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This feature in today's Witney Gazette
set the webmasters imagination going

 

 

Team cycles 150 miles in support of workmate

A team of RBS workers cycled 150 miles from Banbury Cross to Charing Cross and raised £13,000 for the Pancreatic Cancer Action charity. The three-day cycle ride was in support of their work colleague and friend Wendy Butler who is terminally ill with pancreatic cancer. Their ‘Corporate Dynamos’ team of seven started their journey by calling at Wendy’s house near Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire on Friday, July 8, and ended at Charing Cross station in London on Sunday, July 10.  Wendy, human resources director for RBS Bank corporate division in London, thought she was fit and healthy until a routine check-up four months ago revealed she had pancreatic cancer that had spread to her lungs and liver. Surgery is not an option for the mother- of-two.

Ali Stunt, of Pancreatic Cancer Action charity, and herself a rare survivor of the disease, said she was thrilled that Simon and the team had raised such a significant sum.“As a charity we are determined to ‘change the numbers’ and create greater awareness of pancreatic cancer amongst the general public, medical community and government, ensuring more people are diagnosed earlier in time for surgery. Wendy is such a wonderful person, her strength of character and zest for life is impressive,” she said.

Simon Eacott who is RBS corporate division’s director of change management, said it was a great team effort. He said: “We are very grateful for the generosity of all our supporters in helping the important work of Pancreatic Cancer Action and supporting our very special colleague Wendy who is an inspiration to us all.”  To support the Corporate Dynamos visit www.charitiestrust.org/members_data/event/corporate_dynamos/index.htm

 

Liz Leffman reports on Dean Pit latest

Dean Pit and Greystones came up at the full council meeting at West Oxfordshire District Council on Wednesday 27th July.  There was a lot of discussion, and it was denied that the closure of Dean Pit will cost £1 million.  So maybe we have been misinformed.  We are asking the county council to confirm how much they have budgetted for the closure, so we shall see.
 
The discussion centred on the cost of keeping Dean Pit open, with claims from Conservative councillors that it would need a major upgrade costing up to £1 million.  But our enquiries have revealed that the only upgrade that the Environment Agency require would be an improvement to the drainage system, so that instead of draining to a soakaway, water would be held in a tank which will extract pollutants such as oil, and clean water released into the gorund.  The tank could be emptied regularly and does not need to be connected to mains drainage.  It is hard to see how it could cost anywhere near to £1 million, and it is quite likely that if the site were moved to Greystones, the same would be needed. 
 
Oh, and how would the new site at Greystones be paid for? According to West Oxfordshire, with a grant..... from the county council, who are closing Dean Pit!!!  So a massive saving for taxpayers, then.

Hopefully our District Councillors had something to say this time round. ED

 

Also, there are still some places on lessons w/c 1 August and 8 August.
To find out more, visit The Lido, call 01608 643188 or visit
www.chippylido.co.uk


 

Press Association. Quotes of the Day  July 23rd

A real feat of engineering''- Sarah Burton's description of the wedding dress she designed for the Duchess of Cambridge.

It's a terrible shame that these spivs have brought the town's name into disrepute'' - Former town councillor Gerry Alcock on the so-called Chipping Norton set.

As the guy walked up I could see he was heading for Rupert so I shouted 'Careful'. I don't know if that was a bad thing to do. Within that room and for everyone watching, it tilted the balance of sympathy in Rupert's direction. He was a victim'' - Journalist Nick Davies on the Rupert Murdoch foam pie incident.

I'm still growing up, and when you're working every day, you don't really get a chance to figure out who you are. So with the time off, I'm able to think, pray and just kind of grow up'' - Teenage singer Justin Bieber, who is taking a month off.

 

Today's Daily Telegraph. Who is the lone drinker?

 
I'm told that its not who you think it is

Read the excellent article about Chippy in the Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/phone-hacking/8660536/Chippy-about-their-neighbours-You-bet.html

 

Readers from a few years back will remember that the Parish Pump is where your editor digs up the dirt on important local issues and ends up getting the handbag treatment from Cicely Maunder. Speaking of whom...would you believe she is at it again. Last week Cicely marched into the shop of the lady organising the "Stop Sainsbury's" campaign and suggested that as a conservative party member the said shopkeeper should consider saying less in public about the Sainsbury issue. So is it true that supporting the Sainsbury's bid is now official Conservative policy? Could it have anything to do with all the lovely goodies Sainsbury's have promised the District Council - not to mention offers to contribute towards youth clubs, roundabouts, libraries, town hall roofs etc As Parker Knoll left town axing 5oo jobs WODC presented them with a farewell gift worth millions when they allowed development of a large part of their site for housing. It was a solemn part of that deal that 5 acres would be retained for small business units. Now that commitment has been dumped and WODC are in deep consultation with Sainsbury's about a supermarket. This is not just general pre-application chat but serious negotiation. For example the precise route which delivery lorries are to take has been agreed. For the life of me I don't know why but a little bird tells me they will be required to enter town down Banbury Road, negotiate the double roundabout and go back up London Road. Can this possibly be true? Not quite. Sainsbury's have been persuaded to pay for a complete reconfiguration of the double roundabout - including using half the green area in front of the cop shop - just to make things easier for Sainsbury's delivery lorries.  But things do seem to be getting confused. At the "Stop Sainsbury's" public meeting held last Thursday, Councillor McHugh reported to the meeting that he had been talking to the Chairman of the Uplands Planning Committee - Councillor Haines - who had told Patrick that he was personally opposed to the Sainsbury's scheme and all the officers were as well. So in Patrick's judgement there was nothing to worry about. This was actually the first time that Councillor McHugh has ever opened his mouth in public so we would like to believe him but we do wonder whether perhaps Patrick has  got the wrong end of the stick. The Co-Op were out in force at the meeting. Faced with the charge of being an expensive store the half a dozen "suits" from the Co-Op said they were trying hard but admitted they would never compete with the big boys on price because they simply lacked the buying power. A slightly batty lady with an American accent said she was representing Transition Chipping Norton (pardon??) and said their research showed price wasn't important. It was all about the range of goods on offer. (Yeah right)  Nonetheless the Co- Op hoped Chippy would remember what good citizens they had been  - taking over the Post Office and all. They would be making technical objections to the Sainsbury scheme but relied on townspeople raising their own objections in their own words. They would be very happy to pay for posters , leaflet distributions, and any research designed to oppose the Sainsbury application. The Chairman should have immediately kicked that offer straight into touch. However there wasn't really a proper Chairman - only Ken Norman proving once again what a great stand-up comedian he is but just how hopeless he is at politics. But even Ken was not as ridiculous as the oleaginous Will Barton offering to help local traders prepare their objections to Sainsburys.  Surely none of the businesses in town could be so daft as to have any confidence in Will's advice  He after all was responsible with his old mentor Mary Neale  for engineering the collapse of our Chamber of Commerce, then organising the useless Partnership as well as failing to come up with any employment-generating projects to utilise £400,000 which was on offer from the County. This time round he seems to have just been sent along as Barry Norton's nark. But the Co-Op hadn't finished with their surprises. They warned us that they were putting in a second planning application - with the objective of increasing the selling area on the ground floor level of the Beales Department Store.  The arcade will be eliminated and incorporated into the store as selling space. A new entrance from Top Side will be created further along  - through the chemists perhaps?? That idea will go down like a lead balloon in the town. The arcade has established itself as one of the most useful and agreeable spots in the town centre. I do feel sorry for the Chippy Tories having to defend the outrageous policy U-turns which the Tory district council keeps making. Here's another one. Having provided cast iron reassurances that Greystones would never be used as a rubbish dump   (I can vividly remember Councillor Biles scoffing when I made the suggestion to her recently) they have now decided to put in a planning application for just such a development.  WODC  rigged the whole thing last Wednesday. On the morning of the actual Cabinet meeting they circulated the proposal as a late extra agenda item. As a result many councillors were not  aware the item was on the agenda at all. I know that Eve Coles, Patrick McHugh and Hilary Biles did not attend the meeting. Not sure about Annie but I doubt she was there. She is usually away with the fairies. It seems very likely that this last minute proposal was discussed with nobody from Chippy present. As Glyn Watkins points out in his splendid letter to the Daily Mail below a dump at Greystones would have the laughable effect of moving an eyesore away from the PM's backyard and dumping it on Jeremy Clarkson's doorstep. There could be some sharp talking at the next picnic get together of the Camerons and the Clarksons.  A rubbish dump at Greystones would have the effect of making it virtually impossible to sell Greystones House for commercial use. This is a project which the Town Council have been working on for more than two years  The Town Council spent considerable sums on sorting out conveyancing issues and the District Council were familiar with all the details.  This was a period when various representatives of WODC were denying that Greystones would be used as a dump.   In retrospect this now looks like deliberate misrepresentation. Any price paid now for Greystones House will be derisory.  The Muslims in town have always shown interest in the building as a potential mosque but have not been able to raise the asking price. Well this could be their big opportunity. Try an offer Mr Hassan.  Lots of criticisms about the new Town Council. Nobody knows who the Mayor is and from all accounts most of the guests for free booze at his Mayormaking were from out of town. His penetrating remarks about the Chipping Norton Set being nothing sinister - just a group of friends meeting for supper have made him look a bit naive. And what about discipline - apparently an incredibly small number of councillors turned up to the Civic Sunday Service  which has caused much comment. The 2011 class of Tory councillors need some more coaching on what is expected. Step forward Cicely who once gave me a real tongue lashing for missing a Remembrance Day service. I hope she plans to be as tough on the new Tory councillors as she was on me! However one area attracting lots of compliments is the new allotments regime where apparently the complaints of the allotment holders are being taken seriously for the first time in years. Well done Mr Davidson. However, lots of complaints about performance at the new hospital/care home. Not many people seem to be finding the First Aid unit actually staffed and I've been told often that the physiotherapy unit doesn't have its act together yet. (Who exactly is monitoring all this? And just what is the League of Friends up to these days?) Someone who works at the Care home was rung up in a panic over the weekend and asked to come in because the care home was running on just two staff for 36 patients. OK its holiday time but the picture building up is not encouraging.  Lovely new building and a staffing shambles. Years of argument and lots of people still think the hospital is not a serious project. But then lots of people also warned that the Order of St John have virtually no experience in running a hospital.  Hands up who knows what Glyme Hall is.  Its the new £1m community centre building - paid for by central government - and now handed over to a Board of Trustees who have to find the money to run it. A bid for £28,000 from a County Council fund towards first year costs has just been approved so thats at least a start...but more fundraising and hiring out is going to be necessary. So who exactly are the Trustees and who are the members of the Youth Committee ? Who has been presented with a £1m chunk of real estate and who banks the £28,000.  In the best Chippy traditions this is all secret. Some recruits were made at the last Town Council but apparently - despite his protestations at election time of deep concern for the youth of the town - David Lydiat could not be persuaded to serve - even when virtually ordered to do so by Hilary. Is the Board of Trustees truly representative?  Are the Labour party represented? We should be told - after all its all public money.

