18/12/2016 Points West

The brand new South Bristol link road had a test drive today.

Hundreds of cyclists became the first to use the route

The ?45 million road will also form part of the route

for the city's new Metrobus, in a scheme designed

It's not every day that cyclists are offered the chance to ride

And so hundreds turned out today to ride the five kilometres

Many of these cyclists live locally and think the new road

will help to ease the amount of traffic on certain roads.

I guess it'll take a lot of pressure off of Winterstoke

And I do a lot of cycling myself so, yeah, it'll be great

And it was really smooth and easy to cycle on.

I think it's going to make a massive difference around the

Parson Street area, where we are, in Bedminster, it'll

really relieve the traffic going through there, yeah.

The majority of those here today were positive

But the Green Party has opposed the plans right from the start,

and say building new roads will never help cut traffic.

At the moment, some of the plans that are coming

forward, only seem to be moving the air quality issues that

currently tend to be concentrated in the centre of

the city and moving them out to the fringes, in areas like

But, in rush hour, parts of South Bristol

For a business here which employs 1500 people, the feeling

is that this road can only be a good thing.

Really, the congestion in Bristol has made it very

Really, the congestion in Bristol has made it very difficult for them.

The new road will definitely improve their travel times.

It will improve the air quality in the area, I'm sure.

And generally, for the residents, it will reduce the amount

In the New Year, this new road will open to cars.

After that, part of it will be used by the Metrobus.

And if it helps to get South Bristol moving then it

won't just be these Santas who are the only happy customers.

A seasonal warning's been issued to Christmas partygoers in Bath

to take extra care around the River Avon.

12 people have died after falling into the river

in the past seven years - the last only a few weeks ago.

The River Safety Group in Bath is urging people to stay away

from the water after drinking, and says even strong swimmers can

To football - let's take a look at the weekend's goal action.

In the Championship, Bristol City lost 2-1

Aaron Wilbraham headed in this equaliser with 12 minutes

to go and City looked the more likely to win,

but with five minutes remaining the visitors snatched victory.

Bristol Rovers went down 2-0 at Shrewsbury.

Rovers almost took the lead in the first minute,

but Peter Harley's header clipped the top of the bar.

Swindon drew 1-1 with Fleetwood - Luke Norris with an early opener

for Swindon, before the visitors cancelled it out ten minutes later.

Yeovil tested Carlisle's resilience with a second-half comeback -

Nathan Smith scoring three minutes after the break - but the hosts held

Two goals in the space of one second-half minute saw Cheltenham

come back from a goal down to beat ten man Morecambe, Billy Waters

and Harry Pell sealing an important victory.

And it was a draw for Forest Green Rovers and Dover -

you might not be able to see it through the fog, but it was thanks

to an injury-time equaliser from Kieffer Moore.

Gloucester Rugby suffered a heavy first defeat

in the European Challenge Cup this season, as La Rochelle ran

in six tries at home - formidable in front of a home crowd.

In festive news, knitters from a church in South Gloucestershire

have created their own Christmas tree, which will later be recycled

Over 800 woolly green squares have been knitted or crocheted and then

by the St Michael's Yarn Bombers of Stoke Gifford.

Three squares even came from a knitter in America.

In January, the tree will be taken down, and sewn into ten blankets

We wanted to do something that could involve as many people in the

community as possible, so we could celebrate Christmas to melt

together. It was always in our plans to do something that we could give

to other people, so the plans to make the blankets were always an

important part of the project. 50 dancing Santas brought part

of the Forest of Dean The flashmob-style event,

by the clock tower in Coleford, was organised by students

from a local dancing school. They were performing to raise money

for the Make a Wish Foundation. Time for weather

check with Holly now. Some of us have had some

stubborn mist and fog for today and it's quickly re-thickening

for tonight so the Met Office has Some of it could be

quite thick and it could be quite

a hazard on the roads. Mostly staying frost-free

for tonight but, given some clear spells, we could see a bit

of patchy stuff perhaps But these are typical

low temperatures. An odd drizzly shower

or two but generally dry. Poor visibility, then,

to start the day tomorrow. Slowly that will lift and break

but it could be a pretty slow Some bright spells perhaps

coming through but, in And highs of 7 or 8 -

feeling a bit chilly, I think, A little bit of drizzle,

but turning more unsettled We're back a bit later than usual -

after those Sports Personality of the Year

awards, here on BBC One. Hello. Exactly a week to Christmas

but it did not feel that way in north-east Scotland today with

temperatures as high as 13 Celsius in Aberdeenshire. This is one

Weather Watcher's view. It is colder and Misty and murky in South Wales.

You could see some dense fog patches developing tonight and into tomorrow

morning. Southeast Wells, the Midlands and southern England are

most at risk of that. They're out Brexit rain for Scotland later in

the night.