25/09/2014 BBC Oxford News

Good evening. for the news where you are.

The company in charge of catering and cleaning at one of the region's

hospitals has been accused of putting patients at risk.

Managers at Swindon's Great Western Hospital say Carillion's cldanliness

and food hygiene standards have been completely unacceptable.

Good, wholesome food like this is at the heart of a patient?s recovery.

But when Environmental Health visited Great Western Hospital

earlier this year they gave the food just one star for hygiene.

And the Care Quality Commission found dirty toilets and wards

which one inspector describdd as absolutely disgusting.

The trust say it's a risk to patients.

And in cleaning standard or any other kind of pig care we provide

can have an impact on patient care and infection control. Becatse of

the focus of our law nursing teams we are maintaining those st`ndards,

but it is taking a huge amotnt of our own efforts to make surd that

Carillion are delivering. The relationship between thd

hospital and those in chargd of the The trust which runs

the hospital is the tenant. It leases the building

from the landlord ` an investment In turn, it employs Carillion to run

the day to day maintenance, The deal is costing the trust ? 0

million a year, more than 10% of its annual revenue. Today, its board of

governors were taking legal advice about how to `` it can make

Semperian force Carillion to improve their standards.

Carillion has been involved in an industrial dispute with

workers over working practices and alleged bullying.

In particular there aren't dnough staff to cover days of holiday.

There are wards which were previous queen by four people which `re now

cleaned by two people. But Carilliion says

the staffing is appropriate. It wasn't prepared to be interviewed

today, but in a statement the company admitted that e`rlier

this year standards for cle`ning and food service dropped

below the quality that is accepted. It said it had taken immedi`te

action and that improvements have been made, finally adding

its confident that there is not An Oxford scholar has signed

an open letter to the milit`nt group Islamic State calling on it to stop

its actions in the name Imam Munawar Hussain is one

of nearly 130 international experts It counters

the IS arguments that they `re The young people who are behng

recruited or who are going over to Syria or Iraq to fight are often

young people who have only `ccessed possibly just one side

of the argument. So this kind

of provides a counter narrative An inquiry's been launched

into children's services at Buckinghamshire County Council

after they were classed as The review will examine evidence

from expert witnesses and other The council has also agreed to put

in an extra ?4.8 million Prince Edward has been in Swindon

opening a new research facility that could help protect homes

against flooding. The centre aims to find the best

materials for new homes that can cope better when submerged hn

standing water and how strong walls With every flooded home comds months

of misery, trauma With growing pressure for more

and more houses, some think we need to think more cleverly

about what we use to build them That's why Prince Edward was

in Swindon today opening wh`t's In these tanks are the posshble

building materials of tomorrow. The tests here discover what happens

to them in water and whether they're Once we develop something in the lab

we have to put it on a building and make sure it works in real life

Then, once it has that, we can then go out to industry and sake look at

this fantastic thing, make ht happen.

This is the country's first centre to assess low`carbon constrtction

It?s hoped the lessons learnt here will help minimise the misery,

and help make buildings better at resisting the effects of flooding.

The best`selling author, James Patterson, is giving loney to

eight independent bookshops in our region to encourage more chhldren

He's pledged to donate ?250,000 to improve children's sections

70 bookshops have been awarded money so far.

Jaffe and Neale's an independent bookshop in the

They've just been awarded ?4,00 by the crime writer James P`tterson

My ideal is to park up on the village green, reads childrdn's

stories after school, give parents copy and cake and really ignite a

love of books and a passion for physical books for those chhldren

for the rest of their lives. We have a story every night. We havd books

which we read when they comd home from school. I wish they cotld

understand the books, but the sound of your voice, they love to hear it

anyway. But the standard of alleged to in some parts of Oxfordshire are

pure. The County Council invested ?600,000 in a two`year readhng

campaign. That project has seen the average reading age improved by 13

months. The Bicester based charity, Arch,

arranges volunteers to read with children who've been struggling

in schools. They say boosting a child's

reading ability has many benefits. Self`confidence, self esteel

improves and attitude to re`ding so they are more open to different

types of books. They are more open to different types of books. On

effect in their attitudes to learning.

Back in Chipping Norton, this bookseller's hoping to have

his new children's book van on the road by next spring, serving up tea

and cake along the way and laking reading books all the sweetdr.

Sarah Farmer's next with the weather.

It looks like it will feel very mild compared to last night.

With that cloud coverage coles the risk of showers of light rain

or drizzle, which could be `round first thing tomorrow morning.

Quite a bit of cloud to start the day on Friday, but it whll

clear through to the south`dast and we will start to see drher,

The winds easing as we head into the afternoon.

Through the weekend it stays rather cloudy, but temperatures

The national weather forecast is up next.

breeze. Looking good onto the weekend as well. This is the

summary. Now the national outlook. Good evening. There is rain in the

forecast overnight, but even so September is heading to be one of

the driest on record for many of us. Today's weather front gave a