06/02/2014 South Today

Peter, thank you. That's all from the BBC News at

Hello, I'm Sally Taylor. Welcome to South Today. In tonight's programme:

It just keeps on coming, flood defences, transport links and

homeowners struggle to cope. How many ministers does it take to fire

up the economy in Portsmouth? Gill macro I am the secretary of state.

Michael Fallon is in my department. We work very well together. Despite

doing the triple, Southampton's Billy Morgan has it all to do again

for a place in the Olympic final. And face to face with some of the

greats in the largest exhibition of Patrick Lichfield's work. Unpacking

the work was really exciting, it has been like putting together a

fantastic party. They are communities trusting in water pumps,

sandbags, and maybe a few prayers. After the winter we've had, we're

starting to run out of ways of saying this. But the South is facing

yet more violent storms and heavy rain on already swollen rivers and

sodden land. David Cameron is chairing an emergency Cobra meeting

tonight. And he has just pledged an extra ?30 million for flood repairs

and maintenance. But, this evening, many people in the south are still

looking nervously to the skies. Laura Trant has been following

events across the region, let's join her in Winchester. How is it looking

tonight? I am standing in the appropriately named water Lane in

Chichester where river warnings are high. Sandbags have been laid in an

attempt to protect forms. Earlier today the Environment Agency were

here and said it was actually lower than anticipated but that could

change in the coming hours. Many people across the South are worried

about the flood risk where they are. I was in Dorset earlier today where

people had been particularly concerned about their circumstances

since Christmas. Residents here are preparing. One of my neighbours had

actually purchase sandbags. They were ?150 spent on sandbags. There

is not much more you can do. A mile down the road and it is the same

story. Residents of this home Park are nervously watching the river. On

Christmas morning they were evacuated from their homes as the

river burst its banks and flooded their properties. I would like to

think the Environment Agency would come up with the plan to protect us,

we all pay council tax. The Environment Agency has come under

fire for not being proactive, and not warning people soon enough. We

are doing everything possible on the ground to reduce the risk of

flooding. We are seeing very heavy rain, water levels rising and the

risk of properties flooding. We would urge people to take urgent

action to protect properties by sandbagging, removing valuables. We

would also suggest they listen out for the flood warning service and

take action where necessary. Today the focus has been on the rain as a

huge swathe saturated the south. That's after high winds whipped up

giant waves along the coast yesterday. This was the Little Ship

pub in Portland, it wasn't the usual for locals. If you are worried about

the flood risk we would you argue can always check the Environment

Agency website for the latest updates on flood alerts and

warnings. You wait for ages for a government minister to represent

your city, then two come along at once. Last week, the newly appointed

Minister for Portsmouth, Michael Fallon, visited, promising to do all

he could to help the city after the decision to close its naval

shipyard. Today, Business Secretary Vince Cable arrived. Mr Cable, never

one to shy away from upsetting his Conservative coalition colleagues,

has famously said that he was the "real minister for Portsmouth". Our

Political Editor Peter Henley has been following Mr Cable's visit `

and an intriguing struggle for political credit. Ports mode has

been seeing double. Yesterday the Minister for ports mouth and today

the Lib Vince Cable. What a result. Two new jobs created already! But

does it show divided government? A lack of trust between the coalition

parties? Who's idea was it to have Michael Fallon for ports mouth? I am

the secretary of state comic here then my department and we work very

well together. I had arranged to come here before his decision was

made and I come regularly anyway. Vince Cable started his day at this

building for freedom college. He went on to ports mouth. EEE are

relocating to Scotland. Companies like this one might pick up the

slack. They produce carbon fibre pipes for the oil and gas industry.

They create a big reduction in the size of vessels needed to install

it. That is the major cost saving. These men moved here from jobs in

car production. When I joined the were about 20 guys and now there are

120. It is rapidly growing. It is an opportunity, I see it as something

key to being a career move rather than just another job. You would not

say Ford did you a favour? I certainly don't begrudge it, that is

for sure. Both ministers agree this is good for the shipyard. Other jobs

have to be found however. Now he is the most senior lead them to arrive

in the South since the Mike Hancock story, it did he comment on that?

