Vale of White Horse Local Plan Consultation

Yesterday I visited the exhibition at Grove Methodist Hall on Main Street for the Vale's Local Plan.  There were a few boards up and some officers on hand, but I did not personally find it very useful.  Indeed, there was very little there at all except a few plans and maps and no one was able to answer any of the specific questions I asked.   I could hear similar frustrations amongst others around me.

There will be another chance to see the exhibition on Saturday 23rd March from 10am until 3pm at Wantage Civic Hall.  So I hope that residents will be able to go along and see for themselves what is being proposed for our area.

The consultation ends on Thursday 9th May 2013.  Comments can be made on forms at the exhibitions on the Vale's website or by writing to: Planning, Vale of White Horse District Council, Abbey House, Abbey Close, Abingdon, OX14  3JE .

Last night, I also attended a Vale Local Plan meeting for stakeholders at Williams F1 Conference Centre where we were given a presentation by officers and the Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member.  There were a lot of concerns expressed from those present about how the infrastructure is going to be delivered alongside some of the piecemeal planning applications we are seeing being approved locally at the moment.  There is still no firm news on the Grove Airfield development and so this situation doesn't change either.   Our schools are full, our roads are already congested, and yet more houses coming all around us - and they call this planning? 

Lights On!

The photos above show that the new zebra crossing in Limborough Road in Wantage is fully operational now that the Belisha Beacons have been connected.  The Vehicle Activated Sign (VAS) in Main Street Grove is also working and flashes when it detects excess speed. We are waiting for a second  VAS to be installed in the opposite direction on Main Street by contractors at Manor Gardens. These two projects were initiated under the County Council Area Stewardship Funds of Councillor Jenny Hannaby and myself.

Oxfordshire Youth Parliament Debate

This evening,  I was in the Council Chamber at County Hall listening to a debate of motions by the Oxfordshire Youth Parliament.   The two topics for discussion were:

"It is vital for a child to have a good home environment to be able to do well in school." and

"Schools have the main responsibility for providing information to students about Apprenticeships and for promoting them as equal to a university education."

Students presenting both arguments for and against were very powerful in getting their individual messages across and the discussion from the floor was very impressive.  The first motion was lost and the second was a draw.  Councillors of the future I wonder?

This debate launches a series of events in Oxfordshire to celebrate National Apprenticeship Week 2013.

Fun with Alfie and Friends

This morning, I went along to watch the young pre-nursery children having fun at a session with 'Alfie and Friends' at the Vale and Downland Museum in Wantage.  This project was supported by funds from Cllr. Jenny Hannaby and myself for £500 from our County Councillor Community Budgets.   This enabled the group to buy the materials and crafts for the various activities.  Today, Alfie the Bear was introducing the story of Florence Nightingale and her role as a nurse during the war, and her little pet owl, called Athena.  Queen Victoria was also there in style to tell a story!

At the end of the session after the children had been on their tour of the museum, during the craft activity period, they made their own owls.  These pretty cards (shown in photo above) were made by the little ones and they had so much fun with the glue and the materials.  These will be given to their mums for Mothers' Day next weekend.

The poster in the photo above shows details of how you can get involved with this lovely activity in our local museum, which is run by volunteers for young children and their carers in the local area.

Speed Roundel Re-painted





As you will see from the photo above taken at the end of last week, the new 30 mph roundel has been repainted on the red tarmac entrance to Grove from Denchworth.  Pleased to see another project completed for the village.

Grove Gateway Upgraded

If you have driven between Grove and Denchworth, you may have noticed a sudden change in road colour as you leave the village. This is because I arranged for the refreshing of the 30 mph speed roundels at the entrance to Grove, which had got worn away and erased due to the previous carriageway maintenance works that I reported on here. At the same time, it was also agreed to upgrade this gateway with the new red surface as part of the works.

On Friday, contractors put down the red material and they will soon return to complete the painting of the speed reminder.  

