19/10/2016 South Today - Oxford

Have a good night.

Welcome to South Today.

Coming up - a reunion with the people who helped him

rebuild his life 25 years after his release in Beirut.

Terry Waite goes back to Lyneham - where he spent his first

days of freedom.

It's a place that will always be in my mind -

not just the base, the people of this area too.

And getting the most from your motor - the car challenge

that's not about speed, but who can use the least

fuel over 400 miles.

Good evening.

The former hostage Terry Waite has returned

to the Wiltshire airbase he flew into 25 years ago after his release.

He spent his first days as ` free man at RAF Lyenham -

with a team of experts who helped him prepare

for his future life.

Now, in a visit specially arranged by BBC Wiltshire,

he's been back to say thank you

David Garmston has this report.

Coming home in a storm, Terry Waite's plane bumped

through the Wiltshire cloud and then he was back.

Never had rainswept England looked so good.

Home, after five years as a hostage in Lebanon.

Home, the special envoy for the Archbishop of Canterbury

who was captured while trying to negotiate the freedom

of hostages.

Now, 25 years on, he's returned to Lyneham with the psychiatrist

who reintroduced him to the outside world.

Well, the plane landed here right on this runway.

It was a rainy day, it was blowy, it's blowy today, but it

was raining then also.

And I looked around and I couldn't believe it because here

was a welcome sign and the place was absolutely full of people

from the press.

I've never seen so many press people together.

And because of the weather, they decided to have the prdss

conference in the hangar.

So I went across to the hangar and I'd written a few notes

on the plane because I'd bedn told it would be the best thing to give

a statement to everybody and then meet my family.

Ladies and gentlemen, I think you can imagine that

after 1,763 days in chains, it's an overwhelming experidnce

to come back and receive your greetings.

Today, the station is no longer an RAF base.

It's a training centre for Army recruits.

In the chapel, Terry Waite takes a moment for reflection.

I come back and unfortunately there are still many people

who are prisoners of conscidnce and held captive in many parts

of the world, so today, I have lit that little candle

in memory of all those around the world who are held

against their will and who `re prisoners of conscience.

BBC Wiltshire arranged for Terry Waite to come to Lyneham

again with the team that organised his reception and helped

him rebuild his mind and body.

The family are actually aware that the person who has been

returned to them isn't the same and they fret about that

and they develop anxiety and depression sometimes as well.

And we have to take all that into account.

So the idea of a controlled re-entry into the family holds good,

just as well as it does for the analogy of a shuttld

coming back down to Earth.

The teams here at Lyneham g`ve Terry Waite his life back.

He could get to know his falily again and start paying his lortgage,

which had never stopped during his years held in captivity.

But he says it wasn't only the people inside the RAF station.

The whole community showed him kindness.

And those kind strangers had another surprise in store.

One night my wife and I, we heard the bells ringing.

I said, "Oh, they must be practising, the bell-ringers."

And she turned to me and shd said, "They're ringing the bells for you."

I didn't know that!

Yes, the bells pealed again for Terry Waite

at Lyneham's Parish Church, 25 years after they rang out

to welcome him home.

BELLS RING.

David Garmston with that report

And if you'd like to hear more from Terry Waite on his rettrn

to Lyneham, he spoke to BBC Wiltshire's Marie Lennon

on her programme this morning - you can listen to the conversation

on the BBC iPlayer.

A man has died in an accident at Ikea in Reading.

The store, which only opened in July, will stay closed

while the police investigatd how the contractor died in the darly

hours of this morning.

No one has been arrested over the death.

The Prison Officers Association says it was "extremely concerned"

that five serious assaults at Bullingdon jail had not

been reported in line with national guidelines.

A government spokesperson initially said they hadn't taken placd.

But the BBC has obtained a letter from the National Offender

Management Service confirming the attacks.

Checks at Bullingdon are now being made to find

out whether procedures are being followed.

People in Swindon could havd to pay for new parish councils

to run their services.

The Borough Council says it can no longer afford to manage

everything on its books.

It's proposing three new parishes are set up to take

over some contracts.

It's estimated taxpayers wotld have to pay up to ?70 more a year.

Dan O'Brien explains.

It's not just the grass that's getting trimmed in Swindon.

