Browse content similar to 09/06/2013. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
Line | From | To | |
---|---|---|---|
become a high-tech powerhouse of the economy? It's already got the | :01:43. | :01:47. | |
expertise and reputation. Can it happen to the potential billions in | :01:47. | :01:57. | |
:01:57. | :01:57. | ||
Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2137 seconds | :01:57. | :37:35. | |
's show, high-tech industries and space science. The government is | :37:35. | :37:39. | |
putting its money where its mouth is in Oxfordshire with millions of | :37:39. | :37:47. | |
pounds of investment. But this -- but will this bring the jobs that | :37:48. | :37:54. | |
are needed? Roy Perry is the new Conservative leader in Hampshire | :37:54. | :37:58. | |
county council and Simon let's is the new Labour leader of Southampton | :37:58. | :38:06. | |
City Council. You are still a teacher, is that right? Yes, that is | :38:06. | :38:13. | |
right. I am contracted to carry on in my job until the middle of July. | :38:13. | :38:18. | |
Is it not possible to hold a job down and bearded council leader? | :38:18. | :38:28. | |
:38:28. | :38:29. | ||
think it is extremely difficult. We face, Lex Robins. -- we face complex | :38:29. | :38:36. | |
problems. We are trying to encourage inward investment into the city and | :38:36. | :38:39. | |
I need to be available and I don't need any chances that it might slip | :38:39. | :38:46. | |
through my hands. The job of running our local authorities is a pretty | :38:47. | :38:51. | |
responsible one, isn't it? But you hear ministers grumbling that they | :38:51. | :38:56. | |
can't get stuff past their coalition partners. Are you finding | :38:56. | :39:03. | |
resistance? We don't have to worry about coalition partners, I'm | :39:03. | :39:07. | |
delighted to say. We have a good relationship with the chief | :39:07. | :39:12. | |
officers. They perform a very central role but there is a | :39:12. | :39:17. | |
political role that is needed whether have to relate what is being | :39:17. | :39:21. | |
done the residents. It is a partnership role and I'm pleased to | :39:21. | :39:24. | |
say we have a good team in Hampshire. Is there one style of | :39:24. | :39:30. | |
leadership which works best? style! Obviously, every individual | :39:30. | :39:40. | |
:39:40. | :39:43. | ||
will bring their own styles to the role. What are you looking for? | :39:43. | :39:47. | |
of what we do is not party political. It is not what is best | :39:47. | :39:54. | |
for the city. Ringing people on board to make sure they are aware of | :39:54. | :39:58. | |
issues is important and I have set up some cross-party working even | :39:58. | :40:02. | |
though we don't need to do that. It is a port and everybody has | :40:02. | :40:06. | |
confidence in what we are doing. If we have got a large project and | :40:06. | :40:11. | |
there is political control change, we need to be sure that everybody | :40:11. | :40:18. | |
signed up to whatever may be on the table. You have got UKIP, is that a | :40:18. | :40:28. | |
:40:28. | :40:34. | ||
new world? We shall see. The work doesn't have much to do with Britain | :40:34. | :40:40. | |
leaving the European union. Indeed. We have probably all had a closing | :40:40. | :40:47. | |
counter with a pothole. But for local councils responsible for the | :40:47. | :40:50. | |
roads and pavements it can turn out to be very expensive. Figures | :40:50. | :40:54. | |
uncovered this week have shown that councils across the region have been | :40:54. | :40:57. | |
paying out hundreds of thousands of pounds in conversation to people who | :40:57. | :41:02. | |
have suffered more serious slips and trips. The Isle of Wight seems to | :41:02. | :41:06. | |
have got off lightest, player -- paying off just �12,000 over the | :41:06. | :41:11. | |
last two years. Wiltshire paid more than �100,000. Oxfordshire nearly a | :41:11. | :41:18. | |
quarter of �1 million, West Sussex just under 200000 and Hampshire just | :41:18. | :41:25. | |
under 300,000. Southampton takes the winner 's rosette with a whopping | :41:26. | :41:33. | |
�1,122,000 paid out in compensation. Joining me now is a personal injury | :41:33. | :41:40. | |
solicitor from Dorset. Why such diversions between the different | :41:40. | :41:43. | |
councils? The diversions would suggest that some councils are | :41:43. | :41:48. | |
better at managing their budgets for repairs. And also perhaps in the | :41:48. | :41:51. | |
training of their staff and inspection of the roads and | :41:51. | :41:57. | |
pathways. But it could also be a factor of the number of claims that | :41:57. | :42:01. | |