 

Letter from ex-Councillor Glyn Watkins

 

Dean Pit  closure will mean 36-mile trip

RESIDENTS are calling on a council to halt the closure of a ‘rubbish tip’ serving thousands of people — including Prime Minister David Cameron. From September, householders in Chipping Norton and the surrounding area face a round trip of up to 36 miles to dispose of junk, after the Dean Pit facility is closed.

The campaigners say the decision affects about 22,000 people who live within a nine-mile radius of the recycling centre, including Mr Cameron, who lives in Dean. The move is part of Oxfordshire County Council’s waste strategy to close two of its eight recycling centres to save £750,000. A centre at Stanford in the Vale is also due to close, but the council plans to open a £3m flagship recycling centre in Kidlington next year.

Earlier this week, campaigner Liz Leffman handed a petition of almost 2,000 signatures to the county council’s cabinet in a bid to get its decision to close Dean Pit over-turned or delayed. Ms Leffman, of Charlbury, said: “The county is proposing to open a new recycling centre in Kidlington, except it’s a very long journey between Chipping Norton and Kidlington. The worst thing is it won’t be open until April next year, and that looks doubtful as they haven’t got planning permission and they haven’t put the contract out to tender. The chances are there will be no recycling in the area for six months.” She said residents faced the round-trip of up to 36 miles, compared to four miles.

In a separate move, West Oxfordshire District Council has agreed to look at creating a recycling centre on its land in Greystones, in Burford Road, Chipping Norton. The council would have to submit a planning application, and if approved, say it could open this autumn.

Ms Leffman said: “On the whole we would welcome this plan as an alternative to having to travel to other sites across the county. However, if the idea is to close Dean Pit and move it three miles up the road, then that would be a poor deal for local taxpayers, and we will continue to campaign for Dean Pit to stay open.”

A county council spokesman said Dean Pit would close at the end of September as part of the new household waste recycling centre strategy. “If WODC open their own recycling centre, this could be an effective replacement which is closer to a local centre of population.”

 

Immigration raid at Cafe le Raj

SIX people were arrested in immigration raids in West Oxfordshire last night. Four Bangladeshi men were arrested at Café Le Raj in Horsefair, Chipping Norton, two for overstaying visas and two for entering the country illegally. Two Bangladeshi men were arrested at the Jaan in Oxford Street, Woodstock, one for overstaying his visa and the other for entering the UK illegally. The UK Border Agency said a third man was found to be working illegally but was not arrested as he has an outstanding application lodged with the Home Office.

Others were arrested in related operations in Henley and Twickenham at the same time as the Oxfordshire raids, 6.30pm on Thursday. Three men were arrested for at Cafe Le Raj in Henley and six were arrested at Twickenham Tandoori.

The agency said all restaurants were believed to be linked through their ownership and owners could be fined up to £10,000 for each employee arrested. Those arrested in Chipping Norton and Woodstock are in detention pending their removal from the UK. Their employers have a right to show whether right-to-work checks were carried out.

 

Chippy woman fights for life after three-car crash

A woman from Chippy was fighting for her life last night after being cut from the wreckage of her car. The woman was airlifted to hospital with life-threatening injuries yesterday after a crash between three cars. Emergency crews were called to the collision on the A361 near Chipping Norton shortly before 8am. The woman was driving a silver Daihatsu, which was involved in a collision near the B4026 with a blue Renault Clio and red Ford Fiesta. She was cut from the car and airlifted to the John Radcliffe Hospital to be treated for serious head, chest and leg injuries. Police described her condition last night as “critical”. Two other people were taken to the Horton Hospital in Banbury by ambulance. Their injuries were believed to be minor. Fireman Malcolm Jones, who attended the incident, said: “The force of the impact had significantly deformed the vehicle and crews worked in unison to release the casualty who was quickly removed and conveyed to hospital.” The road was closed for five hours while investigations were carried out and debris removed.

Tuesday 26th July Update  A woman left with severe head injuries in a horrific three-car crash on the A361 last week remained last night in a critical condition at the John Radcliffe Hospital’s neurological unit. The woman, who has not been named, was airlifted to hospital on Thursday morning, after the silver Daihatsu she was driving was involved in a collision with a blue Renault Clio and red Ford Fiesta close to the junction with the B4026. A Thames Valley Police spokesman said the woman remained in intensive care and her family was maintaining a bedside vigil.


 

WODC DUMP ON CHIPPY YET AGAIN
 

Despite all the denials we have received that WODC were planning to use Greystones as a waste dump, it all turns out to be true after all. Tory toff Lord Chadlington has spent a fortune on research and a PR campaign to close Dean Pit. Now we are suffering the consequences. The Rugby Club, the Chippy Swifts, The Bowls Club are to get a huge rubbish dump as a neighbour - just as some of us predicted. At today's Cabinet the following proposal was put forward....

RECOMMENDATION

(a) That approval is given to enable the submission of a planning application for the development of a household waste recycling centre at Greystones, Chipping Norton;

(b) That authority be granted to spend up to £10,000 on the appointment of a planning agent, if necessary, to be financed from existing WPEG grant funding; and

(c) That a further detailed report be brought back to Cabinet setting out the options for the site and the business case.

BACKGROUND

1. Greystones depot sits beside the A361 on the Chipping Norton to Burford road. It ceased being used as an operational depot in the 1980s. There are five building units on  site and currently only one is let. This results in an income of around £3000 per year.

2. It is intended to relocate a small street cleansing operation currently occupying a building in Albion Street into one of the units. Even with this the site will have a significant amount of unused capacity.

3. Oxfordshire County Council is closing a household waste recycling centre in nearby Dean (Dean Pit) on 30 September. The creation of an alternative site would provide an alternative for the local community. Oxfordshire County Council’s Waste Management team are supportive of this proposal.

4. Cabinet is requested to note that a fuller report on options for the Greystone site will be submitted to a future meeting, as reflected in the Cabinet Work Programme. The purpose of this report is solely to enable preparatory work to be undertaken so that in the event of a decision to pursue the use as a household waste recycling centre then the scheme could be progressed without undue delay.

The Editor comments: Users of the Sports grounds will - with every justification - be up in arms about regular traffic along the access road - a constant stream of cars and HGVs

This will make the sale of Greystones House impossible. I hope the Town Council is getting a claim for compensation prepared

I hope our District Councillors kicked up a stink at the Cabinet meeting. Everybody should ask Annie what she had to say on our behalf.

