20/02/2017 South Today - Oxford

Left homeless after an explosion at a block of flats.

A week after the blast, 13 households don't have

Also, despite bringing home a medal from Rio,

GB Badminton fails to overturn a decision to axe

We talk to the driver who proved some parking spaces

Emergency services have spent the weekend continuing

their investigations into the cause of an explosion and fire

Human remains were discovered at the site in Osney Mead

on Saturday, but a post-mortem examination was inconclusive.

Tenants at 13 properties on Gibbs Crescent are still waiting

to hear where they'll be housed long term.

Katharine Da Costa has been to meet one woman made homeless.

This is currently home for Habiba Gudal.

Nearly a week on from the explosion and fire that ripped

through her block of flats on Gibbs Crescent in Oxford,

she still has nightmares about what happened,

and hasn't been allowed back to get her possessions.

I am devastated and I cannot sleep at night. I have every five seconds

I sleep I had to wake up. I listened to the noise, the explosion, it

makes me scared. She's one of 13 households who've

been told it's not safe Today, the housing association

A2Dominion held a meeting to discuss Oxford West and Abingdon MP

Nicola Blackwood says it's been extremely distressing

for all those affected. It is clearly a hugely shocking

incident to happen right And for residents to

have their whole lives disrupted in such an abrupt

and unexpected way. And I think that we have to give

huge praise to our emergency services for responding in such

a quick and comprehensive way. Three flats were destroyed

in the blast, five more look Investigators discovered human

remains on site on Saturday, thought to be those of missing man

Guido Schuette who lived But more tests will be needed

to identify the remains and cause of death after post-mortem

results were inconclusive. Behind me, 12 fire officers have

spent the day sifting But, as yet, there has been no

confirmation about what caused The Fire Service said it hopes

to hand back to the landlords Meanwhile, other local residents

have started a fundraising campaign Habiba and the remaining tenants

are still waiting to discover Three police officers have appeared

in front of a misconduct hearing following a fatal car

crash in Buckinghamshire. Two men died in the crash

in March 2014 on the A413 Police attended an earlier incident

in which one driver was injured but didn't close the road

despite icy conditions. The Independent Police

Complaints Commission called They won a medal in Rio

but badminton players in Milton Keynes will no longer get

funding to train for Badminton England, based

in the town, has lost its appeal against the decision by UK Sport

to withdraw its funding. The ruling puts facilities and jobs

at risk, as well as being a major It was always good to be a decisive

day the badminton, its funding stripped by UK Sport not convinced

it's players could win medals in Tokyo.

Their futures betting on the results of the appeal.

It is 11:30am and in that building behind me, a June Christy is taking

a phone call from UK Sport to find out the result of their appeal. It

will have a massive impact on the future of the sport.

It was bad news, the appeal had failed.

Everyone in Milton Keynes must be frustrated.

We are, but we are incredibly resilient and equally determined. It

is a big blow. We were looking for ?1.2 million a year to get us to

Tokyo. But it is a tough hurdle to overcome. It is not something that

will deter our ambition to still deliver medals for Great Britain.

Every four years, UK Sport distributes public money in the

pursuit of medals. For London, Badminton got ?4.7 million, in Rio

it was reduced to ?5.7 million. Which helps when the first Olympic

medal in Badminton the 12 years. A few years later, its entire funding

was cut. After Rio, we were so positive,

there was such a buzz in the centre, Wiwa feeling like Milton Keynes,

National Badminton Centre, we will go upwards post-Rio. I feel like it

has deflated everyone. Unlike 31 other sports, Badminton

will get nothing in the run up to Tokyo. The number of players

training here will be cut and staff at headquarters in Milton Keynes

have been warned of redundancy. I knew the appeal was imminent, not

today. Bad news, unbelievable. They have

had the centre in Milton Keynes for a while, it may threaten that.

