24/01/2017 Spotlight

Welcome to Spotlight. that power.

Did his Ukranian wife arrange his murder?

Barry Pring was hit by a speeding vehicle in Kiev.

An inquest has heard his wife was probably involved

It's two years behind schedule and has already cost ?11 million.

The row turned legal dispute over this Somerset road to nowhere.

Living and working further apart - the new research

showing the lengths people are going to during their daily commute.

And how do you protect gorillas from the cold?

This is part of its comfort zone, and they are a bit wimpy when it

comes to cold weather. A verdict of unlawful killing has

been recorded into the death of a Devon millionaire whose family

are convinced his wife was involved Barry Pring was killed by a speeding

vehicle in Ukraine nine years ago. The inquest heard how his best man

was in no doubt Mr Pring's wife arranged or was complicit

in his death. From the inquest in Exeter,

Anna Varle reports. It has been a nine-year battle

for the Pring family to find out But does today's verdict

give them any comfort? The conclusion today

was what we expected. However, that conclusion still isn't

going to get justice for Barry, because the person that murdered him

is a free person. The 47-year-old had been celebrating

his first wedding anniversary He was with his wife and former

stripper, Ganna Ziuzina. The couple heard how the inquest

heard how the couple had left the restaurant and the couple

were trying to hail a cab. Ganna Ziuzina

turned back to try and fetch a glove, and then Barry was hit

by a car travelling at speed, The coroner said Barry Pring had

been tricked into standing on a westbound carriageway,

which was the wrong Despite the verdict of unlawful

killing, Devon and Cornwall Police have no jurisdiction

to take it further. As far as Devon and Cornwall Police

is concerned, it has always been We have no jurisdiction,

we can't get any jurisdiction We are just hopeful

that the Ukrainian authorities will pick up the verdict

from the coroner and can take further action back in the

Ukraine. The family, however,

vowed to continue the fight. Does this give you any

closure at all? And we will keep fighting until we

get justice. It's more than two years behind

schedule, there's still no date for it to open and it could cost local

council tax payers ?10 million. The new relief road in Taunton has

suffered a number of technical delays and now the council

and the contractor are locked

in a bitter legal dispute. Our Somerset Correspondent Clinton

Rogers has the latest. It remains the road to nowhere,

already two years behind schedule, I think people are getting

a bit fed up with it, That would sort them

out, wouldn't it? The mile-long road on the northern

side of Taunton is designed to ease congestion in a town with its fair

share of traffic jams. But this project has been beset

by technical difficulties, not least because of the construction

of a new bridge. I'm telling them to get

workers out here and get And this week for the first time

the county council, which has already

paid more than ?11 million Whenever this road finally

does open, the question is - who is responsible

for all the technical problems, all the delays and who is going

to pick up the bill which The fact is, both sides

are blaming one another, the council and the contractor,

and it is a row that has become now a formal legal dispute and the loser

could be faced with a very big bill indeed, I am told in

excess of ?10 million. The contractor Carillion

is refusing interviews The council is adamant -

we're not paying a penny piece more. I have a duty to defend

the council tax payer pound and I will do my best

to protect that. They want extra money -

I'm not a charitable person, So now lawyers are involved

in a dispute which could yet go to the courts and of course push up

the final bill even higher The economic dominance of our cities

has been highlighted once again in a report showing thousands more

commuters are heading into Exeter every day

and from even further away. Experts say a number of people

are simply prepared to make longer journeys to work,

while others have no choice. The hustle and bustle, the large

stores and modern buildings that crowd round the new bus station.

This was Exeter in the 1970s, but it seems, 40 years later,

the city is still a huge draw for workers.

Harriet Bradshaw has been following one commuter

And Jules Denning is on her way to work from Exmouth.

This is me, a quick morning, grab the things I need,

make a cup of tea and dash out the door.

It is roughly 12 miles to Exeter but traffic can slow things down.

My longest journey was two hours and 15 minutes door to door.

Would you ever consider moving into the city?

I think for me personally the housing would have to be

it would have to be the right type of housing.

And she's not the only one making a journey.

New research that looks at our patterns of travelling

into work has shown that now more than ever people are travelling

Analysis by planning consultancy Barton Willmore shows, in the space

of ten years, the number of in-commuters to the city has

I commute from Chagford which is just on the edge

and I live near Chagford because of the beauty of the area.

I work in the city centre of Exeter, live in Exmouth by the sea,

wouldn't live in the city centre, love the sea, so I need

But attracting more people means busier roads.

