02/01/2017 South Today - Oxford

Good evening, I'm Jo Kent. for the news where you are.

Three major housing developments in the south have been

given financial support from the Government.

Welborne, near Fareham in Hampshire, and a new site near Eynsham

in West Oxfordshire will be designated as Garden Villages.

Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire has been named as a Garden Town.

As David Allard reports, the new status could push forward

projects which have been held up in planning rows.

Welborne - it's been talked about for years as a way to solve

But after all the protests, a public inquiry and a compulsory

purchase row, not one of the planned 6,000 homes has been built yet.

Today, though, the project got a shot in the arm.

Welborne would be a completely new community, built on these

fields, with affordable homes, schools, shops

In fact, pretty much what the Government says

So now Welborne gets a share of ?6 million and other support

What we are looking for is for the Government to start

pushing out of the way some of the obstacles to getting this

We accept this is needed, the Government accept it is needed,

we need homes, we need jobs, we need schools, we need

They feel other sites are more suitable for housing.

About 1,000 people are wanting homes in our area and it is our duty to do

that, but a lot of it could be absorbed in either brownfield sites

or sites that have come through and hopefully will go

It's likely Fareham can now bid for money to upgrade the A32 and M27

Improved transport links will be crucial to another planned garden

One of the important aspects of Government backing for this

scheme is it gives us access to the Housing Infrastructure Fund

and that could go some way to helping alleviate some

of the existing problems in nearby areas such as the A40.

Meanwhile, thousands of new homes will see the extension of Aylesbury

With talk of "new planning freedoms" and "accelerated development",

it's clear the Government wants these garden communities built

Later this month, they'll set out more radical plans to boost housing

So it may not be long before landscapes like this change forever.

Two men have been charged after a spate of knife-point robberies

Four incidents happened on Friday and Saturday in the Paulsgrove area.

46-year-old Wayne Bailey of Hillsley Road has been charged

with four counts of robbery and four counts of possession

And 41-year-old Martin Lee O'Sullivan of Chaucer Avenue has

been charged with two counts of robbery.

It's hoped around a third of artefacts which were being stored

at a disused museum in Swindon could be saved, after a fire

Fire fighters are still investigating the cause of the blaze

at the old Coate Agricultural Museum, which started on Saturday.

The museum had been closed for decades, but a number

The Cowes floating bridge on the Isle of Wight

will make its last crossing today after 40 years of service.

It's being replaced with a new bridge that

A temporary launch will operate for foot passengers from tomorrow

until the new floating bridge is ready at the end of March.

Vehicles will be diverted via Newport.

Many people have worked over the festive period, including those

But some people give up their time then and throughout the year,

doing unpaid voluntary work to help others.

Among them, some dog owners whose family pets have been specially

trained to help in the search for missing people -

often elderly people with dementia or people who are depressed.

It's a scene like many in homes across the south

this holiday season, families getting together,

But Darren Yates and springer spaniel Millie could be

Darren and his three-year-old pet dog are volunteers with lowland

rescue group Searchdog Sussex, which is drafted in by police forces

across the south to help search for missing people.

They are on call 365 days a year, which meant abandoning the festive

fun last New Year's Day, when the telephone rang.

That call came through at ten o'clock on the morning

That call came through at ten o'clock in the morning

and that was completely out of the blue, so that shook up

We were planning on playing a board game, watching a bit of telly,

the typical family stuff that you usually do on New Year's Day,

but it was a case of dropping everything, grabbing the kit

from under the stairs, loading the car and driving 50 miles

to help the police search for a missing gentleman

I get quite sad because he's missing out on the fun with us but I kind

of feel proud of him because he is, like, saving people's lives.

However, part of the compensation for ten-year-old Ellen

is helping Dad train Millie, playing hide and seek

For Millie, it is just a game, she loves the search

For her, it is about the search and finding that missing person,

going to tell me what she's found and taking me back into

But even so, Millie, Darren and the whole family

are hoping for a peaceful New Year this time around.

In football, Southampton lost a third Premier League

Everton put three past them in the last 20 minutes.

Manager Claude Puel said his players were tired after three

In the Championship, Brighton have gone to the top

of the table after a 2-1 win at Fulham, while Reading came

from behind to snatch a 3-2 victory against Bristol City,

with Yann Kermogant scoring two late goals.

In League One, there were goalless draws for the MK Dons

at Chesterfield and also for Swindon hosting Southend.

And in League Two, there was a 1-0 home win for Portsmouth

against League Two promotion rivals Luton.

We are in for a cold night, quite markedly so in some areas.

We have a Met Office warning out for icy stretches on untreated

surfaces and pavements, this is courtesy of a frost that

will develop quite widely during the course of tonight.

Unsurprisingly, temperatures pretty widely at freezing or below.

Some parts of Oxfordshire could be as low as minus 4 to minus six.

Do take it easy on the roads at first light tomorrow.

There could be the odd patch of freezing fog around.

Most places starting frosty, yes, but with some sunshine around.

The general trend into the afternoon is to introduce more

Rather patchily, until we get late into the evening,

when it will thicken up to the north.

They could even be the odd spot of light rain feeding into the north

Temperatures tomorrow eventually up in a range of about 4-7 C.

We'll find those temperatures drop away get the tail end of Wednesday

We'll find those temperatures drop away at the tail end of Wednesday

overnight into Thursday, but then start to pick up a milder

theme towards the tail end of the week with some rain

Good evening. It has been turning colder and clearer and our weather

watchers have been capturing the sunshine. Here is the scene in

Derbyshire and where we have had the clear skies by day, we are in for a

cold night tonight. Temperatures already plummeting, particularly

towards the south with some icy stretches across parts of central

and southern England, and into Wales. For the north-west, not as

cold, as we have the cloud building. But to the south we could see

temperatures down to minus four or five first thing Tuesday morning. If