27/06/2014 South Today

Not doing enough ` the health warning from the centre

It's something that we can really altered during our early ye`rs to

make the future better for dach and every one of us.

A world record fee ` Saints' Luke Shaw becomes the most expensive

teenage footballer ever as he leaves St Mary's for Manchester Unhted

And three deserts, 32 days and 4,500 miles ` a former larine

makes it to the home straight on an epic motorcycle trip.

It was hard. There was meant to be hard. That was the challengd. I

would have been disappointed if it had not been.

A jury has retired to consider its verdict in the case

of a man accused of causing an ambulance to crash, in which

Richard Husband has denied two counts of causing death

by careless driving following the incident near Brockenhurst

Our reporter Steve Humphrey listened to the closing speeches

It was in April last year that an ambulance crashed on the mahn road

from Brockenhurst to Lindenhurst in the new Forest. Ambulance tdchnician

Gillian Randall, who was drhving, was killed, along with 88`ydar`old

patient Francis Ironside who was being rushed to hospital. Rhchard

Husband, seen here in the grey suit at the back, denies two charges of

causing death by careless driving. The court heard that a Skod` car in

front of Mr husband's vehicle had indicated left and slowed down after

seeing an ambulance coming tp from behind with its blue lights

flashing. Mr Husband had ovdrtaken the Skoda, and it was at th`t moment

that his vehicle came into contact with the ambulance, which wdnt off

the road, and hit a tree. The court was told that Mr Husband had not

seen the ambulance, that had checked his right hand mirror and indicated

before pulling out. The ambtlance had been travelling at 70 mph. The

26`year`old school support worker was transporting three teen`gers. He

denied his concentration had been affected by music being plaxed in

the car. In her closing spedch, the prosecutor said that Richard Husband

was the only person who had given evidence to the jury who haven't

seen the ambulance and a fine, dry morning in April last year. Mr

husband's solicitor told because that the jury would have to consider

if the way the ambulance had been driven and the way it overtook had

led to the crash. This afternoon, the jury was sent out to consider

its verdict. It will continte its deliberations on Monday.

A Berkshire man has died after taking the drug ketamhne

Police confirmed the death of the 26`year`old from Reading earlier.

The man, who has not been n`med is thought to have suffered

an adverse reaction to the illegal substance on Thtrsday.

Police said it is not thought the batch of

Next week the Queen will officially name the Royal Navy's new ahrcraft

carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth, which will be based in Portsmouth.

The ceremony will take placd at the Rosyth dockyard in Fhfe.

South Today will of course be covering that for you.

Work is also underway on a second carrier.

However, rising costs have led to suggestions the second ship may

But on a visit to a heritagd boat project in Portsmouth today,

the Defence Secretary said he would move heaven and earth to kedp both

carriers, though it would ilpact elsewhere on the navy's budget.

The Defence Secretary being shown a new project at the

This is prior to restoration, and this landed secret agents

Opening next year will be a small boats museum and a heritage

skills training centre, teaching 100 students a year traditional

This in a city still reeling from the announcement that 400 years

of shipbuilding here is comhng to an end.

Is there perhaps an ironic contrast that we're losing shipbuildhng jobs

but we're encouraging peopld to preserve old boats?

No, I think these things go togdther.

There's a continuum here and the important thing is you've got

a critical mass of marine industry skills and assets here in Portsmouth

Mr Hammond was also shown a disused police cellblock which is bding

converted to 16 business unhts for start`up creative industry firms.

He was genuinely interested in what we are doing.

He has a passion for heritage and also a passion for the sort

of apprenticeship training we're trying to create, so, yes,

After looking at some of Brhtain's seafaring heritage, Mr Hammond

addressed questions about whether the country can afford to kdep both

Having spent ?3 billion plus of the taxpayer's money on building

each of these ships, we shotld bend heaven and earth to try to lake sure

that we can afford to crew them and operate them, so that by having two

aircraft carriers in servicd, we're always able to have one

available and I think that's a sensible way to go forward.

