28/10/2013 BBC Oxford News

Hello, welcome to Southcliffe. Tonight, a blot on the landscape,

or an important source of energy? Claims that Sailor farms are taking

over the countryside and green power is destroying the green belt.

Jailed for life for murdering his business partner Patricia Goodband.

Christopher Symonds will serve at least 27 years in prison. And later,

the world`famous brand that made it big, thanks to sheep's wool and

sharp eyes. Good evening. The number of applications for solar

farms has trebled in Oxfordshire over the past year. 29 separate

plans are currently being considered. So, should we accept

the environmental impact of green energy? Or protect green belt land

against being covered in solar panels? On Friday, the biggest

solar farm in our region yet was approved by Vale of White Horse

Council at East Hanney. Those on both sides claim to have the best

interests of the countryside at heart. The Campaign to Protect

Rural England says, if approved, the current crop of schemes would

blight a thousand hectares of Oxfordshire farmland. That's the

size of 1400 football fields. Yet supporters say the alternatives

would be far worse. Angela Walker has been investigating. Harnessing

the sun's rays, to generate electricity. What could be greener?

But campaigners say the drive for solar farms is threatening

Oxfordshire's countryside. The Campaign to Protect Rural England

say planning applications here have tripled in the past year and that

nearly a thousand hectares of greenbelt could be covered in solar

panels. We are very worried that sites such as this are being put

forward for what is effectively industrial development both here

and around the county. Here in this village of Besselsleigh, the

landowner wants to build a 49 acres solar farm here. He wants to also

create a wildlife habitat. It's his countryside. It belongs to the

community. The children go on their bicycles, ride horses. The

countryside use it `` people use it for activities. What of the

features of the green belt is that we have the views of the landscape,

which we will be denied. There is a push to have them built on

brownfield sites, but there is not the volume of area. Solar farms

need a huge area compared with a wind turbine. Westmill Solar Park

is the only solar co`operative. Where there it is coming from gas

from Russia, wind turbines, it has a cost. We have to face up to the

fact that we have to accept some cost. The government is encouraging

solar energy, but issued guidelines this month that councils must take

into account the local environment and visual impact. This solar farm

generates enough energy to power 1400 homes for a year. And with

energy prices increasing we're likely to see many more

applications for farms like this one.

It was called a meticulously planned killing. Christopher

Symonds from Aylesbury was sentenced to life in prison today

for the murder of 76`year`old Patricia Goodband. The judge

described how he laid a false trail and had manipulated friends to help

him conceal her death. Emma Vardy was at Reading Crown Court.

We have heard the extraordinary story during the trial of the way

that Christopher Symons `` Christopher Symonds planned and

carried out the murder of his business partner Patricia Goodband

last year, in an attempt to inherit her fortune of over ?1 million. The

judge described how Christopher Symonds killed her with brutal

blows to the head and hid her body in the grounds of her

Buckinghamshire home. Her body was found by police, but meanwhile, to

cover his tracks, Christopher Symonds sent text messages to

himself pretending to be from his victim. He persuaded to friends to

lie to the police on his behalf. Chilean Chiddingly, he had left

memos in his card entitled to the Twelve Days of Christmas, which

police said effectively were notes to himself on how to hide the crime.

`` in a chilling manner. The judge described Patricia Goodband as an

intelligent woman. She told Christopher Symonds, you knew when

you were going to kill her and you put your plan into action. His co`

defendants were sentenced to 10 months and six months in prison for

perverting the course of justice. Christopher Symonds was sentenced

to a minimum term of 27 years and the judge pointed out that at his

age, 63, it is likely he will not be released. A man in his mid`20s

has been left with life`changing injuries after his car hit a bridge

in Aylesbury yesterday. It happened near the Watermead Inn pub at

around five thirty on Sunday morning. The driver and another man

who was in the car are being treated at the John Radcliffe

Hospital in Oxford. The main road into Watermead was closed for four

hours while police accident investigators worked at the scene.

Our region may have escaped the worst of the overnight storms, but

it was still a difficult start for many drivers, with trees down, and

widespread disruption caused by branches and other debris across

some roads. Meanwhile rail commuters were confronted with

cancelled trains and delays to many services this morning. Again, trees

blocking lines was the main reason. First Great Western, Cross Country

and Chiltern services in particular were affected, with buses replacing

trains on some routes. But although journeys were delayed, travellers

at Oxford station this morning said they'd expected far worse. Actually,

I thought it would be worse than this, I thought trains would be

cancelled completely today. But they are not, they are just late. I

left at 7:30am and I need to get five minutes that way and I will

wait until 9:30am to do so. Two hours late. My boss is not

particularly happy. There is not much I can do. As far as storm

damage or delays go, if nobody had said there was going to be a storm,

I would not know there had been won. The storms were felt more severely

in the rest of the area. Tonight, the Inside Out programme asks

whether southern England can expect more extreme weather events in the

future. That's at 7:30pm. Swindon Town striker Nile Ranger has

appeared in court to deny a charge of rape, following an alleged

incident while he played for Newcastle United. The 22`year`old

has been granted bail ahead of a trial which is now expected to take

place in January. The charges relate to an alleged attack at a

hotel in Newcastle at the beginning of the year. Detectives are

appealing for witnesses after a man was attacked by a dog in Swindon.

