21/10/2013 South Today

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

Calls to stop plans to close four Hampshire Care Homes after a key

resignation at the County Council. A good Samaritan's life in tatters `

the charity worker ruined by a ruthless conman's allegation of

rape. If I saw someone that looks like they were ill or in distress, I

would stop and offer a helping hand. Now I would not go near them. Save

our nurseries ` a parents' campaign to stop the closure of facilities

used by more than 200 children. And it was over in seconds, but it

certainly made its mark. Clearing up after a freak tornado in Hayling

Island. I heard this almighty bang. I came out and found that the wind

had picked up the caravan, thrown it into the tree, resulting in this

damage. Protestors trying to save four

council`run care homes in Hampshire are calling for plans to shut them

down to be scrapped, after the councillor overseeing a public

consultation into their closure resigned from her post. Anna McNair

Scott had failed to fully declare a conflict of interest. The leader of

Hampshire County Council has told BBC South that her resignation won't

affect the process to decide the future of the homes. But opponents

of the plans say that process is now fatally flawed. Here's our Political

Editor Peter Henley. The public meetings had been

emotional. It has highly trained and caring staff, who make the people's

life there worth living. The arguments over much loved relatives

were fiercely debated. They are treating them like cattle. But

Hampshire councillors seemed determined to press ahead with their

plan to close four homes in Petersfield, Basingstoke, Romsey and

Linda Hirst. On Friday, the counsellor leading the plan, Anna

McNair Scott, resigned from her post. Investigations by this

campaign forced her to admit that she had not declared an interest.

Her husband's involvement in a property development included flats

for assisted living. Once I discovered what her husband's

business was, I could not see how that would mean that somebody could

actually be impartial and those circumstances. It's only a year

since the closure of three other care homes in gospel, Winchester and

Fleet. But the council says they have to do something to tackle the

growing cost of old age. More than 116,000 over 75s in a county, 6000

in residential care at a cost of ?480 per week. The council say that

the resignation will not affect the programme. I want the council and

public to be crystal clear there could be no conflicts of interest,

which is why I thought it was appropriate to accept her

resignation. And you continue with the process? Oh, yes. The decision,

in fact, had more or less arrived, the decision would be taken by the

whole cabinet. Campaigners say the closures should be stopped now. I

think the consultancy should be abandoned immediately. I think any

of the individuals at Hampshire County Council that have been

involved in this showed, frankly, back off. Hampshire County Council

insists they can stick to their current timetable, with a decision

on the future of the homes in November.

How significant is this resignation in the scheme of things? It is

embarrassing, but more important is the closure programme. Whether a

counsellor filed a piece of paperwork correctly is not the

centre of all of this. By resigning, before even taking the

decision, she has saved the council a lot of trouble. Is it likely that

the process will go ahead? There could be a legal challenge, she has

probably done something to avoid that by resigning. But just as in

the NHS, there is a move towards more care at home. Particularly for

those with early stages of dementia, it is much better to be treated in

your own home, research suggests. An assured him, there is a lot of

trauma involved. I think long`term, they have to be able to fund not

just the process, but also the change, moving residents into extra

care at home. A good Samaritan has been describing

how his life has been torn apart by a conman who repaid his kindness by

making a wholly false allegation of rape. Will Clark says the episode

led to the collapse of his charity and has left him with depression.

The conman, who claimed to be a gay gypsy on the run from his family,

has been jailed for perverting the course of justice. Will, who lives

in Salisbury, has been talking to our reporter Steve Humphrey.

