:00:11. > :00:13.Hundreds of volunteers in Bristol are getting ready to lay
:00:14. > :00:16.on a Christmas Day lunch for elderly people who'd otherwise
:00:17. > :00:22.The charity behind the festive meal says an estimated one million people
:00:23. > :00:25.in the UK are suffering from chronic loneliness - and the isolation can
:00:26. > :00:37.And we want to make the hampers just look really nice and lovely.
:00:38. > :00:41.Amy Perrin and her volunteers getting ready for Christmas Day.
:00:42. > :00:45.She helped just a handful of lonely people four years ago.
:00:46. > :00:49.Come Sunday there'll be close to 100 having Christmas lunch at five
:00:50. > :00:51.different venues in and around Bristol.
:00:52. > :00:54.I just wanted to give them a nice treat, really,
:00:55. > :01:04.But realising the effect that that has and the change that can
:01:05. > :01:06.have afterwards as well, just that one point of contact,
:01:07. > :01:08.and then being helped into new friendships,
:01:09. > :01:16.70-year-old Safia Wiggram Christmas lunched with the charity last year.
:01:17. > :01:19.A former nurse, she's lost contact with her family and now lives
:01:20. > :01:25.I'm used to being alone, but being lonely is a different thing.
:01:26. > :01:31.And just missing the sharing, just a little joke or something that
:01:32. > :01:35.passed by, you want to say, look, that was funny, wasn't it?
:01:36. > :01:38.Or just the touch of someone, touching your hand or something,
:01:39. > :01:42.when you're deprived of that, it does, it affects you very much.
:01:43. > :01:44.Recent studies suggest chronic loneliness is as bad
:01:45. > :01:47.for you as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
:01:48. > :01:50.And it can increase a person's chance of suffering diseases
:01:51. > :01:56.If you feel unhappy and lonely, you don't really feel like looking
:01:57. > :01:59.after yourself so it can actually make you physically ill
:02:00. > :02:01.because you're not able to look after your diabetes,
:02:02. > :02:04.you don't feel like, you're not going out to meet
:02:05. > :02:06.people, you don't feel like looking after yourself.
:02:07. > :02:08.The charity ensures those they help at Christmas
:02:09. > :02:13.None of it would be possible without the hundreds
:02:14. > :02:18.willing to sacrifice some of their own Christmas Day.
:02:19. > :02:21.I decided to help because I realised that time spent helping other people
:02:22. > :02:28.was going to be far more fulfilling than sitting around eating cheese.
:02:29. > :02:31.Amy, who's an occupational therapist, is always on the look out
:02:32. > :02:34.for other venues willing to open on Christmas Day.
:02:35. > :02:36.Since we're all living longer, this looks like a charity that's
:02:37. > :02:48.Rail passengers are being told to plan ahead over Christmas
:02:49. > :02:51.and expect significant delays as a number of lines are closed
:02:52. > :02:57.It means there will be no trains in or out
:02:58. > :03:00.of Paddington from Christmas Eve until December the 30th.
:03:01. > :03:04.Instead services will stop at Ealing Broadway.
:03:05. > :03:07.There'll then be a reduced timetable between December the 30th
:03:08. > :03:16.Bird flu has been found in a dead wild bird in Somerset.
:03:17. > :03:17.The UK's chief veterinary officer has confirmed
:03:18. > :03:20.it was found in a wigeon, and is the same strain
:03:21. > :03:23.which was found at a poultry farm in Lincolnshire last week.
:03:24. > :03:25.Public Health England says the risk to public health
:03:26. > :03:31.from the virus is very low, but farmers are still having
:03:32. > :03:35.to keep all their poultry inside for 30 days.
:03:36. > :03:37.Volunteers are working with police to try to make drivers
:03:38. > :03:40.on Lansdown Lane in Bath slow down, after a crash which killed
:03:41. > :03:48.One of them was 4-year-old Mitzi Steady- struck by the 32-tonne
:03:49. > :03:51.truck which had careered out of control on the steep hill.
