09/03/2012 Spotlight

A boost for rail services- some of our most overcrowded trains will

get extra carriages. Good evening and welcome to

Spotlight. More on the news from First Great Western in just a

moment. Also tonight: Digging deep - plans

to revive tungsten mining near Plymouth move a step closer.

South West students remember the victims of Auschwitz at a special

service there. And flying high - the school boy's

toys from 100 years ago. First Great Western has confirmed

that the South West is to get three extra carriages to relieve

overcrowding on mainline services. The company is converting 15 35-

year-old buffet cars to offer high density seating and three should be

in use on the Penzance to Paddington line by the summer. The

carriages are in addition to two extra carriages on the Truro to

Falmouth and Paignton to Barnstaple lines announced last year.

Spotlight's Scott Bingham reports. Back in November, passengers on

that for wrote to Falmouth branch line were happy to hear they will

get an extra coverage this spring to relieve overcrowding. Along with

another single carriage between Paignton and Barnstaple, that was

it. Just two out of 50 across the country and nothing on the main

line. First Great Western did its best at the time to explain why.

There are very few spare carriages available to have. We have

effectively got the last two. It will be some time before others

will be available because of schemes elsewhere in the country.

We will be doing our utmost to secure those as well. This is what

they have come up with, 1535 year- old redundant buffet cars. At

Kilmarnock in Scotland, the rolling stock is being stripped back to

bare metal and being refurbished with high-density airline-style

seating. When they are finished there will be added to existing

trains, making the busiest services one carriage longer. Three trains

between London and the South West should have an extra carriage

within months. The 5:10am, the 16th 30 pm and 1833 should have these

are. It can be a nightmare if you have to squat shop -- squash job on

a seat, especially with people who do not like babies. Saving money in

the long run. It is better it true we use them and make new ones.

Passengers should not have to wait too long for the benefits. By the

time of the Olympics, the vast majority of carriages will be in

traffic for her customers. All 48 carriages should increase Russia

capacity across the First Great Western at work by 9%. With demand

growing past, the extra capacity will be exceeded in just three

years. Spotlight has learned that the plan

to revive tungsten mining on the edge of Plymouth has taken its

second big step forward this month. The mining company has succeeded in

lining up tens of millions of pounds in bank loans. Our Business

Correspondent Neil Gallacher reports from Hemerdon.

For the moment, the one sign of this plan taking shape is the new

road. This will be the excess from Plymouth to the mine in hem be done.

-- Emerton. The mine company has had its loans approved. Even at a

time when loans are notoriously hard to get, the company has

managed to secure a �50 million of loan funding from well-known names.