Yes, he stuck to the national line that might have cropped should have

been suspended but he also backed the local party in putting up a

candidate for the May elections. They reacted promptly, he is not

standing as a Lib Dem and that is right. Shouldn't be Lib Dem stand

against him? It is for the local party to decide, these things are

happening in hundreds of council seats up and down the country. But

no Lib Dem candidate with approval from the centre? They have to decide

these issues locally we are not micromanaging from the centre. These

seats will be bitterly contested at the next election. There are two

people trying to claim the credit. It suggests things might be

improving in ports mouth. Otherwise they would hardly be standing up

wanting to take the blame. Each year in the south, dozens of illegal

traveller encampments are dealt with by police forces. The camps are

moved on but the issue never seems to go away. In the last year, there

were 51 illegal encampments in the Chichester District Council area

alone. Today West Sussex officials have shown residents plans for a

proposed temporary Travellers' site at Westhampnett. Katy Austin

reports. At the moment it is just a council depot but parts of this plot

of land could become a short`stay transit site for travellers. Illegal

encampments are a problem in Sussex. Police would have the MoU `` power

to move born such an encampment to a site where they could stay here if

it gets the go`ahead. Is this really the solution? If we get a transit

site police would have the opportunity to move people onto them

and make a better environment for themselves and the community. Many

fear it would not stop at nine pictures. Will it expand and expand?

We do not really trust them. They tell you one thing and then it

suddenly changes. No`one here would speak to me on camera today but they

did express strong feelings about the proposed site down the road for

travellers. They feel their community should take priority and

the kind of people who would come to a transit site are not the kind of

people they would want near them. It will go before Chichester Council's

planning committee. That will happen in the next few months. Still to

come, probably what you have been waiting for but do not want to

hear. It has been the wettest December in January since 1876 and

the rain keeps on coming. I will have the full forecast later. As we

have been hearing, the weather has been causing massive disruption

across the region. Railways have been badly affected by the recent

heavy rain. And embankments in the south have been particularly prone

to landslips because of the clay soil in many areas. Now a five`year

study, led by Southampton University, is looking at how the

railway needs to adapt to a changing climate. Our Transport Correspondent

Paul Clifton is here. Paul, what are they looking at? More intense

rainfall and hotter days. Two of the most likely consequences for

southern England of global warming. Rain will come in less frequent but

heavier events. That is the current academic thinking. The Victorians

built their railway embankments with whatever material was nearby. In

southern England, that largely means clay, which cracks in dry summers

and turns to mud in weather like today's. And this study is looking

at how well those clay embankments can stand up to a changing climate.

On Christmas Day a landslip closed the railway line between

Littlehampton and London. 4000 tonnes of material was needed to

repair it. It reopened today. This part of the railway line will be

closed for up to a month after a landslip. We have to get the bus a

lot earlier than we could get the rain. Track workers have to build an

access road across waterlogged fields before they can start. Here

the embankments are made of clay. What happens to the railway as

exceptional weather becomes an annual event. It is going to be a

combination of trying to look at what will be the likely pattern of

weather, what is likely to be the effect of the vegetation and what

measures can be put in place to stabilise the bank mints, using

piles of example, making slopes less steep. Meanwhile, engineers have

been relaying the railway here. Can this ballast be made more robust?

They are studying the engineering that underpins it. We need to make

sure we use the money where it is really needed and seeing where we

can get away with vegetation management, for example. It is very

much about making our infrastructure robust, resilient and fit for the

future. It is an investment we cannot afford not to make. So, Paul,

where will this research lead? It should establish what needs to be

done to keep the Victorian embankments in good condition. What

sort of vegetation will hold the clay together, stopping it cracking

in summer or collapsing in winter? It should help decide what type of

ballast is best, what angle of slope is most reliable. This work has

implications that run into billions of pounds, and which will affect how

reliable our increasingly busy railways will be far into the

future. The developers of a wind farm off

the coast of Hampshire and Dorset are scaling back their plans to

reduce its visual impact. Following criticism of the project, the

Navitus Bay development will be altered. Some parts will now be

nearly four kilometres further from the shore. It will also be smaller

with fewer turbines, 194 rather than 218. But campaigners say the threats

to the environment, tourism, birds and navigation remain almost

unchanged, and the onshore disruption will be the same. Last

week we reported Reading Council's attempts to bring hundreds of empty

homes back into use. Lots of you got in touch after the report with your

own housing problems. Several tenants ` living in what they

believe are poor conditions ` want Reading Borough Council to force

their landlord to make improvements. The council inspected the flats

before guaranteeing their deposits. Nikki Mitchell has been to see them.