The local council here says central government cuts means it cannot

afford to do jobs like this for much longer.

We're facing unprecedented budget pressures and we're facing

unprecedented pressures on our services for vulnerable

people, for adults and children

That squeezes those important local services like street

cleaning and grass cutting, looking after children's

playgrounds.

This provides us a mechanisl to ringfence that money and provide

that service in perpetuity.

Many of our main councils are trying to get the smaller parish councils

to take on responsibility for services like grass cutting

street cleaning, grounds mahntenance and even some libraries.

But where Swindon is taking it a step further, is that it plans

to create three brand-new p`rish councils, where none currently

exist, specifically to take on responsibility for services it

says it can no longer afford.

At recent consultation events, the idea didn't go down well.

Campaigners fighting these plans want the council to go back

to the drawing board.

These proposals don't actually work and the public have told thd council

again and again that they don't work and we don't want them.

They save a small amount of money, ?2.6 million, which could bd paid

by a small increase in the council tax, and it would be a more

appropriate way to keep the town together so that we all bendfit

from the economies of scale of running our own town.

But for the Conservative administration here,

getting local taxpayers to fund these new councils is

the only way they can see of keeping services going.

Dan O'Brien, BBC South Today, Swindon.

Motorsport competitions tend to be about to who's fastest -

but fuel consumption rather than speed has been the aim

of drivers taking part in the MPG Marathon.

They've covered more than 400 miles over two days -

and the winner will have usdd the least fuel.

Jeremy Stern has the story.

One by one they set off from Heythrop Park.

Most opting for a leisurely pace.

The winner will achieve the best number of miles per gallon.

It's also a chance to showcase efficient driving.

It's to show people that thd way in which they drive has a htge

effect on the fuel consumpthon that they get from their vehicle.

Over the years we have found there has been a lot of medha

attention on the way that some vehicles cannot manage the combined

figure that the manufacturer says, and our event will show

that they can.

Just here...

As well as being BBC South's transport correspondent,

Paul Clifton is also the current MPG driving champion.

This year he's driving a Honda built in Swindon.

He says success comes down to teamwork.

You and your team-mate have to be like an old married couple.

You have to finish each othdr's thoughts and complete

each other's sentences.

When he looks left, I look right and between us we have a colplete

understanding of what's going on around us.

Organisers tracked the progress of the cars as they made thdir way

to the first stop - Silverstone race circuit.

The route through North Oxfordshire wasn't straightforward.

The problem is you're trying to drive slowly and not hold up

other road users, but you h`ve got to keep your momentum going.

So you're looking at roundabouts and you want to flow through them

but you have people behind xou that are pushing you and they do not

understand that you are trying to go slowly.

Lots of twisty roads, ups and downs.

We need some clear and open roads to get some decent economy,

but we will get there and we will stick at it.

It's certainly challenging.

It's a test of concentration, skill and endurance.

The winners will be announcdd later in the week.

Jeremy Stern, BBC South Tod`y.

That's it from us.

Alexis is coming up with thd weather forecast.

Goodnight.

We

We are

We are back

We are back tomorrow morning

We are back tomorrow morning in

We are back tomorrow morning in BBC

We are back tomorrow morning in BBC Breakfast.

Good evening.

Today, we had one or two showers and there's a possibility overnight

tonight we could have one or two more.

They will be fairly light in nature and not everyone will see them.

There will be a lot of dry weather as well.

A fair amount of cloud building by dawn tomorrow.

Temperatures in the countryside down to around 4-5 Celsius.

These are values in our towns and cities.

Tomorrow there will be a northerly breeze which will take

the edge off temperatures.

Quite a cloudy start to the day

Through the afternoon there will be some sunny spells but also the risk

of one or two isolated light showers, with highs

tomorrow of 13-14 Celsius.

Feeling slightly cooler with the northerly wind.

Through the course of Thursday into Friday, high pressure

still dominates our weather.

We're looking at the winds falling lighter tomorrow and even more

so on Friday.

High pressure still remains in charge, but there is the risk

of one or two isolated showdrs.

If you catch one you'll be tnlucky.

They're more likely for eastern parts of the country,

drifting in off the North Sda with that northerly breeze.

Over the next few days therd will be some sunshine and showers.