Harcourt Road Improvements

The photos above show the hardstanding laybys in Harcourt Road that myself and Cllr Jenny Hannaby have funded from our Area Stewardship grants at the County Council.  Residents and commuters have long complained about the poor state of the grass verges, which have become so badly damaged from parked vehicles that the whole area looks unsightly.

It would have been good to do more, but we only have limited funds, and this pot of money will come to an end now as the budget will only be used for road maintenance purposes in future.  Let us hope that it makes travelling through Charlton a little bit easier once the work has been completed.

Reminder - 2nd Crab Hill Exhibition

 

Just a reminder that there is a second opportunity to see the exhibition on the proposed Crab Hill development today - Friday 19th April. This will be held in Grove Methodist Church during 5 - 9 pm and is hosted by Lands Improvement.

I understand that the material will also be put on the website www.crabhillwantage.com from this Saturday.

Camel Progress

The left hand photo above shows the Camel roundabout after the repairs this week. It is obviously better than the previous cratered road, which risked damage to everyone's cars.  However, I am still concerned about the quality of the surface in the problem area, which has to survive a large amount of traffic pounding through it every day. We will keep an eye on this.

Also, the white lines still need repainting, so please take care when approaching the mini-roundabouts. Inexplicably, the white lines were repainted a little while ago and before these repairs when the whole road surface was crumbling away!

I also think it is a great pity that the opportunity was not taken to repair the potholes at the junction of Priory Orchard with Ham Road (see right photo above). Even if they are not priority holes, it would surely have made sense to deal with them whilst there were workmen, equipment and tarmac at this site?

Action on Camel "Craters" at last?

At long last, it looks like repairs will be made this week to the the Camel roundabout (the junction between Mill Street, Denchworth Road and Ham Road) in Wantage. Most residents will be aware of the appalling "craters" at this roundabout (there is no way they can be called mere potholes!) and, not suprisingly, some people have even reported damage to their cars. Followers of this blog will know that I have photographed and reported this dreadul state of affairs many times since 24 February (see here, here and here) and it is now mid-April. We also had the bizarre situation where the white lines around the roundabout were repainted a few weeks ago - a complete waste of money given that it was obvious that the road would have to be dug up and repaired.

Anyway, as you can see from the photos above, equipment was being dropped off on Monday evening to start the repairs on Tuesday 16 April.  There are planned to be 4-way temporary traffic lights in place for up to three days whilst the works go ahead, so please be prepared for disruption in that area.

If you think the pothole repair situation in the Wantage and Grove area has been unsatisfactory, please sign our petition at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/P3BPP6P

Crab Hill Exhibition

Just a reminder that there will be two public exhibitions this week about the proposed development at Crab Hill in north east Wantage. These will be hosted by Lands Improvement and its team of consultants to provide information on the evolving proposals. The details are:

Monday 15th April - Wantage Civic Hall, 5 - 9 pm
Friday 19th April - Grove Methodist Church, 5 - 9 pm

Please go along. This should provide important background information ahead of making representations on the draft Local Plan (deadline 9th May).

The Continuing Pothole Saga

Amazing! The two deep potholes on the sharp bend of Newlands Drive in Grove were, at long last, finally repaired sometime last week! Readers will be aware of this continuing saga from my previous posts here, here and here. This means that it has taken almost 7 weeks for the repairs since they were reported! There can be no real excuse for this delay as the potholes were both deep and in a particularly dangerous position causing cars to have to swerve on a sharp bend.

Meanwhile, the potholes further down by the zebra crossing near to the Bay Tree pub still go unrepaired, despite being highlighted with red paint for some time. The repair team probably had to drive over these very potholes on their way to repair the ones further up the road. I first reported it on 25 March - almost 3 weeks ago.  I chased this up yet again this week to find out what was happening, but unfortunately received no reply.   Again, being close to a crossing, these potholes are also in what I would regard as a particularly dangerous position. 

The whole of the local community is fed up with the pothole situation in the Wantage and Grove area and across the whole of Oxfordshire. It is not the reporting system that is the problem, it is the lack of efficient and timely repairs. 

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

Service of Institution and Induction of New Vicar

Last night, I was invited to St. John's Church in Grove to a special event. One part of the evening was the Induction and Installation of the Rev. John Durant as the new vicar of the Vale Benefice. There was also a Service of Institution for the newly formed Vale Benefice, which combines the parishes of Grove, Hanney, East Challow and Denchworth. The Wantage Deanery unites the four local benefices in the Wantage area of the Diocese of Oxford.

 

The Rt. Rev. Andrew Proud, Bishop of Reading led the service along with The Venerable Norman Russell, Archdeacon of Berkshire. The church was packed full and it was a very inspiring service with many local members of the community involved. Well done to all of the mission team and the Vale Benefice Churchwardens for the evening.

White Horse Harriers Half Marathon

Today, saw the Annual Half-Marathon of the White Horse Harriers take place. The race started in Cane Lane and as usual ended on Pound Green in Grove (see photos above). This year the event supported the 14 Club of Wantage, which is an independent social club at Fitzwaryn School for people with learning disabilities. It was a beautiful sunny day although still a little chilly. The very first White Horse Half Marathon took place on 10th April 1983 and it is still going strong.

Oxford Lane Re-painted

Yesterday, I took these photos of Oxford Lane which has been re-painted using some of my Area Stewardship Fund.  The top photos show the entrance onto the A338 including the hatched area which should make a safer exit from Grove onto this busy road.  The bottom photos show the mini-roundabouts, which have been re-painted at the junction with St. John's Road and North Drive.  The speed cushions (bottom right) are also done which will make them much easier to see, especially at night.

County Pothole Motion Voted Down!

I am sure that local residents will be amazed to learn that the motion of my group calling on the Cabinet of Oxfordshire County Council to require our contractors to meet their obligation on highways repairs and so ensure our roads are fit for the public to travel on was voted down today at the full council meeting. The ruling group seem to think that everything is fine across the county, but most Oxfordshire residents and especially those of us living in the Wantage and Grove area know just how bad the roads really are.

The top photo above shows the mini-roundabouts at the Camel junction of Mill Street, Denchworth Road and Ham Road in Wantage.  The surface shown by the yellow dashes is like a big dipper and it is so bad that drivers have reported that their cars have been damaged. The only action so far after many weeks is to put up signs (bottom photo) on the approaches to the junction!  A warning that you will get a bumpy ride is hardly reassuring!

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

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.