A former DUP councillor who quit the party after claiming she had been bullied has joined the Ulster Unionists along with her husband.

In a joint statement, Jenny and John Palmer said it was like returning to the family home.
Jenny Palmer told BBC Spotlight she had been ordered by a DUP special adviser to change the way she intended to vote at a Housing Executive Board meeting.
A Stormont committee inquiry widened the gulf between her and the party.
She left the DUP ahead of an internal disciplinary hearing.
She and her husband, John, who's also a Lisburn councillor, say the Ulster Unionists leaving the executive was the factor in the decision to re-join the party.
UUP leader Mike Nesbitt said there could be more like her.
"They were previously members of the party, they're very, very welcome back and let me say so are others," he said.
"We know there are others out there who are now looking to the Ulster Unionist Party as the way forward, because we have momentum, we have belief  in ourselves and we have credibility with the electorate that we did not previously have."
He added: "Politics is a rough and tumble game, we know that, but what Jenny, in particular, was subjected to by members of the DUP was way, way beyond the pale."
In their statement, Mr and Mrs Palmer said they were looking forward to a "new beginning in politics".
"Something that was an important factor in our decision was the courage shown by the Ulster Unionist Party," they added. They have led by example during what is a shocking state of affairs.
"We look forward to playing our part in the Ulster Unionist team."
Mrs Palmer told BBC Radio Ulster's Talkback programme that it was Mr Nesbitt's decision for the UUP to leave the Executive that made up the couple's minds.
"Mike Nesbitt's announcement about walking away from the Executive I think was the trigger for saying well this is healthy, this is something I think that most people in Northern Ireland who have had so many years of it not working at Stormont would agree with," she said.
"It was personally then that we decided that's the party we want to go to."
Relations between the two main unionists parties appear to be rapidly worsening.
This development will rub further salt in the wounds.
In a statement, the DUP said:  "This move has been expected for some time. The Palmers are in the right place as they've been working with the UUP long before today.
"The timing of this announcement is further evidence that the UUP's actions in recent days are entirely about positioning the party for an election.
"The unionist people want substance rather than UUP spin. They want responsible leadership rather than UUP stuntary."


Judy Murray has tipped her sons Andy and Jamie to play doubles together at Wimbledon before their careers end.

Last year the pair became the first brothers to top the world rankings in singles and doubles at the same time.
They have previously played together on tour and in the Davis Cup and the Olympics, but never in a Grand Slam.
Britain's former Fed Cup captain told BBC Sport: "I'm pretty sure they are going to have a crack at Wimbledon doubles together."
Jamie, 31, reached the top of the doubles rankings in March and won two Grand Slams in 2016, while Andy, 30, winner of three Grand Slams in singles and two Olympic gold medals, became world number one in November and remains there.
"While they are still happy and healthy I think they are quite happy doing their own thing and going their own way. But I'm pretty sure you'll see them playing doubles at Wimbledon together before they end their careers," Judy Murray told BBC Radio 5 live's Sportsweek.
"I think they are both as driven as ever to win big titles.
"The Grand Slams are the biggest prizes in tennis and those are the things every player wants to win."
Jamie has won two doubles titles with Brazilian partner Bruno Soares this year, while Andy claimed the Dubai Championships for the first time but lost to world number 90 Jordan Thompson in the first round of the Aegon Championships at Queen's Club in June.
Andy will seek a third Wimbledon singles triumph when he defends his title in this year's Championships, which begin on 3 July.


UKIP leadership contender Paul Nuttall has told the BBC only he can "get a grip" on the party, following a series of upsets in recent months.

Since Nigel Farage quit as leader, his successor resigned 18 days into the job and another contender left the party following a fracas with a fellow MEP.
Mr Nuttall's rival Suzanne Evans said she could widen UKIP's reach, appealing to women and ethnic minority voters.
Third hopeful John Rees-Evans has vowed to give more power to the grassroots.
UKIP's new leader will be announced on 28 November.
Mr Nuttall and Ms Evans are seen as the front-runners while Mr Rees-Evans has claimed the leadership will be a "coronation".
The contest is the second since the party's long-term leader Mr Farage quit in June in the wake of the UK's vote to leave the European Union.
UKIP leadership: The contenders
Where did it all go wrong for UKIP?
Mr Farage returned as interim leader after his replacement Diane James quit in October just over two weeks into the job, saying she did not have "sufficient authority" to see through the changes she had planned.
Soon afterwards the man seen as the favourite to succeed her, Steven Woolfe, quit the party altogether after being involved in a fracas at the European Parliament with another UKIP MEP.
Mr Nuttall, who was Mr Farage's deputy leader for six years, told BBC One's Daily Politics: "I'm standing on a platform of unity and experience.
"I believe that the party has to come together if it is not only to survive but prosper. I believe I'm the best candidate to ensure that happens. I'm not part of any faction of the party and beyond that I've done every job in the party."
He added: "UKIP has to unite, we are on 13% in the opinion polls, the future is bright, there are open goals but UKIP has to be on the pitch to kick the ball in."
Ms Evans, the former party deputy chairman who was suspended from it due to an internal dispute during the last leadership contest, told the BBC: "I have a huge amount of experience in the party as well and I have also got a background that I think means I can help bring people together."
She said the party was "at its best when it is scaring the political establishment", but it had to start winning seats at elections "right across the country" by broadening its appeal to women, ethnic minority voters and Labour supporters.
Both were critical of the controversial "Breaking Point" poster that Mr Farage unveiled during the EU referendum campaign that showed a long line of migrants.
Ms Evans said it was the "wrong poster at the wrong time", while Mr Nuttall described it as "clumsy and I thought it was wrong to do so just a week before the referendum" - although he added that it had addressed "genuine concerns" about immigration.
Asked whether they admired Russian President Vladimir Putin, while Ms Evans said: "No, I don't" - citing his actions in Ukraine, Georgia and the Alexander Litvinenko case - Mr Nuttall said that "in the Middle East he is generally getting it right in many areas", but added that he thought he was "pretty much a nasty man".
He said: "We need to bring the conflict in Syria to an end as fast as possible. The British line and the American line before Trump has been 'Let's arm these rebels.' These rebels include the al-Nusra Front, which is affiliated to al-Qaeda, the Syrian mujahideen which is linked to the Taliban. We need to clear these people out and ensure that Syria becomes a stable state."
Businessman Mr Rees-Evans stormed out of a hustings meeting in Newport earlier this month claiming he had been asked not to "rock the boat".
He told the programme he wanted to offer members the chance to propose policies via a "UKIP Direct" website, saying: "We have really dedicated passionate supporters who feel like they are not really being listened to... even at a branch level, people feel that there is not adequate flow of communication up and down the party. I want to rectify all of that."
While he is in favour of the death penalty, Mr Rees-Evans said he would not have the authority to determine party policy on the issue without putting it to the members.
He said the "mainstream media" was trying to trivialise his campaign by focusing on "pretty irrelevant" issues, but added: "What I'm actually trying to do in this party is trying to revolutionise the democratic process in the UK."


Two Spanish cavers have died and one has survived after being trapped for days at the bottom of a deep ravine in Morocco's Atlas mountains.

A 27-year-old was rescued late on Sunday, but his two companions died of their injuries before they could be rescued.
Local media report that he is uninjured but suffering from hypothermia and post traumatic stress.
All three potholers had been discovered alive on Saturday morning.
The three cavers were Gustavo Virues, 41, police inspector Jose Antonio Martinez, 41, and police officer Juan Bolivar, 27.
They had separated from the rest of their group to explore different caves, and were reported missing on Tuesday, reports said.
The three men had seemed well on Saturday morning and reacted to signals from a search flight, Mr Martinez's wife said in quotes carried by El Mundo.
However, Mr Virues died later that day as search teams struggled to reach the missing men.
Local officials say that rescuers later reached the other two men and administered first aid but Mr Martinez succumbed to his injuries before the rescue could be completed.
Mr Bolivar had been successfully evacuated and was being transferred to the city of Ouarzazate nearby, officials said.
Rescuers had struggled to reach them in time as access to the 400m-deep (1,310ft) ravine was difficult,
Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz offered his condolences to the families of both men on the ministry's Twitter account.
Morocco's High Atlas mountain range includes peaks with heights of over 4,000 metres (13,100ft). Many tourists visit the mountains for trekking or skiing.


Gloucestershire batsman Michael Klinger says he has still not given up hope of playing for Australia - even though he is 35.

Klinger has been in stunning form for Gloucestershire this season helping them reach the One-Day Cup final.
This comes off the back of a fine season in Australia, but he continues to be overlooked by selectors.
"What I've done over the past 18 months is over and above anybody else," Klinger told BBC Points West.
Klinger, who fired an unbeaten 137 in Gloucestershire's One-Day cup semi-final win over Yorkshire, added: "I try my best to keep putting some pressure on. That's what they've asked me to do when I've spoken to them in past.
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"If I keep doing that then I am confident that one day I might get a positive phone call from the chief selector Rod Marsh."
Melbourne-born Klinger admits time is against him, but hopes the forthcoming series against Bangladesh could see him given a chance.
"You always hold out a bit of hope," he said.
"There is still the Bangladesh Test series coming up and I think they need to replace three players so if they take my form in Australia - 1000 runs last year -  hopefully it'll fall my way some time.
"I know if someone else is doing the same that I'm doing but they are 26, then they will go for them. But Chris Rogers showed the way by coming in at 35 and having two strong years helping the team forward."
Klinger. who will captain Gloucestershire in the One-Day Cup final against Surrey at Lord's on September 19, says he could play for Australia in either format, which acts as further motivation.
"Whether it's a Baggy Green or a shorter format, going forward it keeps me playing well and with desire."


One of the most famous images of Winnie the Pooh has sold for £314,500 at auction in London.

