Earnest in Oxford

In the summer, there are usually a number of open air theatrical productions in Oxford - especially Shakespeare - and this year is no exception. Last night, I went to see Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest put on by the Oxford Shakespeare Company in the gardens of Wadham College. The photos above were taken just before the show. It was a perfect balmy evening for what was an excellent, hilarious production in a beautiful setting. This production is well worth seeing. It is on until 26th August, but it is not on every night as it alternates with The Comedy of Errors.

Edinburgh Views

Today, sees the royal wedding between Zara Phillips and Mike Tindall with the service being held in Canongate Kirk in Edinburgh. I spent a few days in Edinburgh recently and the photo above shows the kirk from a different angle to the usual view from the Royal Mile. This was taken from Calton Hill looking across to Arthur's Seat and you can see Canongate churchyard in the centre of the picture. The Palace of Holyroodhouse is just out of shot to the left of the white circular building (Dynamic Earth).

Close to Edinburgh is also Rosslyn Chapel - made famous by Dan Brown's book The Da Vinci Code and subsequent film. The chapel was founded in 1446 by Sir William St Clair and took 40 years to complete. Inside, the ornate stonework is stunning and there is continuing debate about the symbolism of it all (no photography allowed, so I can't show it here I am afraid). The chapel is undergoing a major refurbishment which will cost over £13 million to complete. This means I cannot show the chapel in its full glory even from the outside, but here is a photo which hides most of the ongoing work.

I am afraid I don't have a local or politial connection this time, but I did visit the Scottish Parliament and listen to a debate on tuition fees in Scotland!

New Oxford School Trust Proposal Latest

A number of residents were aware of the New Oxford School Trust proposal to set up a Free School with an emphasis on business skills, science, technology and engineering on the Harwell campus.  You will see here that this has been turned down by the Department for Education.   It appears that more parents with an interest are needed to sign up to the project.

2010 National Travel Survey

The Department for Transport has published the National Travel Survey 2010, giving statistics on personal travel in Great Britain during 2010.  I  thought this made interesting reading.  Click here to read the survey. 

Key findings include:

• There has been a steady falling trend in trip rates since 1995/97. Average distance travelled per person per year remained relatively stable until 2007, but has declined slightly over the last three years.
• In 2010, there was an average of 960 trips per person per year – the lowest level since the mid-1970s. There were 1,061 stages, 6,726 miles travelled, and an average trip length of 7.0 miles.
• Between 1995/97 and 2010, overall trips rates fell by 12%. Trips by private modes of transport fell by 14% while public transport modes increased by 8%. Walking trips saw the largest decrease.
• Most of the decline in overall trips rates between 1995/97 and 2010 can be accounted for by a fall in shopping and visiting friends.
• In 2010, 80% of males and 66% of females held a full car driving licence. While the proportion of males holding a licence remained fairly stable since the early 1990’s, the proportion of females with a licence continued to increase.
• Trips by car (as a driver or passenger) accounted for 64% of all trips made and 78% of distance travelled in 2010.
• On average, females make more trips than males, but males travel much further each year.
• Concessionary travel pass take-up in 2010 was 78% of those eligible.
• Average annual car mileage was estimated to be 8,430 miles in 2010.

An Evening at Wroxton

I have just spent an evening in the beautiful grounds of Wroxton Abbey near to Banbury (pictured above). Since the mid sixties the abbey has been an overseas campus of Farleigh Dickinson University. As a 17th century Jacobean manor house built on the foundations of a 13th century Augustinian priory, it has quite a history.

It was actually the home of Frederick, Lord North who was Prime Minister from 1770 to 1782. He was elected unopposed as the MP for Banbury constituency at the age of 22.  I therefore have something in common  - having stood as a parliamentary candidate in the same constituency in 2005 (admittedly less successfully!).

Great Western Park, Didcot

Today, I paid a quick visit to Great Western Park in Didcot. As you can see from the picture, this major development is starting to take shape, but it will be 10 years before it is fully completed. There are 3,000 houses planned with a new secondary school and two new primary schools. The proposed development on Grove Airfield will be roughly comparable in size (2,500 houses) and this site starts to give an idea of the scale of what will be involved if that goes ahead.

Sweatbox Awarded Grant

At today's Cabinet meeting at the County Council, Cllr. Jenny Hannaby and myself put the case for the Sweatbox in Wantage being awarded a grant from the Big Society Fund for £20,000 to help with running costs at King Alfred's College.  I am pleased to report that the grant has been given the thumbs up!

At the same meeting, the Wantage Independent Advice Centre also put in for a grant to help towards funding a transport service to day centres, but we were told that this would go through to the second stage after more work had been done on it.  We hope to be helping out with this over the next few weeks.

Weeds Galore!

This is an all too familiar sight around the streets of Grove and Wantage, but today I asked a question of the Cabinet member at Oxfordshire County Council's Cabinet meeting regarding the current policy of weedkilling on pavements - or lack of one!  I was told that there is a local budget that we may be able to access to put towards weedkilling if that is seen to be a priority in the area.

I am therefore going to investigate this and see if there is something that can be done about it. Please let me know if there are some badly infested pavements near to you and I will see if we can help.

Wantage to Harwell Cycle Track Upgrade

I have just heard the news that the key cycle route linking Wantage and the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus has been upgraded by Oxfordshire County Council’s Countryside Service.  Improvements to the cycle route have included applying material to the route’s surface in order to make it even and improving drainage to prevent waterlogging.   Read the press release here.

