Claire Jarvis tells us: There's been a sudden rush for Auction tickets today but there are still a few left So HURRY HURRY!! .If potential bidders would like to view the list of lots, it’s at www.chippylido-auction.co.uk  Top lot is possibly the day driving the latest Aston Martin at their performance track, although there are some other intriguing offers, such as Mark Billingham writing you into his next thriller featuring DCI Thorne (Sky One are currently making a drama using the first two in his series) or a private tour of Aynho Park which is not normally open to the public but has the largest collection of plasterwork in Europe.  See you at the Lido

The Planners obviously have lots of spare time on their hands.

The Leisure Centre are holding a 8 week swimming course for people who are aged 50+.  It is free of charge and it's for non swimmers and weak swimmers only.  The course starts on Thursday 9th Sept from 11.00am till 11.45pm.  Anyone wishing to join in or would like more details then they can ring the centre 01993 861951.

Sunday 26th September
 

Garden waste recycling (free from November 2010)
 

Free garden waste collections are being introduced at the end of November 2010 as part of a new waste and recycling service. Householders have the opportunity to receive FREE fortnightly garden waste collections by signing up. Simply register now:   Complete an online form  or Call 01993 861025

Anyone who does not sign up will not receive garden waste collections when the new service starts. However, if you are an existing garden waste customer please see the information at the bottom of this page. It is the first time that free garden waste collections will be available in West Oxfordshire. At present, this is a paid-for service available to only around 5,000 households.Anyone who signs up for these collections will have a wheelie bin for their garden waste.
 

What you can put in a garden waste bin 
Grass cuttings  Plants and leaves  Prunings  Cut flowers  Pet straw and sawdust Windfalls
 

Is somebody trying to tell us something?

The sky last night over Chippy.  Photographed by Geoff Weighell
 

Meeting  on future of Highlands

A MEETING is being held to discuss the relaunch of the Highlands Day Care Centre in Chipping Norton.

It follows concern about the future direction of the centre, which provides day care services for elderly people from the town and surrounding villages. The meeting, which will be chaired by Bill Norton of Age UK, is due to be held at the Methodist Hall in Chipping Norton on Tuesday, September 21 at 7.30pm. Anyone interested in becoming chairman, treasurer or trustee of the centre is asked to contact Jenny Timmis on 01608 642946 or jennytimmis@sky.com to arrange a meeting.

Tiger's head stolen from Chippy

Between 11.59pm on Saturday August 14 and 10am on Sunday August 15, thieves entered the rear garden of a Chippy property and stole a tiger's head.  PC Geoff Allen said: "This is a very unusual item and I would like to hear from anyone who may have seen something like this, or who has been offered something like this for sale. "I would also like to hear from anyone who was in the Chipping Norton area at the time who may have seen anyone acting suspiciously or who saw someone carrying this stuffed head around the town."

Bowls Club Competition Finals

This Friday/Saturday (27th/28th August) Chipping Norton Bowls Club Competition Finals will take place.On Friday from 6pm onwards various Singles Finals will be played – followed by one of Desmond’s famous BBQs. On Saturday from around 3pm onwards various Pairs Finals will be played. Do come along and see what is happening. If you are interested in the BBQ please email chippybowls@hotmail.co.uk

August Lido Lottery Results

The results of the August Lido lottery were as follows:

Tickets sold:      157       Total prize fund: £235.50

1^st prize:            £117.75            Mr & Mrs Dickinson (no 130)

2^nd prize:           £70.65              Joan Thomson (no 83)

3^rd prize:           £47.10              Mr & Mrs Gibbard (no 62)

The lottery is open to anyone over the age of 18 years and raises funds to support Chipping Norton Lido. To find out more, visit www.chippylido.co.uk or pick up a leaflet from Jaffe & Neale.

CHIPPY'S VERY OWN IRON AGE SETTLEMENT

Just two miles from the Town Hall steps a lecturer from the University of Central of Lancashire - Dr Duncan Sayer - is leading twelve of his archaeology degree students in a major four week excavation of an important Iron Age hilltop residence - surrounded by what seem to be stockyards. Already there have been numerous discoveries of pottery fragments. In the picture below Dr Sayer is seen examining one from a first century jar. Some beautiful hairpins made of bone and an exquisite bronze brooch are among other finds so far. More grisly are the skeletons of two babies found amongst the rubble.

Chippy students celebrate A level success

A total of 45 per cent of students from Chipping Norton School achieved A*s to B grades. Headteacher, Simon Duffy, said: “Those students who deserved to get the very top grades did so, those students who had to work equally as hard to achieve the lower grades also did themselves proud.”

Among those preparing to celebrate were head boy Rory Goodman from Chipping Norton, who gained an A* in art and design, two As in biology and maths and a B in further maths to gain a place at Durham University to study economics. Rory, 18, said that, as head boy, he had tried to promote working as a “decent thing” rather than “uncool”.

Is Kingham the perfect village?

The essential ingredients of the good village are known in the property business as the seven Ps – pub, primary school, post office, parson, public transport, phone box and petrol station. To find the best, we conducted a straw poll of estate agents across the country and assessed more than 100 popular villages. We then married this with work by a team of researchers for The Telegraph Guide To Commuterland, balancing beauty with accessibility, landscape with community and the need for good working services. Kingham in Oxfordshire, the darling of the Cotswolds, topped the list as the best village of them all. “This is a star village which buyers just always want to move into and don’t move out of easily,” says Harry Gladwyn of Knight Frank. “It combines Cotswold architecture with commutability. It is a proper village and retains an air of what the Cotswolds were like several decades ago, yet it isn’t a tourist honeypot like Stow-on-the-Wold.”

Kingham is indeed that rare thing, an unspoilt village. The water still flows along the Evenlode Valley, stone and thatched cottages still trim the village green. The Village Stores caters for every need, including wine and meat from a local herd, and also takes in dry cleaning. St Andrew’s church spire, built as a slim replica of Magdalen Tower in Oxford, looks out over fields necklaced with dry stone walls in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. “I have lived here for 28 years,” says Donald Harris, who is selling The Old Rectory Cottage through Knight Frank (it has six bedrooms). He is downsizing but plans to stay in the area. Prices in Kingham range from £250,000 for a two-bedroom cottage to £1.5m for a six-bedroom house. “It has hardly changed though some houses have been added around the edge. They are bought by young families, so we have lots of children in the primary school,” says Donald.

And the village isn’t losing its young to nearby towns. “We have everything we need to keep a village alive – the church, the pub, the school and the shop, which has a post office. Other villages have lost their post offices and have to come here now.” Life here is pleasantly busy, he adds. “I am involved in organising the harvest festival supper, where we have a magician to keep the children amused. And we have a duck race on the river every year. There is a gardening club, book club, choir, music club. So there is a very active social life and lots of interesting people live here – High Court judges, QCs, a former headmaster of Eton.”

The Noughties have swept in new trends and celebrity interest. Blur bass player Alex James now farms sheep just outside the village and Lady Bamford runs Daylesford Organic nearby, selling milk straight from her Friesians, as well as handmade cheeses, breads, fish and organic greens (not to mention providing yoga and holistic health treatments). Part of the appeal to buyers from London or Oxford is the good schools. “We have a lot of families wanting to buy because of that,” says Sara Parker at Carter Jonas. “People pay a 15 to 20 per cent premium on a little cottage in Chipping Norton.” The local primary school is well-liked and Kingham Hill School, the independent day and boarding school founded in 1886 as a school and home for deprived boys, was more recently attended by Lord Adonis and Pink Floyd bassist Guy Pratt.

The key to Kingham’s success, however, is the railway station, from where trains chug through the Cotswold villages and on through Oxford to deliver passengers to Paddington in 90 minutes. Sebastian and Nicholas Blakemore are developers in the area and have snapped up three cottages in Church Street to restore. In two weeks they have attracted 20 enquiries and seven viewings. “We had to buy them,” Sebastian says. “In Kingham an opportunity like this doesn’t come up often and you can’t go wrong. The first train every morning at about 6.30 is packed, a lot of people keep their London jobs. On the weekends, friends come down to cottages around the village and spend hundreds of pounds routinely on food at Daylesford on the way. But people actually live all year round in Kingham. Many families have been there for generations.”

