Millbrook Thistlewood Felled

Delighted to see that at long last the unsightly 'Thistlewood' which had been growing abundantly at the side of McColls supermarket in Millbrook Square has been cut down. Now, the area has been turfed and a new tree planted, so hopefully this area will be restored to how it was before the metal compound was erected without planning permission. When the compound was removed the weeds took over and were left to grow profusely - until now.

The problem with this strip of land is that it is not owned by the same landowners who manage Millbrook Shopping Square, so when I wrote to ask them to mend the potholes (now mended), they were not able to deal with this too. However, happy now that this has been done and what a difference it makes!

Rememberance Sunday at the Eden Project

I was away this weekend at Fowey, Cornwall, and spent Sunday at the Eden Project. They were just assembling an ice rink for skating as we took 2 minutes silence to remember all those who have fought for us in the two great wars. Usually I would have been at the cemetry in Grove, but this time could not be there, but still took time to remember. We were not skating, but looking round the huge biomes which was a fascinating experience. The ice rink is used during the summer for concerts where there have been a number of famous names.

The Eden Project was worth the visit, all built in an old clay pit - reclamation at its best. It is a symbol of hope and very thought provoking on this particular day. It is a growing environment and will change every day with the seasons - very impressive and a place one can always return to. Nine million visitors have crossed the threshold since 2001, many of those coming back for more.

Communities and Money Matters

Today was another busy day at full Council in Oxford where a couple of things of interest came up in our Liberal Democrat motions.

Firstly, I had a motion to urge us to support the Sustainable Communities Act. This Act sets out a process to give local people more control over improving their communities by allowing a community panel to suggest ways local spending could be better used to improve services and quality of life. My motion would kickstart this process and get things moving. At the moment, there is plenty of talk and no action and as a councillor who is keen to get things done in my division I am keen that Grove and Wantage get a fair crack of the whip.

Unfortunately, Tories at County Hall didn't want this to happen, unable to see the advantages despite many of their MP's voting for the Act in Parliament. Julia Goldsworthy MP (Lib Dem) tabled the Act. Even more bizarre they voted for a similar Labour motion 10 minutes earlier - so what a muddle! Do they agree or not agree or maybe they don't know themselves? Doesn't give much confidence in them running the council.

I would also like to see devolved budgets to councillors where we could help our communities with real money if we want to see things happen. Unfortunately it now looks like this won't be on offer unless things change after elections next June.

At least one motion from our group got through today which was about improving the financial investment procedure at the County Council to help ensure that we don't get bitten again by the Icelandic bank situation. We had £5M invested, but many other councils and authorities had more. We are hoping that we will get this back in due course. We shall wait and see.

Halloween with Bill Heine

Whilst many were trick or treating this evening, I was invited, along with many others, to Bill Heine's book launch. This was held at the Ashmoleum Museum in Oxford with various entertainments and a table at each floor level where Bill was busily signing his books. Listeners to Radio Oxford will be familiar with his 4pm to 7pm slot where he and a chosen 'co-host' have a 'call-in' programme where listeners literally call in with their views. The programme has its regulars, and usually the topic of the day gets a good dusting over. I once helped to co-host a couple of years ago when I worked for Age Concern and we were promoting our Information Fairs.

Well, I did end up buying a signed copy of his book called 'Heinstein of the Airwaves' with the sub-title 'Discovering a Parallel World Within Oxford'. A weird title perhaps and appropriate to be sold on a cold Halloween. Until I have read the book I won't give a verdict on whether it is a trick or treat.

Incinerator Looms

Tonight there were protestors outside the Civic Hall as we arrived for a full Council meeting in Wantage. Firstly, we were to have a presentation by WRG on their proposals for an incinerator at Sutton Courtenay. This is causing huge unrest in the village as many residents are rightly concerned about the health risks and environmental impact in the area. I have to say that the presentation was not too reassuring, with many questions left unsatisfactorily answered. It would really be better if we were to have the Environment Agency or the Health Protection Agency to give their expert opinions on the proposed risks.

