18/01/2017 South Today

Good evening. Welcome to South Today.

Service families say their complaints for improved

It doesn't seem like we're important enough to care about making

Calls for tougher sentences on the organisers of dog

fighting as the RSPA records an increase in incidents.

Three-year-old Marla's delight with her prosthetic arm

Instead of that, "Oh, poor you," we get a, "Wow!

I'm looking forward to getting to dry land again.

And Gosport's Alex Thomson pushes hard to the finish,

but has he got enough time to beat the Frenchman in the lead?

The armed forces covenant says accommodation provided to military

families should be 'of good quality, affordable and suitably located.'

Yet, tonight we can reveal that families in the South are living

Six months ago the firm in charge of maintaining them was threatened

with losing its multi-million pound contract unless things improved.

The Public Accounts Committee says they have, but that's not

the experience of residents as Lewis Coombes reports.

It's the battle that's closer to home.

Military families fighting for an acceptable standard

These are just some of the pictures sent to BBC South.

Kim is married to an RAF pilot based in Hampshire.

After 13 years, he's decided to leave his job,

partly due to the state of military housing.

A small leak from their boiler resulted in their lounge ceiling

being replaced as it took nine months to fix what was initially

Kim was heavily pregnant and recently diagnosed with cancer.

I just don't know what happens between the people being called

The process doesn't seem to work, the administration or the computer

It did affect my health cos I was just so stressed about it

and I was so focused about it and I felt so helpless.

Carillion Amey maintains 47,000 homes in a five year contract

If Carillion Amey is being paid by the MoD to do a certain job,

BBC South has been inundated with families on e-mail talking

about their experiences, but unwilling to do so on camera

over fears of the consequences it could have on their jobs.

It includes a solier of 22 years who's weighing up whether to leave

the military because he's embarrassed about the standard

of accommodation he's providing his family.

A group of MPs have been tasked with holding those in charge

Those wives are sitting looking after three kids

while their husbands are flying Typhoos out of Akrotiri.

That's not an acceptable support system.

It should certainly not be leaving families in the state of young

children and no heat, for example, and if that's happening,

MoD figures show the average rent fo an unfurnished three bedroom service

It's subsidised to help keep forces mobile, but families feel more

It doesn't seem like we're important enough to care about making

We expect our homes to be up to standard and then it

Carillion Amey has apologised to Kim and insists it is "working hard

for service personnel and their families and

focusing on how they can improve things further.

In a statement the MOD said "it will absolutely not hesitate to take

Earlier, I spoke to the MP Anne-Marie Trevelyan,

I began by asking her how things had changed over the past six months.

Carillion Amey have made some real efforts to progress.

They've improved their computer systems and tracking.

That side of things is now working much better.

The challenge that continues is, and it's something I raised

in the Public Accounts Committee hearing that we had yesterday,

is that actually stuff still isn't getting completed.

A plumber might arrive, have a look, work out that he doesn't

That can be logged as solving the problem and one

of the challenges I set the department yesterday was to get

some real clarity on what actually fixing the problem does look like.

So that Carillion Amey have nowhere to go on that.

1,300 complaints to the contractor in just one month.

So on the ground, are you actually hearing the true story?

Certainly families are contacting me and one of the challenges I have

acting as their advocate here in Parliament is that many

families still don't feel confident enough to actually contact me.

I know you've set up this personal hotline.

Families don't want to use it because of reprisals.

They are concerned, they're not going to get in touch with you.

They're not confident about getting in touch with you.

I think that's the real challenge we have.

I have confirmation from the head of people for the Army that it's

absolutely fine for people to contact me on these matters,

it's got nothing to do with defence, this is all about housing

They can contact me privately anyway and we can work out how

The Carillion Amey team are getting much better

Otherwise people wouldn't be coming to us saying -

The MoD is still holding about ?4 million from the contractor

Do you anticipate they'll be hanging on to that even further and could it

be that if the contractor doesn't come up with the goods

and doesn't finish the job, they could terminate the contract?

Yesterday the MoD people that we had in Public Accounts Committee talking

to us were indicating that things had improved a lot

and that they were minded to continue for now because change

But I think we must be absolutely on top of this and I would urge

families to contact me privately, so that I've got a much clearer

Six months ago I spoke to you, we're speaking now.

What will have changed in six months' time, do you think?

