Weekly round-up: Five stories you may have missed

A story about a family facing the prospect of Christmas in a "cold, damp" caravan was among our most read stories in the south this week.

We have picked five stories from the past seven days in Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Dorset, Berkshire and Oxfordshire to keep you up to date.

'I went in for a tackle and heard my neck snap'

Luke Orton was playing in a rugby tournament on the Isle of Wight in July 2023 when his life changed forever.

"I went in for a tackle and heard my neck snap," he said.

"It sounded like eating a cracker or a dry Weetabix – it turned out to be the guy's knee who I tackled – then I was paralysed on the beach."

He is one of several patients receiving specialist rehabilitation treatment at Salisbury Hospital's Spinal Treatment Centre.

Veterinarian: 'I drank to numb the emotional pain'

Kirstie Pickles said the stresses of being a vet once led her to turn to alcohol for "emotional support"

"I used alcohol as an emotional crutch."

Kirstie Pickles has not had a drink in 13 years, but the day-to-day stresses of being a veterinarian once led her to turn to alcohol for "emotional support" and to numb the pain.

"It's when you put your recycling out and you're embarrassed about it that you realise that's probably not normal," she says.

A recent study by Oxford Brookes University found that drinking was a coping mechanism for many vets, and that there was an entrenched drinking culture within the profession.

Santa model fitted with tracking device after theft

The new Santa Claus model has a built-in location tracker

A life-size model of Santa Claus has had a location tracker installed after its predecessor was stolen earlier this month.

Paul De Fraine has displayed the Father Christmas outside his home in Little Milton, Oxfordshire, every December for the "past four or five years".

This year's creation was taken on 5 December, and has since been replaced by a trackable copy.

Mr De Fraine said the outpouring of support he had received since the theft had been a "huge surprise".

Councillor told staff she would 'kick their head in'

Dorothy Hayes MBE was the subject of a complaint from March

A councillor who swore at council staff and said she would kick them in the head broke the authority's code of conduct, an investigation has found.

Bracknell Forest councillor Dorothy Hayes MBE was the subject of a complaint by the borough council's chief executive after staff did not issue a formal grievance.

Susan Halliwell said Mrs Hayes' language was "quite appalling and thoroughly disrespectful" and she did not want staff "believing that they are going to be spoken to by a councillor in that way".

The Conservative councillor, who represents Winkfield and Warfield East, claimed the conversation was "banter" and that the staff did not take offence but that she was sorry.

'We're facing Christmas in a damp, cold caravan'

The caravan has no central heating so the only warmth comes from a gas fire, which has to be turned off overnight

"This is where we eat all our meals, where the children play, where we watch television and then where two of us sleep. All on one sofabed."

Charlotte Pugmire, her husband Mark and their two daughters have been living in a caravan near Cowes since July.

It is temporary accommodation provided by the Isle of Wight council for the homeless.

Council leader Phil Jordan said it worried him people were living in the wrong type of housing.