26/08/2014 BBC Oxford News

on settling down and turning warmer. That is all from the BBC News at

Six. Hello and welcome to South Today

from Oxford. a care home in Oxford, wherd a

teenager died may never be re`opened. Connor Sparrowhawk's

death at Slade House promptdd a Also tonight: loom to the moon ` the

desperately ill boy who's sdt himself an incredible challdnge

using the latest craze. Fighting fatbergs ` could an

Oxfordshire`based business have the solution to blockages caused by

congealed fat in our sewers? A family remembers the evil of World

War I who is honoured as part of a national commemoration.

Good evening. A residential care unit in Oxford where a teen`ger died

is unlikely to ever re`open to patients. Connor Sparrowhawk, who

was 18, was found unconsciots in a bath at Slade House in July last

year. An independent report ruled his death could have been prevented.

Southern Health NHS Foundathon Trust, which runs the unit, today

confirmed it's likely to close the site, although a final decision has

not been made yet. A short time ago, I asked our reporter about the unit

Slade House catered for people with learning disabilities.

It had an emergency assessmdnt and treatment unit as well as a unit

But the death of 18`year`old Connor Sparrowhawk in July last year

He drowned as a result of drowning in the bath.

It's believed he suffered an epileptic seizure.

An independent report said if younger staff to respond to

and risk assess Connor's ephlepsy led to a series

After a highly critical inspection report in September, Slade House

was closed and not patients are currently being treated there.

Earlier this year, Connor's mum Sarah Ryan,

said she hoped what happened to her son would bring about changd.

It will hopefully shame thel to the point that other trusts sort

of think, actually, we need to look at our own house

here and make sure that we `ren t falling into the same traps that

They had a duty of care to look after Connor

What has Severn Health said about the future of the sitd?

Options being considered ard possibly leasing the building or

The trust has said it does not intend to reopen the unit btt it has

said it will speak to patients, families and staff for their views

Meanwhile, Oxfordshire county council, which commissions services

for southern health, says it is looking again at how servicds for

people with learning disabilities could be provided in future.

Now ` a seemingly impossibld challenge, by a desperately ill boy

who simply refuses to give tp. 5`year`old Skye Hall from Abingdon

was diagnosed last year with a terminal brain tumour. Whild he s

been enduring painful and dhfficult treatment, one of the few things

he's been able to enjoy is laking these ` looms bands. It's a craze

that most parents and grandparents will be familiar with. Together with

his family, Skye is bidding to create the world's longest loom

band, to raise awareness and money for new research.

Blue Sky Thinking... When the post arrives these days,

there's usually a special p`rcel for Skye.

Good luck on your great fundraising adventure!

Making oom bands is the latdst craze and word of the challenge hd's set

himself has spread rapidly. A loom band long enough to reach the moon

seems an impossible dream, but it's one plenty seem keen to share in.

It helps the doctors to help other children get better.

Guess who ? It's Skye! It was in August last year, just

weeks before he was due to start school in Abingdon, that Skxe became

ill. A scan at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital revealed the

tumour and how critical the situation was. For him and his

family, life changed in an hnstant. All I remember is that Skye was with

me when I was told, so I had to not really act at all because the last

thing that you want is your child to be worried. And just everything went

into slow motion. Despite months of surgery,

chemotherapy and radiotherapy, he's getting weaker. In recent d`ys, the

illness has even robbed him of the dexterity he needs to weave his loom

bands. Giving up is not an option. It is Skye who set up his charity.

Even at an early age, he wanted to give his pocket money to help

children. About 400 children are diagnosed

with a brain tumour every ydar the UK. According to latest figtres by

the Children's Cancer and Ldukaemia Group.

This might be a sudden event but it might also be a long, drawn out

event. And it's that not knowing that creates, I suppose, anxiety for

us. But at the same time, wd have to be strong and keep positive.

Thames Water is in talks with an Oxfordshire`based business which may

have a solution to the problem of so`called "fatbergs" in our sewers `

they're the major blockages caused when hot liquid fat is pourdd down

drains and sinks, then congdals as it cools. Last year the centre of

Oxford had to be closed to traffic so engineers could dig down and

clear a fatberg near the tr`in station, Charlotte Stacey rdports.

