Wantage and Grove Lions Club

This afternoon I attended the Wantage and Grove Lions Club Annual dinner with the Vice-Chairman of the Vale of White Horse District Council, Val Shaw. It was a sweltering afternoon and I guess most people were watching the England v. Germany game in the World Cup. It was an excellent lunch and we heard about the work of the Wilts and Berks Canal in the post-dinner speech. You can check out their website here. It was good to meet so many people dedicated to fundraising for various charities both local and national. The Club has just 15 members at present. I got home to discover that England lost the match, so looks like I didn't miss much!

Local Investment in Infrastructure

At today's cabinet I spoke on an interesting report which was directed at local investment agreements on infrastructure for housing development. You can read the full report if you click on this link and scroll down to Item ll. Basically, Oxfordshire County Council is signing up with the Homes and Communities Agency to what is termed a 'Local Investment Agreement', which will set out the necessary infrastructure to be provided for housing developments all over the county.

I referred to Grove's lack of facilities which was a result of houses without infrastructure in the past and urged that this should not happen again. Indeed, if there is any doubt that necessary roads, schools, and other investment will not be provided then we cannot go ahead with the housing. District Council local plans are very much up in the air at the moment depending on what the national government decide on planning, so maybe there is some merit in revisiting our area for any housing targets.

Developers for the airfield site have recently changed their plans from the original proposals on where some of the community facilities will be located on the site. The district and parish have voiced objections to this. The latest I heard was that a planning application may be forthcoming later this year - with an exhibition planned in Grove on 16th and 17th July at the Old Mill Hall. Will keep you posted, but I would urge residents to attend if possible and make their views known.

Public Petitions at the County Council

Last week at the county council meeting it was decided by the Conservative ruling group that petitions from the public to bring a debate to council would need nearly 16,000 signatures. It was also decided that to bring a chief officer to account at a scrutiny committee would need 4000 signatures. Our group put forward an amendment asking that the numbers be reduced to 500 each, but this was thrown out. Read the news story here. This does not of course, prevent petitions being presented to the County Council which will continue as it does now. However, most petitions do not trigger a debate but are simply passed to the directorate for a response.

Working Together in Government

I have spent the last two days in London at the Local Government Association (LGA) at a conference organised with the Liberal Democrats to pool resources as we work together in local and national government.

Nick Clegg is addressing us on the left as he gives us an insight into life as Deputy Prime Minister working in coalition.

Simon Hughes was also there, our new Deputy Leader. It was an interesting weekend with so much going on. With the budget announcements coming up on Tuesday, there will be challenging times ahead.

University Question Time

This evening I attended the Oxford Universities' Community Question Time which was held at the Said Business School in Oxford. Jon Snow chaired the session which had Professor Andrew Hamilton, Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University and Professor Janet Beer, Vice-Chancellor of Oxford Brookes answering the questions. There were a whole host of different topics dealing with numerous issues from planning, student tuition fees and the tensions between town and gown.

HRH Prince of Wales Lecture in Oxford

This afternoon the Prince of Wales gave a lecture in the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford entitled 'Islam and the Environment'. This was organised by the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies which HRH The Prince of Wales is the patron. Apparently it was 17 years ago when he last delivered a lecture here entitled 'Islam and the West'. He said he would not leave it that long again before he was back!

As you can see in the photo (left) it was a packed house and he received a standing ovation at the end. He talked about the division between humanity and nature and how we need to connect our spiritual soul to our environment around us. He quoted poetry from Wordsworth, lines from Lewis Carroll and from the Koran and inspired us all. It was a very enjoyable afternoon.

New Secondary School for Grove Under Threat

News announcements from the County Council came yesterday about potential spending cuts to the capital programme, and we hear that Grove's new secondary school is now under threat. I was interviewed for BBC South Today and was on the television last night, and again this morning for BBC Radio Oxford's breakfast programme. The story is also in the local press and on the BBC Oxford website.

Residents of Grove understand only too well how Grove's housing developments have been built in the past with no infrastructure, and as a local councillor I have fought to try to ensure this does not happen again. With the prospect of more housing on the airfield after Grove was singled out in the local plan, it is vital that any development brings with it the necessary infrastructure which is badly needed. This applies to roads, leisure facilities and schooling provision. The issue of Grove having its own secondary school has been in the limelight many times, and more recently Oxfordshire County Council's cabinet decided that Grove's new secondary school would have its own sixth form, and not just a small 600-place school as originally intended.

Now all capital projects are on hold as the state of national government finances get played out locally. Big spending projects whether it is school extensions, libraries or indeed some transport schemes could potentially now be on hold. I will keep an eye on this over the forthcoming weeks as more detail on the plans become known!