12/09/2013 BBC Oxford News

Hello and welcome to South Today from Oxford. Aid to Syria: Oxfam is

sending aid the 300,000 people. Also tonight, testing flood

defences. The bar in interagency tests its plans should water levels

rise. And later on: The action packed

movie all about cars, filmed in the south with special vehicles from no

ordinary garage. Good evening. It's being described

as the worst humanitarian crisis on the planet. Today, nearly 50 tonnes

of aid is being sent to Syria, from Oxfam's emergency warehouse in

Bicester. The equipment will help provide clean water to more than

300,000 people. This evening, campaigners have been holding a

rally in the centre of Oxford, over the Syria crisis. Jeremy Stern is

there for us tonight. These protesters have been here for the

past two hours, imploring passers by to listen. They say even though

military intervention in Syria is not imminent, millions of people in

the country are at risk. Oxfam said the situation in Syria is absolutely

desperate. I have been down to the main depot in Bicester where the aid

effort has been stepped up. This is the first batch of

humanitarian aid being sent from the Oxfam depot in Bicester, to

Damascus, the capital of Syria. Over the next fortnight, 43 tonnes of

cargo will be delivered. The charity says that already hundreds of

thousands of people are in need in Syria. The big priority at the

moment is sanitation and clean water supplies so the parts in those boxes

will be used to set up those huge water cylinders and they will be

built in the heart of the city. The crisis in Syria has already affected

millions of people. The charity is hoping to immediately help 300,000

of those most in need. Oxfam provides support all around the

world, Syria is now the priority. It really is one of the worst

humanitarian situations in the world. A third of people in Syria

cannot survive on their rain. They are in desperate need of aid. They

are living in conditions that none of us would want to. The cargo is on

its way to Luxembourg by road. It will then by flown to Beirut and by

this time next week, it should have arrived in Syria. The Prime Minister

met Syrian refugees in Jordan in November last year. Oxfam says it's

impossible to predict how long it will need to provide humanitarian

aid, but a support plans being drawn up for the next six months at least.

With me is Dan glazed book. MPs voted against military intervention

so what is the point of the protest? There is also intervention in less

overheard forms. Britain is supplying weapons to cut are who are

supplying weapons to the rebels. There is millions of pounds of

funding going to the rebels. They are pouring fuel into the flames

already. The British government has blood on their hands even without

air strikes. What should the British government do? They should end the

intervention in Syria. Every time it dangles the prospect of air

strikes, it encourages the rebels to believe that there is a military

solution to this crisis and it prevents them from involving

themselves peacefully. The military intervention argument goes on but

the possibility is that aid from Oxfordshire is now heading to

Syria. Thank you.

Wiltshire Police says the detective who led an investigation into Becky

Godden's murder will face a formal conduct hearing. Detective

Superintendent Steve Fulcher ignored guidelines, when he didn't take

Christopher Halliwell to a police station to read him his rights.

Instead, he persuaded Halliwell to take him to the body of Becky

Godden. Halliwell was convicted of murdering Sian O'Callaghan but has

never stood trial for Miss Godden's murder.

A ten—year—old schoolboy, who was struck by a car in Didcot two days

ago, has died in hospital. Officers are appealing for witnesses to the

collision, which happened in Oxford Crescent at around 5.30pm on Tuesday

evening. Flood defences in Oxford have been

tested today, as the Environment Agency rehearses its plan should

major flooding happen. Across the south authorities are spending today

practising how they can respond to flooding. Oxfordshire was badly hit

in 2007, when hundreds of homes were flooded following days of heavy

rain. Since then, millions of pounds has been spent on new defences.

Angela Walker reports. July 2007. Much of Oxfordshire is

submerged by floodwaters. I watched it rushing up. It was actually

really scary. An awful lot of us afterwards, we talked about it all

and we all said that it really affected us and the way we feel

about living here. But I don't want to move from here because I love

it. Last year, flooding closed Botley Road. Shop owner Steve

Stewart lost thousands of pounds worth of business. The water level

came up and over the pavement and extended up to here so it was very

close to the front door of the shop. They after day water levels kept

creeping up and up. Today, Environment Agency workers were

training in rapid deployment of temporary flood areas. We have got

some colleagues from one of our other areas, from Kent, to come up

and learn what we do. So should we have an incident and we need

additional support, they will come up and they know the kit and are

familiar with it so they can help out. During the flooding, people

here had to be evacuated from their homes. In time, the Environment

Agency plans to build a channel to prevent people —— to protect people

by diverted ink water away. That will take time and money so until

then they are planning small, local schemes instead. That includes £2.5

million of flood defences. Two schemes are being developed for West

Oxfordshire. The Environment Agency is also clearing watercourses,

maintaining flood defences and helping households protect their

properties. But if the tide rises again, it says it is better prepared

to limit the damage. A vote will be held tonight to elect

a new mayor for Aylesbury. It follows the death of Steve Patrick

in August. He'd taken over the post in May. His seat on the district

council will be filled at a by—election on the third of October.