In April this year, Thames Water had to close this major intersection in

the centre of Oxford. There was a fatberg in the sewers beneath the

streets. They cause disrupthon for streets. They cause disrupthon for

days and a section of pipe had to be replaced. Cooking oil was a major

contributing factor. Last ydar, there are more than 2002 blockages

in our region. Oxfordshire had 1446. The Swindon area, 451

Buckinghamshire, 1421. But no, and oxygen Company has found a way to

cut through the Greeks. Herd, they are using a new grille. Any fat that

trips through is vaporised back up trips through is vaporised back up

into the food. `` cut through the grease. We cooked 100 stakes as a

test and had less than one sugar lump of fat to clean up. Restaurants

are obliged to dispose of that responsibly. But not all do.

Restaurants must understand they are responsible for their own f`t

disposal. Also, it's a immunity thing. If they are blocking sewers

outside the restaurant, that affect potential customers who livd in the

area. It is early days for the new grille. But with so many blockages

to do their bit to trim the fat to do their bit to trim the fat

that's going down the drain. A ?45 million upgrade to re`double

rail capacity between Swindon and Kemble has been completed. @ new

twelve and a half mile line has been laid since January alongsidd the

existing track. Trains can now travel simultaneously in both

directions ` although First Great Western says it has no immediate

plans for new services. The work is a reversal of fortune for the

route. The original second track was closed during British R`il's

cutbacks in the 1960s. It's long been the case that

patients facing pre`planned surgery need to be otherwise fit and well

before going anywhere near `n operating theatre. Now surgdons in

Oxford are taking that principle a stage further ` by assessing a

patient's overall fitness in a much more methodical way ` and also their

rate of recovery afterwards. They're using an exercise bike hookdd up to

a computer, to get a more accurate picture of someone's state of

health. Jeremy Stern has more. Andy is going into his anaerobic

state. Andy Binks recently had emergency

surgery on his abdomen. He says he is feeling much better but doctors

don't have to just take his word for it. They can measure his recovery

more scientifically. Electronic pads attached to his body are linked to a

computer. It gives detailed information, including lung capacity

and the health of his heart. And he undertook similar tests before his

surgery. As a patient, it gives me the

knowledge that I am fit enotgh for it. I feel fit enough for it. But,

in my case I wanted to be fhtter, so I would recover quicker. Yot get a

better recovery rate. The equipment at the Churchhll

hospital costs ?50,000, funded through charitable donations. It

means patients with serious illnesses, like cancer, can have a

series of fitness tests in one visit, rather than having to come

back to hospital time and thme again.

Patients are often very anxhous scared, unsurprisingly. And then

they realise that in order to try and beat this cancer they are going

to have to undergo a major operation. We can help get them

prepared in a shorter time. More than 100 people have undertaken

fitness tests and the hospital are planning to make it available to

many more. Firefighters say they're ailing to

intensify efforts to put out a rubbish fire that's been burning in

Swindon for the past month. They're warning people living and working

near the Averies recycling site there'll be much more smoke from

seven tomorrow morning. Non`burning waste will continue to be shifted

from the site during what's being called "aggressive fire`fighting".

It's likely to be several wdeks That's all from me for the loment.

I'll have the headlines at 8 and a full bulletin at 10.25. For more of

today's stories here's Sallx Taylor. on a pumping platform to help

prevent erosion of the riverbank. Still to come in this evening's

South Today, we're getting behind the whdel

of The Old Girl. Being 75 years old,

this bus has no power steerhng, Stopping innovation and costing

the South's budding entreprdneurs Inventors from the region h`ve told

us that the patent process But the government claims

the system is still the best way to protect unique products,

and the cost should be part of Here's our business

correspondent Alastair Fee. and often start here in private

workshops. But for the inventor,

that's half the battle. To protect each creation it's

costing thousands of pounds. If you have 50 patterns, it costs

thousands of illegal, and it would cost a lot. A lot of ideas get lost

or are put in a book, as I have done, and it is totally frustrating,

the whole exercise. It is a bitter pill to swallow. I just feel I have

had a lifetime of feeling totally angry about it all. Just cole down a

tiny bit... On a Southampton building shte,

another inventor is showing off his new device a spirit level

you can view from different angles. While those

in the industry are impressdd, it's Banks want the orders beford giving

funding. But you are stuck hn a Catch`22. It is a living hell trying

to keep funding coming in to keep it going whilst you try to find that

funding stream. Patent law was set up

to protect new ideas. Whether that's for

the lone inventor or big business, For small individuals, therd are

times when it will not work. For some businesses with a novel

product, others could compete, you clearly have something innovative

people will want to copy, then a patent will be available to keep

exclusivity in the market for a decent length of time. It l`sts up

to 20 years. In a statement,

the Government says... Persistence,

along with tens of thousands of From what started

in a garden shed resulted in this Called the steersman, it's been

tested on the Solent and has So far Rob's come up with

more than 50 new products. Despite the trials

of getting to market, the spirit of The Victoria Cross remains

the highest military decoration During the course of the First World

War, 627 people received thd honour. Now those heroes are being

remembered with specially ddsigned paving stones placed

in their home towns and villages. This evening, the village

of Lockerley near Romsey will mark the contribution of a man

who, 100 years ago today, showed huge courage

on the battlefield. A scene of great danger, August 26,

1914, the British in retreat after a battle, the Field Artillery

galloping back towards the dnemy to recapture two valuable guns.

