26/01/2017 South Today

Here on BBC One it's time for the news where you are.

Hello and welcome to South Today, I'm Jo Kent.

as Southampton fans look forward to a trip to Wembley,

a Chinese company seeks to buy a stake in the club.

A devolution deal dead in the water but will taxpayers

And a heart-warming tale of the kindness of strangers.

Southampton football fans continued their celebrations today,

after the club secured its place in the League Cup final at Wembley.

They've also been taking in the news that a chinese company has moved

If the deal goes ahead, Southampton will follow

other big European clubs, who've also had significant stakes

Our reporter Lewis Coombes is at St Mary's tonight.

News emerged through the stock exchange in the Far East

that a Chinese company by the name of Lander Sports Group had reached

an agreement to purchase a stake in Southampton Football Club.

This then triggered the club to release their own statement,

but notably with a more cautious tone.

The clubs owner Katarinha Liebherr spoke of a "potential partnership"

and that any "possible deal" would only be done

if in the best interests of the club.

So early stages and any details of the size of stake

But it is the first time Saints have gone on the record

that they are looking for outside investment.

For investors the Premier League represents the richest

and most-watched football league in the world.

There's been a growing trend of investment from China -

a country keen to boost both its own domestic league,

and its standing as a major world player in the sport.

Southampton is the latest club to be linked -

West Bromwich Albion, Aston Villa and Birmingham City

have all recently been sold to Chinese owners,

while Manchester City sold a minority stake in their club

for $400 million dollars just over a year ago.

A Chinese consortium is also currently in the process of trying

Lander has been shopping around for investments in the UK

There have been intermediaries working actively on

their behalf to build links with football clubs but,

beyond that, there's something about

Southampton's location, as a port city,

the Chinese tend to invest in clubs,

They often tend to look at the broader

industry and broader economic benefits.

And Southampton know who they will face in the AFL cup final at

Wembley. Yes, after the excitement

of last night's win at Anfield - fans now know

it will be Manchester United who stand in their way

of winning a first piece The club's only major

cup victory in it's history. The opposition that day, of course,

Manchester United. Saints have been given just over

31,000 tickets for the final which go on sale to season ticket

holders from next Thursday. While potential Chinese investment

in the club could be lucrative, for fans the sight of seeing

their players lift a trophy, It was the deal

that promised more money, more control and more

joined-up thinking. But, as we reported yesterday -

devolution plans for parts of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight

appear to have been scrapped. It follows months

of planning and discussions. Now, instead of bringing

councils closer together, Our political editor, Peter Henley,

has been gathering reaction. This was the meeting

in a Westminster committee room that finally saw the death

of the Solent devolution dream. Portsmouth City Council

leader Donna Jones telling councillors that time had run out

for approval and they must At the moment, the money's all going

up north to the Northern Powerhouse and to Sheffield and to Leeds,

we are losing out because we haven't got our act together and

I am deeply, deeply disappointed. We've missed the opportunity to be

the Southern powerhouse and to be the first combined authority

in south-east England. The Portsmouth leader,

a Conservative, blames another Southampton, Portsmouth,

and the Isle of Wight all said they wanted to create

the new authority, East league, Eastleigh,

Fareham, Havant and East Hampshire would have all joined

in but Hampshire County Council and under Roy Perry

wouldn't back the plans. The combine authority would have

been given ?900 million in government funding to be spent

over 30 years but Hampshire's leader says that wasn't worth splitting up

the historic county. That the division and disagreement

is what's led to the failure of taking power away from Westminster.

How do you feel, personally? Personally, I feel my responsibility

is for this area to see that we have good services,

efficient services, Hampshire is one of the best,

most respected And these rival plans

for council reorganisation Surveys and expert opinions,

all of which seem to What the public really

wanted our simple delivery of quality services,

particularly when money is tight. And, today, a third

conservative entered the fray. Chancellor Philip Hammond

visiting Microsoft in Reading. He gave his views on why no southern

council was getting an elected mayor It started as a city-based

approach and it's evolved. I think it's just a pipeline issue

and I'm sure we will see some deals coming through in the less urbanised

parts of the country in the future. So, perhaps a minister's door

could still be pushed open, though with Brexit taking up so much

energy, paying for local services may mean the back

of the queue for some time yet. More news today about how our

councils might look in the future. Earlier I asked about plans four

authorities in Dorset to merge. Everybody is racing to get some of

this money before the tap is turned off. Dorset thing that rather than

having a mayor and combined authority they think they can save

money by merging councils together making it simpler. But to councils

don't want to be taken over so it has become a test case for the

government whether they force councils to go along with the merger

arrangement. It's a strange situation where you've got the

government saying we want local people to work out what they want

but it's down to Westminster to approve which ever plan. It in some

ways, are watching for signals but they are very important sums of

money and decisions for lovers in terms of the services we get.

Now - here's a tale to restore your faith in human nature.

It starts with a letter taped to an empty bike rack

The letter was addressed to the thief who'd stolen a brand

new bike, belonging to someone who'd saved-up for a year to buy it.

A passer-by saw the note, and decided to do something

about it, as Allen Sinclair reports.

Flapping from an empty bike rack, this letter caught

Rachel's eye as she was walking along Reading's

"Dear bike thief, have you ever thought that you make

"You might have seen that the bike is new and

"Letting you know that I could only afford that bike after one year

"I was saving and dreaming of having a new bike one day."

Well, it's a pretty forlorn looking note, as you can see.

Everything I read just make me feel sad for the person, really.

It was signed, "From Alex", who added that he or she would wait

by the bike rack at 6pm each evening this week in the hope that

It's not a great welcome that, is it?

I've lived here for coming on 17 years now and, actually,

And that's what motivated me to do something.

Within half an hour, Rachel had set up an online appeal

aiming to collect enough money to buy a replacement bike,

24 hours later, the total had already reached over ?700.

I've got no idea but Alex says that they will be here at 6pm.

I don't know if Alex is male or female, even because it is a name

But I will be here at 6pm, hopefully, to give Alex

Hi. My name's Rachel.

Alex, understandably wary at first, was deeply moved to know

It's given back my faith in humanity.

All the money left over after buying a new bike and a decent lock will go

to a cycling charity helping provide affordable bikes for Reading people,

a charity which Alex says he'd now like to join as a volunteer.

That's all from the South Today news team this evening.

We're back tomorrow with bulletins in BBC Breakfast and there's more

Here is our regional weather forecast.

Temperatures falling below freezing. Already, we are down 2-3 in the

countryside. The winds will be brisk from the south. The chants in West

Sussex and Surrey of patchy ice where we have wintry showers

trysting in during the early hours of the morning. A chilly start. Mist

and fog will lift. Patchy rain will spread in, mainly light in nature.

Temperatures will rise to around nine Celsius, in contrast to today

when we saw a high of just three Celsius. Feeling less cold also into

Saturday. The rain moves eastwards during Saturday morning. Following

eight, sunny spells and the chants of a sunny shower. A fair amount of

cloud and also the risk of a weekend. It's swings and

roundabouts, higher temperatures but some rain as well.

Good evening. It's been dry so far this January but as it draws to a

close it looks like we will see some rain at last. It's been an

interesting today a bitterly