• THE year started with good news as the sale of Southampton's former Ford factory was finally agreed.

The new owners of the Swaythling site were Mountpark, with council chiefs and business leaders hailing the deal and saying it could bring 1,000 jobs to the city.

Plans were at an early stage but it was thought the site could be home to logistics and manufacturing businesses.

The first of the new employees could be working on site within 18 months, it was predicted.

  • AN "ILLEGAL" taxi service that offered cheap rides in private vehicles was shut down.

The online group Southampton Town Lifts was no longer operating after the Daily Echo revealed that the group was being used by motorists to act as unofficial taxi drivers.

The Facebook group had originally changed from a closed group, where only members could see posts, to "secret", meaning the group could only be searched for and seen by members, before being completely removed.

  • HUNDREDS of elderly, vulnerable and disabled people were facing an uncertain future after a leading health organisation pulled the plug in its home care service.

Mears Care - which ran home visits for up to 300 adults - scrapped its contract with Hampshire County Council in the wake of a damning report from health watchdogs criticising the company for poor performance.

The county council was forced to appoint two new organisations to take over.

  • EASTLEIGH Football Club celebrated the biggest sponsorship coup in the club's history.

Winchester-based company Utilita Energy agreed a six-figure deal with the soaring Spitfires which would run for a minimum of three years with the opportunity to extend.

The sponsorship started on June 1 and Utilita – the UK’s leading smart pre-pay energy provider - will display their logo on Eastleigh’s home and away shirts as well as on selected leisurewear and within the stadium.

  • COUNCILLORS in Winchester voted to walk away from the £150million Silver Hill city centre redevelopment after 20 years of delays and u-turns.

Fed-up council leaders rejected developer TH Real Estates plea for more time after reversing on a pledge to start work by Christmas.

It meant residents were condemned to wait even longer before new homes, shops, parking and a bus station would be built, replacing some of the most run-down parts of the city.

  • A MAN who used his dead mother’s travel pass to save £80 on his commute to work, faced a court bill of £900 after his deception was uncovered.

Southampton magistrates heard it began when Trevor Dickson didn’t have the 50p toll required to cross Southampton’s Itchen Bridge so he used a pass which belonged to his mother.

But once he realised he could get away with it he went on to try his luck another 150 times.

Dickson, 54, was ordered to pay the huge fine after pleading guilty to fraudulently using his dead mum’s Itchen Bridge discount toll card a total of 151 times over a nine-month period.

  • HUNDREDS of junior doctors from across the south descended on Southampton for a mass rally during strikes. 

More than 500 people gathered at the Bargate in the city centre waving placards and banners.

The rally was the climax of demonstrations and pickets taking place across the region as hundreds of junior doctors walk out over pay and conditions.

There were representatives from as far afield as Portsmouth, Bournemouth and Salisbury.