10 December 2014 Last updated at 08:25 GMT
EH Shepard's ink drawing of the bear playing Poohsticks with Piglet and Christopher Robin was published in 1928.
The illustration featured in AA Milne's second book, The House At Pooh Corner.
The famed drawing, entitled 'For a long time they looked at the river beneath them…' is set in chapter six of the book, which was called "In which Pooh invents a new game and Eeyore joins in".
It formed part of auction house Sotheby's sale of children's books.


Colombia's Farc rebels have threatened to delay their demobilisation, saying the government has repeatedly broken the terms of last year's peace deal.

Farc leader Rodrigo Londono, known as Timochenko, made the warning after the arrest of a rebel - a move that went against the terms of the deal.
President Juan Manuel Santos said there had been "confusion" over the arrest and the situation was being resolved.
Under the deal, the left-wing rebels are due to disarm by 20 June.
Timochenko issued the warning on Twitter late on Sunday, accusing the government of violating the terms of the peace deal agreed in November 2016.
He also said the rebels would seek "international monitoring" of the agreement.
It not clear what he was referring to, as the UN already has a mission in Colombia that oversees the implementation of the deal, the BBC's Natalio Cosoy in Bogota reports.
Meanwhile, President Santos insisted that from the government's point of view the current timetable for the implementation of the agreement remained unchanged.
Thousands of Farc rebels have already handed over their weapons since the deal was signed.
About 260,000 people have been killed and more than six million internally displaced in Colombia during more than five decades of the conflict.


A man has been jailed for at least 16 years for murdering his partner.

Mark Everard, 48, was found dead outside a house in Chell Heath, Stoke-on-Trent, in May.
Steven Mutch, 45, had previously denied murder, but pleaded guilty on Tuesday at the start of the trial at Stafford Crown Court. He was sentenced to life.
A post-mortem examination revealed Mr Everard died as a result of abdominal injuries.
Mutch had called 999 saying Mr Everard was unconscious after a fall, Staffordshire Police said.
However, paramedics were made suspicious by Mutch's behaviour and signs of blood in their flat on Bishop Road.
The pair had been in a relationship for five years.
Det Ch Insp Darren Harding, who led the investigation, said his thoughts were with the victim's family and hoped the sentence would offer them "some form of closure".


A prowler who broke into a house in Cardiff looking for students to sexually assault has been found guilty of a string of sexual offences.

Tahir Nazir, 40, of Glasgow, also targeted students in Manchester where he tried to rape a sleeping woman.
Manchester Crown Court heard he had a sexual obsession with students and repeatedly tried to enter their rooms during a tour of university locations.
He was found guilty of sexual assault, attempted rape and trespass offences.
The court heard Nazir was caught "on top" of a very drunk student after he broke into a house in Cathays, Cardiff, on 22 September, through a bathroom window.
On 1 November, a woman in Hulme, Manchester, said she woke to find him "licking her neck".
He was arrested on 6 November after women in a shared house in Fallowfield, Manchester, became concerned someone was trying to open the doors of their rooms in the early hours of the morning.
Nazir had denied claims his trips to Inverness, Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, Oxford, Bristol and Cardiff had a sexual purpose.
Instead, he told the court he loved driving and was "inspired by Gothic architecture".
He admitted having a fake university ID, which he said he used for discounts, and Viagra in his car, which he said gave him energy for clubbing.
The case was adjourned for sentencing in May.


An annual sheep racing event in a south of Scotland town has been cancelled due to licensing issues.

More than 80,000 signatures had been gathered on a petition against the Moffat sheep races on Sunday.
Organisers said they had taken the decision to cancel with "deep regret".
They said Dumfries and Galloway Council had required that the animals be licensed in line with the Performing Animals Act 1925 which they were unwilling to do at short notice.
The local authority said it had not prevented the event from going ahead and it had been the organisers' choice.
A petition was launched earlier this year to have the races scrapped on grounds of animal cruelty.
A statement from the Moffat Promotions Group said it was "very disappointed" by the lack of support from the council.
"The Moffat sheep races has become a firm fixture in the town's calendar over the last five years and was a hugely successful fun day for all of the family," it said.
"Furthermore, no objections and certainly no requests to apply this ancient act had been made until very recently.
"The council should have shown greater strength on this matter but instead created a situation where local organisers ended up backed into a corner which is hugely disappointing."
The organisers said they would continue to look to "boost the town" and had initially planned to stage a Super Sunday replacement event.
However, they subsequently decided it was too short notice to organise alternative entertainment.
Campaigners succeeded in getting a similar event cancelled at a church fete in Cambridgeshire after gathering nearly 40,000 signatures.
This time around more than 80,000 people backed the online effort to stop the Scottish races taking place.
John Robins, from the charity Animal Concern, welcomed the decision to cancel the Moffat event.
"This is great news and I'm very glad the organisers have seen sense," he said.
"It might not seem very cruel but chasing sheep along town streets with thousands of people noisily cheering them on causes the animals fear and stress.
"I'm sure the good people of Moffat can come up with other ways to encourage visitors without subjecting animals to unnecessary suffering."
A council statement said it had been working to try to ensure the races went ahead.
"It is widely recognised that this year's event has attracted a lot of negative publicity and attention from animal activists," it said.
"Our officers have been providing advice and meeting with the organisers for weeks.
"The organisers are required to place the event on a public register for such events and we have been working with the event organisers on this administrative process.
"This is not a council decision. This is the law."
It said organisers still had time to change their mind and hold the races.


A new stone plaque could be erected at a famous Borders battle site, under plans submitted to the local council.

Councillors will be asked to approve proposals to erect the stone commemorating the Battle of Hornshole in 1514.
The 1514 Club, which protects the Hawick Common Riding, want to place it at the site of an existing memorial, to the north-east of Hawick.
Despite 11 objections, council officers have recommended approval.
The stone structure would mark the battle between an English raiding party and youths from Hawick.
The young Scots defeated the invaders and captured their standard at Hornshole.
Planners have received representations from people concerned that it will detract from, and dominate, the existing Hornshole monument, which was refurbished last year.
Concerns have also been raised that the plaque is unnecessary as there is already a small commemorative plate in place.
The council's archaeology officer also warned that excavations below 20cm (8in) may reveal evidence of the skirmish, such as fire pits used by the English.
Councillors will decide whether to allow the plaque at a meeting of the planning and building standards committee on Monday.


Three people have been injured at a motorbike scrambling event in Ceredigion.

The emergency services were called to Penparc at about 13:00 BST on Sunday.
A Mid and West ambulance service spokeswoman said there were three patients, one of which was airlifted to Morriston Hospital and another taken to Glangwili Hospital.
The extent of their injuries is currently unknown.
Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue was also in attendance.


Technology and education have a long, complicated and sometimes exaggerated relationship.

There's a school of thought that seems to suggest if you wave a laptop or something shiny and digital at the classroom, learning will somehow mysteriously improve.
Digital technology is associated with the classroom of the future. And if you throw iPads into the mix, you're even more likely to hear the language of an over-optimistic tomorrow.
So you might not expect to find tablet computers being deployed to defend a language first written down 1,700 years ago when "writing on a tablet" would have meant carving on a stone.
But in an innovative blend of ancient and modern, online technology is being used to keep alive teaching in the Irish language.
And Apple, the Californian technology giant, is using this schools project in the west of Ireland as a signpost for a much more ambitious, global application of iPads in education.
The problem that it's trying to solve is how to provide a full range of textbooks and teaching materials for a small, specialist, under-served area of education.
The number of schools in Ireland teaching through the Irish language has grown sharply in recent years, after near extinction in the early 1970s. But in total there are still fewer than 250 primary and secondary schools.
"It doesn't make sense for publishers to put money into translating text books from English," says Sean O'Gradaigh, lecturer in the school of education at the National University of Ireland, Galway.
He says you can Google any topic for teaching in English and find hundreds of textbooks and resources, but there are very few useful equivalents in Irish, because the market is too small.
It means there is demand from Irish language schools, but not enough resources to breathe life into the teaching.
Mr O'Gradaigh's response has been to use tablet computers - in this case iPads - to produce digital textbooks that can be downloaded and shared by Irish language schools.
The university in Galway is the teacher-training centre for schools teaching in Irish, and its students have become part of this digital self-publishing enterprise.
As part of their training, students are required to learn about educational technology. But Mr O'Gradaigh has some uncompromising views on this.
"Teaching technology is pointless, it's obsolete in two years," he said.
Instead 80 trainee teachers learn by making their own digital content and finding the best ways of using their own expanding library of materials.
In this contrast of old and new, the current cohort of student teachers use tablet computers throughout their training.
All their course materials are contained on iPads, and they use them to create and publish digital books.
Irish language schools are big users of technology, says Mr O'Gradaigh. In about three-quarters of secondary schools, all the teaching staff will have their own iPad. In one in five schools, every pupil will have their own.
The big picture here is that schools and academics have become the authors and publishers of their own specialist textbooks. And because it is online and digital, it can be replicated and shared immediately.
"There are schools which are deciding not to buy books any more," says Mr O'Gradaigh.
It's not just about the Irish language.
His own subject is geography, and he says printed books are out of date within a few years.
The digital versions can be updated. But he says that just as important is that they can be "personalised and localised". Individual teachers can adapt materials for the needs of their individual class.
Mr O'Gradaigh sees the shift to digital publishing for schools as being a "no brainer".
And it's bubbling away as one of the next big things in educational technology.
Merlin John, an education technology commentator who is about to publish a book about using mobile devices, says schools are beginning to show how they can "personalise support materials and make considerable savings on textbooks through the use of digital devices".
In the UK, the Stephen Perse Foundation school in Cambridge, a recent winner of the Independent School of the Year award, has published digital materials for dozens of courses and made them free online through iTunes U.
It means that any pupils or other schools can download the resources created in this top-performing school for GCSEs, A-levels and International Baccalaureate subjects.
But it's not all tablets and Apple. Google's Chromebook and the Google Apps for Education have been challenging the iPad in the education sector, particularly in US schools.
This month, the New York City school system, with a million pupils, signed a deal supporting the use of Google apps for its schools, but leaving the final choice up to teachers.
Whether it's Apple or the Big Apple or the west of Ireland, who better than schools to know what schools need best?
Tricia Kelleher, head of the Stephen Perse Foundation school, said teachers could now "create and curate" their own content.
"This is not an experience offered by static textbooks," she said.
"Digital technology really does open up the possibility of schools becoming publishing houses."


