13/02/2013 South Today

Hello, I'm Sally Taylor. Welcome to South Today. In tonight's

programme: Nominations have closed as the full campaigning starts here

in the Eastleigh by election. We have the latest from the Hampshire

seat. Millions of pounds and hundreds of jobs are axed as

another council votes through its budget cuts. Help our hospices. An

appeal to the Prime Minister for a clearer funding policy. The Prime

Minister said up �30 million and as not being utilised because of

complications the NHS but in the way. And top of the tree - the

Cherries charge continues under manager Eddie Howe. It has been

another day of political big hitters on the campaign trail in

Hampshire. Nominations closed today for those wanting to stand for

Parliament in the Eastleigh by- election, brought about after the

resignation of Lib Dem MP Chris Huhne, who pleaded guilty to

perverting the course of justice. Labour were the last of the main

parties to announce their candidate. Our political editor Peter Henley

is in the constituency. Peter. We now have the complete list of 14

candidate submitted by the deadline of 4pm for nominations today. They

have been campaigning hard. They have been bumping into each other

at this college on the campaign trail. This was where Labour chose

to launch their candidate today. Chosen last night, based in the

electorate today, John O'Farrell got tough questions from the

audience at the college. Why did someone from London think they

could represent Eastleigh? Was a comedy script writer a joke

candidate? We want to do well and speak up for people in Eastleigh

who find their living standards have been squeezed and young people

are finding it hard to get a job let alone find somewhere to move to.

George Osborne visited a manufacturing company. Jobs and

investment are an issue in Eastleigh but he rejected

suggestions by the Liberal Democrats he does not put enough

into infrastructure. This is a cable factory, laying cable that

connects homes and businesses. This factory is about the future. This

is about infrastructure and the economy we want to build.

Liberal Democrats had three visiting ministers, Norman Baker of

the Transport Minister and the pensions man was enjoying his cup

of tea. I have spoken to residents. As the Pensions Minister, they had

strong views on that subject. I told them about upgrade in the

system. This is the difference we are making. Diane James, of the UK

Independence Party, said they are confident they are still in the

running. I drove down from South Wales today to give them and hand

and give -- do the best we can. third Liberal Democrat minister and

was David Laws. At one stage, there were three parties campaigning in

the same college, where no students are not old enough to vote.

After the launch at the college, I sat down as we have with each of

the three parties so far to launch their candidates, to talk to the

Labour candidate, John O'Farrell, accused of being a carpetbagger

because he said he wanted to continue living in London rather

than move here if he was elected. I asked him about a controversial dam

of -- development for more housing. I asked if he would build houses

and where? And we need new housing. I cannot tell you where those site

staff. We need houses for young people and we need council houses

for people who need that sort of housing and we need to regulate

private rent. At the moment, private landlords take a lot of

money and benefits because they are allowed to have high rent and it

costs us a lot of money for them to make profits. A when houses are

built they will need a doctor's surgery, a school. What sort of

school should it be, an academy? Whether it is a school thrown up by

a charity, there are so many labels thrown around, the things that make

better schools are paying teachers well, paying head teachers, great

leaders make great schools. said you will not live in the

constituency. You are prepared to defend Chris Huhne in the sense

that doing politics is an honourable thing and he was do a

good job. I am saying he would have done many things for his

constituents that we do not hear about and it is a tragedy he is now

labelled a terrible man. He did a bad thing and it was right he

resigned. I would be sad if the by- election is about politicians being

liars and cheats. They are not. There are many good people in the

House of Commons of all parties and perhaps we should respect MPs a bit

more. I am not a career politician. I care about things that matter to

the people of Eastleigh and that is more important than about where I

live and where I am from, I am from the Labour Party. Nominations close

late this afternoon and there is a long list of candidates.

They have paid �500 deposit and they think it is worth becoming

they think it is worth becoming part of the by-election circus.

This is the lists starting with the major parties. We are becoming

familiar with those names, political parties with a good

chance of winning. And the second page. You can find out more about

them by searching on the website. The BBC has a particularly good

website I could recommend! I will give you the address for that. You

can find out more about a candidate standing in the Eastleigh by-

standing in the Eastleigh by- election. It is set out as one

commentator said, you do not know what the contest is until you can

see the people standing. When will we know which of the

deciding issues? I think they are emerging. Housing,

this is an area that is developing economically and there is not

enough. Particularly places for young people to live in and various

parties have various solutions. The coalition Government has to defend

their record. Immigration plays into that. Parties are talking

about people coming particularly from Europe, the connection with

the European question. The economy, whether there are jobs for people

in this area, which has seen factories closing. The economy and

the success of the Government is something they will be fighting on.

