03/04/2017 Spotlight

after passengers made their way smoke-filled concourse.

Tonight: We go onboard the newest navy supply ship RFA Tidespring.

The huge vessel has come to Falmouth to be fitted out -

a contract which secures jobs and millions of

Also tonight: From archaeologist to song writer, to eco champion.

Sir Tim Smit will be joining us in the studio to talk

about projects past, present and plans for the future.

A new lease of life for this historic building -

one of several across our region to benefit from ?15 million

And taking on the ocean - the Devon skipper preparing

We start tonight with a story which should help safeguard

jobs and provide a boost for the local economy.

A brand new tanker for the Royal Fleet Auxilliary has

arrived in Falmouth for fitting out work as part of a multi-million

RFA Tidespring and her three sister ships are a new generation of tanker

designed to refuel the UK's new aircraft carriers.

The work at Falmouth will help secure 300 jobs at the shipyard.

Spotlight's David George is there for us tonight.

New generation of type class tankers. She is about a year late

arriving here due to delays in her built in South Korea, but she is

designed to be more flexible in use, cheaper in operation and better for

the environment. She will be here for four months while work is

carried out. RFA Tidespring ride in Falmouth at

the weekend after a seven-week, 14,000 mile voyage from the shipyard

where she was built in South Korea. This ship and the other three like I

will carry out research unit and resupply at sea with the new

carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth, all with any Nato military vessel. These

ships are designed to support those ships at sea so they can carry

greater amounts of aviation fuel and diesel to keep those ships

operating. We also have the requirement to replace our old

tankers which are single hold so this class of tanker is double

hulls, meet the latest regulations for maritime pollution. Refuelling

at sea meets big ships moving at speed close to each other, a

difficult and dangerous manoeuvre but the tide spring is designed for

it. Down below are 17,000 cubic metres of diesel and is aviation

fuel and the cargo fuel comes up from the control room out through

deeper punishment rigs and that pumps fuel to the ships alongside.

