08/03/2017 South Today - Oxford

More than 200 people were on Cleeve Link's books.

Also: With rising business rates, will the Budget help small firms

A virtual tour that takes you back to the ancient city.

It wasn't built in a day but I've been working on it on and off

for about ten years, and it's lovely to have it in

A major care provider has gone into liquidation leaving hundreds

of people without carers in Oxfordshire, Swindon

Cleeve Link provided a range of services,

including personal care, Meals on Wheels and night-sitting.

Another agency has picked up the work in Swindon,

while in Oxfordshire, the County Council has stepped

Kris Felton's husband Ian has needed carers to help him

He has MS and in 2010 broke his back.

Earlier this year he was told he only had a year to live

Then, to top it all off, on Friday he was told he would have

to move into a care home, as the company paid to look

He was depressed before that, so it hasn't been something that has

brightened him up in any way, he's turned into himself

He says things like, "What is the point?

In Swindon, the 175 patients that were under Cleeve Link's care

are now being looked after by another company.

In Oxfordshire, the county council's found new permanent home care

for nearly half of the 127 people affected - just two have had to go

Our staff have been covering some of these calls,

family have been supporting and we also have some other care

agencies in Oxfordshire that have been able to step in and support

people in the short term or they may end up taking the packages up

So, it has been a number of different mechanisms that have

allowed us to support people to stay at home.

The council has also spoken to Cleeve Link staff to help them

It's not known exactly why Cleeve Link went into liquidation

but one issue facing all care agencies is staff recruitment and

The council says they need an extra 750 new care workers every year

for the next eight years to deal with increased demands

Oxfordshire pays the highest hourly rate for home care in the whole

country and now the local Labour Party want to bring back home

care into the control of the council, an issue that'll be

Meanwhile, the Chancellor, Philip Hammond, announced today

an extra ?2 billion for adult social care funding, though it's

not yet known how much Oxfordshire will receive.

What is clear though is that a solution for adult social care

can't come soon enough for Kris, who's desperate to get

Two men have been arrested in connection with the murder

of a former Hong Kong policewoman in Milton Keynes.

64-year-old Hang Yin Leung died in hospital after she became ill

following a burglary at her home at the end of January.

The men aged 18 and 20 are from Redhill in Surrey.

Police are still appealing for any information about the incident.

Meanwhile, a man being questioned about the murder of a woman

in Ludgershall near Aylesbury has been released on bail.

47-year-old Samantha Blake-Mizen was found at a house on Sunday.

A postmortem examination found she died from a head injury.

The man arrested was 43 years old and from Thame.

Foxhounds at the Kimblewick Hunt in Buckinghamshire have had to be put

The outbreak at the kennels near Aylesbury was confirmed in January.

The hunt suspended its activities and an investigation to find

the origin of the infection is being carried out.

Businesses across the region have been watching the Budget for any

signs of a reduction in business rates.

They're being revalued next month with big

For retail premises, Cherwell is likely to see

the biggest increase across the South at almost 33%.

Compare that to a rise in South Oxfordshire of 8%

Today, the Chancellor offered some help for small firms.

There'll be a ?50 cap for those losing small business rate relief

and local councils will be able to offer help too.

Alastair Fee has been to meet a shop owner in Witney.

Meet Rosa - she a popular Witney florist now entering her

Under the current system she pays around ?6,600

The new revaluation puts the annual bill up.

It is going to be crippling because we are only a small business.

We do not have a big turnover like the national shops.

So it is a burden that we feel is unjust and unfair.

The system has long been criticised, valuations are confusing -

based on rent, property size and usage - meaning businesses

in more affluent areas of the South often have much higher bills.

If it was based more on turnover, then the big boys and the big

nationals would have a much higher rateable value.

With rate rises coming in on 1st April, there were high hopes that

No business losing small business rate relief will see their bill

increase next year by more than ?50 a month.

I will provide local authorities with a ?300 million fund to deliver

discretionary relief to target individual hard cases

I think our rates will still go up by about ?50 a month,

which is a little better than it was, but we then have

There are always winners and losers on Budget day.

Business's like Rosa's will now be looking at the detail of today's

announcement to see whether it's gone far enough.

And there will be more on how the Budget affects local

councils and their services with our political editor

Around 20 homeless people squatting in a derelict university building

in Oxford have been told in court to leave by Sunday.

