22/03/2017 South Today - Oxford

Coming up: A record fine of ?20 million for Thames Water.

The company let more than a billion litres of sewage

We have never had a longer or more intensive investigation. Those

analysis allowed us to present a picture of systemic failure, out of

control facilities, that involved the sewage of 200,000 people.

Also: The developers continuing to build a crematorium,

even though they no longer have planning permission.

And honoured by the Prime Minister for setting up a charity supporting

Thames Water has received a record fine of ?20 million

Nearly 1.5 billion litres of raw sewage went into

The River Tame near Aylesbury is getting back to its best,

but in 2013 a local farmer was shocked to find sewage

There were dead fish. it was very, very smelly.

More than a billion litres of untreated sewage were released

into the River Thames and its tributaries

In January Thames Water admitted sewage spills

from treatment works in Aylesbury, Didcot and Little Marlow

and a pumping station in Littlemore in Oxford.

Last week the company also admitted failing to control waste

After receiving a record fine at Aylesbury Crown Court,

millions in new equipment since the offences.

There have been sweeping, far-reaching changes

That's included more people, more and better systems,

Our performance has improved considerably, and we're also doing

a lot of work which we're proud of in partnership with environmental

The court case followed a three-year investigation

The scale was enormous, and the pattern of

It wasn't because there had been new conditions in permits by us,

it was because basic equipment, screens and pumps, were not

Thames Water's paid for new fencing to keep Mr Woodford's cattle away

from the water, but he can't understand why the pollution got out

It's highly irresponsible that such a large company with massive

profit margins to be polluting our waterways.

Judge Francis Sheridan described Thames Water's

failings as diabolical and disgraceful, and

He said all of the problems were avoidable by any competent

operator, and summing up the case before that record ?20 million fine,

he said, "What a dreadful state of affairs."

Local environmental groups welcomed the fine.

But as the countryside recovers, their message is that Thames Water

simply didn't do its job, and must change its ways for good.

Thames Valley Police is reviewing its security in light

In a statement, Chief Constable Francis Hapgood sent his sympathies

to all those affected by today's events.

He added that the force was reviewing its security

Developers are continuing to build a privately owned

crematorium in Aylesbury, even though they no longer have

The project in the lakeside village of Watermead has met

A High Court judge said construction could go ahead,

but now the Court of Appeal has overturned that decision.

With an opening date set for June, the developers say

The diggers are still digging, the builders still building.

And that's despite the fact the Court Of Appeal has ruled

against the company behind this construction on the shores

The row's been going on for over two years.

The parish council have been fighting it every step of the way

and they say it's not just because it'll ruin the view of some

The fundamental issue is that there was no sequential test,

which is a test to determine whether or not a site is suitable

In particular in Watermead, this relates to the flood risk

and this has now been proven that a sequential test should

They say it'?s the wrong project in the wrong place and that plans

for another crematorium less than a mile from the

Ayelsebury does need a new crematorium,

The closest ones to the town are in Amersham or Milton Keynes.

Both of them are often busy, leading to long delays

But the row over whether this lakeside location is the right place

for one looks set to rumble on and on.

That's because the company behind the construction, Westerleigh,

have now submitted all the correct forms to the District Council

and are confident they'll have the permissions they need

The planning application now needs to be reconsidered, but that can

be done, and according to the Appeals Court judges ought

to be done, and they expect it to be reconsiderered in very short order

so planning permission should come through relatively quickly

and from the construction point of view we'll be ready

Both the parish council and the construction firm

are confident they will win, but it's now up to Aylesbury Vale

District Council to consider the latest planning application.

A decision is expected in the next few months.

Meanwhile, plans to build nearly 200 homes in South Oxfordshire have been

Developers wanted to build 170 houses between Didcot

South Oxfordshire District Council refused the plans, now a planning

Campaigners raised ?10,000 to protect what they

A woman who set up a charity supporting children with parents

in jail has been honoured by the Prime Minister.

Sarah Burrows from Oxford launched Children Heard And Seen

after discovering that two thirds of boys with a parent

who's been in prison go on to offend themselves.

My dad's been in and out of prison for the past 15 years and I don't

Clayton's parents were jailed for drug offences when he was a toddler.

The 15-year-old and his brother were raised by their grandparents.

I thought I'd only have them for a day or so.

Then within three days my husband and I knew that we would end up

looking after the children for the rest of their

Everything changed, I can't even explain

We couldn't be the grandparent any more, we had to be a parent.

That's where the charity Children Heard And Seen came in.

It runs weekly youth groups and provides mentors.

I used to be a manager at the Youth Offending Service

in Oxfordshire and a lot of the children that were coming

through the criminal justice system, who were offending, I realised

had a parent in prison, so when I started researching why

this might be, I then realised that 65% of boys with a parent in prison

went on to offend and I thought, actually, let's stop this

Sarah's received a Point Of Light award recognising her work.

But she relies on referrals to find people who need help.

She says a national database of children with parents in jail

For us it's always having to go out into the community and getting

referrals from school, social care, the police, probation, whoever,

and obviously self-referrals, but if there was a national database

then those children could be picked up immediately and support services

For people like me, who have nobody, not even any relatives locally,

And I'd been waiting for that for five/six years.

We're back in BBC Breakfast tomorrow morning, but for now goodnight and,

with the weather, here's Alexis Green.

Well, we had a showery day across the region with good sunny spells as

well but showery is how things continue as we go through tonight.

We start to see the cloud building ahead of some rain that will move in

through the early hours. That cloud building here and then the rain band

moving east to west with heavy outbreaks for a time. Under the

cloudy skies temperatures start a chilly but recovered to around 4

degrees by dawn. The tomorrow morning it is a damp start, very

dull under the cloud, but the showers start to move away pretty

quickly so I think we will start to see brighter spells developing of

the day wears on and quite a pleasant afternoon if you are lucky

enough to stay dry. Top temperature tomorrow and the best of the

brightness 11 degrees but are keen north-easterly wind, so feeling a

little bit chillier than that. Looking ahead and Friday is a cloudy

picture with the threat of rain for a time but it does look as if high

pressure starts to sink down from the south and that will move any

further rain away from us so a dry day -- ends to Friday with sunny

spells. We keep that strong easterly wind. As we head into the weekend it

is a much more promising outlook and things are settled and fine and dry

through Saturday. Some sunshine for much of the day but again the keen

easterly breeze keeps things a bit on the cool side. On Sunday a bit

more in the way of cloud but still a very pleasant prospect and

decent day. Saturday could be a much better day, with some sunshine.