New Markings for Lay-by and Bus Stop

Some of the road markings in the area are badly worn and I have arranged for some of them to be repainted by the County Council. One example in Grove (shown above) is the lay-by and bus stop next to St. John's Parish Church in Main Street.  I hope that this will improve traffic flow near to Church View as vehicles parked in the lay-by have made it difficult for buses to pull in and for vehicles to pass through.

Pothole Hell!

The roads around the Grove and Wantage area, and indeed many areas of Oxfordshire, are in a shocking state. It is understandable that after all the rain and snow, the roads start to suffer, but there appear to be huge delays in dealing with defects. The red and white paint markings used to highlight reported potholes is often wearing away with no evidence of any repair. On top of this, it appears that even when repairs are made they are often of poor quality meaning that they start to deteriorate quickly.

I immediately report any potholes that I know about and I am aware that many local residents report them directly themselves. This can be done by using the "Report a road problem" facility on the Oxfordshire County Council website, which can be found here. If you are unfortunate to damage your car through potholes, there is some information on claiming compensation on the council website here. 

Understandably, there have been many complaints in the newspapers about potholes and all of the opposition parties have raised this major issue with the ruling group on Oxfordshire County Council. It is clearly time they got their act together and it is not fair that residents are risking damage to their cars due to their ineffectiveness. The leader of the council, Ian Hudspeth, has claimed on the radio that the council will deal with any failings if they are told about them by the public and will chase companies for shoddy repairs. This is simply not good enough - the council should be checking on the work themselves and monitoring the situation. It is not acceptable that residents take the trouble to report potholes only to see them remain unrepaired for long periods or for them to fail again after shoddy repairs.

I have decided that the only way of making progress is to shame the complacent ruling group on Oxfordshire County Council by maintaining a "Wantage and Grove Pothole Monitor". I have collected photos of some of the many potholes encountered when driving between Wantage and Grove and archived them here (you can also click under "Links" in the sidebar to the left of this blog). By tagging each photo with the date, we will be able to monitor the quality of any repairs.

I have reported all the defects in the archive to the Highways Department of the county council. I will add extra potholes and poor repairs as I discover them, but please feel free to advise me of any that you encounter on your journeys. We can do this together!

Korky Paul Visits Charlton Primary School

Yesterday,  the well-known local children's author, Korky Paul came to Charlton Primary School in Wantage to officially open the  Early Years Unit.   The new building was completed at the beginning of last term, but we have been waiting for the children to settle in and also to arrange for a suitable celebrity to come along to do the honours. 

Korky Paul lives in Oxford and has visited some of the county's primary schools before, and he has such fascinating illustrations to accompany stories such as 'Winnie the Witch'.  Today, he led the early morning assembly at the school, and he asked all the children to take a 'magic ticket'.  I then drew two winning tickets out of Winnie the Witch's hat and the two children who held those tickets had a dinosaur portrait drawn by Korky for them to keep.  This kept the children enthralled, as did his telling of one of the wonderful stories accompanied by his colourful and intricate illustrations.

As a governor of the school, who is responsible for Public Relations, I was delighted that Korky accepted our invitation to come along yesterday.  He is patron of the local childrens' charity The Art Room, which has hit the headlines recently as this has been one of the chosen charities of the Duchess of Cambridge, who is also a patron. 

Grove Pumping Station Problem

As shown above, a line of 4 tankers has appeared along the Denchworth Road in Grove. This is apparently due to a burst pipe and the tankers are on standby to prevent flooding. Will update when I get more news.

Spring is in the air

The last three days have been glorious with some much needed sunshine after all the rain, wind and snow, which seems to have been with us for an eternity. I always find it uplifting once the spring flowers start to poke through at this time of year. A beautiful example is shown in the photo above of  a carpet of snowdrops in the Betjeman Millennium Park in Wantage.

We also know that spring is approaching once budget day comes round at Oxfordshire County Council. Today, that day has arrived and we have a full council meeting devoted to debating the budget proposals of each group and setting the council tax for the next financial year. This will be the 7th year I have presented an alternative budget as Leader of the Opposition and more information can be found in the press release here.

