A Tour of Italian Cities

I have been away from my computer for the last two weeks on holiday in Italy. It has been a long-standing wish to visit Venice, Florence and Rome and we managed to be able to spend a few days in each. Venice is a city where people live with the regular winter floods and have to try to plan for the sinking of the city each year, made worse by the river traffic. Public transport in Venice is by water taxi and it was a joy to walk around without worrying about cars. Our hotel on the Lido had a beautiful view across the water to the city and the basillica of St Mark's.

At the other extreme is Rome where the traffic is chaos and around 2 million people travel into the city each day to work. Finding a parking space can take up to an hour. Crossing the street can be taking your life into your hands. All noisy and chaos which fitted well with the Colosseum which still holds its atmosphere after hundreds of years. We had a guided tour of the Vatican, and the Sistine Chapel did live up to its expectations.

Florence on the other hand was a mixture of both, with quiet streets and large squares in which to wander within the historic centre. Many wonderful art treasures including Michaelangelo's David were awe-inspiring and it was quite exhausting to try to fit it all in. We shall have to go back!

The only fly in the ointment were the Italian baggage handlers' strike which meant we couldn't land in Venice and had to detour to Verona which made us late on arrival. Then on our return, their decision to leave everyone's luggage on the runway in Rome in a thunderstorm. Emptying a wet suitcase is not much fun -unpacking is depressing enough without that!

But it is nice to be back! I now have a mountain of post to deal with which is always one of the joys of going away. So now I need a holiday...

Positive Action in Millbrook Square

I was delighted to receive an email communication today from the owners of Millbrook Square to confirm the following:

1. All the gullies and drains in both Millbrook Square car park and in the access road behind the shops have now been emptied and cleaned.

2. A regular maintenance programme for their cleaning is to be set up.

3. The application for the 8 flats has been withdrawn and will only be re-submitted once the Environment Agency (EA) are happy with the Flood Risk Assessment (FRA)

4. The revised FRA will be submitted next week and hopefully it will address the issues raised by the rain on 20th July. If not, then it will be amended until the EA are satisfied.

This is excellent news for the residents of Grove and I am pleased that our concerns have been taken seriously by the management of the shopping centre. This bodes well for good community relations in the future and I welcome such a proactive approach.

Council Debate on Flooding in the Vale

This evening the Vale of White Horse District Council had an extraordinary Council meeting to deal with the events surrounding the July flooding. A number of issues were discussed not least the Council's response to the recent flooding and how improvements could be made to emergency planning for the future. I certainly welcome the emergency plan's priority to put in place a robust communications strategy, because one of the main themes which emerged from the situation in Grove was the confusion of where people went for help. We need clear advice on this to pass on to residents.
Many councillors, including myself, shared experiences across the Vale, and many people suffered like ourselves and it was helpful to listen to this and from speakers who came to the meeting to address us.
We passed a cross-party motion to urgently review the Operational Flood Plan in light of the recent flooding. To bring a report to the October Executive. To consider funding for flood defences in its budget setting process. To call on responsible land owners, Oxfordshire County Council, Thames Water, Environment Agency and Network Rail to

• Carry out a major clearance of water weeds, to remove silt and remove blockages of culverts and bridges in selective areas in the Vale where urban flooding occurred
• Clear and repair any controlling outlets to the existing storage ponds where there are flooding problems
• Ensure that all sewerage pumping stations are regularly maintained in good order so as to avoid breakdown in critical flooding periods when there is a potential for overspill of sewage

So what a contrast to yesterday where at the County Council we were told that our motion on flooding was 'not urgent' and would not be discussed, yet the Vale Council were willing to give this important topic such priority that a special meeting was called to deal with it.

I look forward to reporting back on more action as it happens.

Weeds and Pavements

Numerous residents have complained to me this year about weeds and the state of many pavements in Grove and Wantage. I discovered early this summer, when I made my first enquiries, that the budget for routine weedkilling has been curtailed at the County Council and no money was being delegated to parish councils to do it either. Basically, the work wasn't being done. I had therefore prepared a motion for debate at today's Council meeting to call for the re-instatement of this budget for next year.

We have had some success with overhanging brambles being tackled in our worse areas, but as evidence in the photograph shows, our pavements are cracking up with this lack of maintenance and it will lead to more costly repairs in the future. Hardly efficient use of our money if we think about it. Urgent action is still needed.

Today was the full meeting of Council and it was an unusual day. Standing orders were suspended to allow the Leader of the Council to put forward his ideas about developing a sustainable community strategy for Oxfordshire. .... so our pavements were yet again put on the back burner. However, I live in hope and we will bring it back to the Council in November. Watch this space!

Inauguration Ceremony at Oxford Brookes University

Today I attended the inauguration ceremony of Professor Janet Beer as the new Vice-Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University. This position was previously held by Professor Graham Upton, who had played a key role on Oxfordshire County Council's Strategic Partnership. Please follow this link for details of Professor Beer's career to date:

http://www.brookes.ac.uk/about/structure/management/janet_beer

After the official ceremony, we were invited back to the gardens of Headington Hill House where we had the opportunity of meeting many of the key players in Oxfordshire's community.

Oxford Brookes University began life as the Oxford School of Art in 1865, and then expanded to become a technical college. When it moved to Headington, it became a Polytechnic and finally in 1992 it became the University that we have today. It honoured John Brookes' memory by choosing the name Oxford Brookes University. Read the full history here:

http://www.brookes.ac.uk/about/history/timeline

Now the university enjoys an excellent reputation within the academic world, so long may its success continue.

Health Walks

Today I led the health walk in Abingdon, leaving the White Horse Leisure Centre at 2.30pm on the first Sunday of every month (except Bank Holiday weekends). Walks take place every Wednesday mornings too leaving the Leisure Centre at 10.30am. We walked around the River Thames over the lock and back through Abbey Meadows. The river is still very full, but the meadow has completely dried out after the floods. Health walks take place all over the county and indeed all over the country and were set up and funded by the Countryside Agency (now renamed Natural England). Visit their website at: http://www.whi.org.uk/

to find out where walks are taking place in your area.

I helped to set up health walks in Wantage too, which take place every Thursday at 10am at the Vale and Downland Museum in Church Street, Wantage. If you wish to come along, please do just turn up, there is a small health assessment form to fill in, but otherwise you can just join in as and when you wish to. It is all completely free and run by volunteer walk leaders.

Walks are usually just about 1-3 miles long, and take up to an hour. It is a great way to keep fit if you don't get much exercise and a way of meeting new faces with similar interests.