22/02/2017 South Today

Hello and welcome to South Today. Warnings that computer failures that

a fire service are putting lives at risk. It has simply been a matter of

chance that lives have not been lost to date. But safety has been

compromised. It has taken us longer to meet some incidents because of

this system. The old painting with a new story. Find out why Constable

added this rainbow in memory of a friend. And Storm Doris is on the

way tomorrow which may cause travel disruption.

The fire brigades union says lives are being put at risk

because of failures with a computer call handling system,

used by both Dorset and Wiltshire Fire

The system which is provided by Capita, cost ?7.5 million.

When that happened, staff were unable to use it for 20

One control room operator has told us she ended up using online

Dorset and Wiltshire Fire rescue service responded to more

than 42,000 calls since the new call handling system, provided by capita,

was put in place in the summer of 2015.

It's designed to break down borders between the three Fire And

Rescue areas it covers, and deploy fire engines from the closest

Well, just on Monday we had two very common

Kate Scott is a control room operator and

local rep for the Fire Brigade's union.

The system fails and we are unable to mobilise fire engines.

When you are answering 999 calls, you are trying to do the best you

possibly can for that person on the end of the phone,

and when you are not able to do that as effectively

as you would like it is very frustrating and stressful

This is a single control room but it covers all of Dorset...

The union says the system must be fixed.

It has simply been a matter of chance that lives haven't been

It has taken us longer to reach some incidents because of this system.

We've seen fire appliances mobilised from the wrong Fire Station.

The three areas using this system - Dorset and Wiltshire,

Devon and Somerset, and Hampshire Fire and Rescue Services

Yes, of course we are aware that there have been problems and we

are doing everything we possibly can with partners capita and others to

There is absolutely no risk of us not responding.

So in the event of an emergency that requires Fire and

Rescue Service response, dial 999 and we will respond and we will be

Capita says its system was introduced after

robust testing, and it will continue to work with the fire service

The system is meant to save the three fire services

nearly ?17 million over the next seven years.

Capita says it's actually contributed to an improvement

in attendance times, but there's growing pressure

Tonight the Fire Brigades Union says it wants the issue to be taken

The Wilshire South West MP is writing to Ministers.

I think it is urgent because we can't accept this sort of thing

which is happening regularly in a system which is safety-critical,

whereas we would persist accept it in ordinary computing terms.

Clearly this software is special and I am alarmed that,

both in the south-west and in London, we appear

to have a system that routinely goes down for protracted periods of time

A 500lb World War II bomb has been detonated off the coast

It was found overnight in Portsmouth Harbour and led

to a 500-metre exclusion zone in old Portsmouth until 8am this

morning - it meant no cross Channel and Solent ferries,

roads were closed and trains cancelled, and people

were told to stay indoors for their own safety.

Air accident investigators will publish their final safety

report into the Shoreham air disaster next week.

11 men died when a Hawker Hunter jet failed to pull out of a stunt

The plane, piloted by Andrew Hill, who survived the impact,

crashed in a fireball on the busy A27, in front

There was more disruption for passengers on Southern Railway

today as guards in the RMT union went on strike in their long-running

The company said it ran three quarters of its trains as normal.

Sean Killick has been gauging the impact in Chichester.

It's the 29th strike day in this dispute between southern and its

guards, but more services were running then other strike days,

including ones west of Chichester, to and from Hampshire.

I was expecting to get a taxi to Chichester, so I was presently

surprised that there were some trains running.

Meanwhile, Michael Angus who uses a wheelchair and his brother

Brian have raised concerns about Southern's staffing changes.

Michael videoed problems he experienced

recently boarding a Southern train at Cheam.

A member of station staff did appear, put the ramp down

She struggled with the doors which were closing on her.

And Michael had to three times say, no, that's still not right, before

He wasn't put in the disabled bay, so there wasn't access

And when he got to Clapham Junction they were

Michael often finds a catalogue of errors

I'm sure that will happen more often if they are down to one man

It said an inexperienced agency staff member was to blame and

it has urgently very briefed the whole station team.

It added what happened was nothing to do with any

However, this incident does highlight confusion

about future staffing levels on Southern trains.

Many passengers believe there will be only one

member of staff, the driver, on-board.

But the company says its signing on-board supervisors to

every train where previously there was a conductor, and because they

will not have to operate the doors it will allow them to provide more

This latest strike will end at midnight.

Last week, talks between guards and the company

broke down and drivers rejected a separate offer.

Industry experts say a resolution to this dispute is still a long way

The great British artist John Constable is known for his

But, for a meteorologist who's studied his paintings,

there was always something puzzling about the rainbow in

Constable's famous work Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows.

It didn't fit with the light and clouds.

Now that meteorologist, John Thornes, has come up

with a theory which sheds new light on it - believing the rainbow may

have been added later as a tribute to Constable's greatest friend.

Jo Kent reports on what happened when science met art.

It's considered one of the greatest masterpieces of British art.

Now, almost 200 years since its creation, it's opening

It's long been suspected its famous rainbow may have

We know it was first exhibited in 1831,

but in the descriptions of it

at the time there is no reference to there being a rainbow

surprising considering when we look at this painting today,

it's the one thing that immediately comes to mind.

Absolutely - it's probably the most striking feature, isn't it?

Yes, but I think it just adds that extra layer of personal

The lighting and cloud formations didn't correspond to the rainbow.

Now, thanks to research by a meteorologist,

We've actually been able to date this rainbow to the actual day

that his best friend, John Fisher, died.

Not only is the rainbow equivalent to

that day, but also the end of the rainbow falls

The rainbow is such a symbol of hope, it's a universally

understood symbol and I think it was something very beautiful

It can't be far from this spot that Constable first sat

to make his first sketches for Salisbury Cathedral From The Meadows

and that's something it is suggested he may well have done

in the company of his great friend, Archdeacon John Fisher.

In the bottom right of the sketch, a man is shown walking his dog.

There's speculation this is John Fisher, who Constable came

It was a painting that came about as a result of encouragement

from his friend in the first place, which we have documented

So it kind of completes the circle, doesn't it?

It started with the idea of John Fisher and in

a sense it comes back to John Fisher, with

That's all from the South Today news team this evening.

We're back tomorrow with bulletins in BBC Breakfast and there's more

Now Alexis Green is here with our forecast,

Is yes. But before then we will have a lot of cloud overnight and some

outbreaks of rain. The winds will continue to strengthen from the West

and temperatures will fall away between nine and 10 Celsius.

Tomorrow morning we will have heavy rain. That will clear up just after

rush-hour, but the strong winds tomorrow will be mainly through the

central part of the country. Affecting northern parts of

Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire. Elsewhere we have a yellow wind

warning in force. The amber warning is in force here and we could see

gusts of 60 to 70 mph. Elsewhere gusts of 50 to 60 mph. We are

expecting strengthening winds with the rain through tomorrow afternoon.

Showers will follow the rain and sunny spells as well. In particular

among the south. Highs tomorrow of ten to 11 Celsius. Tomorrow evening

winds will die down completely with high pressure building from the

West. Friday should be mainly dry and settled with the odd isolated

shower. There is an amber warning in force the northern parts of

Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire. The wind gusts could be up