At our full Council meeting we received petitions, questions and public addresses on the subject and I was particularly interested to hear the views of the local GPs.

The proposals will go before the Vale planning committee on Monday who are consultees to the County Council who are proposing the application as the waste authority. It will be considered by them in January next year, according to the timetable we saw tonight.

Those readers who follow my blog will know that this came to full Council in January although the decision had already been taken to go down the incineration route. Liberal Democrats called for a break clause in the contract in case newer and more environmentally-friendly options came on the market, but this was thrown out. We await the outcome of this whole debate as the arguments for and against are weighed up. What do you think?

Community Grants

Last night at the South East Area Committee in Wantage, we had the pleasure of giving some well-deserved community grants. The organisations and the amounts given are below:

Childrey PLaying Field Trust £1750
Wantage Parish Music Guild £1250
DAMASCUS Youth Project £3500
White Horse Croquet Club £100

Two young people came along to tell us about the values of the DAMASCUS Youth Project which serves young people from the villages of Drayton, Steventon, Appleford, Milton and Sutton Courtenay.

Planning in the Vale

Last week I was looking at planning decisions past, present and future as we head for trying to decide where future growth should be in the Vale. This is part of the Strategic Local Plan Advisory Group where we are looking at all possibilities as pressure is put upon councils to find room for new housing in their districts. This all seems rather irrelevant with the present credit crunch, where we know that housebuilders are in difficulty. Indeed, we heard that as far as the new Grove development is concerned, Persimmon is looking towards the end of next year before submitting their planning application.

On Wednesday, I was involved with a members' tour of various sites which had in the past been contentious. Two sites in Abingdon and two sites in Cumnor were visited. These sites at the time had raised serious issues with the local community, so it was interesting to go back and have a look now the development was complete. All had settled down rather well.

At Kingston Bagapuize we visited what was known to be an 'affordable housing site', which was built to a high standard of quality and would provide much needed local houses for the village. This piece of land was made available as an 'exception' site, specifically to allow houses to be built for the local community - it worked well too.

We visited Limborough Road, to view the Sainsburys site, local shopping centre and the wharf. Grove Airfield was also noted on the tour and this is where we shall be watching carefully to make sure that when and if this site is developed, we will do our best to ensure it is as good quality as those sites we visited during the day. However, when we are looking at future housing growth, maybe we should look to some of our larger villages, like Kingston Bagpuize, where some extra houses are welcome for the sustainability of the community. What do you think?

My Monthly Surgeries

This is just a 'heads up' about my surgeries which many of you already know about, but at which I meet with local people over the months and years. In fact, I have counted up in my surgery notebook that I have seen nearly 150 residents since I started in January 2002. This does not count in all those who have contacted me via. email, letter or telephone - indeed my guess is that this could be hundreds.

My next surgeries for this year will be held on:

Saturday 8th November

Saturday 6th December

always at Grove Library and from 10.30am until 11.30am, but will always stay longer if we are busy.

Yesterday was quieter than usual, with just a couple of queries to deal with, but sometimes there is a queue! However, everyone is usually happy to browse the bookshelves whilst waiting.

Looking forward to seeing you over the next few months.

Children's Centre for Grove

I spent the morning as part of a 'visioning' group which has been set up to look into a new Children's Centre which will be coming to Grove next year. This is funded by Oxfordshire County Council and aims to give support for young children and families in the area.

There are currently 29 Children's Centres in Oxfordshire, and we heard about the success of the one in Faringdon which is linked to the family centre. You can read more about them here on the County Council's website.

The venue for the new centre has not yet been finalised, but I will keep readers informed of progress on this blog. There is to be an Advisory Group meeting next week. Anyone who is keen to be involved, contact Spurgeons, a charity for children and young people who will be running the centre (tel. no. 01295 690785).

