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Stricter laws needed for young drivers says AA

Jodie Kelly

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Drivers under the age of 21 should not be transporting passengers of a similar age during the first six months of their licence, the AA has said.

The insurance company has claimed that “tougher” rules are needed on British roads to protect young people, with the AA’s president, Edmund King, telling Winol that the law needs to be “stricter”.

“We believe, that, for the first six months after passing your test, you should be limited and not allowed to take passengers of a similar age,” he said.

“The reason for this is that all the evidence shows that with passengers in the car, you’re four times more likely to crash.

“When looking at other countries, we have found they have similar schemes, and it has reduced deaths and injuries from between 20 and 40%.”

In Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Sweden and some states of the US, a “graduation licence” is in place, with Northern Ireland also recently trialling the restrictions.

Dr Sarah Jones, co-director of the government’s ‘THINK!’ campaign, described this form of licence as “[allowing] new drivers to gain valuable driving experience under low risk conditions”.

The Department of Transport said: “Whilst we are not considering graduated driving licences, we absolutely recognise that young people are disproportionately victims of tragic incidents on our roads, and we are considering other measures to tackle this problem and protect young drivers.”

‘Action needed’


But Mr King believes that change needs to happen now more than ever.

“For some time at the AA, we’ve been looking at the figures for young drivers deaths, and it seemed almost that every other weekend there would be a case of four teenagers in a car – three teenagers in a car would die.

“And when we started looking at the figures, we actually found that each year, something like 1,500 young drivers were killed or seriously injured in crashes. […] There was a bit of a trend.

“It would be late on a Saturday night, it tended to be same age passengers in the car, and more often than not, the crash took place on a rural road.

“It is sad to say, but these deaths are treated like a ‘drip drip’, one a week, two a week, three a week, four a week type thing.

“Whereas, if you have a crash on the railways – if you have an airline going down – there is an absolute outcry.

“There is a public requirement and action is taken. I think it is sad that we almost accept the death of people on the roads, and in particular, young people.

“When we look at causes of death in young people, dying on roads is so much higher than knife crime, drink or drugs. The only thing which comes close is, sadly, suicide,” said Mr King.

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Ivan Juric leaves Southampton after earliest ever relegation

Lennie Teague

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Ivan Juric has left his role as Southampton first team manager following the club’s relegation on Sunday.

The Croatian joined the Saints on an 18-month deal in December following Russell Martin’s dismissal but lasted just 107 days in charge.

Juric oversaw just two victories in his 16 matches in charge with Sunday’s 3-1 defeat to Tottenham confirming Southampton’s relegation to the Championship.

With seven matches still to play, Saints’ relegation is the earliest in Premier League history, breaking the joint-record set by Derby County and Huddersfield Town in 2007-08 and 2018-19 respectively, who both went down after 32 games.

The club confirmed the process of searching for a new manager is now under way and said: “With relegation to the Championship now confirmed, we believe it is important to give fans, players and staff some clarity on the future as we head into a very important summer.”

First team coach Simon Rusk is set to take charge of the team for the remainder of the season with player Adam Lallana to act as his assistant.

Southampton currently sit on 10 points at the bottom of the league and require a further two points to avoid breaking the record-low set by Derby County, who finished the 2007-08 season with 11 points.

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New foodhall to open on site of former Winchester nightclub

Lennie Teague

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A new foodhall is set to open later this year in place of Vodka, Winchester’s former nightclub.

The venue, which shut down in May 2023, is set to be converted to foodhall called Helch Market.

The market is planned to open until 3am and will have a number of food vendors which will rotate over time as well as events space in the basement.

Helch Market Winchester will be the second of its kind after David Jamal Benamor, of Benamor LTD, opened a similar business in Bournemouth in 2022.

Mr Benamor aims to open the new venue in the autumn.

Mr Benamor said: “There’s quite a low diversity in independent businesses, so there’s a lot of chains and very few independent, especially with new concepts, which are a lot harder.