Badminton once more moments like this but these to pick itself up and

come up with a plan for Tokyo. BMW has met with union officials

at the Mini plant in Oxford The Unite union has balloted

its members over the possibility It's about planned changes

to the pension scheme which BMW More than 7,000 workers

across several car plants including Oxford and Swindon

would be affected. Plans to build on a Didcot parkland

as part of its Garden Town The town council says it won't hand

over its land in Ladygrove Park The plan was to include

a new technology campus. South Oxfordshire District Council

says it's "disappointed" It adds that no decision has yet

been made on the full proposal. We're all used to the idea

of airports, but detailed plans to create the country's first

spaceports are being They'd be used to transport rockets,

with commercial satellites being launched within three years,

and could even lead Firms in our region are hoping

to grab a share of an industry that could potentially be worth

billions of pounds. Lift-off of the Falcon 9

to the space station. Once the exclusive playground

of the superpowers, space is more accessible than ever,

and the Government wants the UK The economic benefits of hosting

a spaceport a very enticing. At the aerospace park over there,

they already employ 3,000 people. It's believed they could take

on another 2,000 in this area generation of aerospace travel,

they are even more significant. Here in Oxfordshire

they are developing the next generation of aerospace engines

capable of flying at five times the speed of sound

in the atmosphere, and space flight, the air-breathing sabre rocket

engines will revolutionise travel. London to Sydney

in just a few hours. Space, the final

frontier is no more. Sabre could open up a whole

world of opportunities. There's been a significant gap

between the last big But this potentially is the closest

we will get to a whittle jet engine The Government's target

is to see the first launch For a burgeoning and already

very successful space industry worth ?250 million,

this is a crucial piece in the jigsaw,

and could be in place soon. To be classified as a spaceport,

sites will need to be licensed. The Civil Aviation Authority has

short-listed Campbelltown, Glasgow Prestwick and Stornoway

in Scotland, Newquay in Cornwall It won't need to undergo major works

but will have to refuel rockets. The vast majority of take-offs will

be horizontal rather than vertical. At first, the commercial spaceports

would launch satellites and could also bring zero gravity

flights to the UK. Then, ultimately,

even space tourism. The opportunities are huge and not

even the sky is the limit. The weight of vehicles passing over

Marlow Bridge is to be checked, after major problems caused

by a 37-tonne lorry. The Grade 1 listed bridge has

a three-tonne limit. It had to be closed

for two months last autumn Engineers had to assess if any

structural damage had been caused. Police are warning drivers of larger

vehicles and vans not to attempt to cross the bridge which is only

around six feet wide. Now more of today's

stories with Sally Taylor. a five-year prison sentence

on what are described And also later for a special

announcement... I've got some amazing news for all

the Southamptoners out there. Well, right here on Saturday,

I'll be telling you Frustration is growing in Berkshire

over repeated delays to the opening The Shinfield Eastern Relief Road

has been dogged by setbacks and should have been

finished last summer. Local businesses say it's

killing their trade and residents The Swan Inn at Arborfield Cross

reopened for business last summer, about the same time the new relief

road should have opened. Expected profits are

down by at least 15%. We've got quite

a good reputation so far, but to try and get

here, it's impossible. We lost a lot of trade

when they actually stopped work for a week because some

of the signs never got moved and basically,

it closed down, which no one knew

it was supposed to be opened and it wasn't open and it did

cost is major problems. When they've got that road closed,

the detour is miles, so I tend if I've got to go that

way, I don't bother. I'll go to Aldershot

or somewhere instead. It's a nightmare here

for traffic in the mornings, Melina Harrison says patients

at her clinic are often late We're in our 14th year

here and I've never known Even getting the business off

the ground was easier They're getting so frustrated

with the traffic that they actually missed their

appointment and, you know, when you're trying to get somebody better

and maybe are rehabbing them after they've had disc surgery or

something like that, the timing of appointments is really important

to their well-being. The road will serve

Reading University's huge new Science Park

currently under construction. But with so much house

building also underway here, it's vital to the local authorities

future development plans. In a statement, Wokingham

Borough Council told us it shares people's frustration

with the delays. It says it doesn't have any control

over the contract but it's working with Hochtief

and the University of Reading to get

the project finished and open. It says though, with

complex projects like this, there are always

unforeseen problems. Currently issues include water

seeping up through the road The contractor Hochtief UK has

apologised for the delays and says it's brought in significant extra

resources to address the unforeseen challenges

it's facing. The road should be open

within the next couple of months. Parking and issue but this story is

very different. South West Trains is having

to repaint part of its car park at Southampton Central station

after a driver proved some Jago Lawless got a penalty notice

because his car overlapped one And that's when he turned

to his tape measure, he proved that the car park

doesn't actually meet Keeping between the lines

isn't always easy. And it's even harder these days

because cars are bigger, but I've been to meet one man who has

proved in his case it wasn't It was just over a week ago,

46-year-old Jago Lawless was issued a penalty notice because his car

just overlapped one of the spaces at

Southampton Central Station. My front wheel, where I had pitched

the front of the car over so I could actually get out

of the door, the front of the car had moved over an inch,

two inches over the line. But he felt something wasn't right

and as a naval architect by day, who reviews detailed