UK-based artificial intelligence firm SwiftKey has been acquired by Microsoft, the company has confirmed.

The Financial Times reports the deal is worth $250m (Â£174m).
SwiftKey is known for its predictive keyboard, which can be found installed on millions of smartphone devices.
The company said it was a "milestone" in its history.
"Our mission is to enhance interaction between people and technology. We think these are a perfect match, and we believe joining Microsoft is the right next stage in our journey," said SwiftKey's founders Jon Reynolds and Ben Medlock in a blog post.
The company, started by the Cambridge University graduates in 2008, is the latest UK artificial intelligence (AI) firm to be bought up by a US tech giant.
DeepMind was bought by Google in 2014, for Â£400m. Another firm, VocalIQ, was bought recently by Apple.
As well as the popular smartphone app, SwiftKey is known for being behind the computer software on Prof Stephen Hawking's wheelchair.
The deal furthers Microsoft's new mobile strategy, spearheaded by chief executive Satya Nadella.
Instead of focusing on hardware - where the company has a tiny share of the market with its Windows Phone range - the firm is now looking to build up a range of productivity software to be used on any kind of device.
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The Dubai Airshow was bigger, brasher and - with more fighter jet displays - louder than the previous event in 2013.

But there were question marks over whether the show would produce the headlines of previous years, and so it proved.
Three themes emerged from this extravaganza in the desert.
Airlines are pausing for breath in the pace at which they are placing aircraft orders, defence cheque books are being opened again after years of budget cuts, and the Dubai show underlines a shift in the centre of gravity for the aerospace and defence industry.
Two years ago, the Dubai show generated announcements for civil aircraft orders worth $206bn (Â£135bn).
Fast-growing Emirates Airline, Eithad and Qatar Airways were the biggest customers, but there were also orders from the Gulf burgeoning budget airline carriers.
This time, Asian airlines provided some of the bigger news of the week.
On Monday, India's Jet Airways said it would buy 75 Boeing 737MAX aircraft worth $8bn, though this was really confirmation of a previous announcement.
The biggest single all-new order was from Vietnamese low cost carrier Vietjet, which is buying 30 Airbus A321s in a deal worth $3.6bn at list prices.
Airlines typically get discounts for bulk-buys and negotiations seem to have gone down to the wire, with Airbus delaying a formal announcement several times.
Did Vietjet get better terms because the show had been quiet?  The deal was a "win-win" for both sides said Vietjet chief executive Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao.
There were other orders, but nothing to compare, say, with Boeing's haul of $101bn worth of deals unveiled two years ago.
"I think everyone's more than adequately ordered," says Richard Aboulafia, vice president at US-based aerospace consultancy Teal Group. "The Gulf carriers are still expanding, but the existing orders will do the job."
One constraint on new orders is that the production lines of Airbus and Boeing are full for years to come. Analysts at IHS Global Insight estimate that there is a backlog of 750 aircraft from Gulf airlines alone.
As Boeing Commercial Airplanes president Raymand Conner said, airlines may now have to wait for deliveries so long into future, with unknown economic and geo-political uncertainties, that a slowdown in the order pace was inevitable.
There were no orders for Airbus' super-jumbo, the A380, whose wings are made in the UK. Doubts about the aircraft's future refuse to go away, despite Airbus saying it fully committed to production.
However, there were, at least, positive noises from potential customers. Emirates reiterated its interest in a re-engineered A380 to make it more fuel efficient and possibly longer, or "stretched" to carry more passengers.
Turkish Airlines' chief investment officer Ahmet Bolat also said his company was very interested in buying a new A380 variant, although any order would certainly not match the 140 aircraft that Emirates has in the air or ready for future delivery.
However, Airbus is highly unlikely to commit to the â‚¬2bn ($2.1bn; Â£1.4bn)-plus development cost of a new A380 without firm promises of a big order.
Meanwhile, announcements and news about defence deals came thick and fast - something of a surprise given the sensitivity of doing arms business in the Middle East.
The UAE and Saudi Arabia, fighting in both Yemen against Houthi rebels and as part of the US-led coalition against so-called Islamic State, opened their chequebooks.
Among UAE orders was a $1.27bn deal for an upgraded Saab surveillance system, while Lockheed Martin secured a contract to service fighter jet target and radar systems.
Among other orders publicly disclosed, was one from Lebanon, for an undisclosed price, aircraft from Embraer Defense & Security. And Boeing disclosed that it is in "serious conversation" with five potential customers for its Maritime Surveillance Aircraft, a long-range spying plane.
With oil revenues falling, there was doubt among analysts about whether Middle East states would be big buyers at the Dubai show.
But the worsening security situation in the region has encouraged states to spend, especially on urgent operational requirements, said IHS analyst Ben Moores.
The US had a huge defence presence with all the major firms on show, plus a string of high level officials and military top brass.
But there is frustration that defence firms, trying to adjust to falling revenues in the US and Europe, could be selling more in the Middle East and beyond if Washington would speed up regulatory approval for exports.
During a press conference, US Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James said she would look at how to speed up clearance of sales overseas.
The US estimates that exports in the 12 months to the end of September were $47bn, against $34.2bn in the previous 12 months.
But Boeing was among several companies to warn that some orders were going elsewhere because of US approval delays. It is causing "a lot of concerns" and "frustration" for companies and potential buyers, said Jeff Kohler, an executive at Boeing's defence division.
One theme to emerge strongly from recent commercial and defence spending by Gulf states is how they are using the deals to put down manufacturing and engineering roots, helping to diversify the economies away from oil and tourism.
Saudi Arabian Airlines said it is building a one million square metre aircraft repair and overhaul facility at Jeddah airport after announcing a tie-up with Deutsche Technik, the world's biggest aircraft maintenance group.
Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi-based Strata announced that it was building an R&D operation, becoming not just a company that builds parts for others, but one that is developing new manufacturing technologies.
Strata, which is part of investment giant Mubadala, already makes wing parts for Airbus and components for Boeing.
The move will promote technological development within the aerospace industry and the UAE's manufacturing sector as a whole, said Strata chief executive, Badr Al Olama.
They are baby-steps against the size of manufacturing investment outside the Gulf, but underline the ambition. That's why the airshow held a Futures Day, in which 3,000 UAE university and college students attended a series of events to promote careers in aerospace.
The UAE even has its own space programme (you couldn't miss it at the show) to send an unmanned mission to Mars by 2021.
A vanity project? May be, but it will suck in technology and expertise.
And it all began when the UAE decided, years ago, that aviation was key to its economic growth - and is why Dubai now holds arguably the most significant airshow in the world.


Runaway Scottish Premiership leaders Celtic will be even better in the second half of the season, manager Brendan Rodgers says.

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The champions, homing in on a sixth successive league title, lead city rivals Rangers by 16 points before Saturday's Ibrox meeting at 12:15 GMT.
"We want to win, but whatever the result, we've had a brilliant opening period to the season," Rodgers said.
"We'll go away, re-focus and be better in the second part of the season."
The Premiership teams head into a three-week winter break to start the new year before resuming in the Scottish Cup fourth round on the weekend of 21-22 January.
Celtic are unbeaten in 23 domestic matches this season - 19 in the Premiership, plus four in the Scottish League Cup.
They are within three matches of equalling the club's 'Lisbon Lions' class of 1966-67 that went 26 domestic matches unbeaten at the start of the season - before losing 3-2 at Dundee United on 31 December.
Rodgers has enjoyed victories over Rangers at Celtic Park (5-1 in the league) and Hampden Park (1-0 in the Scottish League Cup semi-final) since taking over in the summer.
Acknowledging his side will head to Ibrox "full of confidence and looking to impose our style on the game" after 14 straight league victories, he believes the pressure to win falls on Rangers, who are unbeaten in 14 home matches this season, including 10 in the league.
"In terms of where we're at, and where they are, a number of points behind, with Aberdeen and Hearts closing in behind them, then of course they will want to win the game as much as we will," Rodgers said.
"They're protecting an unbeaten run at home and their supporters will expect them to win. That all points to pressure.
"I expect a very tough game. It'll be a really intense game and a great battle, I'm sure."
The Northern Irishman takes heart from the way his side have coped with pressurised situations this season.
He pointed to their 4-3 Premiership win at Motherwell from 2-0 down and their Champions League qualifier against Hapoel Be'er Sheva, where they lost 2-0 but hung on for a 5-4 aggregate victory, among others.
"We have stayed calm and come through the pressure," he added. "So we know it will be a great atmosphere at the game, but in terms of our game plan, there is no change.
"We know we average three goals (2.6) away from home in the league so far, so it points to us going into the game with a big confidence, but we understand and respect it is a difficult game."


Sainsbury's has reported record Christmas sales of more than £1bn across the group.

