01/11/2016 South Today

In tonight's programme: it. Now on BBC One we

Patients stranded and medic`l appointments missed.

Coperforma is stripped of its contract for

We look at what's next for thousands of patients

Could these be coming to the leafy Surrey hills?

Protestors hope not, as they set up camp.

Weather it is conventional or something else it is an

inappropriate area. There is outstanding natural beauty `nd

nature which could be irrep`rably damaged.

Rising from the ashes - a temporary school opens to students

after their old classrooms burned down.

And fresh from the cow, the raw milk revolution keeping

And fresh from the cow, the raw milk revolution keeping

Delayed pick-ups, missed medical appointments and patients stranded

in hospitals unable to get home a catalogue of problems

for Coperforma who took over patient transport service in Sussex

Now it's been stripped of its duties after just seven months.

The ?62 million contract was due to last six years.

So let's look at what happened after Coperformer took over.

there were reports of hundrdds of patients being left stranded

And by the end of April, 5,000 people had signed a pdtition

calling on the NHS to end it's contract.

In May, following dozens of complaints from constitudnts

12 Sussex MPs raised their concerns about the service.

one of the companies providhng ambulances ran into

Then, in August, an NHS report found Coperforma had

failed to plan properly to take on the service.

four sub-contractors providhng patient transport said the service

They claimed they were owed millions.

Today, following growing spdculation and mounting public pressurd,

the NHS confirmed Coperform` had given up its contract.

One leading patient's group says it can't remember a failure

Patient transport services will now be provided

by the South Central Ambulance Service.

Four days a week former Armx officer Michael needs transport to hospital

for kidney dialysis but for the last seven months he has never knowing

whether or not Coperforma whll actually turn out to taken to

appointments. It is incredibly frustrating, it is annoying to have

to go in for dialysis but h`d to wait for transport which yot now

could be organised better, ht is annoying. So your thoughts on the

fact that they will no longdr have the contract? I was going to say I

am delighted, because they `re not capable of running it. In April

local health bosses awarded the contract for nonemergency albulances

to the company who have dealt with the fallout ever since.

Angry patients not collected, staff unpaid, hospitals picking up the

pieces, angry MPs, angry unhons But in the end it was the fact that

patient safety was being colpromised that was the final straw. The

service is very fragile. In addition we have received a communic`tion

from Coperforma that last performance has improved thd

contract is not economical for them. So we have agreed an exit

arrangements for them. Which begs the question, were they pushed or

did they jump? It is a combhnation of the two. We have agreed to end

the contract between us and transition the contract over to a

new provider. For the unions and MPs who have repeatedly called for

Coperforma to be stripped of the contract, this feels like

vindication. In the short tdrm the news is fantastic and myself and the

members I have spoken to already this morning are absolutely

delighted that finally what has been seen as a disastrous error hs being

corrected. The improvement has been there but this was never gohng to

work in the long term. I am just delighted that finally it h`s come

to an end and we hope that patients will get a better transport service

that they deserve. The servhce will be gradually taken over by the South

Central Ambulance Service who will take complete responsibilitx by

April next year. We are told that patients don't have to do anything

and should not notice any change in provider.

Our Health Correspondent David Fenton joins us from Coperforma s

This has been on the cards for sometime, some might evdn say it

They were overwhelmed almost from the very start. They had

difficulties with their software. Not working properly. They have

problems with some of their subcontractors. One went bust. And

they were under constant public scrutiny. All the time. The company

did say that things were getting better towards the end and they were

hitting their targets, but were they making any money? It may have been

that this contract was just not economical for them. Patients want

to know what will happen next. The contract has been taken over by

South Central ambulance who will know what is expected of thdm. But

will they want to continue with the contract? Because there will need to

be another tender and we will need to go through this all over again,

maybe in a year or so. The lain thing now is to make sure that

patients get to and from hospital, safely. We were successful last year

in winning the contract in Surrey and the neighbouring county, our

team are currently on the ground at the moment, putting in placd systems

and processes, vehicles and staff, to run the business. So we `re in

the adjacent county and there also a lot of cross-border transporting

patients between Surrey and Sussex, so we are confident that we can run

good service even though it is not in our current line-up, we will look

hard to do that. And any apology from Coperforma?

No word from them at all. I have been into the headquarters, the

lights are on but no one is home. Or if they are, they are not answering

the door to me. Potentially it houses the fhfth

largest onshore oil field in the UK and could be worth millions

of pounds - but drilling into the Surrey Hills to extract it,

is highly controversial. Campaigners concerned

about the possible environmdntal impact are pledging to do everything

possible to stop work But the company involved has sought

to reassure local people. It is a popular part of leafy Surrey

for walkers, cyclists, and horse riders looking for peace and quiet.

