:00:00. > :00:00.Welcome to South Today. coverage for you online and on
:00:00. > :00:00.Coming up: What's the key to getting people on board?
:00:00. > :00:08.How bus passenger numbers have risen in the Thames Valley -
:00:09. > :00:13.Also: nothing left to cut in their schools -
:00:14. > :00:16.the teachers warning some lessons may have to go - and classes
:00:17. > :00:20.And 11,000 operations - Oxford's pioneering heart surgeon
:00:21. > :00:23.Steve Westaby on how it feels to save a life -
:00:24. > :00:34.The number of people using bus services in Oxford,
:00:35. > :00:37.Reading and Milton Keynes has grown in the last six years -
:00:38. > :00:39.despite an overall decline nationally.
:00:40. > :00:41.That's according to a new report by public transport
:00:42. > :00:46.It found, in Oxford, bus use increased by 12%.
:00:47. > :00:48.In Milton Keynes it was up by 15 percent...and in Reading
:00:49. > :00:52.the number was even higher - at 17%.
:00:53. > :01:02.The hustle and bustle of Oxford's bus network.
:01:03. > :01:06.One in five of us now uses the bus to get to work in the city.
:01:07. > :01:11.I get the bus, because it's a damn good bus service, actually.
:01:12. > :01:13.And what do you like about getting the bus?
:01:14. > :01:17.If I could drive and park into Oxford, I would be
:01:18. > :01:19.much happier with that, but I won't pay parking
:01:20. > :01:23.Somebody drives you there rather than you having to walk and its dry
:01:24. > :01:30.And if it's busy now, it's set to get even busier.
:01:31. > :01:32.Oxford is one of the fastest-growing cities in the world.
:01:33. > :01:42.You've got two very good operators that compete against each other.
:01:43. > :01:44.We serve to raise each other's standards, because we are always
:01:45. > :01:46.watching with the other one is doing.
:01:47. > :01:48.Making sure we are keeping the investment going.
:01:49. > :01:51.And also, we have had the right policy in place from local
:01:52. > :01:53.Government to make sure that bus travel is prioritised.
:01:54. > :01:55.Oxford is not the only place that is investing
:01:56. > :01:59.Reading for instance has the third highest level of bus passengers
:02:00. > :02:03.Even Milton Keynes, a town traditionally designed
:02:04. > :02:07.Last year it received Government funding to bring
:02:08. > :02:12.In Oxford, there are plans for extra park and ride sites,
:02:13. > :02:14.bus priority on the roads, and even a zero
:02:15. > :02:26.But rural areas outside the city centre have suffered.
:02:27. > :02:29.Last year, transport bosses ended all bus subsidies in the county
:02:30. > :02:38.And what about people who can't catch the bus?
:02:39. > :02:39.Well, I do accept that at inconvenient hours,
:02:40. > :02:42.like early morning and late evening, the bus service is less
:02:43. > :02:45.than it is during the middle of the day, but we do
:02:46. > :02:47.try to encourage the bus operators to actually put
:02:48. > :02:53.The challenge for the council, it seems, is balancing the pressures
:02:54. > :02:55.to be greener with the service that is both reliable
:02:56. > :03:00.Headteachers in Oxfordshire say they're running out
:03:01. > :03:06.They're now warning the number of lessons could be reduced -
:03:07. > :03:11.Nearly half of the county's schools are due to lose money
:03:12. > :03:13.under a planned shake up of education funding.
:03:14. > :03:15.All 35 secondary schools in Oxfordshire have now
:03:16. > :03:19.Our political reporter Bethan Phillips has the story:
:03:20. > :03:22.With its new funding formula, the Government promised to tackle
:03:23. > :03:27.And as a county that's been poorly funded in the past,
:03:28. > :03:30.hopes were raised that Oxfordshire would be a big winner.
:03:31. > :03:36.But critics have described the reality as horrendous,
:03:37. > :03:40.with nearly half of schools in the county actually
:03:41. > :03:43.facing a budget reduction if the change goes ahead.
:03:44. > :03:45.Headteachers say they're simply running out of things to cut.
:03:46. > :03:49.We are absolutely at the bottom now and there is nowhere else to cut
:03:50. > :03:51.without seriously damaging provisions.
:03:52. > :04:01.Reasonable sized classes, the 25 hour week curriculum offer,
:04:02. > :04:03.those are now the sorts of things that are under threat
:04:04. > :04:08.Even schools set to gain under the new system say overall
:04:09. > :04:12.Analysis from the National Audit Office says rising pupil numbers
:04:13. > :04:14.will mean schools generally see their budgets shrink by eight%
:04:15. > :04:19.Headteachers in Oxfordshire claim the government's new formula
:04:20. > :04:30.will particularly hit the core funding they get for each child.
:04:31. > :04:33.They say they're going to lose more than ?400 for every 11
:04:34. > :04:37.A letter's been sent to MPs, warning them about the problem -
:04:38. > :04:39.some have already promised to take the issue further.
