Parish notes
The August / September issue of the Parish Notes is now online (and should be through your letterbox shortly).
Navigate to Your Community > Parish Notes.
United Parish Magazine August 2021
/in News/by Adam BernsteinThe latest issue of church’s parish magazine is now available. Navigate to Your Community > Church.
Find your nearest defibrillator
/in News/by Adam BernsteinThere are presently five defibrillators in the parish in case of an emergency. To access any one of them, dial 999 and give your postcode. You will be directed to the nearest.
*** DO NOT LEAVE THE PATIENT UNATTENDED – PERFORM CPR. ***
*** SEND A SECOND PERSON TO RETRIEVE THE DEFIBRILLATOR ***
A guide to performing CPR can be seen on the British Heart Foundation’s website here.
The defibrillators are located at:
The Lambert Arms. OX49 5SQ (closed overnight on Sundays)
On the bend in Aston Rowant near the church, OX49 5SS
Aston Rowant CE School. OX49 5SU
Aston Rowant Cricket Club. OX39 4ST
Kingston Blount Village Hall. OX39 4SW
Book a test drive and join the electric vehicle revolution
/in News/by Adam BernsteinThree test drive events are taking place in Oxfordshire next month to showcase electric vehicles (EVs) and an innovative new way of charging them aimed at people without off-street parking.
Oxfordshire’s park and charge team will be running live roadshow events in Abingdon, Witney and Henley in August. These free events will be an opportunity for residents to learn more about EVs and the different options for making the switch.
The test drive events will take place 10am – 4pm on:
- Saturday 14 August at Cattle Market car park, Abingdon
- Friday 20 August Kings Road car park, Henley
- Saturday 21 August at the Woolgate Centre, Witney.
The test drives form part of Oxfordshire’s £5.2 million park and charge project that has been awarded funding from Innovate UK as part of the government’s investment in British engineering to transform electric charging infrastructure. The project is being delivered by Oxfordshire County Council, with support from Cherwell District Council, West Oxfordshire District Council, South Oxfordshire District Council, the Vale of the White Horse District Council, Zeta Specialist Lighting, Urban Integrated UK and the University of Oxford.
Event organisers are working alongside local dealerships Go Green Autos, North Oxford MINI and Jaybee Motors. To book a test drive, residents can visit parkandchargeoxfordshire.co.uk choose their preferred day and venue and fill out a quick form. A member of the park and charge team will confirm all bookings.
FREE Litter Bug Detectives Trails for children
/in News/by Adam BernsteinFrom Monday 9 August to Monday 30 August South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse district councils are running FREE Litter Bug Detectives Trails for children in 19 sites across southern Oxfordshire with the chance for schools to win litter picking equipment.
The trails are being managed by local town and parish councils and follow on from a successful pilot of the scheme in four parks at May half term.
The activities are aimed at primary school children and have been produced to promote recycling and reuse messages and explaining the damage litter does to our environment.
Each child who takes part can get a free notebook and pencil and if they get all the answers correct, they can request for a personalised Litter Bug Detectives certificate.
In addition, there will be a prize of free litter picking equipment for schools whose pupils take part.
How to take part
- Go to www.southoxon.gov.uk/litter-bug-detectives-trail and download the trail map of the park to visit. The map will show a trail to 13 sites around the park.
- At each site there will be a question on the themes of waste and recycling. The 13 answers will each provide a letter each to make two words.
- Email the two-word answer and your name and address to before midnight on 5 September and the team will send a Litter Bug Detective Certificate.
The trails will be available at:
- Abingdon – Boxhill Park
- Berinsfield – The recreation ground
- Chalgrove – The recreation ground
- Chinnor – Conigre Field
- Drayton – Millennium Green
- Faringdon – Tuckers Park
- Goring – Gardiner recreation ground
- Great Coxwell – local footpaths
- Harwell – The recreation ground
- Kennington – Playfield Road recreation ground
- Kingston Bagpuize – Orchard Gate recreation ground
- St Helen Without – Sandleigh Road recreation ground
- Stanford-in-the-Vale – The village hall recreation ground
- Thame – the town centre and Phoenix Trail
- Uffington – Jubilee Field
- Wallingford – Bull Croft
- Warborough – the village green
- Watchfield – the recreation ground
- Woodcote – the village green recreation ground
Out-of-hours highways service
/in News/by Adam BernsteinResidents can now report a highways matter to Oxfordshire County Council outside normal office hours – including evenings, weekends and bank holidays – if there are concerns about it causing an accident or damaging property. The call adviser will discuss the urgency of the issue and take appropriate action as required.