:03:52. > :03:53.Now locals are using hand-held cameras to urge
:03:54. > :04:06.Lansdown Lane in Bath, a steep hill winding past pavements
:04:07. > :04:08.often filled with pedestrians, close to homes and
:04:09. > :04:15.Now with its own amateur speeding enforcers.
:04:16. > :04:18.A new campaign by volunteers aiming to change the way drivers use this
:04:19. > :04:30.With a 20 mph limit that locals say drivers often ignore.
:04:31. > :04:41.Traffic is still not moving at 20 miles an hour,
:04:42. > :04:45.We are starting a community speed watch scheme.
:04:46. > :04:47.Four-year-old Mitzi Steady was one of four people killed
:04:48. > :04:50.here in February last year when a tipper truck's brakes failed
:04:51. > :04:56.Yesterday, the truck's owner and its mechanic were found
:04:57. > :05:00.Now this community wants to make Lansdown Lane a safer place.
:05:01. > :05:03.They'll be using cameras and placards as well
:05:04. > :05:09.It's just a very busy road, a very dangerous road,
:05:10. > :05:11.and there are lots and lots of children especially
:05:12. > :05:16.during opening hours for the school coming back and forth.
:05:17. > :05:36.The area of Weston in Bath, still shocked by the deaths
:05:37. > :05:47.But determined to change the way people drive here in future.
:05:48. > :05:49.A woman from Gloucestershire who dreamed of owning her own
:05:50. > :05:53.reindeer is spending her first Christmas with her pets.
:05:54. > :05:57.Karen Perrins, who's from Stroud, has been taking Dancer and Blitzen
:05:58. > :06:02.on visits around the county to get everyone in the Christmas spirit.
:06:03. > :06:04.They've been to schools, nursing homes and even
:06:05. > :06:11.Gloucestershire Police's Christmas Community event.
:06:12. > :06:14.To bring them out and share them with other people is just amazing.
:06:15. > :06:16.The number of people that haven't seen a
:06:17. > :06:32.I bet they cause a right commotion. That is about it from us for
:06:33. > :06:34.tonight. Just time to wish you a real special Christmas Eve.
:06:35. > :06:38.A very good evening to you as we head now into Christmas Eve.
:06:39. > :06:42.We should find that for the vast majority it is a dry day.
:06:43. > :06:44.There might be one or two showers around, particularly
:06:45. > :06:47.It will remain quite breezy if not rather windy,
:06:48. > :06:49.but a fair amount of bright or sunny weather about.
:06:50. > :06:51.By contrast, Christmas Day will be almost extensively
:06:52. > :06:55.Again, breezy or windy, and there will be some drizzle about -
:06:56. > :06:57.particularly so out towards the west.
:06:58. > :06:58.For the rest of tonight, temperatures dropping down
:06:59. > :07:01.to a range of about three to five Celsius for the majority.
:07:02. > :07:03.Might just be one or two showers around.
:07:04. > :07:07.Most areas will start that way as we head into tomorrow.
:07:08. > :07:09.You see a focus there for a few showers pushing
:07:10. > :07:12.in at times from the west, but very few of those generally
:07:13. > :07:17.Many areas will stay dry entirely and it will be a fairly windy day.
:07:18. > :07:19.Temperatures tomorrow range from about eight to 10 Celsius.
:07:20. > :07:21.It will feel fairly cool, but turning mild overnight
:07:22. > :07:24.and through into Christmas Day itself, temperatures perhaps as high
:07:25. > :07:30.That's it from me, have a great Christmas.
:07:31. > :07:36.big day? Christmas Day. It will stay mild and temperatures could reach
:07:37. > :07:41.14, 15. He is down bet that the national picture.
:07:42. > :07:52.It will be more northern parts of the UK that see the worst of the
:07:53. > :07:53.weather. Another storm is developing in the Atlantic. This will turn