It bit the 25`year`old on his hands and arms. Police say it happened on

Regent Street early in the evening of October 15th. A woman with a

pushchair, who is believed to be the dog's owner, walked away

without offering to help. David Cameron has been on home territory

today, meeting hundreds of young people in Oxford to announce new

and improved apprenticeships. The Prime Minister visited the BMW Mini

factory to set out government plans for a hundred thousand new trainee

posts. Some of the biggest businesses in the UK have signed up

to the changes, aimed at helping get more under`25s into work.

It is one of the biggest businesses in the region, employing thousands.

Young workers have come here to meet the Prime Minister and find

out his plans for apprenticeships. What did he have to say? We

persuaded companies to come forward with 100,000 extra training

opportunities. They could be trainee ships, work`experience,

apprenticeships. The isthmus is like BMW, Microsoft and Barclays ``

dozens of businesses have signed up to these apprenticeships.

Apprenticeships can be a big part of tackling unemployment and for

making sure that the recovery is for everyone. We have seen 1.5

million people start apprenticeships under this

Government. I want them to be good quality. We are earning and

learning. For me, it is work` experience, putting it into

practice. There is a negative outlook on the apprenticeships,

they think it is easy. It is competitive to get them. I have had

a keen interest in engineering and working on cars, I have restored a

classic Mini when I was 13, 14. It is hoped that those apprenticeships

will last for more than a year and trading will be based on employers'

standards. You and people go on to the production shift system so that

they can do it in challenging circumstances, as well as knowing

it in theory. Labour said the plans do not go far enough and claimed

the number of apprenticeships is falling at a time when youth

unemployment is at almost 1 million. The chief executive of Milton

Keynes hospital says he's confident it will retain its foundation

status ` despite a ?17 million predicted overspend. Joe Harrison

was speaking after the health care regulator Monitor, the NHS

Development Authority, and NHS England, all expressed concern that

the current provision might not be able to meet the needs of patients

in the future. The three national agencies are helping health

providers plan how to change and adapt. The action from the

weekend's football games for Oxford, Swindon and the MK Dons is coming

up a few minutes. That's all from me for the moment. Here's with

Sally Taylor. more people together to do that but

it worked pretty well. Please go and get some sleep.

Still to come in this evening's South Today: The world famous

Basingstoke brand that made it big thanks to sheep's wool and sharp

eyes. Police in West Sussex are still

hunting a man after a woman was raped early on Sunday morning. A

25`year`old woman was walking along Littlehampton road in Worthing just

after 1am when she began talking to a man. She was attacked in an

alleyway. Detectives are urging anyone with information to come

forward. A Poole engineering company is about

to complete a first, as it begins to move the largest machine its ever

manufactured to China. The machine will make wing components for new

aircraft in Shanghai. The contract worth over ?1.6 million to AIC will

need to be transported in ten lorries. The company says it's very

proud to have won the contract. We were at a trade show in

Birmingham, and the customer came and found us, they had been hunting

is down having seen reports of what the machine was capable of doing,

and ask just to come over to Shanghai agent need to discuss the

process, because it was solving a particular process with their

composite processing. It was nice to be invited over and eventually be

successful in winning this order. Campaigners against the biomass

plant in Southampton have said they are in limbo after the latest

deadline for a planning application past.

The company was due to submit a plan for the ?300 million woodfired power

station at the end of last week. The application has not been progressed.

One camp enter `` one campaigner has accused the company of dragging its

heels. The energy company has set will be an application in due

course. Every child in Reading could be

given ?10 by the time they reach their 10th birthday and a plan under

consideration by the town 's counsel. Authority would have to

spend an estimated ?16,000 to fund the proposal for the next school

year. The money would be put into a credit union account, the aim being

to teach union `` children about saving money.

Burberry, B, Rolls Royce and Lush. They're all British brands which are

enjoying global success and they've all got an important link to the

South. This week David Allard is exploring the stories behind the

brands starting with the fashion chain Burberry.

In recent years it's shaken off its chav tag to become one of Britain's

biggest exports, currently valued at ?7 billion. But it all started when

a young man opened a shop in Basingstoke in 1856.