All the mould you can see by the toilet and sink, I clean it four

times a week and it just keeps coming back and growing. The council

inspected this flat before the woman and her daughter moved in. The rent

is covered by housing benefit. The landlord and counsel guaranteed her

deposit. We are not getting anywhere, we have had them out 15

times. Next door conditions are worse. The neighbour did not want to

appear on camera but she shall be her sodden windowsills. Reading

council have cold the staff landlord many times to ask him to take urgent

action but the landlord told us today any mould is the result of the

tenant's negligence. He says they must wipe it up daily and take

either of their property. The council has agreed to move this

woman and her daughter into alternative accommodation. Because

they have a roof over their heads they are ranked as having the lowest

possible priority. They and over 4000 others. I worried as the

council about the quality of privately rented flats? The council

say the work with landlords. Interestingly, the lead councillor

on housing in reading told me that under the deposit guarantee scheme

these landlords are among the more reputable and they are desperate to

get more landlords on board because their is a sure judge `` huge

shortage of homes for people on low incomes. We have lost the number of

council houses over the years through right to buy and the

alternatives for council tenants to buy their own homes is being

increased by this government. We have worked with social housing

providers to consistently deliver social affordable housing

year`on`year but we need to increase that supply. There are 9300 people

on the waiting list or social housing in reading and 4000 of those

are considered high`priority. The rest have no chance, they have to

rent privately. The more people in need, the higher rents go. It is a

vicious circle. As I am sure you know the Winter Olympics in Sochi

formally gets underway tomorrow with its opening ceremony, but in fact

some qualification events took place today. Jo Kent has the details. It

is awed having qualifying before the opening ceremony at nevertheless,

the South has five competitors at the game, let's look at them now.

First up is one you've probably heard of ` Chemmy Alcott. She's an

alpine skier, originally from Hove but now lives in Surrey. Her first

event in Sochi will be the Super Combined on Monday morning. At 31

Chemmy is something of an Olympic veteran ` this will be her fourth

games. She spent the last half of last year trying to get fit again

after breaking her leg in training. But she's still Britain's best

female downhill racer with two eleventh places in previous

Olympics. Penny Coomes is an ice dancer from Berkshire. Along with

partner Nick Buckland, they're aiming for the medal placings in the

figure skating. They're on good form ` Penny and Nick last month won

their first ever European medal when they took the bronze at the European

Figure Skating Championships in Budapest. You can see them in

competition in the team event on Saturday, with their paired ice

dance scheduled for the 16th and 17th February. Billy Morgan is a

snowboarder from Southampton. His event snowboard slopestyle is all

about big tricks and is making its Olympic debut at Sochi. Billy had a

qualification round today but will be in action again on Saturday as he

tries to make the event finals. He's known for his triple rodeo jump of

three full flips in the air. He's thought to be the first snowboarder

to successfully pull off the jump with the video of it becoming an

internet sensation. Andrew Musgrave is originally from Poole in Dorset,

but with his event of cross country skiing, he's now based in Norway for

his training. It paid off because last month he won the sprint event

at the Norweigan National Championships ` outsprinting

previous World cup winners. It's something he's obviously hoping to

replicate in Sochi. His first event is on Sunday. And finally Craig

Pickering. He's based in Milton Keynes and has been selected as part

of the GB team for the bobsleigh. Craig switched to bobsleigh just

over a year ago after losing his funding for athletics ` where he was

an Olympic sprinter. He's one of the very few sportsmen who'll be able to

say they've competed at both summer and winter games. The bobsleigh

starts on Sunday the 16th February. Well, now to Billy Morgan, and he

was the first athlete to compete at the Winter Olympics in Sochi this

morning ` in the debut of the Slopestyle event. In his second run,

Morgan pulled off this impressive backside triple jump, but his

combined scores meant he finished in sixth place overall. It wasn't

enough to get him an automatic place in the finals, with only the top

four going through. However, he'll get another chance to qualify for

the final in the semifinals on Saturday morning. I mist my first

one up and got a 70 something so I knew I had to beat in the next time.