:04:40. > :04:42.Well, it is important to bear in mind that an MP I can bring
:04:43. > :04:45.pressure on Government to make sure that the funding is fair
:04:46. > :04:48.and it is precisely what I'm doing and what I should be doing Monday
:04:49. > :05:08.A new Oxford Brookes University campus has officially
:05:09. > :05:11.Nursing students have been using new facilities
:05:12. > :05:15.at the Delta Business Park site since last Summer.
:05:16. > :05:18.The man the building is named after, Joel Joffee, was at today's event.
:05:19. > :05:20.The former human rights lawyer is from Swindon.
:05:21. > :05:23.It was a mixture of pride and feeling privileged,
:05:24. > :05:27.but rather embarrassed, because I'm just an ordinary person.
:05:28. > :05:29.I consider myself rather average and so I was surprised,
:05:30. > :05:39.Blenheim Palace has been given charity status.
:05:40. > :05:42.It means the 18th century stately home - which was the birth place
:05:43. > :05:45.of Sir Winston Churchill - will be able to claim back
:05:46. > :05:50.income tax on donations and apply for grants.
:05:51. > :05:52.The extra money means more restoration and conservation
:05:53. > :05:56.He's performed more than 11 thousand heart operations
:05:57. > :05:59.Professor Steve Westaby, who's now retired from
:06:00. > :06:02.the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, is one of the most
:06:03. > :06:10.He's written a book about his career and the patient's whose
:06:11. > :06:15.I spoke to him earlier and he told me what being
:06:16. > :06:25.It is saws and sharp instruments, but we do a lot of good.
:06:26. > :06:28.You save a lot of lives, we make a lot of patients feel very
:06:29. > :06:31.much better and it's a very satisfactory job to do.
:06:32. > :06:35.Your book is called Fragile Lives, how does it feel to save a life?
:06:36. > :06:38.Because a lot of the people you're trying to save are very high-risk
:06:39. > :06:45.I've had very many very high risk patients in my career and of course,
:06:46. > :06:48.it's always a privilege to operate on s patient and save a life.
:06:49. > :06:54.It's important not to get involved with that patient emotionally before
:06:55. > :06:56.you do save their lives because some of them
:06:57. > :07:05.You were the first surgeon to fit a patient with a new type
:07:06. > :07:07.of artificial heart, back in the 2000.
:07:08. > :07:09.How high risk did it feel to do that?
:07:10. > :07:14.Well, when Peter Houghton walked into my office, I described him
:07:15. > :07:23.He was within weeks of dying and had been turned down for transplantation
:07:24. > :07:26.The first time he was too well and the second time,
:07:27. > :07:35.So, he had given up on life and I had this small device,
:07:36. > :07:38.the size of my thumb, called the Jarvik 2000
:07:39. > :07:44.Instead of living three or four more weeks of misery,
:07:45. > :07:49.And then died of something completely different.
:07:50. > :07:52.Out of all the 11,000 operations you've done, does one standout
:07:53. > :07:55.for you because it was either very, very difficult or because you made
:07:56. > :07:57.an emotional connection with that patient?
:07:58. > :08:01.I used to love operating on babies and children and there was one case
:08:02. > :08:03.that came so close tonight getting through that you could
:08:04. > :08:25.I was in a hotel in Sydney having just gone to bed after literally
:08:26. > :08:29.to a baby who was dying from heart failure at the age of five months.
:08:30. > :08:32.And that they be had been having heart attacks at that age,
:08:33. > :08:35.because her main coronary artery came off the artery to the lungs.
:08:36. > :08:38.I designed a new operation for the problem, because existing
:08:39. > :08:40.operations weren't very satisfactory.
:08:41. > :08:42.Did that operation with the film cameras running and then couldn't
:08:43. > :08:47.And after two hours of struggling, and a very depressed team
:08:48. > :08:50.in the operating theatre, I went out to tell the parents
:08:51. > :08:55.that I thought the baby had gone, had died.
:08:56. > :08:58.And there was such a miserable response from the mother -
:08:59. > :09:04.you can imagine telling a mother she's going to lose a baby -
:09:05. > :09:08.that I turned my heels and went back into the operating theatre and did
:09:09. > :09:13.something absolutely ridiculous, chopped a third of the circumference
:09:14. > :09:22.of the heart out to make it smaller and deputy stitch in
:09:23. > :09:25.Cut a long story short, she survived and is now 18.
:09:26. > :09:33.This summer will see the final Cornbury music festival -
:09:34. > :09:35.Sophie Ellis Bexter and Jools Holland.
:09:36. > :09:37.The festival is held on the Great Tew Estate
:09:38. > :09:43.The weather forecast is next - and its looking very cold tomorrow.
:09:44. > :10:22.A cold wind taking the edge of temperatures.
:10:23. > :10:44.Showers likely in eastern parts drifting into Oxford.
:10:45. > :10:54.Saturday, cold, temperatures struggle.
:10:55. > :11:03.sleet and snow. The outlook, Sunday will turn a bit less cold again. All
:11:04. > :11:13.the way up seven Celsius. At this time of year we can often
:11:14. > :11:14.get the weather stories