But we will have to look at how we manage the navy's budget

A leading child health profdssor from Southampton has warned that

the current approach to tackling child obesity is not working.

One in 10 children is now s`id to be obese by the time thex are

five years old, and that figure rises to 1 in 3 by the time they

If things don't impove, it's estimated that half thd UK s

It's facts like these that a new educational centre ` called

LifeLab ` is aiming to change. Lewis Coombes reports.

The state of the nation's w`istline is under the microscope and child

Ask most children what their favourite food is and they're likely

Pizza. Chocolate.

Fruit? Fruit.

Now that's the answer the NHS is looking for.

Improve the next generation's eating habits and you reduce the rhsk

of developing chronic health problems at a later date.

It's not just a curse of the genes that we were born with.

It's something that we can really alter during

our early years to make the future better for each and every one of us.

LifeLab is a partnership between university professors

and hospital medics ` one of only two of its kind in the world.

In a classroom at the heart of Southampton General Hosphtal

emphasis is on practice rather than being preached to.

We're looking at the carotid artery to sed how

your diet affects your choldsterol levels, so we're looking inside

That it's very important to have a very healthy diet, and hopefully,

I think I do. What do you think Doctor? Yeah.

Her Royal Highness the Countess of Wessex officially opened

Pupils demonstrating what they had learned.

If the scheme proves a succdss, it's hoped it will be rolled out

Tobacco was the big scourge, and it still is.

We've taken now 50, 60 years to try and get on top of tobacco.

In my estimation, we've got another 20 years at minimum

It is absolutely sure that the fat are getting fatter.

With a quarter of adults now overweight or obese,

experts say this situation needs to improve now, before it's too late.

The consequences are just dhre, not only for the economy, bdcause

the treatment of people, lifelong, with diabetes and heart disdase is

I mean, I don't think we can even put a number on it.

It's inestimable. It's just an impossible sittation.

The Department of Health say they are

"serious about tackling obesity and are taking action to make it easier

"for people to make healthier choices."

It's rare for a World War Two veteran to have a funeral whth full

But then, Wally Harris was a rare kind of man.

His job with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers should

never have placed him on the front line.

But when he came across a Gdrman unit preparing to wreak havoc

on the Allied advance shortly after D`Day, he went on to save countless

lives armed only with a machine gun grabbed from a wrecked tank.

Wally Harris had been plannhng the final trip to the beach had when he

died. Instead, today he was making his final journey in the colpany of

fellow veterans. He was verx exceptional. I was a gunner, he was

a draughtsman, and his main job in the early days was to repair the

motorbikes that I had crashdd. His job as a mechanic was not short on

danger, but Wally's role was never meant to be a front line ond.

Shortly after he landed in Normandy beach, he grabbed a machine gun from

a disabled Sherman tank. It was a good job he did, when a few months

later, he ran into a German anti`tank and crew getting ready to

fire on a convoy of British vehicles which had become gridlocked in the

village approaching Brussels. His actions putting the gun out of

commission save countless lhves We were searching through our house to

move, and I found a regimental history. It said Sergeant H`rris

under fire, did this couragdous act and got awarded a military ledal. I

said to my mother, who is this Harris? Is the relation? Shd said,

that is your father. Later, a training platoon at Pirbright was

named in his honour, and today, his passing was honoured by the military

as befits a true hero. We looked at it as, this is not a sad occasion,

it is a Thanksgiving, almost, a Thanksgiving, the right thing to do

to send Wally off on the right path. Still to come in

this evening's South Today: Do you know, there is more people

every single weekend in Britain that goes in historic property than

football matches? So technically, history is bigger than football

Think of the South Downs and you may think of the rolling chalk hills

which encapsulate the countryside in our part of the world.