It has emerged that six police vehicles were involved in a pursuit

in Reading, which ended in the death of a teenage driver. Police

had been following a Ford Fiesta on Monday night, after the 19-year-old

failed to stop. The car hit the central reservation of the A33 and

the man was thrown into the road and hit by at least one of the

police vehicles. The Independent Police Complaints Commission has

issued an appeal for witnesses. The first gantries for the

electrification of the Great Western line from London to Oxford

and Newbury have gone up on the approaches to Reading Station. Work

putting up the supports for power cables over the tracks has been

timed to coincide with the rebuilding of the town's main

station. The electrification of the rest of the route is not due to

start until next year. When complete at the end of 2016, a new

fleet of electric trains will be introduced to replace diesels on

the route. The Prison Officers Association held a demonstration in

London today. The protest comes following the announcement in

January that seven prisons are to close, including Kingston in

Portsmouth and Camp Hill on the Isle of Wight. Members of the POA

were also protesting against overcrowding and privatisation.

We are unique in many ways. One Way is that we have nowhere else to go.

There is not a prison within 60 minutes travelling for people on

the Isle of Wight. More people are working from home in the South,

according to census statistics. Winchester had the highest increase

of the major cities in the region, with 3.5% more people working from

home over the past decade. Chichester had the second highest

increase with 3.3%. Every city had a decrease in people driving to

work. A fund-raising appeal by the Mary Rose Museum has met its target.

The last �35,000 needed to secure a permanent home for the Tudor

warship was donated in just two weeks. The total amount raised was

�35 million, ensuring the Mary Rose and its artefacts will remain in

Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. Still to come, we have the sport. News of

a team that is on the up. I will have the action from last night's

form of -- football, including about Bournemouth.

Budget cuts of millions of pounds and hundreds of job losses have

been confirmed this afternoon. A meeting of Southampton City Council

voted the cuts through. It follows similar meetings yesterday in

Portsmouth and on the Isle of Wight, where councils made their cuts.

Roger Finn is outside the Southampton Civic Centre. Where

will the axe be falling in the City?

Children's services will take one of the biggest hits with 100 jobs

going at, including staff at the home that looks after children who

have been traumatised. The council said it is under-utilised. It will

affect park keeping, social care, children's Sure Start centres. And

the decision they made was to address a deficit of �16 million in

the Budget next year. It will mean the loss of 240 jobs. It is

probably the biggest cut the city council has made. I asked the

Labour council leader how he felt about that? It is the worst I have

experienced in the 17 years I have been on the council. It is an

unpleasant and unhappy feeling. We are there to try to make lives

better and being forced on these cuts of by central government is

not what we are here to do. We have to act illegally. I understand the

cuts could have been worse and that the council had a couple of

windfalls. Unexpected windfalls totalling �6

million from changes to business rates. It meant that they could put

more money back to youth clubs, for instance stop many were going to be

axed. Most of them will be saved until the end of the year. Also the

archaeology unit is going to be saved. Libraries were going to have

a opening hours curtailed. They will stay open longer. The much

bigger picture is that this is the beginning of three years of pain

and the next two budgets are likely to be severe.

An appeal was made to the Prime Minister today to change the way

hospices are funded. Currently, the majority of funds hospices need

come from donations from the public, with a minority coming from

Government and local health providers. Today, two of the

region's MPs and the chairman of a local facility met David Cameron to

suggest a new way forward. We will hear from one of those at the

meeting in a moment, but first, our health correspondent. There are

nearly 220 hospices in the UK, almost all of them charities.

