21/02/2017 South Today - Oxford

Welcome to South Today. for the news where you are.

Coming up: Forensics officers spend a second day digging at the house

where convicted killer Christopher Halliwell

Also: The self-employed midwives told they can't deliver

babies because they don't have suitable insurance.

And, photos revealing the real Downton Abbey are unearthed,

showing life at Highclere Castle around the time the drama was set.

Police have spent a second day searching a former home of convicted

Officers have been digging at the back of two terraced

Police searches have continued on Broad Street throughout the day.

As specialist officers combed garages and gardens,

the sound of concrete drilling echoed down the alley.

Neighbours say they found all the activity quite surreal.

As a community, we feel quite freaked out

It a bit too close for comfort, isn't it?

Yeah, it is, really, but there's not much we can do

Christopher Halliwell was convicted last September of his second

A taxi driver in Swindon, he killed Sian O'Callaghan in 2011.

But Becky Godden disappeared in 2003,

and Halliwell was found guilty of her murder too.

Police have kept the family informed, and for Becky's dad John,

I'm really upset, I'm really upset with it all.

You know what I mean, it all should have been done six years ago.

With eight years separating the two killings, many people believe that

Former Wiltshire police detective Steve Fulcher was in charge

Wiltshire police haven't officially linked any other

crimes to Halliwell, but they have appealed to him

The families of two Buckinghamshire men killed in a head-on car crash

in 2014 have listened as a misconduct hearing

was presented with evidence against three Thames Valley police officers.

It's alleged they left the scene of an earlier accident

without taking sufficient measures to warn other drivers

At the heart of this misconduct hearing is an accident on a rural

stretch of road that cost two men's lives.

It is not possible to say whether that accident would have

been avoided had three Thames Valley Police

The question for the panel and legal experts meeting here in Newbury

Did they fail in their duty to protect members of the public?

It was in March 2014 at five in the morning when PCs David Stamp,

Hugh Flanagan and Caroline Irwin, all on duty at Amersham police

station, were called to attend a road accident on the A413

between Wendover and Great Missenden.

A car had skidded in the road and run into a ditch.

The officers left the scene after 20 minutes but half an hour later,

two more cars collided head-on on the same stretch.

Both drivers, 64-year-old Malcolm Tindall from Aylesbury

and Carl Bird, who was 29 and from High Wycombe, were killed.

There is disagreement over whether there was ice on the road.

Both men's families were here today for the start of the hearing.

They have each called for an independent investigation

as to why police left the scene of the earlier accident

without taking sufficient measures to warn other drivers

The Independent Police Complaints Commission has

This misconduct hearing is expected to last until the end of next week.

Independent midwives in Oxfordshire are claiming new rules that stop

them practising are unfair and are removing

The Nursing and Midwifery council has ruled that self-employed

midwives don't have sufficient insurance cover, and therefore

Katharine Da Costa has been to meet some of those affected.

After a traumatic birth with her first child,

Camila Preece from Crowmarsh Gifford employed Liz, an independent

midwife, to support her throughout her pregnancy and home birth

When I was having my son, I actually went through three different shifts

When I had the independent midwives, they were with me throughout labour,

came to the hospital when I had to transfer,

and it is that level of care that the NHS isn't able

to provide and that makes all the difference.

Since 2014, all health professionals must have indemnity insurance

in case of compensation claims if something goes wrong.

In January, the Nursing and Midwifery Council ruled that

around 80 independent midwives like Liz didn't have

sufficient levels of cover and would no longer be able

Liz says it's destroyed her career and has de-registered

as a midwife so she can continue to support her remaining

For me, my moral wish to continue to attend my clients' births trumped

Campaigners plan to fight the ruling and say women's

Gemma Kingsbury from Oxford is preparing for a home birth

She'd employed Liz to care for her, but is now planning

For me, the risks of being forced to go into hospital and being

in the hospital setting, with the lights and different people

and having medicalised practices imposed on me is more of a risk

Like many women, Gemma feels there's too much red tape around what should

The NMC says its priority is the safety of women

Ambitious plans to save almost ?480 million by redesigning health

services in our region have been rejected by councillors

The NHS plans have already been controversial with people in Banbury

protesting against any downgrading of the Horton hospital.

The clinical commissioning group has also been criticised for the way

it's consulted the public over its proposals that

would affect Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and West Berkshire.

Some people said it wasn't transparent.

I think the biggest reason is because they have

cut the consultation in two, and there is

I don't believe, and nor did the rest of the Cabinet,

that you can have two separate consultations

because what is decided in phase one impacts on phase two.

An album of photographs revealing the real Downton Abbey

It shows life at Highclere Castle in Berkshire more than 120 years

ago, around the time drama was first set.

It was found during a house clearance in Dorset,

A special delivery to one of the UK's most special houses.

An album that provides a window into the real life Downton

is returning home after more than a century.

It is like a jigsaw puzzle, and you are trying to piecemeal

things back together again, figure out who was here, the names,

and if you weren't quite sure of something, or where something

belonged, the piano, which you can see in a photograph here,

The 1895 album of 44 photographs was found in a normal house

The reason why it was there is not known.

It was set to go under the hammer with a ?500 price tag, but,

despite huge interest from around the world, it has been sold

As the ITV series follows the Earl of Grantham and his family,

this album features a snapshot of the life of the fifth earl

of Caernarfon, George Herbert, and his wife the Countess Almina.

They famously bankrolled Howard Carter's discovery

of the tomb of Tutankhamun in the 1920s.

It also marked a visit of Prince Edward, who later became Edward VII.

But it is not just the aristocracy featured here.

In 1895, Highclere would have very much been a working house,

and there would have been about 60 members of staff here.

Interestingly, this album also shows what life would have

I think that is what makes these houses live.

Louis and George and everyone here are my family still,

The photographs could be on display when the house

Far from a work of fiction, this piece of history is now

Good evening. Overnight tonight we are looking at a fair amount of

cloud with outbreaks of light and patchy rain. Temperatures dropping

to eight Celsius, and the breeze will increase during the early hours

of the morning, keeping the fog and eight. Some outbreaks of rain

tomorrow, some brightness to be had, a fair amount of cloud during the

day, and temperatures will reach 11-12 C. The rain could be heavy at

times. All eyes are looking ahead to Thursday, storm Doris is on its way.

We will have heavy rain during the morning, clearing to stronger winds

through the afternoon, and the Met office has issued a wind warning

through parts of Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire during the course of

the evening. The Windsor will ease through the evening. Do the rest of

the week, a lot of cloud tomorrow. A Met Office wind warning is in force

on Thursday through the region, with rain in the morning. The odd shower

on Friday, the day, particularly up towards the

evening rush hour. It calms down on the Outlook toward the end of the

week and then milder again from the wheel them. More on storm Doris now

with Matt Taylor.