Will Clark is trying very hard to rebuild his life after months of

turmoil and anguish caused by a conman. What do I think of him? I

hate him. I absolutely hate him. I have tried to use the old head that

I had, with the charity, to try to understand what could have damaged

him to do this. As I can't. I absolutely hate him for what he has

done. This is Shane Peek, the man that caused the heartache. He used

the name Stephen Shaw, one of his many aliases. In Salisbury, he told

people he was a 17`year`old gay gypsy, on the run from his family in

South Yorkshire. In fact, he was a 26`year`old conman who told some

very elaborate lies. He was put in contact with will Clark's charity,

which had won plaudits for supporting gay, lesbian and bisexual

people. Will let him stay at his home, but became suspicious and

confronted him. At that point, he removed himself, with the help of a

friend he had made, called his social worker and told them I had

raped him. When Wiltshire Police began investigating, they soon

discovered Shane Peek's true identity and evidence of other

offences. Here at Salisbury Crown Court, he was jailed for four and a

half years, after he admitted perverting the course of justice and

other offences including burglary, theft and fraud. The trial judge

said he had targeted people who had gone out of their way to help him.

Will says that episode has had a profound impact. He has closed down

his charity and is now receiving medical help. I have a psychiatric

treatment with a psychologist, this coming week. That is going to be one

of many. You are the classic good Samaritan who has tried to do

something to help. But all you have hard in return is grief and

anguish? Yes, and it does take away your trust in people. I have zero

trust. I will not allow myself to be in a position where I can be even

looked at or miss read in any way. So I just avoid people. I go out in

the daytime, to go to the shops, at certain times of the day when I know

there will be less people around will stop taking the dogs out, I do

the same. I don't have trust in people any more.

A woman has gone into hiding with her dogs after a court ordered that

they should be destroyed. The Staffordshire Bull Terriers attacked

and killed another dog in Wimborne in Dorset. The owner says it was an

accident and she's willing to move away from her home permanently if

they could be spared. Back in March, Nadine Deuters had

just taken her three staffies out for a walk in a field near her home.

Two of them suddenly attacked and killed another dog being walked

nearby. In the fracas, the elderly owner broke his ankle. Her dog later

died. Mum and son just went direct to the dog, and I did my utmost to

save the little thing. And at one stage I know I was able to hold

Diamond's lead and I tried so hard to pull her away, but she was just

so strong. The dogs have been in trouble before. . This summer a

court decided that the two dogs involved should be destroyed. I did

say that even if I never came back to Dorset with the dogs would they

spare their lives and could there be a reprieve? Because it was an

accident, it wasn't intentional. I'm full of deep regret and remorse.

Nadine's now gone in to hiding and says her dogs are part of her

family. The BBC approached Christchurch and

East Dorset Councils for an interview. It told us in a statement

that the order to destroy the dogs still stands, and that they must be

surrendered. And you can watch more on this story on Inside Out South

tonight at 7.30 on BBC One. There's been a 17% drop over the

last year in the number of young people in West Berkshire who are not

in education, employment or training according to the local council. The

figures apply to those aged between 16 and 19. West Berkshire Council

puts it down to a ?1 million grant from the Education Funding Agency,

that it says has helped more teenagers get vocational

qualifications. Still to come in this evening's

South Today: Aiming high ` the Paralympic gold medallist shooting

for gold again this week in Spain. Plans to demolish a clubhouse used

by anglers in Weymouth have been rejected by councillors. The lease

on the current clubhouse expires next year. The council wants to

knock it down and build a car park in order to generate more money.

Members of the Harbour Management Board voted 4`1 to keep the club on

the site. One year after the collapse of the company that

installed Bournemouth's artificial surf reef, and its owner still can't

be traced. Nick Behunin ran New Zealand`based

ASR Limited which built the ?3.2m Boscombe Reef in 2009 but the

company went into liquidation last September. Bournemouth Council is

owed almost ?15,000 and other local contractors involved in the reef's

construction four years ago are still owed as much as ?34,000.

Parents in Dorset have vowed to fight a decision to close day

nurseries which are run by the County Council. The facilities in

Blandford and Shaftesbury, which include an out of school club, are

used by 250 children. The council says the loss of Government grants

means it can no longer afford to keep them open, but parents fear

finding suitable alternatives may be impossible.

