Headlines: House explosion and mayoral election results
Here's our weekly round-up of stories from across local websites in the West of England.We have a daily round-up as well. Make sure you look out for it on the website and the local section of the BBC News app.
What have been the big stories in the West this week?
On Tuesday a terraced house on Lancaster Road in Yate was completely destroyed in a suspected gas explosion. Bristol Live covered the explosion in a live blog that detailed how the residents who received minor injuries were lucky to be alive. Bridgwater Mercury reported on a diesel leak from the Morrisons depot in Bridgwater which polluted a nearby river. Environmental specialists equipped with hydrocarbon-absorbent socks and a boat were on site to coordinate the clean-up operation.A distressing incident in which a pregnant cat died, after being dumped alive in a bin bag on the outskirts of Bristol was reported by Gloucestershire Live.And the story about the woman who had her eyesight saved in time for her wedding with pioneering surgery was reported on by ITV News West Country.In Bristol the biggest story for the second half of the week was the start of the double murder trial of Yostin Andres Mosquera. He is charged with the murders of Albert Alfonso, 62, and Paul Longworth, 71, on or before 11 July last year in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. Then it became the tale of who would win the Weca election with voters going to the polls on Thursday. Labour's Helen Godwin won the race, with Reform coming in second, as reported by Bristol24/7. Wiltshire and Gloucestershire also had their council elections, which was reported by Gloucestershire Live and the Salisbury Journal.
Top five local stories for the BBC in the West
Something longer to read
BBC News spoke to three women from three different branches of the military who had experienced rape and sexual abuse while serving.Former seaman Jennifer Gibson told us how she had been "devastated" after she says she was raped and sexually assaulted while serving in the Royal Navy.
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The National
10 hours ago
- The National
BBC bosses draw up plans to win trust of Reform UK voters
Minutes from a meeting of the broadcaster's editorial guidelines and standards committee from March show that BBC News CEO Deborah Turness gave a presentation in which she discussed plans to alter "story selection" and "other types of output, such as drama" to win the trust of Reform voters. The minutes, which were reported by The Byline Times, also show the committee identified "the importance of local BBC teams" to their plan to win over supporters of Nigel Farage. There is reportedly a belief that the coporation's news and drama output is creating "low trust issues" with Farage backers. The minutes states: "The CEO, News and Current Affairs provided the Committee with a presentation on plans to address low trust issues with Reform voters. READ MORE: Richard Murphy: What to expect from Rachel Reeves's spending review "The committee discussed the presentation. Committee members recognised the importance of local BBC teams in the plan, given their closeness to audiences. "Directors discussed how story selection and other types of output, such as drama, also had a role to play. An update on progress would return to a future meeting." The committee includes former GB News executive Robbie Gibb, who is also a former director of communications at Number 10 and an outspoken Brexiteer. Gibb was appointed to the board by former Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson in 2021. He was identified by former BBC Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis in 2022 as an 'active agent of the Conservative party'. Farage has repeatedly used his own GB News platform to attack the BBC, calling it a 'political actor' and threatening to boycott the corporation. In language also used by the BBC Editorial Committee, the Reform leader suggested that BBC editors were using 'story selection' in order to target his party. In an incident last year, Farage refused to appear on the BBC until the broadcaster apologised for allowing members of the public to ask him questions during a special episode of Question Time. READ MORE: UK sends spy plane over Gaza as Madleen threatened by Israel Byline Times said BBC staffers it spoke to are concerned about the plan to win over Reform voters, due to the risk of increasing allegations of bias. The BBC has previously been criticised by some viewers for heavily featuring Reform UK politicians on its programmes, despite the party only having a handful of MPs. In July last year, sociology professor Tom Mills – author of The BBC: The Myth of a Public Service – claimed the BBC were giving such a platform to Farage because they are such a big part of a 'political establishment which has drifted to the right'. 'I think the simple answer to why they [the BBC] like Nigel Farage is they are much more comfortable with an anti-establishment figure on the right than the left. It's as simple as that," he said. 'He's on their political spectrum and the political spectrum for the BBC runs from the centrists out to Nigel Farage. 'They still see those guys [like Farage] as being rogue figures of the establishment, but they are just given legitimacy by the fact that there's lots of voices they [the BBC] see to be legitimate in these media organisations which speak from a similar sort of perspective.' The BBC has been approached for comment.
