24/02/2014 BBC Oxford News

life changing experience. The question is whether the Games will

deliver a Good evening. Campaigners have

described it as "all pain, no gain" but now officials in Buckinghamshire

are calling on the Government to minimise the impact of the

controversial high`speed rail line HS2. A series of requests to limit

the effects of the railway have been endorsed by the county council. They

include more tunnelling, a new relief road and designated areas to

be protected. Our political reporter Helen Catt has more.

If the HS2 projects remains on track, high`speed trains could be

running through the Buckinghamshire countryside from 2026. That's not

what local authorities want. But if they can't stop the line, they at

least want to lessen its possible impact ` and have come up with a

list of demands for government. Firstly, it says tunnelling

shouldn't stop at Little Missenden. It wants the track to stay

underground through the Chilterns to Wendover, at an estimated cost of

?200 million. Further up the line, it wants a linear park to provide a

sort of green buffer between Aylesbury and the train route. And

in the north of the county, it wants a country park and a new station `

not on this line but on the east`west rail link. The idea is to

stop workers at a planned HS2 maintenance depot at Calvert from

clogging up nearby roads. We think these are the minimum we should be

accepted if we're going to have a through the Buckinghamshire

countryside. Wherever you are, we want to see the very best protection

because if this is a national piece of infrastructure that's going to

cost something like ?50 million, we think spending a little bit on

protecting the communities that are affected is money well spent. The

council's is clear its overall position on HS2 has not changed,

though. The best result, it says, would be if the line just wasn't

built at all. The Swindon Town striker player Nile

Ranger has gone on trial accused of rape. The 22`year`old, who is

appearing before Newcastle Crown Court, denies the charge. Andrew

Hartley reports. Nile Ranger arriving at Newcastle

Crown Court with a companion. The trial was told that Mr Ranger and

his alleged victim had been friends ` they had been in regular contact

by text. They met at the Empress bar in Newcastle City Centre on a

Tuesday night in January last year. The court heard the woman remembers

dancing and drinking for the first hour of their date ` but has no

memory of what happened until she woke the next morning in a bed in a

hotel room with Mr Ranger lying next to her. The jury was shown CCTV

footage of the woman and Mr Ranger arriving at this hotel in the

Jesmond area of Newcastle in the small hours of Wednesday morning.

The prosecution says the footage shows that the woman fell out of a

taxi and was left lying on the pavement for some time before Mr

Ranger assists her into the hotel. It's claimed this footage shows the

woman was incapacitated through drink or drugs. The court heard that

Mr Ranger admits having sex with the woman but says physical contact was

totally consensual. He denies the charge of rape and the trial

continues. Tributes have been paid to a

17`year`old girl who died in a multi`vehicle crash in Waddesdon,

which also left four children seriously injured. Laura Walden was

in her final year at school and was planning to start university. She

died last Thursday in a crash on the A41.

An Oxford shopkeeper has been hospitalised following an armed

robbery in Littlemore. Two men went into the newsagent's on the Cowley

Road at around 12.30pm yesterday lunchtime. One had a large knife,

the other was carrying a hammer. They fled on bicycles with the till.

The newsagent suffered injuries to his arm and knee.

A new adult mental health centre, costing more than forty million

pounds, has opened in Aylesbury. The Whiteleaf Centre will take patients

from three units in the town, which are being closed down. It will offer

both inpatient care and outpatient therapies. It's purpose`designed to

support patients and protect them from harm. Sinead Carroll reports.

The centre is so new even the parking bays are freshly painted.

And the building is the epitome of purpose`built. It's designed to

minute detail ` there are no cords on blinds, or light switches, or

shower curtains in the en suites. The hinges are particularly

designed. For mental health buildings, you have to pay

particular attention to every detail. Unions suggest that UK NHS

mental`health services have faced 15% cuts over the past three years `

so can Buckinghamshire NHS justify this multi`million`pound new

building? There has been a history of mental health buildings being

very institutional in nature and not functioning on modern treatments and

privacy and dignity and space which people need to recover, if they have

a serious mental health problem. What do those who've used, or worked

in, other Buckinghamshire mental`health wards think of this

new building? Any changes can be challenging but because these are

such positive changes, I think it will definitely improve staff

morale. It's more like a hotel. It makes you feel a lot happier. It was

dingy where it was before. The final polish has begun ahead of first

admissions on Wednesday. A woman from Oxfordshire has been

ordained as a Bishop, but 12,000 miles away from home. The Reverend

Helen`Ann Hartley trained at Ripon College at Cuddesdon. Because she

can't become a Bishop in England she was ordained in New Zealand, where

she's been living for two years. I hope that my ordination will be an

inspiration to people everywhere but particularly to those in the Church

of England, which nurtured my spiritual journey ` that they will

be encouraged that this is a role that women and men can do equally.

The Winter Olympics are over ` but did you know that, as with the

summer Games, a Winter Paralympics follow? The Russian resort of Sochi

staged a spectacular closing ceremony last night ` but the show

goes on, with Winter Paralympics starting early next month. Today,

schoolchildren in Great Missenden got to hold the Paralympic torch

before a special event at Stoke Mandeville this weekend.

That's it from us for now. The weather is next, starting with the

regional forecast from Alexis, but, from the late news team here,

goodnight. Rain at first denied that it will gradually ease through the

early hours of the morning and it will be breezy with the rainfall, so

some heavy bursts. The rain gradually eases eastwards armour

followed by some scattered showers. Most places will start tomorrow on a

dry note with temperatures very mild overnight. We are looking at a

predominantly dry start to the day tomorrow. Showers will get going

around the middle part of the morning and they could be heavy,

perhaps thundery, with hail. There will be some sunshine and showers

will last through most of the day. They will clear by the evening. Wind

is fairly brisk. Here's the outlook. will be more rain overnight into

Thursday. Good evening. We have a spell of wet

and windy weather working across the British Isles. Today brought many of

us some decent spells of sunshine and it brought us some decent

temperatures. In fact, our warmest day of the year so far.

At the moment, though, things have changed. This is the gap in the

satellite picture. Now, this curl of cloud looks like a snail's shell, it

is an area of low pressure that is sweeping wind and rain across us.

It's pushed into the west already and is now making rapid progress

eastwards, moving into eastern England through the small hours

Strong, gusty winds around the Irish Sea coasts. The weather front will

weaken as it gets into eastern areas. Behind the weather front

things are a good deal clearer and that is the way we will start

tomorrow. Our wet and windy weather, the worst of it is out of the way as

we look at Tuesday. There will be some sunshine around, but there will

be some hefty showers. First thing, a lot of