This is a world-class tungsten deposit. It will produce 4% of the

world's tungsten and there is a lot of interest to get this project up

and running. The 55 million is half the cost of getting back into

production. The rest is due to come from companies buying contracts and

through sales are shelved. Just below the surface is the world's

fourth-biggest tungsten the puddle. Man everyone is pleased the mind is

reopening. I know it is jobs but it is just that this has been ruined

by all of the mining and it just keeps been more room. The modern

tungsten mine has had planning consent since the 80s. It should

take on employment when it neighbouring play in climate has

dropped. -- clay employment. A lawyer acting for a 19-year-old

man from Devon wrongly accused of rape is calling for a public

inquiry after a DNA sample became contaminated in a forensics

laboratory. Adam Scott was wrongly accused of a sex attack in

Manchester. His mother says it's beyond belief how the evidence

became contaminated. Scott is currently serving a prison sentence

for affray. A Plymouth hotelier who paid an

autistic chef �90 a week has been ordered by the employment tribunal

to pay him more than �40,000 in compensation. The owner of the

three star Astor Hotel, Joseph Louei, was condemned for the

exploitation of a very vulnerable young man who was disabled. 23-

year-old Adam O'Dee, who suffers from Asperger's syndrome and

dyslexia, won his claims for unfair dismissal, disability

discrimination and minimum pay. A serious accident involving a

pedestrian and a lorry closed part of the M5 Motorway in Devon this

afternoon. It happened between junction 30 and 31 at around 11

o'clock this morning. The scientific team in Cornwall

which leads the world in researching diseases affecting

dolphins is being broken up to save money. Scientists at Polwhele near

Truro also identify new diseases in farming and there's growing concern

the county won't cope if there's an outbreak of a serious new disease

like Schmallenberg. Our Environment Correspondent Adrian Campbell

reports. When a mass stamina of dolphins

take place in Cornwall in 2008, experts from me better meet

laboratory carried out much of the work to discover how they died. --

and a veteran of Audrey. Today the chair of a parliamentary committee

has asked DEFRA to provide further assurances and has said there may

not have been a silly enough consultation about the deployment

and job cuts. Local supporters have mounted a campaign. Polwhele is one

of the first laboratories in the country that identified BSE. It was

the first to identify lead contamination of cattle food. You

need this network to be on the ball with experienced eyes looking. We

have got that and I do not think it is acceptable to lose it. Farmers

could be badly affected by the decision to lose skilled staff.

These are the frontline professionals, except for the

environment and domestic animals and while life. We really use their

-- lose them at the peril. agency which runs Polwhele declined

to be interviewed but it said it has to make compacts -- cutbacks

and accepts that this can safely be moved to Devon, 90 miles up the

road. It's Stephen Otter's last day as

Chief Constable of Devon and Cornwall Police after five years in

the role. He's taken a job as one of Her Majesty's Inspectors of

Constabulary. When he announced he was leaving, the Police Authority

described him as an "inspiring leader". His deputy, Shaun Sawyer,

will take over on a temporary basis until a permanent Chief Constable

is appointed. Our political editor is with me. Why is his only a

temporary appointment? In November we will get the chance to vote for

an elected police commissioner. This is completely new and hugely

powerful, a bit like the elected mayor we have got in Torbay. He or

she will supervise the police budgets and priorities are and will

also have the power to appoint a chief constable. We will have to

wait until then to get a permanent chief constable. Potentially

controversial, is everybody happy? As with most big political changes,

no. The government insists this will make policing mark democratic.

Others feel that putting so much power into the hands of one

individual will be non-democratic. There are -- concerned it will

politicise policing. At the moment, councillors sit on policing boards.

The party's federal executive, which governs party policy but not

what it's MPs do and say in Westminster, has advised against

Lib Dem candidates standing. Labour is opposed in principle but that is

not stopping them from finding candidates. Through John Prescott

is putting the be interested. -- Sir John Prescott.

And there could be some independent candidates? There could be former

senior police candidates and a former television presenter.

More on the Sunday Politics at 11? Yes.

Coming later - a preview of the weekend sport, including some very

excited youngsters. This lot have got to meet some of the British

players this afternoon. And David looks back at one of the

region's most severe snow storms on this weekend in 1891.

The victims of the holocaust have been remembered at a special

service in Auschwitz, where 200 sixth formers from across the South

West lit candles. This week they've been touring the concentration camp

as part of a government-funded scheme run by the Holocaust

Educational Trust. Simon Clemison has been travelling with them.

Here's the second of his special reports from Poland.

They stare into the past, but making sense of it is a struggle.

You can get closer to history but it does not necessarily make it

easier to understand. This was persecution at hands of another

Western civilisation. They see inside the gas chambers and take a

look at some of the towns of hair shaved from the heads of the

victims. Sometimes people who come here find it is that you can see

which is most challenging. Come to the second camp and it feels as if

the guards have only just left. Her Gounelle is abandoned and the

watchtowers are still watching. Wander in, cross the tracks and the

years have hardly past. Walk down a corridor in some of the barracks

and it feels like a public building, a school or hospital. Come up here

and it is desolate. There is a row of wooden huts that have been

rebuilt but most were raised to the ground, the Chinese all that still

stands. -- the Chinese. This is not meant to be a museum, it is

supposed to awaken something. As links to the past it away it is

more important than ever. We do not want this to be consigned to the

history books. We want the next generation to be aware of that they

can also be engulfed by what happened with the Nazi ideology. A

lot of these children will not have a member of the family who lived

through the war? Absolutely, that is why letting them experience that

this is vital for the future of our society. Is it that morbid to

imagine what happened here? When you get to the museum you get the

context. It is harder to experience. A no less personal. In the museum,

you do not know about them. worst part is walking down the

railway track, because you hear all of the stories about that being the

end of the line, when families got split up. That is the hardest part.