Has anyone told Mr Clarkson about this ? He is going to have a great view of the dump from his terrace. Not sure what his mates in the Chipping Norton Set will think about that. Perhaps he will agree to be Patron of the newly-formed "No Rubbish at Greystones Action Group" (NORGAG)

Thursday am: The plot gets thicker and dirtier. Apparently this was a late addition to the agenda. The proposal was e-mailed to councillors at 9.30 am on Wednesday morning. THIS MUST BE AGAINST PROCEDURAL RULES. At least one District Councillor from Chippy was not even aware it was being discussed. In the discussion the petition organised against the closure of Dean Pit was used as evidence that the people of Chippy were very unhappy with the closure and were demanding a replacement facility. This all beggars belief.  God knows what WODC think they are doing to this town. The Mayor needs to get a strong protest into his chum Barry PDQ. But that would probably mean that he wouldn't be invited to Lord Chadlington's next garden party (For new readers information. Lord Chadlington is the owner of Dean Manor. He is also the President of the West Oxfordshire Conservative Association. He commissioned a PR campaign and some research to persuade WODC and OCC that Dean Pit should be closed. The Prime Minister also has a house in Dean. Lets hope there nave not been any "inappropriate" conversations between council officials and prominent Dean residents)

 

 

Summer Open Evening

Ball Colegrave is the leading supplier of bedding and pot plants to the professional horticultural industry.   The Summer Open Evening is being held on Wednesday 27 July and this is the only date this year that the grounds will be open to the public.   Visitors are welcome to view the spectacular trial grounds, colourful gardens, patio displays and possibly the largest display of hanging baskets and containers at their leisure from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.   You will also have the chance to see the 8 acre display of horticultural delights and to preview the new plant varieties that will be available in garden centres from Spring 2012.  Tickets cost £2.00 with children under the age of twelve admitted free.   A contribution from the admission fees will be made to our local hospice, Katharine House, and the David Colegrave Foundation. Light refreshments provided by an outside caterer will be available for purchase, but you are welcome to bring your own food and drink if you prefer.   Contact Sharon on 01295 814 702 for more details.   info@ballcolegrave.com

Ball Colegrave Ltd  Milton Road  West Adderbury Banbury  OX17 3EY

 

Conmen preying on Oxfordshire’s elderly  hit record levels

REPORTS of conmen preying on Oxfordshire’s elderly and vulnerable have hit record levels, it emerged last night. Rogue trader teams were inundated with more than 500 scams last year, almost three times the number of reports compared to four years ago.

The Oxford Mail has learnt organised gangs have conned victims out of £816,456 in the 12 months to April this year. In 2007, there were only 182 reports of scams, compared to 524 in 2010/11. Deputy chief executive of Age UK Oxfordshire Penny Thewlis said rising cases of doorstep crime was worrying.  She said: “Rogue traders pose a persistent threat to older people, and this significant rise in doorstep crime rates is a real cause for concern. However, we believe older people can protect themselves from scams if they have the right information and advice. Do not be pressured into making any payments, particularly in cash, or signing any documents until you have had a chance to think about it, or discuss it with family or friends. Do not let yourself be rushed and do not be afraid to ask a salesperson to leave. If they refuse, call the police.”

ROGUE traders who conned pensioners out of more than £800,000 were jailed for seven years, following trading standards investigations.

In May 2010, Scott Jackson and Mark Shepherd were jailed after targeting an elderly academic and a dementia sufferer in Oxford in a three-year scam. In March 2004, they told 85-year-old dementia sufferer Mary Turpin that one of her chimneys was tilting and some roof tiles needed replacing at her North Oxford home. Jackson, of Willow Street, Leicester, and Shepherd, of The Beeches Caravan Site, Chipping Norton, repeatedly told the former Oxford High School teacher that the house required maintenance work. Over 15 months she paid them a total of £364,906 for work which should have cost just £30,000.

The following year, the conmen targeted 81-year-old retired Oxford University academic Dr Francis Marriott, who lived in Botley. Dr Marriott paid out £506,880 for building work, which was later assessed as being worth no more than £55,000. Shepherd was jailed for four-and-a-half years after admitting fraud, obtaining property by deception, two charges of obtaining money transfer by deception, and attempting to obtain property by deception. Jackson received a two-and-a-half year sentence after admitting two counts of obtaining money transfer by deception and a charge of attempting to obtain property by deception.

 

Letter from Simon Kelner
Editor-in-Chief of The Independent

Any morning now, we're going to wake up to the following news story: "The phone-hacking scandal has claimed its highest-profile victim yet with the shock news that God has decided to resign."

"In a televised statement, God said that after hundreds, if not thousands, of years in which his integrity has not been questioned, the latest revelations have made it impossible for Him to continue His work without the distraction of being dragged into the ongoing investigation. If Rupert Murdoch is ultimately responsible for the hacking scandal, said God, then someone has to take responsibility for Mr Murdoch, and that has to be me. I have always known that the buck stops here. Sources close to God say that He was particularly upset that the town of Chipping Norton (people who live there regard Oxfordshire as "God's own county") has been dragged into the scandal. He has always been rather partial to "Chippy", as He calls it, and regards it as a model for the English market town rather than as a byword for scandal, privilege and entitlement. I take responsibility, He added, for creating a landscape so alluring, yet so close to both London and Daylesford Organics, that it was inevitably going to be attractive to media types who have nothing more on their minds than a little light networking over the weekend. Visibly moved during his resignation address, God said that, having withstood the adverse publicity of wars, famines, floods and earthquakes, He found it baffling that a scandal which hadn't caused death and destruction, and in which nobody was rendered homeless, should bring about His downfall. His friends claim that He feels let down by his public relations advisers. One said that He is particularly angry that the Archbishop of Canterbury has been absent from the airwaves, given his usual readiness to comment on any subject in the news. God concluded His address by pointing to some of His recent achievements - like the victory for goodness on The Apprentice, and the 93rd birthday of Nelson Mandela - and simply added that He wished His successor well..." And now back to John Humphrys, who's interviewing Theresa May.

 

Chipping Norton hacked off with link to scandal

THE real Chipping Norton set is standing up to be counted after becoming fed up the town’s name being linked to the News of the World phone-hacking scandal. Residents fear the town’s reputation is being tarred because of the links to the area of the so-called “Chipping Norton set”. The group of friends is made up of key movers and shakers, including Prime Minister David Cameron, who is the town’s MP, former newspaper executive Rebekah Brooks and News Corporation boss Rupert Murdoch’s daughter Elisabeth.

Chipping Norton resident Keith Ruddle, 61, (pictured left) a member of the team of volunteers who produce the Chipping Norton News newsletter, said: “There has been obviously a lot of press about the Chipping Norton set and I think a lot of people in the town get a bit cheesed off to be honest. Chipping Norton itself is a working Cotswold town with a lot of history and heritage. A lot of the attention has been around a small number of individuals who don’t actually live in Chipping Norton, they live out in the sticks.”

Former town councillor Gerry Alcock has also become increasingly annoyed with the link to coverage of the hacking scandal. He added: “I think it’s a terrible shame that these spivs have brought the town’s name into disrepute. It’s appalling. They have got nothing to do with the town and the town has got nothing to do with them.”

Mayor Chris Butterworth added: “The residents and town council, and the people who work in Chipping Norton, are the real Chipping Norton set.”

Mr Ruddle yesterday offered Mrs Brooks a job at the newsletter after she resigned as chief executive of News International on Friday. Chipping Norton News is published monthly by a 20-strong team of volunteers and has a circulation of about 2,000. Dr Ruddle said the experience would help the former editor of The Sun and News of the World “get back to the basics” of journalism.

 

Girl Guides Brownies and Rainbows  end their year with a party



Celine Johnson ( Left)  presented with her girl guide badges.

Girl Guides Brownies and Rainbows  with their team leaders at the end of year BBQ and swim at the lido.

Pictures by Joe Johnson
 

 

"The music has been good all day. quality and variety."
"It was a great atmosphere on a lovely sunny day.
Lots of food and drink and people relaxing in the sun".

    



(Thanks to Glyn Watkins for the pics)

 

Phone-hacking connection is Chipping Norton's unwanted claim to fame

Graeme Garden and other residents say they would prefer it was on the map for reasons other than 'sleazy journalism'


Photograph: Sam Frost for the Guardian

As the strains from the Chipping Norton Silver Band faded away, the writer and comedian Graeme Garden leapt on to the stage. "So, what do we think of being associated with the Chipping Norton set?" joked the Radio 4 panellist and founder member of The Goodies. The crowd, gathered for the town's festival, looked rather bemused. "In favour?" asked Garden, the master of ceremonies. A couple of muted cheers. "Against?" Even feebler boos. Indifferent, it seemed, was the answer from the hundreds gathered in the market square to celebrate their community. Last week's tumultuous developments in the phone-hacking scandal have put this West Oxfordshire market town firmly on the political map. In the scenic countryside that surrounds the town resides a powerful political and media elite. Dinner and garden parties bring together neighbours such as the prime minister, David Cameron, whose constituency home is just four miles from that of Rebekah Brooks, the beleaguered chief executive of News International.

Ten minutes' drive away live Matthew Freud, the PR guru, and his wife Elisabeth, daughter of Rupert Murdoch. At the heart of the Chipping Norton set, their influence is immense. But, until the recent News of the World drama turned a harsh spotlight on this Cotswold coterie, Chipping Norton seemed blissfully unaware it was at the centre of much intrigue.

"I can think of more acceptable reasons for Chipping Norton to be put on the map, rather than through any association with sleazy journalism," said Garden, who has lived here for 30 years. "But Chipping Norton will get over it. I speak as one not invited to any of the powerful parties. Not one of the set. None of them are here, are they?" he said, casting an eye over the crowds sitting on straw bales and wandering through the numerous fund-raising stalls as local musicians performed, "Do you think they will turn up?"