But you might not realise that it's also home to some precious heathland

Now thanks to a grant from the Heritage Lottery Ftnd,

that rich habitat could soon be protected as Sarah Farmer rdports.

It may seem contradictory, preserving our local wildlife by

removing the land, at the South Downs National Park authority is

doing just that. They have launched a new scheme to encourage the

heathland within the park to thrive. Heather plants are not very tolerant

of shade, so if we are not looking after this area, for exampld, the

bracken is starting to encroach the birch and pine scrub will invade,

and within ten or 20 years, this could become poor quality sdcondary

woodland. At the moment, he`thland makes up 1% of the South Downs

National Park, but the areas are dotted about like islands, laking

plants and animals and honotrable to extinction. Without active

management, controlling the bracken by cutting or spraying with

herbicide or cutting back the birch scrub, and also by grazing, which

helps maintain a more open landscape, without this acthve

management, the heather plants can become shaded out and eventtally

they will die off. The schele will restore existing and recreate lost

heathland the size of 1200 football pitches. They will breathe new life

into the habitat, and support Endangered Species Act. The key

species for us are the sand lizard, which is confined to heathl`nds and

Sandy and habitats in this country, and also the natterjack toad, which

have a local population to the area of this project which has bden set

up, and also this creature, which is restricted to a few heathland site

in the South of England. Thd project has received a ?48,000 ran for the

initial planning stages. Thd scheme hopes to receive one and half

million pounds from the orators in the orators and to carry out the

project over the next few ydars Dash`macro Heritage lottery project.

Motorists have been facing long delays on the A27 through

The Goodwood Festival of Spded is attracting big crowds to sed the

The queues come as campaigndrs call for improvements to thd road.

The A27 Action Group wants the whole section to be improved,

with construction of a bypass for Arundel.

Of all the thousands of people travelling to Goodwood

today, none would have had puite the journey that Chris Short had.

The wounded ex`serviceman h`s completed an epic trip,

that's seen him ride all thd way from Afghanistan on a motorbike

It took a month to reach hole in West Sussex and involved

crossing three deserts. Chris started in Kabul.

From Afghanistan, through K`zakhstan to Georgia, and eventually through

He finally reached Goodwood this morning.

Our transport correspondent Paul Clifton reports.

Leaving carpal. For a bike rider, this is some of the most in

hospitable to reign on earth. The only thing you are thinking about is

the next ten metres of road. Chris Short used to be a Royal Marine You

are thinking about is the ndxt ten metres of road. Chris Short used to

be a Royal Marine. Fantastic and wonderful and terrifying. The

geography of the place is completely wonderful and beautiful. Many people

you meet are just the same. Chris is not alone. With him is support

driver Dominic from New Orldans He also has a cameraman, Lawrence

Cameron. The driving standards are nonexistent and the roads are

appalling. They compete and they are in combat with one another when they

are driving. Extreme desert, searing heat, dust that just manages to find

its way into every single orifice imaginable. Crossing three deserts

in 17 countries, the journex has taken 32 days and four and ` half

thousand miles. I would say a good 80% of our journey from Afghanistan

has been hard off`road. Everything has been hard to this point, and it

is meant to be hard. That the whole point of it. If I am feeling it

then the guys will just kind of leave me to it, and they will come

and offer help if they think it is appropriate, and if not, thdy will

let me crack on. The aim is to raise money for Mission Motorsport, a

charity that helps injured service men recover and learn new skills.

Beyond this stupid jolly boysmulti`macro outing, there are

people's lie to potentially could be very different if we complete this

and managed to raise as much money as we are hoping to. Last nhght

Chris finally reached London to meet supporters. Very, very tired. Very

tired, yes. One month after he started, the finish at Goodwood was

close. I am going to take about two or three days off, and then I'm

going to fly back to Afghanhstan and go back to work.

An incredible adventure. Let's stay with motor vehicles.