The National
4 days ago
- The National
Angus Robertson tears into BBC coverage of Hamilton by-election count
Speaking live on BBC News just after midnight on Friday, Angus Robertson first took issue with the broadcaster allowing rumours from Labour that they were in with a chance of winning the vote to set the narrative of the coverage. He then also called out the BBC for having spent the first 30 minutes of its by-election special – which was shown on BBC One Scotland and BBC News – without mentioning Christina McKelvie, the Scottish Government's minister whose death left an empty seat at Holyrood. BBC host Martin Geissler introduced Robertson and asked about suggestions from Labour sources at the count that their party could be on for a better result than had been expected. Geissler asked: 'Are you shocked by what you're hearing tonight?' Robertson said: 'Well, I mean, for a start, who knows? Because the truth of it is none of us know because the ballot boxes have just been opened, the verification count has just taken place. 'Somebody saying something to a journalist suddenly turns the narrative of the entire media coverage of the build-up towards the result before we actually know any facts. 'So the first thing I would say is that we should hold our horses and wait till we actually have samples, which the political parties all have, of a size big enough to be able to make an accurate prediction. I don't think any of the parties do." Geissler then said: 'If you are wrong … if you are run close by Labour, if you lose this to Labour, it's a bad night for the SNP, right?' Robertson then said: 'I'll come to that question in a second, but one name hasn't been mentioned here so far, which is Christina McKelvie. 'We're having a by-election, because one of my colleagues died. I firstly think that's a bit odd, that hasn't been mentioned once so far. 'Secondly, I think in fairness to everybody in the panel, I don't think anybody would have wanted to have the by-election because she was a fantastic MSP and the voters would have their say in the normal course of events.' The SNP minister added: 'Let's understand we're having a by-election because somebody died far too young.' Speaking to the BBC from the count, Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie acknowledged that no one had wanted there to be a by-election and paid tribute to McKelvie. Baillie further declined to express as much confidence in a Labour victory as anonymous sources from the party had done, saying that people "across the political spectrum are turning to Reform" who she called an "unknown factor".
BBC News
5 days ago
- BBC News
Funding will not build Bristol and Bath tram 'overnight', mayor says
Trams could make a return to Bristol and Bath with the announcement hundreds of millions of pounds of new transport funding. The West of England Combined Authority (WECA) is to spend some of a new £750m funding allocation on looking at mass transit - most of which will be spent on improving bus and local rail award was part of £15.6bn transport funding announced by the while newly-elector mayor Helen Godwin welcomed the funding, £200m of which would be spent on developing mass transit, she made it clear it would not buy a new tram system "overnight". The money covers a five-year period from West of England is getting the lowest funding of any city region – partly because its population is smaller than most."That money is not going to buy us a tram network overnight, we've got to be clear about that," Ms Godwin said. "That money can give us a much-improved bus network," she added. "We can also start to move on our suburban rail network." Ms Godwin was elected Metro Mayor on 1 May, bringing to an end the troubled tenure of Dan his four years in charge WECA was put into special measures after a series of public rows with council the disagreements was over the possibility of an underground idea is not now being talked Ms Godwin stresses her wish for good relations with local councils, including North Somerset which is likely to eventually join WECA. She will work with them on one particular priority – improving links to the airport."We have got an airport which is the only one in the country which isn't connected by mass transit of any form," she said. "So it would be remiss for us not to be looking at that."The new money is not enough to fund that but the hope is that it could pave the way.