I would hope that six months from now, I will be hearing

from many former families who are frustrated by not getting

the repairs done that they need so that their families

Southern Railway is to resume a full train service from next

Tuesday, for the first time since last summer.

It held talks with the drivers' union all day.

Aslef has suspended its strikes and overtime ban.

But the RMT union, which represents conductors, is still due

Southern says it will run four out of five trains that day,

including serving Portsmouth and Southampton for the first

Farmers say sheep attacks are on the rise and are calling

for tougher action against dog owners whose pets attack

In the last few days there have been fresh attacks in Sussex.

Farmers there have met the Police and Crime Commissioner Katy Bourne

Sussex is a very rural area, we have a lot of farms,

And these incidents are particularly distressing.

The farmers are saying - are you taking it seriously?

And my message to them is yes they are.

But my plead to the public is whenever you see it,

please do report it because intelligence is vital.

More than 400 calls about organised dog fighting in the South have

been made to the RSPCA in the past ten years.

Now the animal charity and other campaigners are calling

At the moment the maximum sentence is six months in prison.

A warning that Peter Cooke's report contains some distressing images.

The hidden world of illegal dog fighting.

But animal rights groups say it's also been found on our streets.

Rival gangs using animals as weapons.

There is a strong link to dog fighting with crimes such

as domestic violence, violence towards the elderly,

And that's why it needs to be a recordable offence,

rather than something that isn't properly recorded

Because if it isn't recorded properly then the resources aren't

put into investigating and catching the criminal.

Despite 422 calls about organised dog fighting to the charity

in the south since 2006, a tenth of the national total,

only 137 people have been convicted nationwide.

Now politicians and animal welfare groups want the current maximum six

months sentence extended up to five years.

Mike Butcher works as an investigations officer

He's been trying to catch those using dogs to fight

Even for any form of cruelty, six months nowadays is just outdated.

You get five years abroad in Europe, longer than that in America,

and we are in this country, we prosecute more dog fights

than anybody else probably, we probably catch more dog

Yet we're the lowest sentencing, so it's a bit weird, really.

Hello. Hello.

Both animal welfare groups are also calling for a register

of banned owners and a review of the Dangerous Dogs Act.

But the Government says it already has the right laws in place

to tackle those using dogs for illegal purposes.

The Isle of Wight Council could elect a new leader this evening,

after surprise resignations earlier this week.

The Leader Jonathan Bacon and Deputy Leader Steve Stubbings

both stepped down on Monday, in what they said was a coordinated

effort to highlight the island's struggle with austerity.

The Council will meet at County Hall in Newport tonight.

Workers at the Atomic Weapons Establishment sites

in Aldermaston and Burghfield have been on strike today.

It's the first of two 48-hour strikes.

The action is over the long-running pensions row.

AWE has previously said it's committed to putting-in-place

arrangements, which ensure the long-term affordability

Later, we'll be joining Kris Temple in a pub for the latest on Gosport

sailor Alex Thompson, and here's Alexis.

I've been finding out why this beach in Southampton

'Give us more money or police services could suffer.'

That's the message from those in charge

today as they lobby the government for extra money.

The force needs to save ?23 million by 2021.

For which they've identified ?10 million worth of savings.

But that still leaves them needing to plug a gap of ?13 million.

The Chief Constable and the Police and Crime Commissioner claim they've

already made all the savings they can and they're

a victim of the national police funding formula.

Our home affairs correspondent, Emma Vardy, reports.

The thin blue line is being stretched ever more thinly. In

Hampshire, the force has lost hundreds of art is supposed in

recent years and it seemed a specialist teams cut back and more

than 30 police stations are said to have been closed or it is set to go.

Today, the Chief Constable appealed directly to the Government for more

money. I am concerned because I wasn't concerned I would have penned

a letter to the Minister. It is a very serious issue. The formula

isn't fair. What we do know is it's a great police force and we have

already made significant changes. We are a really efficient constabulary.

Today is about securing our financial future in the longer term.

Hampshire says it is around 25% underfunded compared with other

forces, getting less money for policing. But the Government is

changing the way it calculates how much each force should get. That's

why Hampshire is making its case now. In a number of places around

Hampshire, police have moved out of the traditional police stations and

into shared buildings with the council and Fire Service, like here

in Southampton Civic Centre. That is cheaper. Before it says it got out

all the savings that can in they need another option. The current

national funding formula which is two thirds of my money is not fit

for purpose. There is a process at the moment are updated and I'm

giving the evidence to the Minister to nature we get the funding

nationally and they are funding locally. Police are being forced to

get ever smarter to make their limited resources go further, like

here at the frantic innovations centre set up at Portsmouth

University where Hampshire now uses its students and volunteers

alongside experienced officers to help fight cyber crime. The Home

Office said today it believes there is no question the police still have

the resources to do their important work, but will be considering

Hampshire's case and that of other forces in the coming months.

