Potholes Galore!

There seems to be a plethora of potholes wherever you drive in Oxfordshire - a situation made worse, no doubt, by the recent winter weather.

Please note that you can report potholes and other problems online to the county council at:

http://tinyurl.com/yac4499

New Date for Your Vale - Your Future Consultation

A new date has been fixed for the exhibition on the proposed housing development north east of Wantage. If you will recall, the original event had to be rescheduled due to the snow. Consultation will now take place on Monday 25th January at Charlton Day Centre (next to Charlton Primary School) from 4.30 - 7.30 pm. Hopefully residents will be able to go along and have their say.

Joint Ticketing on the Buses Coming

Today it was announced that two of our main bus companies are joining together to offer joint ticketing in Oxford. Read all about it here

This should make life so much easier for people travelling in and around Oxford, especially during the time when major changes are happening in the city centre under the Transform Oxford scheme. I have been calling for this to happen for a long time, since I first put a motion to the County Council during April 2008. This was reported on my blog and I have had several meetings with people including the bus operators themselves to help make this happen. Let us hope that it won't be too long before we see this Smartcard system expand beyond the city into other areas like ours.

Update - Charlton Exhibition Cancelled

Just heard that this evening's exhibition at Charlton Parish Hall on the Vale's development proposals which I referred to on Monday has been cancelled due to the bad weather. It will be rescheduled in future, will update new date when available.

More Snow!

Looks like we have had another 5-6 cm of snow overnight here in Grove.

The photos give an idea of the state of the roads this morning around Denchworth Road and Brereton Drive area.

See my post from 6 Jan here for information sites.

Concessionary Travel and Educational Achievement

Today was the first full County Council meeting of 2010 - so did we get off to a flying start? Well, perhaps it could be described as one step forward and two steps back. I put down a motion on concessionary travel, in the hope that when the administration of this national scheme becomes a function of the county council, we can ensure that all schemes, including community travel can benefit. This would mean that any future government would need to fully fund the scheme which is currently operated by district councils. There is an e petitition here which I urged everyone to sign.

I was hoping that we would get some consistency across the county so that whether you have a good bus service, or have to rely on a voluntary or community transport scheme, everyone could use their concessionary passes. By writing to the Department of Transport, we would be making representation now in advance of taking over this function in the future. As expected, the ruling group did not support the motion, but at least I raised awareness of what could be achieved if we acted now.

During the afternoon, we had the second of our themed debates. This time it was the turn of the Labour group, who chose Educational Achievement as the topic. The County has not been doing too well here, especially compared to our statistical neighbours, so the idea was to try and raise expectations especially within our schools. Again, many words were spoken on the subject with a whole range of contributions from the floor. At least one thing is certain from this new way of engaging councillors at council meetings - so far, we are getting much more interest from all councillors of all political parties. What will happen to all our ideas and suggestions - who knows? I am watching all of this with much interest to see if we can really make a difference or will it be business as usual.

You are free to read my speeches online. One thing I do enjoy about full council days is carefully researching and preparing my speeches and hoping that someone somewhere is listening!

Your Vale - Your Future

Residents should be aware that there are consultations going ahead on possible sites for new housing and shopping developments in the Vale. Click on the Vale's website to find out more.

There are various exhibitions taking place across the district, but local people can go along to the exhibition which is taking place at Charlton Parish Hall, Wantage on Wednesday 13th January from 3.30 - 7.30pm. One of the proposals is to locate 1500 dwellings north east of Wantage in association with a new relief road north east of the town which will have an impact on the whole area.

Comments on the proposals can be sent in via the website above or by email to: planning.policy@whitehorsedc.gov.uk or by post to: Abbey House, Abingdon, OX14 3JE by Friday 29th January 2010. Any queries then telephone: 01235 540496 or 540511.

Shivering in Grove

An exceptionally cold day here in Grove. The Benson measurements show that it has been about -2 degrees C for the last few hours, but that wind chill!!

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here is an iconic one from the NASA Earth Observatory showing the snow across Great Britain on 7 January. This image was taken by the Terra satellite from an altitude of about 700km above the Earth.

Snowfall in Grove

Well it looks like Grove had about 9cm of snow overnight - according to the amount on top of cars and signs.

As shown here, the roads in the Denchworth Road/Brereton Drive area are covered in snow and there were few cars around earlier this morning.

Latest information on road conditions, school closures, etc., can be found on the County Council website here.

Travel information can be found on the BBC Oxford site here .

Live rail information for Didcot trains can be found here.

The local (Abingdon) weather forecast is here.

Oxfordshire Views

The New Year has started with a cold snap, but this has bought some wonderful clear views across Oxfordshire. Here are some from a walk I did the other day. The first photo shows Westmill Wind Farm taken from Coleshill Park, which is on the B4019 close to the Wiltshire border. More information on the wind farm can be found here. The second photo shows a wintry view of the huge 13th century barn at Great Coxwell - well worth a visit and details can be found here.

Floodwatch Continues

With the snow and rain over the last few days, we have continued to remain on Floodwatch in Grove and Wantage around the Letcombe Brook. Check details here. Today has been beautiful and sunny, but cold in the bitter wind.

Happy New Year!

Wishing everyone a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous 2010.

Now that we have just left the "noughties", does anyone know how we should refer to this second decade of the 21st century?