31/03/2017 Spotlight

Good evening. for the news where you are.

It's feared Bickleigh Barracks could lose it's frontline role

and become a support base if future cuts to the number of

The Ministry of Defence is reported to be considering reducing

the overall number of Marines, and removing the frontline role

of one of its commando units, in response to a multi-billion pound

Well, earlier this evening, Neil Gallacher was at

Well, this latest concern has emerged in the form of the lead

story in today's Times, which said the Armed Forces

require further budget cuts to balance the books.

It said at the brunt of those budget cuts are likely to be felt

And the Royal Marines base that is likely to see the most

significant change appears to be this a place, which is likely

to lose its operational front line status and will instead become

a support base, so doing things such as training and in the process,

losing maybe 200 of its 600-700 Royal Marines personnel.

Well, the Defence Secretary was given ample opportunity to deny

It is noticeable that you are not saying that the size

of the Royal Marines will not be cut.

What I am saying to you is we have 7,000 Royal Marines

and it is for the First Sea Lord, who runs the Royal Navy to look

all the time at the balance of Marines and sailors,

and I have not agreed any cut in in the size of the Royal Marines.

Do we think this really is another serious cut on the way?

We put that question to a Plymouth -based defence expert.

It's like Christmas comes once a year and so does this story

Possibly, this is it and they will take a hit and it

will have no logic and it will damage the UK's defences,

This has become an era of more or less continual change

for the Armed Services and it seems as though the only thing we can say

tonight with any certainty is that that change isn't over yet.

Now a brief roundup of other stories making the news tonight:

After years of travelling hundreds of miles outside

the county for treatment, young people with mental health

problems in Cornwall will finally be treated closer to home.

Central funding has been announced for a dedicated unit

A Cornwall care home business has stopped using a group of migrant

carers over concerns they were working illegally.

Cornwallis Care Services says it inherited the migrant workers

from the Homes' previous owners Morleigh.

It says they did not have the necessary rights

The Mayor of Holsworthy has told campaigners tonight

he believes their local hospital will reopen to inpatients

Organisers say around 300 people turned out

to form a red line around Holsworthy Community

The Trust says concerns over the high number of agency nurses,

low bed occupancy and staff sickness forced the temporary

The hospital is still open for other services.

This weekend is the 30th anniversary of Cornwall's air ambulance.

The charity has just announced plans to fund-raise for a new,

The air ambulance is called out to around 700 emergencies per year.

The Cornwall Air Ambulance's radio callsign has always

been Heli-Med Zero One because it was the first air

Today, the charity which runs it has two aircraft.

They're paid for through charity donations from

Today, there are 20 air Ambulance Services in Britain,

In fact, Cornwall's was known as the first air ambulance.

The service started on April 1st, 1987, the first ever call out

Porthcurno Beach, a young lady had jumped off rocks, spinal injury.

And from far West Cornwall, the air ambulance was able

As we landed, she said this is a marvellous service,

And Nigel, my colleague looked at his watch and said

Since that first launch in 1987 Heli-Med Zero One have carried

out 26,373 missions, saving lives and bringing help to

A car stopped in the road in front of me and without any warning

he crossed the road, hit me, ran over me, literally.

The next thing I know, I'm being airlifted.

If it wasn't for them I wouldn't be here.

The focus for the charity now is to replace this aircraft

with new ones that are bigger, faster, and can operate at night.

Disability groups say new parking charges due to come in in Plymouth

will put people's life in -- safety at risk. The local authority says it

has carried out a full public consultation on the plans but there

are concerns that the council has rushed through the changes without

ensuring all meters are safe to access.

An 11-year-old Devon schoolboy completed his

unique charity challenge at Newton Abbot racecourse tonight.

James Clarkson has spent all week running around every National Hunt

That's 34 courses and about 50 miles in distance on challenging ground.

So far he's raised ?10,000 for the Injured Jockeys Fund.

Now let's check out the weather with David.

Some sunshine, but also some showers.

Now, the showers could be quite heavy so we start the weekend

You get some sunshine and it will be a bit misty and quite

cool through the night, but a usable weekend,

One weather front giving us rain tonight will move away and we're

left with an area of low pressure, which means plenty of showers

to come as we move through the day on Saturday tomorrow.

By the time we get to Sunday all of that will have

But some this rain this evening could turn out to be

quite heavy in places, moving pretty fast and eventually it

What will be left is a scattering of showers, some clear skies

and temperatures no lower than between seven and 9 degrees.

Tomorrow we should get some sunshine, especially around

the coast and for the islands, but I think inland the showers

could well be heavy, with the risk of hail and thunder.

11 or 12 degrees will be the maximum temperature with the winds

As we move into Sunday it is a completely different story.

Sunday should be a fine and dry day with light winds

The outlook as we move into next week is for some settled weather

and just a bit of patchy rain Monday night and into Tuesday.

Thank you for your company. Good night.

Hello. There the weekend is here and Sunday looks like being the better

day of the two. We're going to start the weekend, a new month, with

sunshine and April showers. Those fade away overnight. Saturday night

could be chilly.