The ships were built in South Korea in a contract worth more than ?450

million. 150 million pounds of that has gone to UK companies who have

provided much of the equipment on board. What we need to do is put in

specific mission sensitive equipment which is the weapons and

communications fit which gives to be done in a UK yard. It will take

about four months to get her into specification and we will continue

onto into service. This contract valued at ?20 million is good news

for the Falmouth Yard and the people who work is. Secures our workforce

for a year but the infrastructure and the community, hotels, tourism,

a great opportunity to secure economic prosperity for Falmouth and

the outlying regions. The four tankers will be able to resupply

Nato ships anywhere in the world and they will be equipped to carry out

other tasks such as humanitarian aid work and anti-drug operations. You

might have missed the names of the other three ships there, they are

tied to surge, tied force and tight race and each of those will come to

Falmouth for the same sort of work, one after the other, keeping the

yard busy for the next 18 months. After that the company hoped to have

won the contract for the ongoing maintenance of these ships which

will secure jobs for even longer. Apologies for the sound problems we

had there. Today marks the 25th

anniversary of the restoring of the Lost Gardens of Heligan,

near Mevagissey in Cornwall. Now, one of the most popular

botanical gardens in the UK Heligan had fallen into disrepair

as its workforce went off to fight The man behind the gardens,

Sir Tim Smit, went on to create the Eden Project and is now looking

towards China and beyond. We'll be talking to him

about his next 25 years in a minute, but first a look at some

of his projects in the Southwest. He is the businessman who has

always had bold visions. Heligan's botanical gardens

were overgrown and lost in bramble and ivy for decades until this

entrepreneur discovered them Sir Tim's best-known work,

the Eden Project, has just celebrated its 16th birthday

and after some difficult years, has seen visitor numbers return

to the million mark. And now controversial

plans are underway for The centrepiece a glass arc

surrounded by a surf lake and beach, hotel, designer outlet village

and a service station planned for 90 hectares of land by junction

27 of the M5 and Eden Sir Tim's first big building venture

overseas on the east coast of China. Sir Tim Smit joins us in the studio

now. Can you believe it is 25 years? I can when I see the state of me in

1990! Some would say you are very good at spending other people's

money. I think everything we have done so far in the south-west has

been very good for the south-west and Heligan, we did not spend

anybody else's money and today it is our 25th anniversary from opening in

east of 1990 once in a goat shed and I will never forget that because we

had a goat shed and 80 and, I did it with my friend John who sadly died

two years ago and without him this would not be there. To think where

we have got to know is fantastic. You are best known probably buy a

lot of people for Eden, but what does Heligan mean to you 25 years

on? It means everything because when you take a gamble with your life to

do something that you have a sense that you ought to do but has no

certainties and you promised yourself you will do something as

well as you can and there is a bit of pain along the way, but it is

totally life affirming. It put me in touch with John Nelson who worked

every hour of daylight to make it a reality. It was a wonderful feeling,

this gang, then the public came in watching us do the restoration,

people getting hooked on the place when we were not open. Today we have

had more than 6 million visitors and the thing that is satisfying is how

many people who were there in the early days are still there. Just

like the atmosphere we are creating at Eden, people do not want to go

because it becomes like a family thing. That is the most important

thing that we have built places that feel they are part of a community.

You want to the extent that community to China, so you are

taking their business model over four Eden to China. We will build

three Eden Project in China, in different parts of the geography. We

are also, we have won a competition to build with Grimshaw at Expo 2020

in Dubai, but at the heart of this is an important thing, in the

glamour, people forget we were built to build a serious environmental

project. China is not known for its environmental credentials, so how

does an Eden like Project fit in with China that has a lot of coal,

fire powered stations and peruse the atmosphere? One of the things you

have to be aware of is that we in the West love rather hypocritical

you to point the finger at others. What is the point of us doing

anything because India and China are pumping stuff into the air? There

are a lot of lies told about China. It is just not true. But you see a

lot of smoke in Beijing. There is a chum and is pollution problem but

the Chinese that we are talking to over there and the young people at

universities of passionate that their business excess is going to be

match by their passion to win back the environment. Something to cheer

you up, each of the last two years, China has planted more trees than

the rest of the world put together. The fastest incidence of putting

renewable energy in the world is China and they cannot believe that

we in the West are not dominating that. We allowed the excuse of China

polluting the world to prevent us from being dynamic. So much to talk

about. But thank you very much for joining us.

There were celebrations today in a number of coastal areas

across the south west as ?15 million in government grants

Ilfracombe's watersports centre is being helped as is a new visitor

attraction on Portland and a heritage centre at West Bay.

Spotlight's Hamish Marshall has been to two places in Cornwall

where existing buildings will be transformed.

It has been a landmark in Looe for centuries,

but the sardine factory is to undergo

Inside, the years and its links with fishing show, but soon this

Part of the scheme is a training restaurant to pass on vital skills.

We have a number of good restaurants in Looe,

but we have got a distinct lack of training facilities

and we will be working with a local chef who will look to train people,

local people, local children, people at student level

and hopefully they will go on and stay in Cornwall.

?1.1 million of a grant means work can start soon.

The whole project will include a museum, fishing store

and an outward bound centre to give it an all year round use.

One of the quirks of this old building is that it's back wall

is actually the rock face and one of the plans is that the climbing

wall as part of the Outward Bound Centre will be made up

History is not a thing of the past in Plymouth.

?2 million has been handed to help turn these plans into reality.

The whole bill for the history centre in North Hill is ?34 million.

Apart from this wonderful view, which changes and is very inspiring.

This building under St Ives bus station has won the jackpot.

?3.5 million means it can be turned into office accommodation

with a view and a half for small local businesses.

But actually trying to coordinate that in a place where real estate

is very expensive and often disappears from the market almost

before it has come onto the market means that to be able to actually

acquire a property that has the space and the views

and the potential that this building has got is literally

a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for St Ives.

It is hoped people can be doing business here in little over a year.

Security experts in the south west are warning that website

hacking and cyber crime are seriously under-reported.

The issue is believed to cost businesses in the region

One Cornish company making bespoke coffins

for people and pets is having to rebuild its business

online, after hackers disrupted its website.

I started my working life in a bank and I never envisaged painting

This company's stock and trade is pretty offbeat,

but it is a business just like any other.

It's prone to the same risks and victim to the same setbacks,

including interference with its website.

Just on the screen was coming up a red circle with a line on it

It has been quite stressful because obviously I have got

to start at the bottom again now, so that means recreating

a new website, recreating samples to go onto the website.

