Report, Re-report, Paint and Re-paint

Further to my blog post of 25 March and 29 March, look at the photos above of the potholes on the corner of Newlands Drive in Grove, which illustrate the sorry state of the whole pothole repair system.

The first picture on the left was taken on 21 February where you can see that the nearest pothole was painted in white. If you now look at the middle picture taken on 30 March, you can see that the white paint has now virtually disappeared with no repair having taken place!

In the meantime, the second pothole has only just been given a dose of red/orange paint, even though I reported both potholes as far back as 22 February! As I have said all along, it is not the reporting system which is at fault (although we are thankful for any improvements), but it is the slow system of repair. In the meantime, residents have to risk their cars every day travelling these roads.

I am sure we all sick and tired of the pothole situation around Wantage, Grove and the whole of Oxfordshire.

Please sign our pothole petition at: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/P3BPP6P

Cross in the Square Gospel Singing

On a cold Good Friday evening in Wantage Market Square, we were entertained by gospel singing as part of the "Cross in the Square" event organised by the Wantage & Grove Church Partnership. The singing was provided by the Croydon SDA Gospel Community Choir who have featured on both television and radio. Despite the cold temperature, a large crowd was attracted to the market square to enjoy an uplifting evening.

Pothole Feedback

Many thanks to all those who have reported potholes to me. The damage that is being done to cars is of great concern and I just hope that the county council realises the seriousness of this issue for local residents. This website claims that as many as 1 in 5 mechanical failures on British roads are due to potholes! Locally, reporting potholes has never really been the issue - we have all seen the painted markings wear away. It is the time it takes to actually make the repairs.  Shown below is the latest status of the pothole near to the Bay Tree in Grove:

I reported it on Monday this week (25 March - see blog post below) and the red markings appeared yesterday (Thursday 29 March). We will now see how long it actually takes to repair!

Please sign our pothole petition at: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/P3BPP6P

I also chased up the potholes I reported on 22nd February on the corner of Newlands Drive, which are still awaiting repair (again see photos on blog post 25 March below).  I was told that there are many potholes that are going over the 28 days time limit  and that the contractors are aware of large numbers of defects that have not been repaired on time and will attend to them as soon as possible.

Schools Consumer Challenge Quiz

This morning I attended Oxfordshire County Council's Trading Standards Consumer Challenge Quiz which they hosted at Unipart House in Cowley for special needs students.  Eight schools took part including our local Fitzwaryn School in Wantage.

I was very impressed by how well all the students did, despite some very challenging questions regarding the law, healthy eating, personal safety, smart shopping and issues around drugs use/misuse. Woodeaton Manor School won the competition and will go on to represent Oxfordshire in the National Finals in Brighton in June.  I was delighted that our local Fitzwaryn School came joint second with The Isis Academy, so an excellent result for them. 

The photo above shows a colourful arch of balloons to represent a rainbow to make it fun for everyone receiving their prizes.  I had objected to the original idea that the balloons were going to be filled with helium as this is a rare gas that we must preserve for scientific, medical and industrial use (see here for background).  Officers took up my suggestion to use air-filled balloons instead, which they did, although it entailed more work having to attach them to garden canes and wires.  The efffect is the same though - very impressive!

Another Day, Another Pothole

Another series of potholes has started to emerge in the area - this time near to the zebra crossing outside the Bay Tree pub in Grove. Not a good place to have a road defect with pedestrians crossing in the close vicinity. I have added this pothole to our monitoring website here and reported it.

A bit further up the road, I am sure that drivers have noticed the series of potholes on the sharp bend at Newlands Drive shown below.

I photographed these on 21 February (left photo), reported them on 22 February and they were logged by the county council on 26 February. As you can see from the right photo, the potholes are still there and the white paint marking them has now worn off. In my opinion, these potholes are in a particularly dangerous position as drivers have to swerve into the middle of the road to avoid them with the obvious risk of meeting oncoming traffic on a sharp bend. Given the potholes were already marked on 21 February, this means that the undertaking to repair within 28 days has already been exceeded. However, given the dangerous location I think they should have been considered a priority case.

Please sign our pothole petition at: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/P3BPP6P

Pothole Latest

Many thanks for all of the feedback on our local pothole campaign. At long last, the county council has taken some action and implemented a new online reporting service and increased the number of repair gangs from 10 to 19. The details are here.

However, most of us know from driving around Wantage and Grove that the problem does not seem to be with reporting potholes, as many of them have already been marked with red and white paint for a long time. In some cases, they have been reported so long ago that the paint is wearing off!

A good example can be seen in the photos above,  which show a pothole immediately outside King Alfred's College in Portway. Clearly, it is a priority case as it is both deep and in a dangerous place just outside a busy school site. The left photo shows that it was already marked with red paint on 13 March. I re-reported this pothole the same day and it was not repaired until 21 March (right photo) some 8 days later!  Indeed, I received an email to say that the safety inspectors had marked it as a category 1A (the most serious) on 18th March.  So, if this is the timespan from reporting to repair for such a dangerous pothole in a key area outside our secondary school, then I do not hold out much hope for those on our surrounding estate roads!

As many of you have commented, the situation with the Camel roundabout (at the junction of Mill Street, Denchworth Road and Ham Road) is simply appalling. The photo above was taken on 24 February and the road has deteriorated further with whole sections of surface missing and metal drains sticking up.  I am told that this has been inspected and a whole section of the road will need "planing". Again, I reported this several weeks ago and we still await action.  Oddly, contractors went out and re-painted white lines in this area and highways officers are still investigating why this had happened before any repair work had been carried out!  Meanwhile, residents are having to risk their cars here and providing a "bumpy" road sign is simply not good enough as it has completely failed in my opinion.

According to the County Council's website "Once a reported pothole has been verified by a member of the Highways team, the county council’s contractor undertakes to repair these potholes within 28 days, 24 hours for emergency potholes, and two hours for the most severe category."

Our pothole petition is still open, so please sign up at:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/P3BPP6P

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.