The supermarket giant said like-for-like sales rose 0.1% in the 15 weeks to 7 January.
This beat analyst expectations of a 0.8% fall in sales. Shares in the chain jumped more than 6% in morning trading.
But chief executive Mike Coupe said the "market remains very competitive and the impact of the devaluation of sterling remains uncertain".
The pound has been falling against the dollar and the euro since the EU referendum and there have been warnings that this will lead to higher prices this year as import costs rise.
Meanwhile discount rival Lidl reported a 10% increase in sales over the Christmas period.
As with Aldi it does not give like-for-like sales, which strip out the effect of new store openings and are therefore a better comparison. The company said it was "incredibly encouraging" that it achieved "its most successful festive trading period ever" in such a competitive market.
Argos, which Sainsbury's bought last year, had strong sales over Christmas and Black Friday.
It reported a rise in third quarter like-for-like sales of 4%. Sainsbury's has been rolling out Argos outlets in its supermarkets.
Mr Coupe said Argos concessions had been "performing well as awareness of the convenience of shopping at both Sainsbury's and Argos under one roof grows among our customers".
Sales growth in the concessions climbed nearly 40% in the run-up to Christmas, Mr Coupe said on a conference call.
Laith Khalaf, a senior analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said Argos had "pulled Sainsbury's up by its bootstraps over the Christmas trading period".
"However, against a backdrop of food deflation, flat sales are a pyrrhic victory for the supermarket, and represent an improvement on performance so far this financial year."
He added that the weak pound "is likely to put pressure on margins, and profits".
The supermarket said clothing and general merchandise businesses had a strong quarter, up 10% and 3% respectively.
Online and convenience store performance was also strong, with sales up more than 9% and 6%. Online sales made up 18% of total group sales in the quarter.
Third quarter like-for-like food sales at the retailer were slightly down, Mr Coupe said.
However, he said sales of Sainsbury's Taste the Difference own-brand range had jumped by 50% over the period.
In general, retailers had buoyant food sales for retailers over Christmas period, a report by the British Retail Consortium suggested on Tuesday.
And Morrisons reported its strongest Christmas sales for seven years on Tuesday.
Richard Hunter, head of research at Wilson King Investment Management, said: "The larger supermarkets may not entirely be out of the woods just yet, but the signs are as promising as they have been for some considerable time."


Power firms around the world are being warned about how to spot if they are being targeted by hackers who shut down parts of Ukraine's electricity grid.

The warnings have emerged from analysis of the malware used in an attack in Ukraine in December.
That left about 230,000 people without power for hours after substations were shut down via implanted malware.
The move comes as researchers at Black Hat and Def Con reveal ways power firms are lax on security.
"Power grid operators need to be aware that these styles of events are out there and they need to prepare for them," said Robert M Lee of Dragos Security during a talk at the Black Hat show which detailed its work to analyse the malware used in the Ukraine attack.
Ukraine suffered two attacks on its network - one in March 2015 and another in late 2016.
The warnings detail the text and code combinations used by the attackers as they infiltrated networks and started the process of shutting down key parts of the grid. The information should help power firms scan internal systems for tell-tale signs of intrusion and prepare other defences so they can spot reconnaissance.
Additional information provided by Dragos and security firm Eset also sets out some other ways the malware seen in the Ukraine attack could be deployed.
"All of the functionality exhibited in the malware was not seen in the Ukraine attack," said Mr Lee. "They built more functions in it than they needed."
Mr Lee stressed that there was little evidence that the hackers behind the Ukraine attack were taking aim at other power networks. However, he said, the tradecraft and techniques the group developed while preparing and executing their plan could easily be transferred to grid operators in other nations.
Power generation firms and grid operators in Europe, Asia and the Middle East were "immediately" at risk from the type of attack seen in Ukraine, he said. US power firms were safer, he added, because they generally used different hardware.
He also criticised governments for not doing enough to raise awareness about the seriousness of the events in Ukraine.
"No senior policy makers in any government has come out and condemned the Ukraine attack," he said. "That's done nothing but embolden the attackers and that's a worrying trend."
The Black Hat and Def Con shows saw other security researchers share information about work to catalogue ways that the power network could be attacked.
Security researcher Harrys Konstantinou and colleagues at New York University led a project to find out how easy it was to build up a detailed picture of the make-up of power networks in the US.
The three-person team drew on information in press releases, regulatory filings, grid maps, case studies and blackout reports to build a detailed model of sections of the US power transmission system.
They also drew on freely available software tools that let them map power flows and test out what would happen if different parts of the network were turned off.
To make their model and attack planning more accurate they also bought sub-station control equipment from auction site eBay.
"There exists a wealth of information out there that can accurately model the grid and enable a widespread attack," said Mr Konstantinou.
He added that as a result of their work some information about the layout of the US power grid has been removed from the net and some hardware makers are moving to harden their devices against attack.
It is not just long-established elements of power grids that are vulnerable to attack. In another talk at Def Con Dr Jason Staggs from the University of Tulsa presented work he had done on the security of wind farm networks and turbines.
"The increased reliance on renewable energy sources will draw attention from attackers for all kinds of reasons," he said.
He added that his work revealed weaknesses in the hardware used to manage wind farms and in the software that allows them to be managed remotely.
In many cases, he said, it was "trivial" to get access to the control consoles and management systems used to keep turbine blades spinning. Poor internal controls meant an attacker that got physical access to one turbine tower could inject software and infiltrate an entire network of wind farms, he said.
"These networks are extremely susceptible to attack," he said.
If an attacker triggered turbines to shut down it could cause real harm to their drives, brakes and blades.
An hour of downtime on a relatively small wind farm would cost a power firm up to $30,000 (Â£23.250) for every turbine that stopped turning, he said.
He urged operators of wind farms to take security more seriously and put in place measures and controls that limit the impact of any intrusion into the control systems.


A hospital has been rated inadequate for a second year with some patients at "high risk" of harm and equipment often out of date, inspectors said.

Colchester Hospital's leadership was labelled "poor" by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), which put the hospital in special measures in 2013.
End-of-life patients did not always receive "safe or effective care", the watchdog also found.
The hospital said the report did not reflect the improvements it had made.
Operations were regularly cancelled and some cancer patients had to wait more than 100 days for treatment, the CQC found.
Outpatients were often placed "at high risk of avoidable harm" because of a "real lack of understanding" of waiting lists, it said.
Many items of equipment had not been tested "for several years", despite this being raised as a concern at a previous inspection.
Mothers were not treated "with sufficient dignity and respect" on the postnatal ward, inspectors found.
Staff were praised for being "dedicated" but inspectors said they "felt let down" because many agency workers did not show the same level of commitment.
Prof Sir Mike Richards, the Chief Inspector of Hospitals, said the hospital has a "serious number of problems" and has shown "only limited capacity to improve".
"While the staff have been working hard through many issues to drive improvements locally, their efforts have been affected by poor leadership and a high use of agency staff, some of whom are unsuitable in terms of their skills and knowledge," he said.
He recommended the trust remains in special measures for the next three months, during which time it must submit a weekly improvement plan.
The trust's council of governors said the report might have an impact on recruitment and was "likely to have a negative effect on the morale of our dedicated and loyal staff".
All high-risk medical devices have been checked since the inspection, it added.
Chief executive Frank Sims said he was "disappointed" with the report but will use it as a "blueprint for improvement".


Julia Margaret Cameron first exhibited her work at the Victoria and Albert Museum 150 years ago and now to mark the bicentenary of her birth, more than 100 of her prints are back on show.

The photographs are drawn from the museum's own collection and elsewhere, and comprise both her best known pictures and some not seen before.
Cameron's rise to photographic star was late in her life. She was nearly 50 when she was given a camera for her birthday and set about becoming one of the most important photographers of the 19th century, and indeed arguably of all time.
She was born in Calcutta in 1815 to well-to-do parents, her father an official of the East India Company and her mother descended from French aristocracy.
But it was the British astronomer Sir John Herschel who introduced her to the then new invention of photography. They met while she was in South Africa convalescing and he was there to study the skies of the southern hemisphere.
After marrying she moved with her growing family to the Isle of Wight where many of her portraits of the giants of that time were taken. The family was very well connected and her subjects included leading scientists, poets and artists.
As well as working at her home in what she called a "fowl house" that was converted to a studio in 1968, she was given the use of a couple of rooms at the museum, then called The South Kensington Museum.
Marta Weiss, the curator of the exhibition calls Cameron the Museum's first artist in residence.
As well as portraits Cameron also like to create images of historic scenes and to create allegorical images, sometimes enlisting the help of her friends and staff who she would dress up and pose to suit her needs.
Cameron's technique was criticised by some at the time, even calling her work "slovenly". Poorly coated plates, thumbprints and other marks on the pictures all of which contributed to that analysis.
Yet her search and belief in photography as an art form, rather than just a process, became her strength.
An article in 1866 called her the first person to see her mistakes as successes. It continued: "..... and henceforward to make her portraits systematically out of focus".
Weiss said that other photographers would focus their lens until the image looked sharp, but Cameron would focus until it looked beautiful. It is hard to argue with that.
One very interesting set of pictures on display are a set of recently discovered pictures that were owned by her friend and mentor the painter and sculptor  George Frederic Watts. Cameron was worried about cracks appearing on some her negatives and sent them to him. He had told her to send "defective unmounted impressions" rather than "valuable mounted copies".
According to Weiss this is Cameron at her most experimental, with traces of the photographic process on the plate, "flaws at most extreme".
Yet these were never intended to be published or exhibited, and the recent realisation of this allows us to read them in a different light.
Cameron saw some of her work as having commercial possibilities.  One of her projects was to photograph her neighbour, Alfred, Lord Tennyson's Idylls of the King, something she hoped would make her some money, though in the end that was not the case.
In 1875 the Camerons moved to Ceylon to live on their coffee plantation and her photography effectively came to an end, though there is one picture on show from that time. Of course by then she was 60 and her husband 80. She died in 1879.
Cameron was a photographic pioneer who followed her heart, and produced pictures that spoke to the viewer capturing the essence of the sitter, perhaps more so than anyone has managed since.
The pictures might be from the 19th century, but there is a link to the present whereby visitors can take their own photograph in Cameron's style and share on social media using the hashtag: #VictorianMe
Julia Margaret Cameron at the V&A, supported by The Bern Schwartz Family Foundation, runs from 28 November - 21 February 2016.
Archive photographs courtesy Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Next door to the V&A The Science Museum is also showing work by Cameron.  Julia Margaret Cameron: Influence and Intimacy runs until 28 March and comprises 94 original prints created between 1864 and 1867, alongside a dozen rare prints made by Cameron in the final years of her life spent living in Ceylon.


Indian wildlife officials say they have killed a man-eating tigress after an extensive operation carried out over six weeks.