Between them, they look after about a quarter of a million people every

year. To do that they need to raise a lot of money, because they are

spending nearly �1.5 million on hospice care every day. In adult

hospices, about a third of those hospices, about a third of those

costs is paid for by the state, usually through the NHS. But

children's hospices get much less, on average about 15% comes from the

Government. If we look at the South, the two hospices run by Naomi House

in Winchester cost �4 million a year. They get 14% of that from the

public purse. Chestnut Tree House in West Sussex costs about �2.5

million and it gets 9% from the state. Julia's House in Dorset has

to raise nearly �4 million a year. 9.5% of that comes from Government

and the health service. The hospice movement says that is a very odd

and destabilising way to run things, because it creates inequalities,

and it makes planning from one year to the next so difficult. It will

change in 2015, when the more people that a hospice helps, the

more money it is likely to get. In the meantime, the Department of

Health says it gives �10 million a year for children's hospices, and

it is confident the new system will it is confident the new system will

work. Listening to that and he met the

Prime Minister today was the chairman of Naomi House. I want to

talk about this in the wider context. One of the problems for

any children's Hospice is the uncertainty of where the money

comes from and the disparity from one area to the next. Children's

hospices have been the Cinderellas of the service in as much as they

never know from year to year what they will get. It is a hand to

mouth operation. Somebody find some money and it is pushed our way. The

years, we have argued for stability and more equal treatment on the

part adult hospices are treated. Why should adults be treated

differently to children? Children dying are every bit as worthy. You

met the mind -- you met the Prime Minister, are you encouraged by

what he said? He said he totally got this and he understood what we

are going through and he wants to do something about it. I said to

him that when he kindly made 30 million available to children's

hospices, NE19 million was distributed because of the hurdles

put in the way of getting the money by the Department of Health. He

understands the problem. He will now write to the Health

Commissioner saying we have a formula that works in Wiltshire and

Dorset, it is working for Naomi House, that should be rolled out

across the country so that all 46 hospices should benefit.

difference this could make, have you ever at Naomi House hats to be

in the awful situation of turning a family away? -- had to be. Not yet.

But the difference the money will make his flexibility so that we can

also help in the home. It will make a difference. We can get more for

our money because we are able to do things more cheaply than can be

done in the NHS. The next stage of Operation

Watershed, the �8.5 million scheme to combat flooding in West Sussex,

is under way. Ditches and culverts in Lancing are being widened and

cleared of debris so heavy rainfall can drain away. Residents in the

area were flooded over Christmas and two months on there are still

pumps in the streets. They see this as a good start. The ditchers of

Lancing. The council has sent in the Operation Watershed team to

clear the undergrowth. Groundwater levels are high and drainage is

essential. The rubbish must be taken away to leave the area clean

and then we bring in a machine to lower the depth of the stream to

achieve clear flow of water. area is no stranger to flooding and

over Christmas pursuers overflowed. Residents could not use the

bathrooms -- sewers. Clearing the ditch will not solve the problem

but it will help ground water prop than its. -- levels. There is

clearance and grading of ditches because they are out of level. What

macro ditch runs uphill. Southern Water said that more is

being done with permanent pumping stations replacing these and

improvements to the sewerage is being considered. This machinery

has been here for two months. It might be noisy but it means that

people can use baths and toilets. They are clear that the work

starting is the first stage in a process and more needs to be done.

They are worried about plans for 1,000 homes nearby as they ask how

the area can cope. Now, how's this for a challenge?

Build and fit out a 400-seat theatre, ten classrooms, a

photography and recording studio in just six weeks. That's the task for

a team brought in to help Lytchett Minster School which was partially

destroyed after a lightning strike caused a fire just after Christmas.

The state of the art temporary accommodation has an Olympic

pedigree as Briony Leyland reports. For students watching their new

temporary school block taking shape, it is a lesson in engineering.

build on the ground and lift it with cranes. There is also a lesson

in geography with this huge structure, last put up for the

Olympics. After that it was dismantled and sent home to Holland,

before being shipped to Dorset where it will provide classrooms.

At the Olympics, it was the main dining hall. They served 48,000

meals every day at the height of the Olympics. This version is 80

metres by 40 metres. It was 240 metres by 80 metres for the dining

hall. It is one of the biggest temporary structures in Europe.

it is enormous. The size of a football pitch. The school needs

the help because of a fire started by lightning strike. The arts block

was all but destroyed. Since January, students have had to work

at home one day a week because of shortage of space. It is difficult

to concentrate. At school, you are in lessons and can focus, but it is

more difficult at home. I do music and we have lost the practice rooms.

