30/03/2017 Points West

Our headlines tonight: policy? Join me on

The 20-minute op changing men's lives.

The treatment to cure a common prostate condition

is being pioneered in the west and gives instant relief.

I'm not getting up in the night, it's a complete transformation

No strings attached - the puppet master from Somerset

And tomorrow brings a mostly dry day, there will be some exceptions

to that and I will detail those towards the end of the programme.

A new treatment is being offered at Southmead Hospital in Bristol

which could make a important difference to men's lives.

It's called the UroLift and it's being used to help with patients

who have benign enlargements of their prostates.

The procedure takes only 20 minutes and it is cheaper

Our Health Correspondent Matthew Hill reports.

When I first had the problem, I noticed it seven or eight years ago,

I couldn't pee at all and when the doctor

He said it sounded like you was in agony.

He said it sounded like you are in agony.

Chris Monkton was shocked to discover he was suffering from BHP.

It's a condition which causes the prostate to grow

Until now, the only solution has been to take medication.

If that doesn't work, then you could be facing major surgery.

But now Chris has been offered another option.

A project at Southmead Hospital is offering a new treatment

And the best thing about it is that it's not particularly invasive

It's a bit like pulling apart a pair of curtains.

Permanent implants are put in place to hold the excess tissue away,

That's the tube that carries urine from the bladder.

There's no need for a general anaesthetic or an overnight stay.

It will reduce those symptoms of difficulty being, slow flow,

It will reduce those symptoms of difficulty peeing, slow flow,

having to pee frequently to empty the bladder

Until recently this operation has only been available privately,

but recently twelve patients have received it at Southmead Hospital

as part of an evaluation trial and it very much depends

on where you live as to whether you may get it.

In Gloucestershire and South Gloucestershire, a 10-patient

In Somerset there are early discussions to start a trial at

There are no plans for the procedure at Bath's Royal United

a 10-patient trial was completed at Salisbury Hospital on 24th March

and it should be routinely available from April.

more men to be offered about his condition as he wants

Now I've had the UroLift, I'm fixed, I no longer have to carry catheters

around, I'm not getting up in the night, it takes complete

The headteacher is getting ready for financial hard times.

Over 20,000 secondary school dues -- students will lose over this

proposal. When you consider we sipped on one of the lowest funded

counties, to lose 2.5%, it simply takes the meaning out of the

formula. But the new formula is only part of the problem. Even schools

which game under the new proposal are worried because wide -- rising

costs will be more than the increased funding. We've cut back on

our support staff, maintenance is cut to the bare minimum for

safeguarding and health and safety. The most painful cut, the reduction

in teaching time at A-level. The government insists it is listening.

The Schools Minister Nick Gibb recently visited Swindon, saying

they are keeping funding up while tackling the deficit.

We have protected school funding in real terms.

We're spending ?40 billion on school funding,

we've ever spent in this country on our school system

As pupil numbers increase, so will that funding increase.

But for many, there's still too little money in the system.

Unions and even the Commons Public Accounts Committee

say major job losses are around the corner.

That's something Simon and Terry know all about,

recently made redundant from their jobs in drama and PE.

Nobody's ever owed a job for life, but I felt after 30 years

it was very difficult to take at the time.

Cuts to subjects are already happening elsewhere too.

Seven out of ten south-west schools who replied to a survey

by a Teachers' Association said they were reducing their curriculum.

Design, German, Drama and Music were the most common GCSEs to go.

Schools try to protect core subjects like English and Maths.

many now say they can't make their finances add up.

We will have much more on big issues facing schools in a special edition

of the Sunday Politics at 11 o'clock on Sunday morning on BBC One.

A puppeteer who creates his own models and films at his home

in Bridgwater is now getting interest from international

Barnaby Dixon's work has also just seen him win ?50,000

This is Manu, the unique creation by Barnaby Dixon

Barnaby went on to win the Germany TV competition...

That will go towards equipment, lawyers fees, things get

Barnaby studied animation but decided to build

puppets around his hands so that he could make

To do that motion, that is a day's work in stop motion.

But this, it happens as quickly as you can perform it.

So far he's relied on crowd funding to support his work,

it's meant he can spend hours creating characters like Dinosaur.

When you are in charge, it gives you the authority and it is

Along with the character Dabchick, Barnaby has made

The good news is we are doing an Easter egg hunt, which means...

With offers from the US to make a TV series

Barnaby's self belief is paying off.

If you like doing it and other people like it, you can make a

Katy Perry has been unveiled as one of the acts who will play this

Part of the line up was announced today and the singer took to social

media to say she was looking forward to tea, crumpets and the weather.

Music lovers have been divided with some saying the line up

is the best in years and others saying the festival has moved away

Katy Perry has been unveiled as one of the acts who will play this

That is where I will have to leave it tonight, but we haven't finished,

Ian is up on the roof and has got the weather.

Hello, everybody. Today saw the warmest day of the year so far. As

we head into tomorrow, there will be noticeably fresher feel, though

somewhat cooler day but one which starts with the threat of some

showery rain in the morning. Then we will see a fair window on some dry

and generally quite bright weather and as we get onto the evening

period, we will start to see a renewed threat of some showery rain

pushing up from the south-west. Through the course of tonight,

temperatures brought a 10-12, a fairly mild night. There have been a

few showers around lately and in the second half of the night, with the

weak cold front from west to east, again, some showery outbreaks. You

will see them drift of north-eastwards as we head through

the first part of the day. Barring one or two isolated showers behind

that, there will be a drier and brighter period with sunny spells.

You will notice quite a breezy day and as we head into the evening,

again, some further rain starting to push up from the south-west.

Temperatures tomorrow time of year. The chance of a shower

on Saturday. Sunday will