This small company making personalised coffins is not

on the high street like some retailers, so its website

is its shop window, the gateway to business further afield

from beyond its small premises in Bodmin.

The original website, we had enquiries from all over

England and they were shipped up, coffins were taken up

by the courier, but now it's been taken down,

it has made quite an impact on the business.

The business is being relaunched with a new website

Sue says she plans to monitor the page more closely.

I can only do as much as I can to safeguard.

We're actually putting it together ourselves,

so we will be in control more and be able to back up and keep

our own files, so it will be our responsibility.

While it is not known how much trade was lost thorugh

the interference with the web page, Sue is just hoping that her new site

will be less of a target for hackers wherever they are in the world.

Now a roundup of other stories making the news in the South West.

Secretly found kicking hitting and stamping on a cow. Owen Nichol told

the court he was absolutely disgusted with himself.

Devon and Cornwall Police have welcomed a change in the law

which means as from today, online grooming is

Police can now arrest anyone who sends a sexual

Over the last five years, in the South West there's been

a 144% rise in incidents of abusers meeting children

Dorset Police says it's one of the busiest forces in the country

when it comes to dealing with incidents involving drones.

Last year, there were 155 cases in Dorset, the sixth highest

There were 110 incidents in Devon and Cornwall,

but just six reported in Avon and Somerset.

It's time for the sport now and there was plenty for football

fans to get their teeth into this weekend.

Yes, we're at the stage of the season where it's

Exeter City have done themselves the world of good

Plymouth Argyle were beaten and missed out

I'm rubbish at maths, but Andy Birkett is not

bad with a calculator, so it's over to him to see

where things stand with six games left to play.

I think my old maths teacher might disagree.

It's never straightforward, is it, being a football fan?

And I get the feeling there are going to be

plenty of nervous moments still to come this season.

The odds of promotion to League One are still well and truly

in Plymouth Argyle's favour, despite this latest

defeat against Accrington and it was another goal from a set

The odds of a comeback weren't so good.

This season, the Pilgrims have only won twice after conceding the first

goal, although Anthony Sarcevic went close to a first half equaliser.

Sadly it was the same story in the second half

with the Accy keeper going above and beyond

So where does that defeat leave them?

The manager Derek Adams thinks their chances of winning

the league are now over, but they're still in

Despite a fourth defeat in their last six games

at Home Park, they're still ten points clear of the play-off places

So even if the chasing pack won all of their matches,

three more wins for Argyle would be enough to guarantee League One

It was another late show, this time against one

of their near rivals Mansfield, which saw them take

Trailing with a little over five minutes left,

neat play on the edge of the box ended with Ryan Harley

And then in the seventh minute of added time,

Reuben Reid was bundled over for a penalty.

The striker has developed a handy knack of scoring late goals recently

It's incredible to think City were bottom of the football league

Now they're in sixth and automatic promotion is still a possibility,

but the play-offs looks to be their most likely

Ten points separate ten teams all with promotion aspirations.

What I do know is if they keep doing what they're doing,

In the National League, relegation worries still haunt

Torquay United after another defeat at Plainmoor.

The Gulls had Myles Anderson sent off in the first half,

but held on until the last ten minutes to concede

The defeat sees them slip back into the drop zone.

I'd like to end on a high, but unfortunately the Cornwall

under-18s came up just short in the FA Youth Cup

After going a goal behind early on, the highlight for the Cornish boys

Unfortunately Middlesex hit back again to win 2-1.

A quiet weekend for most of our rugby teams with no games

for Exeter and the Cornish Pirates, but well done to Jersey, who,

as I'm sure viewers, in the Channel Islands have already

seen, have made it to the final of the British and Irish Cup.

They beat London Irish yesterday and will now meet

Plymouth Albion had a good weekend too -

they made it ten wins on the trot when they beat bottom

Congratulations to Devon's Heather Fell, the former

Olympic Modern Pentathlon Silver medallist who has just

taken part in an Ironman Challenge in South Africa.

She completed the 2.5 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride and the marathon

run in ten hours 46 minutes which was under her target time.

And she was still standing at the end!

A sailor from Devon has been named as one of the 12 skippers taking

part in the round the world Clipper Race.

Rick Powell, along with 700 others, will embark on the challenge -

thought to be the toughest ocean race - in August.

