15/03/2014 South Today

Good evening. Several hundred quarter past ten this evening.

Good evening. Several hundred residents in a West Sussex village

staged a protest this morning to try to stave off a potential housing

development near Worthing. They claim that Persimmon Homes are

preparing a planning application to build nearly 400 houses on the edge

of Ferring. Discovered by accident, the fairing

conservation groups say runs for 400 homes were found in a garden after

Persimmon Homes sent surveyors to the green gap. Residents quickly

mobilised. It's not a question of saying we don't want anybody. We

just plain do not have room. Our doctors are at full stretch, our

roads are in gridlock in the mornings on a weekday. Our schools

are all at capacity here. We simply can't take that many more people.

Persimmon Homes says it does own the land and that a topographical survey

was carried out. It adds, we have always made it clear to Worthing

Borough Council that the site is available and would be suitable for

development. But that doesn't necessarily mean it can build here.

The fields here are part of what is known as a strategic gap.

Essentially, it is green belt land put in place just after the war to

stop villages and towns across this part of the South coast merging into

one another. If you could walk from Southampton to Portsmouth to

Chichester to brighten without seeing a greenfield, this wouldn't

be the place that William Blake wrote about when he wrote Jerusalem

on and delivered about 40 miles from here. Let's try to preserve his

memory and make sure that the green and pleasant land remains. No plans

have been put forward yet, that any would`be developers would know now

that they will have a fight on their hands. We need to keep the gap.

Thank you very much. A criminal investigation has been

started into a light aircraft crash three years ago in Dorset in which a

man died. Orlando Rogers, who was 26 and a passenger in the 1930s Tiger

Moth biplane, died after being airlifted to hospital. But the

aircraft's pilot, Scott Hoyle from Broadstone, survived. Dorset Police

have confirmed they are investigating the circumstances that

led to the accident. They will present their findings to the Crown

Prosecution Service. Trains began running again through

Hampshire today for the first time since the major landslip at the

start of February, which closed the line between Eastleigh and Fareham.

More than 100 engineers worked around clock on a massive

engineering project to repair the 80 metre section of embankment which

gave way in recent heavy rain. But signalling problems means that the

opening has not gone completely to plan, with basic `` delays in the

area of up to 20 minutes. Southampton one at home against

Norwich today. Rickie Lambert came on as a sub to

score and make one for Jay Rodriguez. Another sub found

Gallacher sealing the victory with his first league goal. Saints

conceded two goals in a minute before Gallagher made against safe.

In the championship, brighten our eighth after a 2`0 win at Bolton.

Bournemouth kept a clean sheet for the fourth game in a row, but it ``

could only draw 0`0 against Middlesbrough.

Bristol City are now ninth in the table after a draw against Swindon.

MK Dons are six points off the play`off spots. And Oxford were

defeated by Chesterfield. Portsmouth are now 19th in the

table. Good evening. We've seen some

beautiful blue skies through the day today and we keep some largely clear

skies tonight. There will be some cloud feeding in at times and that

cloud, along with the breeze, should be enough to keep things fairly

mild. Lows there of seven or eight degrees, staying frost free.

Tomorrow we will start with some brightness, but we will find cloud

trying to thicken up from the West, so overall, a bit of a greyer day

than today, but nonetheless, find yourself in that sunshine and it's

going to feel pretty warm. Into next week, it stays mostly settled. I

think it will be typically a dry picture, with some brightness around

at times. That is all from us for now. We are

back tomorrow evening just after 6pm. From all of the team here, good

night. Good evening. Today's weather

perhaps not quite as exciting as the afternoon's sporting events but

nevertheless, there was sparkling sunshine on offer across England,

Wales and also eastern Scotland. Temperatures responded favourably. A

disappointing 9C for western Scotland under that cloud with rain.

Some showers will continue through the night. We