Before this week, few in Chipping Norton knew their neighbours included the striking, flame-haired Brooks, former editor of both the News of the World and the Sun. She lives two miles from the town, in a luxury barn conversion, with her second husband, Old Etonian Charlie Brooks, the former jockey, horse trainer and now thriller writer. It was at their home that Cameron was guest at a Christmas get-together that included James Murdoch, chairman of News Corp. A full guest list has never been disclosed, despite numerous inquiries by the Guardian after it discovered the dinner took place. That discovery came just after Vince Cable, the business secretary and no fan of Rupert Murdoch's, was relieved of his responsibilities to decide on Murdoch's attempt to take full control of BSkyB.  Brooks, it would appear, is rarely, if ever, spied shopping on Chipping Norton's picturesque but modest high street. This week, with her photograph gracing every front page the good folk of Chipping Norton certainly all now know of her.

"We would prefer to be put on the map for more positive things," sighed Chris Butterworth, the town's mayor, wandering round the raffle and cake stalls. I don't really know what the Chipping Norton set is. We're not part of it anyway," joked the Conservative councillor. "I am sure it is just an informal thing. I don't think it is sinister in any way."

His wife, Sue, the mayoress, believed it had all been taken out of context. "Surely people are allowed to have supper at Christmas with their neighbours" she said. Neither had seen Brooks in town. "I don't think many people knew she even lived here until all of this," said the mayoress. "Such a lot has been made of the celebrity factor. But we have a lot of well-known people in the area … because it is a beautiful place, and people are allowed to get on with things."

One of the better-known personalities living nearby is Jeremy Clarkson, the Top Gear presenter and Sun columnist. It was at his Chipping Norton home that Brooks met her second husband, Charlie, an old pal of Cameron's. The prime minister even turned up for the launch of his latest thriller, Citizen. Cameron's close social links with the "set" are further evidenced, reportedly, by his willingness to appear as Top Gear's The Stig in a video tribute at Clarkson's 50th birthday party. The prime minister has also been known to go riding with Brooks.

The leafy lanes around the town are also home to Charles Dunstone, the Carphone Warehouse boss, Alex James, the Blur bassist, and the millionaire property developer Tony Gallagher who bought his 17th century estate from the Tory-turned Labour former minister Sean Woodward. Cameron's aide Steve Hilton lives nearby in a barn conversion in Burford.

At the local Chequers pub, David Hawker, local resident and constituent, believes the prime minister might want to put some distance between himself and the set. "It's not ideal for the PM. He's a good chap in my view. But, as things have turned out, he will want to distance himself in order to be seen to be impartial." But other are less tolerant and are annoyed at the way their town has acquired recent fame. "Chipping Norton has been on the map for a lot better things throughout history," said Don Davidson, an independent councillor, former town mayor and one of the festival organisers. It should be known for what we are seeing here today. Real community spirit. Rather than for the outrageous things that have been taking place at Wapping".

 

!0th July 9.41 am. Above the rooftops of Chippy

Thanks to Heather Hayes from Bliss Mill for the photo

 

Parish councils are to be given sweeping new powers to run their local neighbourhoods - including licensing pubs and bringing in parking schemes

Parish councils are to be given sweeping new powers to run their local neighbourhoods - including licensing pubs and bringing in parking schemes. Local communities will also be able to operate libraries, museums and even deal with low-level anti-social behaviour under “power to the people” plans to be announced on Monday. The Sunday Telegraph understands that the driving force behind the coalition’s flagship public services white paper will be new moves towards “localism” and away from top-down “Whitehall knows best” approach. Senior government courses say this will mean devolving powers as far down as possible - to small neighbourhood bodies such as parish councils and their equivalents.
Currently parish and town councils deal only with such minor issues as allotments, public toilets, pathways, village halls and litter.

However, the white paper will propose a big extension of their powers which would effectively see small groups of local residents take over responsibilities which are now held by larger bodies such as town halls and county councils. They could rule on licensing hours for pubs and clubs, bring in new traffic restrictions in towns and villages, including speed limits, and run parks and leisure facilities.

A coalition source said: “We want people to be given the green light to take over local services to ensure they are run by the local community, for the local community. We need to end once and for all this way of making decisions from the top down and assuming that Whitehall or county councils know what best suits individual neighbourhoods. Parish councils can do all that.”

Ministers say the proposals will build on plans already announced to let neighbourhoods take charge of planning - with residents given the chance to approve or reject neighbourhood plans in local referendums.

The white paper will also commit ministers to investigating ways of making it easier for groups of people to band together to run local services. It will propose allowing individuals to be given cash budgets by the government to buy services for themselves rather than being dictated to by local authorities in several key areas including treatment for the elderly and those with long-term health conditions, ad the parents of special-needs children.
 

BRING IT ON!
 

 

 

How Ronnie Barker swapped comedy for antiques

IT WOULD be difficult to imagine Russell Brand or Ricky Gervais taking a break from stardom to stand behind the counter of an antiques shop in deepest West Oxfordshire. But that is what comedy legend Ronnie Barker chose to do after deciding he had had enough of television comedy, which he considered increasingly vulgar. Bad language and gags about bodily functions were repugnant to this national icon. And after creating and writing so many jokes and sketches, and appearing in such massively successful shows as Porridge, The Two Ronnies and Open All Hours, Mr Barker had also come to believe his own well of humour was drying up. “I’d run out of ideas, and to be honest, I’d done everything I wanted to do. And I’m sorry to say the material coming through wasn’t such good quality,” he reflected, when asked why he had withdrawn at the height of his fame. He had settled in the small west Oxfordshire village of Dean, the perfect home for a man determined to disappear off the professional radar. He would also realise one of his few unfulfilled ambitions, to run his own antiques shop.

He opened it in Chipping Norton’s High Street, christening it The Emporium. In many ways it was really just an extension of his hobby of collecting antiques, memorabilia and Victoriana. It was said his postcard collection alone extended to 53,000 items. The story of his search for peace in the tranquillity of the Oxfordshire countryside, before his death, aged 76, in Katharine House Hospice in Adderbury in 2005, is touchingly told in the biography Remembering Ronnie Barker, published in paperback this month. Author Richard Webber spent months tracing Mr Barker’s old school friends at the City of Oxford High School and people who remembered his early acting career.

Once the star unwittingly bought an antique cabinet from a man who turned out to be a convict. “The crook was apparently dressed in his blue prison uniform and home on leave when he duped Barker into buying the item, which resulted in Ronnie being questioned by police and released without charge.” Then there was the time when the shop was visited by two under-cover Sun reporters, who offered Mr Barker a silver salver, which had been valued at about £1,000 by a leading auction house. When he offered them £20, the Sun ran a story highlighting the difference between its value and Mr Barker’s low offer. The little shop run with his wife Joy, who died last year, closed in 1999. Troubled with diabetes and heart disease, toward the end he would put off seeing friends because he did not want them to see his weight loss.

But Prof Ronald Spiers, who retired to Chipping Norton, recalls seeing Mr Barker at the local branch of Barclays just months before he died. He said: “I remember waiting in a queue when Ronnie came out from an office with a young attractive manageress, who had a bundle of files under her arm. She was leading the way and turned to Ronnie saying, ‘ I’m afraid this is something we’ll have to go upstairs for.’ Ronnie replied, ‘Oh, it’s a long time since anyone said that to me’.” The whole bank queue erupted, little suspecting they may well have witnessed the great Ronnie Barker’s final performance.

 

What a bloody cheek!

COMMUNITIES should consider buying their own road salt to combat snow and ice, according to Oxfordshire’s deputy chief fire officer. Colin Thomas told a review into planning for severe winter weather that bags of salt could be stockpiled by communities for use in case delivery lorries could not get through.

Oxfordshire County Council also pledged to have more staff available to answer calls for assistance and to work more closely with the Highways Agency to keep major roads open. Mr Thomas said there was a “potential for communities to stockpile more salt, but at their expense”. He told councillors looking into the authority’s preparations for wintry weather: “The idea [is] to enhance that community’s resilience. If the network is jammed, getting salt out is difficult.” The authority has already said it has no plans to provide more roadside salt bins.

Spokesman Owen Morton said: “We’re currently reviewing how we manage these grit bins, with the aim of providing a more reliable resource for use by local communities.” He added: “There’s nothing stopping local communities and parish councils from stockpiling additional salt to fill these bins, at their own expense, to ensure they are better replenished.

Summertown Liberal Democrat councillor John Goddard told the Oxford Mail: “The availability of more grit is welcome. Having to pay for it is not. If grit is needed, then it should be provided by the county council. We all pay our council tax.”

 

Alice Powell credits Oxfordshire for motorsport career

Renault UK driver Alice Powell says living in Oxfordshire has helped her to progress in her motorsport career. Williams, Renault and rally specialists Prodrive are all based in the county, and Powell, from Chipping Norton, trains at Renault in Kidlington. "I'm near Renault and Silverstone is just up the road, so I'm really lucky as it's definitely helped me in my career," she told BBC Oxford.Living here definitely has advantages, it's easier to make contacts."