He's taken time out from his preparations to join us

Lovely to see you. Are you excited? Very excited. Is it something you

have always wanted to do? It is. It has sowed a seed something I would

like to do. Sailing the oceans, it is just fantastic, mother nature at

her best. You will be away from home for a long time. The whole trip is

11 months. My family are with me, they will meet me on stop overs. Are

they coming to the really glamorous ones? I bet they are, Sydney and

Cape Town. The ones we know where we are stopping our Cape Town, Sydney,

we will go up to China, across to Seattle and then on through the

Panama Canal, down to these coast of America and then on to Londonderry.

You have huge responsibility as a skipper because it can be very

dangerous. There is a huge responsibility. It is something I do

know but I have been heavily involved in the training of this

year's crew and I firmly believe that the four weeks of intensive

training is more than adequate. A lot of them are not sailors. Some of

them have done no sailing, but everyone does the four weeks

intensive training. It will be scary in places. Yes, it can be but we are

trained for it. What we want to hear it is it will start down here. At

the moment they start has not been announced but it would be nice to be

down here. Thank you. You are hard in training but thank you for coming

to see us. Good luck with everything.

The story of a Second World War land girl whose life became an enduring

tale of love has been turned into a stage play.

It played to a packed house on Exmoor and it's been created

by a Somerset man who's no stranger to writing - he scripted

600 episodes of BBC Radio 4's The Archers.

Now 92, Elizabeth Henderson still lives on the Cotswold farm

where she fell in love with farming and her husband-to-be.

That her life has become a stage play is, she says, rather nice.

Oh, yes, on the whole it's a plus rather than a minus.

No Final Life played to a packed house in Exmoor in Somerset.

It is set towards the end of the Second World War

when an 18-year-old Somerset girl wrote to a rather famous Oxfordshire

You see, George Henderson wasn't just a farmer,

he was an author and his book on how to work the land became iconic.

It was after reading that book that Exmoor farmer and one-time producer

of Radio 4's The Archers decided to take Elizabeth's

It is a brilliant story because she left school,

all she wanted to do was to be a farmer and that is why

It was that period at the end of the war and the year or two

after the war when there was a great sense of idealism and we were

going to make Britain better and the countryside

And Elizabeth's story will play to theatres across the West

It's time for the weather forecast and, David, it was a nice weekend.

Will it continue? I think so. We just have one day to get rid of and

that is first thing tomorrow. Glorious sunshine today. Breezy

along the south coast. For the week ahead, it looks promising. A bit of

rain tonight and first thing tomorrow. But after that, dry and

bright but cool over the night-time. The Knights could be on the cold

side. Two weather front is coming tonight. They combine to form one

line of cloud and that will travel across southern England. Once it

gets to the other side of us, this area of high pressure takes charge.

Slow to come in tomorrow but by Wednesday it is across the western

part of Britain and that is where it for stay. It lasts all the way

through to the end of the week, keeping us dry. You can see where

the cloud has been coming in today. The juices a few spots of rain now.

The whole lot will continue its journey eastwards but before that

has arrived, earlier today we had some sunshine and find weather. This

is Cornwall where there was some blue sky and most conditions today.

The breeze has picked up a little bit. The famous clock tower that was

badly affected by our storms and some very quiet conditions. It is

going to look different tomorrow. More cloud around why the end of the

night to night. Patchy bits of rain here and there, some hill fog and a

great start compelled to the last couple of days. Temperatures not

much lower than eight or 9 degrees. Tomorrow we have some of that rain

early in the day. Last to clear our parts of Dorset and East Somerset,

but further west we should get some sunshine. It is slightly colder air,

so don't expect the sort of temperatures we been used to. Our

top temperature of 12 or 13 for most of us. A few places might get up to

14 or 15. The Isles of Scilly becoming drier, some sunshine. A

brisk northerly wind. That should ease by Wednesday. And some big

waves for our surfers. The north coast will be rather messy.

Reasonable ways and clean on the south. There is the coastal waters

forecast. The winds from the North, occasionally six in the far west.

The drizzle clearing them fair and good visibility and it is good for

the rest of this week. Just the cloud will be tricky to get right.

Lovely weather on Wednesday, temperatures could do with being a

bit higher. Have a good evening. Not looking too bad for the start of the

Easter holiday. Welcome to the south-west if you have just come

here for holiday. We are back at 10:30pm tonight. Good night.