09/06/2013 Sunday Politics South


09/06/2013

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become a high-tech powerhouse of the economy? It's already got the

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expertise and reputation. Can it happen to the potential billions in

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Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2137 seconds

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's show, high-tech industries and space science. The government is

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putting its money where its mouth is in Oxfordshire with millions of

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pounds of investment. But this -- but will this bring the jobs that

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are needed? Roy Perry is the new Conservative leader in Hampshire

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county council and Simon let's is the new Labour leader of Southampton

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City Council. You are still a teacher, is that right? Yes, that is

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right. I am contracted to carry on in my job until the middle of July.

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Is it not possible to hold a job down and bearded council leader?

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think it is extremely difficult. We face, Lex Robins. -- we face complex

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problems. We are trying to encourage inward investment into the city and

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I need to be available and I don't need any chances that it might slip

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through my hands. The job of running our local authorities is a pretty

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responsible one, isn't it? But you hear ministers grumbling that they

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can't get stuff past their coalition partners. Are you finding

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resistance? We don't have to worry about coalition partners, I'm

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delighted to say. We have a good relationship with the chief

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officers. They perform a very central role but there is a

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political role that is needed whether have to relate what is being

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done the residents. It is a partnership role and I'm pleased to

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say we have a good team in Hampshire. Is there one style of

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leadership which works best? style! Obviously, every individual

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will bring their own styles to the role. What are you looking for?

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of what we do is not party political. It is not what is best

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for the city. Ringing people on board to make sure they are aware of

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issues is important and I have set up some cross-party working even

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though we don't need to do that. It is a port and everybody has

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confidence in what we are doing. If we have got a large project and

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there is political control change, we need to be sure that everybody

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signed up to whatever may be on the table. You have got UKIP, is that a

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new world? We shall see. The work doesn't have much to do with Britain

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leaving the European union. Indeed. We have probably all had a closing

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counter with a pothole. But for local councils responsible for the

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roads and pavements it can turn out to be very expensive. Figures

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uncovered this week have shown that councils across the region have been

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paying out hundreds of thousands of pounds in conversation to people who

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have suffered more serious slips and trips. The Isle of Wight seems to

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have got off lightest, player -- paying off just �12,000 over the

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last two years. Wiltshire paid more than �100,000. Oxfordshire nearly a

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quarter of �1 million, West Sussex just under 200000 and Hampshire just

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under 300,000. Southampton takes the winner 's rosette with a whopping

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�1,122,000 paid out in compensation. Joining me now is a personal injury

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solicitor from Dorset. Why such diversions between the different

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councils? The diversions would suggest that some councils are

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better at managing their budgets for repairs. And also perhaps in the

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training of their staff and inspection of the roads and

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pathways. But it could also be a factor of the number of claims that

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have been brought against them and how they defend them. How certain

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are you that when you go for compensation that it is deserved by

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that person? Absolutely certain. I have to risk assess cases and be

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sure that there is at least a 65% chance of success. I act on cases on

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a no-win no fee basis so I won't get paid if we don't win. Each

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individual case is looked at with the particular circumstances.

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Whether or not they will be successful depends on the type of

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pothole they have tripped on. There is no right to claim just because

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you have slipped on a wonky pavement and I think that is something people

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don't realise. And there are people who... Do they need the money?

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is not money to buy them a villa in Spain. You can only claim if you

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have suffered an injury. Often, people don't realise that one person

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can slip or tripped on a pothole, and one person could suffer a brain

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injury if they hit their head on pavement and another person could

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make their arm and are back at work within six weeks, but they have

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still got a loss of earnings to claim four. But the money you are

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getting out of these councils, Public money, could be going towards

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fixing the potholes and stopping this from happening? We have got to

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remember there is a claim in negligence. The potholes haven't

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been correctly maintained and we are talking reasonable defects, not just

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a wonky pavement. So one that has been left for a period of time?

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Absolutely. We look at the depth of the potholes, the area of where the

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potholes is, is it on Main Street Road where you would expect more

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inspections? You say the money could be used for repairs, but these

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people have suffered loss of earnings, perhaps they can't provide

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for their family, so they are entitled to compensation. But there

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are lawyers on the council side and we are having to pay not only the

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compensation as taxpayers but also the lawyer to defend it from the

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council 's point of view. Wouldn't you just settle? Well, quite, if we

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could just settle that would solve the problem. But quite often

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claimants solicitors will put a claim forward and it is a strong

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claim. If you are a good solicitor you will have done your research and

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you have got all your evidence, and often we see a denial of liability.