have been brought against them and how they defend them. How certain | :42:01. | :42:05. | |
are you that when you go for compensation that it is deserved by | :42:05. | :42:10. | |
that person? Absolutely certain. I have to risk assess cases and be | :42:10. | :42:16. | |
sure that there is at least a 65% chance of success. I act on cases on | :42:16. | :42:20. | |
a no-win no fee basis so I won't get paid if we don't win. Each | :42:20. | :42:26. | |
individual case is looked at with the particular circumstances. | :42:26. | :42:29. | |
Whether or not they will be successful depends on the type of | :42:29. | :42:34. | |
pothole they have tripped on. There is no right to claim just because | :42:34. | :42:38. | |
you have slipped on a wonky pavement and I think that is something people | :42:38. | :42:45. | |
don't realise. And there are people who... Do they need the money? | :42:45. | :42:50. | |
is not money to buy them a villa in Spain. You can only claim if you | :42:50. | :42:54. | |
have suffered an injury. Often, people don't realise that one person | :42:54. | :42:59. | |
can slip or tripped on a pothole, and one person could suffer a brain | :42:59. | :43:02. | |
injury if they hit their head on pavement and another person could | :43:02. | :43:08. | |
make their arm and are back at work within six weeks, but they have | :43:08. | :43:12. | |
still got a loss of earnings to claim four. But the money you are | :43:12. | :43:17. | |
getting out of these councils, Public money, could be going towards | :43:17. | :43:21. | |
fixing the potholes and stopping this from happening? We have got to | :43:21. | :43:26. | |
remember there is a claim in negligence. The potholes haven't | :43:26. | :43:32. | |
been correctly maintained and we are talking reasonable defects, not just | :43:32. | :43:39. | |
a wonky pavement. So one that has been left for a period of time? | :43:39. | :43:43. | |
Absolutely. We look at the depth of the potholes, the area of where the | :43:43. | :43:47. | |
potholes is, is it on Main Street Road where you would expect more | :43:47. | :43:53. | |
inspections? You say the money could be used for repairs, but these | :43:53. | :43:58. | |
people have suffered loss of earnings, perhaps they can't provide | :43:58. | :44:03. | |
for their family, so they are entitled to compensation. But there | :44:03. | :44:06. | |
are lawyers on the council side and we are having to pay not only the | :44:06. | :44:09. | |
compensation as taxpayers but also the lawyer to defend it from the | :44:09. | :44:15. | |
council 's point of view. Wouldn't you just settle? Well, quite, if we | :44:15. | :44:18. | |
could just settle that would solve the problem. But quite often | :44:18. | :44:21. | |
claimants solicitors will put a claim forward and it is a strong | :44:21. | :44:24. | |
claim. If you are a good solicitor you will have done your research and | :44:24. | :44:29. | |
you have got all your evidence, and often we see a denial of liability. | :44:29. | :44:39. | |
:44:39. | :44:40. | ||
In case we are sure we will be successful with. -- in a case. I | :44:40. | :44:43. | |
realise they don't want to open the floodgates, but when there is quite | :44:43. | :44:47. | |
clearly a claim for compensation that on the evidence is going to be | :44:47. | :44:50. | |
successful, and remember these claims go in front of judges who | :44:50. | :44:55. | |
will listen to both sides of the story, then yes, if you pay out | :44:55. | :45:02. | |
sooner, the legal fees are going to be minimal. It sounds like there is | :45:02. | :45:05. | |
an obvious recipe for local councils. Either repair the potholes | :45:05. | :45:09. | |
or cut down on some of the legal defences. How could councils reduce | :45:09. | :45:15. | |
the amount being spent? Simply keeping the roads in good repair and | :45:15. | :45:22. | |
that is what we try to do. One of the factors to point out that the | :45:22. | :45:24. | |
statistics you just gave, you didn't give a comparison about the numbers | :45:24. | :45:26. | |
of miles of roads that different councils have to maintain. Hampshire | :45:26. | :45:36. | |
:45:36. | :45:41. | ||
county council has over 5,000 miles of roads and a lot of miles of | :45:41. | :45:47. | |
footpaths. If the council has been negligent, rather than face any | :45:47. | :45:52. | |
undue costs, we must recognise that responsibility and pay it. If we | :45:52. | :45:55. | |
think we have not been negligent but this is an accident that we couldn't | :45:55. | :46:00. | |
have prevented, of course we will resist. Is there a sense that some | :46:00. | :46:06. | |