The fiftieth anniversary of a supercar built

The Gordon Keeble was developed at Southampton Airport, in ` hangar

99 cars were built, and most are still on the road as

In 1964, Autocar magazine s`id this was the most electrifying c`r ever

seen, an elegant rival to Aston Martin and Maserati.

Remarkably, half a century later, most of them are still on the road,

and this morning, 49 Gordon Keebles gathered

Today, it's the car park at Southampton Airport.

It combines three fantastic elements, an English chassis

designer who knew what he w`s doing, an Italian stylist who knew what he

It's certainly the world's largest ever gathering of Gordon Kedbles,

and I believe it will be thd world's largest ever in the future too.

I don't think we'll ever get this many together again,

Eastleigh was an unlikely birthplace for a '60s supercar.

Two brothers who helped build every one of them came back today.

I'm amazed they've lasted as long as they have. We're just proud.

Really proud that we are looking at this now as they are.

They're still like brand`new, to look at them.

Each masterpiece made in Eastleigh is now worth 20 times that.

Their faces adorn the side of the the Gordon Keeble.

Their faces adorn the side of the Saint Mary Stadium, but these are

two saints who are heading north. First out, Luke Shaw,

Liverpool. The reported ?25 million fee a hammer blow for Saints

but a gift for Bournemouth, he received compensation, having signed

him as a youth. They start preseason with a somewhat depleted sqtad next

week, largely due to the World Cup. The manager was consulted over the

transfers, and Saint say thd money from Luke Shaw will be reinvested.

He faces some key decisions in his earliest days in the job. A

four`year contract for Luke Shaw, and he has told Manchester Tnited's

official website today, I h`ve been a Southampton since I was ehght

years old, and I would like to thank them and the fans for everything

they have done for me, and H would like to continue to progress my

career. Manchester United is the ideal place to do that.

Brighton and Hove Albion have named former Liverpool midfielder

Sammy Lee as their new assistant manager.

Lee links up with Sami Hyppha, who was appointed last month.

He's been a manager himself, having had a short spell as manager

Six players from Reading hockey club were named in the men's and women's

squads for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow next month.

Kate Richardson Walsh leads the women who are looking to bounce

back from a disastrous World Cup tournament, it's her fourth Games.

Alex Danson is among the others while the men,

who narrowly missed out on ` medal in the Hague include Simon Lantell.

Now, there's no denying it's a big year for history, with

the centenary of the First World War and the 70th anniversary of D`Day.

In the south, we have no shortage of commemorative events going on.

But did you know that we also have the country's biggest

The Chalke Valley History Fdstival has been underway all week.

Affectionately known as the historians' Glastonbtry,

it brings together talks and debates, with living history

We sent our reporter Chrissx Sturt to find out more.

Lying west of Salisbury, thd Chalke Valley is usually one of thd

quietest locations in southdrn England. But for one week, thousands

of people from all over the country are at ending a unique event

organised by local resident James Holland. What is the big idda here?

There are a lot of festivals around the country, lots of art and music

festivals, but no one festival dedicated to history, so we thought

we would be the first. It mhght be a slightly harder sell than

Glastonbury, but you get lots of living history, you have thd trench

experience, jousting, beer will s storytelling around the fird, and

lots of historic vehicles. There is food and drink a lot. This hs a

proper festival, but just a festival of history. While a music fdstival

has bands, this one has public figures. People were dropping bombs

on our parents and friendsmulti`macro and our

grandparentsmulti`macro houses. I have joined my own school to watch

John Dan Snow. So when my whfe says, you have lost the car keys, I say,

it could be worse. Did you think history could be funny like he makes

it? Not like he makes it, btt I have a history teacher who makes lots of

jokes, so it is similar. Thdy are the sort of people you seek to be

like in later life. For A`ldvel students, it is really diffhcult to

find something that is really meaningful for them, and I think

this is. Lots of talks by dhfferent historians, and a real breath of

history which will really hdlp them. People say to me, you will

never get young people interested in history.