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In case we are sure we will be successful with. -- in a case. I

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realise they don't want to open the floodgates, but when there is quite

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clearly a claim for compensation that on the evidence is going to be

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successful, and remember these claims go in front of judges who

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will listen to both sides of the story, then yes, if you pay out

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sooner, the legal fees are going to be minimal. It sounds like there is

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an obvious recipe for local councils. Either repair the potholes

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or cut down on some of the legal defences. How could councils reduce

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the amount being spent? Simply keeping the roads in good repair and

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that is what we try to do. One of the factors to point out that the

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statistics you just gave, you didn't give a comparison about the numbers

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of miles of roads that different councils have to maintain. Hampshire

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county council has over 5,000 miles of roads and a lot of miles of

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footpaths. If the council has been negligent, rather than face any

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undue costs, we must recognise that responsibility and pay it. If we

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think we have not been negligent but this is an accident that we couldn't

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have prevented, of course we will resist. Is there a sense that some

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people are trying it on? I can't comment on that, some do and some

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don't. Southampton has got a big bill here. I don't recognise the

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numbers you have put forward there. We are looking at claims in the last

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12 months of about �57,000, rather than the million pounds. It is still

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a lot more than other councils. have taken action and we're now down

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to one tenth of what it was. We are focused on getting the potholes

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fixed as soon as is patently possible. I reported a pothole the

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other week and it was fixed within 24 hours. Everybody in Southampton

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will now be trying to get them fixed like you! That is what they do, they

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get them fixed. It is public money and we need to make sure that we

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resist the temptation to pay out on legal cases where we think we have

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got a good case ourselves. By doing that we have got the number down

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very low, 57,000 was the number I was told for the last financial

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year. And part of that is resisting claims were necessary, because

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people are trying it on? We leave that to the lawyer but we instruct

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our lawyers to defend the public purse as much as possible. We hear

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these adverts all the time on television. I think the perception

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is that solicitors are cold calling the business. We are not allowed to

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do that. The adverts you see that the vision come from claims

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management companies and they will perhaps try to sell the referrals to

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solicitors. The solicitors, if they are not going to win the case, they

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are not going to take it on. They will not run profitable businesses

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if they take cases on that they will not be successful with. Thank you

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for coming in. The government sees boosting the

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knowledge-based economy as key to our recovery. In the south, we are

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heavily involved already. Last Monday, the satellite was launched

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from Kazakhstan that had been designed and built in Portsmouth.

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Oxfordshire has been energetically positioning itself as the UK 's

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high-tech and space centre. But will it turn out to be the shape of

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Oxfordshire, the county 's very own space city will stop the European

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space agency is about to build its first UK is facility here and in

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2030 it is thought the industry will be worth �40 billion to the country.

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The space industry used to only be about what went up, but now

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forecasters believe about 80% of the industry 's Gross is going to come

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from taking the data that satellites sent down to earth on a daily basis

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and putting it to commercial users. Here at the satellite applications

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catapult in Harwell, they are doing some pretty interesting things with

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it. This company is trying to use satellite data to one copy growers

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in rural and about pests. There is a certain bugs that lowers the quality

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of the coffee. There are certain conditions that allow this bug to

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outbreak in the coffee farms. We can capture this data and give signals

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to the farmers on when to react and what to do to stop the outbreak.

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warnings are then sent space to the farmers' mobile phones. This man is

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hoping to show a prototype to growers by the end of this year. But

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the key to turning science into money like this has proved more

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elusive for Oxfordshire than elsewhere. The most accurate

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comparison for Oxfordshire is Grenoble in France, have twin city.

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They have a similar concentration of government laboratories and big

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science. The difference between Grenoble and Oxfordshire is there is

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a much more concentrated government strategy. Recently, Oxfordshire has

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been developing that local strategy. The area is already one of the

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government 's enterprise zones and the name science fail UK.

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Westminster is putting the science and knowledge economy at the centre

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of its plans for growth and Oxfordshire 's local authorities are

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using the programme to get new powers and control over public money

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to grab a bigger share of the spoils. The county council is

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working with the local enterprise partnership to support the

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infrastructure for the science industry in Oxfordshire. We're

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talking about broadband so who -- so we have got broadband across

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Oxfordshire by 2015, which is vital to make sure this is Mrs flourish.

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This is a driverless electric vehicle. It is not all about space.

