05/06/2014 South Today

Hundreds of veterans reunitd in Portsmouth for a special service

Meanwhile, the Marines re`enact an amphibious landing.

How patients here are waiting longer for their scans than anywhere else.

By the time nine and a half weeks came I had been in hospital four

weeks, been operated on twice and been home for four weeks.

Following in the steps of Ben Ainslie.

We meet the sailor who's tipped for huge success.

The Princess Royal has led tributes to those who took part in the D`Day

landings at a special event in Portsmouth.

Veterans and serving members of the armed forces attended the sdrvice

The port was the departure point for troops heading to Sword Beach

in June 1944, the easternmost of the five beaches

Today's event was the main ceremony in the UK to mark

the 70th anniversary of the invasion, which falls tomorrow.

Portsmouth is proud of the role it played in preparing for D`D`y and

proud to be hosting this commemoration at the 70th

anniversary. The chief of the Royal Navy took the salute as vetdrans of

the Normandy beaches paraded with current members of the armed forces.

Let us remember before God `ll who took part in the Normandy l`ndings.

At the centre of the event, a ceremony borrowing a tradithon from

the battlefield, drums piled up to make an altar. Stemming powdrful

memories for those like this man who remembers his orders on the eve of

D`Day. On the evening of thd 5th of June we were given a male, changed

our money into French frying and forced to cruise up the Norlandy

coast and attacked. We saw the torpedo coming through the water to

our ship and it missed our ship and blew up at the Devils next to us. ``

the poor people next to us. Many of the injured were brought back to

hospital in Gosport, where this woman was a nice. I think of all the

men who came back and did not come back. They were all young mdn. They

had their lives in front of them. What does it mean for you to be here

today? It means everything. The service marks the start of several

days of commemorations in Portsmouth. This is about rdspect

and to shore generations today and future generations what this meant,

what people sacrificed, and it is an honoured to be the mayor to host

this and to show the veterans that people do still care. Those who

survived and those who did not return remembered by a city.

After today's Drumhead Cerelony modern`day troops gave

a display to the public of what an amphibious landing looks like.

Sean Killick was there, and joins us now from Southsea.

It is all very quiet, but it was a very different picture a few hours

ago when thousands of peopld lined the promenade in special st`nds and

were treated to an amazing display by the Royal Navy, the Royal Marines

and the Dutch marines who combined to put on a display as a trhbute to

those who took part in events 7 years ago.

Royal Marines storming a be`ch as their predecessors did 70 ydars ago,

but today it was both the. The Royal Navy, the Royal Marines and the

royal Netherlands marines combining for a D`Day tribute. It was the

biggest amphibious assault hn military history. Portsmouth was the

main departure point for troops heading to Normandy. 150 military

personnel took part in todax's demonstration. It involved ` dozen

landing craft and several armoured vehicles. Among the crowds were many

D`Day veterans. Very impressed. Very realistic. I admire the technology

today. We did not have it in abundance haven't years ago. It

brought back a lot of memorhes. I thought the whole programme was very

well organised. Have they the new proud? Yes. One of those who took

part told me he was humbled the veterans were there to see ht. It

usually important, many people turned up and we have to show the

generation who fought for us. The Marines staged a mock battld with

the enemy patrol. Finally sdcuring the landing ground. One of those in

charge said this was a celebration and commemoration. There is a motion

attached to it, but I wanted to make sure that we got the displax right.

It is surely good to talk to some of the veterans involved and rdspect

the effort they put in on that a 70 years ago. The Red Arrows p`id their

respects. A dazzling displax in honour of D`Day.

One of the most touching molents came soon after the display when

some of those who had taken part topped with some of the vetdrans.

19`year`olds and 90`year`olds talking with one another with mutual

respect for what each other dead and still do. `` did.

We will return to D`Day latdr on in the programme,

Patients at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading are havhng to

wait longer for their scans than at any other NHS hospital in England.

The wait for MRI scans is especially bad with more than half of patients

The hospital says it's workhng to resolve the problem,

which has been caused by fahlures in machinery and monitoring software.

Our Health Correspondent has been looking at the figures

It almost sounds like the scanners have been breaking down?

They put in two new MRI scanners last year.

One didn't work properly, and there are software problems with

While they were struggling to deal with that,

And there were also problems with the ultrasound.

What that's meant is that patients have been waiting luch

She was told to wait two months for an emergency scan

A week later she went into @ccident and Emergency with her husb`nd.

My husband said to them he was not taking me home until they g`ve me

a scan of some description, whether it was an MRI or CT scan.

They agreed to admit me overnight for observation and the next morning

I was unconscious, at which point they agreed to do the CT sc`n.

Those images showed a tangerine sized mass in mx head.

Alex has now had two operathons to remove that tumour

How many patients are still waiting for scans?

At one point more than 6,000 people were on the waiting list for scans.

I understand that several htndred patients had to be sent to private

hospitals because Royal Berkshire couldn't cope.

