Martyn Oates
BBC South West Political Editor

Kevin Thomas
BBC Weather Forecaster

It'll be mainly cloudy, with some further outbreaks of showery rain.

However, the showers will become increasingly scattered to become drier this afternoon.

Northwesterly winds will be mainly light or moderate. Maximum temperature: 10C (50F).

Overnight, it'll be mainly dry with some clear spells developing, and becoming chilly with the risk of some mist or fog patches developing for a time.

Northwesterly winds will turn to the northeast and become mainly light or moderate. Minimum temperature: 4C (39F).

BBC Radio Cornwall

Trevor Doughty is the council's Corporate Director for Children, Schools and Families.

Lynne French, BBC News Online

The disruption caused by the weather to rail services is seriously damaging businesses in the South West and is "totally and utterly unacceptable", according to the Federation of Small Businesses.

Flooding has caused extensive damage to the main rail line in and out of the South West, with Network Rail saying the flood barriers at Cowley Bridge had been overwhelmed.

David Shephard, the Devon regional chairman of the FSB, described it as a "complete mess and massive inconvenience", which could only be resolved by massive investment.

“Mega, mega spending on infrastructure is needed for the South West and our MPs have got to be hammering on the door of the government and saying ‘what the hell is going on’ because if not we’ll be slowly disappearing off the business map," he said.

Andrew Segal
Local Live

Plymouth City Council says it is going to impose new restrictions, external over future planning applications for student accommodation.

Ian Bowyer, leader of the Conservative-UKIP coalition-led authority, said the council had "received a lot of feedback from local residents that there are too many student flats springing up across the city, and that some of these are too concentrated in particular areas".

He said new student accommodation applications would "have to meet detailed criteria".

The city hosts "an estimated 22,200 students".

Chris Ellis
BBC News Online

• Network Rail says there are seven breaches of the rail line in the area around Cowley Bridge at Exeter - and the repairs will take 48 hours to complete
• Three of the problems are on the branch line from Exeter to Barnstaple, the other four on the main rail line between London and Exeter
• About 50 Network Rail staff have been called in, along with heavy machinery
• The breaches were caused by heavy rain making the River Exe overflow and wash the ballast away from underneath the rail line
• Network Rail has offered advice to passengers, external

According to the Scotland Fire and Rescue Service, external, the bleep test is a "physical test of aerobic fitness" and consists of running continuously between two points 20m apart. 

It said: "The runs are synchronized and bleeps play at set intervals. As the test proceeds, the interval between each successive bleep decreases."

Exeter Express & Echo

Rock gods Metallica have used an Exeter Co-op employee's logo design, external in a music video.

Louise Walter
BBC Spotlight

I'm trying to get to London Paddington from Plymouth to see what the rail travel situation is like.

One of my fellow passengers, Glen Middleton, has described how it has so far taken two-and-a-half days in his attempts to get to back to Canterbury.

He said: "On Monday at 12, I was told to get back to Exeter. I got stuck at Taunton trying to get back to Exeter, then got back to try and get a train to Canterbury West. That got cancelled and I'm travelling today."

Tamsin Melville
Political Reporter, BBC Radio Cornwall

Cornwall Council could follow in the footsteps of Devon in banning the use of pesticides on land it owns. 

Devon took the decision to ban their use in April after a petition with more than 3,500 signatures was handed to it. 

Campaigners in Cornwall have presented a similar petition during discussions about a package of measures to help bees and other insects. 

BBC Radio Devon

A Devon councillor says more must be done to improve drainage in the county if serious flooding is to be avoided.

Brian Greenslade has asked for an urgent debate at this week's Highways Meeting. He said drainage work had been done but it was not enough.

Devon County Council said it was spending more than £1m on highway drainage improvements, with priority given to preventing surface water from affecting roads and preventing homes from being flooded.

Please see attached info for services running north of Tiverton today due to the line being blocked between Exeter and Tiverton.

Image source, CrossCountry

Simon Hall, Home Affairs Correspondent
BBC Spotlight

The north Devon hostel for migrant children from the so-called Jungle camp in Calais will close, the BBC has learnt.

Sources involved in the operation to care for the young people told us it would shut this week. 

Some 37 vulnerable young people, from Afghanistan, Sudan and Syria, have been resettled, we’ve been told. A source said the “vast majority” had been reunited with their families in Britain, but some were still in the care of councils. 

The children were brought to the hostel, in the countryside near Great Torrington (pictured), on 24 October. Some local community groups welcomed them, but there were also protests.

Andrew Segal
Local Live

A Cornish MP has defended herself against accusations that she carried out a filibuster, external during a debate discussing making it compulsory for taxi and minicab drivers to complete disability equality training.

The Disability Equality Training (Taxi and Private Hire Vehicle Drivers) Bill debate was abandoned on Friday after the South West Cornwall Conservative and fellow Tory MP Tom Pursglove intentionally spoke until the allotted time in the House of Commons was used up.

This has stopped the proposed legislation from proceeding to the next stage of the parliamentary process.

In a post on Facebook, external, Mrs Murray said she is "wholly supportive of the principles behind the bill" and spoke because "there was less than an hour" for the debate and it was "impossible for members to fully debate the matter" in that time.

Chris Ellis
BBC News Online

• The main line is "severely damaged" between Tiverton and Exeter St Davids
• No trains are running between Exeter St Davids and Tiverton Parkway, Exeter St Davids and Barnstaple, Liskeard and Looe
• No trains will pass through Cowley Bridge for 48 hours, Network Rail has told the BBC
• Cowley Bridge is the gateway to the east and north - linking to Bristol and London Paddington and beyond
• Network Rail said the flood barriers at Cowley Bridge were "overwhelmed" and staff are inspecting damage to the main rail line
• Elsewhere the South West has dozens of flood warnings and alerts in place

Andrew Segal
Local Live

Image source, Living Coasts

What do you do if you have a two-year-old 30kg seal who needs a tooth out? 

Any dental work can be tricky at the best of times on a wild patient, especially if it has teeth like a large dog. 

But South American fur seal pup Gemini underwent the procedure at Living Coasts in Torquay because of an abscess which could have becoming life-threatening if it affected the structure of her jaw, staff said.

However, she was in good hands, with London dentist Peter Kertesz. He's no stranger to wilder patients: the last time he was at Paignton Zoo, in December 2015, his patient was a gorilla. Before that, he had to give some toothsome treatment to a tiger.