This is the image of Burberry today, a British heritage brand, that's one

of the world's most successful fashion labels. But Burberry owes

its success to a discovery made by this man almost 150 years ago.

Thomas Burberry trained as a country draper. In 1856, at the age of 21,

he opened this clothing emporium in Winchester Street, Basingstoke. He

sold functional garments for farmers and sportsmen. This is the sort of

thing the ordinary working man would have won out in the fields. It is an

agricultural smock. This would have gone on over his clothing. Then came

the big great three. They noticed the oil of sheep 's wool would make

socks waterproof. He found a way of waterproofing the yarn and then

weaving that yarn into a cotton cloth, which he waterproof again.

That was the foundation of his fortune.

Sample books were sent by post to wealthy gentlemen who started to

place orders for their coats, made at Burberry's factory in

Basingstoke. Burberry sent his son to London to take orders for

comments made of the new material. And here we have got one of the

early coats. It was made in about 1910. We are moving towards the

outbreak of the great War. The War office commissioned him to make a

coat the officers could wear and they came back with a trench coat.

Half a million of those were made here in Basingstoke. Absolutely. The

great shame is we don't have one in the collection. It would be really

nice to find one and we could use, especially for the anniversary of

the First World War next year. This was also the age of adventure.

Explorers like Scott, Amundsen and Shackleton were in a race to reach

the South Pole. But there was no competition over who made their

expedition gear. Scott and Shackleton both commissioned

Burberry to make them garments to wear to the topic `` Antarctic.

Shackleton posed for Thomas Burberry wearing his kit.

In 1919, aviators Alcock and Brown wrote to Burberry after making the

first transatlantic flight. Their landing in Ireland was a bit bumpy

but they reported they'd been warm, dry and comfortable. Back in

Basingstoke there'd been plenty of drama too. They show the fire in the

shop in 19 five and the place was devastated. `` 1905.

The shop was rebuilt and the Burberry family empire continued to

thrive. Today that original shop is a cafe, a regular haunt for

historian Hannah Williams who's passionate about Basingstoke's

Burberry connection. This is the truth. I am glad to see them so

happy. They were always proud to be known as the Burberry girls. One of

them turned up to the unveiling. We put up 22 plaques around

Basingstoke, you have to cherish every little bit.

One of the factory workers was Hilda Applin. In 1922, at the age of 14,

she joined Burberry as an apprentice. You did the garment from

start to finish. It was quite expensive, if you want one you were

somebody. What Taliban was Thomas Burberry? Initially for the time he

was a kind man `` what kind of man. Modern lighting said the girls

working at these wood benches with her sewing machines would have had

as good a right as you could have got for the time.

Thomas Burberry died in 1926. His simple grave in Basingstoke belies

his impressive legacy. From the age of empire through the decades that

followed Burberry has evolved, it's weathered knocks to its image to

become one of the quintessential British brands. And it all started

in Basingstoke. So much I didn't know. Wonderful.

The story of Burberry, which played a big role in the First World War.

So, can you help with the appeal we heard in that film? Do you or your

family have an original World War I trench coat somewhere? In whatever

condition? Would you be willing to loan it to Hampshire Museums? If so,

we'd love to hear from you. First World War trench coat, you

heard all about it in the film. On to sport. An incredible weekend,

not just the storm. Rickie Lambert is doing the business. Hampton.

I was coming back from Reading on Saturday night and listening to the

commentary, and the first 45 minute Southampton put together was the

best 45 minutes of football he has seen from the team since they went

to the St Mary's Stadium, over a decade. It was that good. Saints

destroyed Fulham in a superb first half display at St Mary's on

Saturday. It lifted them to third in the league, for about 24 hours. This

is a team absolutely top of their game right now. A nicely worked

corner set up Rickie Lambert, recalled to the side for the first

goal. The only thing Jay Rodriguez didn't get right here was the

finish. But Rodriguez made amends when Lambert set him up for the

second. Bravery from Rodriguez. Only the scoreline wasn't emphatic. I

think everything from the word go, good momentum, a couple of

relatively early goals. We instilled that into our performance. Office

Lee everybody knows how we play, we showed everybody how good we can be

`` obviously. If slow and steady wins the race

Oxford could be onto something. They finally reached the number one

ranking at Wimbledon. James constable has 99 goals at his time

in Oxford and he and Deane Smalley have five for the season after

Deane Smalley won and dispatched a late penalty. We had had to work

hard to get the points today. It is a tight league. We enjoyed the

feeling of victory and going top. And the end of a bad week for

Swindon whose promotion form seems to be evaporating. Following a home

defeat with this loss at Boundary Park. Oldham in front and then a

gifted an equaliser. A bizarre own goal. The three. Stayed with the

home side. They won it with a header from a former Oxford player

on loan. This one of two goals Ryan Lowe's scored. Daniel Powell and

Jane some banter and's goals nodded the

hailed their spirit. That is the equaliser nine minutes from time.

