10/02/2017 South Today

"You can get in but your dog will have to go in the boot."

The response from one taxi driver to a blind woman from Hampshire

who was trying to get home with her guide dog.

Madeline Close from Fareham says she regularly experiences cabbies

refusing to take her on journeys, even though it's against the law.

A survey by the Guide Dogs Association found 42% of people

with assistance dogs were refused by taxis.

In the course of her community work, Madeline Close, with guide

dog Deano by her side, is out and about each day,

In Eastleigh this morning, they had a very good

experience but Madeline, who's registered blind,

says at least once a month taxi drivers refuse to take her

It makes me very angry, it's very annoying and it is very

inconvenient because you can end up needing to be somewhere or having

a meeting or something and not been able to get a taxi.

Around 7,000 assistance dogs currently work in the UK.

The law says that taxis must accept assistance dogs

unless they have a medical certificate proving

Private hire drivers risk prosecution or their

Rrecently, at her local station in Fareham, a fellow passenger told

Madeline a cabbie took one look at the dog and rejoined

the back of the queue to avoid picking her up.

They are providing a service, they get paid, they are charging.

My dog's a lot less trouble than some other passengers.

He always sits in the footwell, he doesn't sit on the seat,

so I don't see why they can't take him.

The Taxi Association in Fareham says it's doing what it can

I am disappointed, especially in this day and age when we know

that disabilities are out there and we have our job to do.

The taxi driver's job is all about trying to please.

Fines of up to ?1,000 can be imposed.

The Guide Dogs Association is pressing for better

We've done a survey of 500 guide dog and assistance dog owners

across the UK in 2016, and it's prevalent.

From Cornwall up to Scotland, guide dog owners and assistance dog

owners are being refused access to taxis.

So far, the number of prosecutions has been small but Madeline says

she's determined to make the discrimination that she and

others like her encounter a thing of the past.

Briony Leyland, BBC South Today, Eastleigh.

A Hampshire toddler is beginning his recovery from major surgery

Two-year-old Freddie Hunt and his family have received

a huge amount of support from the community in Yateley.

Local people have made a tremendous effort to raise nearly ?370,000.

Church bells were rung when he came out of surgery.

Another ?100,000 is still needed, though, after the operation was more

Freddie, at the moment, he still hasn't opened his eyes,

He's not out of the woods yet, by any means.

I don't think the eyes have been dry for more than about three minutes.

It's been...to say emotional would be an understatement.

It's something I wouldn't really want to ever go through again

but we're not sure whether we're going to have to.

16 years after it first opened, Southampton's main West Quay

It cost ?85 million and is being heralded

as an example of the strength of the city's economic revival.

But is it the type of growth the city needs?

Here's our business correspondent, Alastair Fee.

For years, Southampton was on catch-up.

The trend to shop, eat and be entertained began long ago.

It is a catchment that we go out to that spreads right the way

along the south coast, and we've now got an offer

here that means that we can compete with anything,

whether it be shopping or leisure, within that catchment.

To complement the shopping centre, visitors have more

A ten-screen cinema completes the package.

This will undoubtedly improve Southampton's

That's good for quality-of-life and consumer spending.

But critics question whether this strategy will bring sustainable,

If you just rely on retail, then you are not heading down a road

of really long-term, sustained, high-value

growth because that's not what retail is about.

It's a perfectly respectable industry or sector and they're

perfectly decent jobs, but it's not the sort of thing

that we could be doing, and other cities in the south

The City Council has seven large development

projects worth ?3 billion in investment opportunities.

It says half of that has been achieved already.

A report on urban economic well-being by business advisers PwC

ranks Southampton third in England for good growth.

But another report by the Centre for Cities ranks Southampton

And on several other economic measures, it's

We are trying to make the most of what we've got.

We're trying to make Southampton a place that people want to come

and visit and do business in so people will base their company

in a place that their employees want to live in and want

The fanfare tonight was aimed at drawing in the crowds who,

until now, will have travelled along the coast for the same experience.

The city will need to look beyond consumer spending

if it's to really light up its long-term future.

Gosport sailor Alex Thomson's expected to get a hero's welcome

He finished second in the world's hardest sailing

challenge, the Vendee Globe, when he circumnavigated the globe

A flotilla will start out tomorrow at Spit Bank Fort at 10:15am

He's expected to arrive at the Gosport ferry pontoon at 11am

and there'll be a civic reception at 11:20am in Falklands Gardens.

After the formalities are over, Alex will meet members

Tonight will be cloudy and cold, very like recent nights, and a

chance of snow showers. The showers mainly to a dusting of snow in

places but will not amount to much and temperatures will plunge away to

minus one Celsius. The showers more likely the further north and east

you are. The risk of a frost first thing tomorrow morning. A cold,

cloudy, frosty start with the snow showers continuing through the day

tomorrow. They may lead to a dusting in places and through the afternoon,

you are more likely to see rain showers than snow showers and

reaching a high of 3- fool self says. But the continuing risk of

that cold north-easterly wind. Temperatures will be slightly higher

on Sunday. And finally, we will see the sunshine on

exception to that rule probably over the hills where again there could be

a bit of snow, but not accumulating. Another cold

However I paint this weekend's picture, I'll need a palette of

grey. Thereby a a lot of cloud around but I managed to find some

sunshine. I don't know how but there was a couple of hours towards the

south-west in Cornwall, a beautiful day. The south-west saw glimpses of

sunshine. Further east, cloudy, cold and grey with winds off the North

seep and a scattering of wintry showers. Yes, rain sleet and snow, a

dusting at lower levels through the day. It brought this beautiful

picture on the outskirts of Aberdeenshire. But enough of the