The 18-year-old added: "I'm quite lucky to be able to train at Renault, training there with F1 trainers and making good contacts is fantastic. It's a great help to use their equipment too, so it's definitely a big plus." Powell is the only woman competing in the Renault UK championship this season and believes the sport needs more female drivers. The sport just needs a female role model to be successful so more women can come and join in," she said. We have got more people coming through like Danica Patrick and Pippa Mann, so people like that can open door for other females. Obviously being the only girl gets good attention because you're a woman in a man's world, but you still have to prove yourself.People outside will says 'she's just a girl,' but I proved by winning the BARC last year that it's not just a man's sport."

 

How Hilary has fought for the Youth Centre

"Localism" and the "BIG Society" are the new buzz words. When OCC decided to cut youth service funding in Chippy it looked certain that the new Youth Centre under construction would turn out to be a white elephant. Hilary Biles stepped in and made a personal commitment to find a way of using the facility - with volunteers, fund-raising, sponsorship, and renting rooms to third parties. It looks as if she will succeed. Anyway Hilary has so impressed the top brass at the County Council and they are so proud of her that they submitted a Report about her project to the recent Local Government Association Conference. (As you read this remember that this is the same lady who was sacked by Barry Norton from the WODC Cabinet for fighting to protect from cuts a crucial fund to help maintain community halls in the District). Here's the County Council report.

Chipping Norton Youth Centre

Chipping Norton is a town of approximately 6,000, 17 miles north of Oxford. In 2010 a successful bid was made to Partnership for Schools to co-locate Chipping Norton Young People’s Centre and the County Council’s Adult Learning Centre in brand new premises. Subsequently, in the face of financial pressures, Oxfordshire County Council redesigned the delivery of services for young people and in Chipping Norton council youth provision was withdrawn. This decision not only threatened the ongoing delivery of youth services but also made the County Council potentially liable for £800k if the building was not completed or used for the original purposes.

The response of the local councillor, Cllr Hilary Hibbert-Biles, Conservative (pictured left), was to take on personal responsibility for ensuring that the building would be completed on time and that ongoing management and operation would be community-led. The scale and complexity of this project meant that a successful outcome was far from certain and the visibility of Cllr Hibbert-Biles leadership meant that failure would be personal. Indeed at many points along the journey failure seemed the most likely outcome.

Officers struggled to make the shift from requirements for a council-owned and run building to one that is community-led. This particularly applied to the Council’s Adult Learning service, that took time to understand the difference between sub-leasing from the new management committee rather than being responsible for the operation of the centre. Faced with delays caused by Oxfordshire’s normal working practices but which threatened the building being completed and opened on schedule, Cllr Hibbert-Biles escalated issues to senior officers, Cabinet members and the Leader.

As officers began to shift to make the necessary changes to processes and policies, Cllr Hibbert-Biles spent much of her time communicating with members of the community managing expectations, explaining delays and maintaining the necessary support. Using her local knowledge and networks she brought together District and Town councillors, the local Police, school, church and others to form a management committee.

The building is now on track to open on schedule in September 2011 with a community-led management committee and an application has been submitted to Oxfordshire’s Big Society Fund to support the first year of operation after which point the centre will become self-financing.

Key learning:
There are many lessons that can be drawn from Cllr Hibbert-Biles work in Chipping Norton not least that vision and tenacity are necessary attributes for the councillor as social entrepreneur. What strikes most forcefully, though, was the scale and complexity of the project and the personal and political risks associated with failure. In a non-localist world, Chipping Norton would simply have had to accept that its new facility was not going to be built. In Oxfordshire, a council determined to support local councillors and the communities they serve to take on a greater role in the design and delivery of services, there was the opportunity to save the centre. To make good on this opportunity though Cllr Hibbert-Biles had to assume visible local leadership. These kinds of opportunities, and the risks associated with them, are a corollary of localism. Whether or not to take them on, and how to make a success of them if they do, are challenges that will increasingly face councillors as social entrepreneurs.

 

Chipping Norton 'one of safest places to live in country'

CHIPPING Norton is one of the safest places to live in England and Wales, according to chief inspector Colin Paine (pictured left). He told members of the town council at a meeting last week that maintaining the very low level of crime was quite a challenge because one or two incidents could significantly push up the percentages.

The West Oxfordshire police chief, who took up his post in April, said: “Policing will be dealt with in a robust way. I want officers to be friendly and approachable and have good relationships with the community, but crime must also be dealt with quickly before evidence and witnesses start to disappear.” Crime figures for burglary throughout West Oxfordshire rose significantly in the 12 months to April 2011 but recently, because of cross border co-operation and following a number of arrests, he said the level had now fallen again.

After the meeting the chief inspector spoke of the effects of the budgets cuts imposed by Government because of the national economic crisis. He said Thames Valley Police was being forced to make savings of £55 million over four years. The overwhelming majority of the savings is coming from the restructuring process, which has saved £16m already.” More savings, he said, were being made by forces sharing services, such as IT departments. The good news is that the number of frontline officers has been maintained.”

Chf Insp Paine said he could not guarantee the situation would not change in the coming years and that some reductions in police officers could occur.

The webmaster writes: This  isn't what the Police were telling us when they wanted the town to spend £16,000 a year on closed circuit TV cameras in the town centre!!

 

Fight to save Dean Pit  has 1,000 backers

MORE than 1,000 signatures have been gathered by campaigners against the closure of a household waste recycling site. Chipping Norton town councillors are backing the bid to urge county councillors to think again over the closure of Dene Recycling Centre, near Charlbury. Town councillor Eve Coles said: “We are strongly against the proposal to close Dene Pit. We want the county to reconsider its decision. I have already got plenty of signatures to hand in to the council offices next month.”

Spearheading the campaign is Liz Leffman. She said: “We fear that closing Dean Pit will encourage fly-tipping and generate more traffic on the roads travelling greater distances to the next facility.” Dene Recycling Centre is set to close in September but campaigners are to present county councillors with their petition at the next full council meeting on July 28

The picture shows Liz Leffman who is a LibDem campaigning for Chippy Hospital a couple of years ago

 

When landscape gardener and Daily Telegraph reader Robert Caswell won a place on a STIHL Experience Day and was asked to test out STIHL’s KombiSystem range of garden equipment, he couldn’t believe his luck. Robert and and his business partner son, Mark, already use some STIHL tools for their family garden and their work, but they were particularly interested in STIHL’s ingenious KombiSystem range. One of five powerful petrol KombiEngines can be used with any of the 12 easy to attach KombiTools, including hedge trimmers, a pole pruner, grass trimmers, and bristle brush.
 
“We were delighted to be asked to test the KombiSystem because of its versatility and the large range of attachments available,” said Robert, 55, who lives in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire. One of our vehicles is a small van and because you can break the KombiTools down into a small length and an engine, it’s ideal for us. Now we’re planning on buying more of the tools to use with it.”
 
Robert has found the leaf blower particularly useful: “It’s quite a big piece of kit, and while most are hand-held, the KombiTool blower’s shoulder strap makes it more comfortable to use and more powerful than others,” he said. We also wanted the brushcutter and chose the one with a blade and not a trimmer line because it gets through thick weeds like cow parsley, thistles and docks.” Next Robert wants to buy the pick tine for digging over flower borders: “It is excellent because you can reach into the borders standing up, instead of having to get on your hands and knees,” he said.

Robert finds the STIHL equipment he already owns to be easy to use and hard wearing. “We’ve had tools for 15 years and they’re still going strong.” Because we use our equipment five or six days a week, it has got to be reliable.”

 

It’s two Goodies to be true for hospice

FAMOUS faces from the world of television and sport united at a charity cricket match in aid of Katharine House Hospice. Household names including Star Trek’s Sir Patrick Stewart and The Goodie’s Graham Garden and Tim Brooke-Taylor, came together for Sunday’s fundraising event at Enstone Cricket Club.

Villagers from Enstone, including Sir Patrick, took to the field representing the Katharine House Hospice team while their celebrity opponents made up the Goodies team.Sir Patrick said: “I’m sacrificing myself today for a good cause, but as someone who was born not far from the birthplace of [former Yorkshire and England cricketer] Geoffrey Boycott I’m hoping something will have rubbed off.” Excluding Sir Patrick, the Katharine House Hospice team was made up of members of the Enstone Cricket Club, while the Goodies welcomed the experience of former England cricketers Neal Radford, Neil Smith and Devon Malcolm.They were joined by soap actors including Ryan Philpott (Eastenders), Charlie Dale (Coronation Street) and Richard Avery (Emmerdale) and presenter Jonnie Irwin of A Place In The Sun – Home And Away.

“It’s an absolute privilege to play this kind of game of cricket, but to have any sort of contribution towards a hospice is an honour beyond words because it’s something I feel very strongly about,” said Mr Irwin. If us coming here and having a great day of cricket benefits others than we are very lucky.”