I only got one of my crippled down in practice so I was hoping for the

best and I stopped it. It could have been a bit cleaner but I was happy.

I am really stoked because it has been really good. They got the job

done and it is good. No ice hockey news. Basingstoke bison 's are

through to the Premier League cup final. The bisons went through 11`9

on aggregate despite losing last night. The opening ceremony is four

o'clock tomorrow morning our time. It is the most expensive Olympics

ever, it is going to be amazing. Princess Margaret, Oliver Reed,

Tommy Cooper, rain Martin. It's not the kind of guest list you find

gathered together every day. But these sixties icons are immortalised

in a photographic collection of Royal photographer Patrick

Lichfield's work in Hampshire. And they are being exhibited at

Mottisfont Abbey this weekend. Sean Killick went along for an advanced

viewing ` and a chance to revel in some 35 millimetre nostalgia. He

made his name as part of 60s society, capturing royalty and the

stars, making the most of his aristocratic and showbiz contacts.

Being the Queen's hasn't once removed certainly helped but Lord

Lichfield had the different start to his career. He had amazing

connections comic he knew everybody in society, he was also a pep guide

and knew everybody in swinging London. He started off on ?3 per

week and learn how to take amazing shots, that is really what sets them

apart. We have got five rooms here, the first to have stars of stage and

screen, Roger Ruark, John Gilbert, this is my personal favourite, Dirk

Bogarde, he is so relaxed and happy. This is the sort of thing he

was brilliant at, just capturing these moments where you get the

sense of the person. This room is full of sporting heroes including

the legendary Pele. Lichfield was brilliant at getting action shots.

He would really try to get the pose so he could sum up that person and

what they achieved. Another image includes the Queen laughing at a

prank on the Royal yacht Britannia. He was also the official

photographer for weddings, one particularly steeply. `` stately.

The final portrait here is Nigella Lawson in 2005, just months before

Patrick Lichfield died after suffering a stroke aged 66. Great

photographs and some fabulous people, certainly worth seeing over

the weekend. Now onto the weather. I think we would be shocked if you say

it will be warm, dry and sunny with blue skies. We actually have a day

of sunshine tomorrow. Shaun Roster took this photo of Southsea Pier

surrounded by rough seas and stormy skies. George Smith took this photo

from Bury Hill in West Sussex looking towards Amberley and the

flood water. And Sue Pratt captured the flooding outside the Winchester

School of Art. Thanks for that. The Met office weather warnings stay

with us tonight, tomorrow and into Saturday. We will have some very

intense downpours over the next few hours. That Met Office Amber

Wetherall warning is important for really heavy rain tonight. From the

rain we have had today and through the night tonight into the early

hours we could have an inch of rain fall all in all. Intense downpours

and following the game will be some heavy and squally showers. Deals

along the south coast. Temperatures will fall to four or five Celsius.

`` gales. We are expecting that rain to clear tomorrow morning when we

will then have some good sunshine. There is still the flooding problem

following the rain tonight and we will have more rain tomorrow night.

The wind tomorrow will increase in strength through the evening. Gusts

of up to 60 mph along the south coast. The rain rattled in quickly

with strong winds. Showers to follow perhaps with some heel and thunder.

The wind will ease the touch during the early hours of Saturday morning

but they will increase in strength. Gusts along the south coast of 60 to

70 mph. You can see the strength of the wind wrapping around the area of

low pressure. An amber weather warning in force. That is from

midday onwards on Saturday. The wind will stay strong through the weekend

but gradually easing off on Sunday. Do stay tuned to your BBC local

radio station. There will be some heavy rain and gale through Friday

night and into Saturday. Saturday morning we will have a respite with

the wind. They will increase again through Saturday afternoon. Some

sunshine to be had tomorrow, it do enjoy it because through the weekend

it will be very stormy. That is it from us. Good night.