12/01/2017 South Today - Oxford

In tonight's programme: The body of a solider killed in Iraq is flown

in West Oxfordshire to pay their respects

to Lance Corporal Scott Hetherington.

Also: what next for Reading's Hexagon -

as plans to replace it with a bigger theatre suffer a setback.

Two ladies recreating a rally and sure some fond memories.

Dozens of people have turned out in West Oxfordshire -

to pay their respects to a soldier who died in Iraq.

Lance Corporal Scott Hetherington was killed in a shooting

His body was brought back to the UK through RAF Brize Norton.

Members of the 2nd Battalion, the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment

carry one of their own back onto British soil.

Lance Corporal Scott Hetherington died ten days ago just one month

The 22-year-old was one of 500 British soldiers helping train Iraqi

and Kurdish security forces to fight so-called Islamic State.

He died in what's believed to have been an accidental shooting.

His family including his girlfriend and baby daughter had

travelled from Manchester to receive him home.

We've taken this situation, it's a horrible

situation repatriation, but we're here to support this family.

They are a very strong family and Scott was very

dearly loved, that's come across quite clearly today.

Lance Corporal Scott Hetherington is the 98th

from Royal Wootton Bassett back in 2011.

Dozens of strangers from across the country

have come hear today to recognise the sacrifice of the man known

as Snowball to his regiment made in serving his country.

We have people that would have come from further north but the

weather is bad and people who would have come from London

We have people who have come from the Manchester area.

I have only comes 50 miles, so it is a small trip.

But we will always endeavour to be here.

Lance Corporal Hetherington's coffin has been taken

to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

An inquest and his funeral will take place in the coming weeks.

Police are trying to trace a driver who knocked

down and killed a man - and then drove off.

It happened on the A361 Northbound, just outside Lechlade

Police say the driver who failed to stop was in a Ford Transit van.

An inquest has been opened into the death of a woman

who was killed after four crashes on the A40 in Witney.

21 cars were involved in crashes, three days after Christmas.

Deborah Blood, from Gloucester, died and several other

Her inquest has now been adjourned until May.

A man being questioned on suspicion of rape has been

The woman says she was held at knife-point and raped

near the Oxford Brookes University campus in Botley on Tuesday evening.

Police want to hear from anyone who saw vehicles being driven

erratically along the northbound carriageway of the A34,

particularly near Wytham or the Botley interchange.

A man from Swindon has been jailed. He admitted multiple charges of rape

and indecent assault involving five children. The offences took place

over five decades. He was sentenced at Swindon quartz.

A man from Banbury found with knives near Buckingham Palace has been

John Bolton was caught with three lock knives

at Hyde Park Corner in June last year.

It happened two days before the official celebration

The 48-year-old has been given an indefinite Mental Health order

at a sentencing hearing in court in London.

Oxford's only gymnastics club are set to lose their new home

after a planning decision was overturned.

which has a four-year waiting list - was originally given the green light

to move into a warehouse in Blackbird Leys three months ago.

The club has also spent around 20 thousand pounds converting the unit.

But last night councillors reversed their decision -

because the warehouse is a "key employment site".

From a personal point of view it is stressful,

not knowing where we are, having to pay the rent and work out

where we may be in three months' time and obviously we have a lot of

worried parents and gymnasts in tears and upset,

not knowing if they can keep doing the sport

Police say the Home Secretary's speech at a Conservative Party

conference has been logged as a "hate incident".

after an Oxford University professor reported Amber Rudd -

claiming she used "hate speech" at the conference last Autumn.

The Home Secretary suggested tightening rules that allow UK firms

The Home Office insists it was NOT a hate crime and says Amber Rudd has

made "countering hate one of her key priorities."

Plans for Reading's Hexagon theatre to be replaced

by a new 2,000 seat venue, have had a setback.

The borough council has found that while there is demand

for a new facility - it would need subsidising.

And that amount money needed isn't available.

This was the Hexagon's best ever pantomime season.

But it is an old building and not as versatile as it could be.

As you can see, it has seats behind it does not have any wings

space so an actor waiting to come in, you have to draw back his

-- these curtains or wait behind the doors or squeeze in there.

That works really well for things like stand-up

comedy and music but it doesn't work so well for street theatre and

People won't come here unfortunately and as such people do not

see things like the RSC, the Donmar and these great

That's why Reading council wants a new 2,000 seater theatre to house

big shows but it hopes appear to be just that.

It's own consultation has found that such a facility cannot be

built or run without a large council subsidy and that right now is not

Reading - like a lot of councils has suffered a lot of cuts.