Emma, if funding isn't increased for Hampshire,

It's been made very clear today that Hampshire Police do believe there

are services could be under threat. What police do, they assess risk and

then the deal with crimes as they happen. With resources being

stretched, the bark of that would have to be set that much higher. --

bar. That could mean the police would not be able to attend as many

crime scenes as they once did I would have to get even less time to

the less serious offences. To some degree, that is already happening.

For example, some crimes are now dealt with over the phone where once

upon a time he might have had a police officer, to see you in

person. That's the kind of stuff for the public will not have the

difference. Is the Government decides to allocate funding to

different police forces is being reviewed now for the first time in

over ten years. The chance to influence this doesn't come along to

police forces very often. That's why we've seen Hampshire appealed

directly to the police minister, Brandon Lewis, very publicly today.

What we know is the Government will decide to make a decision on this

next month, whether they agree with Hampshire's case, Hampshire has told

us they think the Government is listening and that it does see this

kind of unfair deal and it believes it's getting. -- that it believes it

getting. Three year old Marla Trigwell

was born without a hand. It's never been an issue for her,

but now things could That's because she's just started

using a prosthetic hand. This was one made on a 3D printer

for just a few pounds. James Ingham has been

to meet her family. This was the moment Marla opened her

very special Christmas present. Her smile says it all -

this prosthetic hand It's a boost to her confidence and

it's a psychological boost for her. So, when she meets people,

instead of that, "Oh, Marla's hand was made

at a community workshop in Newbury Members of this club who love

working on technical projects offered to help,

turning a design that's freely To do it was actually not

very difficult at all. You've got the fingers, the palm,

the lower arm, the upper arm, the connecting pieces,

put them together and you can get I'm quite proud that this has turned

out better than I'd expected and it's really changing the lives

of young Marla and her family. Materials for this

hand cost only ?30. More traditional

prosthetics are thousands. And Marla wouldn't be

able to get one of them The NHS can't provide a functional

prosthetic until they're much older, Whereas with the 3D printing,

they're available now. She's three and a half

and she's already using one. Marla is very able with just her one

hand and she and her parents may decide never to wear a more

advanced prosthetic. But by using this lightweight

plastic hand, she will be better Marla's mum Joanne writes

a blog, with another mum, about their experience bringing up

daughters with Marla's condition. You can read that at

ontheonehand.co.uk. Sport now and this evening,

Alex Thompson has admitted that Vendee Globe glory is now

probably beyond his reach. But he is still going

and so are his supporters, Let's go live to Kris

Temple who is in a pub, a very special pub.

Kris. Tony was bouncing off that sofa last

night counting down to the thrilling We are here at the sea horse. The

reason we're here is because this pub, the landlord Alec Thomson 's

brother and Abbey. Here are a group of supporters that turn up every

Wednesday night. They have gone after the finish. The final 24 hours

sailing, Alex Thompson hot on the heels of the leader. Let's speak to

some special guests. Tracy is the assistant manager of the pub. You've

been left in charge. Tell us what's been drawing these people here. Alex

did it before he went to France and every Wednesday since he left they

have met, eating, not enough, and supported him all the way through

it. The are avid fans and I'm really proud of you all. You have live

Wednesday night chats with Alex. We've just had one. He called Abbey

and he talks every week and tells us what he's doing and has a chat. He

talks if the kids aren't here. He is the bit busy trying attack at the

moment. Simek easily got to step it up now. 300 miles to go. He's about

30 miles behind. A very tight finish. You've had this damage back

-- boat since November. Simek Alex's foils were revolutionary. They were

very quick. When he broke his foils, it was bad. He is a very experienced

around the world sailor and he's taken it in his stride. He's been

fantastic and kept on his heels all the way through it. What is this

last 24 hours going to be like? I'm not sure were going to sleep that

much. Can Alex do it? CHEERING

The pretty confident here at the Sea horse. Alex was very much in

positive spirit is hoping that he did take over the leader. We will

have the latest situation at our late bulletin.

