31/12/2013 South Today

with the News at Ten. Now it's time with the News at Ten. Now it's time

Hello, a very good evening to you. I'm Tom Hepworth with the latest

here in the South. A woman who was murdered while house

sitting in a West Sussex village has been named by police. Valerie Graves

of Bracklesham Bay was 55. She was found yesterday at a property in

Smuggler's Lane at Bosham. She'd suffered a head injury. West Sussex

police say she'd been staying there with members of her family. Briony

Leyland reports. Police say the owners of this house

in Bosham are on holiday abroad. Valerie Graves, who lived 12 miles

away in nearby Bracklesham Bay, came to house sit with some of her family

on December 23rd. The 55`year`old was found dead at the house

yesterday morning. The cause of her death hasn't been established, but

she had suffered a head injury and police are treating it as murder.

Her body was found by a member of her family. There were four members

of her family. At this stage we cannot give further details. We are

just over 24 hours into a murder investigation and there are a number

of matters we are trying to establish. As searches of gardens

and streams around the waterside property continued, police said

no`one was in custody and they were following several lines of inquiry,

including the possibility of an attack by a stranger. Detectives

will not confirm whether there were any signs of a break in or burglary.

They say they are keeping an open mind about the motive

. A fright, really. I can't believe it, really. Obviously, this was a

treat and they were looking forward to coming, so I do not know what was

involved. I am surprised something like that happened here. My parents

live in the village. I think everyone is talking about it, but

nobody really knew anything. It was the first thing I saw on the news

this morning. Horrible. Police say this is a rare incident for Bosham,

which they describe as a safe area. They are increasing neighbourhood

patrols partly for neighbourhood assurance but also to encourage

people to speed to them. `` to speak to them.

Repair work is continuing on some railway lines after high winds

damaged several routes in the South. Landslips, like this one in Ockley

near Horsham and another blocking the main line between Portsmouth and

London near Haslemere, have caused disruption. Staff from Network Rail

and Southwest Trains have worked round the clock clearing 140 trees

which fell onto tracks. Flooding has caused more problems elsewhere.

Meanwhile, all passengers caught up in the travel chaos at Gatwick

Airport on Christmas Eve will be offered ?100 in High Street vouchers

as a gesture of goodwill. Flooding, which affected the airport, caused

power cuts which led to long delays and cancellations for departing

travellers. Some passengers were waiting at Gatwick for 12 hours

before learning that their flight had been cancelled. The Civil

Aviation Authority is investigating the disruption.

Firefighters across the South are on strike this evening. It's part of

ongoing national industrial action over pensions. All services have

contingency plans in place to deal with any emergency calls, but they

are urging people to take extra care during the walk`out. The strike

started at 6.30, and it's due to end at half past midnight.

Dozens of people from across the South have been recognised in the

New Years Honours. And for many, it's a reward for tireless voluntary

service which would otherwise go unrecognised. Rob Powell reports.

Honours for a husband and wife who have raised more than ?1 million for

charity. Graham and Pauline Evans set up a branch of Save the Children

at Carterton in Oxfordshire in 1973. News of their British Empire Medals

came as a surprise. We were amazed. We thought it was a bill at first!

But it was a really great surprise. And the joy is it is for both of us.

It is not very often I would be emotional to tears about things but

I looked at the envelope and thought, why me? Meanwhile in

Portsmouth, a lord of the ring is honoured with an MBE. Quinton

Shillingford started boxing at ten, and in 2008, he founded the Heart of

Portsmouth community club. I am overwhelmed, really overwhelmed. It

is a complete honour. There are a lot of coaches out there who put in

a lot of voluntary time and keeping kids off the streets, so it means a

lot. Quinton has already coached 15`year`old Ebonie Jones to gold in

the European Championships and bronze in the world. He is a good

motivator. He is always there for you and trying to make you become

the best you can be. To the more sedate Chichester Cathedral. And an

MBE for the man who helped restore this masterpiece. I love old

buildings and I love the arts. I have grown up in the arts and so

everything here represents all that I love most dearly. Over 30 years of

cathedral restoration here, Leslie has played a vital role in

fundraising. Now he has an honour that befits his hard work.

Police are warning people celebrating new year not to drink

excessively. They say those who do won't be safe to drive into

tomorrow. Meanwhile they're praising the quick thinking of a bus driver

on the Isle of Wight who just avoided hitting this man lying in

the middle of the road. They say they hope this footage which has

just been released will encourage people to enjoy themselves

responsibly. There is more bad weather on the

way. Here is the forecast. We have some weather warnings in

place. We start tonight on a dry note with clear spells overhead, but

we have shoppers heading our way. As always is the nature with showers,

hit and miss is the key. A dry evening but the showers will be

working in from the West and they could prove to be rather heavy,

maybe even with thunder. How are we shaping up for midnight? The showers

will be rather scattered, but a little on the heavy side.

Temperatures through midnight between six and nine degrees, but

breezy wherever you are, so feeling blustery if you are out to

celebrate. Tomorrow we have a yellow weather warning in place from the

Met Office for rainfall. We have one or two showers for eastern parts.

But very soon we will see a band of wet and windy weather arriving from

the south`west. This will have heavy pulses, up to 30 minute metres of

rain in some spots. Windy as well, particularly to the coast and Isle

of Wight. Here, we could see costs of 50 or 60 mph. `` gusts of wind.

Bright and sunny conditions on Thursday but another warning for

Friday, and it stays on settled until the weekend.

That is the latest. We will be back next year, at one o'clock tomorrow.

Have a good we got `` New Year. Good evening. It looks like mother

nature may provide her own pyrotechnics in the run-up to bid

night tonight. We have some heavy showers in western parts, starting

to ease a bit across Scotland and Northern Ireland. But the showers

further south are heavier, with some flashes of lightning as they move

eastwards. They do get a bit more hit and miss as we head towards

midnight, but a greater chance of getting wet in the south as we move

into 2014. Cardiff and London could see heavy downpours. Further north,

you could be greeting the New Year on a dry note. A touch of frost in

northern and eastern areas going into New Year's Day. A few showers

continue into the morning, but