The Open House group have been living in the empty

Osney Power Station for a fortnight after being evicted

Oxford University says it sympathises with the group,

The Oxford author Mark Haddon says he's always been fascinated

by making pictures of people as well as writing.

It was his novel The Curious Incident Of The Dog

In The Night-Time that brought him success.

Now, he's gone back to pictures with his first-ever

Angela Walker went to the Jam Factory in Oxford to have a look.

The multi-award winning book and stage play,

The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time has been

But Mark Haddon has been drawing for a living for longer

It seems obvious to me that people's faces are the most interesting

He's currently exhibiting his portrait collection

This is a picture of Paul Farley, the poet, and whose work I love, one

One of the things I particularly love about this painting is that

I often improve people's wardrobes when I am painting them,

and he had a rather dull brown jacket on that day,

but there's a rather intricate pattern on it now.

And when Paul first saw the picture - Paul is a very avid bird watcher -

and he said, "You've given me teal plummage!"

One of his subjects is fellow Oxford artist Tom Croft,

Was there a reason why you drew me without eyebrows?

There are these odd little weird technical things and if you're

using a line of a certain thickness eyebrows are impossible.

As well as Mark's portrait of Tom, you can see Tom's

I chose the kind of dingier lighting, not to suggest

..but a subdued palleted to create this kind of -

you've got an inquisitive personality necessarily

for your work and therefore I kind of wanted to communicate

The exhibition runs until the 10th of April.

The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time will be returning

The annual boat race between Oxford and Cambridge

Cambridge won last year and the Oxford crew are determined

Sinead Carroll went to meet them training

Sometimes working for BBC South Today is pretty tough.

Looking out over some glorious South Oxfordshire countryside,

the feel of the sunshine on my face and the sound of oars hitting

Seriously, though, others have had today a lot tougher.

We get up early in the mornings at about 5:40am, 5:50am.

We have an ergo session on the machines in the morning

and then, after that, you get some breakfast,

and try to get a four-hour shift in the lab -

four, five hours - and then after that quickly try

and eat some lunch and then back down here.

Last year saw Cambridge beat the Dark Blues for the first

The president of the Oxford Boat Club rowed for Team USA

He's bringing some of that spirit to the Oxford boat.

Last year was just so ruthless and cut-throat and you get knocked down.

I mean, everyone got knocked down a number of times and you have

Especially between us, we have always been a bit competitive,

Mainly because I've just generally won, he just concedes

Will's rowed in the boat race before, only the last time

It is pretty strange coming from one side,

where you are sort of brainwashed to hate the other side,

to come to the other side and, you know, have a very similar

Oxford have three and a half weeks to turn this training on the Thames

The boat race is on the BBC on April 2nd.

The boat race - definitely a sign that spring is on the way.

Find out how spring, like the weather, will be

Now more of today's stories with Sally Taylor.