Now academics, councils and businesses are working

We need to take the opportunity we've got with this research to say,

actually, there are really practical ways we can help people

make better decisions about their travel behaviour,

alongside taking that strategic view about how we plan the city,

where we put housing and constantly thinking about how will people

travel when we build new housing developments?

And this research into changing travel behaviours includes looking

into more focused weather forecasts to encourage cycling.

Simon Prescott is a planning consultant who works

for the company which carried out the research in Exeter.

I asked him why more people were travelling into the city.

Most trips seem to be related to people travelling to work. We

plotted where people are starting their commute, and finishing their

commute, and it looks as though there is a 45% increase in

travelling to Exeter over 20 kilometres so it looks as though

people are travelling much further to get to their day job. Anyone who

drives into Exeter on a regular basis will know how congested it

gets. How much impact does this idea of people driving much further from

out in the outlying areas to go to work in Exeter, contribute to the

ongoing congestion problems in the city? Over a 10-year period, there

were over 8000 new journeys coming in from surrounding Exeter into

Exeter. Probably lots of those people sit on the roads thinking

that all of those cars are entering the traffic jam. It is a big issue.

Taking this information into account, what the City Council

officials and the surrounding areas need to consider, in terms of

managing this constant growth of people living in one place and

driving, everyday into the centre of Exeter? It is a very timely

question. Exeter City Council and the surrounding three authorities

have started work on a joint plan looking forward to 2040, to try to

identify how many new homes and jobs they need and where they are going

to be located. They need to take into account commuting patterns and

make sure that the plan properly for the infrastructure of road, rail and

the bus system, otherwise, existing problems are going to get much

worse. just short commutes -

some of you are driving very Chris says I work for an IT company

in Newbury and mostly work If I need to commute in its 400

miles in total and takes 3.5 hours. Colin emailed to say,

I travel each day to work from Liskeard in Cornwall,

to Bridgwater in Somerset. A daily round trip of 202 miles. And

on Facebook Katherine told us - I travel from south-east Cornwall

to Plymouth every day. My husband travels to London

for work every week because there is no work for him

in Devon or Cornwall. A fit-for-purpose train line

would be a godsend. And Fay says -

I used to work nationally. Regularly drove 700

plus miles per week. But when I was made redundant

it was a chance to make changes. I'm fitter, I'm happier

and I have more time. I would definitely think twice

before going back to long commutes. Thanks for all your comments -

keep them coming. Those are the addresses to get in

touch with us. On to other news from around the

region now. An investigation's underway

into the cause of a large fire At its height last night 50

firefighters fought the flames Investigators are trying to find

out whether the fire There are calls for the helicopter

industry to be made part of the government's new industrial

strategy to help safeguard

jobs in Somerset. Yeovil MP Marcus Fyshe has told

a Commons debate today that 3,000 local jobs depend on Leonardo,

formerly Agusta Westland. There's been a 48% rise

in the number of people making it the fastest

growing regional airport. Last year more than a third

of a million people passed through its doors and a number

of airlines have increased Campaigners in North Devon

who are fighting to save their two theatres are calling on

the local council to help. and the Landmark in Ilfracombe went

into administration yesterday. North Devon Council is blaming

falling ticket sales It says it gave the trust more

than ?300,000 this financial year. The doors are closed now but these

campaigners want them back open, and soon. This woman performed that

theatre in Barnstaple last week. I feel heartbroken by the news. It is

so sad that it is all going to be gone and this makes people like me

inspired and able to dream big and I don't want to play just another

nightclub. This and the Landmark Theatre in Ilfracombe have gone into

administration. There are calls for the local council to step in. They

don't have the money, we understand that, but we believe there is a

viable future for these theatres and as North Devon council owned theatre

buildings, that we can come to a solution. We are pleading with the

council to work with us and the administrator to find a way to get

doors open again. The North Devon to distrust blamed falling sales and a

cut in public subsidy from the local council for its financial problems.

These closures leave the plough arts Centre in great Torrington as the

last art centre for miles around. It's a rise of just ?9,000 a year in

public funding. Many organisations have been on a journey of weaning

themselves off public funding out of necessity and it is a journey that

some have made more successfully than others. If you have got two big

theatres with big overheads it is difficult to say that you will cover

that from the box office. It was or was gone to need some sort of

support. As a society we should be supporting the arts. If you go to

other countries, they support the arts, phenomenally. The subsidy to

support the favours from the castle was over ?300,000. The council says

that it is facing financial pressure and needs to save money. It would

not comment further whilst the administration process is ongoing,

leaving campaigners waiting for a verdict on the theatres' future.

What makes a good B? Stay with us to find out

why this one has been voted the best in the world.

