16/01/2017 South Today - Oxford

Hello and welcome to South Today. been saved if the police

In tonight's programme: The downgrade of maternity services

at Banbury's Horton Hospital is extended as the NHS

in Oxfordshire discusses ?200 million of savings.

Can a new approach to recruitment engender gender equality

Reading's methane-fuelled buses make their debut.

It's been announced the downgrade of maternity services

at the Horton Hospital in Banbury is being extended again

The move, made on safety grounds, sparked anger

Oxford University Hospitals Trust said it was down to a shortage

of doctors, and only five out of nine doctors are likely to be

The downgrade means that expectant mothers needing doctors at present

have to travel to the John Radcliffe Hospital.

Well, the extended travel time has led to the MP for Banbury,

Victoria Prentis, urging patients to log their journey

Chrissy Ansell from Banbury makes the 60-mile round trip

to the John Radcliffe each week in order to visit her family.

Talk me through the way that we are going to go

I think it's best if we go on the A4260 because the motorway

is 12 miles longer but also it gets chock-a-block with

You were saying that the Horton was somewhere you had to use

It was just before Christmas and I had the unfortunate accident

where I fell out of the loft, and the loft ladder went in my leg,

which opened pretty badly and was bleeding profusely.

So we're just coming through Adderbury now.

She's had quite a lot to say on this matter and she wants people

I hope to be able to feed this into the consultation is real evidence

about what time it takes people to get the better appointment rather

than taking things of Google maps. The journey times are an important

factor. Although the population in Banbury has grown, medical sciences

is not fast, people are getting older, but that distance has not

changed. We are just leaving Dennington now. We had been driving

for just over 20 minutes. We are going to the John Radcliffe. How

long do you expect the rest of this journey to take? I would say another

25 minutes minimum. If I was sat here is one of the decision-makers,

what would you say to me? I would say to think very carefully about

what you are doing. This is people's lives here. There are other places

you could cost cost of it as costs you're talking about. We are just

coming into the John Radcliffe now. It is almost exactly 50 minutes

since we lived your home in Banbury. It triggers the same time back and

we could have gone to the Horton ten times. Now we have struggled to find

a parking space. That is right and it can take as much as an hour, if

not bit more. Well, tonight, details have been

released suggesting more services are to be moved

from the Horton Hospital to the JR. ?200 million of savings has to be

found by the county's clinical The proposals will now

be put to the public. Katharine DaCosta has been

looking at the details. A short time ago, I asked

her what more we know. Well, it seems that the idea's

to centralise more services to the John Radcliffe Hospital in

Oxford. Now, that's not going to be good

news for people campaigning to keep Health bosses stress

they are investing in the Horton. It'll become a centre

for diagnostics and outpatient appointments so that patients can be

seen and treated closer to home. Under the plans, though,

the most seriously ill patients Maternity services may be

permanently downgraded due Acute stroke services could also

transfer to Oxford to make it a large specialist unit

for the whole region. Meanwhile, the overall strategy

is to keep people out of hospital Another 48 are

earmarked for closure. We've only seen these proposals,

we've only had them for a matter of hours, but what reaction

has there been? Well, some of the concerns

are that this consultation's in two parts and that,

actually, many of the Some feel the sheer size of it

will put many people off engaging Healthwatch Oxfordshire feel

many of the changes have already started to be put in place before

the public's even been consulted. They've already closed down beds

in the JR and they've closed They've done that before

the consultation starts, I mean, if there is a big swell

of public opinion against it, is it actually going

to make any difference? The second phase is expected

to start in May - looking at A, children's services and community

hospitals - with the fear that, to make more savings,

more community hospitals may We'll have more reaction and more

detail on tomorrow's South Today. Katharine DaCosta,

thank you very much. Investigations are continuing

after a man in his 60s died when a light aircraft

crashed in Oxfordshire. Emergency services were called

to the Aston Rowant Nature Reserve The aeroplane had taken off

from Turweston Aerodrome There was thick fog

in the area at the time. Police in Milton Keynes are trying

to trace a mother who's been missing since she dropped her daughter off

at school on Friday morning. Sherena Begum, who's 29, was last

seen in Helford Place in Fishermead. She'd walked to school

with her daughter in heavy snow. She was wearing a blue dress

and a brown robe-like jumper. 14 council-run day care centres

for elderly and disabled people have been recommended

for closure in Oxfordshire. The county council is proposing

the closures in order Under the plans, funding

for privately-run services would also be cut by hundreds

of thousands of pounds but more If anyone were to say

that it is most definitely a long-term solution,

we are not perhaps being realistic, but what we are doing is,

as of today, making sure that the service we have