70,000 people are expected to head to Blenheim Palace between now and

Sunday, for the international horse trials150 top riders will compete

from 16 countries. As Jessica Cooper has been finding out, the event is

seen as a great practice ground for the Olympics.

Enter the arena, number 33, Charlotte Agnew from Kingson

Bagpuize. This is important preparation for Rio. I am so pleased

with him. This is a fantastic opportunity for us to be here. I am

under a degree of pressure but not the same amount that you would be if

you are competing for your country, which is obviously my ultimate

goal. William Fox Pitt has represented his country and he has

been riding at Lenin for 30 years. Riding here has taught me a lot and

I have had some great experience and some not so good experiences. I am

hoping my chaps go well this weekend. I am here to look at the

future stars, both horses and riders. We have established riders

riding younger horses which we will keep an eye on leading up to Rio.

Thousands of people are expected here over the weekend. Some have

travelled further than others. We came from the USA. It is my

daughter's first time here, she is competing. We come from Faversham in

Kent. We would like to see the dressage today. We have come from

Lincolnshire to watch my daughter ride. My daughter is based in the

South of Scotland, in the Borders so we have come as a family to have a

bit of a holiday and watch her compete. Every year people say I did

not think it would be like this. People are so friendly, there are so

much to do, the shops are fantastic. That gives me a great

deal of pleasure. We wanted to be inclusive. Charlotte will not know

for a few years whether she is going to Rio but for now she will hope her

good start will continue in the show—jumping this weekend.

That's all from me for the moment. More from me at 10.25pm. Now more of

today's stories with Sally Taylor. than being told that you cannot take

any time off. Lucy Herd ending that report from Joe Campbell.

Still to come in this evening's South Today...

Shooting the breeze — the world championship sailors who had to wait

for the weather to pick up. A review has found that some of the

most dangerous prisoners are being freed without a proper assessment of

the risk they pose to the public. One mother from Winchester, whose

daughter was killed by a freed rapist, has now spoken about her

experience of the release process. Matt Prodger reports.

People on my sentences rarely spend their whole lives in prison. But

before they are let out, prison and probation staff are supposed to

assess the risk they pose. In England and Wales, they haven't done

it well enough. Basically, they were challenging enough and they relied

too much and too often on the account of the events given by the

offender. They did not take into account other objective information,

like their behaviour on the wing. 13,000 people are serving life terms

or indeterminate sentence is. Of those released, the risk assessments

have been in —— have been insufficient. More and more people

in prison are serving life sentences. Sooner or later, some of

them are least. According to the report, only a tiny minority go on

to reoffend. Verna Bryant 's daughter was one of those who was a

victim of someone who did reoffend. Because he had passed as exams and

did good things, he was in jail, where he didn't have any choice

because he was in prison. They said he was a good boy and deserve the

chance and so they let him into the open air and released him. The

government says it is setting up a national privation service,

dedicated to assessing risk and supervising the worst offenders.

Now, if you were given £4 million to persuade thousands of people to

ditch their gas—guzzling cars, what would you spend it on? That's the

question transport chiefs have been discussing in Brockenhurst today.

The New Forest and South Downs National Parks have been given the

money by the Government to encourage greener transport. Roger Finn

reports. It is a gimmick but it is also a lot of fun. And a very

eye—catching way of promoting the very idea of green travel in the New

Forest. There are 27 of these electric cars

for hire in the New Forest. They cost £50 a day but they have proved

popular. And they've led to the creation of 22 electric vehicle

charging points around the Forest. This is just one of the sustainable

travel initiatives conference delegates heard about in

Brockenhurst today. The New Forest and South Downs National Parks are

midway through a programme to spend £4 million on encouraging greener

travel. At the moment 95% of visitors use their cars. We

recognise that the majority of our residents and visitors will continue

to use their private car as the main form of transport. What we are doing

is giving them a choice and the choice of exploring the park in a

much more inspirational and memorable way and some of the

products we are investing in, like the tour and open top bus experience

is, smaller Ettrick vehicles and cycle hire. They have all been

successful. Much of the money will go on boosting cycling. And this

cycle hire business has already seen a rise in interest from visitors.

Definitely. I think green tourism is on the up. With bikes, it is very

weather dependent. This summer has been great for green tourism and

cycling as a whole. The Lake District National Park won a similar

government grant to encourage sustainable travel four years ago.

