:00:07. > :00:10.from Oxford. In tonight's programme: A 40% fall in youth unemployment.
:00:10. > :00:14.Has a Brighter Future scheme in deprived parts of one town shown how
:00:14. > :00:20.the problem should be tackled? Also - crime in the countryside.
:00:20. > :00:30.Rural policing becomes a higher priority.
:00:30. > :00:36.
:00:36. > :00:39.And later on - pot luck. The man who Good evening. Youth unemployment is
:00:39. > :00:42.one of the most pressing and distressing effects of the economic
:00:42. > :00:45.downturn. Since the recession, the number of teenagers now in
:00:45. > :00:50.education, employment or training - a group known collectively as NEETS
:00:50. > :00:52.- has soared. But in Banbury there's been a concerted effort to offer
:00:52. > :00:59.meaningful job experience and workplace opportunities to 16-18
:00:59. > :01:02.year olds. The results have been remarkable - the number falling
:01:02. > :01:07.through the cracks, without training or a job on the horizon, has dropped
:01:07. > :01:12.by 40%. The success comes as the government prepares to change the
:01:12. > :01:16.rules on education for all 16-year-olds. Helen Catt reports.
:01:17. > :01:19.18-year-old Aimee Tye from Banbury is on her way to work. She's a
:01:19. > :01:29.business administration apprentice, but a year ago, she'd dropped out of
:01:29. > :01:36.
:01:36. > :01:41.sixth form and was finding it hard to work out what to do.
:01:41. > :01:46.I was looking for jobs, but I wasn't really doing anything for about
:01:46. > :01:50.three months, I was just at home. It was quite difficult even with the
:01:50. > :01:54.right grades and variance. Aimee got training with the YMCA -
:01:54. > :01:56.after going to a youth job fair. It's just one of the ways young
:01:56. > :02:02.people are being targeted. Others include job clubs and phoning NEETS
:02:03. > :02:06.directly. It is about people. We can identify
:02:06. > :02:13.those people and then do something about it. It doesn't matter how, it
:02:13. > :02:17.is getting to those young people and encouraging them to get involved.
:02:17. > :02:24.If you compare figures, you will see that in Oxfordshire, five points
:02:24. > :02:30.percent are classified, in Bucks, 3.8% while Swindon has the highest
:02:30. > :02:36.level at 7.3%. Here in Oxfordshire they have a very
:02:36. > :02:39.high number of what is called not loans. The authorities here do not
:02:39. > :02:41.know the status of a quarter of 16 to 18-year-olds.
:02:41. > :02:43.From this summer, the government's changing the law so 16-year-olds
:02:44. > :02:47.can't leave education entirely. They'll either have to stay at
:02:47. > :02:55.school or college, like these trainee chefs, or get a job with 20
:02:55. > :02:58.hours of training a week too. If you are disenfranchised or
:02:58. > :03:02.disinterested young person, the thought of going for more education
:03:02. > :03:07.terms your stomach. What we have got to say is, what do you want to do
:03:07. > :03:09.life? If you want to earn money, there are lots of opportunities.
:03:09. > :03:13.The government hopes the right training will help more people like
:03:13. > :03:17.Aimee get into the workforce and stay there.
:03:17. > :03:20.Getting to grips with rural crime was one of the key pledges made by
:03:20. > :03:23.the Thames Valley's new Police and Crime Commissioner when he was
:03:23. > :03:26.elected late last year. Today, the force has set out just how it's
:03:26. > :03:29.planning to do that. A major change in strategy will see officers
:03:29. > :03:34.investigating crimes committed on farms and in the countryside far
:03:34. > :03:37.more thoroughly than typically happened in the past. They're
:03:37. > :03:42.targeting criminal gangs who, up to now, have found the countryside an
:03:42. > :03:52.easy target. Emma Vardy's been assessing what the changes mean and
:03:52. > :03:53.
:03:53. > :03:56.she's here in the studio. Farms have been vulnerable, haven't they?
:03:56. > :04:02.That is right. Large machinery thefts are a problem and farmers are
:04:02. > :04:08.becoming big to organised crime. Is not uncommon for things like track
:04:09. > :04:12.is or even combine harvesters to be stolen by criminal gangs. Officers
:04:12. > :04:17.say that although crime has reduced, things like this can lead
:04:17. > :04:20.to losses of hundreds of thousands of pounds.
:04:20. > :04:29.Even though it has been going down for the last couple of years, we
:04:29. > :04:34.recognise a big impact on the tin. It impacts upon their livelihoods.
:04:34. > :04:41.It is very important that we focus on those crimes more this year.