CHIPPY AIR QUALITY GETS DE-PRIORITISED YET AGAIN

But first a quick re-cap for new readers (Annie might find it helpful too since I'm not sure she knows much about Air Quality in Chippy!)  Two years ago this article was published on chippingnorton.net:

The traffic in our town is horrendous and getting worse. The Air Quality in the Town Centre is way below government standards. Nitrogen Dioxide levels are way too high. Five years ago in 2003 the Town Council proposed in a submission to the Oxfordshire Transport Review that a weight limit should be introduced through the town - to drastically reduce the number of HGVs.  It included the following statement: "Chipping Norton Council are convinced that a weight restriction plus an alternative lorry route around the town remains the only viable answer". Our proposal was not accepted because it was claimed there was too much "local" traffic (exempt from a weight limit) which would make policing  impossible.

 In 2005 the area of Horsefair, High Street and West Street was declared an AQMA (Air Quality Management Area). Among other things this means that the County and the District together have to come up with an Action Plan telling the government how pollution levels are to be reduced to meet the required limits. After three years of measurements, surveys, another consultant brought in to advise, studies, reports, consultations (remember the list of 50 ideas which the District published earlier this year - including one-way systems and gated flows?) a report was presented last week (4th September 2008) to the Oxfordshire County Council Cabinet Member for Transport. Read the quite surprisingly short report here. http://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/content/public/Resources/hlpdownloads/XT/XT040908-06.htm
All the different ideas which had been put forward and discussed during the consultation - including by-passes of all shapes and sizes -  were thrown out . All the ideas that is except just one. A weight limit!

In September 2008 the conclusion was.... "...the option which appears to be the most suitable for inclusion in the Action Plan are measures to control lorry passage through the town.  It should be stressed in the Action Plan that all of these measures will require the consent of neighbouring authorities, which cannot be guaranteed, and that the effectiveness of such measures in reducing lorry numbers is variable. The measures will require additional investigation before specific proposals can be submitted for approval.  This investigation will include  imposing an environmental weight limit, including the scope and extent of any limit, costs, timescales and consultation with neighbouring and other affected councils."

However getting a weight limit was not going to be simple. The recommendation said:

The most straightforward method of controlling heavy goods vehicles would be through the imposition of an environmental weight limit through the town.  To be effective this would require advance warning and signing of alternative routes.  For A44 traffic this could use the existing advisory route via Northleach, for traffic travelling to Banbury via A361 there are no obvious alternatives and this would need to be negotiated with the relevant neighbouring authorities.  A weight restriction is already in place on the parallel A3400 through Long Compton so this route would not be suitable.  A complicating factor to this is that the A44 is designated as the national Primary Route between Oxford and Evesham.  While this does not preclude the imposition of a weight limit there would be a contradiction if a restriction was placed, given that Primary Routes are a major component of the National Lorry Route Network.  This would be likely to place a limit on the level of compliance with any local restriction.  Removal of Primary Route status from the A44 would require the designation of an alternative Oxford-Evesham Primary Route with the agreement of the relevant highway authorities and government offices.  There would also be considerable cost given that this would require the replacement of green backed signs with white ones – without which the change in status would not be evident to drivers. Enforcement is a considerable issue with any environmental weight limit given that the general exception for access makes identification of offending vehicles very difficult.

So two years ago it was clear that the first thing that had to be done was that Primary Route status must be removed from the A44 (or the A44 had to be de-primed as we now say) before you can even start discussing an environmental weight limit.

Two years later in late August 2010 Mr Howell and his political boss County Councillor Ian Hudspeth had been invited by County Councillor Hilary Biles to come to the Town Council to tell us about progress. It became clear almost immediately that there was no progress to report. In two years things don't seem to have progressed at all.  Mr Howell said that he had checked the previous week to make sure that the County's application to de-prime the A44 had been submitted. But to his surprise he found that it hadn't been. Hilary looked absolutely furious. Clearly the script was falling apart. More than that Mr Howell explained that getting a road de-primed was virtually unheard of so we needn't get our hopes up too high. And what was now happening was that county authorities were  competing with each other to offload heavy traffic on to adjoining areas so there was no co-operation any more. The alternative route signs which were fundamental to a weight limit had not been put up - indeed the alternative A361 route had not been agreed yet. There was now no money because budgets were being cut all round.  Spending a fortune on changing all the A44 green and yellow road signs to "de-primed" black and white ones wasn't likely to happen. Yes there was a statutory duty to lower pollution levels but that duty was the District Council's and NOT the County's. Its not me GUV say the County. Over to you Witney, You find the money. Why had Messrs Howell and Hudspeth bothered to come at all?

In 2008  your editor concluded his article as follows:

"And so they are recommending yet more investigation and consultation before actually proposing anything to government. This makes any action years away! For goodness sake Heathrow Terminal 5 was agreed faster than this. For myself I think they are just having a laugh - at our expense. Nobody has the slightest intention of doing anything about air quality in Chippy!  I think both councils (County and District) believe that if the talking can be strung out long enough low emission or even electric lorries and buses will have arrived and the problem will disappear. So meantime carry on wheezing Chippy. Just don't hold your breath".

I heard nothing on Monday at the Town Council meeting to change that view. They are giving us the runaround. The talk shop continues. Air quality has been well and truly de-prioritised.

Lots more background here:
http://www.chippingnorton.net/NEWS/TRAFFIC%20&%20AIR%20QUALITY%202008%20&%202009.htm

Future of the Youth Centre is uncertain

The Mystery of the Elected Mayors

Concern for future of day care centre

Best farms in the Cotswolds named: THE best farm in the north Cotswolds has been named as Messrs C W Smith & Son’s Kingham Hill Farm near Chipping Norton. The champion farm was the best medium sized farm in Moreton-in-Marsh and District Agricultural and Horse Show Society farms and crops competitions.

LEADING event rider William Fox-Pitt, has been selected to represent Great Britain at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games (September 23-October 10). He will ride Chipping Norton-based Teresa Stopford-Sackville’s Cool Mountain at the Games – which are being held in Kentucky. Fox-Pitt was the first British rider to become eventing’s world number one, a distinction he achieved in 2002 and again in 2009.  Fox-Pitt said:. “I am very fortunate that Cool Mountain has performed so consistently this season and I am very excited for his owner Teresa Stopford-Sackville who has owned him since he was a yearling.”

Chipping Norton maintained their Division 5 title challenge with a nine-wicket victory over struggling Cassington. Adam Wallington’s three wickets helped to restrict Cassington to 140-5. Wallington then scored 59 and Ian Widdows 52 not out to see Chippy to 143-1.

Horton Hospital told to improve cleanliness

CHANGES have been promised at Banbury’s Horton Hospital after it scored only an ‘acceptable’ rating for two key areas in its latest health audit. The Oxford Road hospital recently had its future secured after a seven-year battle to save the maternity and round-the-clock paediatric services, which could have been moved to the John Radcliffe Hospital, in Oxford.

But the annual health audit, carried out by National Patient Safety Agency, which is part of the NHS, said the Horton was lagging behind other Oxfordshire hospitals. The Horton dropped from ‘good’ to ‘acceptable’ in two categories: environment (which covers cleanliness); and privacy and dignity. It said the cleanliness rating had been affected by an inspection which had been carried out during poor winter weather. However, the hospital retained a score of ‘good’ for food. Banbury town and Cherwell district councillor George Parish, who is chairman of the Save The Horton Hospital campaign, said: “I am a bit disappointed because I always think the Horton is great. Perhaps this is a time to start looking at any services that need improving.”

Meanwhile, Oxford’s Churchill Hospital has retained its ‘good’ status across all categories, while the John Radcliffe Hospital improved from ‘acceptable’ to ‘good’ for privacy and dignity, while maintaining a ‘good’ in food and ‘acceptable’ for environment. Mervyn Phipps, assistant director of estates for the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals Trust, which runs the Horton, said: “We take cleanliness and the environment very seriously and we aim to do better next year.