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This company is trying to revolutionise how we get around much

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closer to Earth -- to make sure these businesses flourish. How much

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would better infrastructure have smoothed the way? In my opinion,

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this maybe controversial, but those are side issues. The crucial

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question is defining the product that you are seeking to develop. How

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do you develop it with the necessary resources? The people resources are

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far more important than broadband and infrastructure. The name Oxford

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does have a cachet worldwide. What I can say is that Oxford, being the

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cachet it is, does attract some really good, highly skilled people

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from across Europe. But there is a push to develop the skills of local

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people, particularly the younger generation. It is so they can take

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advantage of the 16,000 jobs science fail is supposed to create the next

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15 years. You have got to be ambitious in these bids because it

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is really about launching Oxfordshire so it is driving the

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economy of the whole country. political will is certainly there,

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but will that be enough to win this particular space race? Boldly going

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where we probably all ought to be going. Quite an opportunity for the

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country. In Hampshire, Farnborough is a big aerospace area? Yes,

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Portsmouth is also a big area for space and high-tech industries. We

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are very supportive. Above all, what we mustn't do is get in the way of

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companies that want to expand and develop. What do you mean?There are

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all sorts of restrictions that councils can impose and I don't want

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us to be doing that. I want us to be supportive and not obstructive of

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what the companies are doing. Labour point of view, we would

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probably like to see more investment? Absolutely. I share what

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a 's point about red tape getting in the way and one of our big thing is

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to look at detail about that and try to get it out of people much faster

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so they get a clear end result. From Southampton 's perspective, we are

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fortunate in that we have two quality universities. We need to

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work as a council with both of those to look at opportunities to generate

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new job opportunities and keep the talent that comes out of those

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universities on a yearly basis of a city, working in our local colony

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rather than being trained here and earning elsewhere -- local economy.

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Are you getting the backing from the government you want to see? We have

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a Labour council in Southampton and a Liberal Democrat council in

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Portsmouth. With all the support, this is not a party political issue,

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this is an issue for the region and we will work together and put the

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case for the Soviet region to get the best deal from the government

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that we can negotiate. We heard that people are more important than

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infrastructure on the film. There is some public money going into this

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area, but training and education, as well? I think it is very important.

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Hampshire faces a skills shortage and companies that want to come

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here, because it is an attractive place to be, are that the people

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with the skills -- are there the people with the skills? It is very

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important that we give the support we can to ensure that skills base.

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There are four universities in Hampshire and we need to make sure

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the existing works force keeps its skills at the forefront --

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workforce. We are aiming to be as supportive as we can on that skills

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base. Now our regular round-up of All 16 sure start centres stay open

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imports must but the councils cut �1 million from their budget and staff

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will go. MP Mike Hancock was part of that decision. He remains a Lib Dem

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councillor though he has resigned the whip at Westminster to fight

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claims of sexual assault from a woman who is now suing him. He has

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overstepped the mark because he and Elizabeth just -- because he is in a

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position of trust. A campaign to get motorists to switch to two wheels

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has failed to convince people in Bicester.

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The idea of free fuel, however, does seem to have caught people 's

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imagination. This committee programme and Oxfordshire aims to

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reduce fuel miles. If we can help copies some Hazelwood then we are

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helping the landowner but the by-product is we get some wood out

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of it. But we parking in Southampton will come to an end despite some

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businesses claiming the �1 charge is That late-night free parking after

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6pm in Southampton, you wish you had kept that, don't you? Places like

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that, you're trying to build up the whole economy... It is about

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fairness in many ways. We need to balance out how we do it. We had

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some additional charges of which this is one, some small tax rises

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and then some service reductions as well as a significant number of

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deficiencies in working with our private sector partner to drive down

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costs. Under the specific issue of the car parking, I don't get is

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unreasonable to charge �1. You pay significant money to have a ticket

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to go to the theatre, maybe two or three people coming in the same

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vehicle, an extra pound on top of that is a reasonably small charge. I

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would say that visitors do have a cost on the local authority, there

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is a cost to the night-time economy. The council has to pick up

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that cost. In Oxfordshire, the parking is free all day in whip me

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because it gets people into the shops. Isn't that a good idea? -- in

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Witney. At 4pm, the parking becomes free. It means that people are

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prepared to go into town at that time if they find that. Councils

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need to be more imaginative. Our district centres in the city are

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similar to small town centres and we have kept parking free there because

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we need to keep those small district centres open and stimulate the local

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economy there. But Southampton is a regional retail centre which has got

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significant costs to the city with all the traffic on the roads and

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therefore it is not unreasonable to make parking charges. Historically,

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we have always charged the daytime car parking. This is a small

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additional sum to what we have charged in the past. And I guess

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people would start competing with each other as well. In the end,

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public transport, as well, is the other thing. That is another large

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infrastructure which would be a lot more expensive. Thank you so much

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