I say, are you mad? There is a tent full of them. There are thotsands of

people doing academic altercations in history. You see five`ye`r`olds

going mental with plastic swords at castles and bank holidays. People

love history. There are mord people every single weekend in Britain

negative historic properties than football matches, so technically,

history is bigger than football The Chalke Valley itself is rich in

Anglo`Saxon history, and th`t has been reflected in a wooded corner of

the festival, where I found a historian and television prdsenter

Alex Langlands. As soon as xou step through that hedgerow and sde all of

this, just for a moment, yot get a feel for what it was like in the

Anglo`Saxon period. This festival has got a fantastic land, rdally, of

all the different elements that make up popular history, so you can be

seeing really quite highbrow lectures on one and, come straight

out, grab a sword, and run `cross a field and really let go. Yes,

Sergeant! This whole field hn southern England full of history

geeks is brilliant. It is mx heaven. I have died and gone to heaven. What

a great many, Dan Snow. There you go, technically, history is more

popular than football. Well, a lot of football grotnds are

historic sites as well! We hndulge every weekend. A double whalmy. Onto

the weather for the weekend. Sarah is here. Yes, and we have showers to

come. Look at this. Cloudy skies over Portsmouth, but

sunshine for beach goers in Ryde. It looks like Paula Baterbed caught

a shower in Wareham today ` a few And what a lovely view capttred

by Kevin Cawley at Highcliffe We were expecting to see more

showers than we did, but we have had one or two, and we can look at them

on the radar picture. The r`in is working its way in from the

south`west during the late lorning, and lunchtime, seeing one or two

heavy downpours, and in two parts of oxygen in particular, those

downpours through the afternoon as well. Elsewhere, quite a bit of dry

weather, and is fine, bright and sunny spells as well. There are

still one or two showers lingering, particularly to the south`wdst and

the North. We will see thosd fading away through the course of this

evening, and becoming gener`lly drive through the course of the

night. Along the coast, we could import one or two from the channel,

but generally a mild night. 12 to 14 degrees. Possibly some mist and fog

in rural spots. That lifts `way on Saturday, some brightness around

first thing. But we have a xellow weather warning in place for further

downpours tomorrow, and it looks like we will see a view mord of

them. We may just have some very torrential downpours with some hail

and thunder possible, but not all of us will see them, and it looks like

we will have some good in showing, with temperatures at 18 or 09

degrees in the South. The showers tend to ease through the cotrse of

tomorrow night, and it is a dry nights for most part. Freshdr than

tonight, temperatures holding out in double digits, possibly single

figures in rural spots. Then that front players to the south through

the course of Sunday, and wd're left with a pretty decent day. Stnday

looks to be the driest day of the weekend. Good sunny spells to enjoy.

One or two isolated showers here and there. Temperatures in the high

teens. Some events look forward to this weekend.

The Charlbury Beer Festival takes place at the Cricket Club tomorrow.

As well as a huge range of food and drink, there'll be live music,

plus the risk of one or two heavy showers to watch out for.

On the Island it's the Royal Isle of Wight County Show on Sattrday.

Visitors might have to duck into the tents to dodge

the odd light shower at the County Showground in Northwood And

There's a Classic Cars Exhibition taking place at Christchurch Quay

on Sunday ` with vehicles d`ting back to 1920 on show.

There should be some sunny spells on offer.

So, let's take a look at yotr summary. That warning for one or two

heavy downpours. Not for all of us, but they could be torrential. Then

some sunny spells and one or two later showers to come through the

weekend. Are you sure? I got the tre`tment on

the lawn last night, becausd you said it would rain, and nothing

happened. So you are hoping for rain? I kind of am. And there is

World Cup football. Tony's lawn is the most important thing in his

life. That is it for us. Have a great weekend, whatever you are

doing. Goodbye.