During normal working hours, residents should continue to call the council’s customer service centre on 0345 310 1111. But for out-of-hours, the number is 01223 849731.
If the situation is potentially life threatening, people should call emergency services on 999.
For highways issues that do not require immediate action, residents are encouraged to use the Fix My Street app or complete an online form.
New Oxfordshire air quality website
/in News/by Adam BernsteinIn March 2021, the five local Authorities in Oxfordshire: Oxford City, Cherwell, West Oxfordshire, South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse, together with Oxfordshire County Council were awarded a DEFRA air quality grant to develop an innovative air quality website for Oxfordshire.
The authorities want the new website to be used as an important tool to inform, communicate and raise awareness of air pollution to all visitors and residents across Oxfordshire.
The new website will allow complete integration of all relevant air quality related information from all district councils in Oxfordshire under one single platform. It’s also expected to be designed to provide evidence and advice in a simple and accessible manner across a wide range of air quality subjects, tailored to and for different age groups and levels of expertise.
The authorities would like the new website to be able to address a wide range of user needs and engage with the largest amount of users possible, hence it is extremely important for them to undertand what type of air quality contents and tools residents would find more relevant and useful.
Residents that want to feedback to the consultation can do so here.
SODC message regarding waste collection
/in News/by Adam BernsteinFollowing on from the recent troubles that many in Aston Rowant faced with regard to the collection of their recycling, SODC has issued a communication:
“As you may already be aware, Biffa is experiencing continued issues with staffing which has led to serious disruptions in the waste collections service in our districts.
The disruptions are mainly down to a shortage of HGV drivers and the increasing numbers of staff who have been advised to self-isolate. These are national issues, not just affecting us locally.
The limited numbers of staff still able to work are doing their best to get to as many homes as they can, and have been working weekends to try and catch up – but as you can imagine, that job has been made all the more difficult with the extremely hot weather we’ve been experiencing.
Our advice to residents is as follows:
If any of your waste was not collected last week, or if your bins are missed in the next couple of weeks, firstly leave the bins out for 3 days after your usual bin day and if still not collected please bring your bins back in and put it out next time it is due to be collected.
While we normally do not collect extra black bin rubbish, if we are unable to collect yours as a result of this disruption, you can leave up to three black sacks’ worth out the next time it is due. Please remember you can always put out additional recycling and food waste on your next scheduled collection.
We are extremely sorry for the inconvenience and we and our waste contractor are working hard to try and resolve these issues.”
For reference, you can report missed collections via this link.
Green recycling bins
/in News/by Adam BernsteinAston Rowant – at least from the church to the school – has not had its recycling collected. It was due to be collected last Tuesday (13 July).
SODC, or rather, Biffa, put this failure down to an ‘access issue’ which apparently relates a number of trucks collecting various items from the church following a wedding.
Several requests to have waste crews return have not led to any progress – a number of reasons were given including, finally, Covid. And despite a promise of a collection by Sunday 18 July, the refuse is still uncollected.
If residents have either clear sacks or cardboard boxes, they should be used. Otherwise, our advice is to place material in black bins which should be collected tomorrow, 20 July.
Good news for gardeners
/in News/by Adam BernsteinIf you’re a keen gardener but you aren’t yet a customer of SODC’s garden waste service, there is some good news. Residents can now sign up to get a brown bin for grass, trimmings, clippings, cuttings, weeds, branches, brambles and the like that the council will empty fortnightly.
SODC has now reopened the service to new subscribers after a short pause. To sign up to the optional paid-for garden waste service, head on over to SODC’s website.