26/01/2017 Spotlight

The Devon and Cornwall Police force is to get 100 new constables,

50 extra investigators and a team of 30 online staff,

in what's being called a transformation of the service.

The Police and Crime Commissioner has found ?24 million to pay

for the new officers, despite previous cuts.

The news has been filled with stories of police cuts are now

118 new recruits are being drafted in.

They tried to kick the restaurant draw down to get to us so

obviously my husband protected me and they did not get in.

I was on a 999 call and they were outside,

It has left her feeling vulnerable and had a knock-on effect on her

She feels there isn't police support.

The police station here is closed, it's boarded-up, but

No-one is there at the moment, but Alison Hernandez, the Police And

Crime Commission, wants a lot more of this sort of office dotted around

the region, in order to connect up the public with the police.

The biggest thing coming out of this plan is that I am able

to invest in policing to help with that cause, so

I am looking to secure ?24 million worth of additional funding

for the Chief Constable to deliver a better police force.

?10 million has been found from police reserves and

there'll be a hike in the council tax -

an extra ?3.40 for every band D household - to pay for the

And use a fog and support officers. 350 officers at present will be

reduced to a minimum of 150 within three years. We're told there will

be no redundancies. There are integral to communities. If I can

get that to 160, 170, 200, I will. Over the next few years will be

looking at how else we can use the budget but we need to have certainty

while we set our budget the four years. We set that figure at 150. If

we can make it less impactful we will. They will be stretched across

the hold-up in Cornwall force. It's a little bit like a drop in the

ocean I imagine. But as nothing -- it's better than nothing.

NHS bosses are pressing ahead with controversial plans to close

four cottage hospitals in South Devon.

There have been 12 weeks of consultations over

the closure of Dartmouth, Paignton, Ashburton

Today managers confirmed they will close ,to the anger

of campaigners who marched through Ashburton at the weekend

It was an attempt to give the public the impression that they'd have some

input into this process. They had absolutely no input in the process.

It was a foregone conclusion. All the time they were talking about the

fact that the NHS is under increasing pressure from an ageing

population and increasing demand. The response is to cut it. Cut one

and a half million of expenditures. That doesn't make any sense to

anyone involved. Councillors in Dorset are holding

further talks aimed at reducing Two theatres may have

closed in Devon this week, but that's not stopping

Exeter City Council from going ahead with moves that could lead

to the creation of a sizeable The thinking is that maybe it's time

for the city to join the ranks of south-west towns and cities

with performance venues that can Our business correspondent

Neil Gallacher reports. The timing of Exeter's move just as

the theatre in Barnstable shuts along with one in Ilfracombe,

underlines that councils cannot afford to get involved in theatres

lightly. All the same, Exeter is asking the question should someone,

council or private sector, create a 1000 seater venue somewhere in

Exeter? The City Council owns and operates the Corn Exchange. These

posters give it pretty good idea of what the offer is in Exeter as far

as this theatre goes. A list comedy and B list music. Somewhat dictated

by the 500 seat. Capacity Plymouth for example has a 1300 seat theatre

and concert hall seating twice as many. We have the theatre and

smaller venues. In a way Exeter's offer is complementary to Plymouth's

but Plymouth is three times the size of Exeter. At the moment the Corn

Exchange can any take 500 people and if we could make changes to that

space it is entirely possible we could increase the audience

capacity. Exeter is just starting a consultation that could eventually

lead to some sort of new venue. One more in keeping with the city's

ambitious, self-proclaimed status as the regional capital.

It's 100 years to the day that the small fishing village

of Hallsands in Devon was washed away.

But as Sophie Pierce reports today's villagers say

they still feel vulnerable, because the authorities will no

These differences are all that protect Hallsands from the sea.

They were repaired by villagers at their own

expense in 2014, and they have recently paid for more.

They are unhappy the village is being left exposed, unlike

Two years ago the then Government minister Oliver Letwin visited

I think what I need to do is have conversations with the Environment

Agency about that, because I found in my own constituency there

was a time when there were parts of my

constituency which were scheduled for retreat.

The residents didn't find that a very attractive proposition,

we changed that, and I think we probably need to find a

A few months later villagers learned that nothing had changed and

The shoreline management plan says that there's

nothing worth saving in this village - we beg to differ.

You can't just say to some people, your houses

are going to fall in the sea and there's nothing were going to

We pay our council tax and our national taxes the same

While the authorities are sympathetic, they say

Do we spend ?1 million protecting the coast here or

do we spend that ?1 million protecting adult services, special

educational needs, youth clubs, libraries, mending the roads?

It's a balance and unfortunately it is not

an infinite pot of money and we have to make priorities.

As it happens there is more shingle on the beach today than there has

been for many years, and it acts as a natural defence.

Some in the village now feel that keep campaigning is a

waste of effort, as the authorities are unlikely to change their minds.

Time now to look at the weather, and Holly's here with the forecast.

It's a very cold picture this afternoon and the most of us it has

been a fairly cloudy days so far. Grey skies in this photo. But not

the case for all of us, some have had sunshine. Lovely blue skies in

the Channel Islands and elsewhere you have seen the blue sky breaking

through. We should see some that this afternoon but it is very cold

and windy. We've had cold air pooling over the continent and it is

being drawn up on this at South or south-easterly wind. Through the

coming days there is more of an Atlantic feed and that means it is

less cold but we start to season outbreaks of rain. This is a picture

so far, very cloudy for many, brightness over the Channel Islands

starting to feed into parts of the South coast and also parts of North

Devon have seen brightness coming through and hopefully more should

emerge as the afternoon wears on. These are the top temperatures but

it feels much colder. Especially when you factor in the strong wind

which is almost gale forced to the West. Tonight we have clear skies

meaning the temperatures drop again. We'll see some frost in places,

outbreaks of rain into western fringes and here it is milder but

further east you might catch frost and ice. Tomorrow has a different

look. Some outbreaks of rain, don't take it too literally, we are all at

risk of seeing some but many may not see too much. Temperatures are

little higher than today but still pretty bleak. For the channel

islands, spells of rain perhaps a bit of sleet and a fresh to strong

wind. Justin will be live in Hallsands

tonight speaking to villagers, But from the Lunchtime News team,

have a good afternoon. TV: He's not your father.

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