But now the area has become the site of a battle between the Europa oil

and gas company, and environmental campaigners. Last Friday thd

campaigners began setting up this protest camp, complete with tree

houses. Central government has completely overridden the whshes of

the people in this area, thdy have been made completely clear, it could

not be more obvious that thhs is not wanted. Today the Green party MEP

for the south-east visited the site to learn more about the campaign.

There are enough people sayhng, hang on, this is a beautiful neck of the

woods, literally, why on earth would we want to disrupt it? The south

already has a series of onshore oil wells. This site would allow the

operator access to reserves estimates that around 5 million

barrels. The site was approved by the planning Inspectorate following

a seven-year battle but there are outstanding issues including an

application for new securitx fencing around the site. It is over one

hectare of land that they are talking about fencing off. Ht will

be visible from the road, ndver in the original plans. Nobody from

Europa oil and gas was available for interview today but in a radio

interview last Friday the company stressed they will not use

controversial fracking techniques. It is a conventional explor`tion

well. Firstly identified in 198 by BP. So it predates the invention of

fracking in the UK. The oil industry says it has a good track record when

it comes to protecting the environment. In the UK, and in

particular, the area where this site exists, we have already drilled

about 250 wells. It is essentially nothing different to what wd have

done for decades now. Europd are gas and oil does need a series of final

approvals before it can start work on this site. The company is hoping

to start drilling here at some stage next year.

Overcrowded trains, cancelldd services and strikes.

It's a depressingly familiar story for passengers on Southern Railway -

caught in the middle of a long running and bitter dispute.

One Surrey commuter got so fed up - he actually moved house -

and has now won the right to sue the company for packed

It comes as the RMT union h`s been protesting outside

parliament, demanding action from the government.

Sergei, who moved back to London from Surrey after getting fdd up

with Southern rail's poor sdrvice. A judge has now given him perlission

to sue for ?500 for trains he could not get on and those that wdre

cancelled. Service is not normally covered by compensation. It could

set a precedent for more cl`ims I feel privileged and humbled that my

tiny little ?500 claim turndd into this big thing which may possibly

mean justice and some compensation for thousands of people. Outside

Parliament and the unions again pressed their case that guards are

safety critical. They say the guard should dispatch the train. The

company say the driver can do that using new CCTV. If you are getting

your members to sign a contract surely it is over and you h`ve lost

this one? It is not over, that is an irrelevance, changing the job title

does not change the safety critical role of the second person on board.

The company must come to terms with that, they cannot bribe and

intimidate us. Will you condemn the strike? I condemned the fact they

are necessary but I will not condemn the strike. It is a critical issue

of passenger safety here. Wd rail minister said the government would

not intervene in this dispute. Even though those changes are part of a

government contract that Sotthern rail is bringing in. We havd a

significant capacity challenge on the southern network. One of the

best ways to deal with the capacity challenge is new rolling stock with

more seats on it, which is what we are delivering with the new class of

700. It would be silly to compromise on passenger capacity just to

appease a trade union. Both sides remain entrenched and anothdr

48-hour strike starts on Frhday Expect more industrial action.

Later we have the forecast with Alexis and there's

Yesterday temperatures reached a high of 20 Celsius. Today, just 12.

Tomorrow could be cooler. Ddtails shortly.

Emergency services had to free a person trapped

in a car that over-turned in New Milton this afternoon.

The crash is also thought to have involved a pedestrian.

It happened just before 2 o'clock at the junction of Whitefield

Police, fire and ambulance services all attended the scene.

The German discount supermarket chain Lidl says it's created four

hundred jobs at its new reghonal distribution centre

The warehouse off the M271 hs now the company's biggest

in the UK and cost more than 50 million pounds.

The depot which opened for business today will serve communities

from Brighton to Poole and tp to Newbury in Berkshire.

It's the 10th centre of it's kind to open as the company expands.

Work to repair a huge railw`y embankment near Farnham

For three weeks, commuters on this busy route had to travel by bus

A temporary fix was put in place, but now a permanent repair will be

Here's our transport correspondent Paul Clifton.

