Aston Wood bluebells
From Peter Hetherington:
Take a trip up Aston Wood and you’ll see that the bluebells are out.
The photo below was taken along the Aston Rowant Discovery Trail, a circular 5.3 mile walk from Aston Rowant Church.
Fiveways in Spring
A villager, Mark Lord of Mark Lord Photography, sent the parish council a great image of Fiveways corner in the evening. It’s downloadable from the link below.
Do send any suitable images that you have.
Taking the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award?
From Peter Tinson, Chairman of Aston Rowant Parish Council:
The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award has been widely recognised for the benefits it brings those who have taken part, equipping and empowering young people from all communities to build the skills, confidence, and resilience they need to make the most out of life.
The editor of the Parish Notes, Sally Brodermann, and I believe that it would be a fitting tribute to the life of Prince Philip to include stories in the next edition of the Parish Notes from those who have taken part (or are taking part) in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme. We are looking for short contributions from those in the Parish who are currently taking their Duke of Edinburgh’s Award to highlight what they are gaining from their participation. We are also looking for contributions from any parishioners who took the Award in their youth to discuss how participation shaped them as adults.
Change of date to May parish council meetings
The date of the next parish council meeting has been changed to Wednesday 5 May. This is to permit the council to meet under current legislation via Zoom.
The log on details will be provided in due course. Please check the home page, under ‘Next Parish Council Meetings’ for the detail once posted.
Road closure notice
Oxfordshire County Council is closing the Thame Road (B4445) from Emmington to Chinnor between 18 and 22 April for road repair works.
The details and map are downloadable via the link below.
HRH Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh
HRH Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh.
We are deeply saddened to learn that His Royal Highness Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh passed away peacefully this morning.
On behalf of Aston Rowant Parish Council and the parishioners, we offer our heart-felt condolences and sympathy to Her Majesty The Queen and all members of The Royal Family.
We extend those condolences to everybody touched by this sad and solemn occasion and we join the people of the United Kingdom in this period of mourning.
We will observe a minute’s silence at the start of our Parish Council meeting on Wednesday 14 April as a mark of respect.
Peter Tinson
Chairman of Aston Rowant Parish Council
Report it!
Residents with concerns relating to the likes of anti-social matters such as abandoned vehicles, graffiti and dog fouling, or issues relating to the street scene including overflowing bins, potholes or road markings, should make a report to SODC directly via it’s Report It webpage.
The page is here.
The page gives access to request a wide range of issues, not just the obvious.
A new issue of the Parish Notes is out
The latest issue of the Parish Notes is out and should be put through letter boxes any day now. In the meantime, it’s also available on this website. Navigate to Your Community > Parish Notes.
Changes to waste collections over Easter
As with previous Easters, bin crews will be emptying bins on a different day because of the public holidays.
See more on the SODC waste collection calendar page.
FTTP – update
The parish is doing well in capturing expressions of interest for FTTP.
It took Airband a year to get just 26 expressions. With Openreach there are now 102 – 53 in Aston Rowant, 40 in Kingston Blount and 9 in Crowell. There are also 33 businesses being run from homes.
However, it’s important to get more as it’ll help the cause in the eyes of Openreach. Further, OCC has a pot which the parish might be able to tap into to get top-up funding to make the project more viable.
So, if you have any hint of interest, register it with . There are around 380 homes in the parish, and around a quarter have registered so far.
Please tell all you know in the parish.
Remember:
- This is only an expression of interest.
- There is no commitment or obligation at this point.
- There should be no need to change internet provider.
- You may think that you have fibre now, but you only have fibre to the cabinet… it’s copper from the cabinet to the house…
- FTTP isn’t perfect, but it will offer much faster speeds – upto 1GB… around 20 times faster – and greater reliability.
- Copper is going from the network (around 2025) and will be replaced for new installs and repairs with aluminium which isn’t as good as copper.
- The pot of funding from OCC won’t last forever and it may harm our cause if it’s not available to the parish.
This is an opportunity, so let’s grab it.