The tigress is believed to have killed two people and injured another five in northern Uttarakhand state.
It largely frequented agricultural areas, causing panic among farmers who were too afraid to harvest crops from their fields.
India is home to one of the largest tiger populations in the world.
'Man-eating tiger' to stay in zoo
Famous Indian 'queen' tigress dies
An official with the Uttarakhand forest department told the BBC's Raju Gusain that they had taken the call to kill the animal after multiple efforts to tranquilise it had failed. He said that the tigress had become too dangerous.
The elusive animal was located with the help of helicopters, drones and thermal imaging - the first time such sophisticated technology has been employed to hunt for a tiger.
It was identified through photographic evidence using more than 50 trap cameras and was found and shot on Thursday morning, he added.
Villagers celebrated the death of the animal by bursting crackers, our correspondent says.


Australia's border protection agency has made its largest ever seizure of illicit tobacco in a single operation.

Members of the Australian Border Force (ABF) intercepted 71 tonnes of tobacco in three shipments, Border Protection Minister Peter Dutton said.
Two containers from Indonesia were found in Sydney while the third was seized before it could leave Indonesia.
Mr Dutton said a new ABF "strike team" was being set up to target tobacco smugglers.
"This tobacco would have cost Australia over A$27m (Â£13m) in legitimate tax revenue if it had been successfully smuggled into the country and sold here," Mr Dutton said in a statement.
The two containers found in Sydney held 47 tonnes of loose leaf tobacco and had come from Indonesia. The third, with 24 tonnes, was seized by Indonesian authorities before it could be shipped out, the statement said.
Mr Dutton said a high degree of organisation had been behind the shipments.
And he said the seizures - made under Operation Wardite - were the result of co-operation between the ABF and Indonesian Customs.
"There are clear links to organised crime and we know that groups smuggling illicit tobacco into Australia are also involved in other illegal activities such as narcotics," he said.
"The ABF is determined to disrupt their activities and the new ABF strike team will focus on the organised crime syndicates behind shipments like this and collect intelligence on their operations."
Earlier this week, the ABF announced it had seized almost six million smuggled cigarettes in raids in Melbourne.
It says it has also recently dismantled two major organised crime groups involved in tobacco smuggling, one in New South Wales and the other in Victoria.


Four major inquiries have published their findings following claims that a group of conservative Muslims are taking over a number of schools in Birmingham.

The anonymous, so-called Trojan Horse letter included advice on installing sympathetic school governors.
The controversy continues to prompt local and national reaction. Follow a timeline of events as they unfolded.
Birmingham City Council reveals it is investigating a number of schools in the city after receiving a copy of an anonymous letter referring to Operation Trojan Horse - a plot by some Muslim groups to install governors at schools. It claims responsibility for ousting four head teachers.
The Department for Education (DfE) confirms it is also investigating.
Ofsted turns up at Park View Academy - one of the schools implicated - for a snap inspection.
Two years earlier the predecessor school on the site had been graded outstanding. "All schools should be like this," Ofsted chief Sir Michael Wilshaw had said in March 2012.
The DfE says it is looking into claims the Operation Trojan Horse plot targeted 12 schools.
The governors of Park View Educational Trust describe the ongoing investigations as a "witch-hunt" .
Birmingham City Council says it is looking into allegations involving 25 schools in the city, including primaries, secondaries and academies. Council leader Sir Albert Bore says he does not believe there is a "plot".
West Midlands Police condemn the DfE's decision to appoint a former national head of counter terrorism to carry out its investigation for the message it sends
Sir Michael Wilshaw takes personal charge of Ofsted's Trojan Horse investigations.
Sir Michael says Ofsted has inspected 21 schools in Birmingham.
Three of the schools under investigation publish their Ofsted reports.
Ninestiles and Small Heath are rated as "outstanding" and Washwood Heath as "good".
Home Secretary Theresa May accuses Education Secretary Michael Gove of failing to deal with an alleged Islamist plot to take over schools.
In a letter she asks whether it is true that the DfE was warned about the allegations in 2010 and Birmingham Council as far back as 2008.
Ofsted places five schools in special measures and confirms that a sixth (which was already in special measures) is "inadequate".
Sir Michael says there is evidence of an "organised campaign to target certain schools" and finds that some governors attempted to "impose and promote a narrow faith-based ideology" in secular schools.
The schools involved deny any wrongdoing.
Two academies - Park View and Nansen Primary - are told they will lose funding, while Oldknow Academy and Golden Hillock School are warned they too could lose funding unless concerns are addressed.
Ofsted head Sir Michael says the experience in Birmingham could lead to snap inspections at schools across the country.
At a public meeting, parents of pupils at Park View Academy call for governors at the school to stand down.
Vice-principal Lee Donaghy, however, said governors had been behind many of the changes that saw the school rated as outstanding by Ofsted in 2012.
The Park View Educational Trust, which runs three of the schools put in special measures, accuses the government of "deliberately misrepresenting" schools and describes inspections as "woefully shoddy" and "fatally flawed".
Governors at Golden Hillock School say they were not given enough time to make improvements before a visit by Ofsted.
The board of trustees at Park View Education Trust resign. Its chairman Tahir Alam says the decision was made in the interests of the children.
He said a "co-ordinated and vicious" attack by former Education Secretary Michael Gove and the Department for Education had left the three-member board with no choice but to step down.
Waverley School head teacher Kamal Hanif, Greet Primary head teacher Pat Smart and King Edwards VI Five Ways head teacher Yvonne Wilkinson agree to serve on the new trust.
A leaked copy of Peter Clarke's report for the DfE finds evidence there was an agenda to introduce "an intolerant and aggressive Islamist ethos" into some Birmingham schools.
Details of the report by the former counter-terrorism chief were leaked to The Guardian newspaper.
Birmingham City Council releases key findings from its inquiry into 25 schools, prompting reaction from head teachers and others.
Written by Ian Kershaw, it finds no evidence of violent extremism, radicalisation or an anti-British agenda being promoted. However, it does warn of governance problems in some schools.
Mr Kershaw also criticises the council's role in supporting the schools involved.
Birmingham MP, Khalid Mahmood, says teachers forced out of schools involved in the Trojan Horse allegations deserve to be compensated.
He claimed at least 12 senior school staff had been bullied or forced out of their posts.
Peter Clarke's report for the DfE is officially released.
Mr Clarke says his inquiry found no evidence of extremism but "there are a number of people in a position of influence who either espouse, or sympathise with or fail to challenge extremist views".
Sir Mike Tomlinson is appointed Education Commissioner for Birmingham by the government.
Ofsted says there are still concerns at Park View Academy following a monitoring inspection.
MPs criticise a lack of oversight for previously high-achieving schools.
Head teachers highlight a lack of central record keeping and propose a database of school governors.
The Education Select Committee criticises a lack of coordination between the various Trojan Horse inquiries and suggests there was no evidence of a plot.
Ofsted says three out of the five schools placed in special measures are making "reasonable progress".
The DfE criticises the Education Select Committee for "downplaying" the seriousness of events in Birmingham and "undermining" efforts to tackle extremism.
The government announces that a national database of school governors in England will be set up.
Ofsted chief Sir Michael Wilshaw warns of "potentially high numbers of pupils" disappearing from school registers in Birmingham and Tower Hamlets in east London, after follow-up visits prompted by the Trojan Horse inquiries.
In a letter to the secretary of state for education, he also said the picture in Birmingham was "improving slowly", although problems remained at schools placed in special measures.
Birmingham's education commissioner Sir Mike Tomlinson says the anonymous Trojan Horse letter was "no hoax".
Speaking to BBC Midlands Today, he said he believed the letter was genuine.


Parts of Britain have been hit by a storm which destroyed a stretch of railway, forced people from their homes and left thousands without power.

A section of the sea wall in Dawlish, Devon, collapsed and left the railway to Cornwall suspended in mid-air.
Residents of homes on the Somerset Levels were evacuated amid fears flood defences could be overwhelmed.
David Cameron chaired his first Cobra meeting this year and announced an extra £100m for flood works.
At Prime Minister's Questions he pledged £75m for repairs over the next year, £10m for urgent work in Somerset - where several rivers have flooded - and £15m for maintenance.
By Nick RobinsonPolitical editor
Mr Cameron said he would "ensure that everything that can be done to get stricken communities moving is being done: there are no restrictions on help".
The BBC's political editor Nick Robinson said Mr Cameron had given the "clearest possible sign" that he needed to "be seen to be getting a grip" on the response to the floods.
Environment Secretary Owen Paterson's handling of the crisis has been widely criticised.
He will not be chairing the Cobra emergency committee or giving a statement to the House of Commons on Thursday after being diagnosed with a detached retina. Instead, Mr Paterson will undergo emergency surgery.
By Chris EakinBBC presenter
Seldom can one small village have been so inundated by officials and their vehicles.
In Moorland, on the Somerset Levels, floodwater has reached people's gardens, and there is a huge effort to save properties as residents are advised to leave.
Environment Agency workers, at the centre of a political as well as meteorological storm, are here in huge numbers. Monster pipes are being laid across a road to shift great volumes of water from an overwhelmed drainage canal into the River Parrett. It is an effort to bypass Moorland and save the village.
Despite the advice to leave, announced from a police helicopter - as in a Hollywood disaster movie - many people, if not most, are staying to look after their homes. One woman told me she was worried about looters.
Residents have an anxious wait to see what the water does. For many on the Somerset Levels, it's an anxiety present since Christmas.
Western Power Distribution said about 44,000 customers had been affected by power cuts since Tuesday afternoon.
By 22:00 GMT on Wednesday, thousands of homes had been reconnected but 953 customers remained without power across the South West. In Cornwall, 490 were still cut off.
On the Somerset Levels, police used a helicopter to advise the occupants of more than 150 properties in Fordgate and Northmoor to leave their homes.
Forecasters say there will be an "improving picture" on Wednesday evening. But there will be rain moving up from the south coast on Thursday morning which will spread to south-west England in late morning. About 20-30mm of rain is expected throughout the day.
More heavy rain and gales are forecast for Friday night into Saturday.
Dawlish resident Robert Parker said the storm was "like the end of the world".
He said: "It was like an earthquake. I've never experienced anything like it. I've been in some terrible storms in the North Sea, but last night was just a force of nature."
First Great Western said all lines between Exeter St Davids and Plymouth were closed because of the collapsed track at Dawlish and the bad weather.
Limited services are running between Plymouth and Penzance, with rail replacement services due to be provided from Thursday.
Network Rail has estimated the damage at Dawlish could take at least six weeks to fix. First Great Western said the repairs could not begin until the weather improved.
Speaking after the Cobra meeting, the prime minister said he was "determined to ensure a proper alternative service" was provided while the railway line at Dawlish remained out of use, with a solution found to fix it as soon as possible.
The Environment Agency has two severe flood warnings in place in south-west England - meaning there is a danger to life - down from a high of nine earlier on Wednesday.
It has also issued about 60 flood warnings and more than 200 flood alerts.
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency has issued five flood warnings and several flood alerts.
The Met Office has issued an amber severe weather warning for rain - meaning "be prepared"- from 15:00 GMT on Thursday until 23:00 GMT on Saturday across southern England.
In other developments:
Firefighters have also been called out to deal with dangerous structures. There have been two incidents in the Tenby area of Pembrokeshire with roofing being blown off buildings.