Flood Fair Comes to Town

Another chance to have a look at the latest in products to help protect your house from potential flooding when the Flood Fair comes to Wantage on Tuesday 7th October at the Civic Hall from 3pm - 8pm.
The event is backed by councils, the Environment Agency, National Flood Forum, the Police and the Fire & Rescue Service.
Experts will be on hand to give practical advice to residents. Hopefully it will be a chance to see what is on offer to protect homes from future flooding. Read more here

Neighbourhood Policing

A lot of my casework involves police matters, and many people get frustrated when they report incidents to the police and have to wait before any action is taken. Well, the government may be trying to change all this with the latest Green Paper from the Home Office entitled "From the Neighbourhood to the National: Policing our Communities Together". Download your copy here

I have spent today at Thames Valley Police Authority where I represent Oxfordshire County Council on the Board, and we have been discussing what this will mean for us in the Thames Valley. For example, how do people feel about having directly elected Police Boards? At the moment the board is made up of independent members, councillors and JP's. Would it make the police more accountable?

I guess most people won't be interested in the make up of Police Authorities so long as they get the service they need when they need it. Like local councils, police authorities raise their income from a precept on the council tax, and year on year, this always goes up. The public like to see value for money so how do we ensure that money is well spent?

I would be interested to hear views if you have time to read the document, and of course, you may wish to take part in the official consultation on the website.

Environment Agency's Reservoir Response

This evening I attended a meeting at the Environment Agency's offices in Wallingford to hear their response to Thames Water's reservoir proposals in our area. The bottom line is that the EA have said very clearly that Thames Water has not yet fully demonstrated the need for such a large reservoir. Their recommendations include:

• improving water efficiency
• revising the demand and supply options
• increasing the use of metering
• improving leakage reduction.

This is all consistent with the Vale of White Horse District Council's response which I reported here last month. It is certainly reassuring to know that the Environment Agency has come up with the same views as many of us have felt all along.

Let us hope the Secretary of State will listen to these concerns and take note. The consultation period has now ended and we can look forward to reading all the responses and watching carefully how they will be dealt with over the next few months.

Olympics at White Horse Hill

With the closure of the Beijing Olympics today, the Vale of White Horse joined other districts around the country in marking the start of the countdown to the London Olympics in 2012.

A human formation of the Olympic rings took place on top of White Horse Hill in Uffington. This was captured by glider in the air, if all went to plan. The event coincided with the closing ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Games and culminated with the raising of the Olympic flag.

The scouts had brought the flag along the Ridgeway in a sponsored walk for local charities, before handing it over to the Chairman of the Vale of White Horse District Council, Alison Rooke.

It has been an excellent Olympics this year, and no one could have failed to have been captured by our British team and their string of medals. I have particularly enjoyed watching the equestrian, cycling, sailing and swimming events.

Now we can all look forward to hosting the London Olympics in 2012 and hoping our young athletes will be able to reap the benefits in years to come. However, today was a day to remember and celebrate the highlights together.

You can read the full story from the Vale website here.

Thames Water's Reservoir

The debate on Thames Water's reservoir continued last night at a special council meeting of the Vale of White Horse district council in Abingdon. It was an opportunity to send a clear cross-party message that more needs to be done before the case for their huge reservoir at Steventon can go ahead. A number of people spoke about the need to continue to deal with leakage, more water efficiency measures like metering to be taken on board as well as researching their targets on consumption. Read the full submission from the Vale here in Appendix A. The Council also called for the Secretary of State to hold a public inquiry or hearing to enable a full and proper assessment of the need for the proposed reservoir.

The prospect of having this huge reservoir, 4 times the size of Farmoor does not go away, but along with pressure groups like GARD (Group Against Reservoir Development) who have also made an excellent case against the proposals, we can keep on making our case against this huge development on our doorstep and the disruption it will bring to all the towns and villages nearby.

