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.