and the NHS will be looking at those who aren't doing so well and trying

to help out. Thank you. Lewis Coombes has the sport

in a moment and here's Sarah Farmer. After today's wet weather, things

are looking much more promising for I'll have your forecast

later in the programme. Back to the Budget and alongside

the economic assessment, there are measures which are also

political choices, such as 100 extra Education and social care

are largely delivered by councils so they will have

been watching closely. A little earlier our

Political Editor Peter Henley gathered reaction from two Surrey

county councillors The Chancellor does seem to have

listened to local councils who said they needed more money for social

care. ?2 billion for England, but over two years, front-loaded. Kit

Malthouse, will this be enough to take care of the growth in need? In

the short-term we think so. Longer term we will have to think about how

we fund social care with the ageing population. For the moment, it is a

great move. Do you think Surrey council will be happy with this

much? Well personally I don't think it is enough. Although I welcome the

extra money, I don't think it is enough. The Liberal Democrats had

asked for an extra ?billion for the first one -- ?2 billion for the

first year. This is only ?1 billion. So that is not to tackle the social

care crisis and I doubt it will solve the problems. Jeremy Corbyn

made a great deal about what happened with the secret recording

we heard, is this evidence that Surrey have been well treated. Where

is this deal? Somewhere, somebody's not telling the truth. One minute we

are told there is no deal and then we discover that David Hodge has got

something in writing. But one thing is sure that Surrey needs more money

nor adult social care and what is being offered is not off. Surrey,

like many other count Yip is in desperate need for more money to

deal with social care. Just not enough for local authorities they

say and it is going down. Well look, the Chancellor is doing what he can

in a difficult envelope. He said the economy is strong, but our debts are

rising. The money has to be found from somewhere. It will plug a

short-term gap now we have space to think about that. I don't think he

is pretending it is the entire solution, but it is on top of money

that councils can raise themselves. You wanted 15% in Surrey, do you

think you may have to ask for that? I'm opposed to the 15% increase that

was proposed. You just want hand outs. There is a need for national

Government to solve the crisis and it has to be funded from Government

and can't come from Council Tax. It is not reasonable. Would you have

voted for the 15%? No I would say Labour would look at the whole

structure of local government that is top heavy with 12 councils and

dozens of Executives and 600 councillors. So there is a lot of

councillors and a lot of democracy, but it is not producing money for

social care. Thank you very much. A budge tote do with local

authorities. One thing we didn't see was a taxation on diesel, but we may

see that in the next budget. And there's more analysis

and reaction at bbc.co.uk/budget. They're images designed to stir

emotion and patriotism. And a century on, they've lost

none of their power. Dozens of propaganda posters

produced by the American War Department went under

the hammer in Newbury. The unique collection

was featured a few years ago And as Allen Sinclair reports,

given the content, it was no surprise today's sale attracted

a lot of transatlantic interest. Although originally produced

in their thousands, it's rare to see these century old prints

in pristine condition. The patriotic posters feature

Uncle Sam, the Stars and Stripes, and urge Americans back home

to support their boys Who wants these posters. They're

mainly American. Also graphics as well. Prop Afghanistan dachlt we

don't get these posters -- propaganda. We don't get these

posters any more. This is really in your face.

The collection was amassed over many years by the late David Schwartz,

who took them along to the BBCs Antiques Roadshow to be valued.

The colours were so vibrant and I was entranced and bought one and I

saw others and over the years kept picking them up. How many do you

have now? 85. Such a large collection, very good condition. He

never looked at them, he kept them rolled out and they haven't seen the

light of day for 20 years. It is exciting. It has been a special day.

I my husband wanted to sell them in 2017 to Mark the centenary of the

start of the war in America. I have done what he wanted I hope.

The collection sold for around ?20,000

and thanks to internet bidding, a great many of these

evocative images are heading back to the States.

They look good. And sport and Lewis is here. Now, Bournemouth not such

good news, what is going on? Was it a stamp was it not a stamp. Tyrone

Mings alleged to have stamped on the head of Manchester United's

Ibrahimovic. Bournemouth defender Tyrone Mings

will serve a five-match ban after being charged with violent

conduct by the FA. Mings had denied that he intended

to stamp on the head of Manchester United Striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic

during Saturday's 1-1 draw. A player who himself received

a three-game ban for elbowing The club have said in a statement

they are "extremely Reading manager Jaap Stam

has defended his policy Last night the Dutchman made four

changes for the visit of leaders Newcastle and hinted more rotation

would be on the way After a night that also saw Brighton

close the gap at the top, it could be an exciting end

to the season for the South's teams Reading have made the Madejski

something of of a Royal fortress - nine wins from their previous

eleven home games. Lewis Grabban could and

probably should have sent them on their way with another

one against Newcastle. Another former

Bournemouth star, Matt Ritchie, struck the post

with a low shot for And Gareth McClearly almost netted

a late winner, only to see his stoppage time shot

skim the cross bar. Reading the first team to hold

Newcastle to a goalless draw Well I think it's a good point

and this kind of game is all about just one chance to take

and nobody took that chance and as a team,

as a performance, I think we are very happy

to get the clean sheet. With Newcastle dropping

points - a rarity of late - Chris Hughton knew

Brighton had to capitalise and - as so often this season -

Albion delivered. Knockaert adding the finish

to Baldock's initial effort. In a dominant display that brought

22 efforts on the goal, A much-needed win to keep

the promotion bid on track. Here's how it affects

the Championship table then, Brighton are now just three points

behind leaders Newcastle, after The Royals are 10 points off

the automatic promotion places Elsewhere in the Football League,

Oxford came up just short against League One

pace-setters Sheffield United. Defender Chey Dunkley

headed home to put the U's in front at half-time,

but three goals in 21 second half minutes - including a brace

from former Saints striker Billy Sharp - put

the Blades in control. Toni Martinez' low angled drive

in stoppage time proved only While second-half goals

from Christian Burgess and Kyle Bennett boosted

Portsmouth's hopes of A 2-0 win at Crawley moves Pompey up

to third in League Two. The BBC understands,

Southampton's Director of Scouting and Recruitment,

Ross Wilson, has turned down the chance to become Rangers'

