01/03/2017 South Today

Hello. Good evening.

I'm Tom Hepworth. You're watching South Today.

Tonight's top stories - which way now?

The bypass plans that divided a city are shelved by the government.

I think goodwill is slightly lacking at the moment but I think

we will have to get around a table and decide what we are going to do.

A care worker is found guilty of stealing money from an elderly

from an elderly man she was meant to be looking after.

She won't be able to do this to anyone else.

And I know I'm crying but I'm just relieved.

For almost two decades arguments have raged about whether

a bypass for Chichester should pass to the north or south of the city.

The one thing most people did agree on was that improvements

Today came the shock announcement the scheme has been scrapped.

The first big viability study was carried out in the year 2000.

14 years later the scheme was included in the

A consultation was carried out last year.

Five schemes, all developing the existing road to the south,

and costing up to ?250m were under consideration.

Then as the consultation came to an end in September,

West Sussex councillors said they wanted

Tonight it looks as though it won't happen at all.

The battle to get agreement on how the A27 should be improved has been

as frustrating as driving along the road in the rush hour.

With no local consensus on the best option, the Transport Secretary

I am absolutely dismayed by the news that the Chichester

This is a consequence of political manoeuvring,

which saw a campaign for an unfeasible northern route

that was never intended, could not be delivered.

Highways England had been consulting on five different schemes to improve

But proposals for two possible more expensive routes to the north

around Goodwood were not included, generating protests and creating

It has divided Chichester in a terrible way.

To be honest, there is no easy solution.

Some campaigners believe a local forum should be established

Some of the interested parties today could be brought together and work

together to create something that could be put to the local community.

The county council leader said she was shocked

I'm actually quite hopeful that, if we could all pull together,

we could find the right solution for Chichester and then

We do need to find a solution within budget limitations

that the Secretary of State has set, 250 million, and within the fact

that he's not going to consider a northern route.

So, it's back to the drawing board and I hope that the Minister

might be persuaded to come up with the cash for

on the A27 if consensus can be reached.

So, no quick end in sight for drivers who are forced to crawl

along on the A27 during peak periods.

The Department for Transport has said that the A27 Arundel

Steve Humphrey, BBC South today, Chichester.

I asked our political editor Peter Henley what forces were behind

The government is trying to keep the economy going as we head

towards Brexit and this sort of investment is the sort of thing

They've approved the Stubbington bypass in Gosport,

which has been years waiting for something to happen.

More money has been found for the A34.

The A303, they are spending a fortune on.

Elections for local councillors, I think, means that they don't

want to put their name to an unpopular deal but,

equally, at the moment, the government is pretty resistant

to Conservative councillors, their own side,

moaning about the lack of money which they are getting

for all sorts of things, from funding to schools

"Don't bring us problems, bring us solutions."

Is there anyway back from this or is it for ever

Gridlock in ideas at the moment, certainly.

It seemed impossible to bring the sides together and, really,

Unless somebody comes forward with some sort

of answer for Chris Grayling, he's just going to say, no,

And, at the moment, some people are welcoming this.

The Green Party are saying that it's better that we reduce the amount

of traffic on the roads but most people are saying, this is a real

problem and were just going to have to think again about some way

of persuading government that we can have that money back.

A care worker from West Sussex has been found guilty of stealing

from the vulnerable pensioner she was looking after.

Theresa Stratton who's 39 and from Littlehampton, took money

It was captured on a CCTV camera which had been installed

A trusted carer caught in what the jury heard

This footage shows Theresa Stratton

taking money from the wallet of 74-year-old David Skerritt.

The footage given to the BBC by his family

comes from a CCTV camera they set up in his living room

They checked after he said his wallet was empty.

When we went down there where to look through

the CCTV and that is what we found which was we couldn't believe it.

It was almost too shocking to me she was doing it.

The court heard Theresa Stratton still ?130 on her second

visit to David Skerritt's home in Littlehampton

She said she'd taken with the man's permission

Adjourning sentencing for reports, the judge warned Theresa

Stratton that she would almost certainly face a prison sentence.

He said there had been a high degree of betrayal of trust.

There couldn't be a better verdict. Justice for my dad.

And justice for anybody who works with vulnerable people

David Skerritt died in September of last year.

His family say on the care provided the company

It told does it dismissed Stratton as

soon as the theft was evident and provides a high level

Teresa Stratton will be sentenced on March 10th.

This case raises questions about how vulnerable people can be protected.

The charity Action on Elder Abuse says it supports the use of CCTV

I think in someone's own home, there's certainly

Obviously, we'd always say, make sure the older person's view

Care homes is a bit trickier because generally they have a lot

of public spaces and you have to be mindful of violating

But we think there is a place for cameras in care homes, as well.

We often hear about cuts to front line policing.

But two of our forces are actively trying new initiatives to attract

Hampshire Police is offering a two thousand pound bonus to those

The Thames Valley force has lowered the academic standards required

to join as a police officer, to two A Level passes.

Those who represent officers say they'll be able to relate better

This is more about doing the right thing at the right time for the

It's important that police officers have the right

A Surrey based charity that supports amputees across the UK is now

Limbcare in Camberley lost its storage facility

for its prosthetics, wheelchairs, crutches

It also has to find a new head office,

The charity fears if it doesn't find new premises soon,

these walking aids will have to be thrown away.

A woman from Nigeria has successfully donated stem cells

to help save the life of her sister from Weymouth.

Martha Williams was initially refused permission to travel

to the UK to help May Brown, who has leukaemia.

But the Home Office overturned its decision,

after more than 60 thousand people signed an online petition.

Now just a few weeks after the operation,

I feel really grateful for what she has done for me.

I mean, what can you say to somebody who saved your life?

Well, I'm feeling very happy I was able to help save my sister's

life and that my proposal of coming to the UK is accomplished.

That's the latest, thanks for being there.

Join us if you can tomorrow morning, we've got bulletins in BBC Breakfast

but now here's Alexis with your weather.

It's going to be a windy night to night. We could see gusts of up to

50 mph. Showers, could be wintry in nature with temperatures dropping

away to two or three Celsius in the countryside. Thursday, the breeze

coming in from the West. One or two isolated showers but a lovely sunny

day foremost. Temperatures will reach a high of 9-10 C. Tomorrow

night, a breezy night. A weather front will arrive in the early hours

of Friday morning, heavy rain moving its weight northwards. Behind it,

outbreaks of showers or drizzle. Low pressure in charge of our weather

making it unsettled. Into the weekend, sunny spells tomorrow, rain

at times on Friday, rain at some point on Saturday.

outlook. A whole load of 11 is. What does that mean? Maybe John Hammond

will tell you. We're in for a bumpy ride. The

weather chopping and changing keeping us on our toes. Rain never

too far away from our crystal ball. There has been rain around today

across southern areas. This band of wet weather pushing through Wales

and the Midlands. A little bit of the white stuff mixed in over the

high ground Snowdonia, some snow for an trans-Pennine routes as well.

Snow at low levels through the night. Further south the main story

is the strength of the