:04:41. > :04:44.What police going to do differently? They say they will investigate more
:04:44. > :04:48.quickly and use covert operations to catch and minerals. Where will they
:04:48. > :04:52.find the resources? Police they they will work more efficiently to get
:04:52. > :04:57.this done, but having been asked to take on this priority, it will place
:04:57. > :05:03.demand on their time. People will ask why it has not been
:05:03. > :05:06.a high priority until now. This is an example of how the new
:05:06. > :05:10.policing crimes commission is leading to changes. Previously
:05:10. > :05:14.police were told to focus on burglaries, street robberies and
:05:14. > :05:19.violent crime. Now that there is a police crime Commissioner he said
:05:19. > :05:23.that he once more to be done to tackle rule incidents and something
:05:23. > :05:26.that some argue has been overlooked. A 600-year-old Oxfordshire pub has
:05:26. > :05:29.been left badly damaged following a fire. More than fifty firefighters
:05:29. > :05:33.from two counties tackled the blaze at the Horse and Jockey in Stanford
:05:33. > :05:36.in the Vale on Saturday evening. The pub, which had been full of
:05:36. > :05:39.customers at the time, was evacuated, but no-one was hurt. The
:05:39. > :05:43.cause isn't thought to be suspicious, and an investigation is
:05:43. > :05:45.now underway. Child protection charity the NSPCC
:05:45. > :05:51.has launched a new awareness campaign aimed at getting parents
:05:51. > :05:54.and children to discuss the difficult issue of sexual abuse. The
:05:54. > :05:58.number of crimes being reported in the Thames Valley has risen sharply
:05:58. > :06:02.since the Jimmy Savile scandal, but the charity says 90% of abuse is
:06:02. > :06:04.committed by someone close to the child victim. It's producing
:06:04. > :06:11.age-appropriate leaflets and information for parents and schools,
:06:11. > :06:15.to encourage children to speak up if they feel worried.
:06:15. > :06:18.Conditions on our roads are very different now to when many of us
:06:18. > :06:20.took the cycling proficiency test. Yet cycling safety experts believe
:06:20. > :06:26.most youngsters in Oxfordshire aren't getting the up-to-date
:06:26. > :06:29.training they need to prepare for the dangers they face. The county is
:06:29. > :06:34.one of just a handful NOT to fully adopt the government-backed
:06:34. > :06:37."Bikeability" scheme. As Nikki Mitchell reports, many local schools
:06:37. > :06:47.are still offering the traditional - and, some believe - less effective,
:06:47. > :06:49.training. Venturing out on to Aylesbury is
:06:49. > :06:55.busy roads flanked by professionally trained instructors. These pupils
:06:55. > :07:03.are among five and a half thousand children in Bucks being given
:07:03. > :07:10.training this year. My parents think it is a good idea to build my
:07:10. > :07:17.confidence. We know how to look out for the right signs. We have to look
:07:17. > :07:22.at for cars and if one comes, we have to signal.
:07:22. > :07:24.Well Bucks has �200,000 of government cash to spend on
:07:24. > :07:29.professional bike tuition, Oxfordshire only applied for
:07:29. > :07:35.�10,000, so most rules still run the old-style cycling proficiency
:07:35. > :07:41.training instead. I think my parents feel a lot more
:07:41. > :07:47.obliged to B go out, like my own. have been thinking about what I
:07:47. > :07:50.learned. Cycling proficiency is taught by parent followed ears and
:07:50. > :07:55.despite being one of those volunteers, Richard Mann believes
:07:55. > :07:59.that the programme is lagging behind.
:07:59. > :08:05.We have now done the studies nationally and worked out what is
:08:05. > :08:09.most effective and we think that the new way should be adopted. It is
:08:09. > :08:13.more consistently delivered. main difference between the former
:08:14. > :08:17.cycling visions the and the new one is that we can to get the children
:08:17. > :08:22.on the road as much as possible to give them as much red experience as
:08:22. > :08:29.we can. Because we are professionally trained and qualified
:08:29. > :08:33.and insured, it means we can cycle with them to each location.
:08:33. > :08:40.Oxfordshire county council says it strongly challenges the notion that
:08:40. > :08:44.national bike ability is better than its own scheme. By using volunteers,
:08:44. > :08:49.it is able to train many more youngsters in Oxfordshire in a more
:08:49. > :08:51.cost-effective way. Electric bikes can now be hired by
:08:51. > :08:55.people keen to explore Henley-on-Thames and the Chiltern
:08:55. > :08:58.Hills. They're powered by rechargeable batteries and have a
:08:58. > :09:01.small motor on the front wheel, so riders don't have to worry about
:09:01. > :09:04.their fitness. The area has been identified as the ideal place to set
:09:04. > :09:14.up the Chilterns' first electric bike network, because it already
:09:14. > :09:14.
:09:14. > :09:17.attracts a lot of tourists. Lots of the kind of people that
:09:17. > :09:24.visit the Chilterns might end up stuck in their cars and they might
:09:24. > :09:27.not think about donning Lycra for a couple of hours. On an electric
:09:28. > :09:30.bicycle you can enjoy the outdoors and you do not need to get sweaty.
:09:30. > :09:33.It is a fantastic way to explore. ?NEWLINE Finally, his place in
:09:33. > :09:36.history is already secured as the sixth Doctor Who, but now
:09:36. > :09:39.Buckinghamshire actor Colin Baker is set to have his famous face made
:09:39. > :09:42.into a bronze bust to support a local sculptor. Colin had his first
:09:42. > :09:45.sitting today at Andrew Sinclair's studio's in Wendover. The head and
:09:45. > :09:55.shoulders bust will take three months to make, and as Colin told us
:09:55. > :09:58.it's likely to scare off any Daleks looking to take over the planet.
:09:58. > :10:03.There are various 3-dimensional images of me as Doctor Who. There
:10:03. > :10:09.are tall use and heads and bust and toys and all sorts of things. This
:10:09. > :10:12.is the first one ever done of me, Colin, by a professional sculptor,
:10:12. > :10:19.with the sitting. I am looking forward to seeing myself bronzed