White Lines Repainted on Vale Avenue

I am pleased to report that the white lines have now been repainted on Vale Avenue in Grove and some of the roads nearby, including Cauldwell Close, Glebe Gardens and Vicarage Close.  This had been reported some time ago at the Wantage and Grove Traffic Advisory Committee, but it has taken a long time to get done.  Eventually, the money to pay for the work was taken from my local Area Stewardship Fund.  I am hoping that the lines on Oxford Lane will be done soon too, as these have badly worn away.  There is a safety issue if junctions are not marked clearly as vehicles can sometimes pull out into the main road potentially causing accidents.

Apprenticeships Event at Grove Technology Park

This morning I attended an event at Grove Technology Park called 'Making Sense of Apprenticeships', which was put on for businesses to come along to find out more about taking on apprentices under the new national government scheme.  The panel (see photo above) included representatives from the National Apprenticeships Service, Oxfordshire County Council, APEX Recruitment and a young apprentice taken on by them who has nearly completed her training.  

There were about twenty businesses there to hear about how to go about recruiting apprentices, the grants available under the scheme and the help and advice they can receive from the experts on the panel.  Oxfordshire has approximately 4,370 apprentices which is actually up from last year by 26.7%.  Nationally, the figure is up by 13.5% since the scheme began.

I was pleased to be there to listen to what was on offer, but also to give some closing comments to a very successful morning.  It was a great opportunity to support this event happening locally and also to endorse what the coalition government is attempting to do to address getting young people into work and training.

 National Apprenticeship Week 2013 is taking place from 11 to 15 March. Visit apprenticeships.org.uk for information on  how to get involved and to download the National Apprenticship Week 2013 toolkit.

Update on A417 Closure

I just happened to check the County Council's website today and discovered that at long last they have decided to give some publicity to this major road closure next week at East Hendred.  You can now read the story here.  I have contacted both Thames Travel and Stagecoach bus companies to alert them to put the latest information on their websites too, and I notice now that this has now been updated on Thames Travel.  Stagecoach do not run buses along this route, but they may well be affected by any delays due to the re-routing of traffic. Fortunately, it will be half term next week, so at least school buses won't be affected. 

A417 Closure - Hendred Dip to Rowstock Corner





The A417 is going to be closed for resurfacing works near to East Hendred from next Monday 11th February for five days. This closure affects the part of the A417 from its junction with Allin's Lane (i.e. the "Hendred dip")  to the junction with the A4185 Newbury Road (i.e. Rowstock Corner). The temporary closure will be from 9.30am to 7.30pm each day. The  suggested diversion route is via the A4130, B4017, Hanney Road, Steventon Road and A338 and vice versa.  I understand that a shuttle bus will be provided between East Hendred and Wantage.

I was very concerned that this had not been publicised very well. There are now some cryptic signs along the A417 (see above), but I had not even been informed as a local county councillor. It transpires that only the council member for East Hendred was formally notified of this closure. This seems very short-sighted considering that the A417 is a major route to the Harwell and Milton Park campuses and the large amount of traffic it carries from Wantage, Grove and further afield. True, there is an official Road Traffic Notice in the back pages  of the Wantage and Grove Herald, but it lacks details and how many people read these?

The Oxfordshire County Council website also did not provide much information. As shown below, in its Road and Transport News it features the closure of the minor B480 road near to Chiselhampton,  but fails to even mention the forthcoming A417 closure.

I have complained about the lack of detailed information provided to the Wantage and Grove area and I will update this blog once I receive further information.

Careers Fest at Oxford Mini Plant

Today, I visited the Careers Fest held in Oxford at the BMW Mini Plant.  This was an excellent opportunity to see what is on offer all over the county for young people looking for local apprenticeships and employment.   More than 40 exhibitors had stands at the event including Leadbitters Construction, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Culham, Oxford University, Oxford and Cherwell Valley College and the County Council.

