12/08/2013 BBC Oxford News

Oxfordshire claim that tough new restrictions to try to prevent the

spread of bovine TB could drive some of them out of business. And why

some money is being spent on this cyclist roundabout in Oxford. And

the new Lord of the rings who wants to reunite owners with their

Oxfordshire claimed that tough new restrictions to try to prevent the

spread of bovine TB could drive some of them out of business. The county

is to form part of an infection "buffer zone" separating the south

west, where the disease is rife, from the rest of the country. The

steps, put forward by the Farming Minister, will make it harder to

move cattle, and mean more rigorous testing for the disease will be

compulsory. As our reporter Angela Walker found out, farmers are

already under serious strain, and some say the changes can only make

Neil Rowe has a herd of over 400 beef cattle at Manor Farm in

Abingdon. We are right on the front-line. All our neighbouring

farmers to the west of us are down with TB or have been very recently.

We are the first farm with cattle that so far is clear. And we're

quite keen to stay that way. We're always worried when we have to do a

test. We don't know if we're going to go down.

The new measures announced by the Department for Food and Rural

Affairs include extra skin testing for herds that have had their

TB-free status suspended. There are also much tougher restrictions on

moving cattle, and more funding for badger vaccination trials.

The cattle movement restrictions in particular make it very difficult

for a small farm relying on grazing from other farmers to be able to

move their cattle around under these restrictions that either becomes

very expensive or just impossible to do and could put them right out of

business. Bovine TB is worst in the west of

England, which has been classified as a high risk area. To the east,

there've been relatively few cases. Oxfordshire's in the middle in what

the Government is calling the Edge Area. It's essentially a buffer

zone. If bovine TB can be controlled here, the risk of it spreading east

is minimised. But the Government denies farmers here are bearing the

brunt. There are people being forced out of business by TB. All the time.

Anyone who has sat round a kitchen table with a farmer who's lost a

prized herd of milkers as a result of TB knows the distress that

causes. What we've got to do is to try to stop that disease spreading

further. The National Farmers Union told me

they wanted more time to digest the measures before they speak publicly,

and said the announcement had come as a surprise. They said farmers are

angry, frustrated and disillusioned, and that ever-increasing cattle

controls mean they're finding it difficult to operate. The NFU's

calling for significantly more investment to identify how the

disease is spreading among badgers in the Edge Area. Angela Walker, BBC

been airlifted to hospital with serious injuries after a light

aircraft crash-landed in Northamptonshire. It came down in

the village of Canons Ashby, not far from Banbury and the Oxfordshire

border. Emergency crews were called to the scene just before midday.

It's not yet clear what caused the plane to crash. Air accident

investigators have been examining accused of murdering Rachel Manning

in Milton Keynes nearly 13 years ago has begun at Luton Crown Court.

Rachel was 19. Her body was discovered on a golf course. She'd

been strangled. The jury heard that Shahidul Ahmed murdered her after

she'd been out for the evening. He denies the charge. The case is

their bills increase by an additional �29 a year. The company's

seeking permission from the water regulator Ofwat for the rise. It

says that the extra money's needed to offset bad debts due in part to

the economic downturn. It's also needed to help cover the escalating

price of a major new sewer system and maintenance work. The firm says

that even with the rise, its charges are among the lowest in the country.

But customers in Caversham today weren't convinced.

So what happens the next time they have a shortfall? Do we pay another

�30? It goes on and on. It is exorbitant when we pay our bills on

time and they can't manage their business properly. I hope someone

does look into the legality of that. Especially if they are continuing to

make the profit they normally make, as well. Most things we do plan and

adapt for, but we had to take on 24,000 miles of devious new private

sewers as a result of government legislation, and it has cost us �66

million to run them -- previously Private.

Nearly a million pounds is to be spent in the centre of Oxford to

improve safety for cyclists. The city's one of eight across the

country which have been awarded Government money. The entire sum's

been earmarked for work at a roundabout which is used by getting

on for 5,000 cyclists each day. In the past five years there've been 29

serious accidents there involving bikes. The plan is to slow the

traffic and improve cycle lanes, as Jessica Cooper reports.

The Plain. A busy roundabout in Oxford that's had a history of

cycling accidents. Richard from the Oxford Cycling Campaign has been

calling for it to be made safer. one or two points, you have a split

second to make a decision about whether to go or not. The idea is to

improve things even further and so that people don't have to guess

which moment to pull out. Roads will be made narrower to slow down

traffic. Pavements will be wider. And there'll be improved cycle

lanes. But is close to a million pounds well spent on a roundabout?

think it is a good idea, but it will depend on where the money is

actually going. It is a problem for pedestrians as well. It is an

attitude needs to change, but I don't think there is space on the

roads. You can't put a price on it. I have never been to another city

where so many people cycle. Safety is paramount. Any money on cycling

is well spent if it makes it easier. There is a history of cycling

incidents in the area. Anything which will narrow the roads and slow

the traffic down will make it easier and safer for cyclists.

Work's due to start later this year. Half a million pounds of

improvements will also be made elsewhere in the city to encourage

more people to cycle. Jessica Later in the programme with Sally

we'll be finding out about another cycling scheme announced today aimed

at encouraging people to get on their bikes to explore our National

Parks. A 12-mile stretch of railway through

Swindon and into Gloucestershire has been closed for three weeks of

engineering work. A second line is being laid alongside the existing

single track between Swindon and Kemble. It will allow more trains to

run along the route, with up to four services an hour in each direction.

Replacement buses will be operating until the work is finished in

mentioned in the Bible, in Shakespeare's poems, and a

well-known Christmas carol. But now you'd be hard-pressed to catch sight

of a turtle dove in our countryside. The number living wild has dwindled

over recent decades as the habitat around them has changed. That's why

rumours that a family of turtle doves has settled at the Otmoor

Nature Reserve has attracted bird-watchers from all over the

She knows what she's looking for, and she's not alone. All of these

bird-watchers came to Otmoor Nature Reserve today to witness a very rare

animal in its natural habitat. know there are about, because people

keep telling me. Somebody said, I saw 12 today. There are very

beautiful, and we're hoping to see the nesting here. This is what they

were searching for. The turtle dove's song used to revorbarate

around English woodlands, but numbers are down by 93% since the

1970s. It's partly because the rugged grass land they thrive on is

being made into crop fields. main food they rely on our small

seeds from weeds that grow on the edge of farmland. We have a good

example here, some clover. They are perfect for turtledoves. There is

not as much of this around any more. There is a lot of excitement here at

the moment, because we have heard there is a family of total doves in

that tree. We are not sure if they are there at the moment. We are

having to be patient. But the Otmoor turtle doves remained

characteristically elusive - until Sean Allison and his wife got lucky.

We heard one calling, and unmanaged to find a juvenile first of all in

the branches of a tree. A little further along the path, we found an

adult, as well. Two turtle doves, just like in the

Christmas carol. Sean says his next mission is to find a partridge in a

pear tree. Jeremy Stern, BBC South Today.

And yes, we are mentioning Christmas in the middle of summer! That's all

from me for the moment. The goals from the weekend's football matches,

from the MK Dons, Swindon and Oxford, are coming up in a few

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 493 seconds