24:05. > :24:09.it's expensive but great fun. How does it work? It is simple. You

:24:09. > :24:14.lean forward to go forward, lean back to go back. The gyroscope

:24:14. > :24:17.takes care of the balance and off you go. Easier to ride than a

:24:17. > :24:25.conventional unicyle but as you can see it too takes a bit of getting

:24:25. > :24:34.used to. I'm still anxious about a tin-

:24:34. > :24:37.opener! We've been storing up these showers

:24:37. > :24:40.for months and now April's here, they all come tumbling down. That's

:24:40. > :24:44.the overriding theme this week, sunshine and showers, and these

:24:44. > :24:47.showers are likely to be quite heavy on occasion. It should be a

:24:47. > :24:55.good week for looking out for those thunder clouds, they could be quite

:24:55. > :24:59.impressive. Low pressure's going to be dominating, the centre of which

:24:59. > :25:02.is over the North Sea, the showers are caught within those rings but

:25:02. > :25:12.it's the unstable air that's going to be setting off the thunder

:25:12. > :25:12.

:25:12. > :25:15.lightening. But the template for the week is set by these first two

:25:15. > :25:18.days. So during the nights, the showers die out, the skies clear

:25:18. > :25:27.and in the coldest, sheltered spots we could see a touch of frost. But

:25:27. > :25:31.in towns and cities, values are a little higher at four Celsius. So a

:25:31. > :25:33.lovely sunny start to the day but it won't be long before we see the

:25:33. > :25:37.showers piling in from the north west, the deeper blue centres

:25:37. > :25:41.indicating where the heavy ones are going to be. They may last a while

:25:41. > :25:49.with the winds being lighter tomorrow. Temperatures are similar

:25:49. > :25:52.tomorrow but again, it'll feel colder in the winds. So that's the

:25:52. > :25:58.drill this week, sunshine and showers by day, drier, clearer and

:25:58. > :26:00.colder by night with a touch of frost. And very little change in

:26:00. > :26:10.maximum temperatures through the week until we get to Friday and

:26:10. > :26:17.

:26:17. > :26:20.A look at tonight's main headlines: Britain can extradite the radical

:26:20. > :26:23.muslim cleric Abu Hamza to the United States to face terrorism

:26:23. > :26:26.charges. And as Severn Trent consider

:26:26. > :26:31.selling water to other regions, rural communities are increasingly

:26:31. > :26:35.concerned about the impact of the drought this summer.

:26:35. > :26:37.And just time to tell you before we go tonight, that BBC Radio

:26:37. > :26:40.Shropshire's talking tomorrow about how the county's getting ready for

:26:40. > :26:43.the Olympic Games this summer. But are the councils doing enough to

:26:43. > :26:46.cash in on the tourism opportunities?

:26:46. > :26:48.BBC Hereford and Worcester will be speaking to the Route Managing