11/01/2017 Points West

his family tell us of his terrible ordeal in the months

Calls for a safe place in Bristol for drug addicts to inject.

And rain will spread across the region tomorrow -

there is a chance that some of it may turn to snow.

The family of a man who was maimed by acid have been speaking

about his terrible ordeal in the 15 months until his death last week.

A woman is awaiting trial for the alleged attack

on Mark Van Dongen, but denies involvement.

Our home affairs correspondent Charlotte Callen has

Barje wants us to remember his little brother Mark like this,

but his body had been ravaged by burns, disfigured beyond belief -

Mark was Dutch, but had lived in Bristol for six years,

studying at the university and then working.

It took the police nine days to tell his family he was in hospital.

The police say it was hard to trace his next of kin.

His father, Kees, speaks just a little English.

Mark's father drove from Belgium every weekend to be at his bedside.

He couldn't have a room in the hospital,

and with little money, he slept in this van.

In the end it was this Belgian businessman, Patric Derdaele,

who helped them, raising money to help pay for fuel

and for a private ambulance to take Mark home to his father.

The scars for Mark's family will never heal.

Dutch expats in the UK have set up a JustGiving page

Berlinah Wallace has been charged with throwing

a corrosive fluid at him, which she denies.

The trial is now due to start in April.

Charlotte Callen, BBC Points West, Bristol.

There are calls for Bristol to provide a safe drugs clinic

where addicts can inject themselves under supervision.

They already operate in Europe and there are plans

I've been finding out about the potential need for them here.

My report does show scenes of people using drugs.

This old petrol station just opposite Temple Meads has

Covered in undergrowth and with some form of shelter,

people have been coming here and injecting drugs.

In the space of just two hours, those clearing up this site

found over 100 needles, filling these sharps bins.

So is it now time to have a safe place for users to go,

In Glasgow, they're looking at introducing one of these,

partly because they're getting a lot of HIV infections from sharing

needles, and you save about ?400,000 for every one of those you avoid,

but also because of these places allow the drug users to come

into contact with health workers and support, and then they can move

them on and move them off drugs, and offer them lives away from petty

crime and so on, to the benefit of society as a whole.

In Copenhagen, they already have safe injection facilities -

hygienic spaces where people who are on drugs can at least

It's good cocaine, a lot of heroin and some diazepam, benzos,

This centre is open through the night.

We give to them the needles, what they need to cook,

but the main thing is to save lives and to prevent the diseases

Back in Bristol, drugs workers believe there has been an increase

in people using drugs in public places, but is this the answer?

Maggie Telfer has worked with drugs for over 30 years,

and has been to the first centre of its kind in Switzerland.

These places were in Canada and Australia and right across European

cities. They do. There is a problem, in your opinion,

and that is about money. Health budgets are being cut, so how would

this work and who would pay for it? That is the $50 million question.

Government has reduced funding for drug and alcohol treatment services

to all councils. Bristol already saved ?1 million this year and there

is another ?1 million to come out. Public injecting has increased in

Bristol. Nobody wants to see people injecting in public and people who

inject in public, they have an alternative like a safer injecting

facility, they would definitely do that. The benefits are not just for

individuals themselves, there are benefits for communities and health.

People are in a hygienic environment... So it would need an

awful lot of different organisations to put their funding together to

make it happen. What would you say to people who say

this will just encourage people to do drugs?

No, there will be people out there are now in public places and the

next day and the next day, who are injecting in public because they do

not have a choice. They are not going to stop injecting overnight.

We are out working with them in many public parks and places, looking at

alternatives, but we do need to, kind of, if we want people to stop

injecting in public we have to give them an alternative like this.

Maggie Telfer, thanks for joining us.

A group of residents in Bristol have accused a property

management company of neglect, and attempts to intimidate them.

The "property guardians" say they've been living with damp, rats,

dangerous electrics and no heating in some properties owned

The authority is reviewing their agreement with the management

company, Camelot Europe, who find residents to live

Please treat the people a bit better.

Give them the basics - some heating and hot water

But recognise it as a housing situation, not a short-term

Camelot Europe denied all the accusations,

saying maintenance has been done and they worked hard

They said they would investigate complaints if brought

The Environment Agency is trying to find out who dumped an entire

child's bedroom into a river, causing a flood risk.

The furniture, toys and clothes were found at Compton Dundon.

It took agency staff two hours to clear the river.

Now it's the thing we've all been wondering about -

The forecast was that it could go either way.

Partially clearer, thanks. Good evening, everybody. A tricky

forecasting period coming up into tomorrow. I dare say many of you

will have gathered from various media sources there is a threat of

snow. Pinning down exactly what this fine balance is between rainfall,

which all of us will be at risk of seeing, versus those at risk of

seeing snow. There is a possibility that where we do get snow

developing, particularly later through the afternoon, it could in

some spots become disruptive in terms of the amounts coming down at

anyone place. If nothing else, a cold breeze has been setting up and

cold underpinnings now will be with the forecast for the next two or

three days. Tomorrow we have this warning from the Met Office for

snow. I will up once a particular risk, as is logical, but a smaller

possibility that at lower levels we could see a phase of snow across

some of our areas, more particularly further east words into the likes of

Wiltshire. Temperatures tonight down into about two or four or five

Celsius. By tomorrow morning first light, rain starting to spreading

from the West. As that trundles its way eastwards, signs of it turning

heavier and overhanging job rain in some areas. That will cause

problems. Watch the back edge of the rain departing, there is the

possibility of a phase of snow tracking eastwards, distribution and

extent start to the weekend. Time for the

national weather prospects if you are on the move.

Good evening, a lot going on with the weather in the next few days,

numerous weather warnings in for so buried in mind if you have travel

plans. Lots of isobars on the chart overnight which means it will be

windy for all. The strongest winds in Scotland, lots of wintry showers

with snow getting down to increasingly low levels and some

wintry showers in Northern Ireland and northern England. A cold night

for Northern England, particularly in more rural spots, frosty and I

see for some and some of the snow really blowing around over higher

ground in Scotland. Strong wind and further snow to take us into

tomorrow. It may well make for some tricky travelling conditions. The

forecast for tomorrow in the southern half of the UK's quite

tricky. We have got mild air bumping into colder air. The boundary

between the two, it will be an ugly mix of rain, sleet and snow

developing. Mild air comes in behind the weather front but the rain ahead

of that will be mixing with the cold air. Details are a