A report out today has rejected proposals to downgrade services at Banbury's Horton Hospital.

The Independent Reconfiguration Panel, which has been considering proposals to downgrade maternity and children's departments, has backed campaigners.

The Save the Horton action group, backed by Banbury MP Tony Baldry, family doctors, nurses, midwives and residents, has fought vigorously against the proposals.

The report out at 10am said the Horton must continue to serve the local community in North Oxfordshire.

The IRP said it has advised Health Secretary Alan Johnson to reject the trust's proposals, "because they fail to provide an accessible or improved service for local people".

The IRP has recommended that the Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust, working with the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust, carry out further work to set out the arrangements and investment necessary to retain and develop services.

Mr Baldry said: "Our case has been so strong that I understand this is the first time that the Independent Reconfiguration Panel has so comprehensively rejected a trust's proposals for reconfiguration and I hope that over the coming days the Oxford Radcliffe NHS Trust will reflect that in future it might be better to work with, rather than against, local communities and local people.

"I very much hope that the Oxford Radcliffe NHS Trust will now start to work co-operatively with local GPs, local midwives and the local community over the coming months to ensure that we can retain and enhance medical services at the Horton Hospital, rather than their being downgraded."