The match was organised by the Lord’s Taverners, which was founded for avid cricket followers to encourage the participation of disabled and disadvantaged people in a wide range of sports. Mr Brooke-Taylor and Mr Garden did not take part in the match, but took to the sidelines to cheer on the teams. Mr Garden said: “As an Enstone man I have got split loyalties with my team of the celebrities playing against my home team of Enstone. The match, which was won by the Goodies, was preceded by a marquee lunch and followed by a charity auction with lots including a 2005 signed Chelsea shirt. To date, £3,000 has been raised from the event to support the work of Katharine House Hospice.

Chairman Neil Gadsby said: “This has been an absolutely wonderful day from the Lord’s Taverners and local people. It’s another example of people who step forward with fantastic fundraising ideas, not just from time to time, but on a regular basis to keep the hospice going.”

 

 

Claire wins National Time Trial

Claire Sadler (38), from Wilcox Road Chipping Norton, represented Thames Valley Police in the Emergency Services National Cycling Time Trial Championships, held in Yarm, Cleveland on 25th & 26th June.  Claire won both the ladies 10 mile time trial and the 25 mile time trial in fairly windy conditions with a time of 25:25 for the 10 mile event and 1:02:52 for the 25 mile event.  Claire who works in IT Training for Thames Valley Police, was delighted with her wins.

 

Cameron protege loses his figures

BEDBLOCKING in Oxfordshire’s hospitals has got drastically worse in the past six months, new figures show. The Department of Health figures put the number of patients who were well enough to go home but couldn’t because the correct care was not in place for them, at 129 on one day in May – up from 89 in December. The figures showed the number of days people were stuck in hospital was 4,012 days last month, compared to 3,077 days six months previously.

Yet Arash Fatemian, (pictured above) the county councillor responsible for social care, who six months ago pledged an improvement, disputed that bedblocking was getting worse in the county. He told the Oxford Mail last night there had been a ‘downward trend’ in the number of people according to internal Oxfordshire County Council figures, but a power cut that hit the city yesterday meant he could not produce them

Webmaster adds: Arash was elected to the County Council in June 2009. His website says: "Since April 2010 I have been the Executive member with responsibility for the Adult Social Care policy of a high profile, top-tier council at a time of fast-paced and radical national change" Less than a year to the cabinet. Election to Cabinet in nine months...What kind of fast track is this guy on? Lets hope he's up to the job. Did he get the vacancy on the Cabinet created by the dismissal of the outstanding Ian Hudspeth who had the audacity to challenge the Leader of the Council.

 

 

Christopher Shale, the Chairman of the Local Tories who sadly died at Glastonbury over the weekend said in his leaked report on the state of the Conservative party in West Oxfordshire: the local party appeared "graceless, voracious, crass, always on the take", and needed to radically change. Looks as if the Tories have lost someone who really knew what he was talking about!

Read the full report here: http://orderorder.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/davememo.pdf

 

 

A 19-year-old was cautioned for possession of a small quantity of cannabis after a raid in Horse Fair, Chipping Norton, on Wednesday 22nd June. He was also given a caution for handling stolen goods. Sgt Colin James, of Thames Valley Police said: “What this shows is that if people give us information they will see us act upon it.”

 

Vandalised. The Speed Camera on Worcester Road


Thanks to Kristel Withers for the pic.
 

 

A new map has been produced showing all the cycle, bus and train routes in west Oxfordshire. Councils, cycle groups and environmental organisations have come together to produce the map.

 


 

ONLY one problem as far as Chippy is concerned!!

Richard Fairhurst - webmaster of the Charlbury website and guru of all things bicycling writes:

The Oxford Mail are being a little creative in  describing it as covering "all the cycle, bus and train routes in west Oxfordshire". It doesn't and it was never meant to. It's actually the "A40 corridor map" - i.e. Witney, Carterton, Eynsham.
We put in Woodstock as well because there was a little spare space and
lots of people commute from there to Oxford by bike. The front cover
carefully says "Carterton, Eynsham, Witney and Woodstock" and not "West
Oxfordshire"! As you've observed on chippingnorton.net in the past, people don't generally commute from Chippy by bike - unlike the other four
settlements - so the same type of combined bus/train map wouldn't be
relevant. (There are, of course, already free bus maps for Chippy from
both OCC and Stagecoach.)
 
It didn't cost WODC anything - I did all the cartography for free, the
research was done by volunteers too, and we used the Ordnance Survey's
new royalty-free data for the basemap. We're now working on a leisure-focused cycling map for the whole
district which will include Chippy quite prominently - in fact, one of
the key people contributing to it is from Chippy.
 
cheers
Richard

 

David Cameron's neighbours vent anger at
pothole fix outside PM's country pad

DAVID Cameron’s ­neighbours are furious after the road outside his country pad was resurfaced while theirs is still blighted by potholes. Despite huge council ­cutbacks, workmen ­completely relaid the quiet country lane outside the PM’s £2million constituency home in ­Oxfordshire last week. But motorists on nearby roads have to make bone-jarring journeys on routes pock-marked with holes

Neighbours of the ­Camerons’ in the village of Dean, near Chipping Norton, say their roads now resemble “the surface of the moon”. Former school cook Jenny Bodman, who said ­Oxfordshire County Council had told residents it lacked funds, fumed: “It gets you niggled, we’d like answers.”  But the council insisted: “We respond to reports of potholes and generally go out and fix them daily. If you’re looking at ­favouritism to Mr Cameron, that’s not the case.”

What the Daily Mirror obviously didn't know was that there was a big summer bash at Dave's on Friday evening for local Tory bigwigs. Goodness knows what Cicely would have said if the road was in a mess. She obviously got Highways jumping.

 

 

 

Mo’s joy at Parkinson’s poetry prize

A 69-year-old grandmother-of-six has won a prestigious award for her poetry despite battling with Parkinson’s. Mo Browne of Chipping Norton scooped the London and the South of England People’s Choice prize in the 2011 Mervyn Peake Awards.

The awards are organised by Parkinson’s UK and judged by the Peake family, in memory of the late illustrator, writer and poet Mervyn Peake. They celebrate the creativity of people with Parkinson’s in art, poetry, photography and digital art. Mo’s winning poem Waltzing Dream is about a dream she had. She said: “It was a wonderful dream, waltzing with a particular person in a hotel foyer. My poem is about hope and the joy of life. I was delighted to get the award. This shows having Parkinson’s does not have to stand in the way of creativity.”

Mo was first diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2006 when she was working as a hospital secretary. Mo’s prize is to have her poem featured in the charity’s 2012 calendar.

 

 

 

Waltzing Dream

He draws her to him
  in the hotel foyer:
Gathering sheaves.
  Her left arm, bent,
lies on his right,
  elbow poised;
her fingers winter on
  his shoulder’s ledge.

She turns her face away,
  ballroom-dance style,
hand clasped in his:
  snail in its shell.
His pale skin is cool,
  woman-smooth.
He smells of sea-salt,
  roasted almonds.

Violins play
  pianissimo:
music of the spheres.
  Seven girls,
smiling, sit and watch
  from deep arm-chairs.
Wall-lamps fling up
  Vs of light.

He bends forward,
  scoops her close.
Breaking all rules,
  she looks at him,
then beyond at
  skeins of birds
flying mutely
  in distant skies.

They sway into a waltz,
  sweeping wide,
closing into gyres
  at the turns.
Shifting in the cradle
  of their arms,
They merge, become
  a double helix.

He slows the pace,
  leans towards her:
“Better! Its getting
  better and better!”
She says nothing
  but feels a surge
of joy she’s never
  known before.

Dreaming, she knows
  she’s in a dream.
Waking, she holds
  the story tight.

 

FORMER CHIPPING NORTON SCHOOL PUPILS TAKE ON
JAYBEE APPRENTICE ROLES

Two former Chipping Norton school pupils are proving that apprenticeships are still alive and well in the modern workplace after taking up roles at Jaybee Motors Renault in Banbury. Ryan Hanks, aged 17, recently started at Jaybee as a parts apprentice while fellow Chipping Norton School alumnus Michael Nurden, aged 20, also from Chipping Norton, has just started his first year as an apprentice technician in the service department. After leaving school,

Ryan worked for another dealership, but moved to Jaybee to start a three-year course with on-site training and classroom-based instruction. His current job sees him working with parts deliveries, sorting out stock and dealing directly with Renault customers. His colleague Michael left school and took up an apprenticeship in agricultural engineering but came to Jaybee on work experience and was offered a three-year training placement.

