A Beautiful Boxing Day

Today has been one of those beautifully clear (but very cold) winter's days. A good opportunity to work off some of the Christmas Day excesses on a walk. Here is a picture from the Ridgeway looking over the Diamond synchrotron at RAL towards Didcot Power Station.

Season's Greetings

I am just logging in to wish everyone in the Grove and Wantage communities (and all blog readers) a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. It has been an eventful year, but it doesn't seem to have deterred Christmas shoppers in the recession. Let us hope for some cheer in 2009.

It doesn't look like it will be a White Christmas, but here is a wintry Grove scene from February 2007.

Wishing everyone a relaxing and peaceful time.

Grove Residents' Survey

Residents in Grove have responded enthusiastically to a survey compiled by local Liberal Democrats to find out their views on local and national issues. They were quizzed on schooling, housing, the economy, social care costs, youth facilities, flooding, proposed railway station and roads and pavement maintenance.

Some of you will have seen us knocking at your door, but the overall results are consistent with what local people having been telling me for some time. Much of my casework is taken up with dealing with problems with roads and pavements neglected through lack of maintenance. Weeds all around the village have caused particular problems, so I am pleased that people have taken the time to resond to us.

To give you some more details on the results: 85% of those responding thought the County Council was not maintaining roads and pavements well. 88% of respondents supported the view that no large scale housing should be built in Grove before new roads are in place.

With the economic downturn, Liberal Democrats are proposing a package of measures to help those on low and middle incomes. 80% of those who replied supported this package which included cutting the basic rate of tax by 4p in the pound, cutting fuel bills for the less well off and bringing the financial institutions under control.

68% were opposed to the Conservative County Council raising the social care charges which have had an impact on the elderly and vulnerable. Nearly 60% agreed that provision of youth facilities for young people in Grove should be one of the county council’s highest priorities. 54% agreed with local Liberal Democrats that the County Council should increase investment in youth workers. On flooding, 63% of respondents did not think the Government is putting enough resources into flood prevention.

It was interesting to analyse the results and identify what the most important issues are and we hope this will help put pressure on the relevant authorities when dealing with these matters at local and national level.

This evening at the Vale's full council meeting, Liberal Democrats passed a motion calling on the County Council to reinstate its highways budget on weed control which has been regretfully lacking over the last two years. Let us see if things will improve next year in the run up to the County elections in June.

Charity Reception at Williams F1

Last night I was at Williams F1 Conference Centre attending a Charity Reception. This was organised by the Chairman of the Vale of White Horse District Council to raise money for her charities. Money was raised in aid of Help for Heroes and Abingdon and Wantage Community Hospitals' Leagues of Friends.

The main event was a charity auction which contained wheel rims from Williams F1 cars, a race day experience and a museum tour package. A few thousand pounds were raised and we all had an opportunity to visit the impressive F1 museum - I even managed to sit in Ralf Schumacher's car!