Remembrance Sunday

Today was, of course, Remembrance Sunday when we remember the fallen in the World Wars and other conflicts.  In the morning, I attended the service in Grove Parish Church, which was full with the local community. It is always inspiring to see the young children attending in the Rainbows, Brownies, Girl Guides, Beavers, Cubs and Scouts.

In the afternoon, I attended the Civic Parade and Remembrance service in Didcot and laid a wreath on behalf of Oxfordshire County Council. This was a moving open-air service around the War Memorial and the parade was led by the Oxford Caledonian Pipe Band.  The event was very well attended by many members of the Didcot community on a sunny afternoon.

A417 Challow Road Bridge - Weekend Road Closures Coming Up

The photograph above shows me at the re-opening of the A417 Challow Road bridge on 5th December 2014 after 4 months of closure.

I was therefore very surprised to hear last month that there were plans to close the road again for 2 weeks whilst carriage maintenance works were carried out.  After taking up the matter with Network Rail and the County Council, I was then told that these works would be postponed until another solution was found.  

Fortunately, the works have now been given the go-ahead for two weekends in November to allow carriageway maintenance to be undertaken.  The weekend closures are as follows:

22:00 hours on Friday 18th November - 06:00 hours Monday 21st November

22:00 hours on Friday 25th November - 06:00 hours Monday 28th November 

Millaway Lane will also be closed during this time to prevent this being used as an alternative diversion route for traffic.

As I am sure residents are aware, all these road closures are a necessary part of the Great Western Electrification project, which has affected many rail bridges in this area.

Maggie's Fundraising Update

Just to let everyone know that the final total raised by the Chairman and myself for the Maggie's Centre Culture Crawl is close to £800. This was announced in the full council meeting held on Tuesday this week.

I should like to take this opportunity of thanking all those friends, family and supporters who helped us to raise so much by giving so generously to this worthy cause.  I believe a grand total of over £20,000 was eventually reached.

I was pleased to attend the 2nd birthday party celebration at Maggie's Centre on Wednesday 12th October, which was a great opportunity to meet with others who have been affected by cancer and their friends and families.

You can find more details on the Culture Crawl that we undertook to raise funds along with others taking part, in the posts and photographs posted in my previous blog posts.