people are trying it on? I can't comment on that, some do and some | :46:06. | :46:13. | |
don't. Southampton has got a big bill here. I don't recognise the | :46:13. | :46:23. | |
:46:23. | :46:23. | ||
numbers you have put forward there. We are looking at claims in the last | :46:23. | :46:32. | |
12 months of about �57,000, rather than the million pounds. It is still | :46:32. | :46:37. | |
a lot more than other councils. have taken action and we're now down | :46:38. | :46:45. | |
to one tenth of what it was. We are focused on getting the potholes | :46:45. | :46:49. | |
fixed as soon as is patently possible. I reported a pothole the | :46:49. | :46:56. | |
other week and it was fixed within 24 hours. Everybody in Southampton | :46:56. | :47:03. | |
will now be trying to get them fixed like you! That is what they do, they | :47:03. | :47:06. | |
get them fixed. It is public money and we need to make sure that we | :47:06. | :47:10. | |
resist the temptation to pay out on legal cases where we think we have | :47:10. | :47:16. | |
got a good case ourselves. By doing that we have got the number down | :47:16. | :47:22. | |
very low, 57,000 was the number I was told for the last financial | :47:22. | :47:25. | |
year. And part of that is resisting claims were necessary, because | :47:25. | :47:29. | |
people are trying it on? We leave that to the lawyer but we instruct | :47:29. | :47:37. | |
our lawyers to defend the public purse as much as possible. We hear | :47:37. | :47:45. | |
these adverts all the time on television. I think the perception | :47:45. | :47:50. | |
is that solicitors are cold calling the business. We are not allowed to | :47:50. | :47:52. | |
do that. The adverts you see that the vision come from claims | :47:52. | :47:55. | |
management companies and they will perhaps try to sell the referrals to | :47:55. | :48:01. | |
solicitors. The solicitors, if they are not going to win the case, they | :48:01. | :48:08. | |
are not going to take it on. They will not run profitable businesses | :48:08. | :48:12. | |
if they take cases on that they will not be successful with. Thank you | :48:12. | :48:16. | |
for coming in. The government sees boosting the | :48:16. | :48:19. | |
knowledge-based economy as key to our recovery. In the south, we are | :48:19. | :48:24. | |
heavily involved already. Last Monday, the satellite was launched | :48:24. | :48:27. | |
from Kazakhstan that had been designed and built in Portsmouth. | :48:27. | :48:30. | |
Oxfordshire has been energetically positioning itself as the UK 's | :48:30. | :48:34. | |
high-tech and space centre. But will it turn out to be the shape of | :48:34. | :48:44. | |
:48:44. | :49:12. | ||
Oxfordshire, the county 's very own space city will stop the European | :49:12. | :49:19. | |
space agency is about to build its first UK is facility here and in | :49:19. | :49:25. | |
2030 it is thought the industry will be worth �40 billion to the country. | :49:25. | :49:28. | |
The space industry used to only be about what went up, but now | :49:28. | :49:31. | |
forecasters believe about 80% of the industry 's Gross is going to come | :49:31. | :49:36. | |
from taking the data that satellites sent down to earth on a daily basis | :49:36. | :49:42. | |
and putting it to commercial users. Here at the satellite applications | :49:42. | :49:44. | |
catapult in Harwell, they are doing some pretty interesting things with | :49:45. | :49:54. | |
it. This company is trying to use satellite data to one copy growers | :49:54. | :49:59. | |
in rural and about pests. There is a certain bugs that lowers the quality | :49:59. | :50:04. | |
of the coffee. There are certain conditions that allow this bug to | :50:04. | :50:07. | |
outbreak in the coffee farms. We can capture this data and give signals | :50:07. | :50:14. | |
to the farmers on when to react and what to do to stop the outbreak. | :50:14. | :50:23. | |
warnings are then sent space to the farmers' mobile phones. This man is | :50:23. | :50:26. | |
hoping to show a prototype to growers by the end of this year. But | :50:26. | :50:28. | |
the key to turning science into money like this has proved more | :50:28. | :50:31. | |
elusive for Oxfordshire than elsewhere. The most accurate | :50:31. | :50:37. | |
comparison for Oxfordshire is Grenoble in France, have twin city. | :50:37. | :50:43. | |
They have a similar concentration of government laboratories and big | :50:43. | :50:47. | |
science. The difference between Grenoble and Oxfordshire is there is | :50:47. | :50:53. | |
a much more concentrated government strategy. Recently, Oxfordshire has | :50:53. | :51:01. | |