A care at home service in Edinburgh has been told to make urgent improvements to staff training, medication and visit times.

The Care Inspectorate has served a formal improvement notice on Homecare Support, which is contracted by the City of Edinburgh Council and based in Lower Granton Road.
It follows an inspection of the service which raised concerns.
The notice lists three areas which require urgent improvement by 31 March.
On visit times, the service must demonstrate to the Care Inspectorate that scheduled visits are agreed with people who use the service, and that all visits are carried out as scheduled and for the duration of time which has been agreed.
On medication, the service must show that procedures and practice promote the health and wellbeing of people who use the service.
Homecare Support must make sure that people who use the service receive the right medication at the right time and keep a record of this.
Where this has not happened, staff must record the reason why and this should be followed up by supervisors.
They must also ensure that staff members who are administering medication accurately record in the service user's records what and when medication is administered, and they must ensure that systems are put in place to audit medication records and follow up on and record any problems identified.
Where staff make a mistake with medication, it must be recorded and staff must check with a health professional whether anything needs to be done to help to keep people well.
Homecare Support must ensure they have a system for looking at mistakes which helps to reduce the number of mistakes made.
On staff training, the service must demonstrate to the Care Inspectorate that the training needs of all staff have been identified and met.
A Homecare Support spokesman said: "Homecare Support acknowledges that there have been failings in the quality of its service in Edinburgh over recent months, and we are, and have been working in partnership with the City of Edinburgh Council to bring about the needed improvements.
"We have put in place an action plan to resolve the issues highlighted by the Care Inspectorate, and our staff are working extremely hard putting it into effect.
"We are committed to getting the service right, and supporting our customers in the right way.
A Care Inspectorate spokesman said: "The improvement notice we have issued clearly lays out the improvements we must see so that the care provided to people improves quickly.
"We will check on the progress made following this improvement notice and if we are not satisfied that the matters raised are addressed urgently we will not hesitate to take further action.
"We continue to work with the City of Edinburgh Council and this service to ensure standards improve.
"Everyone in Scotland has the right to safe, compassionate care which meets their needs and respects their rights."


All new police officers in England and Wales could require a degree in future, under plans proposed by the College of Policing.

Currently there is no service-wide minimum qualification for new police officers, but the college says the job is now of "degree-level complexity".
It is consulting on the plans, which if approved could run as a pilot in 2017 and be fully adopted by 2019.
But the Police Federation said it fundamentally disagreed with the idea.
The federation, which represents rank-and-file police officers, said the plans would exclude hard-to-reach groups and those unable to afford university fees.
BBC home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw said the plans - if adopted - would herald the "biggest change to policing in recent times".
Currently, recruitment requirements vary from force to force, with some insisting applicants have A-levels or a certificate in policing and others demanding experience in a policing role.
The College of Policing, which is responsible for setting standards of ethics and training for the police service, says fewer than a third of officers have a degree.
This issue goes to the heart of what it is to be a police officer, which is why, out of all the recent reforms to policing, it is the most potentially explosive.
Over the years, many thousands of people with few or no qualifications have served in the police - with distinction. They have attributes you won't find on a university course: commitment, bravery, common-sense.
And yet, there's a belief among some police leaders, including the College of Policing, that the multi-skilled officer of the future - tackling cyber-crime one day, dealing with child sexual exploitation the next - needs something that only a degree can bring.
There will be fierce resistance - just as there was to direct entry to the service and fast-tracking. But my prediction is that - perhaps over a longer time period than the college envisages - it will happen, just as those other controversial changes eventually did.
Chief Constable Alex Marshall, chief executive of the college, said the role of a police officer was as complicated as that of a social worker or a nurse - professions that only accept graduates.
Under the proposals, new police applicants would need to complete either a degree in practical policing or a conversion course after graduating in another subject.
Dr Sam Peach, who has put together the plan for the college, said: "The majority of other professions have graduate entry in the UK.
"There's a lack of parity with other professions and because of that the police is not recognised as a legitimate profession.
"We are looking to have degree-level qualifications for constable and masters for superintendent."


A Labour pressure group has asked party members to vote against Jeremy Corbyn in the leadership contest.

Labour First said Mr Corbyn - who is seen as the most left-wing candidate in the race - would "destroy Labour's chances of electability".
The group has urged members to vote for other candidates to prevent Mr Corbyn winning Constituency Labour Party nominations, known as CLPs.
The other leadership hopefuls are Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall.
CLP nominations have no bearing on the leadership election result, which is decided by the individual votes of party members and supporters, but they are an indicator of the level of support for each candidate.
In a newsletter emailed to members, Labour First said there was support for the three other leadership contenders.
Group secretary Luke Akehurst said: "We clearly do not share Jeremy Corbyn's politics and believe these would destroy Labour's chances of electability.
"We would therefore encourage supporters of Andy, Yvette and Liz to transfer votes to each other at CLP nomination meetings so that as few CLPs as possible make supporting nominations for Jeremy."
Constituency Labour parties have until 31 July to make nominations for a candidate.
First elected to Parliament in 1983, the former trade union official has campaigned on a succession of left-wing causes, including the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and the Stop The War coalition, and is a columnist for the Morning Star.
He has frequently been at odds with his party, opposing the Iraq war and other foreign interventions and backing public ownership of the banks. Voting records suggest he has rebelled against Labour 533 times since the party came to power under Tony Blair in 1997.
He has said his leadership campaign marked the launch of a broader anti-austerity movement.
Who are the Labour leadership candidates?
Reports this week said 28 CLPs had nominated Mr Corbyn so far, and Labour sources told the BBC that number could go much higher.
Earlier this month Britain's biggest trade union Unite announced that it would be backing Mr Corbyn, who is the MP for Islington North.
The union's executive committee voted to lend its support to Mr Corbyn, with Andy Burnham as its second preference.


Police are investigating a knife attack on a teenage boy and another man by a passer-by in Edinburgh.

The pair, aged 16 and 20, are understood to have been stabbed in the neck in Saughton Mains Park after leaving a house party.
The attack happened at about 20:40 on Friday after they got into an argument with a third man who was passing by.
Police are also investigating an unrelated stabbing of two teenagers in the Uddingston area of Glasgow.
The 16 and 17-year-old boys were attacked in the Birkenshaw area following an "altercation" with a man in the street.
Following the Saughton Mains Park attack, the 16-year-old and 20-year-old man were taken to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, where their condition was described as stable.
Police said they were following a positive line of inquiry in connection with the incident.
Det Ch Insp Martin MacLean said: "This was an unprovoked attack on two young men who have sustained significant injuries.
"One in particular could have been life-threatening and we are treating this as attempted murder.
"We are following a positive line of inquiry, but need all the help we can get to trace the male responsible as soon as possible.
"I believe people in the local community know who this person is and I am appealing for anyone with information to come forward and help us."
Mr MacLean said there were a number of people in the Saughton Mains Park area who were also attending the party.
He urged anyone who the police had not spoken to, to come forward.
Following the stabbings in Uddingston, officers said they were carrying out door-to-door inquires and reviewing CCTV footage.
The 16 and 17-year-old boys were attacked in Second Avenue in Birkenshaw at about 23:50 on Friday after becoming involved in an "altercation" with a man.
They suffered stab wounds and were taken to Monklands Hospital.
The 17-year-old was released following treatment while the 16-year-old remains in hospital where his condition has been described as stable.
The suspect was white, aged between 30 and 40, about 5ft 10in tall, with a gaunt appearance.
He was wearing dark clothing and had his hood up at the time of the attack. He later got into a silver car and drove off in the direction of Old Edinburgh Road in Viewpark.
Det Christopher Smith appealed for anyone with information to come forward.
He added: "The motive for this attack is unknown and two young men will be left permanently scarred as a result of these assaults."


Names have now been proposed for the four new chemical elements added to the periodic table in January.

They are nihonium (with the symbol Nh), moscovium (Mc), tennessine (Ts), and oganesson (Og).
Until now, the quartet have been referred to simply by the number of protons in each atom - 113, 115, 117 and 118, respectively.
The elements are the first to be included in the famous table since 2011, and complete its seventh row.
The names must go out to consultation for five months, but if there are no objections their confirmation should be a formality.
This will come from the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics and the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry.
All four elements are extreme - the synthetic creations of scientists.
None of them exist in the natural state and were made by bombarding two smaller (albeit still very large) atomic nuclei together.
Theory predicts there are "islands of stability" where certain combinations should stick and hold together - but even then this state is usually only fleeting.
No element heavier than uranium, with 92 protons and 146 neutrons, has been seen for a prolonged period outside the laboratory.
Nonetheless, the exercise does provide scientists with valuable insights into the structure of atomic nuclei and the properties that stem from it.
As is customary, the discoverers of the new elements got the right to suggest a name.
The rules state that this can reflect a mythological concept, a mineral, a place or country, a property or a scientist.
The name also has to be unique and maintain "historical and chemical consistency". This explains why there are a lot of "-iums" in the table.
Nihonium references the Japanese name for Japan. The atom was discovered at the RIKEN Nishina Center for Accelerator Science.
Moscovium was named after the Moscow region, the location of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna.
Tennessine recognises the US state of Tennessee and the local contributions made to the discovery by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Vanderbilt University.
Oganesson honours the nuclear physicist Yuri Oganessian, who has played a leading role in the search for new elements including the one that will now bear his name.