Director of Football. The 34-year-old Scot was offered

the chance to lead the Ibrox side's playing structure,

but has opted to remain Petersfield cyclist Joe Truman has

been named in the Great Britain squad for next month's track world

championships in Hong Kong. It'll be Truman's first

appearance at the event, which is second only to the Olympics

in terms of prestige, It comes on the back of two

golds in the team sprint Good for him. Very good. And Tyrone

Mings will miss five important games. Including the game with the

Saints and Liverpool and Chelsea. He will be a big miss. Thank you.

You all know the phrase "friends, Romans, countrymen -

We'll on this occasion it's a call to "reach

That's because it's the best way to view a new 3-dimensional virtual

You can see the Colosseum and the Circus Maximus

The computer model has been designed by Reading University

and has been a decade-long passion for one academic.

Up until now, this has been the only way to really explore ancient Rome.

But now anyone can strap on their virtual sandals.

This is us walking into Rome in 315AD.

Walking into the city of Rome as it appeared some

time around the early 4th Century, that's right.

This is when the city was arguably at its prime and of the

hundreds of places here, even the 4th Century fourist

Should we have a look at the colosseum?

I think everybody likes the colosseum.

So let's go the gladiator's eye view down into the arena.

You can a use a variety of modern methods to explore

You can have a look at it on your desk top

computer, or you can go the whole hog and go for full immersive

As they say, all electrodes lead to Rome.

A lot of people are interested in ancient

Rome, would like to know more about it and the ruins are wonderful

Sometimes it is a bit hard in the mind's

eye to put them back in the

state they would have been when they were new buildings.

But how does it stack up with the real city?

Obviously it's very different from what it

open museum, with missing bits, but you can imagine what it would

The free course launches next weekend, so it is a case of friends,

Romans, countrymen - lend me your VR.

It does look good. It is fabulous. Sarah is with us, and we are going

to look ahead at the weather. Nice tomorrow you said? Yes, which we are

all glad of after today. It has been soggy today. We start off with our

wonderful weather watchers' photographs and even when it is

raining we get some wonderful pictures. Look at these dramatic

clouds over Banbury. Some rain drops here at St Leonard's and Ziggy

captured about two thirds of the tower and the gloomy conditions. We

are not done with that wet weather yet. We will see more of it through

the course of the night, but things will start to dry out. It is

southern coastal areas that will see the worst weather tonight.

Temperatures at around nine or ten degrees. So a mild night. Tomorrow

morning, we see that wet weather slinking away and it is a dry affair

through much of the day. More in the way of cloud to the south of the M4

corridor. To the north the best of any brighter skies, but sunny at

times. Temperatures up to 14 or 15 degrees. And that is above where it

would normally be. Tomorrow evening we see that cloud thickening from

the south-west and we stay dry through much of the night but we

will see murky and damp conditions working in towards dawn.

Temperatures over night around six or seven. To round off the week,

Friday is a settled day, but on the gloomy side with cloudy conditions

and some damp weather and some mist and murk. But it stays settled and

calm. So nothing too wet to worry about. Now the summary, during

tomorrow we will see a bit of cloud through the south, but further north

doing best. And the temperatures 14 or 15 degrees. Into Friday and it is

a gloomy day with some dampness and the weekend, we start with a band of

rain on Saturday morning. But that clears for cheerier conditions

later. Cooler on Sunday. At least the weekend is not a washout. You

know we are marking the 200th anniversary since the death of Jane

Austen, well tomorrow, you may think you know everything about the

author, but we will tell you something that may surprise you.

Thanks for watching. Good night. Let's Sing And Dance exploded onto

our screens, setting the stage

alight...literally. Stars were a-swinging...

Could somebody help me? Join the party,

as new stars perform on... You can still see her -

but it has to be supervised. You thought it was YOU

I was afraid of. Now it's happened, not only

have I got nothing to lose,