Colin Corne, Aftersales and Marketing Director at Jaybee Motors, said: “Staff training is a priority at Jaybee, and we see it as essential in ensuring that we offer our customers the very highest standards of customer care. Investing in apprentices’ training has brought enormous value to businesses such as ours by ensuring a high skill level, productivity and staff retention.”
Renault apprenticeships last three years and combine workshop experience at a Renault dealership with classroom training. he apprenticeship leads to a National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) Level Three technical certificate that is internationally recognised by the motor industry. For more information, visit Jaybee Motors at Oxford Road, Bodicote, call 01295 227100 or visit www.jaybee.co.uk or look for Jaybee on Facebook and Twitter

 

An appeal from Liz Leffman
who is organising the campaign against closing Dean Pit

Hi Gerry
We have a total of 1157 signatures on the Dean Pit petition so far, and 120 people have signed the petition on OCC's website.  A very large number of these are Chippy residents, so a big vote of thanks to you and Eve for this.
Now we want to get a letter-writing campaign up and running - the cabinet member for growth and infrastructure, Lorraine Lindsay-Gale, lives in Dorchester so has no experience of the impact that the closure may have on this area.  We need to tell her!  If as many people as possible send letters that will have a big impact and will support the petition when we present it. People can write to her by e mail at  lorraine.lindsay-gale@oxfordshire.gov.uk, or by mail at County Hall  New Road, Oxford OX1 1ND
 
If people write by e mail it would be helpful if they could copy me at lizleffman@clothesource.net so I know what has been sent   Many thanks for your help with this
 
Best regards
Liz  Leffman

 

So are  the surgeries moving or not??

The White House Surgery in Chipping Norton must move to meet present needs and future competition, according to doctors. Plans to demolish the surgery at White House and replace it with seven homes have been re-submitted to West Oxfordshire District Council because the plans were running out of time. The doctors were granted outline planning permission in 2006, but because of various setbacks, the detailed plans were never finalised. Now the applicants are going all out to get the plans submitted to health chiefs by September.

Practice manager Tony Love said: “The White House Surgery premises are no longer fit for purpose. We are unable to expand as we are surrounded by closed boundaries. We are restricted in offering new services as we do not have the room. A new surgery would provide a modern spacious establishment allowing the surgery to expand its services with improved access and parking. We would like to provide the town with the primary care facilities it deserves.” He said the planned re-location, within the grounds of the community hospital near Rock Hill, would strengthen the bond between the surgery and the hospital, and provide the hospital with close GP support. “It will provide the town with a flagship health campus,” Mr Love said. He said that the other surgery in the town, West Street, was in the same position, but by the time of going to press, there was no comment from doctors.

Chipping Norton mayor Christopher Butterworth said: “I think the general feeling is that if one surgery moved out of the town, it would not be too bad, but if both moved there would be some opposition.”

 

MAYOR TAKES UP A FIRM POSITION ABOUT SAINSBURY'S

Sainsbury’s has opened a public consultation inviting people to comment on early proposals to build a new store on the former Parker Knoll site in London Road. The proposals have been cautiously welcomed by Chipping Norton Town Mayor Chris Butterworth, who supported additional jobs for the town but questioned the use of the existing brownfield site. He said: “This is a sensitive issue with the school right next door, because with a large number of cars [visiting the shop] the traffic would be come a greater problem. The idea is to build a store which is 80 per cent food and 20 per cent non-food items. One of the main concerns of Chippy is that the 20 per cent of non-food sales could detract sales from the town centre. However we hope that people who come to do their shopping at the new site would then move down into the town centre and use the shops there. There is also the issue of the fact that originally the site was supposed to be for light industrial use. But of course we would welcome the addition of all these news jobs.”

 

Graeme Garden gets an OBE

Comedian Graeme Garden gave himself a gong in an episode of hit 1970s show The Goodies and now he has a real one. Mr Garden, 68, from Enstone, near Chipping Norton, now has an OBE, for services to light entertainment. He lives with his wife Emma and the couple have a son Tom, 26.

Mr Garden, who is in the middle of recording a new series of the Radio 4 show Sorry, I Haven’t A Clue, also has a son and a daughter from his first marriage. He said: “This is a great honour. When The Goodies was on, I awarded myself an OBE on one of the shows to tease Bill Oddie, who had been recognised for his wildlife work, so it’s great to finally get a real one.” Mr Garden, who suffered heart problems several years ago, gives talks to help fundraising efforts for the Oxford Heart Centre.

Pictured: Graeme supporting the hospital campaign in the town a couple of years back.

 

 

MATTHEW PRATLEY PUT AWAY FOR THREE YEARS

A “PARASITIC criminal” defrauded an 83-year-old Parkinson’s sufferer of thousands of pounds and stole cash from his own elderly relative. Matthew Pratley “deliberately targeted elderly, frail and vulnerable people” as he took about £7,000 from a retired Oxford University academic and then burgled his 84-year-old great aunt. The 38-year-old was jailed for three and a half years at Oxford Crown Court on Friday after earlier admitting fraud, theft and burglary. Pratley, from Chipping Norton, began work as an odd-job man at the Oxford home of Dr Francis Marriott in late 2009. Recorder Richard Hamlin said in December that year he told Dr Marriott “a bald lie” by claiming his girlfriend was ill and that he needed money to take her to hospital by taxi.

Dr Marriott, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s two years ago, handed over his debit card and PIN and between that date and its blockage by his bank on January 18, Pratley unlawfully withdrew up to £7,500. Pratley, who was a drug addict at the time, told police that his victim would let him use the card to pay for maintenance work and food, but he admitted withdrawing larger amounts than Dr Marriott had sanctioned. When the card was blocked, Pratley, who has 15 previous convictions, went round to his victim’s house and demanded a loan of £50 before he was scared off by neighbours.

Recorder Hamlin praised the “public-spirited” work of neighbours Ron and Hilda Cook. Having been arrested and bailed, Pratley then burgled £260 in cash from his great aunt Peg Clarke’s house in Chipping Norton. Pratley distracted the 84-year-old while his accomplice Gemma Boswell plucked the money from her handbag. She was jailed for two years at an earlier hearing. Recorder Hamlin said: “These are mean offences carried out against the frail and elderly and the sort of offences that cause great distress.” Outside court Pc Wayne Harvey described Pratley as “a mean-spirited, parasitic criminal who deliberately targeted elderly, frail and vulnerable people.”

 

 

 

Station Mill Antiques back up and running

THE owner of a Chipping Norton antique shop, gutted by fire last year, is delighted to be open again after a £300,000 refit. Station Mill Antiques in Chipping Norton has been given a new lease of life since fire ripped through the building last September. Ever since the blaze, caused by an electrical fault, owner Lesley Langer has been toiling to get her business back on track. She said: “It has been completely refurbished – new everything. A lot of dealers are coming back and we have also got some new ones. We have a new tea room and menu, and I am very excited to be opening again. It took several Cotswold fire crews to bring the fire under control at the time, and the blaze was so fierce that within 15 minutes flames could be seen shooting through the roof.”

 

TERRIFIC RESULT AT MARK JONES MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT

 

On Friday, 27th May, the Mark Jones Memorial Golf Tournament & Auction took place at the Chipping Norton Golf Club, Chipping Norton in aid of Pancreatic Cancer UK and the John Radcliffe Hospital (Oncology Unit).  It was a fantastic day and evening with 56 golfers and around 80 in attendance in the evening.  There was live entertainment, a great buffet and a fantastic raffle and Auction, raising almost £7000.00 for the evening plus we still have many items that came in late to the Auction that we are putting on Ebay, ie Chelsea Football Memorabilia, etc. that will bring in more money. 

 

Pat on the back for us all from WODC

West Oxfordshire has almost doubled its recycling rate over the last six months, with over 66% of the District’s waste now being recycled. Recycling has increased significantly month-on-month since the District Council introduced a new waste and recycling service at the end of November 2010, with latest whole-month figures for April showing that 66% of waste was diverted from landfill.  West Oxfordshire’s recycling rate stood at 34% before the service was launched.

Cllr David Harvey, West Oxfordshire District Council’s Cabinet Member for Environment, said: “The Council had hoped that the previous 34% recycling rate would be doubled within the first year of the new service. We knew that this was an ambitious and demanding target, so we are absolutely delighted that this has almost happened within the first few months. Residents in West Oxfordshire have responded extremely positively to the new service and we are very grateful to them – this impressive increase would not have been possible without their fantastic support. With a new service involving more than 45,000 households we have faced some teething problems. Although the service is not perfect yet, it is on the whole running smoothly and we hope to continue building on the success of recent months.”

The new service gives residents more opportunities to recycle and reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill. In addition to the long-term environmental benefits, it will also save the Council over £500,000 a year, which will help it to keep Council Tax bills low for residents. The service saw the introduction of weekly food waste recycling collections, continuation of weekly black box recycling collections and optional, free fortnightly garden waste collections, which have so far been taken up by more than 30,000 households. It also includes fortnightly household rubbish collections for non-recyclable items.

So far, 1,656 tonnes of food waste has been collected from homes in West Oxfordshire and recycled into electricity and fertiliser for farmland at a processing plant in Cassington, instead of sent to landfill, where it rots and produces the harmful greenhouse gas, methane. In addition to food and garden waste, residents are able to recycle a wide range of materials in their black boxes, including tins, foil, aerosols, plastics, paper, cardboard, glass, textiles, shoes and batteries.

Craig Cutajar, Contracts Manager for May Gurney, the Council’s waste and recycling contractor, said: “We’re very pleased to have helped with increasing recycling in West Oxfordshire and would like to thank local people for their support. We’ve started using vehicles with separate compartments for different materials to collect recycling and this means that more materials can be recycled.”