been developing that local strategy. The area is already one of the | :51:02. | :51:04. | |
government 's enterprise zones and the name science fail UK. | :51:04. | :51:06. | |
Westminster is putting the science and knowledge economy at the centre | :51:06. | :51:10. | |
of its plans for growth and Oxfordshire 's local authorities are | :51:10. | :51:14. | |
using the programme to get new powers and control over public money | :51:14. | :51:23. | |
to grab a bigger share of the spoils. The county council is | :51:23. | :51:27. | |
working with the local enterprise partnership to support the | :51:27. | :51:29. | |
infrastructure for the science industry in Oxfordshire. We're | :51:29. | :51:34. | |
talking about broadband so who -- so we have got broadband across | :51:34. | :51:44. | |
Oxfordshire by 2015, which is vital to make sure this is Mrs flourish. | :51:44. | :51:50. | |
This is a driverless electric vehicle. It is not all about space. | :51:50. | :51:52. | |
This company is trying to revolutionise how we get around much | :51:52. | :52:02. | |
:52:02. | :52:02. | ||
closer to Earth -- to make sure these businesses flourish. How much | :52:02. | :52:05. | |
would better infrastructure have smoothed the way? In my opinion, | :52:05. | :52:09. | |
this maybe controversial, but those are side issues. The crucial | :52:09. | :52:12. | |
question is defining the product that you are seeking to develop. How | :52:12. | :52:22. | |
:52:22. | :52:23. | ||
do you develop it with the necessary resources? The people resources are | :52:23. | :52:29. | |
far more important than broadband and infrastructure. The name Oxford | :52:29. | :52:35. | |
does have a cachet worldwide. What I can say is that Oxford, being the | :52:35. | :52:45. | |
:52:45. | :52:46. | ||
cachet it is, does attract some really good, highly skilled people | :52:46. | :52:52. | |
from across Europe. But there is a push to develop the skills of local | :52:52. | :52:55. | |
people, particularly the younger generation. It is so they can take | :52:55. | :52:57. | |
advantage of the 16,000 jobs science fail is supposed to create the next | :52:58. | :53:02. | |
15 years. You have got to be ambitious in these bids because it | :53:02. | :53:04. | |
is really about launching Oxfordshire so it is driving the | :53:04. | :53:07. | |
economy of the whole country. political will is certainly there, | :53:07. | :53:17. | |
:53:17. | :53:17. | ||
but will that be enough to win this particular space race? Boldly going | :53:17. | :53:21. | |
where we probably all ought to be going. Quite an opportunity for the | :53:21. | :53:28. | |
country. In Hampshire, Farnborough is a big aerospace area? Yes, | :53:28. | :53:35. | |
Portsmouth is also a big area for space and high-tech industries. We | :53:35. | :53:40. | |
are very supportive. Above all, what we mustn't do is get in the way of | :53:40. | :53:43. | |
companies that want to expand and develop. What do you mean?There are | :53:43. | :53:48. | |
all sorts of restrictions that councils can impose and I don't want | :53:48. | :53:55. | |
us to be doing that. I want us to be supportive and not obstructive of | :53:55. | :53:59. | |
what the companies are doing. Labour point of view, we would | :53:59. | :54:05. | |
probably like to see more investment? Absolutely. I share what | :54:05. | :54:14. | |
a 's point about red tape getting in the way and one of our big thing is | :54:14. | :54:21. | |
to look at detail about that and try to get it out of people much faster | :54:21. | :54:27. | |
so they get a clear end result. From Southampton 's perspective, we are | :54:27. | :54:35. | |
fortunate in that we have two quality universities. We need to | :54:35. | :54:42. | |
work as a council with both of those to look at opportunities to generate | :54:42. | :54:46. | |
new job opportunities and keep the talent that comes out of those | :54:46. | :54:49. | |
universities on a yearly basis of a city, working in our local colony | :54:49. | :54:57. | |
rather than being trained here and earning elsewhere -- local economy. | :54:57. | :55:02. | |
Are you getting the backing from the government you want to see? We have | :55:03. | :55:09. | |
a Labour council in Southampton and a Liberal Democrat council in | :55:09. | :55:19. | |
Portsmouth. With all the support, this is not a party political issue, | :55:19. | :55:22. | |
this is an issue for the region and we will work together and put the | :55:22. | :55:24. | |
case for the Soviet region to get the best deal from the government | :55:24. | :55:30. | |
that we can negotiate. We heard that people are more important than | :55:30. | :55:33. | |