The African silverbacks trying to cope with the Devon cold.

We're looking forward to that one, aren't we?

We both love cooking and try to use up leftovers.

Well, a charity which cooks meals using food thrown out by businesses

and supermarkets has been so successful, it's now expanding.

The Real Junk Food Project set up in April last year and has fed

hundreds of people in Plymouth and South East Cornwall.

Well now it's looking to develop the idea and has launched

a fundraising campaign for a permanent base.

Emma Thomasson has been to see how it works

Tucking in, but this is no ordinary lunch. Everything he was destined

for the bin. How about asparagus soup? Beef ragout, with potatoes,

for the big apple charlotte and custard. It has been made from food

donated by supermarkets that they could not sell before its best

before date. What we do is very inclusive, doesn't matter what the

circumstances are, your welcome to eat with us, and when you pay you

can pay with the money donation or you can pay with your time or

skills. People volunteer, do some washing up, some deliveries, and

there is an exchange in that way. It works really well. The one some

salad or veg? Jese heads a team of volunteers going round Plymouth and

Southeast or -- South East Cornwall, cooking. The food is prepared in her

own kitchen then transported around churches, toddler groups and even

their pub. But is it any good? Oh, yes, the meat is lovely and tender.

Yes, everything was just wonderful. Me and my husband have always

worked. And we struggle ourselves, but I make everything go round. I do

not waste, I don't throw out, if I can use it I use it, and a lot of

other people do at home as well. I was thinking about the meals that I

do for my four-year-old boy and how much ends up being left at the end

of the meal, sometimes four or five carats and you add that up and that

is a lot of food wastage. It has changed my thinking today. And he is

not alone. The project has been so popular, a second team is now

working in Torpoint and Jesse is working to set up a permanent base

near Liskeard with plans for Linton and Falmouth. The government says 8

million tonnes of food is wasted every year, which equates to ?16

billion simply being thrown in the bin. This project hopes the work it

is doing, however small, will go some way towards tackling the

problem. It is lovely. It did look good, didn't it?

Now, we had images of Exeter's past earlier in the programme

and here's another familiar sight of the South West from the archives.

House after house on road after road offering bed and breakfast.

But the traditional guest house has been changing.

Many are still offering the full English breakfast,

with customers expecting a more upmarket atmosphere.

Tourism leaders say the move towards the boutique hotel has been

key in driving the industry forward and one guest house in Dorset is now

reaping the rewards with major recognition.

It is a bitterly cold day in Dorset, but this place has the warmest

welcome in the world. And that is official. We are writing down phone

messages. Quite a few e-mails have come in. Clive and Lisa Orchard say

that they are amazed to have been named the best B on the planet for

the second time. It means a lot. It means that our guests have thanked

us for their stay. We were just very shocked and very happy, obviously.

What were you doing before you decided to move down to Dorset and

open a B? We had a clothes shop in West wittering. I was working in

data communications near Reading. Eventually we sold the shop and saw

the Data Communications Bill 's less and we chose a bed and breakfast as

being a nice lifestyle. This is a Thomas Hardy room. From the guest

reviews on TripAdvisor it is clear that this B offers more than just

clean sheets and pulling this. They think that Dorset is beautiful, and

it is not difficult to share that with people. When I was six or

seven, my sister taught me to swim in this area. So, for that reason, I

think that is what makes it very personal to me. You won the award in

2014 and in 2017. For the two years in between, what went wrong? We

relaxed! We genuinely just think of the B as an extension of our homes

anyway. That was our commitment when we started, just to be ourselves and

wanting people to share the area. Whatever their secret, it has sent

Bindon Bottom to the top of the world's B destinations.

Now the weather recently has been quite chilly with frosty nights

and cold mornings and for many of us that means wrapping up

or you could put your heating on!

But if, like some of the animals at a Devon zoo,

you're used to much warmer climates, how do you cope?

Well the keepers at Paignton Zoo have been feeding them hot potatoes,

as Spotlight's John Danks found out.

These flamingos have the right idea, keeping their heads down during the

icy weather. With temperatures not climbing much above zero in

sheltered areas, some animosity turned their backs to the court.

That is why at Paignton Zoo they are dishing out hot potatoes to the

guerrillas. It's very cold at the moment and the guerrillas with the

love hot potatoes. In weather like this it is nice for them to have

something hot to warm them up a little bit. These western lowland

gorillas are native to Africa. Weighing around 200 kilograms, the

powerful primates are kings of the jungle, but here at Paignton Zoo...