It's the weekend and playtime at Lola's house. But during the week

the children gathered here spend time playing away from their homes.

They go to Shaftsbury Nursery, which is run by Dorset County Council. The

news that it's to close has devastated the parents who depend

upon it. It was a complete shock and a bolt out of the blue. It caused

panic, because I thought, there are going to be all of these children,

looking for other nursery places in a very small town. It is so good

there, I can't see how they can justify closing somewhere that would

give our children the best start in life. Dorset County Council say the

loss of the Government's Early Years Foundation grant means that its two

nurseries, at Sure Start centres in Shaftsbury and Blandford, as well as

an out of school club there, are losing around ?130,000 a year and

are no longer financially Viable. It is unusual for councils

to directly operated nurseries for children. It becomes increasingly

difficult, when there is a deficit budget, to keep those sorts of

facilities open. It is with a heavy heart we are having to take this

decision. Parents have until the end of March to find somewhere else for

their children to go, and are being offered support. These mums says

Shaftsbury's only other nursery and pre`school are full. They're working

together to try and to persuade the council to rethink a decision they

find hard to accept. Claims of poor pay and zero hour

contracts for cleaners working on First Great Western trains have

resulted in further strike action this Friday. Members of rail union

RMT, working for sub`contractors Mitie, will take industrial action

for 24 hours from Friday morning. The union say it's a fight for a

living wage and workplace justice. First Great Western said

negotiations are ongoing and accused the RMT of playing political games

rather than resolving the issues. Smart card tickets for commuters

travelling into London will be rolled out to more stations in West

Sussex today. Southern Rail is extending usage of its Key smart

card to enable commuters to buy tickets into London. The company

says the scheme marks the first step towards abandoning paper tickets all

together. On to sport. Saints did very well?

They certainly did. Pre`season, I spoke to the Southampton manager

Mauricio Pochettino and said, how high can the team go? He said, there

is no real limit. He's not going to set a limit on what his team can

do. They are a surprise package. Saints were fourth for about two

hours on Saturday night, before wins for Manchester City and Tottenham

over the weekend knocked them back to sixth, they've lost just once in

their opening eight fixtures. A great result for them on Saturday.

Mauricio Pochettino so far seems an inspired choice by the man who calls

the shots, Nicola Cortese. An early chance for Saints, but Pablo Osvaldo

could have done better. United in front, Januzai's pass, Boruc with a

good save but Van Persie with the follow up. It is always tough when

you are behind at Old Trafford. Saints left it late, but the goal is

being credited to Dejan Lovren. What a signing he has been. 1`1.

Sunni TRANSLATION: We pressed high up the pitch, we pressed a lot. I

want to congratulate them, it is difficult to come to a ground like

Old Trafford and get a result. We were deciding just to play, to see

what we could do. And we took the one point. Going very well indeed.

And here's what we gleaned from this weekend's Football League action.

It is worth keeping an eye on Reading. Four good goals against

Doncaster sending them six in the Championship. They started off with

Danny Guthrie. We know he has Premier League ability in midfield

and he showed it. Doncaster got one back, in spite of the keeper's best

efforts. It wasn't a big problem. Adam Le Fondre keeps popping up when

he's needed. More big finishing coming up here. Gareth McLeary

lashing in ten minutes from time. Still at the Majestic Stadium,

Reading may well want to keep him at this rate. Bournemouth's on loan

goalkeeper dislocated his shoulder in this innocuous incident. The

Cherries trailed to this goal of the day contender. Pretty much

unstoppable. But you can't write them off, they keep coming at you

and Mark Pugh got the equaliser in the final minute. The Portsmouth

manager Guy Whittingham can afford to smile. His team were improving.

Almost 15,500 were at Fratton Park, 9000 more than the next biggest

attendance in the division. Portsmouth climb to mid`table.