Shipton teenager raises £205 with a charity lunch for six

Max Harvey (15) of Shipton-under-Wychwood, Oxfordshire, has raised £205 for a small donkey sanctuary in France called 'Aide aux Anes', by cooking lunch for six ladies.  Max is a pupil at Kingham Hill School.This is his fifth fund-raising activity. Previous events have included two shops, a cream tea and the inaugural ladies lunch three years ago.Aide Aux Anes is located in Gipcy, near Fournay, France. It’s goal is to give donkeys a good life. It provides free shelter to any neglected, abused or retired donkey and has a total of forty two donkeys on site.  It is totally self-funding.In this, his fifth fundraising scheme, Max changed the charity he supports to a small, self-supporting donkey sanctuary in France following his holiday there last year.‘I met Walter Golsteijn  in Gipcy, in the Auverge region of France.’ Says Max. ‘Walter had been a Chief of Homicide with the Amsterdam police but gave up his job, after many tough years, to rescue donkeys. I was so impressed with the work he had been doing because he has no support from anyone. Every penny comes from charitable donations’.‘I had raised a thousand pounds, over four years, for the Rare Breeds Survival Trust and decided this little sanctuary could really do with my help. We brought back some wine, posters and T-shirts and I decided to do a lunch as I love cooking,’ he continues.

Max worked out the menu from his own favourite dishes including chicken ceaser salad and zippy tagliatelle.The six guests thoroughly enjoyed themselves and, Mrs. Jill Mavin, who won two bottles of Aide des Anes wine, was thrilled. It was a lovely lunch and we really enjoyed Max’s cooking,’ she said. Mrs. Mavin is going to deliver the money Max raised to the sanctuary in person when she goes to France on holiday. ‘I will really enjoy meeting the man who gave Max the incentive to give us all such a lovely time,’ she added.

YOUNG PEOPLE'S AMAZING ARTWORK AT THE TOWN HALL

     
Pictures by Glyn Watkins

Eight fantastic paintings by children from the local schools - St Marys, Top School, Holy Trinity and Penhurst were unveiled by Hilary Biles on Friday. They are quite brilliant - colourful, vibrant and imaginative and will be cheering up the panels around the Town Hall for the next few months. In a short speech  Hilary reminded us that it was two years ago that the Town Council first approached her as WODC Cabinet Member for Tourism - begging for help to start refurbishing the crumbling Town Hall. She managed to find £100,000 for us to kick the fund raising off and the show is now firmly on the road. She was absolutely delighted that the Project manager Councillor Greenwell has been keen to involve young people in the Town Hall project  from the very beginning.  "We all hope that this building is going to play as big a part in their lives as it has done for many generations before them!" So what a great idea when the big ugly hoardings went up around the iconic Town hall steps (which are being restored) to ask local kids to brighten things up a bit. They have done this brilliantly. Your webmaster had a long chat with one of the carers from Penhurst who described the sheer pleasure the kids had in working on their stunning contribution. Part of the process involved launching paint-soaked balls on to the panel and ensuring that the colour trail fitted the composition.  She told me that more paint ended up on the floor and the kids themselves than on the panel. Apparently the Prime Minister had been in town shopping earlier on before the veils had been formally lifted but Councillor Greenwell organised a sneak preview for him. He was mightily impressed. "I will come back later and have a proper look " he said. "I don't want to steal Hilary's thunder!" Come off it Prime Minister, not even you could do that.

Formula 1 is Alice's wonderland
by Debbie Waite

HER name is Alice Powell, she’s 17 and she left school last year after taking her GCSEs – and she reckons she’s going to be the first woman to win F1. Mmmm. Maybe a phase she’s going through? After all, you don’t see many girls up there alongside Lewis Hamilton on the podium – unless they’re wearing hotpants and handing out the Champagne.

Alice rings me on her hands-free while driving three-and-a-half hours from Snetterton racetrack near Norwich, to Oulton Park, Cheshire, where she’s testing her car. “Hope you’re keeping to the speed limit,” I joke. It’s probably one she’s heard many times before, but she chuckles politely anyway. “So what are you up to?” I ask.

“I’m halfway though the Renault British Rally Championships with three rounds left and the next round is at Snetterton at the end of this month,” she tells me. I’m one of only two women in 17 drivers, the other girl is in 15th and I’m in second – I intend to be first.” Her quest is simple – to be racing in F1 in the next four to five years and to win the title. Her gender, she says, is irrelevant. It may be less than five months since she got her driving licence, but all day today Alice has been pushing her car towards its top speed of 150 miles per hour and taking corners at speeds that would make many grown men cry.

“Testing means we spend days pushing our cars and ourselves, running things in, making qualifying runs and basically getting used to the track. It’s fun, but hard work too.” It’s got a bit easier since Alice, from Sarsden, near Chipping Norton, left school last year and can now dedicate all her time to racing. “Last year was pretty tough,” she says.

From the excitement of competing at 120mph in a motor race televised live on TV, it was back to earth the following day when Alice was behind her desk at the Cotswold School in Bourton-on-the-Water taking her Maths GCSE exam. “It was all pretty hectic but I did well and passed all of my GCSEs with good grades. Now I’ve finished school and I’m splitting my time between training at Renault F1 in Enstone and competing. Passing my driving test in March was great, because it now means I don’t have to rely on my mum and dad to drive me everywhere for my racing. For a long time I would be routinely driving over a 100 miles an hour on the track, but not legally able to drive on the road.”

She achieved eight podiums in the Ginetta and BDRC Stars of Tomorrow Championships. And in May this year she became the first female to win a Formula Renault Race when she won round four of the Formula Renault BARC Championship at Silverstone. Last year, racing legend Sir Stirling Moss presented her with the British Women Racing Drivers’ Club Elite Winner award. She is also the youngest female to have competed in the Michelin Formula Renault UK Championship – the 150mph single-seater race series which provides a stepping stone to F1 and set her hero (and former Manor Competition) predecessor) Lewis Hamilton, on track to superstardom.

But is it really possible, I ask, to actually compete alongside the men and win it. “It won’t be easy and some people simply don’t believe a woman has the strength and courage to compete at a high level in sport and beat male competitors. But I do and I believe I can. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be bothering with the training, pushing myself to the limits of my fitness and asking my family for all their support to help get me there.” Family is key to Alice’s success. She was introduced to motorsport by her granddad, racing fan Jim Fraser, now 69. She learned to drive a car when she was six and began her karting career two years later. “Many motor racing drivers follow a family member into the sport, whereas I’m the first, but mum and dad say I seem to have had racing in mind from a very early age, when I started racing a ride-on around the dining room table. My family obviously help me a lot, but sponsorship is key in motor racing and I’m doing pretty well.”

Having financed Alice’s 2009 season, Silverstone Hotels continues to support her on her route to F1 and she also has backing from Travis Perkins and a new Japanese anti-stress treatment – as well as the support of her team at Manor Competition and Renault. “If I win the championships I could attract really big sponsors and could send me even further up the ladder – this is definitely my biggest year so far.” There doesn’t seem a lot of time left for the things most 17 year old girls spend time doing – shopping and hanging out with friends and boyfriends. “When I was younger it was hard when racing started to take up all my weekends and I did miss going to parties and seeing friends for a while, but if I’m serious about racing then it has to come first,” she admits.

So does being a racing driver make her a geek or cool? “Most people seem pretty impressed, although girls my age don’t know a lot about motor racing,” she said. That’s another reason why I’d like to do well – to be an ambassador for the sport. If more women got interested in it, more would compete.” Alice’s hero, Lewis Hamilton, is at the pinnacle of his success. Having been crowned F1 champ he’s living the dream in Monaco with a pop star girlfriend. But Alice thinks in miles per hour, not dollars. “Of course the money would be fabulous, who wouldn’t say that?” she says. “But right now I’m doing what Stirling Moss told me and keeping my eye on the prize.” Alice’s mum and dad, Eileen, 43, and Tony, 51, are very proud. Mrs Powell said: “We see ourselves as her background support. She’s very dedicated and works extremely hard and is determined to be the first successful female Formula 1 driver – we believe she will.”