They were at the conference to reveal change is possible. We are

now starting to see the real impacts of this money. We're getting a lot

more people on our buses, we are starting to get nice problems to

have, such as cycle congestion in some parts of the Lake District.

Some people are turning up for our white boat across Windermere and not

being able to get on because there are too many bikes on board. The New

Forest and the South Downs now have a year and a half to spend their £4

million. Cars of a very given sort now.

The new film Rush opens in cinemas tomorow. It's about the intense

rivalry between British racing driver James Hunt and Austrian Niki

Lauda for the 1976 Formula One world championship. In a moment, I'll be

talking to Formula One World Champion Jody Scheckter, who raced

in the same era. Directed by Ron Howard, much of the action was

filmed in the South and many of the cars come from Stockbridge. Our

transport correspondent, Paul Clifton, reports.

I accept that every time I get in the car, there is 20% chance I could

die. 1976 64. James Hunt and Niki Lauda fight almost to the death.

Let's race! For many, the cars are the real stars. He is James Hunt's

title winning McLaren. It is maintained and raised by a workshop

in Stockbridge. WDK Motorsport. We have a lot of customers that like to

keep things quiet from their wives. 15 engineers maintain a large fleet

of historic racing cars. Many worth far more than modern machinery. They

are driven by owners with more money than a Monopoly board. It is fairly

expensive, yes. These guys are fairly rich and they enjoy racing.

We are probable talking around several thousand pounds per race

meeting, depending on how me race tyres you want. This is not a real

racetrack. Black Bush airport near Camberley stood in foster kids in

Germany, Italy and Japan. Some of the original cars no longer exist,

so replicas had to be made. Southampton racing driver Shane

Kelly stepped in for the actors when a real action was needed. We had to

use the original Formula one cars, so they are quite expensive to drive

and you don't want to crush any of them, celebrating precision drivers,

or race drivers like myself to basically drive the cars in the pit

lane quite fast. It is like being dropped into 1976. It is quite

surreal. The staff at Stockbridge helped with 50 days of filming at

ten different venues. They haven't seen the movie yet but they have

booked tickets. Because the good and the film looks good.

I'm delighted to say that I'm joined in the studio by Jody Scheckter.

These days, Jody is an organic farmer at Laverstock Park Farm in

Hampshire. But, four decades ago, he lived life at a very different pace

as one of the world's top Formula One drivers. In that 1976 season, he

came third, behind James Hunt and Niki Lauda. What are your memories

of that season? The six wheeler came out that year. A lot of people found

that completed different. People noticed it. I had people come to

me, with a dinky cars,. It was very popular. It kept breaking down,

didn't it? I did not like the theory about it. It broke a few times.

Wheels fell off in Sweden. It came back to the pits and drove in and

the engineer hadn't seen it and I said it was under staring a bit. I

just started laughing. You recently brought it back and you drove again

at half best, which we filmed at your place. What was it like getting

back in the car after so long? Did you get the feel for it? I didn't

fit into the current first! —— into the car at first. Some of James's

cars were there. There was the whole rivalry. You heard that noise and

that brought you back to what you felt like at that time. Does the

adrenaline get going before you get into the car? What is that moment

like? You have to try and keep as calm as you can but you are thinking

about what you are going to do for the first corner, it is all trying

to rehearse it in your head. James Hunt was a good friend of yours. We

only know him as the fact he liked to drink and the women and he was so

good looking, he was that pin—up. I knew him like that as well! We lived

near each other. We were good friends and most of the rumours are

probably correct. It was good when he was well champion. Did he have

that rivalry of the course? With Niki Lauda? I did not see that side

of it. In those times, when it was so dangerous, when drivers were

getting killed every year, we had a lot of respect for one another.

There weren't very many big fights amongst the drivers. You have your

helmet, and that is from 1979, when he won the world championships.

Pride of place? It is just somewhere at home. You going to go and see the

film? I'm not too excited but when you are in racing and you see a

racing film, it is weird. It is getting a lot of coverage, so it is

quite nice for people. Thank you for coming in. Fantastic talking to

you. We will go on whose board now. There is no F1 on is there?

That story is of thing I don't know much about. Before your time.Just a

little bit! One of the South's olympic gold

medallists has had a run—in with the authorities in Peru. Shotgun

champion Peter Wilson has been accused of trying to hunt whales

with his gun. He had flown to Lima with a youngster he is coaching to

take part in the double trap world championships. But customs officials

didn't like the look of his gun and didn't believe he was a professional

sportsman. His gun has been confiscated for the time being,

although Peter escaped arrest. He's due back for further questioning but

has been allowed to stay the night in a hotel. We'll hear from him in

our late news. To Poole and the World Championship

Sailing Event going on all this week. We saw Alexis being shown how

the boats in the 2.4m class work last week. Today, I went down to

Dorset to see the experts in action. The sun shone down on the world

championship fleet. The event has attracted a big entry in a class of

sailing which includes able—bodied and disabled sailors. There has been

some very tactical racing in variable conditions. Yesterday, it

was 14 knots out here. Today, very calm. Helena Lucas has gone to the

top of the leaderboard and the question going into day three of

racing is will the conditions allow the battle on the water to continue?