Secondary schools from around the city are attending over the two days of the Careers Fest and from what I saw today, the young people have shown a real interest in what is on offer.  As the theme of the event is 'Have A Go', I saw students sitting in the racing car simulator (photo above right) as well as giving rescucitation to dummies as they learn how to save a life in an emergency.  This was part of a demonstration from Oxford Brookes about their well-known nursing degrees.

Anyone interested in finding out more about apprenticeships at the county council can contact apprenticeships@oxfordshire.gov.uk.

There is also an event coming up at Grove Technology Park next Wednesday 13th February.  More about this here.

Gullies Cleaned by Denchworth Road Bridge

I have used some of my Area Stewardship Fund to have the gullies cleaned at this spot on the Denchworth Road by the bridge over the Letcombe Brook.  As the photo on the left shows, it frequently floods in this area because the County Council has not been doing gully emptying on a regular basis for several years.  When the engineer went out to have a look, he saw that the problem seemed to be a drainage channel was blocked with silt.  He managed to get it running with a drain rod and the other offlets are also to be cleared.  I am hoping that this work will help reduce the regular water pooling in this area.

Wantage Town Juniors Awarded Grant

Wantage Town Juniors (formerly Wantage Concords) have been awarded a £2,000 grant from our County Councillor Community budget fund towards portable lighting units for Tugwell Field.  The lighting units will allow childrens' teams to continue to train during winter evenings.  The opening of Tugwell Field as a football nursery for the younger age groups means that there will be additional capacity in the club for more children to train.  This is a thriving football club who have 140 boys and girls on the books from Wantage, Grove and surrounding villages. The club has a wider fundraising scheme to develop the site and to construct a building to provide changing rooms and other facilities.

I have already funded £1,500 towards Grove Challengers' portable goalposts as you will have seen in my previous post.  This means that both clubs will have benefitted from this fund to enable them to provide addtional resources for their local teams.  We all know what a valuable asset these clubs are for the wellbeing of our young people in the community.  Councillor Hannaby and myself have managed to pool our budgets for many of our grants to enable the money to go further.  I have two more applications waiting approval as the money has to be allocated by the end of February.  If these are successful, then my funds will be all used up.

White Horse Crescent Improvements

Another scheme I have been able to fund through my Area Stewardship Fund is the improvement to the area at the end of White Horse Crescent near to the access to the garages. Unfortunately, the Parish Council was unable to maintain the grassed area (see photo left) due to it being badly rutted by drivers either parking or driving over the grass.  A resident had placed a stone at the end of the grass to try to prevent this, but this did not really solve the problem. 

After discussions with the Parish Council and local residents, it was decided that the best solution would be to continue with the blocked paving, which made up the parking area at the end of the close.  By extending this, it meant that no maintenance of the area would be needed, and any cars parking on it would not damage the grass.  Obviously, it is a pity when we have to lose any of our green space around the village, but if the grass is so badly damaged that it begins to look an eyesore, then it becomes impossible to maintain.  This then ends up becoming neglected and not the pleasant green space it was intended to be. 

New Dropped Kerbs on Newlands Drive

One of the things that can frustrate pedestrians is the lack of dropped kerbs at appropriate places on the footpath networks in Grove and Wantage. A good example in Grove is shown in the bottom two photos where the footpath between Shepherds Close and Churchward Close used to just terminate on either side of Newlands Drive. In fact, I think the footpath was forgotten about by the original developers and not completed properly.

I am glad to report that (as the top two photos show) I have just been able to arrange for this particular case to be rectified. This is one of the latest works completed using my County Councillor's Area Stewardship Fund. I hope that this will make life a lot easier for wheelchair users, disabled and elderly pedestrians and those who use pushchairs and prams... especially in their route up to the shopping precinct at Savile Way.  With the current wintry weather, many people are preferring to leave their cars at home when they do their local shopping.