25 years ago

PARENTS and children from Badgemore Pre-School in Henley were jumping for joy this week when they learned the charity had been awarded a Lottery grant worth almost £30,000. Organisers can now replace the dilapidated mobile classroom and resurface the play area.

Protestors battling to save their local hospital from closure are to put their case directly to Health Secretary Frank Dobson next month. Henley MP Michael Heseltine announced he has secured the meeting before starting a special bed-push on Saturday, held to launch the next phase of the Watlington Hospital at Risk group’s campaign. Watlington Community Hospital is threatened with closure by the Oxfordshire Health Authority.

Television chef and restaurateur Antony Worrall Thompson has won his fight to continue working his land at Shiplake in a bid to become a self-sufficient organic farmer. He convinced a planning inspector that a hen house, pigsty and feed store are not out of keeping with the area and should remain standing at Orchard Field, near his home.