Andrew Dilnot addresses LGG

Yesterday I was  at the LGG (Local Government Group) where Andrew Dilnot presented his report on Adult Social Care.  He has chaired a commission looking into the future funding of care and support and has proposed  a number of changes to be made especially around how people will have to pay.  Currently there is an asset threshold of £23,250 above which you have to fully fund care needs.  It is proposed to increase this limit to £100,000.  It is also proposed that people should not have to pay more than £35,000 towards their costs in their lifetime.  The stumbling block at the moment is how this will be paid for in the future.  You can read the full report here.

Save the Cheque

The UK Payments Council announced yesterday that they are to reverse their decision to scrap cheques by 2018 and continue their use for as long as customers need them.   For small businesses and sole traders cheques are a crucial form of payment and many were concerned that their removal would drive up their costs. For customers, especially the elderly, cheques are reliable, safe and not too technological.

Last year alone, there were over one billion cheque transactions which shows just how widely used this form of payment still is.  Today’s announcement means that those who rely on cheque payments can now be sure of their future.

Liberal Democrat MP for Cheadle, Mark Hunter, who originally launched the ‘Save the Cheque’ campaign through an Early Day Motion in Parliament in November 2009 said: "This is a great victory for people power and common sense, and proves that the banks cannot afford to ignore the views of their customers. After years campaigning along side small businesses, charities and voluntary groups, who will welcome this with open arms, I am absolutely delighted by this news.”

Oxfordshire County Youth Orchestra - Gala Concert

Last evening, I went to a Gala Concert in Oxford Town Hall to listen to the Oxfordshire County Youth Orchestra conducted by Dr. John Traill. It was a wonderful musical evening and the programme ranged through Romeo and Juliet (Prokofiev), Danse Macabre (Saint-Saens), Adagio from Spartacus (Khachaturian) Salome's Dance (Strauss), Good Friday Music from Parsifal (Wagner), Polovtsien Dances (Borodin) and Pomp and Circumstance (Elgar).

The orchestra has an excellent reputation and last year was awarded the Classic FM Award in the Open Youth Orchestra category at the National Festival of Music for Youth. We were told that they were off to Birmingham today (Saturday) for performances at Symphony Hall - so wishing them the very best of luck with that. They are also off to tour the Netherlands later this month and will give a Grand Concert in the Sheldonian Theatre on 31 July. This should also be an excellent musical evening in impressive surroundings - well worth attending.

Damp Silverstone

A day off today to see the Friday practice sessions for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. It was a bit wet with showers throughout the day. The morning F1 session started with a damp track which gradually dried in time for the following GP2 and GP3 sessions.The afternoon F1 session was a more wet affair with the cars sending up plumes of spray for a lot of the track time.

It was also a chance to see the new iconic SIlverstone Wing complex, which houses the new pits and various paddock facilities. I also bought a new hat! Naturally, it had to be a cap from the local WIlliams F1 team. Both are shown above.

Primary School Improvements

I was at County Hall this morning attending a Children's Services Scrutiny Committee, but took some time out to speak in favour of Charlton Primary School's proposals to expand to a 2-form entry.   You can read the full report here.  This has been covered before in my blog but after the consultation process there had to be formal approval.  The next stage will be to seek planning permission.  I will keep you posted.

Meanwhile it was an interesting morning sitting in the Select Committee style review which was looking at Key Stage 1 Performance last year.  It has been known for some time about Oxfordshire's underperformance in some of the county's schools and this meeting was trying to address the problems.  In fact,  schools in Oxford City scored lowest of all districts in England in Key Stage 1 assessments.  Things must surely only get better!  We did hear about some good practice which has been brought in to address the problem and this has already been making a difference to some schools.  The full report is available here under 'addenda'.  Very interesting reading.

Grove Challengers 6's Tournament

Today, I was a guest at the annual six-a-side competition held by Grove Challengers at the Recreational Ground. In fact, this year is special because the club was founded in 1971 and it is therefore its 40th anniversary.

The tournament itself is held over two days - Saturday and Sunday - with teams ranging from U7s to U16s. It attracted 160 teams with over 1,000 participants. It is obviously a huge undertaking and the club is to be congratulated for organising the event so successfully. Looking back to last year, I see that the event was being held the same time as the World Cup and I see that I also blogged about the tournament in 2009 and 2010 - so it is really established as a regular fixture in the village.

Anyway, here's to the next 40 years and many new generations of Grove footballers.

Cornbury Cracker

Tonight, I went to the Cornbury Festival, which confusingly is no longer held at Cornbury, but at Great Tew Park. The event to be held at Cornbury Park in August this year is now called the WIlderness Festival.

Anyway, it was a glorious summer evening and Great Tew did not disappoint - the car parking was easy and quick, the food was great and the setting was superb.. I saw Imelda May, Ray Davies, Sophie Ellis Bextor and The Faces with Mick Hucknall taking the place of Rod Stewart. I must admit that I could not help recall that the last time I saw Ray Davies live was about 40 years ago in The Kinks. Nonetheless, he performed an excellent set in the early evening and there was the added touch of a number of hot-air balloons hovering in the sky over the stage - an almost surreal event in the Oxfordshire countryside. Well done Cornbury or is it Great Tew?