infrastructure on the film. There is some public money going into this | :55:33. | :55:41. | |
area, but training and education, as well? I think it is very important. | :55:41. | :55:44. | |
Hampshire faces a skills shortage and companies that want to come | :55:44. | :55:49. | |
here, because it is an attractive place to be, are that the people | :55:49. | :55:56. | |
with the skills -- are there the people with the skills? It is very | :55:56. | :56:06. | |
important that we give the support we can to ensure that skills base. | :56:06. | :56:10. | |
There are four universities in Hampshire and we need to make sure | :56:10. | :56:16. | |
the existing works force keeps its skills at the forefront -- | :56:16. | :56:20. | |
workforce. We are aiming to be as supportive as we can on that skills | :56:20. | :56:30. | |
:56:30. | :56:36. | ||
base. Now our regular round-up of All 16 sure start centres stay open | :56:36. | :56:40. | |
imports must but the councils cut �1 million from their budget and staff | :56:40. | :56:44. | |
will go. MP Mike Hancock was part of that decision. He remains a Lib Dem | :56:44. | :56:49. | |
councillor though he has resigned the whip at Westminster to fight | :56:49. | :56:54. | |
claims of sexual assault from a woman who is now suing him. He has | :56:54. | :56:58. | |
overstepped the mark because he and Elizabeth just -- because he is in a | :56:58. | :57:02. | |
position of trust. A campaign to get motorists to switch to two wheels | :57:02. | :57:06. | |
has failed to convince people in Bicester. | :57:07. | :57:10. | |
The idea of free fuel, however, does seem to have caught people 's | :57:10. | :57:16. | |
imagination. This committee programme and Oxfordshire aims to | :57:16. | :57:21. | |
reduce fuel miles. If we can help copies some Hazelwood then we are | :57:21. | :57:24. | |
helping the landowner but the by-product is we get some wood out | :57:24. | :57:29. | |
of it. But we parking in Southampton will come to an end despite some | :57:29. | :57:39. | |
:57:39. | :57:42. | ||
businesses claiming the �1 charge is That late-night free parking after | :57:42. | :57:50. | |
6pm in Southampton, you wish you had kept that, don't you? Places like | :57:50. | :57:55. | |
that, you're trying to build up the whole economy... It is about | :57:55. | :58:01. | |
fairness in many ways. We need to balance out how we do it. We had | :58:01. | :58:05. | |
some additional charges of which this is one, some small tax rises | :58:05. | :58:09. | |
and then some service reductions as well as a significant number of | :58:09. | :58:13. | |
deficiencies in working with our private sector partner to drive down | :58:13. | :58:18. | |
costs. Under the specific issue of the car parking, I don't get is | :58:18. | :58:22. | |
unreasonable to charge �1. You pay significant money to have a ticket | :58:22. | :58:25. | |
to go to the theatre, maybe two or three people coming in the same | :58:25. | :58:30. | |
vehicle, an extra pound on top of that is a reasonably small charge. I | :58:30. | :58:34. | |
would say that visitors do have a cost on the local authority, there | :58:34. | :58:40. | |
is a cost to the night-time economy. The council has to pick up | :58:40. | :58:47. | |
that cost. In Oxfordshire, the parking is free all day in whip me | :58:47. | :58:52. | |
because it gets people into the shops. Isn't that a good idea? -- in | :58:52. | :59:02. | |
Witney. At 4pm, the parking becomes free. It means that people are | :59:02. | :59:05. | |
prepared to go into town at that time if they find that. Councils | :59:05. | :59:15. | |
need to be more imaginative. Our district centres in the city are | :59:15. | :59:21. | |
similar to small town centres and we have kept parking free there because | :59:21. | :59:24. | |
we need to keep those small district centres open and stimulate the local | :59:24. | :59:30. | |
economy there. But Southampton is a regional retail centre which has got | :59:30. | :59:34. | |
significant costs to the city with all the traffic on the roads and | :59:34. | :59:39. | |
therefore it is not unreasonable to make parking charges. Historically, | :59:39. | :59:42. | |
we have always charged the daytime car parking. This is a small | :59:42. | :59:46. | |
additional sum to what we have charged in the past. And I guess | :59:46. | :59:51. | |
people would start competing with each other as well. In the end, | :59:51. | :59:57. | |
public transport, as well, is the other thing. That is another large | :59:57. | :00:01. | |
infrastructure which would be a lot more expensive. Thank you so much | :00:01. | :00:03. |