There are so many different lessons that a person could take away from

studying the Holocaust. There is no one can be neatly packaged set of

takeaway lessons. -- conveniently packaged. We are not in a situation

where we are looking at the potential for another Holocaust,

but that is not the point. Challenging prejudice and racism,

being vigilant about genocide wherever it may be, is important

for us to try and cover him today. CHANCE IN HEBREW. This was by no

means an ultimate symbol. There are those who deny it ever happened. In

a service at the end of the visit, the rabbi rails against them as

victims are remembered. He tells a new generation of the need to speak

out against prejudice. They cannot fail to reflect on words spoken in

this setting. The stories and memories may be passing ever

further into history but these teenagers may keep them alive.

An ancient Squadron at aircraft have been discovered. They predate

manned flight. They are made of paper and they are thought to be

Eden Project of mischievous schoolboys and were discovered with

Latin homework and slates used for writing on, during the restoration

of one of the oldest buildings in Barnstaple.

How odd that this was school high jinks? These are paper darts that

we found in St Ann's. They were also -- all thrown up there by

pesky schoolboys! The sort of jolly jape that was all the rage 100

years ago. At that time the chapel in the heart of Constable was a

grammar school. -- Barnstaple. It is being restored. I made age of

the day before that perhaps I would find a crashed airplane up there.

It just so happens that there they were. The first month I found

Windies. I thought they were the new play with people on your

fingers. Then I found the first one with a pen been made for a fuselage

and had eight eureka moment and what, here they all are! It was up

in the eaves that they found the paper planes and darts. And they

keep finding more. These were found this morning. They have no

commercial value but their value in bringing this allied to connect

with the building is priceless. It is likely they will form an art

installation as a memory to their mischievous creators. I have e-

mails from people who remember making similar things and claiming

used to throw them at fellow- students. They have pointed ends

when they were wedged into the wooden shaft of the pencil and

apparently, you could throw them at the back of the neck and give

someone a beasting effect. -- beasting.

Time for the sport and Dave has news of a Devon College winning a

national hockey title. Rugby's Championship play-offs get

under way tonight, with Plymouth Albion out to preserve their status

in the sport's second tier. They kick off their relegation group at

Moseley, followed by nervous encounters against Esher and London

Scottish as they bid to avoid the drop into the National Leagues. The

Cornish Pirates aim to get their title play-off challenge off to a

good start against Leeds in Penzance tomorrow.

The weekend's football sees Torquay United attempt to gatecrash the

automatic promotion places in League Two. United go for a double

over Bristol Rovers at Plainmoor after beating them 2-1 last August.

Plymouth Argyle plan to follow up their midweek away win with another

at Rotherham. In League One, Yeovil Town look to widen the relegation

gap even further by winning at Oldham, while Exeter City, now in

the relegation slots, have to cope without skipper David Noble who's

banned for three games after his dismissal at Brentford. I don't

want to blame the referee for a where we sit in the league. We are

here through many things. It certainly hasn't helped this year

with red cards that have been generally soft against Bath, and

there was another one on Tuesday at Brentford.

South Dartmoor Community College were in the Olympic spirit today as

members of the British ladies hockey team visited the school.

Susie Gilbert and Beckie Herbert kicked off the Hockey Nation tour

in Devon, which aims to give youngsters a chance to try out the

sport in the run up to London 2012. Spotlight's Heidi Davey went along

to check out the action. The two members of the British

hockey squad were Cretan -- greeted warmly this morning. Their visit

was welcome as they presented a trophy to be under 16 boys' team,

who against the odds won the national indoor schools Trophy

earlier this year. Hockey is a passion of mine and throughout the

school and community. Earlier this term, the Dartmoor are under 16

boys' team won a national title. That is the first time a state

school have never once so it is fantastic. They were also on hand

to watch some of the younger players take to the pitch as they

completed in a tournament, an Olympic initiative to try and get

students involved in the sport. This is really important. We are

trying to put out as much as we can about our sport, get it and their

anger the excitement of for the Olympics. It is getting as many

people involved in the sport and translating our passion to tickets

and getting them involved. This is for after 2012 as well as before.