A couple from south Wales have been found murdered in South Africa.

Christine Solik, 57, who is originally from Mountain Ash, was found bound and murdered 50 miles (80km) from her home in the Kwazulu-Natal province on 17 February.
The body of her husband Roger, 66, who suffered from Parkinson's disease, was found over a mile from her on Monday.
Police in South Africa believe the couple had been kidnapped from their home during a robbery on Friday.
The couple married in Wales in 1980 and travelled to South Africa the following year.
Their four children, Alexander and Gregory, 32, Jessica, 30, and Brendon, 29, issued a statement saying: "Our parents were inseparable and their relationship was something to aspire to.
"It is hard to understand that on their community farmland estate, with rolling hills and endless nature, and neighbours 100m away, that something so violent could happen. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers."
Mrs Solik had returned to Wales for the funeral of her father, Glyn Savage, last month.
The couple, who also had two grandchildren, Xavier and Lucy, initially emigrated on a two-year visa, but decided to stay in South Africa.


Donald Trump has urged Republican Senators to devise a more generous healthcare bill, in contrast to what he called a "mean" bill passed in the House last month.

Mr Trump had called the House bill a "great plan" when it passed by four votes but it was heavily criticised and was unlikely to get through the Senate.
Mr Trump told 13 senators at a lunch that their version should be "kind".
Repealing the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, was a key Trump poll pledge.
Sources present at the White House lunch meeting told Politico that Mr Trump said senators needed to "pass a bill that Republicans are able to more easily defend".
"That may be adding additional money into it," he reportedly said.
Mr Trump's remarks on the "mean" House bill are in stark contrast to his previous public position.
Although the bill gave Mr Trump his first legislative win, it was criticised by both Democrats and Senate Republicans.
It was passed before being fully assessed - and a later assessment from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office concluded some 23 million people would lose health insurance over the next decade.
One Republican Senator, Bob Corker, said at the time the bill had "zero" chance in the Senate.
Instead, Senators decided to "start fresh" on drafting their own legislation.
That new bill is being crafted in private by the Senate's Republicans.
The 13 senators invited to lunch at the White House were a mix of conservative and moderate Republicans.
One attendee, Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, old Reuters news agency that there still was a lot of work to do before legislation can be unveiled.
"The total bill hasn't been resolved," he said.
While Mr Trump's Republican party has a majority in both the House and Senate, his margin in the Senate is considerably smaller - just three Republicans voting against the bill would prevent it from passing.
Sources at the meeting told Politico that Republicans "risk getting savaged in the 2018 midterms" if they failed to repeal Obamacare, after campaigning against it for seven years.
During his election campaign, Mr Trump consistently criticised President Obama's healthcare policy, vowing to "repeal and replace" the legislation.
The president first attempted to push through a bill in March, but withdrew it at the last minute when House Speaker Paul Ryan told him he would not have the minimum 215 votes needed.
The debacle was seen as a major defeat for the new president, who blamed Democrats for not supporting his bill.
The failure led to a new version of the bill allowing states to opt out of several of its provisions, and allow higher premiums for some patients.


Adebayo Akinfenwa took his tally to 16 goals for the season but Wycombe had to settle for a point from a draw at Accrington.

The relegation-threatened Reds took the lead in first-half injury time when on-loan Sheffield Wednesday midfielder Sean Clare headed home his first league goal from a Jordan Clark corner.
Wycombe came back after the break when the powerful Akinfenwa headed in Michael Harriman's right-wing cross on 56 minutes.
And two minutes later Akinfenwa had his second when he got the ball in the area from Joe Jacobson, turned and fired into the net to put Wycombe ahead.
However Stanley responded on 63 minutes when defender Matty Pearson headed home a Clark free-kick at the far post.
Wycombe keeper Jamal Blackman tipped over a Mark Hughes header and Clark hit the woodwork as Stanley looked for the winner.
But Wanderers also pressed with Akinfenwa unable to poke the ball home for his hat-trick in a goalmouth scramble and Max Muller also seeing an attempt cleared.
Wycombe appealed a Jacobson corner had crossed the line in injury time but referee Mark Brown waved away the appeals as both sides settled for a point.
Match report supplied by the Press Association.
Match ends, Accrington Stanley 2, Wycombe Wanderers 2.
Second Half ends, Accrington Stanley 2, Wycombe Wanderers 2.
Attempt missed. Scott Brown (Accrington Stanley) right footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses to the left.
Corner,  Wycombe Wanderers. Conceded by Mark Hughes.
Delay in match Garry Thompson (Wycombe Wanderers) because of an injury.
Matty Pearson (Accrington Stanley) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Sam Wood (Wycombe Wanderers).
Seamus Conneely (Accrington Stanley) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Sam Wood (Wycombe Wanderers).
Seamus Conneely (Accrington Stanley) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Adebayo Akinfenwa (Wycombe Wanderers).
Attempt saved. Luke O'Nien (Wycombe Wanderers) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the centre of the goal.
Corner,  Wycombe Wanderers. Conceded by Matty Pearson.
Substitution, Wycombe Wanderers. Luke O'Nien replaces Matt Bloomfield.
Corner,  Wycombe Wanderers. Conceded by Harvey Rodgers.
Substitution, Accrington Stanley. Terry Gornell replaces Sean Clare.
Billy Kee (Accrington Stanley) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Foul by Max Müller (Wycombe Wanderers).
Attempt blocked. Jordan Clark (Accrington Stanley) right footed shot from the left side of the six yard box is blocked.
Attempt saved. Mark Hughes (Accrington Stanley) header from the centre of the box is saved in the top centre of the goal.
Corner,  Accrington Stanley. Conceded by Jamal Blackman.
Will De Havilland (Wycombe Wanderers) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Shay McCartan (Accrington Stanley) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Will De Havilland (Wycombe Wanderers).
Substitution, Wycombe Wanderers. Alex Jakubiak replaces Paris Cowan-Hall.
Attempt missed. Janoi Donacien (Accrington Stanley) right footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses the top right corner.
Attempt missed. Adebayo Akinfenwa (Wycombe Wanderers) header from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the right.
Goal!  Accrington Stanley 2, Wycombe Wanderers 2. Matty Pearson (Accrington Stanley) header from the left side of the six yard box to the bottom right corner. Assisted by Jordan Clark following a set piece situation.
Sean Clare (Accrington Stanley) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Matt Bloomfield (Wycombe Wanderers).
Attempt saved. Shay McCartan (Accrington Stanley) header from the right side of the box is saved in the centre of the goal.
Billy Kee (Accrington Stanley) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Max Müller (Wycombe Wanderers).
Goal!  Accrington Stanley 1, Wycombe Wanderers 2. Adebayo Akinfenwa (Wycombe Wanderers) right footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom right corner. Assisted by Joe Jacobson.
Goal!  Accrington Stanley 1, Wycombe Wanderers 1. Adebayo Akinfenwa (Wycombe Wanderers) header from the centre of the box to the bottom left corner. Assisted by Michael Harriman.
Scott Brown (Accrington Stanley) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Foul by Paris Cowan-Hall (Wycombe Wanderers).
Billy Kee (Accrington Stanley) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Joe Jacobson (Wycombe Wanderers).
Billy Kee (Accrington Stanley) wins a free kick on the right wing.


The Fire Brigades Union says it is "perverse" that a £23m control centre remains empty, eight years after it was completed.

The building at Waterbeach, Cambridgeshire, was finished in 2009 but a year later government plans for it were scrapped.
It costs about £2m a year to maintain, the FBU says.
FBU eastern regional secretary Riccardo La Torre said that money could have funded 16 fire stations for a year.
The plan for regional control centres was set up by the Labour government to replace existing county control centres.
In the eastern region, the Waterbeach headquarters would have answered all emergency fire calls from Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Hertfordshire and north Essex.
However, the project was abandoned in 2010 after the coalition government determined the "requirements of the project cannot be delivered to an acceptable timeframe".
The unused 30,488 sq ft (2,832.5 sq m) Waterbeach building centre has been for lease ever since.
Mr La Torre said the union was "shocked" to hear the building was still empty.
"The cost of it - up to £2m a year, we're being told - that's the cost to the taxpayer, just to fund this empty room... is perverse, to say the least," he said.
"The money spent on this building could have been invested much more productively in the fire service at a time when we're seeing record cuts to the fire service in the east of England."
The union, he said, was against the idea of regional centres from the start as "local knowledge" was one of the essential components in getting help to people in emergencies.
"Sixteen million pounds would fund approximately 16 whole-time, 24-hour-a-day fire stations for the best part of a year."
The Department for Communities and Local Government, which is responsible for the centres, including the one at Waterbeach, said it had "revised the contract for ongoing maintenance of the remaining control centres and the maintenance of specialist equipment has been reduced to the minimum legislative requirements for an unoccupied space".
"Due to the terms agreed by the previous administration from 2007, we're unable to sell the regional fire control centres until their leases expire, which means taxpayers continue to pay for the costs of maintaining these empty buildings."


Is the Wales Bill approaching what Sir Alex Ferguson would describe as squeaky bum time?