They would have to be patient, waiting for a breeze, but there was

a chance for the lead to reflect on the action so far. They are

extremely good sailors. A lot of them have done past Olympic

campaigns and staff, so there is a lot of talent out here on the water

and you certainly don't give an edge on the water. —— give an inch on the

water. Jonathan Currell is the youngest sailor hit was the piers at

member of the Helen MacArthur trust. He is competing with some of the

best. It is a massive event. It is really exciting. How you finding it?

Testing, it is really difficult. Race seven went to Ian Barker, the

Olympian who coaches Helene and Jonathan these days. Lucas looks a

person to beat as she aims for her first world title. Lovely album on

the water today, once they have some wind. 's paying with sailing now. ——

staying with sailing now. Ben Ainslie will make a dramatic

entrance into the America's Cup with an American team which is reeling

after the first five races of the event. Oracle Team USA is the

defending champion, but Emirates Team New Zealand has swept to

victory in four of the first five races, prompting the beleaguered

American crew to weigh up their options. Ainslie appeared on the

boat in practice yesterday, replacing John Kostecki, and has

been named in the crew for races six and seven, which start from 9pm our

time in San Francisco Bay. Cricket and Surrey are trailing

Somerset by 52 runs after day two of their County Championship match at

Taunton. This match is crucial for bottom—of—the—table Surrey if

they're to maintain hopes of avoiding relegation. Somerset were

bowled out for 260 — Surrey were 13 without loss. At the other end of

the table, Sussex lead Yorkshire by 46, but the championship chasers are

well—placed to move into a first—innings lead at Hove. In

Division Two, at the Ageas Bowl, James Vince went for 106 as

Hampshire posted 428. Worcestershire were 101 for two at the close. Thank

you very much. Let us go on to the weather. We want to talk about the

weekend because it doesn't look good. Unsettled this weekend, a bit

of uncertainty but we do have some wet weather to come. Saturday looks

like the better date at this stage. We have had some decent weather

today. Rob Webb captured a beautiful scene

overlooking Seagrove Bay on the Isle of Wight. Thank you for that photo.

Crashing waves at East Preston. A gorgeous seascape from Anni Stevens

there. And ominous—looking clouds building

up at Gravetts Lane riding stables at Guildford in Surrey. Raymond

Slack took that one. We have further ominous cloud heading our way

through the course of the night. Patchy outbreaks of predominantly

light rain heading our way from the West and working its way through the

region overnight. A bit of a damp, drizzly feel to things. Some misty

and muddy conditions as well. Those outbreaks of rain work their way

eastwards into the early hours, so slightly dry conditions arising.

Template is at around 16, so feeling quite close Tonight Show. It will

start to see write a conditions coming in. Tempters up to 18 or 19

degrees. By the time we reach the school run, we will start to see the

cloud thickening and the rain arrives into tomorrow afternoon. It

does not take long for that rain to spread through the region and by

Russia Howard Booth could see some heavy bursts, perhaps 30

millimetres, just over one inch in some isolated spots. That rain band

clears through through the course of tomorrow night and we are left with

patchy outbreaks through the early hours of Saturday. Tempters, ten or

11 degrees. It is a grey start to Saturday, very slow progress on that

weather as it eases away of some uncertainty on the clearance of

that. You can see from pressure charts that it is this formation

here that is clearing away. The ridge of high pressure overnight

brings some click conditions, so a crisp, bright start to Sunday but

this area of low pressure kicks in and we have some very strong winds.

You can see the tightly packed isobars and the wet weather as well

arriving by the middle part of the day. For Sunday, a crisp start but

then turning wet and windy into the afternoon. We have some events to

look forward to over the weekend. We may seem a little bit of light rain

at the Findon Valley Sheep Fair, which starts on Friday evening,

running into the weekend. That rain looks to ease away on Saturday will

stop for the Romsey Show on Saturday, a bit of a cloudy day but

we will see some bright intervals through the course of the day as

well. Let us take a look at the summary for the coming days will

stop lots to keep aware of. Friday, a bright day through the middle part

but becoming wet into the evening. Rush hour in particular. Saturday, a

damp start but improving. Wet and windy for Sunday. Thank you. That is

it from us this evening. More at 8pm and 10:25pm. Tomorrow, we will be at

the South Adam Voges. I hope you will be on the water! Join us

tomorrow at 6:30pm. Good night.