Archive for category: News

Oxfordshire County Council is consulting on it’s 2050 plan which will guide its long term planning policy.

Visit www.oxfordshireopenthought.org before 8 October to express your views.

A note from SODC:

2 August 2021

Dear Garden Waste customers,

We have taken the difficult decision to suspend our garden waste collections.

As you may already be aware, waste collection services right across the country have been suffering from disruption over the past few weeks. This has been the case in Vale of White Horse too.

The national and local disruption is due to the ongoing issues of a shortage of HGV drivers, as a result of the pandemic and Brexit, who are needed to drive our waste collection vehicles. We also have a number of waste collection staff who are required to self-isolate by the government’s Track and Trace system.

The situation does not look likely to improve in the next few weeks and so with a heavy heart we have decided to suspend the garden waste service for a month to allow the crews to prioritise food waste, recycling and general waste collections. This approach is in line with government guidelines on the prioritisation of waste collections. We hope to be able to reinstate the service after a month and we will review the situation towards the end of August before providing an update.

We hope to be able to reinstate the service after a month and we will review the situation towards the end of August before providing an update.

We are confident that we can honour our commitment to provide a minimum of 20 collections a year for this paid for service. In normal years, we provide more collections than this partly thanks to our extra-large garden waste collections in the Spring and Autumn. We don’t envisage this year being any different, so nobody should be out of pocket.

We will let you know as soon as we are in a position to restart the service. We will keep you updated via these garden waste pages on our website and our social media sites.

If you would like to dispose of your garden waste you can take it to one of Oxfordshire County Council’s Household Waste Recycling Centres if you’re able – you can check the county council’s website for opening times. Or if you’d rather, you can wait until the garden waste service resumes and we’ll take it then.

Please note that we are not taking on any new garden waste customers at this time and we will review this again when the situation with the service changes.  We will continue to deliver bins to households who have already signed so that you are able to start using the service once it is restarted.

We are extremely sorry for the inconvenience and we are working hard with Biffa to try and resolve these issues and reinstate the service as soon as is possible.

Residents are being urged to have their say on the Oxford-Cambridge Arc, a government led project which will have an impact on the district in the future.

The Oxford-Cambridge Arc includes the area between Oxford, Milton Keynes and Cambridge and aims to make significant economic, social and environmental improvements across the region by 2050 and beyond.

The government is currently developing a vision for the Spatial Framework – a long-term strategic plan for growth across the area – which will help support planning for the future with the aim of helping to create jobs, drive investment, protect and enhance the environment, and provide infrastructure to make the Arc a better place to work and live.

The government announced a 12-week public consultation on the future of the Ox-Cam Arc and residents are being encouraged to help to create the Spatial Framework’s vision for the area to 2050 under the following themes:

• The Environment
• The Economy
• Connectivity and Infrastructure
• Place-making

Once agreed, the shared vision will help to determine which new policies are developed and ultimately will shape government plans for the Oxford to Cambridge Arc region.

The consultation also seeks views on the work the Government has done to set the scope of the Sustainability Appraisal, and the Government has also announced a new expert panel to advise on sustainable economic and housing growth in the Arc.

This public consultation is the first of three that will guide a new Spatial Framework over the next two years.

To find out more and to have your say visit placebuilder.io/futureofthearc.  The consultation is open until 12 October 2021.

About the Oxford-Cambridge Arc

The Oxford-Cambridge Arc (the Arc) is a globally significant area between Oxford, Milton Keynes and Cambridge. It is formed of five ceremonial counties: Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire.

For more information, please visit the government’s website.

The latest issue of church’s parish magazine is now available. Navigate to Your Community > Church.

Three 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.