18`year`old Frederick Luke volunteer, placing himself `t the

centre of the action, through shrapnel and gunfire. Three made it

back, he was one of the lucky ones, seeing it as volunteering, not

bravery. He knew those guns were a valuable and he had to get them It

was his job. 100 years old, they are piecing

together the story of her great`grandfather she never met as

a sing the church where he was baptised in 1895. `` visiting the

church. To come and see where he had lived, the church we had he was

baptised, puts it into placd. She and a Victoria Cross for a Victoria

Cross for bravery, fighting on until 1918, serving again in the Second

World War, living until the age of 87. A very quiet man, very

unassuming. Everyone knew hd had won the Victoria Cross, but nevdr made a

big deal about it, just somdthing he had done. This evening, just across

from where he left, a memorhal will be unveiled in Lockerley, a lasting

reminder of an unassuming local hero. We knew something abott the

story of Frederick Luke, well documented, but we also want to

remember those whose stories are not well documented, a lot of pdople who

left this village in the First World War and did not come back. The

memorial hall is used as a village hall for lots, so many feet will

pass over the memorial and H am sure I thought will go up for Frdd. I am

sure it will, an innovative way of remembering those.

Life behind bars is proving to be an unlikely tourist attracthon.

A new museum dedicated to a jail in Dorset shows how inmates

used to spend their time on Portland.

Amongst other things, they helped in stone production

making it the first public works prison in England.

Our Dorset reporter Simon Clemison has been looking at how Portland

Even if you could scale walls, and pick through barbed wire, you would

probably still need to swim to escape from Portland. But its walls

were not the reason people were housed here. The cells for just four

feet wide, but at least you did not feet wide, but at least you did not

beg for food. This was the first beg for food. This was the first

Public Works prison, run by central government, unusual for the time,

inmates learning new skills, cleared for in return, more rehabilhtation

than punishment. Why was it Portland? There was still w`nt to be

cut. This was no dear release, the guards carried swords, the store and

carried risks. But for once, a productive prison sentence.

Offenders were lined up and search for tools when going to bed. And

arrows printed on clothes, life inside really like this. Portland

prison was rebuilt in 1897 eventually becoming a borst`l in the

20s. The difference was a fdw feet in the whiteness of cells. `` and

how wide the cells were. Basically, it is taking someone and tr`ining

them to be a better person. Now I Young offenders institution,

Portland still playing a part in the instant `` now it is our yotng

offenders institution and still playing a part in the criminal

justice system. Preparation for the

Great Dorset Steam Fair has been disrupted

by the bad weather. The annual festival is

due to start tomorrow. But wet ground has meant

that some vehicles are having problems getting

onto the site near Blandford. They are as king for help whth this

set up. `` asking for help. Unfortunately, the weather has been

against us just a little bit the last couple of days, but we are

managing very, very well. We've got plenty of tractors on

site putting people into position. It is something we're used

to dealing with And as I say,

we are on top of the game, looking forward

to first show day tomorrow. I am sure it will be fine. @nd you

were there last year. And it is a great event. And on to the sport,

starting with football? And very busy.

Southampton took the train to Millwall today.

We wouldn't normally tell you their mode of transport,

but seeing as Ronald Koeman tweeted it, we thought why not?

Koeman's looking for his first victory as Sahnts

manager in a competitive fixture and is expected to give a ddbut to

new signing Florin Gardos, but several of the side who featured

in the weekend draw with West Brom could be involved tonight.

Adrian Calunga, signed from Getafe at the weekend, set for a ddbut

The Albion have also added `nother loan signing

Midfielder Gary Gardner links up with Sami Hyppia's men,

who've now won their last two after a difficult start to the se`son

The 22`year`old has signed from Aston Villa

on a season`long loan and could play tonight.

Here's a full list of tonight's ties.

The glamour game is at Stadhum MK, as MK Dons host Manchester Tnited.

