Wantage Day Centre Re-launch

I attended this event last night to see Wantage Day Centre and many of their clients enjoying an evening together.  It was an excellent meeting and good to network with all the staff, volunteers and other representatives of the community.  We need to ensure that this excellent facility remains in Wantage for the benefit of the whole area and I know it is very much valued by all.  We heard that the centre had been threatened with closure recently, but we are working hard to ensure that this does not happen.  Meanwhile, if there is anyone who would like to secure a place at the day centre and would like to visit, contact Social and Health Care on 0845 050 7666.

Wallingford Street Closure Postponed

Just a quick update to let residents know that Wallingford Street in Wantage will not be closed after all as expected on 29th September.   This has been cancelled and I will be notified if any future closure will be planned.

Many Meetings

This week has been so busy with many meetings sometimes several in one day.  However, amongst the most important ones was the County Council meeting on Tuesday where a whole raft of items were up for discussion.  Liberal Democrats had put foward a motion on the East West Rail link calling for the County to push the government to ensure the project is included in the next High Level Output Specification to be published in 2013.  This is the government's blueprint for investment in rail services across the UK.  We are keen to ensure that this important public transport corridor is part of the nation's transport planning for the future, and it will be of enormous economic benefit to our area.  Read more about it here.

Wednesday and Thursday I attended several briefings from officers on all the latest developments in childrens services, environmental and transport issues and the budget.  Then last night in Grove, we had another public meeting to discuss the latest library developments, in particular, the County Council's plans to bring in volunteers to help run local library services in areas which had previously been threatened with closure.  We had a lively debate and a few people did express an interest in coming forward.  However, there are still questions to be asked especially around the training and management of the various volunteers which will need to be addressed.

Wantage Road Closures

There are two road closures coming up in Wantage shortly.  On 19th September, Mill Streeet will be closed between Camel crossroads (Denchworth Road) and The Wharf (eastside) for one week for carriageway resurfacing.  A signed diversion route will be in place for motorists to follow.  Gatemen will be positioned at either end of the closed road to redirect traffic.  Access for residents and businesses will be maintained, though there may be long delays during the working day for this.

The other road closure will be Wallingford Street which will be closed on 29th and 30th September - again this is due to carriageway resurfacing.  The alternative route for traffic affected by the closure is via Ormond Road, Newbury Street and Market Place and vice versa.

Local Bus Subsidies Agreed

Last week at the Transport Decisions Committee it was agreed by the County Council's Cabinet Member for Transport to award contracts for subsidising some of our local evening and weekend services.  If you recall, there was a consultation on these services earlier in the year - see here.  This will mean that our 31 Stagecoach buses to Oxford in the evenings will be maintained as an hourly service which is of great value to everyone wishing to travel home after a theatre/concert visit or from travelling further afield via. trains and airports.  Other services which will continue to be subsidised are the 32 buses to Harwell and Didcot, 36 buses to Milton Park and Didcot (via Steventon) and the 38 Town Service.

The Wantage IAC (Independent Advice Centre) had also put in an increased bid for continuing with their valuable community car scheme.  Unfortunately, the decision on this grant has been deferred until a review has been done on all transport schemes at the County Council.  I hope this uncertainty will not affect the running of the scheme.

Library Update

I had a very constructive meeting this week with the FROGs (Friends of Grove Library) and officers and Cabinet Member from Oxfordshire County Council.  We discussed how to plan for using volunteers to keep Grove Library open.  There have been some guidelines published setting out how volunteers can be trained and supported for this role and I hope that many of the people who came along to the public meeting back in January reported here will still be willing to come forward to help. 

There will be a public meeting on Thursday 15th September at 7.30pm at The Old Mill Hall to hear the latest news and proposals on this.  Meanwhile the public consultation period is still open until the end of September so please  fill in the form here if you haven't already done so. 

Watery Grove

Returning home tonight, I was met with a flooded road at the junction of Brereton Drive with Denchworth Road. At first, it reminded me of the memorable Grove floods we had on 20 July 2007, but then it became clear that it was a burst water main. Thames Water were duly contacted and I could hear them making repairs late into the night. I hope that residents were not incovenienced too much by any disruptions to their water supply.

Armed Forces Community Grant Scheme

The Ministry of Defence has launched the Community Covenant grant scheme to provide financial support for projects that strengthen ties between members of the Armed Forces Community and the wider community in which they live.  If you recall, I was one of the signatories to this covenant for Oxfordshire County Council as reported here.

Up to £30M over 4 financial years has been set aside to help communities undertake projects that promote greater understanding between the military and civilian populations.  In May this year, the Government published the Armed Forces Covenant which, amongst other things, aims to improve the support available for serving personnel, their families and veterans.  Full details of the scheme can be seen here.

This is only available to areas that have already established a Community Covenant, with Oxfordshire being the first to do so. If you have any ideas, please let Claire Moore know (Claire.Moore@oxfordshire.gov.uk).  Grove has had a long connection with military personnel both with the RAF and more recently with those who work at Dalton Barracks, so it would be good if we could establish something locally for our community.

Science Vale UK announced as New Enterprise Zone

The Government announced today that there would be a further 11 Enterprise Zones across the country, designed to boost local growth and create more than 30,000 new jobs by 2015.  One of these zones will be based around our area of Harwell Oxford and Milton Park - known as Science Vale UK.  

These zones have simplified planning rules and over £100m tax breaks for new businesses over the next four years. It is estimated that there will be over 200 businesses and between 6,250 - 10,500 jobs created locally by April 2015.  This is excellent news for our area and I look forward to working with our Local Enterprise Partnership to ensure this zone is a success and at the forefront of the growing economy.

Fairport's Cropredy Convention 2011

At the end of a disturbing week, it was good to see thousands of people relaxing and enjoying themselves at the Cropredy Festival today. The picture on the left shows Horslips - an Irish Celtic rock band - getting the crowd in the mood with their rousing set. The photo on the right shows the finale with Fairport Convention and friends on stage.

Amazingly, this is the 36th festival - it has taken place every August since 1976. Despite the closure of a section of the A361 Banbury to Daventry road for a flood alleviation scheme, the traffic control and parking seemed to work with the usual efficiency - thanks no doubt to the planning of all involved.

Nick Clegg in Newbury

Nick Clegg came to Newbury last night on one of his Town Hall visits.  He faced a number of questions from members of the public ranging from tuition fees to the current riots which are going on all over the country. 

I asked him to make sure that the police have the resources and tools to do the job to keep all of our communities safe.  The scenes on the streets seen on the television have been distressing to us all.   Meanwhile I have been assured by Thames Valley Police that police presence has been increased around the county and the whole force area.

Oxfordshire Electoral Review

The Local Government Boundary Commission for England is conducting an electoral review of Oxfordshire.  The broad purpose is to decide on the appropriate electoral arrangements - the number of councillors and the names, number and boundaries of wards and divisions.  Oxfordshire County Council is looking at proposals to provide improved levels of electoral equality across the county.  The review aims to ensure that the number of voters represented by each councillor is approximately the same.  You can see the current proposals at their website.

If you recall the last time this was conducted it resulted in Grove and Wantage being put together as a single division represented by 2 councillors.  The current proposal suggests that this arrangement works well and should continue.  If the divisions were to be split into single-member divisions it would entail a small part of Wantage having to be included within Grove to help proportionality.  The proposal also recommends reducing the total number of county councillors from 74 to 63.  Consultation is underway at the moment, so any submissions need to be made before 10th October.  This can be done online at the link shown above.

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.