measurements, he took out his own measuring tape to find out

what was going wrong. When I first measured the entrance

into the car park bay, But because they have

angled parking bay over, the parallel with between

the lines is actually only 1.978 metres wide which is too small

for the After he highlighted

the issue to South West South West trains says the car park

was painted out before the Government advisers came in and the

fee was withdrawn. But it appears small

parking spaces isn't In general, all parking spaces

are way too small for today's cars. My personal opinion

is that I have two children with disabilities

and that's even worse because if you don't qualify for a blue badge,

you're forced to park I find that parking spaces are a bit

too small because whenever I go out with my fiancee,

he invariably has to let me out beforehand otherwise I can't open

the door properly and squeeze out. Jago tells me he's happy

that the company is taking positive steps to widen the spaces and

I'm sure that will be thankful that one man

really had it taped. Southampton's Craig David has

announced he's to play a one-off gig The singer shot to fame

as a teenager at the end of the '90s after growing up

on a Southampton council estate. He's currently enjoying

a spectacular career comeback, with a number one album,

and a nomination as best solo male # I feel nothing like this, like

this # I have felt nothing like this,

like this... This is what is taking Craig David back to the top. 16

years since his first album went to number one, he would did it again

stopped on the 1st of September, he will play for founds new and old at

the Ageas Bowl. The generation think of people who are now discovering my

music who would have only followed my last album. The were kids who

only just found out about my music. Calling me a new kid! I loved the

new kid thing, I will run with that. And then there was a generation who

grew up with my stuff from back in 1999. Last year, things really took

off again for Craig David. He had a residency and I be there with his DJ

sets TS five which she also performed at Southampton's Common

people Festival. But the date at the Ageas Bowl will be his first

headline show in his home city. You can take the boy out of Southampton

but you can't take Southampton at the boy and it's true. Wherever I

go, as soon as I come back down the avenue, I feel like I'm home and the

crowd responds in that way and any shows that I've done here, either at

the Guildhall or at Common People, I could feel that there was an

ownership of coming from here and we've got your back. A source on his

ties with home that this afternoon, Craig took the time along with his

manager to talk to and perform for students at the city's Solent

University. When you meet your favourite artist, you kind of get

disappointed but I don't feel like that. I was like, yeah, man! That

was exciting. To see an idle but is performing five metres from you,

it's amazing. Craig David's story is about talent and staying power.

Through it all, he has never forgotten his roots. Tickets for his

Southampton concert go on general sale this Friday.

I like that line, talent and staying power. We know all about that, don't

we? I met Craig before the FA Cup final

in 2003 and I'm still here! I could be on stage with him. Big

Southampton fan and we will hear his spots about that EFL Cup final which

is going to dominate the week, really. Later in the week though, so

as was his concert, he was keen to talk about saints. Football to start

with as well tonight. The two horse race at the top

of the Championship saw Brighton leap above Newcastle and back

into top spot, although could return to the top if they beat

Aston Villa tonight. A double from Sam Baldock

in the second half at Oakwell was enough to hand Albion their 20th

win of the campaign, Reading on Saturday,

then Newcastle a week tomorrow. Meanwhile with no Premier League

action this weekend, Good luck to Sutton United

and their former Eastleigh boss Paul Doswell, the Surrey club take

on Arsenal tonight live on BBC One. Oxford United's cup dreams ended

on Saturday and we start Three and a half thousand Oxford

fans were in the north-east aiming for a giant-killing at the home of

Premier League opposition. For the first hour, that seemed highly

unlikely after Stewart Downing was bundled over in the box, Grant

Leadbeater scored from the box. United had been unable to weather

the early storm and it got worse. Acrobatics put Middlesbrough two up

before the break. But it was far from over. Chris Maguire placed this

free kick perfectly to pull a goal back just after the hour mark. The

momentum of that goal was ensemble. Within 60 seconds, they swept

forward again and although Maguire's effort was boiled, Toni Martinez

followed up to level the scores. A replay would have been the right

reward for Oxford's endeavours, but four minutes from time, their hearts

were broken. We've got one big semifinal coming up that we're all

looking forward to and then to be fair, we have about 16 cup finals is

well on the way, so we've still got two great opportunities to have a

little bit of success this year and we're not going to let go of that.

In the two, Portsmouth remain on course for the play-offs but ahead

of a huge travelling contingent, they fell behind at Barnet through

this free kick. Inspiration was in short supply until Conor Chaplin

stepped up late in the game with a brilliant long-range effort,

probably his best. In week one, MK dons were beaten at home by this

goal at the Stadium MK. A big game for Reading the championship

tomorrow night. It was a successful weekend for some

of the country's top university sports stars

in the British Universities Rhys Gray from Southampton

University took the honours with this performance

in the elite men's trampoline. The 22-year-old is a former

Great britain trampolinist who left the national programme

to pursue his academic studies. And a reminder this week

is all about the EFL Cup final. Southampton take on Manchester

United on Sunday in their first major cup final at Wembley

for 38 years. We'll be building up to Wembley

where Claude Puel's men go for glory and we want to hear

from you, wherever you might How will you be watching the game,

how far have you come to be here. Give us a shout

via our Facebook page. We would love your video

messages to the team. We will play them out on Friday

night. It's each week for Southampton.