While they will have to wait until the summer to see if they make the

final cut for the 16 man squad, there is no doubt bridge players

have inspired some of the teenage players today. Meeting the Team GB

players was really good. You can ask them questions to help you get

further. It makes me think I could do it if I worked hard enough.

a lot of hard work and a lot of training, we could be looking at

the Olympians of tomorrow. Penzance kick-boxer Julie Kitchen

defends her World Professional Muay Thai Federation title in her own

county on Sunday afternoon. The 36- year-old fights Aleide Lawant of

the Netherlands over five three- minute rounds at the Carn Brea

Leisure Centre in West Cornwall. It's the first time Julie has

fought in the UK for nearly four years. There'll be a sell-out crowd

to cheer her on. Plymouth swimmer Antony James has

qualified for tonight's final of the 100 metres butterfly at the

British Championships. The event, at the London Aquatic Centre, will

determine whether James will be swimming in the Olympics this

summer. If he's successful, he'll join Exeter's Liam Tancock and

Plymouth College student Ruta Melutyte, who's representing

Lithuania at the Games. We have just heard that Anthoney

has finished third in the final and that does not meet the qualifying

time. He does have a chance to qualify again when he swims in June.

This weekend's point to point racing heads off to Exmoor for the

Dulverton Farmers meeting at Treborough Hill on Sunday. The

members' race is scheduled to start proceedings at 12.30.

Earlier we reported on the extra carriages being introduced to some

main line rail services. But spare a thought for the passengers on the

3 o'clock from Paddington who were delayed - by eight days! It was on

the 9th March 1891, and as David explains, it was the day spring

very abruptly turned back to winter. Late February in 1891 had seen

spring bloom and record warmth when suddenly, when to return. As that

low pressure system rank along the Channel, it polled in very cold air

along the top of the low pressure and brought snow too much of

southern Britain. It was Devon and Cornwall that sold the burnt of the

extreme snowfall and strong winds. Telegraph Lines, railways and roads

were buried. Devon and Cornwall were cut off for a week. 65 ships

were wrecked with the loss of 220 lives. The blizzard raged for her

four days, and half a million trees were blown down. The snow lay

everywhere, with drifts 20 ft deep. By Maj 14, the snow had melted and

spring returned, but the blizzard of 1891 will go down in history as

one of the worst ever recorded. That was this weekend in 1891.

Let's bring things up to date. I hope no nasty surprises in the

They were trapped in that train for two back days before they were dug

out. Before the forecast, I thought I would have a quick look at

February, which has been relatively Reservoir levels have recovered

well despite the dry spell. Let's see if there is rain in the

forecast. That is pretty unlikely. The weekend is right with bright

weather and that's of cloud around. -- lots of cloud. Sunday will be

more or sunny. There is a weak cold front coming in from the north.

Possibly more moisture around some drizzle possible this evening

across the north of Devon and through the Bristol Channel. A high

pressure is a strong feature. Some breaks in a cloud and a few of

those for the first half of the night before it generally becomes

quite extensive and thick enough across the Bristol Channel and

Exmoor for one or to sponsor of drizzle might wins from the west or

south-west. Tomorrow, lots of cloud and mist around on the coast of

Cornwall or Devon. Low cloud into Somerset at times. For the rest of

the day we will get bright spells and sunshine. The best to the east

of Dartmoor. Some sunshine across Cornwall in the afternoon. The

South Coast faring better than the north coast. Temperatures up to 13

or 14 degrees with a gentle north- There have been some big waves on

the west coast of Ireland yesterday and today. Some of the residual

smell will remove towards us. -- The outlook into next week, Sunday

is the better of the weekend days. We should see some sunshine

breaking through the cloud. That several spell continues into next

week. -- settled spell. Any breaks in a cloud on Sunday and Monday

could see 15 degrees as the top temperature. Just about frost free

for the weekend but with more of clear skies in the early part of

next week, temperatures were below were during the night time. It dry