Peers completed the Bill's committee stage on Tuesday night and will resume their consideration at report stage on December 14.
Another day of report stage is scheduled for early January and then it really will be make-your-mind-up time in both Westminster and Cardiff Bay.
Wales Office Minister Lord Bourne was blunt (in his own polite way) in warning on Monday that unless AMs in Cardiff Bay approve it, via what's called a legislative consent motion, the Bill will effectively fall.
He told peers: "We will not move to third reading—as I said at second reading—until there is a legislative consent motion. So, if there is no legislative consent motion—and there may not be; that is an issue for the National Assembly for Wales and the ministers of the Welsh Government—we will have no third reading."
Once the report stage, when promised government amendments will be introduced, is over the focus will switch to Cardiff Bay. So what's the timetable?
Lord Bourne: "As I understand it—the noble Baroness [Eluned Morgan] pressed me on this issue—we are hoping for a legislative consent motion in the middle of January before moving to third reading shortly after that.
"That is the suggested choreography, but of course we are in the hands of the Welsh Government and the National Assembly for Wales in relation to the legislative consent motion. I cannot be definitive about that but I can be definitive, as I think I have been in the past, that we will not move to third reading until we have the legislative consent motion."
He added: "I should also say that there is pressure elsewhere in the legislative programme, as I am sure noble lords will accept."
And that "pressure elsewhere in the legislative programme" could intensify if the UK government loses its appeal to the Supreme Court and finds itself having to introduce Brexit legislation.
Within the UK government there is impatience about the progress of the Bill and a reluctance to make further concessions to the Welsh Government.
But many AMs still harbour doubts about legislation that they think rolls back the Assembly's powers despite the warmly-received concessions offered during its parliamentary passage by Lord Bourne.
Of course it's just possible there that there may be some 'hardball tactics' as talks continue between the two governments, but there will have to be a compromise if the Bill is to become law. Who will blink first?


To mark the 50th anniversary of the African Union - formerly the Organisation of African Unity, BBC World Service listeners suggested the African songs that summed up the continent to them.

From the suggestions, the BBC's DJ Edu, who hosts a weekly African music show on BBC radio, compiled them into a special five-minute mix of 50 songs from 50 countries.
DJ Edu also picked the five songs that he personally felt represented Africa:
This is a very special song. If you play it anywhere in Africa, people know it.
For me, it was the song that introduced African music to the world  - you'd be on holiday in Jamaica and you'd hear it.
Also, 2Face Idibia is one of the most humble human beings on the planet.
His wedding in Dubai earlier this year was entirely funded by his fans - that's how much people admire him.
This is a really exciting new song from Ghana, a follow-up to the world-famous Azonto dance, which went viral (it was viewed more than 11 million times on YouTube).
What's also very exciting is the fact that Fuse ODG is a British musician of Ghanaian origin, and his track is being play-listed across the UK.
Eric Wainaina was in a boy-band in the 1990s called Five Alive, before he went on to have a solo career in World Music.
DJ Edu- Destination Africa
Daima means forever.
It almost became the national anthem in Kenya.
It summed up how young Kenyans feel about their country.
It was sung at presidential inaugurations.
It's got harmony, it's melodic.
People really love it and it has made Eric Wainaina a household name in Kenya.
Benin-born Angelique Kidjo is one of the most outstanding and successful female artists in Africa.
Agolo, which was nominated for a Grammy in 1994, is very traditional and yet modern.
If you're an African you can relate to it and if you're not, you can connect to it.
Ms Kidjo is truly an icon - ask any female artist in Africa and she will tell you she looks up to her.
Known as the "Princess of Africa", she is a true ambassador of South African and African music.
I remember hearing her music while growing up in Kenya - she is one of the first artists to cross boundaries with her music.
Yvonne Chaka Chaka has a unique voice and sound and inspires and uplifts young women and young Africans alike.
DJ Edu's 50-track mix was featured on the BBC World Service programme Newsday. You can see DJ Edu's entire playlist and share your comments on the BBC Africa Facebook page.


Storm-damaged climbing routes on the north coast of Devon and Cornwall contributed to an experienced mountaineer's death, an inquest heard.

An inquest heard climber Craig Harwood expressed concerns just before he fell 25m (82 ft) near Bude last September.
Another climber was killed last month about 10 miles north, at Gull Rock, police said at the hearing in Truro.
Expert witness Phil Matthews said there could be similar problems all along the north coasts of Devon and Cornwall.
Coroner for Cornwall Dr Emma Carlyon recorded a verdict of accidental death.
Mr Harwood, 53, a fell runner, marathon mountaineer and chairman of the British Mountaineering Council huts committee, died from multiple injuries.
Mr Matthews said all the equipment used by Mr Harwood, from Macclesfield, and his co-climber Paul Headland, was in good condition.
He said winter storms of 2013-14 had caused parts of the cliff to collapse and meant climbs listed in guidebooks had changed substantially.
"This could happen at pretty much any venue in north Devon or north Cornwall," he said.
Mr Headland told the hearing Mr Harwood, who was leading the climb, expressed serious concerns moments before he fell.
"I can only imagine the rock was just such poor quality," said Mr Headland.
Iain Peters, author of the North Devon and Cornwall Climbing Guide, told the inquest the guide book was currently being rewritten which would take account of recent geological changes.
He said the area around Compass Point was "even more dangerous now than Mr Harwood and Mr Headland climbed there,"
Mr Peters said seven out of eight climbs in the Compass Point area had "disappeared" and he advised climbers to "steer clear".


Parents have won a battle over a local authority's decision to stop giving priority places to children with an older brother or sister at school.

Last September, Nottinghamshire County Council said siblings outside a school's catchment area would no longer be given preference over non-siblings.
Parents from one school appealed to the Schools Adjudicator who ruled the admission rule was "unfair" and should be "revised".
The council said it would "comply".
The ruling only applies to High Oakham Primary School, Mansfield, but the council said it was likely the policy would be revised for all county schools.
Adjudicator Dr Bryan Salter said his ruling could not be applied retrospectively meaning siblings already split up would not necessarily be reunited.
Parent Sarah Lawrence, who had two boys separated by the ruling, said she was "pleased" with the decision but was still upset with the council.
"They are putting a lot of spin on a difficult situation. We want them to fix it for the families already affected by the change."
She said the Fairness 4 Siblings group, who brought the appeal, were calling for an independent review of the council's policy.
Another parent, Kris Ambler, said: "The council needs to put its hand up and say 'we made a mistake'."
Ms Lawrence said her two sons Josh and Elliott had been reunited but only after the family decided to move the older boy to his brother's school.
Marion Clay, from Nottinghamshire County Council, said: "It (the ruling) does not look back, it only looks to the future so the arrangements that were in place still stand - it would be very difficult to unpick."
She said admissions policy was very complex so "every year there are groups of parents who find themselves in this situation - and this will not change that."


Celtic left-back Kieran Tierney has won the Scottish Football Writers' Association Young Scottish Player of the Year award.

It follows the 19-year-old's PFA Scotland young player award and is the second time in succession he has been chosen by the writers.
"I'm actually surprised," said the Scotland international. "Because it doesn't usually go to someone who's had two or three months out injured.
"I've still played nearly 40 games."
Tierney has helped Celtic retain the Scottish Premiership title, lift the League Cup and reach the Scottish Cup final on 27 May.
"It wouldn't have been possible without the help of my team-mates, all the staff at the club and the supporters," he said of his latest award.
"There's a cabinet I've got for medals and trophies in my house. It's getting full, but I hope I can keep filling it."


Supermarket group Morrisons has pledged not to sell own-label "fake-farm" food.

It defines this as brands that can give a misleading impression that food comes from a British farm, market or farming town which may not even exist.
It said a meat brand it had created called Hemsley was a play on the name of the sound-a-like North Yorkshire farming town, Helmsley.
The National Farmers' Union (NFU) is unhappy about fake-brands, particularly when it implies the food is British.
The NFU's deputy president, Minette Batters, said: "In our view it is important that product names and descriptions on packaging are clear, accurate and do not mislead consumers.
"We would always encourage shoppers to look out for the Red Tractor logo to ensure the food is produced to the highest welfare standards, and can be traced back to a British farm."
A number of big supermarkets, including Morrisons, have come under fire for using farm-like labels for some of their produce.
The issue came to a head in 2016, when market leader Tesco created a range of brand names for its own produce, including Rosedene Farm and Boswell Farms.
At the time, Tesco told the BBC that some of these were indeed fresh produce suppliers but conceded that not all the items sold under those brand names came from those farms.
It told the BBC this was not misleading to customers, since they understood Tesco was a large organisation which could not stock its stores from one farm.
The Hemsley brand, which Morrisons dropped last year, had been criticised by the NFU.
The union said that Hemsley used poultry imported from abroad, which was produced to less exacting welfare standards than those met by British suppliers.
Morrisons said on Wednesday that 70% of UK adults it polled in a survey objected to the use of fake farm brands.
Instead, consumers wanted products to use real place names on packaging and branding.
A Morrisons spokesman said that its pledge not to use fake farm names would not apply to the third-party brands it stocks.


A landmark former fire station in Manchester is to be redeveloped after a long campaign.

The Grade II-listed London Road Fire Station in the city centre has been empty for about 14 years after plans to turn it into a hotel were shelved.
The building has been sold to developers Allied London.
The firm declined to discuss proposals for the site in detail but said it wanted to "bring the building back to life, and invite the public in".
Refurbishments would be "sympathetic" to the original form of the building, a spokeswoman added.
The Friends of London Road Fire Station group, which has campaigned for the station to be redeveloped, welcomed the move.
Chairman Emma Curtin said: "At the start of our campaign we were told by some politicians and civic leaders that this was an impossible case.
"I hope the developers will now work closely with English Heritage and us to create a sensitive proposal."
The building, opposite Piccadilly Station, was built between 1904 and 1906, and served as the headquarters for Manchester's fire brigade in the first half of the 20th Century, closing in the mid 1980s.
It was bought by Britannia Hotels in 1985, which ran an office there until about 2001, when it was placed on English Heritage's At Risk register.
Allied London developed Manchester's business and retail site Spinningfields, and the Granada Studios site, St John's.