Brighton play Watford in the championship this evening. There was

no FA Cup fairy tale for Hartley Wintney football club they were

knocked out for the fourth qualifying round by Daventry on

Saturday. But, as we take a look at the first round draw, it's worth

taking note of Poole Town. The Southern League Premier Division

club held Staines Town to a goalless draw, setting up tomorrow's replay

at the Tatnam ground. The winners will go to Brentford in the first

round proper. Salisbury also guaranteed their place in the first

round. London Irish were narrowly beaten

13`11 by Newcastle in rugby's premiership yesterday, tomorrow the

club are set to make a major announcement. Australian

international James O'Connor is set to be unveiled as their new signing.

O'Connor is one of the top talents in the game but has a poor

disciplinary record, and was recently axed from the Australian

set up. Irish will hold a press conference at ten o'clock tomorrow.

The biggest Great South Run so far took place in windy conditions in

Portsmouth yesterday. The African runners weren't put off, Kenyan

Emmanuel Bett was the first elite male across the line in just over 48

minutes, fellow countrywoman Florence Kiplagat won the women's

race. 25,000 others braced the conditions, many of them raising

funds for good causes. It was hard, the last two miles really hard. Hard

going. I was getting blown backwards. Just had to keep going.

Decent weather, dropping the wind a great supporters as ever. The

greatest ten mile race in the world. That is why I come back and do it

every year. Basingstoke Bison have moved up to

second in the Premier league ice hockey table It follows their

victory over Guildford Flames last night.

Joe Miller scored twice as the Bison leapfrogged their opponents in the

table and completed a weekend win double after Saturday's 7`5 win at

Slough. Meanwhile Worthing Thunder claimed their third win of the

season on the basketball court. They overturned a 12 point deficit to

beat Leeds 72`71, Rory Spencer top scored with 23 points.

Good start. I can hear you now, my ears have

just popped, I can hear you. Onto the weather. My goodness, that

was really bad. I got quite scared. This money about 5:30am. I could

feel it. `` this morning. A bit of a sting in the tail. Let's

take a look at these pictures. The rain moved in ahead

take a look at these pictures. The rain moved of the Atlantic from five

o'clock. You can see a rise in temperatures. At 5am the sting jet

occurred where fast`moving car from high up in the atmosphere propelled

itself to the ground causing some strong wind gusts. The storm

developed over the North Sea today, into the Mark 150 miles an hour ``

in Denmark. Some interesting pictures. Naomi Ridgeon took this

picture last night of the large waves at Mudeford Quay. This picture

was sent in from the Needles Park by Jeremy Cangialosi after a wind gust

of 99 miles per hour was recorded earlier this morning.

No school today, good job it was half term. This picture of a blocked

Old Odiham Road in Alton was taken by Jos Sainsbury.

Quite a pitcher for the next few days, rain showers at times. Cruel

nights, Tim Butcher take plunge. The good news is there will be some

sunshine. `` temperatures take a plunge. By dawn most places will

stay dry. 12 showers could be on the heavy side. `` temperatures can

stop. A cold start tomorrow. A breezy day tomorrow, but not as

Wendy is the last 24 hours `` windy. Predominantly dry without sunshine.

A high just love the seasonal average. Clear skies, a quiet night

tomorrow, long wind. Temperatures will fall away to single figures.

There may be a touch of Frost in the country. We are expecting Wednesday

to start off on a dry note. This low`pressure will push in a weather

front around the bombing to early afternoon. Marching across much of

the region. With it there will be a squeeze on the isobars, increasing

westerly wind. Rain later on Wednesday, should clear by the early

hours. One to isolated showers. Thursday, some showers, Friday

mainly dry. The breeze will increase throughout the week. If you want to

know more about the storm through the early hours of the morning there

are some videos on the BBC website. Just to let you know Inside Out will

be investigating the extreme weather conditions.

That is it from us, ceremony lovely pictures. Thank you for all of them.

We will show some now. We will leave you with the impact of storm Saint

Jude. Good night. This is Malcolm, who owns Iceland.

He's the one that's going to present us with

the ten grand. When we win it. You've just got to make it

as bearable Here we are in the PR nerve centre

of Iceland at the end of 96 hours

of total hell. But we haven't tested

for dog or cat either. Is this the warmest supermarket

around? Iceland Foods -

Life in the Freezer Cabinet.