in Oxfordshire is giving the Oxfordshire people

what they need. The UK Atomic Energy Authority

based in Culham is hoping to increase gender equality

with a new recruitment process. Those hiring people wouldn't see

names at the shortlist stage to try and stop unconscious

bias against women. It's part of measures being tried

at Culham to increase the number At Culham's nuclear fusion

experiment jet, they can heat plasma to 100 million degrees -

hotter than the sun. But when it comes to getting

women into science, Currently, 10% of engineers and 15%

of scientists here are women. The UK Atomic Energy Authority says

it's an imbalance they're What needs to change is the culture

- and for it to become normal, for it to become a nonevent that

you are a woman in You're just a scientist,

you're an engineer, you're not a female scientist

or a female engineer. Alex Davis is a process

engineer at Culham. She thinks women are being put

off jobs in science You give boys Lego and you give

girls dolls and make-up and, suddenly, you've raised an entire

generation of people who are conditioned to think,

these are my hobbies, these are my interests,

these are what I want The UK Atomic Energy Authority has

now signed up to a gender equality accreditation scheme

to try to attract more women into It wants to make its labs

more female-friendly. Some of the tangible things that

you can do are gender-blind recruitment practices

at the short listing stage. This is something that's been

in the news recently. Family-friendly working

policies, flexible working. A lack of female scientists

and engineers is not just a problem at Culham Science Centre -

it's happening across the country. But it's hoped measures being tried

out here could encourage more women to embark on careers

in this industry. The new town of Milton Keynes

is celebrating its 50th There'll be celebrations throughout

2017 and they've started at Middleton Hall in Centre MK,

where an exhibition illustrating Milton Keynes' history

has gone on display. A beautiful name for

a lovely village, almost Once not much bigger than a hamlet,

its name given to one of the largest new town projects,

not just in this Designed in the 60s,

building began in the 70s. Originally six miles

by ten, a new town built on the American grid system,

famed for its roundabouts and redways, more than 100

miles of pathway for People encouraged to move to a place

where they could find everything they need -

space, parks, an easy commute. Originally, buildings promised to be

no higher than the tallest tree. A town planner in the

States helped plan MK. For the people that chose

to make their lives here, for the companies that chose to move

here, for the investors who chose to make their investments here,

the city has been successful. 50 years on, it's now one

of the fastest-growing towns in the country,

home to more than 10,000 businesses, a place where you'll find sport,

innovation, leisure. But, with its population expected

to rise to more than 300,000 in the next ten years,

this town, with ambitions to become a city, faces challenges -

housing, health care, What will the next

half-century bring? Finally, how about this

for a lucky escape? An 80-year-old motorist

was unhurt after this car crashed into a pontoon

on the River Thames in Henley. Emergency services helped free

the pensioner within ten It took two hours

to recover the car. The driver was described as a bit

shocked by a passerby. Now more of today's

stories with Sally Taylor. After a soggy start of the week, the

forecast is mainly settled. Sunny spells at time, a cold spell and

mainly dry. A high-tech airborne radar system

that'll be the eyes and ears of the Navy's new Portsmouth based

aircraft carriers has finally got The way decisions about

the Crowsnest radar have been made has come in for criticism

from the National Audit Office. But today in Portsmouth

the government announced the ?269 million project

is going ahead, helping to secure The Royal Navy's big new aircraft

carriers will need plenty of protection. With radar equipment on

board and in the sky providing early warning of incoming threats. Now the

Ministry of Defence is going ahead with the project to fit the latest

Crowsnest radar system to Merlin helicopters like these. Looks over

the horizon, looks out long-distance, looks high and back

covers the gaps. It's a big contract, ?269 million. The

Government had faced strong criticism over delays to the

project, but today on board HMS dragon in Portsmouth, the message

from the minister was positive. Obviously really important to get

these things right and it's a really good news announcement today. It's

going to sustain almost 200 jobs here in the South. But you would

accept that if ministers had got to move on in terms of the positive

decision-making, we could have been here a lot earlier? Innovation is

really important and we do sometimes have to make adjustments during the

procurement process to make sure we have the right cutting edge

capability. The Navy is confident the new system will be up and

running, and with crews trained by the time the first the aircraft

carrier becomes operational in 2020. We accelerated the programme to meet

those dates. At the moment we are looking slightly ahead of the

carrier requirements so it's looking good. The contract is a boost for

industry. It will secure 80 posts in Crawley and another 60 here in have

and where they are using the latest technology to make the new system is

easy to use as possible. -- in Havant. Altogether 30 of the Navy's

Merlin helicopters will be modified to carry the new Crowsnest radar.