“It’s quite stale, the diversity on the high street, like everywhere in the UK.

“This offers smaller businesses a chance to try a concept or to start their own chain of stores, whatever they’d like to do, so I’d say just a diversity within small businesses.”

Image courtesy of Benamor LTD

Mr Benamor’s application for a licence which allows the sale of alcohol, the serving of hot food and drinks between 11pm and 5am and live and recorded music and entertainment was approved on 25 March.

The plans to take over the Vodka site have been controversial and the initial licence application was met with criticism, with a number of written objections being made to Winchester City Council.

Residents have also been concerned with the potential rise in crime levels after there were 18 crimes reported on or near the Vodka property in the first half of 2022, a year before its closure.

‘As long as there’s a facility for the youngsters, which is much needed.’

One man said: “In principle, I am happy with the idea.

Despite the complaints, the members of the Winchester public WINOL spoke to were mostly supportive of the venue.

“I wouldn’t like it if it was open until 3am, but in normal hours it’s fine.

“No problem at all, I think we need to encourage young people here.”

Another resident said: “As long as there’s a facility for the youngsters, which is much needed in town because we haven’t got a lot like clubs as such.

“Not everybody wants them, but I just think the youngsters need something rather than have to go elsewhere. It’s good.”

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Winchester BID Rangers recover £100,000 in stolen goods

Lennie Teague

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Photo courtesy of Winchester BID

A security team in Winchester has hit a major milestone by recovered more than £100,000 worth of stolen goods in the city centre.

The Winchester Business Crime Reduction Partnership (WBCRP) and Winchester Business Improvement District (BID) Rangers were formed in 2018 with the aim of reducing business crime, antisocial behaviour and low level crime.

The group has now retrieved over £100,000 worth of goods and returned them to businesses in Winchester.

The Rangers work closely with local businesses, Hampshire Constabulary, Winchester City Council and BID to help their efforts of combatting theft.

They are highly trained security professionals that are accredited under the Community Safety Accreditation Scheme (CSAS) and certified by the Security Industry Authority (SIA).

BID lists the Rangers’ key functions as being crime prevention and recovery, supporting the local Shopwatch and Pubwatch schemes, real-time assistance and customer engagement and public safety.

Hannah Hitchon, Shopwatch chair, said: “It is with the greatest pride that the BID Rangers have surpassed the stolen property recovery figure of £100,000.

“This figure has been recovered over a challenging time, including the pandemic, which naturally impacted the vital role that they played in protecting our local area.

“As such they should be commended for their hard work and resilience over the last six years.

“My heartfelt thanks go out to the Rangers for the continuing hard work and dedication that they offer both the public and local businesses and here’s to many more years of the same!”

The group have been recognised for their efforts by the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC).

BID Ranger Brett Jones received an OPCC award in 2023 for his commitment to public safety.

Winchester BID Business Crime Reduction Manager Jane Bastock has been honoured with a 2025 OPCC award nomination for her leadership in business crime reduction over the past decade.

On the efforts by the Rangers, Ms Bastock said: “I am very proud of this achievement. This demonstrates not only the success of the BID Rangers scheme but that of the Radio Link and Shopwatch schemes, which businesses in Winchester utilise to alert suspicious or offending behaviour in their store or in the city.

“I would also like to thank the local police and Winchester City Council CCTV Control Room for their continued support with these schemes.”

Following the milestone, the WBCRP and Winchester BID remain committed to strengthening security initiatives and supporting businesses in tackling crime.

Cheif Inspector Korine Bishop, Winchester district commander, said: “This milestone demonstrates the importance of the BID Rangers to the partnership effort needed to keep the city centre a safer environment for all.

“Our officers, including those from our dedicated city centre Neighbourhood Policing Team, will continue to work with the BID Rangers and all our partners to reduce and prevent crime.”

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