16/03/2017 Spotlight

Good evening. for the news where you are.

The skipper of a fishing boat has been found guilty of trying

to smuggle more than a tonne of cocaine into the UK

through Falmouth in one of Britain's biggest ever drugs seizures.

His two crew have already pleaded guilty to drug importation offences.

Today the jury at Bristol Crown Court was told

the drugs had a street value of nearly ?84 million.

All three men will be sentenced next month.

This red trawler is packed with cocaine.

Left and right, Border Force speedboats close in.

The biggest seizure of cocaine in Britain in 2016.

One tonne, with a street value of ?84 million.

There was no physical resistance at the time.

This undercover Border Force agent was there, and told me breaking up

You want to get your feet firmly planted on the deck

Michael McDermott, David Pleasants and Gerald van de Kooij

were the three men on the trawler, and are now convicted

?84 million in street level value, but that's millions and millions

of wraps that would have been in the hands of dealers

The only way Border Force and the National Crime Agency

could stop the gang involved was because they had

access to fast boats, helicopters and cutters

But the British coastline is around 8000 miles long,

so what can the handful of cutters on patrol do?

The captain says they can still send a powerful message

I want this to be recognised by the opposition as

The trawler the Bianca is to be sold, and the cocaine found

But all the agencies involved know it won't stop

trade, and their vigilance will be tested again.

Duncan Kennedy, BBC Spotlight, with Britain's Border Force.

A date has now been set for the sentencing of the former

Royal Marine Alexander Blackman, who fatally shot an injured Taliban

It follows a Court Martial appeal which ruled that his conviction

for murder should be reduced to manslaughter on the grounds

Changes to the way Cornwall's road network is managed have been

introduced following the death of a woman in a landslide in Looe.

Susan Norman was crushed to death four years ago.

An inquest said the council should have known there was a "real

Today the council said lessons had been learnt from her death.

Sandplace Road in Looe, March 2017, where Cornwall Council

The same month four years earlier, a scene of devastation.

Where a grandmother, Susan Norman, was killed in bed as tonnes of earth

Today, Cornwall's cabinet met to approve new national guidance

That includes problems like those experienced in Looe when torrential

rain rushed down the road behind the properties and

It's thought that caused the landslide.

Today, we've agreed some changes to the way that we'll manage

and maintain our road network in the future.

This is in response to the new national code of practice

for managing highways infrastructure which was published

We've also taken the opportunity provided by this review to take

account of the lessons learned from the inquest into the tragic

It's clear Cornwall Council is carrying out work here in Looe.

But residents say it's not the right action

to protect their homes and their safety.

They're not convinced by the local authority's new code of practice.

The council says it has carried out improvements

since Susan Norman's death, like a new retaining wall

at the sight of the landslide, and the pinning of the bedrock.

Christine Butler, BBC Spotlight, Looe.

The clock is ticking on more than ?130 million of EU

Businesses are being encouraged to apply for the regeneration money

Our business correspondent Carys Edwards reports.

Dan Dicker makes a living out of waste, turning

household rubbish into trays, clocks, even park benches.

So we just need to touch it up, and then we'll spray it

These bespoke house signs are made of old plant pots.

And Dan's developed software so they can be ordered online direct

from his factory in Cornwall, an innovation made possible

We're a business, we need help, there's support available,

and ?2500 does arrive in your bank account.

The cash, which has to be match-funded, has transformed his

eco-business and led to two new jobs.

Now Cornwall is urging more people to apply for European funding

Over the years, millions has been awarded to help

regenerate the county which, whilst beautiful, is one

But with Brexit on the cards, this latest round of funding,

which runs until 2020, is likely to be the last.

Over this period, the EU has awarded ?300 million of funding to Cornwall.

Of this, around ?100 million remains up for grabs.

Devon and Somerset have been given around 100 million,

Dorset's had around 50 million, and around 10 million in funding

It's there and it's available, and it's an easy process.

So if you're running a business that you can see some good

growth opportunities, then funding is available for you.

Projects where funding has already been allocated include

the ?30 million for Centrica's renewable energy project,

and 1.5 million for Cornish rivers to encourage fishing.

There are thousands of smaller schemes such as help

for the unemployed or skills training, investment

Carys Edwards, BBC Spotlight, Perranporth.

Joining me in the studio now is our political

Martyn, we heard people being encouraged to apply

What happens, though, if it doesn't get allocated

This money is offered on a "use it or lose it" basis,

and with these programmes, there are usually a number

of internal deadlines by which a certain proportion

of the money needs to be allocated to a project,

and if that doesn't happen, then the money goes

And I can remember certainly with previous programmes

there would be occasional panics because one of these

deadlines would be looming, and it would look as if at least

As Carys said in her piece there, this is likely to be the last big

chunk of EU money that Cornwall will now receive.

Yes, with Britain leaving the EU, there won't be any more

The Government has guaranteed that this current funding programme

will continue up until 2020 as planned, even if Britain has

But attention is now focusing to what happens beyond that,

because Cornwall reckons that had we remained inside the EU,

it would have been eligible for another ?330 million

Now, it wants the UK Government to say they will put up that money

to replace the money that they would have

Now, whether that will happen, nobody knows.

It was cut and dried under the EU rules, because the money

was automatically awarded if the economy in Cornwall was

There are no rules which apply to UK domestic funding in the same way,

and of course, in the years to come, there will be a lot of competition

for a dwindling pot of money domestically.

Martyn, we will leave it there, thank you for joining us.

An 18-year-old from Truro is stepping gracefully between two

Alabama Seymour is a dancer with the Duchy Ballet.

But when she's not rehearsing for a forthcoming production,

she also rides motorbikes - sideways.

Well, her family does put on a wall of death show.

Not your average family! Lets get the latest on tonight's whether.

Good evening. This week we have been plagued with mist, low cloud and

fog. We have some patchy rain to get rid off tonight, but it will be gone

by the morning. A cold, bright start, and then later in the day,

patchy rain beginning to appear, but it may take all day before that

north of us will slowly sink north of us will slowly sink

southwards and it will be a feature of the weather as we move into the

weekend. Patchy rain this evening weekend. Patchy rain this evening

should clear over the next few hours, the skies will eventually

clear and it will turn quite chilly, temperatures could get as low as

three or four Celsius, cold enough for a touch of frost, although I'd

think we will see too much of that, because there is a breeze

developing. That will give us some fine weather to start the day, but

gradually through the morning and into the afternoon, there will be

more cloud coming in from the north-west, and by the end of the

day, we will see some patchy rain beginning to affect northern parts

of Devon and Somerset. Top temperature tomorrow, ten or 11

Celsius. The weekend is not looking too clever, brisk westerly winds

feeding in plenty of cloud and outbreaks of rain on Saturday and

Sunday, but of the two days, Sunday will be the wetter of the two,

because it looks like the rain will gradually pull away, but slow

progress on that. It is mild this weekend, but a little brighter for

the start of next week as it clears from the north. Good night.

The breakfast team will be back with you from 6.25 tomorrow morning, but

from all of us here on the late news, have a good evening, goodbye

for now. there will be rain around, most

occurring overnight. Good evening, quite a range of

whether an offer earlier today in the north and north-west of the UK

quite