We have lost about ?60 million of funding which we got from the

These big scale capital projects have to be prioritised but

in the future I would be hopeful that we can deliver a replacement

The market does suggest it would be a good option.

So - disappointing news for many but with such varied productions

being staged in other venues, some

question whether focusing on a large theatre was the right

Does Reading need a 2000 seat theatre right now or in

I do not know that it necessarily would so I wouldn't

have new project by South Street, Reading Rep have new writing

I am sure all the other arts organisations around Reading

have a lot more to give which is equally exciting.

So the Hexagon will remain Reading's largest venue but arts

communities here are determined to continue developing the town's

An art sculptor, who helped organise exhibitions

and festivals across Oxfordshire, has died.

Lendon Scantlebury in 2015 - when he helped transform a village

near Wantage into an outdoor art gallery.

The exhibition was part of Oxfordshire Artweeks.

His family says he died peacefully at the John Radcliffe

The former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has been added

to the latest edition of the Oxford Dictionary

The book recognises people who have helped shape Britain's history.

Before she became prime minister, Baroness Thatcher was a student

The entry also includes her time as a junior minister and her

leadership of the Conservative Party.

An eight year old girl and her classmates have been given

an unexpected science lesson by a leading Professor

Connie Gordon wrote a letter to Dame Carol Robinson

after seeing her picture in Oxford City Centre.

Connie wants to follow in her footsteps and become a scientist.

Dear Professor Robinson - I saw your picture in the Square.

And when I grow up I want to be a professor of chemistry like you.

I would love it if you could come into my class and talk to us.

I have a chemistry set in my house that I could show you.

A letter sent - not expecting a response.

And Connie got to meet and learn from her heroine.

I've realised how chemistry is useful to

the world and how it can help people because

I knew it was making medicines and things like that but I did not

know you could make drugs that could save people and travel

the world to give it to people who

Dame Carol is the first female Professor

She met, spoke to, and gave examples of experiments to Connie

But what advice did she give to Connie - and others -

who also want to become an eminent scientist like herself.

I had no plans ambitions at that age but think you

do what you're passionate about,

keep going and maybe one day you

For now, Connie says she'll study hard,

in the hope that one day she too will get to wear a white overall

And just before we go - it's snowing in some part

of our region and we're being warned to expect freezing temperatures

This sleet seen here was filmed in Nuneham Courteney in south

The Met Office says the cold weather will continue into tomorrow -

with the possibility of ice in the morning which may cause

I'll have the headlines at eight and a full bulletin at 10.30.

Now more of today's stories - including the snow -

Later, warnings of icy conditions tonight.

Here's Alexis braving the wintry conditions.

Snow has been falling in many places, but wanted clears, big issue

tonight will be ice. I will have the details for you shortly.

Many of you may have seen snow today.

In some parts of the South, it's been a light flurry

And, as temperatures drop, people are being warned to stay safe

in the icy conditions, Let's join Ben Moore in Reading,

Yes, I'm sorry to disappoint you, we had quite a lot of snow and sleet at

about five o'clock until six o'clock, it cause a lot of problems,

but now we barely got a rather cold drizzle. It seems like a lot of

people left to work early expecting the snow, and it has calmed down.

But other travel, the airport around Southampton and Gatwick have

survived their dusting of snow, any problems they have were because by

those flights that were cancelled at Heathrow. The message from them is

do check before you travel. As Alexis just mentioned briefly, the

big problem tonight is going to be ice. The local authorities across

the South are saying this now that has fallen has melted, a lot of

water on the roads, with the freezing temperatures and night,

very icy conditions expected tomorrow. When the road will be

busiest at rush hour. The message is, do check everything, take the

roads, check the airports before you travel tomorrow. Whilst we may have

survived the worst night, it could cause trouble tomorrow. Alexis is

coming up shortly. Now, yesterday, we had an exclusive

insight into the work of the Children's Sleep Service in

Southampton. They treat highly unusual sleep

disorders, conditions In a moment we'll hear just why

childhood sleep is so important, first Chrissy Sturt reports

on another difficult case. He's very cheeky, since he was

a baby he was walking early, talking Ever since he was born,

Lucas has woken He screams and screams and screams

and screams and we don't know what's It's like he's almost having

a fit, you can't even You've literally just

got to let him ride He struggles the next day,

his behaviour is really changing. He's not getting

the sleep he should. He should be getting at least

12, 13 hours a night. You never get a chance to actually

catch up on your sleep, you need to sleep for months,

I think, to be able to feel normal Lucas's broken nights seem severe,

but this family don't meet the strict criteria for a referral

to the Southampton sleep clinic. It would absolutely not be

right for every child with a sleep problem

We should only be seeing probably 5% or

less of children with sleep problems.

