Consultation on A34 Chilton Interchange

This is to inform residents that there is an opportunity to comment on the proposed A34 interchange at Chilton here.  This is expected to make it easier for those wishing to access the Harwell/Rutherford site for those travelling on the A34 from the north.   The consultation ends at the end of this week.

A417 Temporary Road Closure on Sunday

A temporary road closure has been arranged to apply to a stretch of the A417, between the A4130 Rowstock Roundabout westwards to a point approx. 100m west of Featherbed Lane whilst urgent coring and survey works are carried out by Oxfordshire County Council.

A temporary notice has been made to implement the temporary closure and will operate from Sunday 23 February 2014, with a duration of 1 day, approximate working times of 8am to 6pm.

Note also that there is an associated closure of Featherbed Lane for the following 4 days,  whilst urgent coring and survey works are carried out by Oxfordshire County Council.

A temporary notice will be made to implement the closure and will operate from Monday 24 February 2014, with an anticipated duration of 5 days.

Crab Hill Development Approved

Last night I attended the Vale's Planning Committee to hear the debate and verdict on the Crab Hill development north east of Wantage.  The area spans both parishes of Grove and Wantage as well as Lockinge on the boundary.  The committee granted approval for the outline development of 1,500 houses which was really no surprise.  There is a package for infrastructure totalling around £32M, but questions still remain around the timely delivery of the Wantage Eastern Link Road which has been talked about so much recently. 

There is also uncertainty about the school places which will be needed because although the first primary school will have to be brought on stream after 350 dwellings are completed, we know there are already shortages of school places in the area now.  Added uncertainty over the delivery of the Grove Secondary School on the airfield site, means that until that is built the capacity of King Alfred's to cope with the extra demand is unknown.

My concern is that this development adds to the 3,000 already approved for our area and the pressure on our already congested roads, and our local facilities will all be stretched, because we know that infrastructure never comes first, but only after the homes are built.  Very challenging times ahead for us all!  The problem is that as long as there is no Local Plan in place, speculative development continues to happen.

There has now been an announcement that there is to be a consultation exercise on the emerging Local Plan with some meetings planned (unfortunately not in Grove or Wantage).  See this link to find out how you can make your comments.

County Council Budget

Yesterday I spent the whole day at County Hall debating the council budget for the next year and the level of council tax which has been set at a 1.99% increase.  This is the amount which has been set by national government before there has to be a public referendum.  I did report the  Talking Oxfordshire events that took place last year, which gave people a chance to have their say and that did result in a U-turn on closing some of our Childrens' Centres.

County Liberal Democrats put forward a set of amendments which you can read in our press release here.  Unfortunately, our proposals were voted down, but it was interesting that the Conservative/Independent Alliance budget only scraped through by 3 votes!  A bit different at the county council now there is no overall control, and perhaps scope in the future for the ruling administration to listen.

There has been some coverage in the local media, but nothing very exciting to report!

Letcombe Brook Levels

At the weekend I took these photos of the Letcombe Brook by the bridge at The Green in Grove as we were anticipating more rain.  As you can see, the brook has been coping well so far given the amount of water which is continuing to pour in.  We did have an emergency situation in Cane Lane the week before when I was woken at 6am by residents who were trapped due to a flash flood.  A car had broken down in the water and this meant people were unable to get out of the lane until the locked barrier had been lifted.

Fortunately, I made a few telephone calls to alert the parish council, who hold the key to the gate and the fire & rescue crew from Wantage came to help elderly residents set up a wall of sandbags to keep them safe.  Fortunately, the brook levels came down, and I checked later both there and in Kingfishers and residents were coping well with the local sandbags provided by the county council.

We will all be keeping our eye on the weather situation on a regular basis.  Please check the county website for details of any local flooding and road closures and the Environment Agency for flood alerts.

Water Danger behind North Drive

I have been contacted by a concerned resident about the deep pools of water in the fields behind North Drive. These excavations were highlighted by our local PCSO in his report in the February issue of the Grove Parish Newsletter. This afternoon, I braved the rain and took a number of photographs including the ones above, which illustrate the problem. After all the recent torrential rain, these excavations have filled up with water and some of them could be very deep. These obviously pose a danger, especially to children, and I warn everyone to keep clear of the pools and not to climb on the surrounding mounds of soil and mud. I have reported this to the Vale of White Horse District Council, as the local planning authority, and requested that action is taken to either fill in the excavations or at least to fence them off as soon as possible with warning signs. 

Some years ago there was a similar problem with trenches that had been dug and, as a then district councillor, I contacted the developer to deal with the issue. The extent of the water this time is much more serious and I hope the council takes prompt action.

More photos can be be found here.