The money's good and the hours reasonable.

Southern Railway, which is enduring months of strikes, has launched

It comes amid a new row about whether the drivers' union has

changed its attitude to what's called Driver Only Operation.

Our Transport Correspondent Paul Clifton is here.

Well, Sally, let's see what's on offer.

Govia Thameslink Railway, Southern's parent company,

wants maintain a constant pool of 200 drivers in training.

That's for a four-day week, doing 35 hours.

And most drivers work a fifth day as voluntary overtime,

Most train operators rely on that overtime.

Drivers earn more, and companies can employ fewer people,

But an overtime ban by the drivers' union is biting hard on Southern.

Even on days with no strike, like today, it means around one

Now, let me remind you of something the drivers'

Our view is that in the increasingly longer trains in particular, we've

got 1100 people, and nobody on the train to serve the critical role to

say it is unsafe. Rail magazine has uncovered

a letter, signed by Mick Whelan, in which he agrees to run precisely

that sort of train. Aslef agrees to drive and operate 12

car DOO trains, it says. The newest, longest trains,

carrying the most people, of the type used on Southern

and Gatwick Express. Aslef says it has opposed

driver-only operation for 15 years. Yet six years ago, here

it is signing up to more of it, The union says it was

honouring an extension But clearly here it was accepting

drivers should do what it now calls a fundamentally unsafe

way of working. Plans to build the Reading section

of a new cross-Berkshire cycle route The route will eventually stretch

from Newbury to Ascot. The first section along Bath Road

will cost 450 thousand pounds and should join up

existing cycle lanes. But some campaigners say it's been

a long time coming and parts Having one big route will hopefully

join all those cycle lanes into a cycle network and that's what

cyclists really need because you're not just travelling down one road

from most journeys, you're going to be travelling halfway across town

and you need a route that will take you some distance.

A brand new fleet of environmentally friendly buses are due to start

running on the streets of Reading this week.

Reading Buses have bought five of them at a cost of a quarter

As well as having free 4G wifi, they've also got mobile

But the new EURO 4 buses aren't fuelled by petrol or diesel

Edward Sault has been to take a look.

The regal welcome for Redding's new royal bosses but this one is

slightly different, and Daisy the cow might be a bit of a giveaway as

to why. This is the world's first gas double-decker bus, powered by a

sustainable form of the gas fuel, and the source comes from cow waste,

their bedding, food stock and other waste products as well. And that was

a pivotal reason why the bus company decided to buy five of these at a

quarter of ?1 million each. We have some of the poorest air quality in

the South in parts of the borough. More people come into Redding every

day by bus and therefore it is important that Redding buses was in

the forefront of using the greenest and cleanest ones available. It also

has some devices you may have not seen in the past such as free 4G

Wi-Fi and coat hooks. It's also got a mobile phone charger, you simply

take it out of its case, plug it into your phone and leave it to

charge whilst you are on the go. It's got some great things on there

and it's exciting that it is environmentally friendly and will be

extended to other routes. We have got to do something useful with cow

waste. These buses will be serving route 33, turning the spotlight onto

a Greenaway of travelling. Straight on to sport and Tony

husband is here. I got a lot of tweets over the weekend saying to

look out for Sam Sunderland. Sam Sunderland broke his ankles,

knees and pelvis in a motorbike 11 years later his determination

to reach the top has been rewarded. He's become the first Briton to win

the Dakar rally in any category Formerly known as the Paris Dakar

rally, this staging was held in South America

and ran through Paraguay. Sunderland, from Poole,

but now mainly based in Dubai had led for his team KTM since stage

five of 12. It was an emotional moment

as he crossed the line. It feels incredible. I'm lost for

words. In the last couple of moments, the emotion started to kick

in, and it was just a bit overwhelming. It's amazing. I've had

an incredible week, and really thank you to the team and organisers. It's

been a really hard rally, even with been a really hard rally, even with

and I'm really drained, physically weather, it was still one

and emotionally but I'm so happy and and emotionally but I'm so happy and

it is a dream come true for me. Loads of people across Hampshire and

Dorset very proud of him, congratulations.

