BBC Local Live: Oxfordshire

Two women from Oxfordshire have praised a new mental health partnership for turning their lives around.  

On South Today at 18:30:

A hospice in Oxford is calling on everyone to talk about dying and their final wishes. 

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Sobell House offers end of life care to the terminally ill and says making preparations can save heartache and problems for those left behind. 

Join us on BBC One for this and all the day's top stories.

West Oxfordshire's first new council leader for 15 years has been elected. 

Witney Conservative councillor James Mills was voted in unanimously at a meeting today.

He replaces Sir Barry Norton, who's stepped down for health reasons. 

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A few heavy showers will continue to drift slowly south-east this evening, before dying out at about midnight. This will leave a largely dry night with clear spells. Low temp 8C (46F).

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A Banbury councillor has been working with residents to make sure changes to traffic measures don’t compromise road safety.

Your top stories this evening:

• The inquest into the death of Ellis Downes, who died in the River Thames, has heard two friends jumped into the water in an attempt to save him
• Wantage MP Ed Vaizey says a Local Plan is desperately needed in South Oxfordshire to prevent speculative development
• Oxford United could get a temporary fourth stand at the Kassam Stadium next season, but there's a risk the owner could put the rent up if it's installed

Plans for a controversial pipeline set to cross a part of Headington have gone on show - four months after roads were dug up and then filled back in again. 

The £15 million pipeline to connect the heating systems of the John Radcliffe and Churchill hospitals is supposed to mean the buildings are less reliant on the national power grid during the winter.

But contractors Vital Energy had to call a stop to work after complaints from residents that it didn't have planning permission. 

Claire Hennessy from the hospitals trust says that the project is worth the wait.

• There's very slow traffic on the A34 northbound between Weston-On-The-Green and Bicester, because of an accident earlier on. All lanes have been re-opened, but there are queues to Peartree Interchange
• There are delays on the A415 Ock Street in both directions in Abingdon between the B4017 Drayton Road junction and the East Saint Helen Street junction
• And there's slow traffic on the A361 South Bar Street in both directions in Banbury at Banbury Cross

Blue Peter descended on St Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital to film special scenes for the show.

A rail union says the actions of a guard on a train which caught fire this morning in Berkshire shows the "nonsense of trying to undermine and abolish these posts".

The RMT said if there had been no guard "the potential consequences would have been horrendous".

The union's call comes after hundreds of trains were cancelled as Southern rail conductors staged a second 24-hour walkout this morning as part of a dispute over the role of guards.

A man from Oxford whose horse was so upset by fireworks it had to be put down is backing calls for them to be banned, except on specific nights of the year. 

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Garry Donnelly is among more than 100,000 people who've signed a petition saying bangers and rockets should should only be allowed on dates like New Year's Eve and Guy Fawkes night.

MPs will debate the petition in the House of Commons on 6 June. 

Headington residents are calling for compensation for a £14.8m project, which will see their roads and lives "turned upside down".

Wantage MP Ed Vaizey says a Local Plan is desperately needed in South Oxfordshire to prevent speculative development.

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He is backing a campaign against a proposed development of 170 homes between Didcot and East Hagbourne, which campaigners say is driven purely by profit rather than need.

South Oxfordshire District Council is to vote on the outline planning application tonight. 

Will the MP's intervention make a difference though?

Quote Message: It's really important we get a Local Plan in place so that we get development where it's needed and not speculative development. This {Green Gap development plan] has been hanging over me as an MP for the last three or four years. People are very angry. They don't feel they have a say in planning in our local area. from Ed Vaizey Wantage MP

It's really important we get a Local Plan in place so that we get development where it's needed and not speculative development. This {Green Gap development plan] has been hanging over me as an MP for the last three or four years. People are very angry. They don't feel they have a say in planning in our local area.

The inquest into the death of Ellis Downes has also heard about the recovery of his body. Remember, Thames Valley Police is to be investigated by the watchdog IPCC after it referred itself over its handling of the case. 

Ellis's body was found two days later, on 9 May, near Donkey Bridge between Culham and Abingdon and certified dead at 22:56.   

His inquest has been provisionally listed for 2 August.

A police statement read to the inquest heard Ellis had arrived with friends just before 20:30 on Saturday. 

He removed his clothes a while later and entered the Thames in his boxer shorts. He swam across to the other bank and was on the way back when he got into difficulty. Two of his friends jumped in to help but he went under before they reached him.

A post-mortem examination gave his cause of death as drowning.

The inquest into the death of 16-year-old Ellis Downes, who died after getting into difficulty in the River Thames, has opened and adjourned.

The hearing gave some details of what happened on the evening of Saturday 7 May when he disappeared, and two days later when his body was found.

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A three-year-old girl involved in a crash on the M4 last week has died at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital.

A 37-year-old woman, a man in his late thirties and two girls aged three and five were in a car that left the carriageway and crashed into a tree near junction 11 for Reading on 7 May.

The woman died at the scene, and police have revealed today that the girl also died.

The man and the five-year-old girl have now been discharged from hospital.  

Dancing and music are being used in Henley to help people with dementia. 

This group is part of a pilot in Oxfordshire connecting social care with the arts.