Meanwhile, Bournemouth are `t home, Oxford and Reading are on the road.

There's commentary on the thes on BBC Local radio

and South Today will have the best of the action tomorrow.

Southampton sailor Leigh McLillan was once again the star

of the latest instalment in the Extreme sailing serids.

The fifth stage of the event was in Cardiff Bay this weekend.

The stage title was up for grabs going into the final race whth any

one of three teams including Ben Ainslie Racing still in contention.

And there was a remarkable collision between all three.

Ultimately, McMillan's crew came out on top.

The conditions were particularly difficult, big storms, lots of

cloud, plenty of rain and a difficult for the organisers to set

a good cause, but we got sole good reasons in, and coming down to the

wire, the wind played some tricks, made it difficult to get thd last

race. But eventually it did so and quite the Nally.

Francis Benali has ticked off three of the 20 Premier League grounds

on his epic charity challenge to run to all 20 over 21 consecutive days.

Benali left St James's Park in Newcastle on Sunday morning heading

south on a journey which will see him run around 40 miles a d`y and

Today, his journey took in Hull City's KC Stadium.

Tomorrow, he starts the journey across to Lancashire

Just to show that he was arriving safe and sound at the KC St`dium,

she and he is with the whold mascot a few hours ago. `` and herd he is

Finally tonight, here's one for the bus fans.

That's the name given to the oldest bus in the country still

licensed to carry passengers, and she's on the Isle of Wight.

The 75`year`old vehicle has a top speed of 30 miles an hour

and less power than a modern Ford Fiesta.

Our transport correspondent Paul Clifton has taken her for a spin.

to do a day's work on the Isle of Wight.

Ron Gatland first drove the bus in 1969.

The bus, of course, has been on these roads

What makes this more diffictlt to drive than a modern bus?

You cannot get a comfortable driving posithon.

Being 75 years old, this bus has no power steerhng,

This bus has lovely air conditioning and everything you would expect

It is a crash gearbox, so it is really difficult to change

It is actually almost as easy to drive as a familx car.

# Come and join the Double Deckers... #

To you and me, it is called a window.

That is the nearest this has to air conditioning.

How long can you keep that going with a license?

We think we can probably keep it going indefinitely.

It does get quite hard to get spare parts.

Sometimes, we have to get the manufacturers especiallx.

They are not available on the shelf or anything like that.

But because we do not use her vdry much,

we think we can pretty much keep her going for the foreseeable ftture.

This was carrying people on their holidays many, many years ago.

And it gave a lot of people a lot of pleasure.

Today's modern buses are for people to get on and go from A to B.

Any bus companies looking for a driver, he is your man. But like he

was loving it. And he was jtst in a car park. And it was a dreadful Bank

Holiday Monday. And a half of rain, just over one inch to do. Thank you

for the weather pictures. of Jake singing in the rain in

Guildford. crabbers braving the wet we`ther

in Swanage. And the last picture of a phg in the

mud. This week, rain and showers at

times, some sunshine, mainlx in the latter part of the week, and it will

be breezy at times. Any showers tonight gradually fading aw`y, so it

will be dry for most. That could be some heavy showers though they are,

for the Isle of Wight, Hampshire and Dorset, else we dry through the

night, temperatures down to 10` 1dC, not as low as Sun parts of the

country. `` as some parts of the country. Milder tomorrow night. A

lot of closed tomorrow, mord sunshine further north and dast ``

lots of cloud. But some limhted brightness through the afternoon. A

change tomorrow evening with a weather front from the south`west,

quite heavy at times, but a brisk south westerly breeze and going

through quickly and clearing south areas tomorrow evening. Low

temperatures of 15`17, mild night tomorrow. Mainly dry on Thursday,

once the show or Galway, sole through the day, but quite ` lot of

dry weather `` once the shower is Galway. `` once the showers Galway.

Friday, breezy with some showers, mainly dry. The model dry whth some

showers, tomorrow evening the weather front moving in frol the

south`west. Some brightness on the horizon, next week looks drher.

More for you at 8pm and ten to 0 five p.m.. Back tomorrow at 6:3

p.m.. `` 25 minutes past ten. Hope to see you tomorrow. Goodbyd.

Have somebody play bagpipe at the airport to welcome you? Possible.

Whichever car you like, with Wi-Fi inside? Possible.

Can I get you a pink elephant? I'll try!

See, the Indian philosophy dictates that

anybody who comes to your house is not a guest, but he's God.

You want to do the best you can as a parent.

And we're not in a position to do that.

It does kind of break your heart a little bit.