We will look forward to that. It was a terrible maritime disaster

but the sinking of the SS Mendi is a story that remains largely

unknown in the UK. More than 600 people

lost their lives when the troopship went down off the Isle of Wight

exactly a hundred Most of those onboard

were black South Africans, travelling to France

to assist the allies. Today their loss was commemorated

at a service attended by Her Royal Highness Princess Anne

in Southampton. I'm driving to honour lost

countrymen, members of the South African Navy have sailed 6000 miles

to Southampton to commemorate a tragedy their nation has never

forgotten. In February 1917, the trip ship the S S Mendi was on the

last leg of her journey from Africa to France. She carried members of

the South African native labour corps, forbidden to bear arms, they

were recruited to build trenches, railways and roads for the Allied

forces. In thick fog, south of the Isle of Wight, the Mendi collided

with the much larger ship. There was effectively cut into by the impact,

take relatively quickly in only a matter of minutes so many of those

who lost their never even made it out into the water. Many of those

who did drowned and many of these men had never even seen the sea, let

alone been to see before. It must've an incredibly harrowing experience.

More than 600 men died. A few bodies washed ashore and were buried but

most were lost at sea, their names recorded here in Hollybrook

Cemetery. Natalia is here on a pilgrimage to remember her

relatives, the Reverend Isaac Job. Survivors said he calmed the men as

the ship went down saying to them, we are the sons of Africa, let us

die like brothers. It is very emotional to be here, but it is also

pride in the sense that they did not die in vain. 100 years later, they

are brought to life with this commemoration. Though long honoured

in South Africa, in the UK, the recognition for trips lost on the

Mendi have taken time, the story only becoming more known after the

wreck was discovered by an Isle of Wight diver in 1974. It is just a

horrendous story of loss of life. Almost half the loss of the number

of the Titanic and here it is of the Isle of Wight. There are two ways of

looking at it. Either it was covered up by the Admiralty for propaganda

reasons and row or we have to look the other aspect of was it because

they were black people and they were considered, you know, not as

important as white people and unfortunately we had to consider

that aspect. Now the story of the SS Mendi is being taught to a new

generation and in the centenary year, two nations stand together to

remember the contribution and sacrifice of men who died far from

home in very different things. -- very different times.

Remembering the SS Mendi and those who lost their lives. Moving ahead

to the weather now. Very mild today with a high of 17 Celsius. That is

around 8 degrees above the seasonal average.

So, we sat some sunshine today and through the course of this week, we

will have some brighter spells here and there. But there will be a great

deal of Plaid as well and the chance we could have some outbreaks of

rain. Mild start to the week but turning cooler with a brisk, called

Westerly winds from Thursday onwards. Through the course of two

nights, there will be a good deal of cloud, outbreaks of rain here and

there. Could be on the heavy side as well with one or two heavy bursts

and president for a time before temperatures fall away by Don to

around nine or 11 Celsius so a mild night. It cloudy start to the date

tomorrow. Slow, improving picture has to ring for the morning, we will

start to see one or two brighter spells more likely the further north

and west you are. Generally, cloud tomorrow and another mild day but

today's temperatures, culturally different from tomorrow. High today

of 17, high tomorrow of 12. Through tomorrow night and the early hours

of Wednesday morning, the winds will increase from the south-west. Quite

a cloudy night tomorrow night with outbreaks of light and patchy rain.

Drier interludes as well with temperatures falling away to around

nine or 10 Celsius. A cloudy day on Wednesday. Outbreaks of rain at

times and winds will strengthen to touch the force. Even stronger winds

inland with one or two brighter spells. Highs of ten to 11 Celsius.

On Thursday we start to drop in Calder, Westerly air. That will

bring us an area of low pressures of the chance of deals and again. A

real squeeze on the isobars. Very cold winds coming directly down from

the north and there will be spells of rain during the course of

Thursday daytime with a great deal of cloud so a fresh feeling take and

it will also feel very cold on Friday with it the chance of the

wintry showers. A bit of sweet and even the stall shower here and there

with height of 8-7 Celsius. Frost on early Saturday, wet for a time and

showers on Sunday. That's always got time for this

evening. There is more at 10:30pm tonight and will be back tomorrow at

6:30pm tomorrow. Join us then if you can, but have a lovely evening. Good

night. You're sponsored to swap

clothes? I don't get that. Maybe you wear your mother's

clothes? Cool. Yeah, finally. What? I don't get it, what does she wear?

No, no... Like, she wears someone else's.

Cool, yeah. No, she's... OK, that's too complicated.

Do another one. So, like, you get sponsored to let

people lick stuff off you for a day. Ugh. No, but, like, you get these

flavoured... Not going to happen. You take a selfie and post it on

social media or whatever, and then people have to pay

to guess who it is? That's a no-brainer,

we love the secret selfie.