24/04/2017 Spotlight

Good evening. pro-Brexit MPs in the election.

A common in East Devon, which has been badly damaged by fire,

100 acres of Woodbury Common were destroyed yesterday afternoon.

From the air you can see the full extent of the damage

More than 100 acres charred and burnt.

An area of outstanding natural beauty scarred

And whilst some animals like birds got away, others did not.

Those that are less mobile would have been a bit

slower, so they are groups like the reptiles, the adders would

Some of those would have survived, they would have gone underground

or to their sort of overwintering sites, but many would have died.

Behind the fire engines was completely covered in flames.

Amanda Taylor-Bashford was on the Common yesterday and took

these pictures as she watched the fire advance at speed.

You could hear the trees really crackling and banging as well.

I saw one tree go up and be engulfed in flames and then stop

It was the sound of the crackling and as the fire was coming

towards us, you could really hear this roar of the flames

as well as a real crackling of the dry branches setting alight.

24 hours ago the common pretty much looked like this.

On this side today though we can see the charred remains of what has been

The answer lies in this track down the middle.

As the fire burned, the state staff were here cutting vegetation down

Fire crews were still here today ensuring

The man in charge of fighting the fire says his five injured men

are OK, but fires like this need to be fought at close quarters.

We think we had at some stage firewalls of the four metres high.

You can feel the wind on me at the moment,

it is moving very rapidly, so that is why we have

We do have fire plans in place for this area and we do quite a lot

of training for our staff and our officers about how to deal

The area will recover, but it will take up to ten years.

The cause and exactly where the fire started are likely

Plymouth's Labour group says renewing Trident is key for the city

It follows comments from the Conservative defence

Minister Michael Fallon that Labour would pose a security risk

if elected because of Jeremy Corbyn's opposition

Our political editor Martyn Oates is here with us now.

As you say, personally he is a well-known opponent

of Britain's nuclear deterrent, has been for decades.

However, he is now of course the leader of the Labour Party

and at the Labour conference in 2015, the issue was put to a vote

and the conference decided to stick with the party's long-standing

commitment to Britain's nuclear deterrent and to its replacement.

That has now become set in Labour policy, it has been for some time,

but talking to the BBC yesterday, instead of saying, we have a settled

policy for some time and it is to replace the deterrent,

Mr Corbyn suggested there could be a discussion about that

policy before the party produces its general

The party was very quick to put out a statement

shortly afterwards saying, no, that is not the case.

This policy is not up for review, it will not change, but that didn't

stop Mr Corbyn's political opponents like the Defence Secretary Michael

A strong and stable leadership that Britain needs

to negotiate a successful exit from the European Union

and to build a stronger, fairer society contrast did

against a Labour under Jeremy Corbyn clearly a security risk,

somebody who doesn't back the nuclear deterrent and is not

prepared to take firm action against terrorism,

How important is Trident for the south-west?

It provides a lot of money for Devonport dockyard in Plymouth

and that is the point for a lot of people in Plymouth rather

than the broader debate about the rights and wrongs

I asked the leader of the Labour group on Plymouth City Council why

instead of just stating the party's established position

Why when questioned didn't Jeremy Corbyn simply say,

as you think you would say, our policy is clear,

it is completely settled, that is the policy will be fighting

When you get to see Jeremy, you can ask him that,

but the shadow defence spokesperson made that absolutely clear

this morning I think, about what Labour's position

is and you know what it is having covered so many conferences.

As I say, it is a matter you take up with him.

If you want to know what Labour's position is, Labour's position

is settled and Labour is very unhappy at the devastation that has

been visited on the differences of our country at the moment,

the conventional forces which are already under strain

of the further weakened by this Tory government.

They have mentioned there is a general election

This issue is particularly sensitive in Plymouth at this time not only

because of the dockyard, but because the Plymouth Sutton

and Devon constituency is the most marginal seat in the south-west held

by the Tories with Labour as the main challengers.

A man in St Ives who smashed the window of a parked car

because he believed a dog was at risk of heatstroke, says

The RSPCA says it can't condone people taking similar steps

and they could face prosecution for criminal damage.

This was in my car, this bar and the car

was there and I was bashing the window about five,

Clive thinks the spaniel was inside the vehicle

You could feel the heat coming out of the car

Clive thinks the spaniel was inside the vehicle

He was lying on his back with his legs in the air.

The RSPCA says it cannot condone people effectively committing

People have been known to take it into their own hands,

sometimes it has worked well and sometimes it hasn't,

but please think of the implications that could arise from your actions.

The charity says if people feel they need to act

in similar circumstances, they should ensure they have

If I get a bill for it, I will pay for the window.

Just what had to be done had to be done.

Specialist conservation teams say they want to gain access to a 16th

century manor house in Dorset, which was gutted by fire, to check

Dramatic footage taken by the BBC from the air has shown

the scale of the damage to Parnham House near Beaminster.

Police say a 68-year-old local man arrested following the blaze has

After the fire has spread through a building, often the interior

structure will have been completely consumed and this leaves the

external walls and features like chimneys and gables and pinnacles

Fans of '80s girl group Bananarama will get the chance to see them

The band, which last performed together in 1988,

is getting back together for a series of gigs,

including one at Plymouth pavilions in November.

It'll be a short journey home for singer Keren Woodward,

It's a cool summer. David is here with their weather. It is getting

colder. Yes, a chill in the air and we will see a couple of days of

winter, low temperatures, the risk of Frost, some showers wintry, but

later on this week, it starts to warm up. A brief cold snap, quite

windy for a time and then milder by the weekend as we lose that cold

certainly turning colder. There will certainly turning colder. There will

be some frost around and some sharp showers. Where the air is coming

from, it is arctic air. We will see the least amount of change compared

to other parts of the country in terms of temperature, but it will

still feel cold. This line of cloud will produce a few showers and

behind it is where the cold air is an purple sink a cross asked later

on tonight. Overnight temperatures close to freezing with the lowest

temperatures of zero or minus one. A pretty chilly start tomorrow but

hopefully some sunshine as well. Some isolated showers, their showers

a bit more frequent through the afternoon. And we will struggle up

to 10 degrees but with the wind it will feel a lot colder. Slightly

less windy, slightly less cold on Wednesday. A few showers around

again and temperatures of 11 waterfall degrees. Later this week

we lose those northerly winds and see slightly less cold air arrived.

It becomes a bit milder by the time we get to Thursday. A change to

cooler air for a couple of days and then back to normal by the end of

the week. Have a good night. That is it from us for tonight. Join us for

our breakfast bulletins tomorrow morning. But for now, good night.

course, there'll be the threat of some rain. More with the national

forecast now. Good evening. It's been turning

colder from the north so far today. It's been cold enough for

significant snow in northern Scotland. This was mid afternoon.

More recently it's been blowing around over the tops of the

mountains. Snow in April not necessarily unusual but it's usually

unwelcome. The colder air coming in behind the front which clears

towards the near continent, opening the floodgates to this Coldstream of

air all the way from the Arctic. That cold air increasingly cold air

will spread its way across all parts tonight and will be with us tomorrow

and Wednesday as well. A cold night ahead of us. A widespread frost

developing and further wintry showers. Most in Scotland and the

north-east of England too. Cold winds as well. Maybe a few wintry

showers in Northern Ireland and Wales, maybe the odd few into the

Midlands. Clear skies, windy and cold. Major towns and cities not far

from