26/01/2017 South Today - Oxford

Welcome to South Today. for the news where you are.

Coming up: Blocked from his own land - the farmer who can't

access his crops after Network Rail closed the level crossing.

The Reading woman who saw a plea for help and took

A farmer from Aylesbury says he's devastated after discovering he's

been cut off from 90 acres of his own crops.

Network Rail says it has closed a level crossing which runs

through Fleet Marston Farm - for safety reasons.

The farm's owner says the land brings in more than ?50,000

a year and the closure could jeopardise his business.

The latest recruits in four generations of farming.

For 80 years, the Hunters have sewn, fertilised and harvested this land,

with the wheat they grow supporting their business,

The 400-acre farm is split by a railway line,

For over a century, the tractors and the tracks

I got here to the farm, heard a bit of noise,

looked across the field and saw what where a pair of gates

I seen them cutting the signpost down, cutting the gates off,

For the last 150 years, tractors have been using this bridge

Until November, when a three tonne weight limit was enforced.

Inconvenient, but not a massive problem, because they could still

use the level crossing down there, until today.

So now, the railway line which once divided this farm has now

The family say they were in talks with Network Rail after receiving

a letter last week, but this morning's work was

They now have no way to harvest the wheat they planted and face

losing more than ?50,000, an amount that will threaten

Network Rail failed to tell us why they were doing the work,

but did say they haven't yet received a complaint from the farm,

If this is what they are doing along the line, this

story has got to go out, because it is not right,

Andy Hunter, ending that report by Matt Gravelling.

19 people have been charged following a series of drugs raids

A total of 180 officers raided 24 properties on Tuesday.

The men and women are accused of drug-related offences,

including conspiracy to supply heroin and cocaine.

A group of homeless people living in a former car showroom in Oxford

have been told they'll need to leave by the end of next month.

The former dealership had been empty for months before local residents

Wadham College, which owns the site, has been given planning permission

Work is due to start at the end of February.

Campaigners claim plans for a garden town in Didcot aren't living up

to their name because of proposals to build on a park.

The plans include building flats and a technology campus

South Oxfordshire District Council says the overall plan will mean more

green space for Didcot and more money from the government

but hundreds of people have already signed a petition

This is enjoyed by mums and their children,

and we will have the loss of a garden in the middle

The amount of new buildings is tiny in comparison

The vast majority of existing space will be exactly as it is,

New facilities in terms of children play areas and so forth.

This week, we have been running a series of reports celebrating

the tenth anniversary of the Oxford Children's Hospital.

Tonight we get rare access to one of the most highly specialist

The Oxford Cranio facial unit is one of only four in the UK -

and uses ground breaking techniques to alter a patient's features.

Jeremy Stern has this special report.

It is the day after the big operation.

Hannah are Tom are waiting for news on their

She was born with an unusually shaped head and referred

to a specialist unit at the Oxford Children's Hospital.

Yesterday was possibly the longest seven hours of my life waiting

for her to come through the operation.

I knew what she was going through and the potential risks

The fact that her dad had had something similar,

and that was his worst fear, that Lucy would end up

Then you wonder what the implications are for her,

The children's hospital is one of four in the country

with a department for what's called craniofacial treatment.

Surgeons move bone and skin to alter a patient's features.

There are many examples where I've been doing things

A lot of conditions where you are having

to think on your feet, almost design new

About 100 operations take place every year,

Brianne was born with a unique mix of disorders.

If someone else had it the same as Brianne then we could compare

But because no one else has got that missing genome,

they don't know what it is, so, future-wise, we don't

We don't know if she's going to develop normally,

or if it will affect any aspect of her life, which is quite

Brianne's been through several operations.

Psychologists, genetisists and speech therarapists

Her forehead has been rebuilt, and surgeons are hoping

to bring her eyes closer together when she's older.

Back on the ward, there's good news about Lucy.

We took the bottom two centimetres of the bone of the front,

What is really wonderful is going and seeing the family

afterwards and seeing the parents and telling them that everything

Watching the emotion change in their face to absolute relief.

We have just been blown away by the care they have given us.

We are so indebted to them that we got her back

yesterday, and she is doing so wonderfully well.

Mr Johnson has just done an absolutely amazing job.

We couldn't have hoped for better, and she couldn't have

Like many other children, the treatment Kirsty's getting

in Oxford is setting her up for a happy and healthy life.

Now, here is a tale to restore your faith in human nature.

It starts with a letter taped to an empty bike rack

The letter was addressed to the thief who had

stolen a brand new bike, belonging to someone who had

A passer-by saw the note, and decided to do something

Flapping from an empty bike rack, this letter caught

Rachel's eye as she was walking along Reading's

"Dear bike thief, have you ever thought that you make

You might have seen that the bike is new and will be

Letting you know that I could only afford that bike after one year

I was saving and dreaming of having a new bike one day.

Well, it's a pretty forlorn looking note, as you can see.

Everything I read just make me feel sad for the person, really.

It was signed, "From Alex", who added that he or she would wait

by the bike rack at 6pm each evening this week in the hope that

I've lived here for coming on 17 years now and, actually,

And that's what motivated me to do something.

Within half an hour, Rachel had set up an online appeal

aiming to collect enough money to buy a replacement bike,

aiming to collect enough money to buy a replacement bike.

24 hours later, the total had already reached over ?700.

I've got no idea but Alex says that they will be here at 6pm.

I don't know if Alex is male or female, even because it is a name

But I will be here at 6pm, hopefully, to give Alex

Alex, understandably wary at first, was deeply moved to know

It's given back my faith in humanity.

We are back in BBC Breakfast tomorrow morning,

Next up, it is the weather with Alexis Green.

We had a frosty start this morning. Tomorrow will be similar. The wins

will stay brisk. Coming in from the south-east or the South.

Temperatures tonight in towns and cities will fall below freezing.

Minus five degrees in the countryside. We might have some mist

and fog patches first thing tomorrow morning. Tomorrow, some bright

spells during the morning. Cloud thickening in the afternoon. Patchy

outbreaks of range of the afternoon and into the evening. The Wynnstay

impressed from the South. Temperatures

tomorrow higher than today. Four or 5 degrees. Today, it was just above

freezing. Milder conditions tomorrow. Milder still for the

weekend. Saturday, brisk south-westerly wind and some

showers. Merging to form a longer spells of rain. Possibly the odd

rumble of thunder on Saturday during daylight hours. On Sunday, the

chance we could have a period of rain. Tomorrow starts on a dry note

with some bright spells during the course of the morning. Patchy

weekend. It's swings and roundabouts, higher temperatures but

some rain as well. Good evening. It's been dry so far

this January but as it draws to a close it