That leaves a care gap of families like this.

Too complex for health visitors, but not severe

enough Cathy's team at Southampton's sleep disorder service.

enough for Cathy's team at Southampton's

The answer is to train more community nurses

who can visit families in their own homes.

Rachel has now received such specialist help.

The vast majority of children can be taught how to

settle themselves to sleep that night and how to settle themselves

back to sleep when they wake up at night, which they will do naturally.

Cathy's aim is to train many more community nurses to meet these

You've got to be living it to realise how stressful and how bad it

Not only is the child not sleeping, the parents aren't

And we all know what that feels like, maybe on one tonight,

And we all know what that feels like, maybe on one night,

but what we don't know what that feels like it if it is happening for

Even though he's tired, and he tells me he's tired,

It can break marriages, it can ruin families, it

Earlier, I spoke to Dr Cathy Hill, who runs the clinic,

and she began by explaining why sleep is so important for children.

So, I think the starting point is, children spent half their lives

So, I think the starting point is, children spend half their lives

If there wasn't something fundamentally important about that,

So sleep cuts through everything in terms

terms of your mental health, so we tend to be only interested

in sleep when we're not getting it, and we

forget that when we are asleep, there are lots of amazing things

happening in the brain and in the body.

So, example, healing, learning, things that you've learned

in the day are actually stored away in your brain,

So, when this goes wrong, it has a big impact later in life,

Well, that's a really interesting question, potentially yes.

That information and research has just

started to evolve, but there's some very interesting data that suggests

So what is it, then, that triggers the sleep

So there is a whole array of sleep disorders in

The one that we most commonly see is what we call

behavioural insomnia, and the main principle

to understand that is that

all children, in fact all of us, naturally wake up multiple times

We don't remember it, they're often brief awakenings.

And what children have to learn to do is settle back to sleep after

And that's why it often goes wrong in young

And it's interesting what you have said in the films we've

seen, that children can learn and do learned how to sleep

seen, that children can learn and do learn how to sleep

So, is it our fault as adults that we are not teaching them

There's often reasons we can find as to why

Sometimes perhaps a child has got a physical illness,

and that makes it much, much harder for parents

And one of the top tricks for young children, and the

parents of young children, is to teach the child to self

soothe, to settle themselves to sleep at the

And how do you do that, what are the tricks?

Because there's something called sleep hygiene you talk about?

One of the things we say to parents is

imagine when your child naturally wakes at perhaps 11 o'clock at

Does their bedroom look exactly the same as when they

settled to sleep at the beginning of the night?

And almost always when we see children in clinic, there is

Whether it is the light show on the ceiling

when a child is falling asleep, the music that is playing,

the parent that is sitting alongside them,

And imagine yourself, if you woke up and your

room suddenly look different, you would struggle

You are one of only a few centres in the UK, you've got a huge waiting

You can't take all the referrals that come to you.

How frustrating is it that you can't help

practically every day, saying, when am I going to be seen?

And that's very frustrating, but obviously we

have the resources we have, we'd love to have more resources, and we

So it all comes down to money, does it?

And, if you'd like to find out more or support

Dr Hill and the team at the Southampton Child Health

Health Sleep Clinic, visit their website on

On to sport, with football. Saints won a 1-0. How we feeling? They will

feel all right, good results. There's just something in the back

of a mind which is they have some good chances maybe when 2-0,

Liverpool didn't do too much. They will be stronger at Anfield. That's

not complain, it's needed that is good. -- lets knock on playing, it

is good. 30 years ago Liverpool came out

on top when these two sides contested the semifinal

of the same competition. Last night it was Southampton

who dominated for long The only concern that they didn't

score more in this first leg. A minute after missing

out on a chance, Nathan Claude Puel's men were

playing with a flourish, something Saints fans haven't

always seen this season. Redmond nearly doubled

the lead before the break. A two-goal advantage

to take to Anfield Cedric made the wrong

choice here with a great And late on, Redmond

came agonisingly close Should they have got

more than one goal? Hopefully we can do the same

in a fortnight's time. Definitely should have had more

than one, but they should have had more than one as well,

more than We stopped the rot, we had a draw

at the weekend, we've got Fantastic game against a great

team, great players. I think it is the first

time since the beginning of the season, Liverpool, with

the one chance here in the game. Jurgen Klopp bemoaned

his side's lack of For Saints, Wembley is one step

away, but that is still a big We will be at Anfield

in a couple of weeks. Reading hope to secure a 9th home

win in 13 matches in the EFL Jaap Stam's men will no doubt be

hoping for a performance to erase memories of that 4-0 defeat

at Manchester United in the FA Cup. It will be a different game tonight,

and more important, that 4-0 defeat you mentioned at Old Trafford made

the headlines, but priority number one is promotion to the Premier

League. Reading so good in the championship, here at home where

they are looking for a six consecutive win. They will have to

do it without their captain Paul McShane, Cullen Harriet also out.

