22/02/2017 Spotlight

One of the oldest fishing ports in the country

Plymouth City Council has earmarked the fish quay as an area to develop

But as our Environment Correspondent Adrian Campbell reports there's

a difference of opinion about what the final plans

Plymouth has hundreds of fishing boats coming into port every year.

These ones landing scallops are from Brixham.

The Fish Quay covers a small area, but it's important to the city

Plymouth handles more fish by weight than any other port in England.

Plymouth trawler agents auctioned more than ?17 million of fish

in 2016 and fishing employs more than 700 people afloat and a further

Plymouth trawler agents also act as the market for smaller ports

around the south-west, as well as other ports

But post-Brexit, south-west fishermen

and the owners of the Fish Quay Sutton Harbour Holdings

have different ideas about expanding the business.

There are two distinct divisions about how the Fish Quay should be

Both sides, though, agree on one thing, this area is really important

for Plymouth and it needs to be developed very carefully.

As the industry plans for a future outside the European Union,

fishermen have put forward their own ambitious ideas to ensure this

important part of the city is developed for its industry,

rather than shopping, leisure or housing.

The leader of the Labour group on the council thinks that should

benefit the fishermen, rather than the alternative vision

The policy talks about preventing things that are detrimental

to the fishing industry and so I guess luxury flats would be

detrimental to the fishing industry, rather than places where fishermen

could lay up their nets, repair their boats and all the rest

of it, so it's not just about tying up alongside and hoping

for the best, the quay is vital and a vital component of not just

the south-west fishing industry, but we can see it as an important

But Sutton Harbour Holdings thinks its proposals are in line

with the city council's plan to develop the area

for the enhancement of the Fish Quay.

What our plans are now is to ensure there is enough footprint available

to service the fishing industry going forward.

The remaining footprint that is left, which will be partly

unused land at the entrance to the complex, will be used

for purposes sympathetic to the industry, sympathetic

to the area and it will be used to provide funding

What kind of things might that be, then?

I really can't go into detail on that because

The owner of the Fish Quay, Sutton Harbour Holdings,

may not be able to explain the details of its plans for now,

but the local MP says the zoning of the area is designed

Well, it's about protecting the fishing industry and the fishing

facilities within the city and that is something

which is really important and post Brexit, the fishing community's very

keen to make sure they are going to improve the fish taken

and all of those kind of things as well, so I'm really delighted

that the council have decided to protect all those facilities

in Plymouth and right down to Sutton Harbour as well.

The city's plan won't be fully ratified for months,

but it will affect what happens to this important area

Government funding for Southwest councils was voted through at

Westminster this evening despite being widely criticised by

conservatives in the region as disappointing.

Our political editor has been following the day's events

This has become a bit of an annual ritual, every

February in this debate we hear MPs from rural areas like the South West

saying they are being unfairly short-changed and something must be

The St Austell MP, Steve Double, said it was very disappointing

that there he was at the same debate saying

He went on to say he would be voting in

favour of the settlement with the government,

All of our Conservative MPs did the same thing except the Newton

She said she endorsed the trenchant criticism we

We have had so many promises about looking

at inequality between rural and urban funding.

The deal we have got is not fair and not appropriate

given the level of people we have over 85.

How can we fund that with what the government is doing?

Has this issue been put to bed now for another year?

Cynics and opposition politicians would say yes,

absolutely, again we have had sound and fury from Conservative MPs.

But they then fall into line and agree with the

Those MPs have pointed to the fact the government does plan

a major overhaul of local government finance by 2020 and the Communities

Secretary said today the reassessment of rural needs will be

Anne Marie Morris said she hoped they might be

more help for rural councils in the budget in two weeks.

A brand new ?15 million intensive care unit to treat patients

who are critically ill has been officially opened

The project comes as the trust is also looking to close thirty two

beds in the hospital, but it says it's all part

of its plan to provide the best care to patients who need it most.

Tucked away in a corner of the brand-new intensive care

unit, the last of 100 or so staff were finishing up

Just help me with your breathing a bit there, Gary.

In shiny new surroundings, with state-of-the-art equipment,

A rare good news story about the NHS.

There are 14 bays in the new intensive care unit

and the first thing you notice is how much lighter and brighter

they are, with daylight lighting and so much more space for staff

As you can see, it's very clean, it's very bright, we have got top

of the range equipment and there is space for them

to get on with their job, because you feel very uncomfortable

when you're doing things for a patient and you are having

to kind of trip over their wife, their mum, saying I'm sorry

and you don't want relatives to feel like they are in the way.

The hospital's League of friends raised an incredible ?1.6 million

which has helped to pay for much of the top of the range kit and two

I'm very proud, actually to be standing here and saying that

The trust has effectively borrowed the money to pay

for the new facilities at a time when it is also looking to cut

costs by closing beds elsewhere in the hospital.

In a sense, this is all part of the plan that we described,

which is, where possible, we move people's care

into the community and provide additional services there.

For those people who need to be at the hospital,

and there will be fewer of those in the future, we need to provide

the highest level of care possible and this is at the very extreme end

of that, in the sense that it has the sickest

The makeover also includes new reception and cafe areas

The ICU is expected to open to patients in June.

The fire service has revealed it used a special water misting system

to help stop an intense fire at Exeter's Riverside Leisure Centre

from spreading across the entire building.

The centre is expected to be closed for the forseeable future

after yesterday's fire which started in the health suite.

At its height around 120 firefighters tackled the blaze.

So there were three lines of attack really.

Firstly to put the fire out in the sauna and health suite area,

We had to cut holes in the roof structure to get water mist

into the roof space to put the fire out there.

Are we going to be hit by Storm Doris? Yes, we had strong winds. We

will see a band of rain pushing in. It should clear quickly. Most of

tomorrow should be bright with strong winds. Along the north coast,

gusts of 60 miles an hour, perhaps even 70 on high ground. It is all

tied in with Storm Doris, clearing towards the east. Strong westerly

winds. The peak of the winds will be through the middle part of the day

and the early afternoon. All quiet by Friday, light winds and plenty of

sunshine. A much brighter day than we have seen recently. Barely damp

at the moment, lots of rain and drizzle. The breeze will keep the

cloud from getting too low. A spell of rain pushing in from the West at

dawn. Temperatures on the mile site, nine or 10 degrees. The rain will

clear quickly tomorrow. Isolated showers. The rain -- the winds pick

up leads in the day. Especially on the north coast and high ground we

could see strong gusts. Dry and bright on Friday, plenty of

sunshine, light winds with one or two isolated showers. Milder but

breezy as we head towards the weekend.

some sunshine around and light winds. For more on Doris and its

impact, here is the national weather.

Good evening, a rough patch weather on the way. Time to fasten your seat

belt. A high wind warning from the Met office, an amber one, so pretty

severe. Let's see where Storm Doris is right now, only just developing

to the west of the UK, in its early stages which is not good because it

will be at its peak when it crosses the UK. You can see this hook of

cloud which is where the twisting is starting to happen, which is where

the big mid-latitude cyclone is starting to develop and it will slam

into the centre of the UK during the morning and move across the country

through the morning and into the afternoon. Two rounds from this

storm, we will see some snow across southern and central parts of

Scotland first tonight and into the early hours of Thursday morning.

Let's look at the snow, also an amber warning from