In ice hockey's Premier League it was a good weekend for Basingstoke

bison. They beat the table topping Manchester Phoenix 4`2 on Saturday

night. They trailed twice. Miroslav Vantroba with the second equaliser

to make it 2`2. Bison took control in the third period, the comeback

capped by Zac Sullivan with his first league goal. Guildford stay

second after the weekend, Bison third, Milton Keynes and Swindon are

just below them. On Friday night you may have seen us live at the launch

of this year's Rallye sun`seeker. 83 cars were tearing through the

heathland between Bournemouth and Poole, many taking part in what was

also the final round of the British Rally Championship. And it was the

man who took Alexis for a spin last week, Jukka Korhonen, who won the

title finishing third in the rally itself, which was won by Oshan

Pryce. The champagne flowed on Saturday. London Irish rugby club

scored nine tries for the second successive week. They continue their

good start to the equivalent of football's Europa League. The club,

who play home games at Reading's Stadium, beat their Portuguese

opponents. 67`6 victory, well done to them. This week sees the European

Disability Shooting Championships take place in Alicante in Spain.

London 2012 double medallist Matt Skelhon goes into the contest as one

of the favourites. The 28`year`old first started shooting at the 2006

Spinal Games in Stoke Mandeville before going on to win gold at the

2008 Paralympics in Beijing. He won a silver and a bronze at London

2012. Brennan Nicholls has been to see his final preparations.

It is a sport where you do battle as much with yourself as others.

Shooting requires supreme concentration, as well as an obvious

steady hand. Matt Skelhon proved his when he won gold in 2008. When he's

in his own, he's hard to beat. I am just worried about the way I am

shooting, really. I'm not bothered who is shooting well. As long as I

can shoot how I should in training, that is enough. My biggest enemies

myself, keeping my head on the game. If I can do that, nobody is going to

beat me at the moment. It took a world record to deny him gold at

London 2012, but he secured a silver and bronze for Paralympics GB. Since

London, the sport has changed the scoring system. Decimal points come

into play and the final is a straight shoot off. But that hasn't

stopped him setting new world records at the World Cup events in

Stoke Mandeville and Turkey. Away from the range, he has been

attracted to pass times which again require technique and technology. In

the run`up to London 2012, it was remote`controlled helicopters. But

fishing is his new hobby of choice. I've been doing it since I was

little, my grandad took me years ago and I've been doing it ever since.

It's nice and relaxing, a lot of places you can get down to the water

's edge, get your stuff out, it's nice and relaxing. Then there is a

big adrenaline rush when you get a nice fish on the end. No time for

that at the World Championships. Matt is keen to land one of

disability shooting's biggest prizes on his road to the Paralympics in

2016. A very good shot. We wish him good

luck with that. Coming up tomorrow, we have a Caribbean feel to the

sport Former Hampshire and West Indies batting legend Gordon

Greenidge is back in the region and he had a chat with me after opening

a new study support centre at the Ageas Bowl, Hampshire are also

marking Black History Month with a exhibition marking the contribution

of some of their Caribbean talents who have played for the county.