The hospital knows it's unacceptable to have so many people waithng

and they have been working hard to solve it.

I think any delay for patients is regrettable and certainly wd

apologise to any of those p`tients who have experienced that.

We are keeping a very close track on it and we have actually had a plan

all along to improve the services during the course of this p`rt

of the year and going forwards and we will be on a recovery tr`jectory

When these machines broke down there was a 40% increase in the ntmber

of patients being referred, so it came at the worst possible time

Good news is that both MRI scanners are now working.

Join me in Berkshire to find out how this hillside played a vital role in

training elite troops for a daring mission.

We are in Weymouth as we medt the man who hopes to follow in the

footsteps of Ben Ainslie. Five children

and three adults have been treated for minor injuries after two school

coaches collided in Berkshire. One vehicle ran into the back

of the other on a hill closd to The coaches were carrying 70

pupils and teachers from Westwood All those

on board were wearing seat belts. The coach company TK Travel says

it's cooperating fully with We are still looking to invdstigate

what the cause of the collision was. What we can say is that the injuries

resulting from that collision are believed all to be very minor and

are being treated as a prec`ution. The children were

a little bit surprised. They were strapped up and

in a collar and everything dlse We assessed them

and got their x`rays and evdrything A charity which supports asxlum

seekers has raised concerns after a young man was found dead yesterday

at The Verne prison on Portland The man was

an immigration detainee and sources say the prison authorities believe

he died of natural causes. But the charity says

the prison regime at The Verne is Perched high above Portland Harbour,

The Verne closed last Octobdr In March immigration detaindes were

moved in and the plan was for The Verne to become

an immigration removal centre with The Prison Service decided ht

should still be run as a jahl. Yesterday morning, one

of the inmates, Bruno Dos S`ntos, The police are not treating

his death as suspicious. There are now over 100 detahnees

in The Verne, all foreign n`tional offenders who have served

their prison sentence and are being held indefinitely while the

Home Office considers their status. A charity that works for asxlum

seekers believes the prison regime The main concern is that

the regime is much harsher, the lock`up is for far longer than in

prison and communication with the So people feel very isolated

from family, friends and lawyers The death

of Bruno Dos Santos is being investigated by the Independent

Prisons and Probations Ombudsman. A 48`year`old woman has been

charged by police over a suspected A 22`year`old woman was left with

serious facial burns after the incident

at the Royal China restaurant Sau Lin`Hin of Mulberry Way in Ryde

has been charged with causing Businesses are being warned that

companies who call up and claim they can reduce their overhdads

could end up costing them money An investigation

by BBC South has found eviddnce that some firms are paying to have

their business rates reduced only to find that the process is

unsuccessful and leaves thel When this electronics company was

contacted by a firm that claimed it could

reduce business rates, they signed They gave us

a very convincing case for why our I do not believe that case

was ever based on reality. I think they were very happx to take

the fee, do the minimum for it, which was put in the applic`tion,

and then just walk away. Business rates are a tax

on non`domestic properties. They are based on size,

location and rent. The rate of the value

of a premises is reviewed every five years and collected by the local

authority but it can be complicated, which is why companies offer to

look at them on your behalf. What many businesses do not realise

is you can get this done for free by contacting the government

department responsible, There is a lot of work the

government has to be doing on the appeals process which would help in

some way people to stop belheving they can short circuit the system

and go through these companhes and I think the government needs to

be doing more about that. On a south Reading industri`l

estate, this company sells They paid ?700 to have

their business rates looked at. Our rates are reasonably high

for Reading but we seem unable to It is like one of those people who

ring you up and pester you who have not really done the due dilhgence

and are just taking advantage of us. The Royal Institute of Chartered

Surveyors are the professional There are a number of companies

that offer the service. While some have declined to comment,

one says they adhere to a strict code of conduct,

have served thousands And while it is acknowledged

that some customers on occasions are dissatisfied, they say they

always seek to put things rhght That is little comfort

for those left out of pocket who say they will just have to put tp with

this tax until it is next rdviewed Sport, and Bournemouth striker

Lewis Grabban has joined Chris Jordan has received hhs first

call up to the England Test squad after being named in the 12 for the

first test against Sri Lank` which starts next Friday.

London Welsh have won promotion act to the premiership. They be`t

Bristol in the second leg of the play`off final last night, giving

them a 20 point win on aggrdgate and securing a return to the top flight

season after being relegated. He has been dubbed the next Ben

Ainslie but he is keen to bdlieve his own trail. The Weymouth `based

sailor certainly has the winning habit. `` Weymouth`based sahlor

Sailing to victory, Giles Scott has been in for a double form. Hs when

this week was almost a procdssion at the Olympic venue. It is two years

to the next Games but he is hungry. It is amazing how close the Games

feels. You almost feel like you do not have a great till of tile. As

you get closer, that imminent feeling becomes greater. He was in

the form of his life in 2012. It was Ben Ainslie who represented Team GB

and won gold. Now is the tile for Scots to emerge from his sh`dow The

next Ben Ainslie. How does that suit you? I am not the next Ben @inslie.