We have to find other things to do. The school puts emphasis on

performing arts and finding temporary space big enough to

include theatre and studios was essential. The solution has cost

the insurers �2.5 million and will be ready next month. Education gets

back to normal. That is what it is about, the children, about them

doing well and getting back to a situation for preparation of

examinations. The potential lifespan of the building is 25

years. The school hope they will not need it for as long as that. It

has been hired for 18 months by which time the building should be

rebuilt and the school can have its playing fields back.

Sport. We are very far apart because of a problem with lighting.

It is not that I do not like your! Football, when you have the highs

in sport, you have to enjoy them. Paul Groves spent a lot of money on

the club, the Cherries, and then things transformed with Eddie Howe.

things transformed with Eddie Howe. Let's take a look at the then and

now. This is the League One table when Howe was reappointed at Dean

Court. The Cherries are 21st, and with 8 points from their first 33

available. And this is how the table looks tonight. That is the

top of the table. They now have 58 points. 1997 was the last time they

were on the top tier. And now they were on the top tier. And now they

are the bookies' favourites. Last night they were forced to work hard

away at Crewe to reach the summit. Money cannot buy happiness, but it

helps. Backed by the club's open wallet policy, Eddie Howe is waving

a magic wand backed up by hard work. The penalty award looks soft, but

the kick had enough to beat the keeper. It looks like Bournemouth's

quest to hit top spot will have to wait, when the home side went level.

But after hitting a hat-trick against them 17 days earlier, five

goals in two games. The winner coming minutes from time. Eddie

Howe said the best teams always find a way to win. Tomorrow's High

Court case involving Portsmouth Football Club has been adjourned

for another week. Administrators PKF want more time to clarify some

details of the new Keith Harris-led bid to buy Pompey. PKF had been

contacted by a creditor, the Professional Footballers

Association, who asked them to investigate further. The Pompey

Supporters' Trust remain the preferred bidders and they said

that they have agreed a short-term loan of �1.4 million with

Portsmouth City Council. That would help fund their potential purchase

of Fratton Park. On the pitch, Pompey managed to avoid an unwanted

club record in securing a 0-0 draw at Hartlepool. The point ended a

sequence of nine straight defeats, stretching back to mid-December.

Pompey's Adam Reed had their best chance. While the sky would have

fallen in for Pompey, had referee Mr Bond spotted Sam Sodje's

handball. Aldershot Town remain in the Football League's bottom two

after getting nothing from their trip to Morecambe. They plotted

their own downfall, as Oliver Risser headed past his own keeper,

handing Morecambe the lead. The game was sealed five minutes from

time, before Danny Hylton scored a late consolation for Aldershot.

They today signed the former Bournemouth striker Jeff Goulding.

Two of the Olympic sports whose GB squads are based in our region were

unexpectedly left fighting for their international future

yesterday. Canoeing and hockey were in the bottom five at a meeting of

the International Olympic Committee. They were deciding which sport to

exclude from the games in 2020. Hockey, whose national set up is at

Bisham Abbey, was only saved in the final round of voting that saw

Wrestling loose its Olympic status. That is good news locally that the

sport survives. I am looking at the lovely pictures of the rowing. It

was hot and sunny. We have had snow today. But we had this lovely

weather picture. weather picture.

And ready for the cold weather. The horses.

We had snow fall and there is a potential for some more. But the

snow will gradually turn back to rain with temperatures going back

to seasonal average. There is still a weather warning in force until

midnight for potential snowfall. We have another weather front, milder

air will arrive. We could have heavy rain during the night and

through the early hours. There is a risk that we could have ice on

untreated surfaces. The rain will clear fairly swiftly, allowing

sunshine to make a return. Most places will stay dry. Temperatures

back to their seasonal average tomorrow. Today, we had a high

temperature of three degrees. Less cold than it has been. Tomorrow

night, some showers. The skies will clear. It means temperatures will

go down into single figures. Maybe a frosty start on Friday. High

pressure building from the south and South West. It means it will

turn settled. The war has some sunshine on Friday and it will be a

decent day. Staying there dumbly dry on Saturday. But there is a

risk we could have some fog patches first thing. It will be dry on

Sunday. Sunshine for the latter Sunday. Sunshine for the latter

part of the week but rain first thing tomorrow.