Creeping through the morning mist. Trains from Alton have been

travelling the slowly since April. Below the tracks, giant diggers

reconstructing the hillside. Drainage channels are filled with

loose stones. Baskets of rocks have been inserted and huge steel piles

driven deep into the ground. Local housing is also protected bx the

railway, high above the valley floor. It is a big job. There is a

lot of material. A lot of m`terial we have to bring in. Last April the

embankment collapsed. Soaked with winter rain. The line to London was

closed for three weeks. Then, Alton Station stood empty. There were

buses instead. A temporary fix was put in place. When it reopened we

filmed the first train. Now the permanent solution is under way The

work will take until Christlas. At the moment we are investing ?4.

million just to rebuild the embankment. A massive step toward

returning the railway to normal Academics at the University of

Southampton believe that increasingly frequent landslips like

this one are linked to clim`te change. Warmer, drier summers, and

more intense winter rainfall, affecting thousands of clay

embankments like this across southern England.

For most students it's back to the usual old classrooms this

But for pupils at The Academy Selsey,

Their school burnt down over the summer and since then ldssons

have been held in various locations across the town.

Today they moved into what they re calling a "temporary villagd"

of portable classrooms while their school is re-buhlt.

For these year ten students and there was an impromptu first session

in the new classroom. Lesson one, how to get around what is

effectively a new school. Wd will do an assembly, from their you will go

to your classes, because yot don't know where they are yet, yot have

not had them... Business during the school summer holidays that the

Academy burned down, it is believed the fire started while contractors

were working there, 75% of the school was destroyed. For the first

of the academic year lessons were held around other buildings in the

town, including the town hall, a sports centre, and the Chichester

secondary school. Meanwhile the field was converted to a telporary

classroom village of portable buildings. From a outside they look

like portable buildings but once you get inside you are in a classroom.

Many of the rooms have air conditioning, it shows you how far

they have moved since previously. They are double glazed, fully

functional classrooms with the IT facilities you would expect, and in

the specialist rooms, science, technology, IT, they have the exact

a group students need. Over the past few days they have packed thousands

of new books. The old library was totally destroyed. The old `nd from

dreams also burned down and replaced. The school held an open

day for parents to look arotnd. I am excited we don't need to get on the

bus every day to go to another high school, but now we are here and now

the way around. It is amazing, really impressive. Can get over it,

really, how quickly they have done it. It is great. Better than the old

school. Students are expectdd to be in the temporary village for around

18 months. Tenders have gond out for the work to rebuild the old school

and it is hoped that the sttdents can move back in in the middle of

2018. And now the sport. It is not that

long ago we were talking about the Olympics. It is nice to reflect on

one of the highlights of thd summer. It is, but you wonder where all the

athletes have gone. Some ard tired and some are looking to Tokxo. What

about others? Indeed, just the Olympic build-up. The cycle takes

them through hopefully for lany of them to Tokyo, so, what do some of

them do in the meantime? A couple of them, will be, playing hockdy

abroad. Because that is the next step in the careers of many of our

gold medallist in Rio. The next step in the hockey careers

of many of our gold medallists in Rio has been to play

professionally in the Netherlands. Maddie Hinch from West Chiltington

in Sussex came up against a familiar face in this weekend's local derby

as she represented Stickster. Our reporter Charlie Rose

was there and sent us this It was the nail-biting clim`x to an

Olympic final which immortalised this women's hockey team. The

goalkeeper saving all four penalties. Ten weeks on a m`gical

moment is still sinking in. I still find it hard to put words to the

experience. It is still a blur. I cannot tell you what I was thinking

or feeling at the time, it did not feel real. Now two of the players

have swapped Copacabana beach for the cooler climes of Holland. Today

is their first local derby latch of the season. The team kick off with a

serious team talk. The man who coached her to Olympic glorx

believes that the experiencd she and other team Britain players `re

gaining in Holland will bring significant benefits. It is good for

them, good for the players on it makes a difference, having the

programme we do it keeps thdm in the UK for the bulk of the Olympic

cycle. That said, the concltsion of the first local derby match of the

season, a fantastic one for Maddie Hinch was her team winning 4-0. It

is a very young side were up against and we had a lot of experienced

heads so we just need to pl`y a simple game and hopefully the result

could take care of itself. Her team-mates as a player who failed to

get a shot past in the final in Rio. She is a fun girl. And they could do

that as well. So it is good to have her. England's are goalkeepdr, now

plying his trade in Holland, and all the while continuing to boost the

profile of women's hockey b`ck at home.

Champion jockey Jim Crowley has been released from hospital

Crowley, from Pulbrough in West Sussex, came away

from a horrific looking crash with only a broken nose.

Fellow jockey Freddy Tylitski remains in a stable condition

Hampshire cricket have annotnced that all rounder Liam Dawson has

agreed a contact extension to 2 19, he's one of the stars

Meanwhile the county have bden paying tribute to two

Vic Cannings took 834 first class wickets over ten seasons

and all after his 30th birthday in the 1950's side.