I am Giles Scott. I will never be Ben Ainslie. There is a lot I want

to achieve in selling and hopefully there is more to come. He h`s mixed

emotions, having fought an hntense battle with Ben Ainslie and losing

out to selection. It is where I lost the Olympic trials and wherd I

watched the Games. It was an interesting situation was ultimately

without the selection `` throughout the selection then was trying to

assert his dominance and I was trying to break that down. The

competition stayed on the w`ter which is a good thing. The leading

Olympic contenders will head to Rio de Janeiro this autumn. I al a

believer in wanting to win dvery competition and I do. It is going to

be a big learning calves. It will be the first time I have been to Rio de

Janeiro during Games time. He could be the next big thing in Brhtish

sailing. We can return to the 70th

anniversary of D`Day. We tangled to what was a secret training ground

for a top`secret D`Day misshon. It prepared them for one of D`Day's

most important battles. With its spectacular views `cross

four counties, this is a mecca for walkers but anyone who tried to come

here in the spring of 1944 would have found all of this countryside"

as an elite unit appeared for a secret mission. `` prepared. The

mission was to disable four placements built by the Gerlans on

the Normandy coast so the Allied forces could land. We coverdd the

beach six miles away. We fldw six miles a minute, it would have caused

carnage for the fellas landhng. It had to be silenced. Photogr`phs

reveal that bombing of the `rea had failed so The Parachute Reghment was

given the task to finish thd job. It was so well fortified area liquor

was needed for the troops to practice on. The man who devised the

plan is, `` is in this picttre. He decided upon here, one of the main

reasons was that was quite secret. It was very difficult for access.

The Hill would act as a but for the fire. To give us the best thmes of

success and survival. He was a hard past master `` past master. This man

has not seen these fields in 70 years. Most of the attackers were

planned by parachute at night but he was part of a smaller group with an

even more dangerous role. Hd wanted 60 men to volunteer to crash land

inside. One of the officers begged and pleaded to go in the glhder he

was a volunteer. He said, I am not going to send my regular officers on

a suicide mission. He did not tell me that. One officer referrdd to the

mission as a stink of a job. The cardinal was anxious about details

leaking out. He gave his men the night off and that has to come into

town. The young woman so eager to make conversation were membdrs of

the workforce. Their task w`s to try to engage the men in conversation

and get them to divulge det`ils of their secret mission. Despite the

attentions of the young wom`n in the pubs of nobody, not one man breathed

a word. Today, nothing remahns of the training ground, the only key a

simple stone memorial. You can be the best soldier in the world, but

bullets can be fired. There's a lot of luck attached to survival. It is

very sad. The troops returndd to their base on Salisbury Plahn, ready

to put their plan into action, but little could prepare them for what

was actually happening on that daring D`Day mission.

We will have a special programme tomorrow night marking the 70th

anniversary of the D`Day landings. Our reporter is in France.

Join us for a special progr`mme tonight live in France. 70 xears ago

British soldiers came ashord here in Normandy. We will be telling the

story of one of those soldidrs from Dorset. We will be finding out about

the mission to disarm the Gdrman gun battery which is just the fdw

colonic `` kilometres down the road. We will be with the veterans, so

many of them from the south, who have made the journey to relember

their comrades. Join us tomorrow night live in France.

That is at the later time of 7pm. At 7pm tonight we will be live in

Normandy. It was a much better day.

It goes downhill on Saturdax. A display in honour of D`Day veterans

captured by Sean. Tonight is a fairly quiet nhght with

clear skies and the risk of one or two mist patches in the usu`l spots.

Under the clear skies, maybd the odd shower. Temperatures dropping away

to single figures. Possibly lower temperatures in the countryside The

winds are fairly light. This and Falkirk will clear tomorrow with the

old shower. It is a decent `nd Friday like today. Temperattres will

reach 23 Celsius with a light southeasterly wind. The wins

tomorrow are southeasterly, drawing up the mild air from the continent.

70 years ago temperatures wdre around 10 degrees lower than that,

the winds drawing in cooler air so choppy conditions on the 6th of June

1944. Tomorrow night we can expect some settled conditions unthl the

early hours of the morning when it turns fairly unsettled from the

south west and the south with the band of thundery showers moving up

from France. Quite a humid night to come. The winds will start to

pick`up. Band of rain or showers will reach its way up from the

channel on Saturday. The Met Office have issued a yellow weather

warning. There could be loc`lised flooding full of that will clear

through Saturday night. You may have some sunshine on offer. The showers

may not affect everyone. Sole areas could they drive. We have hhgh

pressure coming in from the Atlantic. The thunderstorms will be

hit and mist. Join us tomorrow. It's a weekly selection

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