07/04/2017 South Today - Oxford

Good evening. for the news where you are.

A Serious Case Review into nearly 20 years of child sexual exploitation

in Buckinghamshire has described some services in the past

Problems around the issuing of licenses to taxi drivers who've

committed sex offences was also identified as an ongoing challenge.

Our Home Affairs Correspondent Peter Cooke reports.

This report will make sobering reading for those tasked

with protecting the most vulnerable in our society.

Since 1998, there've been ten police investigations into child sexual

exploitation in Buckinghamshire involving up to 100 children.

Past problems included a lack of multi-agency co-ordination

and children being blamed for putting themselves at risk.

We felt that there was a point then where we could start looking

honestly at some of the things that had happened over the previous

decade or more, and then to draw lessons from that so that we didn't

continue to repeat some of those mistakes that we had collectively

The reviews suggest introducing a national database of licensed taxi

drivers to identify those with a criminal past.

It found taxi drivers picked young people up from schools

and children's homes and some were directly involved

But the woman who commissioned the report says things are improving.

Issues around the engagement previously of the

district councils and their role as licensing authorities of

taxis and hotels and so forth, I'm delighted to say that we have

excellent engagement from the district

councils in the work of the board,

they have a really strong focus on safeguarding.

The county's most high profile case of recent years resulted in six men

being jailed for between three and 19 years for abusing two girls

When she was 12 or 13, one of the girls - known as A -

was passed between 60 Asian men for sex and was conditioned to think

It's terrible that girls feel that this is what

they have to do to be part of, you know, the older people.

No girls should ever have to feel that they

need to use their body or what they've got

So to try to tell young people that, you know,

you don't need to sexualise yourself to go out

it's going to be hard but I reckon that's the biggest thing that

The author of the report also spoke to other survivors.

As recently as 2014, an Ofsted report found

"widespread and serious" failings by the county's

However there has been a marked improvement since then,

and there are now specialist units from different agencies working

But this form of abuse in Buckinghamshire,

like elsewhere in the UK, is happening daily.

The public now more important than ever in helping

Moving forward, it's about building connections with

communities across Buckinghamshire to encourage more people to come

Without that trust, many potential victims could fall

under the radar and find themselves at risk of exploitation.

Seven fire engines are at the scene of a fire in Watlington

Firefighters were called to the hardware shop at around 7pm.

Police and ambulance crews have also been there.

It's not been revealed if anyone has been injured.

A ?130,000 has been paid out in compensation to pupils injured

in schools in Oxfordshire in the last three years -

according to a BBC investigation. There were 14 pay-outs.

Two for damage to property, and 12 for personal injury.

Across England, seven million was paid out -

including ?20,000 for a child hit by a cricket ball.

One head teacher from Oxford says a claim made against her school -

We held a picnic for the children, who'd gone up to the local park,

the child fell off one of the bits of apparatus in the park itself,

onto a safety surface, and the child hurt themselves,

and six years later they filed a claim against the school for lack

of looking after the child properly in that park in that event.

There are some teachers who are scared of it

because actually the minute you put yourself on the line and say I'm

going to have a go at doing something, you put yourself

Squatters in Oxford - who've been evicted

from a third property - have moved into another

disused building. They say they got into former

offices near the Cowley Road through an open window.

Since January they've occupied a disused car showroom,

an old power station and an empty restaurant.

More than ?4.5 million of lottery funding is to be used

by conservationists to try to save 20 special threatened

with extinction. In the Cotswolds, the focus

will be on butterflies - as David Lumb reports.

Welcome to the Cotswolds, a jewel in England's green crown.

Hidden here is a gem critical for the survival of a butterfly.

This is one of the very special plants we're trying

to encourage on this site, which is cowslip, which is the host

plant, the caterpillar food plant for a really special butterfly

called The Duke Of Burgundy. And here it is.

20 years ago, this butterfly was often seen in this area.

But changes in farming and landscapes have

caused it to struggle. The Duke of Burgundy

isn't here at the moment but we want it to arrive.

It's not too far away, so by enhancing the grassland here,

by increasing the amount of cowslips and food plant here, eventually

we hope that the butterfly will naturally recolonise

It's one of three species that Butterfly Conservation is looking

to try and help in this area. The project also aims to encourage

more volunteers like this to oversee and maintain sites.

Once you start to notice butterflies you realise

how beautiful they are, and you know, big and small,

lots of ones you'd never notice in the countryside,

so once you start getting out and getting involved it just gets

more and more interesting and really gives your spirits a lift.

There are very few places like this compared to what it used to be

in the early 20th century. So, many places that were like this

have gone and the ones that are left need protecting.

They said if you come back in May you might find the Duke

of Burgundy which we thought sounded quite exciting!

The project's essential for creating a thriving countryside.

They hope to see the results within four years.

That's it from us. Alexis is next with

the weekend weather forecast. Goodnight.

It took a while for some of us to see the sunshine today but some

late evening sunshine was on offer and temperatures overnight will fall

away under the clear skies so we may have some mist and fog patches.

These are temperatures in urban areas and in the countryside,

we could see lows of 2 and 3 Celsius.

That mist and fog will clear very swiftly tomorrow morning

and we will have more in the way of sunshine than today.

Through the course of the afternoon, in the sunny spells,

we may see highs of 18, 19, even up to 20 Celsius.

The warmest of the temperatures the further east you are.

As we look ahead to the rest of the weekend, a lovely

day in store tomorrow, warmer still on Sunday

Then it turns cooler, just in time for the start of next week.

drag in more cloud and temperatures will be down by 8-9 .

Hello, my advice would be to make the most of the weather this

weekend, if you can. Because there will be a good day love sunshine on

offer and it will continue to warm up as well. This picture was taken

in Cumbria, at Workington, later in the afternoon. We got the sunshine

eventually in northern England but it's