And what a contribution some of them have made. I met him when he was

playing here, just at the end for Hampshire, about 87. Such a lovely

man. What a batsmen. Quiet, really... He's not changed, he looks

like he should still be out there. Shall we talk weather? We will have

the full cast in a moment. But the weekend weather has been making the

headlines. Residents on Hayling Island in Hampshire have been

assessing the damage after a freak tornado struck there yesterday

morning, affecting around 100 homes. This is the moment it struck. It

caused an estimated ?100,000 worth of damage as it swept through the

yard, leaving a trail of devastation. This footage shows how

boats were thrown around and left badly damaged, with mast snapped

off. It really was dreadful. It also uprooted trees, knocked over walls

and four tiles from roofs. There is a fully, nobody was injured but a

big clean`up was underway today. The clear and Patrick was continuing

today on Hayling Island. About 100 properties are believed to have been

damaged. Local roofer Paul Croft has already worked on repairing many of

them. Today about five, yesterday about six. We have had another three

or four calls today. Quite busy. How badly damaged? It was mostly tiles

flying off, hitting cars or next`door's windows. It's caused

quite a bit of damage, namely this road and Blackthorn Drive on the

end. Fairly localised? Yes. This was the scene yesterday. As well as

damaged roofs, several trees were blown down, causing damage to houses

and cars. It was just after 7am when it struck. We heard and felt this

big, strong, howling wind. My husband described it as a ball of

wind that came through the house. The house shock, like there was an

earthquake. It felt like the roof was going to come through the

house, the windows rattled and the roof rattled. Then it was gone in a

blast. The seafront border brunt of the tornado hit. This beach hut had

the roofs blown off. This one lost most of the felt. This one was blown

from its base by the sheer force of the wind. The high wind also brought

down trees elsewhere in the south, including in this garden in West

Sussex. At Finchampstead, near Woking, lightning struck a house,

causing serious damage. We heard an almighty bang, that sounded just

like a bomb. It took a few seconds to sink in, what was it? We came out

the front and we looked cross the road to see there was a massive hole

in the roof of the property opposite. High wind continued to

buffet part of the South today. Next, the threat of heavy rain.

Quite frightening when something like that happens. Is it a tornado?

I have spoken to The Met office and they have been looking at their

radar, which is effectively the radar that occurred during that time

between seven o'clock and eight o'clock in the morning. They can

confirm there was a storm rotation, what you would see with a twist, a

circulating tornado. With the defined damaged track that the storm

tuck, and the eyewitness reports, all evidence points to it being a

tornado but they cannot confirm it. This is, what, the tracking? Between

six o'clock and eight o'clock. You can see the storm moving over

Hayling Island. That intense burst of rain. It moves and tracks

northwards. We have had three lightning strikes as well. And we

have rough weather to come? It's going to be unsettled, not the best

of pictures. But this fallen leaf is pretty pretty. This fallen leaf was

captured by Tim Lias in the rain in Bournemouth today. Dan Marshall took

this picture of a hawk resting on his pergola in Grendon Underwood,

Buckinghamshire. And Philip Pratley took this picture of the wild

weather at West Wittering beach in West Sussex.

There will be spells of rain and thunder, turning quite windy at

times. Very mild for the time of year. Temperatures three or four

degrees above the seasonal average. We can expect more rainfall, with

strong, gusty wind. Gusts of 30 or 40 mph along coastal structures. The

rain is more likely for western areas. The Met office have issued a

yellow weather warning for Dorset and Wiltshire until midnight

tonight. Elsewhere, slightly drier, with temperatures falling to about

12 or 15 Celsius. A mild start, a dry start for eastern areas. Very

quickly, the rain will engulf much of the reason. `` region. It will

hit most of us by about 12 o'clock. Still mild temperatures, despite

strong wind and heavy rainfall. The rain may become intense tomorrow

afternoon. You can see the green and blue as it tracks northwards. Dry

conditions to follow, but Worrall two thundery downpours over the

course of the morning. Wednesday daytime a start on a wet note, but

it will be an improving picture. A slight ridge of high pressure

building from the south. It tends more settled towards the end of the

day and overnight into Thursday morning. Maybe turning chilly as

well. We still have the wind, the mild wind coming from the west and

south`west. An improving picture on Wednesday afternoon. Here it is the

outlook for the rest of the week. There will be some rain about

tomorrow. It could turn heavy, in particular the middle part of the

afternoon. Strong, bluster `` blustery wind. The showers will fade

away, but the wind stays breast from the south`west. The wind stays brisk

all weekend. Whatever you are doing, take care

and make sure your weather pictures keep coming in, or any video of

things that might be occurring. And tomorrow we will have how to be the

perfect ball boy or ball girl. That is it from us, good night.