Southampton's hectic fixture schedule continues tonight,

as they bid progress in the FA Cup at the second attempt.

Claude Puel's side host Norwich in a third round replay,

after being pegged back in the last minute in the original

Saints have lost four league games in a row,

but have a league cup semi-final next week too.

The winners tonight host Arsenal in round four.

Reading have completed the signing of Liverpool defender Tiago Ilori

The 23-year-old Portugese centre-half has moved

to the Madejski Stadium for an undisclosed fee.

The owner of Dorset-trained horse Cue Card has confirmed that he'll

run in the Cheltenham Gold Cup in March, rather than

With his stablemate Thistlecrack the odds-on favourite

for the blue riband race, the Colin Tizzard yard had mooted

the possibility of Cue Card diverting to another race.

But owner Jean Bishop has said today that Cue Card

Here at the Sea horse, Alex is going to try and bring back the action. He

is going to try and call back in about an hour's time together is the

latest update but he is really tired. He's had a problem with an

anemometer and he is suffering from a lack of sleep. Fingers crossed,

Alex, you can do it. Everyone here at the pub is behind you. He has

certainly got the support, the support of so many people. We will

have all the news for you tomorrow and tonight on the late bulletin.

He's 75 years old and an ex pharmacology lecturer.

Yet, Richard Evans from Southampton, has chosen to spend his retirement

doing something completely different.

He's made it his weekly duty to regularly clean litter

from the city's Weston Shore beach - no matter what the weather.

This morning, I joined him on his cleaning round!

When I came to Southampton in 2001 and I walked down

on our Western Shore, I thought this is a lovely beach,

So I started picking it up and gradually it's taken on my life.

# I can see clearly now the rain is gone.#

Come rain or shine, retired pharmacologist Richard Evans

is found litter picking along the shingle of

A lot of it comes down if there's nice weather,

you get a lot of people down and people leave

Even though they've carried their food there,

they don't think to carry the wrappings away.

16 years of picking up litter is certainly not

His wife thinks he's barmy, but Richard's unpaid work

There's no doubt that Richard's an absolute star player

of ours and few have done more to keep Western Shore as clean

and green working partnership with the council as he has.

And it's a pleasure and a privilege to go litter picking alongside him.

The amount that he collects is phenomanal.

The famous 2014 Valentines Day storm, that brought incredible

amounts of lots of mud on this beach.

I think it's my way of trying to create heaven on Earth.

# It's going to be a bright, bright sunshine day.#

He is certainly a local hero. If we all did a little bit of that, we

would have a clean world. Lots of litter on our beaches but he is

helping clear it. Onto the weather. Very cold over the next few days. We

saw temperatures plunge last night going to around minus six Celsius.

This was the scene first thing. The glow of the sunshine over the water

in the Basingstoke with the morning frost. Temperatures dropped down to

around minus six Celsius tonight but tonight not as low. We are expecting

widespread frost with freezing fog patches. Temperatures tonight in the

countryside could drop as low as minus five. These are temperatures

in our towns and cities. Currently minus three Celsius. We will see

those temperatures tumble away. The farther north and west you are,

temperatures will be above freezing, it still the chance of frost through

parts of Oxfordshire. A lovely bright start of the day tomorrow

with frosty conditions in the morning, sunny spells in the

afternoon and cloud feeding in northern and eastern areas with

temperatures reaching a high of five or seven Celsius and the winds will

be light. In the evening, the cloud will thicken and it won't be as cold

as last night. Lows of around two or three Celsius, hovering above

freezing. Some clear spells and the chance of frost on Friday morning.

For most of us on Friday we will see a sunny spells but there is the

chance we could have the odd patch of rain. Not amounting to too much,

high-pressure remaining in charge of our weather. The best of the

sunshine will be very southern coastal counties. As we look ahead

to the rest of the week, tomorrow is a lovely sunny day, a chilly start,

more cloud the further north you are and we will see cloud started

filling from the east during the course of the day, arriving from the

north sea. Friday, some sunny spells and over the weekend there will be

varying amounts of cloud that we are hopeful that cloud will start to sin

and break with the breeze and we will see some sunny spells.

There'll be a news summary at 8pm and we'll be back at 10.30.

Hello. I hope you're well. I really do.

Because if you're not, then chances are the NHS won't be able to

look after you as well as it should. And that's wrong.

Because the Labour Party created the NHS 70 years ago on