Seller pitch fee: £6 cars, £7 cars with trailer or vans Buyer entry fee: FREE! Refreshments will be available and there will be toilets on site. For more details, telephone Julie Morgan on 01608 644495 or email us at info@fairytalefarm.co.uk.  Please spread the word!

What is Fairytale Farm??

"The vision is to create an inclusive facility, designed to be completely accessible to, and stimulate the imagination of, children with varying disabilities, but which these children can enjoy alongside children and families without disabilities."

There are very few rural facilities for disabled children and their families. As most parents of children with special needs know, much of the countryside is out of bounds. Although there are a number of centres for disabled children, these tend to be institutional and require advanced booking, and most mainstream attractions are not fully accessible, despite the efforts of owners.

Fairytale Farm will be different. We will be the first family farm attraction where everything is designed around the needs of children with sensory, learning and physical disabilities. But we hope that children without  disabilities will enjoy it too!

A day out in the countryside

There are very few rural facilities for disabled children and their families. As most parents of children with special needs know, much of the countryside is out of bounds. Although there are a number of centres for disabled children, these tend to be institutional and require advanced booking, and most mainstream attractions are not fully accessible, despite the efforts of owners.

Fairytale Farm will be different. We will be the first family farm attraction where everything is designed around the needs of children with sensory, learning and physical disabilities. But we hope that children without  disabilities will enjoy it too! It will just be a day out for the family, not a day care centre; just turn up and have fun. Nick and Nicola Laister, whose eldest daughter has cerebral palsy, decided to acquire a small farm and create a children’s activity farm where disabled children and their families could spend a day out in the countryside doing various rural activities on a site where everything was primarily designed around their needs.

The vision is to create an inclusive facility, designed to be completely accessible to, and stimulate the imagination of, children with varying disabilities, but which these children can enjoy alongside children and families without disabilities, and which operates in the same way as a standard rural farm park (i.e. it can be visited without being in a group or with pre-booking). In other words, the sort of facility that Nick and Nicola would have liked to have been able to visit themselves with their own daughter.

This facility would not be a care facility or an institutional experience, but a family day/morning/afternoon in the countryside, built around the needs of the family member whose needs are most difficult to cater for, but open to all.

Finding a site

Nick and Nicola embarked on a search for a site. It needed to be in a rural location, as it would involve farm animals and general countryside activities. As the use would involve, for example, a parking area and possibly adventure play equipment for disabled children, it was felt that a rural location that was adjacent to other existing businesses and activities would be most appropriate, outside of landscape designations and where it would not be prominent on the wider landscape. It would also need good access from a good quality road, a dwelling for the family to live in and be located on a flat site.

After searching throughout 2007 and 2008, Nick and Nicola were sent the details of Southcombe Farm. This had been used as a farm shop and other businesses (including an engineering business and recording studio) for a number of years and came with a range of outbuildings, including several workshops, farm shop, stables, and a farm house, built in the 1800s.

Fairytale Farm

The farm will be inclusive and designed primarily around the needs of children with sensory, learning or physical disabilities. It will be the location for a day or part-day out in the countryside undertaking a variety of rural and educational activities (many of which would be related as closely as possible to the national curriculum), firmly rooted in the local area, where everything is designed around disabled children. We will welcome all children, but we cannot guarantee that everything will be accessible to children without disabilities.

The existing paddocks will be used for various activities, including animal petting and displays, children’s play facilities (including a small play area made up of equipment designed for disabled children) and sensory trails. The trails will be educational for children with learning difficulties, with the aim of stimulating the imagination, and will comprise small features at child/wheelchair height, mainly based around local history, culture and legends, with features to see, touch, smell and hear.

The existing outbuildings (stables, farm shop, barn, two-storey workshops) will be used in association with the activity farm for various indoor activities (especially when wet), indoor education, toilets and refreshments. Access will be taken directly from the A44 near the Southcombe traffic lights, only two miles outside Chipping Norton, using the existing access road constructed in 2000.

Help Us!

Nick and Nicola Laister are building this unique attraction without any grant funding. They are looking to acquire, or receive donations, of numerous items to ensure that this facility can open in 2012.

Details, plan of the site and lots more pics at http://www.fairytalefarm.co.uk

Patients give top marks to Community Hospitals

RAF salutes Chippy pupils' charity campaign

Nell Darby writes in   Perspectives on rural life

Chipping Norton is in danger of becoming a dormitory town, where many residents have to commute away from the area. Many people I know work in Oxford, Birmingham, Bristol or London, creating a culture of long hours and expensive journeys. There is a lack of jobs, particularly for those like me – mothers with childcare commitments. The main part-time jobs offered are in the two small local supermarkets or the leisure centre – but the wages are low, and the costs of living are high. I've looked further afield for jobs, but have still struggled to find one that pays enough to make the commuting and childcare costs worthwhile. For several years, I commuted to London, but working 10-hour shifts with a three-hour daily commute proved to be too tiring to maintain.

I love this area. I was born here, and am now bringing my children up here. But the tradeoff is that my earning potential has been drastically reduced. When a major local employer closed six years ago with the loss of 400 jobs, the majority of its site became a housing development. Moves like this create a town with fewer sites available for companies to relocate to and little incentive to do so. Conversely, the number of residents increases – many of whom will work in other places, and thus contribute little to the economy of their town.

I would like to see incentives for businesses to relocate to more rural areas – tax breaks or other benefits. Promoting business sites outside of metropolitan areas should be made cheaper and easier. Housing developments shouldn't be built in rural towns without consideration for the impact on their economy and infrastructure. And, as a last resort, if working mums have to commute some distance to work, then we need better and cheaper public transport.

Every speed camera in Oxfordshire will be switched off next week

AN AMAZING DAY.....BRILLIANT

Thanks to Deputy Mayor Chris Butterworth for the pics

Dave delivers fast on a big promise to Chippy

Hilary Biles has kindly sent us a copy of a letter from the new Heath Secretary Andrew Lansley to the Prime Minister dated last week........Crucial extracts are as follows.....

Fantastic news. Really fast work. 6000 very grateful Chippy residents. Three cheers for Dave!

Dave meets the Lido Staff
 

David Cameron, popped in for a cup of tea and a chat last Friday at The Lido. Patron and  long-time supporter of the open-air pool Dave visited to see for himself the recently installed solar-powered heating system in operation. The installation marks the completion of a two-year project to replace all the plant and equipment, some of which was 40 years old.

“The people here have done a great job in raising the money to put in the investment and now that there are ground source heat pumps, that’s going to reduce the cost of heating this pool massively,” he said. “It shows that going green can actually save you money, as well as helping save the planet.” He also met Lido staff and trustees, chatted with swimmers and complimented the organisation on meeting the needs of local people, saying, “There’s a social aspect to this enterprise which is about helping the elderly by making sure they can go on swimming, getting children swimming, training lifeguards and generally having a good, useful social purpose.” He praised everyone who had been involved in saving the pool. “I’ve always thought this is a great local facility and I remember the threat of its closure and how bad that would have been for Chipping Norton. I think that the people who have taken it on and run it have done a fantastic job.”

Chippy GP ordained as Deacon

MEN and women from all walks of life begin a new ecclesiastical journey at Christ Church in Oxford today. Forty-three new deacons are being ordained by the Bishop of Oxford the Rt Rev John Pritchard during three services. And the new recruits include an archaeologist, a family GP, teachers – and even an expert on bugs. They are about to begin a new life as curates in parishes across the diocese, which covers Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire, after training for three years at theological college. They will now embark on a three- to four-year curacy under the supervision of a more experienced priest. In their first year as a deacon, they train to take the special offices of the church, known as the sacraments, including Holy Communion, weddings and baptisms. They will then be ordained as priests.