Reading third, QPR down in 17th, a win and they will move up to three

pints of second-place Newcastle. The weather isn't a worry, there has

been talk of snow. Cold and wet, but snow won't be an issue denied. The

goals at 10:25pm. Alex Thomson says his last chance

of winning the Vendee Globe races rests with a ridge of high pressure

close to the finish line off He still lies around 250 miles

behind the leader in the single There's less than a week

remaining for the front pair, Thomson and Armel le Cleach

as they sail north The Frenchman is maintaining his

lead despite the Gosport sailor gaining more speed

in the last few hours. Back in 1970 Bronwyn Burrell

was the youngest driver in the World Cup Rally from London

to Mexico, now half a century later she's been reunited with her car

and is competing again. At the age of 72 and living

in Hampshire village of Milford on Sea, she's planning to re-stage

the first leg of John Maguire caught up

with her in training. Wembley 1970, had a car rally marks

the handover of the World Cup hosting duties from England to

Mexico. Sir Alf Ramsey waves them off, and in car 20, three women

about to start a 16,000 mile race. We were away for six weeks, it

seemed like a lifetime. It wasn't a lifetime, it was a flash. Gosh,

there is those in our lovely green dresses and red jackets. On the

ramp, we are starting our huge adventure. We were young. I think I

was the youngest. The team was well-prepared, mechanically and

personally. We decided the best bet was to have paper knickers, so we

could discard them, not worry about washing. Such ingenuity might return

as almost 50 years on, she has recently bought the original car,

nicknamed Puff the Magic wagon, and they are ready to race again. What a

shame, she is no longer with us. She will love it. We are going to miss

her, we have to change a tyre. Should we take her out? See if we

can still do it. She hasn't driven competitively since the early 70s,

but you would never guess. In April they will drive to Portugal once

again, this time in a classic car rally. It's a bit more control

because of health and safety. You can't do what we used to do, please

do have one night sleep, not any more. The sport may have changed,

but the car and especially the driver looked as fast and furious as

ever. Come on, go, girls. Fearless! What a

ride. OK, onto the weather, you want to know what's going on. Still the

risk of snow and ice is the big issue.

Angela Walters took this photo of the snow settling

in the Chilterns this evening near Princes Risborough.

David Ryves sent us this picture via twitter of the snow

And Dot Williams took this picture of her snow man in Thatcham.

A few centimetres over the Chilterns and higher ground in Oxfordshire.

Overnight, once the rain, sleet and snow clears, there is a big risk of

ice on untreated surfaces. So the chance of one to snow showers

drifting in from the north-west, but mainly dry overnight tonight, and

through clearing skies, temperatures will fall away into minus figures,

even in towns and cities. In the countryside we could see a low of

minus four Celsius. A cold, frosty and very icy start to the day

tomorrow, the ground is damp. A big risk of ice do stay tuned to your

local radio station for the latest on the travel. Through the morning

tomorrow, we may see the odd snow shower, particularly the eastern

part, Berkshire, Surrey and also west Sussex, but otherwise a dry day

with plenty of sunshine, with feeling cold, bitterly cold north

westerly breeze digging in. Temperatures up to around four to

seven Celsius but feeling more like two or three, given the wind-chill.

Tomorrow evening and overnight, the chance we could have the odd snow

shower. It should stay dry and once again, with a light wind, a

widespread frosty start Saturday. Cold temperatures as well, falling

to around -1 Celsius in urban areas. Cold, frosty potentially icy start

to the weekend, but Saturday should be mainly dry, although there will

still be that keen northerly wind driving in that Arctic air, taken

the edge of temperatures. Feeling chilly with the weather front moving

south on Saturday, which may produce a wintry weather. Some rain and

sleet moving its way south across the country. As we look ahead to the

rest of the week, and into the weekend, lovely sunny conditions

both tomorrow and Saturday, although that cold, strong northerly winds.

That starts to ease over the weekend and we draw in some slightly milder

air from the Atlantic. Sunday, the chance of rain, also some rain on

Monday, but the