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Oxfordshire weekly round-up: 17 February – 23 February 2024

University of Warwick/ Mark Garlick An artist’s impression of how Victorian palaeontologists thought the Megalosaurus looked (right), compared with how we now understand it to have looked (left).University of Warwick/ Mark Garlick
An artist's impression of how Victorian palaeontologists thought the Megalosaurus looked (right) and how modern scientists understand it to have looked (left)

A story celebrating the first dinosaur was among our most read this week in Oxfordshire.

A variety of local issues were featured on the BBC News website, BBC Radio Oxford and South Today.

We have picked five stories to keep you up to date.

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Doctor's book about the pandemic becomes TV drama

Laura Gallant Dr Rachel Clarke sitting in her studyLaura Gallant
Dr Clarke started writing to help process her feelings

A doctor whose book about working during the pandemic has become a TV drama said she hopes it will "stop the public in their tracks".

Dr Rachel Clarke, a palliative care doctor from Didcot in Oxfordshire, worked at the Horton and John Radcliffe Hospitals.

She wrote about what she went through in her book Breathtaking - now a three-part ITV series.

Dr Clarke said she wanted viewers to really empathise with staff.

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Celebrating 200 years of first dinosaur Megalosaurus

Getty Images William BucklandGetty Images
William Buckland was a pioneer in the field of geology

Scientists are celebrating the 200th anniversary of the first formal naming of a dinosaur.

Oxford University's first reader in geology, William Buckland, described the species Megalosaurus to the Geological Society on 20 February 1824.

His paper was based on fossils discovered at Stonesfield in Oxfordshire, which had been collected over several decades.

The university said it was a "pivotal moment" in science.

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Residents 'cut off' due to incomplete footpaths

Mud patch
Residents of Dida Gardens face walking across patches of mud

Residents on a new housing estate have claimed they are "cut off" from shops, schools and buses because footpaths have not been completed.

Pedestrians in Dida Gardens in Didcot, Oxfordshire, have to cross muddy open spaces or take a detour via the busy A4130 to reach amenities.

The local residents association said wheelchair users and parents with prams were "struggling".

Landowner Taylor Wimpey said it was "actively investigating" solutions.

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Driver rescued from car stranded in floodwater

Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service Firefighters rescuing man from car in flood waterOxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service
Firefighters from Bicester, Buckingham and Kidlington entered the water wearing drysuits

Fire crews rescued a man after his car got stranded in floodwater under a bridge.

Crews responded to reports of a driver trapped in the Marsh Gibbon area, near Bicester, at about 06:30 GMT on 18 February.

Firefighters from Bicester, Buckingham and Kidlington entered the water wearing drysuits and rescued the man from his car.

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Behind the scenes with stretched ambulance service

Ambulance workers Andy Payne and Andy Morris
The BBC joined student paramedic Andy Payne (left) and paramedic Andy Morris for the day

There has been a steep rise in patients requiring an ambulance in the south of England in the past five years, according to the latest NHS figures.

Seriously ill people needing help in Hampshire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire rose from 30,748 in 2018-2019 to 41,348 in 2022-2023.

It represents a rise of 34% in the most serious Category 1 calls.

The demand for all categories of calls is so great that no ambulance trust in England is meeting its targets.

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