For Chipping Norton GP Stephen Blake, today’s ordination is the culmination of long journey. He said: “It didn’t all come at once. It was an inkling 30 years ago. But my medical training holds me in good stead.” Dr Blake will serve as a part-time curate in Burford with Fulbrook and Taynton, but continue as a GP at the Whitehouse Surgery in Chipping Norton. He said: “I am wondering how I am going to fit it all in, but it will be fine.”

Some serious challenges ahead at Highlands Day Centre

Thanks to Peter Barbour for this account of last week's AGM:

The AGM for Highlands Day Centre was held on Tuesday June 29^th in the spacious day room at Highlands. It was as well that there was a spacious room as there are doubts about the future of the Day Centre and the attendance was a record. The meeting followed the normal procedure and the first notable news came with the chairman’s report. Pat Lake spoke of the relationship of Highlands with Age Concern, now merged with Help the Age and renamed AGE UK. Highlands [which also operates the CATS outings] is independent but part of the AGE UK Federation. He went on to explain that the County Council, which in the past has subsidised Highlands to the extent of £37000 per annum, is reconsidering the organisation of day centres for the elderly. New centres in the larger towns, which excludes Chipping Norton, are to be set up  Next we learnt that attendances at Highlands had been falling, Capacity was up to twenty two persons for four days of the week but now there were on average only 35 regulars several of whom attended more than once a week. This had led to an operating loss of £23000 in the year to 31 March 2010.

The current charge to users was £6.50. To continue operating the charge would have to be raised to about £15 because of the underutilisation and in view of the current national financial stringency  Pat said it was likely that the subsidy would be reduced or even completely withdrawn next April and discussions were continuing and the outcome would not be known before September. Various possibilities were being considered in committee, for example transferring the services to the lower Town Hall. Services include transport morning and afternoon from home to centre, day care,  morning coffee, cooked lunch, and afternoon tea..

The Treasurer, Mark Roach spoke on the accounts repeating the details already mentioned and adding that the loss of £23000 was roughly offset by a recovery in the value of Highlands investments. These include the value of the freehold, still on the books at the price paid on acquisition 20 years ago and the investments - over £500,000 at book value and actually worth considerably more

Discussion with the floor followed the acceptance of the report and accounts and next business was elections to the committee. Pat Lake announced that with immediate effect he was standing down as chairman - presumably he will still look after the CATS bookings  His resignation was followed by that of the treasurer [who would continue to keep the books till a replacement was elected or co-opted] and the secretary.  The only position refilled was that of secretary, Eve Coles offering herself.  A vote of thanks was moved for Pat Lake and the resigning members

It is urgent that a new chairman and treasurer are found to see that the service offered by Highlands is not lost and that the valuable assets invested in this charity remain in Chipping Norton     

Well here's another great idea. I was approached by a podiatrist who was looking for a base so that he could expand his business into supplying equipment and products to other practitioners. He wanted a consulting room alongside a storage and distribution area. Somewhere right by the new hospital would suit him fine.  Blow me if a physiotherapist didn't come up with a precisely similar concept a week later. Once you start thinking health, beauty and fitness all kinds of other possibilities come up ............fitness studio & gym, BUPA health checks, opticians, massage and beauty parlour, dentists, vaccination centre, aromatherapists, walk-in surgery, sun parlour, plastic surgery, acupuncturists, organic restaurant etc etc  ....welcome to the Chippy Health Campus. I can see folk from miles around queuing up to spend their money there.

COUNTY PLAN TO WASTE ONE MILLION POUNDS
TO MOVE DEAN PIT.  WHY?

COUNTY COUNCIL WALKS OFF WITH CHIPPY'S REGENERATION FUND - WITHOUT SO MUCH AS A "BY YOUR LEAVE"

After the closure of Parker Knoll a Joint Committee of the County, District and Town was set up under the chairmanship of Barry Norton (Leader of WODC) to consider ways of mitigating the effect on Chipping Norton of the loss of 400 jobs and to consider ways to encourage the development of new employment opportunities. In that Committee the County Council representative promised that £400,000 of the money the County had received for waiving a covenant on part of the Parker Knoll land would be allocated to a “Capital Resources” fund which would be used on projects to help the economic regeneration of Chipping Norton and specifically towards the creation of new jobs. No time limit was placed on this undertaking  A number of projects have been considered by the Partnership since then for the use of the money. A proposal was developed to set up an Enterprise centre (for which additional funding was obtained from SEEDA). Another idea taken forward was to subsidise the purchase by CETA of land at the old council depot to build a new head office.  Unfortunately neither of these projects came to fruition. Basically because the Partnership didn't know what it was doing.

At the Town Council last night it emerged that now the Leader of the County Council has written to the Mayor saying that there is only £320,000 of this money left. No information about where  £80,000 has disappeared to?  After talking to the District and Councillor Biles the County don't think there are any viable projects around in connection with job creation.. Nobody bothered to ask the town. So the County  have decided - again with absolutely no consultation - to use £200,000 of the money towards the Chippy Youth Centre and to simply appropriate the rest into their general reserves. The whole of this “Capital Resources” fund will be used without any contribution at all being made to the economic development of the town.

We will protest but nothing will happen. This is a huge opportunity missed. We have let hundreds of thousands of pounds slip through our fingers. Of course there are a number of very worthwhile projects being worked on which could have benefited from this fund. Despite being warned that they had better get a move on and apply,  the usual talk shops in town simply continued debating - the Partnership, the Town Hall and Publicity Committee of the Town Council and the Guild of Commerce could all have accessed big money given some decent worked-through proposals. They have missed the boat.

Later in the meeting Gina Burrows said that because her Publicity Committee could not raise the £200 needed to host a Town Council website she was recommending that the Town Council accept an offer to have some pages on the website initially funded by the County Council but now apparently funded by Ken Norman's Breakfast Club. Had she and her committee woken up a bit earlier in the year she could have all the money she needed from the "Capital Resources" fund. Now it seems as if details of Planning Applications will be appearing alongside advertisements for local builders!!  There is no other local government authority in the country that communicates with its electors on a site sponsored by local businesses. Indeed its probably illegal to do so. Its about avoiding being seen to be under a commercial prejudicial influence. But nobody had checked. This didn't stop the Town Council from happily agreeing to the proposal. What a complete fiasco!

Have I got some Parking News for you?

From the time a warden first spots your car parked illegally you have six minutes to make a getaway. This means that anyone can park on yellow lines for six minutes without risking a ticket. Your dash into the newsagents is safe.
 

Here's why. This is what we were told.....The first step in the process of issuing a ticket is for the warden to enter your car registration into their computerised machine. Once this is done the machine then locks for six minutes and the warden cannot complete the transaction during that time so if you leave before the ticket is all  completed you are away and clear. That's what the committee was "officially" told this morning. I reckon six minutes is long enough for most people to use a cash machine or buy a sandwich so I'm not sure we need to change things after all. Your webmaster was immediately asked by Chairman Graves to suppress this information (after all typical Chippy drivers are not grown up enough to be able to handle this sort of classified stuff). However in the name of the new transparency promised by Dave and his coalition friends chippingnorton.net has decided to "publish and be damned". Enjoy your six minutes everyone.

Some readers may be aware that your webmaster is soon to move from his convenient town centre house so he has suddenly become very interested in how he is going to pop in to Nash's for his daily Eccles Cake in the future.

GREAT NEWS CICELY
 

Absolutely delighted to hear that Cicely Maunder has just been elected Chairman of the Chipping Norton Conservatives. About time too. We might now see the possibility of a few first-class Tory candidates being selected for both the Town and District Councils after the fiascos of the last couple of years. Cicely can show the way by standing herself next year for the Town Council where she has unfinished business. Apparently Cicely was opposed in the election for the Tory Chairman's job by the hapless Annie - who thought that her success in the District Council contest somehow gave her the right to be in charge. The membership put her right about that.  Annie was lucky to win the District seat only by hanging on to the coattails of Dave.  Cicely is one of those splendid people who gets on and actually does things -  and never shirks from saying exactly what she thinks. For the last few years she has been a superb Chairman of the Welfare Charities Committee and Chairman of Ladies Probus - at the same time as fighting back from serious illness - winning her many new admirers along the way. She has also found the time to set about various members of the Council accusing them of neglecting their duties (including your webmaster who has suffered the lash of Cicely's criticism several times recently). Its good to have her back in the thick of Town Politics. It won't be long before Cicely resumes her term as Mayor - which was rudely interrupted by a conspiracy of old fogey councillors who didn't like her reforming ways. Things are looking up.