Alex Thomson has set yet another record in the Vendee Globe single

The Gosport sailor covered more than 600 miles in 24 hours faster

than has ever been done before, as he continues to try and catch

Thomson's damaged bat Hugo Boss has closed the gap tonight

on Banque Populaire to 85 miles, and they're about to turn due east

Thomson is attempting to become the first Briton ever to win

the race known as the Everest of the seas, a two and half

month challenge against the prevailing winds and tides.

Earlier today we had this update as he attempts to catch pre-race

It's about trying to get as close to our man as possible and I'm

struggling a little bit at the moment, not catching him as much as

I would like. I'm struggling a little bit with the steering. I have

some play in the steering system which basically means when I get to

high speeds, the boat becomes a little bit uncontrollable. So I've

had a few very near accidental jibes. It is still all to play for.

We will have to see what happens but one thing you can count on, I'm

going to fight until the end. We are with you, Alex, all the way until

the end. Southampton football manager

Claude Puel described his side's loss at Burnley this

weekend as incredible. Southampton failed to take a string

of chances and paid the price when Joey Barton's free kick beat

Fraser Forster 12 minutes from time. It was Southampton's fourth

consecutive Premier League defeat and they're down to 13th

in the table. Here's the key headlines from

the rest of the weekend's football. Town Trail from this second-half

volley. But new signings were to play their part. After joining for a

third loan spell, bed grabbed when put his shot on level terms. Both

sides pressed hard for the winner. James Henry denied the post. Charlie

Cockett's cross picked out Kasim, and the Iraq International found the

net. A first league win in seven. Oxford United arrived at Wimbledon

unbeaten in 2017. They looked on course for that record to continue.

The dons responded in style. Dean Parrott smashed in an equaliser of

the bar and turned provider for the winner. His cross was met by the

head of Sean Kelly and United's unblemished start to the year.

who's celebrating his 100th birthday today.

This is Bill Lucas, from Cowfold in West Sussex.

He's in the striped top, running in the 5,000 metres

He didn't make the final though, which he blames

That's because he'd been due to run in 1940 and '44,

but the Games were cancelled and he was called up to the RAF.

He said the key to a long life is a whiskey every evening. We have the

weather for the week ahead. Yes, a little bit cold at times through the

course of the week with perhaps a little bit of frost.

Sue Cheney captured the grey conditions whilst walking her dog

Ralph on Gurnard Beach on the Isle of Wight.

Lynne Harvey took this picture of a squirrel

And Chris Proudfoot took this picture of the low tide

Quite a grey day with outbreaks of rain at times but the weather ahead

is on improving picture. It should be mainly dry through most of this

week with temperatures struggling on Sundays. High pressure remains in

charge of the weather, it should be mainly dry. The possibility of some

frost overnight tonight and also on Wednesday morning. We may have a

frost first thing tomorrow, milder temperatures for western parts and

we are looking at loads of freezing. A cloudy start to western areas

tomorrow but the cloud will start to be nibbled away by the sunshine.

Sunny spells making an appearance, more cloud through the latter part

of the afternoon. Otherwise it is going to be a lovely, sunny day with

temperatures reaching as high as seven Celsius so in some parts it

will feel chilly. More so overnight and under the clear skies the

temperatures will plunge to minus forced Celsius in the countryside.

Light winds to start Wednesday, and there will be a frost. In some

places only reaching a high temperature of four Celsius. More

cloud in general on Thursday, we will have this weather front across

the country. High pressure still dominating the weather through much

of the week. Thursday, temperatures will reach around seven Celsius, and

a similar scenario also on Friday. We are expecting a good deal of

cloud but Thursday and Friday should be mainly dry. Where the cloud is

thickest we should have the odd spot of drizzle. Temperatures on Friday

reaching age Celsius, so more mild than tomorrow and Wednesday. High

pressure remains in charge of our weather, it should stay mainly dry

at the weekend, staying generally cloudy.

Looking at the weather, Alex Thompson the Gosport sailor is doing

something like 30 knots, we should look at the weather forecast for him

to see what will happen. And we heard him talking there, dramatic

stuff and the whole interview is on our Facebook page. That's it from

us, more tomorrow. Good night.