19/04/2017 South Today - Oxford

Coming up: for the news where you are.

John Bercow's decision to seek a third term

in Buckingham. and what it means for voters

The Ukip councillor who broke the law

by parking in a disabled bay, using a blue badge that

And production of the Mini is halted in Oxford, as workers strike

The longest serving MP in our region,

Labour's Andrew Smith, has announced he's standing down

and won't be a candidate in the general election.

He's represented Oxford East for 30 years.

He says the next parliament is likely to run until 2022,

by which time he'd be 71, and he feels it's time

Meanwhile, in Buckingham, John Bercow, says he'll be seeking

a third term as Speaker of the Commons.

It means fewer options for voters in his constituency.

Traditionally, the main parties don't contest the Speaker's seat -

John Bercow has been MP for Buckingham for nearly two decades.

But most of us know he better as Speaker of the House of Commons.

Tried to calm down and behaves like an adult.

If you can't, if it's beyond you, leave the chamber, get

Since Bercow took office as Speaker in 2009 the main political parties

have not stood against him in his constituency.

If he's going to be an MP for a town, he's got to be

able to get in touch with his constituents.

We've got to be able to get in touch with him.

It can be a bit annoying if you've got

different views to the speaker but it's just the way it goes, someone's

It's annoying you don't have a vote that counts

because you can't vote the other parties.

Which is the entire point of having a vote in an election.

confirmed that he will be standing for a third term as speaker.

What choice do people here in

Labour and Conservative parties have already said they won't be fielding

Ukip and the Greens have previously fielded

candidates here in Buckingham and now billable Democrats say they will

be putting up opposition in Buckingham too.

78,000 electors in one particular constituency, in this

case Buckingham, are effectively denied a proper choice in general

This is a particularly important election, possibly the

There's less than a month for parties to choose

a candidate to stand, the deadline for

A 17-year-old boy has been jailed for six years for a hate crime

in which a transgender man was attacked and robbed

Owen Wise verbally abused him, making references to him

being transgender and punched him in the face before stealing his

21-year-old Michael Thorpe was also involved in the attack.

He'ss been sentenced to two years and three months.

A Ukip councillor from Buckinghamshire has been fined

for parking in a disabled bay, using a blue badge that

Chris Adams is a member of both Buckinghamshire County Council

He was caught using his friend's parking pass in Portsmouth last

September, even though a multistorey car park was nearby.

Christopher Adams stood for Ukip in Aylesbury

But it was here, in Portsmouth, last September, where the 50-year-old

Ukip councillor was confronted by a parking warden for wrongly

Portsmouth Magistrates' Court heard he'd travelled for a three day Ukip

conference in Bournemouth, with his friend who

But later that week - without his friend -

he attended a wedding and used the permit to park.

In his county council constituency - there's been mixed

A person in authority should really be above and beyond that.

They should show a good example to the

He's meant to be a role model demonstrating what you'd

The court heard he'd wrongfully used the permit -

despite being close to a multi storey car park.

When questioned by the warden, who confiscated the badge,

he admitted to being "a naughty boy".

Being a naughty boy makes light of it.

There is no excuse for doing that, certainly not under the

The Ukip councillor later pleaded guilty in court

He's been fined more than ?350 and ordered to pay around

In a statement, the council does as it takes abuse of the blue badge

system very seriously and investigate all instances reported

to them. They said they can refuse to renew a blue badge if it has been

Police are hunting a man who failed to return

to prison in Buckinghamshire on Sunday.

Jayvan Burton was released from Springhill Prison

near Aylesbury last Thursday on a temporary licence.

He's serving a sentence for robbery, attempted robbery and burglary.

Pangbourne retained fire station in Berkshire is to close,

A second retained station, at Wargrave near Henley,

has been told it can stay open for another year.

Beyond that, the Fire Authority says it will depend if savings

the number of firefighters on-call can be increased.

A 24-hour strike has halted production of the Mini in Oxford.

Workers at the pressing plant in Swindon also walked out,

in a dispute over BMW's plans to close the final

The firm says it's disappointed at the action,

but that customers orders should not be affected.

Andy Howard sent this report from Swindon.

This factory in Swindon didn't make anything today,

because most of the staff walked out, for the first time

Let's say his annual wage is ?30,000 - he would've been expecting ?20,000

But that pension plan has suddenly been scrapped.

Now, he says he'd get more like ?14,000 a year or even less

If Trevor lives to 80, he could be about ?120,000 worse

I feel very disappointed, I feel like the company has let me down.

I've worked there for 36 years and now they are trying

Today the picket line was full of similar stories.

I would stand to lose in excess of

That's money myself and my family would

I want to retire with dignity

and respect and BMW should honour

Even the union's assistant general secretary visited, to add his voice.

Our people are being treated differently in the UK than Germany,

The company need to sit down with us and

negotiate a proper deal that will satisfy

everybody, unfortunately we

are a long way from that at the moment.

BMW's statement said this type of pension is "unsustainable

and unaffordable in the long term", and they are changing it now

to "protect existing and future pensions...and ensure long term

competitiveness of the UK operation".

Whether you think they're masterpieces or not,

there was no progress on the production line here today.

Work's begun to build the first new council homes

A long-disused piece of land in Caversham is being cleared

to make way for seven pre-fabricated blocks -

each containing four two-bedroom flats.

The timber-clad modular units will be delivered

to the site in June, and should be ready by the autumn.

The intention is that the temporary homes will go to families

on the council's growing waiting list -

many currently in bed and breakfast accommodation.

There has been a huge increase in people coming to the Council for

help. We have over 100 people in this accommodation. This will give

them their own front doors, 28 families will be able to bring their

children to school. They will have much better accommodation only have

Alexis has the details for tonight and into the weekend.

South Today is back in BBC Breakfast tomorrow morning.

What a glorious day we had today and tomorrow there will

be slightly more cloud, although temperatures

This cloud is sinking its way southwards,

There is the chance we could have a touch of frost out

There is also the chance for some patchy drizzle where

Temperatures in most places overnight tonight will

drop to around six or seven Celsius, but will be lower than this in the

So, to start the day tomorrow, we'll have some sunshine

through the morning, but through the afternoon,

it will cloud over and we may see some patchy rain at times,

mainly light and drizzle here and there.

There will be some drier periods as well.

Temperatures reaching a high of 13 Celsius, so

very similar to today's's Celsius, although there will be a good deal

Tomorrow night, we import some mild air.

So Friday will feel a little bit warmer.

Through the course of today, there will be some

sunshine, varying amounts of cloud and a weather front is moving

This will arrive through Friday night into Saturday and the

So for the weekend, we are looking at some

But this month as a whole has been very dry, barely

There will be some rainfall, meaningful rainfall,

for the start of next week, which is good news for farmers

As we look ahead to the rest of the week, tomorrow, after a

cloudy start, well, in fact, a sunny start for most places -

it will cloud over through the afternoon.

And patchy drizzle can't be ruled out.

A warmer day on Friday and feeling cooler over the weekend.

similar story across the UK. Thomas matter has that story.

Good evening, before we get to the forecast, I want to show you a map

which depicts how dry it has been during the course of April. Brown is

below average rainfall, blue is above average. You can see how Brown

the map is. Some areas in the south, some counties have only seen a few

percent so far in April. Not necessarily a good thing at all. The

rest of the