Alex from Chippy is the LION MASSAGER.

British wildlife expert Alex Larenty, 50, calms the savage cats with gentle foot-rubs. Alex, originally of Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, moved to South Africa in 1999. He started massaging Jamu, nine, after putting insect repellent on him one day. He said: "I gave him a scratch and massage and he rolled around with his tongue out. Now he adores massages - his favourite game is This Little Piggy." He has also used his techniques to relax grizzly bears and lull elephants to give them a manicure. The keeper strolled up to 40st Jamu at The Lion Park near Johannesburg, South Africa, yesterday. The big male responded by rolling over and waving his paws expectantly. Alex then gave him a rub and Jamu showed their bond by baring his teeth. Alex, still a keen fan of the England football team, is willing to try his magic on Wayne Rooney and Co while they stay in South Africa for the World Cup. He said: "Anything to help them win."

Sainsbury bid for out-of-town Carterton store rejected
Identical situation to Chippy

A CONTROVERSIAL plan for an out-of-town supermarket in Carterton has been rejected. Sainsbury wanted to build a 26,000 sq ft food store in the empty West Oxfordshire Business Park. But on the advice of planning officers, West Oxfordshire district councillors voted to throw out the proposal.

Peter Handley, who was among those who voted against, said: “It is against the local plan for the area, which is concentrated on developing Carterton town centre. “There is new legislation from the Government that says all out of town development must be refused until the town centres are developed, as one would starve the other.”

For many years Carterton Town Council has planned to redevelop the old market site, in the centre of the town, with new shops and houses. A project team is working on the long-awaited revamp, which is reliant on a supermarket coming to the site to attract further shops. Mr Handley added: “The application by Sainsbury’s would have just pulled the rug out of the deal on the town centre. As ratepayers, we want to make a sustainable deal for the town.”

A Sainsbury’s survey claimed that 2,339 households and businesses – 92 per cent of respondents – expressed their support for a store. Carterton resident Andrew Ashman said: “The West Oxfordshire Retail Park site has been left empty for far too long and the new store would have resulted in more interest in the site. It could be argued that the site is now in the middle of Carterton given the expansion of the town to the east. A new store on the old market site would mean more traffic in the centre of town, including large delivery vehicles passing close to primary schools. There would be three food stores in close proximity, all requiring several deliveries a week.”

Ben Littman, Sainsbury’s development surveyor, said: “We are naturally disappointed that our proposals have been refused. Our planning application generated overwhelming support from the local community.”

Silver Swimmers

Chipping Norton Lido’s free Silver Swim sessions for over 60s are continuing this summer with the added bonus of free tuition for those wishing to gain greater confidence in the water or improve their technique. The dedicated sessions run every Wednesday morning from 10.30am until 12.30pm and have proved extremely popular over the past five years. Additional funding from an individual donor has allowed The Lido to provide a specialist teacher who is available at each session to offer help, encouragement and advice, free of charge. Trustee Claire Jarvis commented, “We’re very proud of our provision for older swimmers and are delighted that we can now offer free teaching alongside the opportunity simply to swim and socialise. Our teacher Vanessa is very experienced in working with more mature learners and has an excellent track record in successfully encouraging even the most nervous beginners into the water. We are especially grateful to the kind donor whose generosity has ensured that the sessions remain available to all Over 60s in the area.”

For more information about The Lido and opening times, call 01608 643188 or visit www.chippylido.co.uk

Garden Grabbing to be Stopped. Three cheers for that.

Firm ends bus service after 80 years 

By Chris Walker

Planning for the Future of Chipping Norton

Summary of comments received by WODC from Chippy residents

From Witney 200 residents submitted comments about their section of the proposed Local Plan. From Chippy there were 14 about theirs. Oh well nobody need complain when the hundreds of new houses are built up at Tank farm. All these 14 responses were from residents of Chipping Norton. Their comments received are summarised below.

Expansion of the town to the east
≠ Other smaller sites are available in Chipping Norton to meet the objective of “modest growth”. Concern that development of big sites such as Tank Farm and Fowlers Barn Farm will greatly expand the town boundary
≠ Development of land at Tank Farm will result in the loss of open fields
≠ Before development is allowed to proceed it will be important to assess the archaeological potential of the area to be affected, in particular the Tank Farm site
≠ Support for the location of additional housing off London Road (Tank Farm) – the site proposed for housing would link up well with the development on the Parker Knoll site and the development on the hospital/care home site
≠ One respondent felt that allowing the Parker Knoll industrial site to be developed for housing opens the door for the Tank Farm site to be developed as well
≠ Building in the Tank Farm area will overlook housing in Brassey Close because the land is much higher
≠ Development will greatly increase the current average build rate in Chipping Norton
≠ Brownfield land adjacent to London Road should be used for future housing growth, not greenfield sites. Further extending the town will harm the objective “to protect the heritage of the town”
≠ One comment questioned whether it was appropriate to permit buildings so close to a water tower, outlining that they are normally only ever located in out-of-town sites
≠ One comment stated that no consideration has been given to the microclimate of the proposed housing area. Being one of the highest, most exposed points in Oxfordshire, it was felt that insufficient consideration has been given to the quality of life the landscape would offer. Houses will be exposed to strong winds
≠ Rural character of the footpath from Wards Road via Tank Farm to London Road must be maintained
≠ Problem of ground water will become a more serious problem with further housing. A comment stated that houses adjoining the site proposed for housing  already suffer from ground water flooding during periods of heavy rainfall

Shopping, Jobs and Employment
≠ With the closure of the Parker Knoll site, concern was expressed over how the balance between jobs and housing is likely to be maintained. Responses felt a key priority should be to have jobs in the town to give people the opportunity to work close to home, rather than commute. Job provision should be the overriding  priority for the Chipping Norton strategy
≠ Important to make land available for business use – more positive interventions required for to actively encourage small businesses
≠ High local house prices will mean that new residents are likely to commute out of the town to achieve higher paid employment
≠ Encouragement should be given for start-up businesses, including those run from home in the town
≠ What is the justification for further employment development when the Parker Knoll planning permission is yet to be implemented?
≠ One respondent noted that new houses built in the town when the economy was prosperous were slow to be sold, pinpointing this issue largely as a consequence of a lack of employment
≠ Concern over the lack of support for small market towns, such as Chipping Norton, particularly due to out of town shopping centres
≠ Concern that major retailers will damage the vitality of Chipping Norton High Street
≠ Query as to why, now that the residential element of the Parker Knoll site has been completed, no work has commenced on the construction of the employment  and services element of the permitted development
≠ Further development of the town for housing will serve to provide a dormitory for other towns, such as Oxford
≠ An enterprise development centre should be prioritised
≠ One of the town areas marked as “land available for new business and employment” and “main employment site” is presently Oxfordshire County Council’s road gritting depot for which outline planning consent has been sought to erect new covers and facilities – question over public money to be spent on this when further changes may be made in the future

