Vale Budget

This evening the Vale of White Horse District Council set its budget for the next year 2008/2009 at a full council meeting in Wantage. Although the council tax increase will be 4.99% this represents £107.16 per year for a Band D property. Last year, the Vale's council tax was the 9th lowest of the 238 district council's in England. The lion's share of our council tax always goes to the County Council, with the Thames Valley Police, the Vale and the parish precept making up the rest.

However, what was most astonishing this evening, was the complete lack of any budget proposal from the Opposition Conservatives. No amendments, no alternative costed figures in the public domain, indeed they took the easy option of doing nothing. So although plenty of criticism about what we put forward, only hot air was provided from them. Hopefully the public won't be so easily fooled.

Maggie's Ridgeway Megahike

How about spending the late May Bank Holiday weekend taking part in this fundraising challenge event to raise money to support people affected by cancer? You can hike 15, 26 or 50 miles in just 24 hours walking our wonderful Ridgeway from Wallingford to Wantage depending on how much you wish to do. Read today's news story here.

Last year, I had the pleasure of visiting Maggie's Centre at the Churchill hospital site in Oxford to hear all about their plans. At the moment, this is a small support service operating from a portakabin, but needing to relocate to a purpose built Cancer Caring Centre by 2010. I was inspired by the work they are doing to help those in need and they have already raised over £400,000 towards making these Centres become reality.

This will be the third year that Megahikers will be able to strap on their hiking boots and families can all come out in force to support this valuable resource. There are not many of us who aren't touched by either knowing or losing someone dear to us from cancer and the support these Cancer Centres offer are invaluable.

Visit their website here and contact Kirsty on 0845 602 6427 or email kirsty@maggiescentres.org if you wish to find out more about signing up for Saturday 24th May!

Oxford Children's Hospital Campaign

Just thought I would flag up the fundraising campaign for the Children's Hospital, which opened on the John Radcliffe site in January 2007. This has raised an incredible £13.8 million out of the £15 million anticipated from public donations. An amazing effort.

Anyone who wants to help with fundraising and has ideas to push towards that final sum can find details here.

For those who like running, there is the upcoming 5 mile run (OX5RUN) at Blenheim Palace on Sunday 6 April and entry forms can be found here. (closing date 31 March).

Further Flood Relief for Vale

News in today that a further £24,449 of funding has been awarded to the Vale of White Horse District Council to help get back to normal following last summer's floods. A total of £300K has been allocated to four authorities.

For further details see here.

St Mary's and Wantage Arts Centre

A long day yesterday, with me substituting on the Vale Development Control Committee in the evening. The St. Mary's application was on the agenda.

I was hoping that we would be able to retain the former music and drama block of the school as an Arts Centre, which would have been very much valued by the community. Unfortunately, this could not be done and the application was approved.

After considering all of the facts and listening to all of the speakers, I did vote against the development on the grounds of it being too high a density for a small historic market town like Wantage.

It was, however, agreed, that a new footpath to the primary school should be put in place ahead of the development. More information can be found here.

Vote Jenny for the County Council!

Due to the sad death of Cllr Jim Moley, there will be a by-election for the Grove and Wantage division on Thursday 13th March. Voting will take place between 7am and 10pm. In Grove, residents will be able to vote in Old Mill Hall and in Wantage there will be polling stations at Wantage Civic Hall, Stockham School, Scout Headquarters (Springfield Road) and Wantage Cricket Club (Charlton Village Road). Applications for postal votes have to be made by 27 February.

One of the candidates is Jenny Hannaby who is well known in the local community for her campaigning on key local issues, especially fighting the threat to the Community Hospital and supporting the plan for the 50 bed nursing home, which will open soon. She has also worked hard to bring the Limborough Road development to fruition and campaigned for separate secondary schools for Wantage and Grove. I think it would very hard to find someone to match Jenny's commitment, enthusiasm and passion for the local communities of Wantage and Grove (she has lived in the area since she was a small child) and fully endorse her as the best candidate. Please vote for Jenny on 13th March.

An Alternative Budget

Today we debated the County Council's budget, but was it all worth it? The Tory ruling group had already agreed their budget at Cabinet and there was never going to be any turning back. The only differences between their budget and our Opposition budget is that ours put more investment into adult social care, vulnerable children and their families and highways maintenance, which includes our pavements and cycleways.

Most of my casework locally involves road maintenance, safety schemes for the village, the state of footpaths and more recently, flooding. Our Liberal Democrat budget put £4M extra for all this, including flood alleviation measures and re-instating routine weedkilling.

The elderly, the vulnerable and young people are the silent majority who rely on us to provide vital services. The demographic challenge which faces us in Oxfordshire is that as our ageing population grows, the pressures on our ability to deal with this is huge. We need the investment now. This is not helped by the government settlement which favours the northern and metropolitan areas in the country at the expense of those of us in the 'seemingly affluent' south east. We had put in over £5m extra to cover all this.

Surprisingly, all our local MP's with the notable exception of Evan Harris (Lib Dem), didn't help us either. All Conservatives, including our very own Ed Vaizey sat on the fence and abstained when it came to the vote on the local government setttlement in Parliament. What a shame they don't grasp the issues.

Whilst the government expects us to take on more responsibility to provide services, whether it is social care, education or maintaining our roads, with the complicated formula it uses to calculate how 'needy' we are - Oxfordshire loses out.

So in our budget today, we proposed a budget which would invest in all this, well into the future for just £3.93 a year extra on a Band D property or just over 7p a week (a penny a day). But this alternative was thrown out.

Some local schemes which were also thrown out were investment in a new library for Grove in time for the new housing development, and a new youth centre for the village. Both vitally needed. What a shame that whilst Conservatives at County Hall voted to bring more housing to Grove on top of what is already planned, they cannot even spare a little bit for our library or our youth. An opportunity missed, but we shall battle on!

Post Office Closures Announced

Today was the day that many people had been waiting for in trepidation. Would our local post office be saved from the axe of closure in the national network? The full report can be read here and you will see that thankfully our local post office branches in Grove and Wantage remain. Unfortunately, some smaller local villages are to lose out including Ardington and Childrey, but noticeably Charney Bassett and East Hanney are still to remain. It really makes you wonder who decides which village loses out where others have escaped - at least this time.

Now is the time for anyone who hasn't signed the petition to Save our Post Offices, to do it now. Sign up here