10/04/2017 Points West

Good evening from BBC Points West. Trump. Here on BBC One, it's

Our headlines tonight - a backing from the top.

The Chancellor tells us why having a metromayor will be good

You'll start to see the benefits coming through in terms of faster

growth, more sustainable transport system is planned across the whole

area. How the warm weather

and one of these can result And Tuesday will bring dry and quite

sunny conditions. Details towards the end of the programme.

The chancellor Phillip Hammond has been in the region today

giving his backing to the new Mayor for the West of England.

Almost a million people will get the chance to vote

During a tour of the SS Great Britain Mr Hammond told

David Garmston how much the new post would cost.

Over 30 years, there's going to be about ?900 million

That's a really quite small amount of money compared to the benefits

of having an integrated approach to delivering services

and investment in the area, making sure that the business boom,

we can only really call it a business boom that is going

on in this part of the country is properly supported

Some viewers may be confused because Bristol has a Lord Mayor

The other local authorities involved also have leaders and,

Well, the point is to try and reflect what is a real economic

geography, interlinked markets for labour, for goods, for services.

Make sure that they are working effectively together to harness

the benefits of planning across a wider geography,

as has been done so successfully around Manchester.

It's beginning to happen in the West Midlands and now

we want to make sure that other key economic areas in the country are

It does seem strange when you are trying to take out

layers of management elsewhere, particularly in the NHS,

It is about harnessing the benefits of planning

across the whole economic geography, a city region,

Can I just point out we are on Brunel's ship.

If you go down there, just under Brunel's bridge,

the other side of the river, there's North Somerset,

They've decided to not be involved in this scheme.

So, it's not really going to work as a regional mayor, is it?

You've got some of the key players not involved.

As it succeeds, demonstrates success, of course, others might

You think they might come on board? That's an open question, isn't it?

We've got a combined authority, ready to go now and it

will demonstrate by its success the value that it delivers

to local people here within the authority.

If people in surrounding areas see those benefits,

they may wish to think about that in the future.

Earlier today the Deputy Leader of North Somerset Council

Elfan ap Rees told us he didn't regret the decision

We don't believe that we need to be getting involved

We have control over our own destiny and, obviously, we will continue

to get funding for the things that we want to do in

North Somerset, so I can't see things changing.

And if you want to check out who is standing in the big

Mayoral contest and read more about their views,

then log on to our special webpage - you'll find it at

More than 700 parking tickets have been handed out

by a council in its first week, since starting a crackdown

For more than a decade there have been no traffic

But now the responsibility to hand out fines has been handed

back from the police to the local authority.

Out on patrol with Allan Taylor, the man in charge of

Just so you know, there is an information sheet,

That's a week of warning that parking enforcement is back

So far, over 700 fines have been issued by the

So there's a van with a yellow ticket over there.

Half of that if it is paid within 13 days.

Since we've been giving warning notices out,

Last week, people were actually stopping us, shaking our hands,

thanking us, giving us tips, "Can you come and visit our road?"

All sorts of things we're not quite used to.

Shaking hands with a traffic warden? It happens.

It must be a nice change. Certainly a nice change.

That's a claim I had to put to the test.

It's easier for us to park outside a shop, but not for,

Where do you park if you live here if you work shifts, as I do?

And obviously, I work in the same street, so I have

All the money raised goes into the system

Even fines collected from errant council employees.

We can't bring the council into disrepute, council officers

I sent an internal e-mail round our system before we started saying,

If you don't, you're just as liable for a ticket.

He's in a display area without displaying a ticket, which is ?50.

But, yeah, unless he comes back in the next couple of minutes...

The advice, then, from Allan and his team?

Dog owners are being warned to beware of the danger of adders

if they take their pets for a walk in woodland.

It's after this dog, Molly, was bitten while she was walking

in woods in Somerset and nearly died.

Her owners hadn't realised at first what was wrong with her.

Well, he loves the place and was running around

It was a ten minute walk but by the time we got

to the car, she just lay down and that was it,

The BBC's wildlife expert Mike Dilger told me

The adder is a rare snake and declining, it's disappeared,

just down the pan, over the last 40-50 years.

A loss of habitat. It is a rare snake.

It's also a very timid snake so 999 times out of 100,

when I was humans go clomping around, making noise,

rustling the vegetation, it will always disappear.

The only time an actor is likely to strike and venomate

is if it's cornered or accidentally trodden on, or if a dog,

for example, comes across it quickly and is surprised.

I think the weather at the moment is playing a part.

It's an animal that hibernates right the way through the winter.

Beautiful weather at the moment means it's basking early,

because it's warm, it will be more active early and if dog walkers

are out early because snakes will be active and they may well encounter

It is a snake that can cause a few worries but it's

They are venomous, though, that's the problem with it, isn't it?

We have three stakes in Britain, this is the only venomous animal.

I would liken it to a wasp or a bee sting.

Interestingly enough, a survey carried out in the 50s,

60s and 70s by one of the medical journals found one person died

years from a snakebite, an adder, and 61 died

So, if you were very young or very old or tend to suffer hyper allergic

reactions from something like an adult fight,

then you need to get to hospital quickly and get the antivenom.

For the rest of us, for a dog, be calm, be relaxed,

go to the hospital, tell them what's happened and they'll be

This warm weather does bring out, not only, adders, you've got ticks,

and also I have heard about false widow spiders, as well.

Certainly, on the south coast, a false widow spider is found.

It is actually in the walls around BBC Bristol and it's got

But that of an week needn't worry about at all.

I would argue, the countryside, the Mendips, are much safer place

to be than Whiteladies Road in Bristol, or Froome, or Chard,

They are really safe places to enjoy.

Have a great time and you will be fine.

And thank you for worrying every BBC employee here.

That's it from us tonight. More news on the BBC website and on your local

radio station. That tomorrow from 6:30am. But for now, good night and

I will leave you with Ian and the forecast.

Temperatures dropping at about average or somewhere below but there

will be a lot of dry weather tomorrow with a few exceptions but

no great amount of rain. We are not expecting any rain through tomorrow.

A fair amount of sunshine and pleasant under varying cloud.

Tonight, it's slightly to end up a bit chillier, perhaps as low as

three or four Celsius. Higher than that in urban centres. Tomorrow,

good deal of sunshine around. Mixed amounts of clouds through the day.

It will remain settled. Temperatures today 12-14 C. It could get a little

bit higher tomorrow. Beyond that, into the Wednesday period onwards. A

weak front running southwards. More cloud with little light rain mixed

in. I'll hand you over to Good evening. Let's cut to the chase

the first big holiday weekend of the year is on the horizon and if you

consider last weekend as a taster for the summer, this weekend is not

looking too bad. It will be a bit cooler, temperatures this week and

closer to where they should be at this time of the year thanks to the

north-west breed and the reason for that, if we look at the jet stream,

coming across the Atlantic pushing from north to south -- north-west

breeze. It separates the high pressure and low price and it allows

the northerly airflow to