Traffic, Parking and transport
≠ No firm plans for aim to reduce traffic; heavy through traffic remains a concern
≠ Traffic problems in the town need to be addressed; particular concerns raised over heavy goods vehicles/lorries travelling through the town centre. A mandatory weight limit was suggested in one response, others suggesting a total ban on lorries through Chipping Norton
≠ Conflict in the preferred strategy in terms of aiming to achieve improved air quality whilst simultaneously permitting HGVs to drive through the town and not supporting a bypass for the town
≠ Concerns over safety along London Road coupled with future traffic generation from the new hospital and residential care home. The former Parker Knoll site and parking outside the Holy Trinity Church were noted as main concerns in a  number of responses
≠ Need to improve pedestrian and cycle routes and access to bus services – it has not been identified how this will be achieved
≠ New developments in Chipping Norton must have access to public transport within the site, for example the X8 and X9 bus services route must be extended to include the new houses on London Road and provide links to the new school
≠ Increased frequency of train services on the Cotswolds Line must be encouraged along with late evening services from London
≠ Improved cycleways and footways needed to connect any new developments to Chipping Norton town centre
≠ What provision for car parking is suggested in connection with the Albion Street development?
≠ Oxford bound traffic should be compulsorily re-routed up Banbury Road
≠ Development of land to the east of the town provides the opportunity for a relief road that would by-pass the Horsefair stretch of the A44 (AQMA). It would also act as an alternative route through the town
≠ Expansion should be seen alongside improved connectivity with transport hubs and major settlements

Community facilities and infrastructure
≠ Opportunities must be taken to use S106 agreements to fund community amenities, not just on the proposed strategic site. The response includes the example of requiring a comprehensive approach to be taken as a whole to the development of the hospital, ex-ambulance station and St John Castle View care home so that the most appropriate sites are used to meet community needs, and not driven by current land ownership of the parts
≠ Preference for a mixture of uses on old hospital, ambulance station and Castle View sites
≠ Additional housing will have an adverse impact on local services, for example local doctor and dental surgeries
≠ Development of additional housing should not take place until supporting facilities and employment opportunities are in place
≠ Concern over the implications on local education provision and facilities
≠ The town requires a permanent tourist centre
≠ Provision of extra care housing is particularly important

Other comments
≠ One response noted a “hammer head” in Cotswold Crescent was provided when the estate was built. Modest growth in this area has the advantage of being close to the present schools, leisure centre and facilities at Greystones.
≠ Extreme care required in the design and materials used for the proposed new Coop building and the landscaping, in order to retain the historic context of the site and maintain the character of a sensitive central town location
≠ Integrity of burgage plots and green boundaries must be maintained
≠ Any development which may affect the burgage plots in the town centre should include a full assessment of both above ground and below ground archaeology (more detailed comments on this issue have been provided)
≠ To maintain a balanced community, care should be taken to include higher end housing as well as affordable housing
≠ The provision of affordable housing was a concern for one respondent - fearing that it would result in poor quality, high density housing, which will encourage less desirable occupants to locate within the town; bringing increased anti-social behaviour and crime into Chipping Norton. This will require a greater police presence. Further housing growth within Oxford was suggested as an alternative, where infrastructure is in place to manage such housing growth
≠ Area to the west of the town and adjacent to the business estates north of the A44 should be utilised. One response, although noted that the area falls within the AONB, felt this status could be overcome and the land would be more preferable for development due to; the proximity to existing business uses, and because the land is elevated and is only at the approaches to the town, therefore minimising the impact on the appearance of Chipping Norton.
≠ It would be possible to build housing sensitively within the areas adjoining or within the AONB, perhaps on several sites rather than one large development. The comment was supported by the permission granted in 2006 for new houses in the Old Quarry, which is within the Chipping Norton Conservation Area
≠ Number of houses proposed is too high to achieve the aim of maintaining the town’s special character and vitality
≠ Figure of a “minimum of 800 homes” conflicts with the statement in the Sustainability Appraisal that “ a major urban extension of 500 or more new homes is likely to have an unacceptable impact on the character and setting of this small market town” – one response suggests a “minimum of 800 homes” is replaced with “a maximum of 500 homes”. As part of these revisions, the response noted that the current percentage requirement of 40% affordable housing may need to be increased in order to ensure an adequate supply of affordable houses from a reduced number of houses
≠ Development offers the opportunity to produce a history trail of Chipping Norton,  particularly in relation to the redevelopment of the Co-op store and Castle View
≠ Measures must be taken to protect existing hedges and trees