Sir Hugo's Tea Party

This afternoon the County Council held a tea party for the outgoing Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire, Sir Hugo Brunner, who has held this office for 12 years. The Common Hall cafe was packed with around 200 people who had come to give Sir Hugo a grand send-off. He was presented with a book full of tributes and anecdotes all from many worthy and well-known faces of Oxfordshire. He will be a hard act to follow but we have been assured that his successor, Tim Stevenson OBE will be excellent. Read more here

I learnt today that in fact the office of Lord Lieutenant goes back to the times of King Henry VIII and in the past the position was held by those who were also Chairmen of the County Council. Of course, the role has changed as have the times we live in, but it is a great tradition and one we must feel proud to inherit.

Brook Projects

Today I met with the Letcombe Brook Project Officer and Emergency Planning Officer from the Vale to discuss and survey some of the suggested projects we can take forward to potentially try and alleviate future flooding. We visited the Mill in Wantage aswell as several sites in Grove to see what can be done with help and advice from the Environment Agency and local councils.

It is clear that de-silting the brook at several places should help with the flow and also proper maintenance of the balancing ponds in Grove need attention. These suggestions will be taken forward and hopefully programmed into future work in progress. We met some residents at Kingfishers who are still experiencing problems so we hope that we can help some local schemes to go ahead.

Footpath signage

At long last 'No Cycling' signs have been erected at both ends of the footpath through The Willows/Westfield Mobile Home park. There has been a lot of concern regarding anti-social behaviour in this area, and we have been trying to resolve the issue through the police Neighbourhood Action Group (NAG). The signs are to stop cyclists using this as a thoroughfare and being a danger to pedestrians.

Today the Vale Council Executive discussed re-routing the footpath to the edge of the site and will be writing to Oxfordshire County Council in the hope that this will hasten the process. Footpath diversions can take up to 5 years due to the complicated legal process and consultation, but it is hoped that things would be speeded up with the intervention of the district council. I went along to support this proposal and hope that we can get a satisfactory result for the residents concerned.

Catching Up!

One of the joys of going away on holiday is catching up when you get back home. Just to let my regular readers know that I am back at my desk dealing with the mountain of post, emails, and all the burning issues which are still 'live' on my return.

Well I must get on with the work, but will continue to keep you posted!

Putting People First

This well-used Liberal Democrat slogan was the subject of the annual LGA (Local Government Association) conference held in Bournemouth this week. I was there along with other colleagues from councils from all parts of the UK to learn the latest on offer from central government.

We heard speeches from Boris Johnston, the new Mayor of London, David Cameron and Nick Clegg aswell as an inspiring session from Richard Olivier (the son of Sir Lawrence Olivier and Dame Joan Plowright), directing us through a set of Henry V! We all felt ready to go back and fight for our causes whatever they are!

The final report from the Health Commission was launched, though the green paper on policing is not yet ready so we could only speculate that there will be more about neighbourhood policing. I now have lots of reading to catch up on to keep me busy.

Much is being made about devolving power, but still lots of talk with no action. As Nick Clegg said in his speech, we have wanted this for years but is local government really brave enough to allow us to be truly local? If we are to make things happen we need to be allowed to just get on with the job and be given the resources to do it well.

The weather was beautiful and it was lovely to watch the surfers on the beach in the sunshine, though couldn't help feeling envious that I had no time to join them!

Exploring Mars

Yesterday at the New Frontiers for Engineering and Science exhibition I was able to find out about some exciting and innovative projects happening right on our doorstep. This was held at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory right next door to the Diamond Light Source and was a chance to showcase what is going on here.

What particularly took my eye was the ExoMars exhibition stand which is due to send up a multitude of experiments to Mars with a Mission landing in around 2013. The 'rover' robot will search for past and present life on Mars, survey the Martian environment and carry out experiments to help define the interior structure of the planet.

Of course, there was a lot more to see and hear about so the whole day was a great learning experience. e-Science, the central laser facility and particle physics all had a lot to offer. We are fortunate to have so much local skill and technology which many of us can so easily take for granted, so Open Days like this one are very welcome.