Hampshire have also announcdd the death of former chairman

of cricket Jimmy Gray, opening batsman in the county

Last month they also lost the wicketkeeper of that te`m

It's Milan week on South Today as Southampton prepares

to host Internazionale, the Italian giants from Mil`n

Big news from the Inter camp today is that

manager Frank De Boer has been sacked just 48

It follows a poor run of results in the Italian league for the 1

Youth team coach Stefano Vecchi will be in charge at

And on tomorrow night's programme we're getting in the Italian spirit.

I've been to the corner of Southampton which feels

like Milan, to try my hand `t some Italian cooking, at the restaurant

which bears the name of the city and whose manager is a fan of Inter.

Find out what came out of the pizza oven tomorrow.

Did you know that many athldtes swear by the benefits of raw milk?

Forget isotonic sports drinks and protein shakes, apparently

the benefits of unpasteurisdd milk - fresh from the cow -

are unparalled when it comes to hydration and nutrition.

It's growing appeal is also giving dairy farmers a boost.

As the price of supermarket milk has continued to drop,

farmers have been looking at ways to diversify and one farmer

in Botley in Hampshire has started selling raw milk direct

Olly Neagle hopes it will fhnally help him balance his books.

Olly Neagle can trace the pddigree of his Jerseys back to his grand

But this long line of of falily farming was at risk of coming

to an end - as the price he receives for his

Today the cost is 30p per lhtre We are getting 21, 22, at the linute,

we cannot carry on and stay in business so we have to look at

alternative ways of bringing in income to try to support thd dairy.

selling his milk fresh from his farm - cutting out the middle men.

This is raw milk - it's not pasteurised -

so it can only be sold this way - not in shops.

We can sell the milk raw direct to the public for ?1 30 a litrd, or to

pound 50 for two. That is its true worth. People are prepared to pay

the money for it and it is getting people really engaged back to where

their food is coming from. H believe it is better for you becausd it has

still got all the vitamins `nd enzymes in it and all the good

proteins and fats. I have bden drinking it since I was small. Hence

why I let my son drink it as well. I just really enjoyed it. I used to

have it when I was a child. As soon as I stopped drinking and I ended up

with pneumonia. Food regulators do warn that non-pasteurised mhlk may

contain bacteria that can c`use food poisoning. But production is tightly

regulated to ensure that farms like this comply with standards. All he

is currently selling around 80 litres of raw milk a day. Hd hopes

to increase that to 300, 400, which would give him and the next

generation of his cows a secure future.

Grahame Howard photographed the morning mist at

Here's another murky shot from this morning

of the sunshine this morning in Portchester from

Today we did have some sunnx spells and that was this morning, with

increasing cloud through thd course of the day. The cloud will stay with

us for the first part of thd night but it will clear away and there's a

chance we could have some frost in the countryside. Temperaturds in

towns and cities will fall to around three, four Celsius. But integral

areas, possibly around freezing or just above. The mist and fog tonight

will not be as extensive as it was last night, one or two pockdts here

and there. A frosty start in places. Blue sky overhead from the word go.

Barely a cloud in the sky tomorrow. It is a lovely day. It will feel

quite chilly though with temperatures reaching a high of

possibly 12 Celsius for the Isle of Wight. The breeze will remahn a

light through the course of the day. Tomorrow night, sky stays clear

temperatures falling lower than tonight,

around freezing or just below in the countryside. These are the

temperatures in our towns and cities. A chilly start. Thursday is

dry and a sunny start. Throtgh the course of the morning and the

afternoon we will see the club increase with high-pressure pulling

away and low-pressure swinghng in from the North. And this we`ther

front will bring cloud during Thursday afternoon into the evening

and overnight. A chance of patchy rain as the weather front and

south-east across the region on Thursday night. As we look `head to

the rest of the week we can expect some lovely sunny conditions

tomorrow, a high of 10 Celshus, a lovely sunny start to the d`y on

Thursday, the wind will rem`in light from the south-west, the cloud will

increase, and it will seem patchy rain in the evening and overnight.

Friday itself, we will have some rain at times, but in amongst the

showers and the rainfall we will have some sunny spells as wdll. And

the wind will start to change direction once again through the

weekend. It will take a look colder over the weekend, especiallx for

bonfire night on Saturday, hf you aren't about over the weekend it

will be chilly so wrapped up. Send us your photographs tomorrow if you

are out in the Thank you very much. That is all we

have time for. More at 8pm `nd 0:30 p.m.. Goodbye.