Dean Pit to close - official

Chippy has been leading the way with coalitions for ages. It's perhaps where the new PM got his inspiration from. But there's a local twist. Its the Conservatives and Labour who team up on our Town Council. They have voted together many times to waste money  on a Partnership which has now folded. They bleat like crazy about chippingnorton.net and have been threatening for five years to start their own "unbiassed" website. Nothing so far. They voted together against Keith Greenwell as Mayor. Together they wrote a letter criticising Councillor Watkins for being rude about Ken Norman and sent it to the local press. Most shamefully they trumped up a charge against Councillor Alcock accusing him of harassing Guildhall staff and  threatened to call in a Standards officer. They are a complete joke and manage between them to achieve nothing and to lead us nowhere. Be warned Dave. That's what coalitions are like. ............  Everyone is on the move...Hilary is moving from Vice Chair to Chair of the County Council......the Mayor has switched bus routes from Witney and now plies his trade between Bicester and Banbury....There are strong rumours that John Grantham is leaving the Labour Party and joining his wife in the Tories (Seems as if the switch may not have happened yet  Celia has told your webmaster in several rude e-mails following the publication of this Paris Pump that it is none of anybody's business which party John belongs to - now that he is not on any local council.  She is kidding.  John is still a big public figure.).  ..... Bob Hayward is going back to Cyprus so lets hope Cicely is taking over the Chippy Conservative party and they will start finding some better local government candidates in future .... Your webmaster is moving to the Mill (from now on the phrase "trouble at Mill" will assume a new significance in Chippy) ..... Also our Police Inspector is moving having been promoted to Chief Inspector so there is a vacancy for a bright up and coming young Inspector looking for their first posting. Step forward Inspector Clare Macintosh - available, keen to get the job, lives in the town and knows it backwards. Clare was a very popular and effective sergeant here for several years. Everyone would think that was a very smart appointment. Come on Jack Mahli you know it makes sense...............and of course, last but certainly not least Dave is moving from Dean to Chequers.  After being photographed at the Daylesford Farm Shop over Christmas Dave took the advice I gave him in the last edition of Parish Pump and started lowering his social sights a bit in time for the election.  Taking the Times Political Correspondent to the Old Mill Cafe for breakfast during the election campaign was perhaps a bit extreme. Mind you, it was very early and the bikers hadn't arrived by then. The big chauffeur-driven Merc did rather mess things up for the S3 that morning. Shouldn't complain though because it was the one and only time that our MP came to town during the election campaign. That's just the price we Chippy taxpayers have to pay for being the "safe" ballot box fodder in the "safe" seat which every party leader needs to be able to safely ignore at election time so he can spend all his campaigning time where it really matters - in the inner London suburbs. Having the PM as our MP is - of course - an enormous privilege (Yawn yawn) Now that Dave is safely installed in Downing Street we all expect a few things to happen fast.  First (as promised) The Local PCT will be told that NHS nurses can be seconded to the new Chippy Hospital after all. Annie (our new District Councillor) swore faithfully to us that this would happen in her last leaflet delivered the day before Polling day. Second. Hilary Biles will surely be appointed Dave's Coalition Social and Entertainments Supremo for Oxfordshire (Dave has never forgotten that memorable fundraising Midsummer Dinner in a marquee two years ago. Hilary brilliantly organised the whole event including cooking new potatoes for a hundred people. Yum yum.) Hilary's Plans are already well advanced for a State Banquet to be held  at Shipton under Wychwood Village Hall in honour of  President Obama. The main dish apparently will be venison from Lord Chadlington's Dean Manor estate. Hilary will insist that chains will be worn. Third we expect that Dean Pit will be closed soon since we are reliably told that the Secret Service regard Dave's Dean pad as almost impossible to protect- before you start adding in the extra threat posed by a constant stream of Chipping Norton riff raff taking their rubbish to the tip. The burghers of Enstone are about to get their payback for defying  WODC's wish to turn their airfield  into a performance car playground for Dave's chum Jeremy (would you believe I'm fifty this year) Clarkson. The waste dump at Enstone is about to be re-commissioned. No point in protesting Enstone folks. The Deal is done! .......... Bit like the new Sainsbury's. Who is kidding who with all these phoney consultations going on? The County only have eyes for all that lovely Sainsbury's money to pay for a new access road to the council land at Tank Farm - which has been recommended for residential development by the WODC planners in their latest submission for the local development plan (what a cosy setup this all is!). Everybody seems to have forgotten that those same planners solemnly promised five years ago that the land Sainsbury's now want to use for a supermarket would be strictly allocated for building small industrial units which the Appraisal had shown was what Chippy wanted and needed more than anything else. The Planners went further and made this a strict condition of the planning permission for houses granted to Parker Knoll and Wimpey. They can't just simply ignore their own binding agreements. If they do one national organisation has discreetly offered to help fund the costs of a Judicial Review. Why should we allow WODC to kill off our town centre? They have already nearly destroyed the character of the place by allowing every spare square foot to be filled by yet another terrace of two-bedroom mews house (ie places with no gardens!) .........Speaking of us being ripped off by the local authority has everyone noticed how the potholes along the Witney-Chippy road have all been repaired as far as Charlbury. Past Spelsbury the craters are of an unimaginable size all the way into Chippy. What are our councillors doing about this. Absolutely zilch...........And has everyone noticed that despite the arrival of the new wardens they have made absolutely no difference whatsoever to the parking chaos along Topside. The new wardens are being spotted in far-flung locations like Cornish Road and Lords Piece Road. Its not clear whether the Fishing Tackle Shop still retains its attraction for them. But what are they up to exactly??....And what about the policy announcement from WODC several years ago that A-boards would not be allowed outside shops because they represented a danger to blind and handicapped people. Try counting the number that now clutter up Middle Row. And when did cafes on narrow pavements become official policy?? The Old Mill started by putting out a couple of chairs. Now there is so much furniture and general clobber outside it is actually impossible for two prams to pass each other on the pavement........Strange interaction with our local police the other day. Having noticed two PCSOs spending ages trying to move on a group of middle-aged drunks from the Town Hall steps I was surprised to see that a few hours later the group had moved as far as the bench outside the Fox. Might be totally disconnected but the very next morning I found hidden behind our garden gate just along West Street a rucksack with four very expensive bottles of whisky in it - unopened. Value at least £80. You can come up with your own theory about how they got there. I rang the non-emergency police number. They weren't interested. Our neighbourhood team doesn't have time to come and collect them. You will have to take them to the Police Station the lady at the Call centre said. "You are kidding me" I said........Bet you didn't know that there is a person who works at WODC called the Street Naming & Numbering Officer. No you read that right "Street Naming & Numbering Officer". He wrote last week to the Town Clerk asking him to think up a name for the new hospital and the street outside it. The Town Clerk quite properly told him that the name for the hospital had already been decided. It was agreed by everybody that it would be called the "New War Memorial Hospital" "Not so fast" says the Street Naming Officer......."Further to our discussion, this is an explanation and clarification in respect of the matter of naming the new hospital in Chipping Norton. I can't name it 'New War Memorial Hospital' as there is a 'War Memorial Hospital' already established in the centre of town. Royal Mail will not allow a similar name to be established while the original name exists as this would cause extreme confusion. I understand that eventually the old hospital will be demolished for new houses/flats etc (no planning approval yet!) and then we can consider transferring the name 'War Memorial Hospital' to the new hospital. In the meantime it is necessary to agree on a current name now, to enable me to establish the address and new postcode with Royal Mail and all relevant authorities. I normally support the decision of the Town/Parish Councils in these matters, so I look forward to your suggestions to enable me to reconcile this matter".........A huge row has broken out, Rob Evans describes the dispute as "bureaucratic bananas". Quite right. Hilary says "I suggest you just add 2 after Hospital" Perhaps she has been to the cinema a lot recently and is thinking of film titles. Councillor Greenwell says he has just received a letter from the PCT in which the present hospital is called "Chipping Norton Community Hospital" so there is no problem after all.  Why have a Street Naming Officer if he can't sort some daft issue like this out?........All sorts of strange stories are now surfacing about the selection of candidates in the recent District Council Election in which Gina Burrows put on a storming performance but not quite good enough to overhaul the hapless Annie. Chippy First had seriously considered running Councillor Greenwell in the hope of splitting off some Tory votes and letting Gina in (the same tactic that had worked three years ago when Eve Coles was elected)  What nobody knew until last week was that a number of people had also been trying to persuade Sue Bartholomew to stand as an Independent - and a little bird tells me that Chunky Townley (shockingly) was among her backers. Keith thought it would be a waste of time fighting the Cameron tide and Sue thought she wasn't quite ready for the job yet. What a pity. So we are to be lumbered with Annie after all. Here's to the next time...A Very Happy Summer to all readers of chippingnorton.net. Six months ago I wrote...."Any day now the new town website – masterminded by coalition partners Gina Burrows (Labour) and Hilary Williams (Tory) will be up and running so you won’t have to put up with all this biased rubbish much longer." Six months later and no signs of the website yet. Keep checking.

Hilary visits St Mary's

It is Walk to School Week encouraging pupils and parents to walk rather than use the car. County Councillor Biles (the Chairman of Oxfordshire County Council) attended and tells us  "There was a fantastic turn out at St Mary's.. The children really enjoyed the walk and they are great role models for other schools!!!!" Pssst.......absolutely love the new chain Hilary
 

Fantastic effort James. Well done.

Prue Leith helps to launch new food festival

Congratulations to our Town Clerk Vanessa.

Little Joseph James Oliveri. Born on Saturday the 8th May 2010 at 9.12am.
Dark hair, blue eyes. Weighing in at 7.7 lb.
 

Mr Cameron’s political agent and leader of West Oxfordshire District Council, Barry Norton, said: “The Conservatives finished first in last week’s election, and there’s no doubt David has earned the moral right to Number 10. David has the intelligence, political ability, and determination to sort out the mess this country is in, and put Britain back on the road to growth and prosperity once again.”

Cotswold Journal: You have a home in Dean, near Chipping Norton, where you currently spend time with your family many weekends. If you become PM, and therefore have the use of Chequers, what will happen to the home in Dean, and will you still try to spend some time there?

DC: Yes, I will maintain my home in Dean and continue to spend as much time there as possible. There is nothing I like more than spending time in my constituency at the weekends with Sam and the children, going for a long country walk, having Sunday lunch with the family, and being able to attend local events. As I have said, it is all about striking a balance between work, constituency and down time.

CJ: What would you say to your constituents, in particular those in Chipping Norton and the surrounding area, about your future commitment to their interests if you become PM?

DC: This election is different, both for me and for you. I’m not just standing to be Witney’s Member of Parliament. I’m also standing to be your Prime Minister. But whatever job I have after the election, I will always stand up for my constituency and work for everyone who lives in West Oxfordshire. I’ll be just as contactable, just as supportive to local causes, and just as passionate about taking up constituents’ cases and fighting for local people. It has been a true privilege to live in and serve this wonderful area of West Oxfordshire over the past nine years. I hope that I will be returned as your MP, so that I can continue in this role, and so that together, we can build a better country.

The people of Chippy have spoken!

Some observers are amazed that the LibDems would allow talks to fail over such a marginal issue. But it looks as if we are going to have to wait until the middle of next week for a final outcome. If there is no agreement Annie will try to go it alone in representing the town relying on informal support from the LibDems on confidence votes. Meanwhile the bankers in Iceland who have £9 million of the District's money are watching all this uncertainty with increasing interest since with such strong evidence of a lack of political solidarity in one of West Oxfordshire's most important towns there is no chance the Icelandic banks will return our money - thus provoking a huge financial crisis in Witney. We trust Gina and Chris will work through coming nights to hammer out a final agreement as a matter of urgent and vital interest to us all.

Annie's Tories of course have their own money-saving policy on waste. They propose to turn Greystones into a tip and tell residents to take their own rubbish down there.

Ever heard of Chipping Norton Stone?

Total electorate  4973    Turnout  71.53%