With the guerrillas and the orangutans, they are happy going

outside when it is a bit colder. The guerrillas will have a nice, heated

house outside, so in weather like this they tend to spend a lot more

time inside. We try to get them out as much as possible to get some

fresh air and sunshine, but it does tend to be food that gets them out

when it is not so nice like this. In when it is not so nice like this. In

the aviary, these noisy tropical birds are spending the winter

indoors. No jacket spuds required. The birds are lucky, because they

get shut away in nice, warm houses with heating on. It is the

zookeepers who suffer the most because they come in in the morning

and the padlocks are frozen, their hands are frozen, they have two melt

ice, hosepipes are full of eyes, so they are far worse off than the

birds. It is a year-round job for the keepers, making sure that the

animals are well looked after. A hot potato to keep away the cold seems

to be doing the job. Sadly for the guerrillas, there is no prospect of

chips being served, just yet! -- Paignton Zoo -- gorillas. We've had

lots of reaction to this story about commuting. Many of you have told us

about your long journeys to work. Graham has e-mail to say, I commute

48,000 miles every year, just passed my 500,000 miles mark, from

Ivybridge to Bristol, daily. Martin says, I travelled from Dunster in

Somerset to London for work every day. I now work from home which

means I am permanently on my wife's nerves! I'm sure that is not true at

all. Thank you for your e-mails, keep them coming in. It is time for

the weather forecast. Is it jacket potato weather, David? There is some

good news in the forecast. It is not quite as

cold. It is slightly less cold. That is the best way to describe it. You

have to wait until Friday before that happens. Tomorrow and Thursday

is going to be pretty chilly. Tonight, another frosty night with

some fog patches already forming. More of that come overnight. A cold

wind tomorrow, with the breeze picking up steadily, helping to

will have some sunshine, perhaps will have some sunshine, perhaps

even more sunshine than we saw today, because we have this strip of

cloud covering much of the of England. That layer of cloud has

produced a few showers in North Devon and up into the south Wales.

The main rain bearing cloud is out here to the west. This is a bit

closer than it has been. It is gradually moving towards us as the

high pressure begins to weaken. What is actually happening is we are

squeezing the isobars, so there's more of a breeze developing. The

breeze continuing to increase and, overnight tonight and into Thursday,

we have a cold when coming in from the South East, head of this line-up

patchy rain, and drawing in some very low temperatures from central

Europe. They have had it bitterly cold over the last few days. And

that cold air reaches us on Thursday. So although we have more

of a breeze, if anything it will feel even called on Thursday. Friday

is hit and miss but there's a weather front coming in on Friday

that will change things. It will introduce slightly less cold air. It

might introduce some outbreaks of rain as well, although the detail on

that is elusive at the moment. That cold air comes across from the other

side of the channel and through Thursday not only will be have low

temperatures but with the strength of the wind it is going to feel

bitterly cold. It will feel like -1, -2, so wrap up warm if you're out

and about on Thursday. This layer of belt has produced some showers and

clouded the skies over a good part of the South West. This was earlier

today in Quantock. For the servers, the waves have been quite

attractive. A pretty good day for many beaches over the last couple of

days. The sea temperature at the moment is around nine, 10 degrees.

The waves will increase over the next couple of days as you see the

South West winds increasing. What's going out in the Atlantic that will

help our surfers, producing some fairly sizeable waves. Tonight

across the eastern parts of Somerset and Dorset, we will have thick,

freezing fog. If you are travelling out of the region, if you're one of

these long-distance commuters we have been talking about heading

towards London, especially, you're going to run into some very thick

fog and it is dangerous stuff, because it's also freezing fog. More

of a breeze in the second half of the night, keeping the thick fog at

bay. It will be a cold night with a range of temperatures. The fog is

going to be patchy with temperatures anywhere from zero up to four

Celsius. Tomorrow, Misty and foggy in the east, but foremost, a better

day with sunshine with wind increasing. The breeze will continue

to increase in most of the day in Cornwall. And it will lift

temperatures up to 9 degrees, but further east, temperatures not doing

quite so well. That's the forecast for the Isles of Scilly, right and

windy. And the times of high water... -- bright and windy.

And the coastal waters forecast... That's all from me. Have a good

evening. Looks like we're going to need more hot potatoes at the zoo on

Thursday. That's all from us. We'll have an update at 10:30pm. From all

of us here, have a good evening. Good night.

You might get the impression that history is just a record

Very often, the line between fact and fiction

In this series, I'm exploring how three turning points in our history

have been manipulated to become our greatest historical legends.

I want to be entertained. Entertain me.

It's the last chance to impress the judges.