Understand
Weekly round-up: Five top stories from the south of England
Overview
A summary of five key news stories from Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Dorset, Berkshire and Oxfordshire over the past week, covering a deaf couple's emotional DIY SOS reveal, water safety concerns at a beach, debate over rural self-driving cars, plans for a new data centre, and rejected chain ferry price rises.
Key points
- A deaf couple from Southampton watched their home's DIY SOS rebuild on TV after losing £72,000 to rogue builders.
- Concerns were raised about water safety after children fell seriously ill with Hepatitis A following beach trips in Dorset.
- A motoring journalist dismissed the idea of introducing self-driving cars to rural areas as 'nonsense' due to poor road infrastructure.
- Plans have been submitted to replace Microsoft's former UK headquarters in Berkshire with a £200m data centre.
- Isle of Wight councillors voted against proposed ticket price increases and new charges for under-19s on the chain ferry.