 

Man pulls out knife after theft

A SECURITY guard was threatened with a knife after a man and women shoplifted from a shop in Chipping Norton. The incident happened on Wednesday May 18 at about 5.50pm when they entered Boots in the High Street and stole perfume and aftershave testers from the display stand. The man is aged about 25, 6’, of slim build and had short spikey light brown hair and a pale complexion. He was wearing a green thigh-length jacket and dark blue jeans. The woman is of mixed race, 5’9 and about 25 years old, or large build with black staggly shoulder-length hair. She was wearing a green canvas bag, Anyone with information should call 08458 505 505 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

 

Conmen must pay back part of haul

ROGUE traders who conned pensioners out of more than £800,000 will have to pay back less than ten per cent of their ill-gotten gains. Scott Jackson of Willow Street, Leicester and Mark Shepherd of The Beeches Caravan Site, Chipping Norton (shown left) were jailed for seven years after targeting an elderly academic and a dementia sufferer in Oxford during the three year scam. Yesterday prosecutors and defence lawyers struck a deal at Oxford Crown Court which will see Shepherd pay back £50,000 and Jackson £25,000, plus his £5,000 gold watch to the victims.

Prosecutor Peter Coombe told the proceeds of crime hearing that Shepherd, 43, had benefited to the tune of £600,000 from the scam, with Jackson, 41, receiving £200,000. He said prosecutors wanted to get at least some of the money back for the victims as soon as possible. He said: “Both men have said in replies to the Crown that they have no funds.”

Juries in both of the men’s trials heard how the pair had befriended their victims while the scams were going on. In March 2004, the two men told 85-year-old dementia sufferer Mary Turpin one of her chimneys was tilting and some tiles needed replacing at her North Oxford home.

Jackson and Shepherd,  repeatedly told the former Oxford High School teacher that the house needed work doing to it. Over 15 months she paid them a total of £364,906 for work which should have cost just £30,000. The following year, the conmen targeted 81-year-old retired Oxford University academic Dr Francis Marriott, who lived in Botley. Dr Marriott forked out £506,880 for building work which was later assessed as being worth no more than £55,000.

Last May Shepherd was jailed for four-and-a-half years after admitting fraud, obtaining property by deception, two charges of obtaining money transfer by deception, and attempting to obtain property by deception between March 2004 and November 2008. Jackson received a two-and-a-half year sentence after pleading guilty to two counts of obtaining money transfer by deception and one charge of attempting to obtain property by deception.

Judge Patrick Eccles, who presided over both trials, yesterday agreed to the repayment package and set a date in December to see how much had been returned. If the two victims want to try to retrieve any more of their money, they will have to go through the civil courts.

 

WODC opposing possible BBC Oxford closure

Councillors in West Oxfordshire have unanimously agreed to write a letter in support of BBC Oxford after fears were raised about a reduction in local television news coverage and radio programming. The Council will send letters to the head of the local station, the Chairman and Director General of the BBC, expressing the Council’s strong opposition to reported restructuring plans by the corporation that may see its offices in Banbury Road, Oxford, closed and moved to Southampton.

Currently, the local television broadcast from the Oxford office is aired for 10 minutes as part of the BBC South Today programme at 6.30pm Monday to Thursday, with the rest of the programme coming from Southampton and covering a wider part of the region. The entire 6.30pm programme comes from Oxford on Fridays, along with the late-night daily bulletin at 10.25pm. It is reported that the move to Southampton would mean removal of the Oxford slot, with a large reduction in local staffing and the Oxford and District Branch of the National Union of Journalists warning that this would result in loss of local news coverage.

 

Twins are half way to their target

CHIPPING Norton twins Holly and Louisa Oliver-Hall have raised £900 towards their £2,000 target in aid of armed forces charities, Help for Heroes and Combat Stress. The 11-year-olds and their friend Imogen Carter, also 11, completed the 16-mile walk from Chippy to RAF Brize Norton earlier this month. The girls completed the walk, accompanied by family members, via Shipton-under-Wychwood and Burford, in just over five hours.

The youngsters from St Mary’s Primary School are now hoping that local firms will help them reach their £2,000 target. At Brize Norton, the girls were met by RAF representatives, Help for Heroes county co-ordinator Dave Lewis, St Mary’s School deputy head Marianne Ray and her husband Andy, who is a serving member of the RAF.

 

Keep Dean Pit Open!

Dean Pit recycling centre is an important facility for people living in Chipping Norton, Charlbury, Finstock and other nearby villages. Oxfordshire County Council has decided to close Dean Pit in September 2011, and to open a new facility in Kidlington in 2012. For people in the area, this will mean a minimum 40 minute round trip. We are asking the County Council to reconsider their decision.

Sign a petition online

The links are: 

http://mycouncil.oxfordshire.gov.uk/mgEPetitionDisplay.aspx?ID=38

http://www.witney-libdems.org.uk/en/petition/keep-dean-pit-open
 At this site people can download a petition form to collect signatures themselves.

 

Antiques centre rises from the ashes
by Tom Jennings

AN antiques centre in Chipping Norton has risen from the ashes and is set to reopen after a devastating fire. Station Mill Antiques Centre, Station Road, was gutted after an electrical fault in September last year. But, after a refit costing in excess of £300,000, the new-look centre will reopen on May 28. Owner Lesley Langer (pictured left in the new centre) said: “It has been hard work, but the centre is completely transformed. “The building is completely different now. The whole thing is new basically, the only remaining thing is the structure. She added: “We’re looking forward to opening very much. I am pleased that some of the older dealers are coming back. It is a real vote of confidence.”

It has a new tea room and toilet facilities, a new kitchen and the walls have been knocked through to create a more open space. The building houses antiques from more than 80 dealers and is one of the largest in the country. More than 70 per cent of the old dealers have returned and the centre only has two spaces left to rent out. But Mrs Langer said seeing the damage last September had been devastating. She said: “I arrived and there was a lot of damage. It was awful. All the staff came down as well and we were all very shocked. A lot of the people have been connected to the centre for 15 years and more, for them it is their lives and seeing it like that was very emotional.” And she admitted it had been touch and go as to whether the centre would even reopen. She said: “Until we found out exactly what happened and whether we would get paid out by the insurance company, it was very uncertain. A lot of people thought we would shut up shop, but we have not.”

It took seven crews to bring the fire under control, and it was so fierce that within 15 minutes flames could be seen pouring through the roof. About a third of the build and the roof were destroyed. But concrete walls and the quick response of the fire service meant most of the antiques were salvageable.

Station Mill Antiques Centre will reopen at 10am on May 28, and customers will be able to enter a prize draw to win vouchers.

 

Teen conned OAP over work

A CHIPPING NORTON teenager conned a 92-year-old woman out of £850 for work on her drive, then returned two months later to trick her into making out cheques for a further £1,400. But Warwick Crown Court heard that, thanks to the actions of a neighbour, the victim was able to stop the cheques before Stephen Kerry, who was 18 at the time of the offences, could cash them. The 21-year-old, of Beeches Mobile Home Park, Old London Road, Chipping Norton, admitted two charges of fraud. He was sentenced to six months in prison, suspended for two years, and ordered to do 120 hours of unpaid work and pay £850 compensation to his victim, who lives in Stratford-upon-Avon.

 

The Big Clean-up

Chipping Norton is a smarter town thanks to the efforts of nearly 90 people who spent yesterday working to improve the appearance of streets. Volunteers of all ages, including a group of Explorer Scouts, turned out to collect litter, clean road signs, clear rubbish from verges, weed pavement edges and tidy up the approaches to the town where signs were obscured by overhanging trees and vegetation. Over 50 bags of rubbish were collected by the team who were sustained by hot drinks and plenty of homemade cakes. T-shirts, hi-vis jackets and cleaning equipment were supplied and these costs were covered by a small grant from the Town Council plus sponsorship from The Phone Co-op and JTL Embroidery.Lead organiser Rob Evans hailed the event as a great success. “We’ve made a visible improvement to the town in just a few hours and, more importantly, we’ve established that several people are willing to make a regular commitment to keeping the town looking its best in future.”

 

Cornbury Festival stage beckons for Chippy School groups
by Tom Jennings

YOUNG musicians from Chipping Norton School have been chosen to play at the  Cornbury Festival. Two bands - Jamie and the Giant Peach and Under Duress - will play at the festival at Great Tew in July alongside artists such as James Blunt, Status Quo and The Faces. Judges, including the festival organiser, picked the youngsters from eight bands at the school, in Burford Road. The bands will open the festival’s Riverside Stage, playing in front of potentially thousands of people.

One of the winners, Jamie Morton, 16, said: “I am pretty dazed by it. I was not expecting it at all. But it is a once in a life time opportunity and I am definitely looking forward to it.” Jamie fronts the funk/jazz four-piece Jamie and the Giant Peach, alongside Mikey Krzyzanowski, 14, Alex Chastrey, 16, and Tom Bray, 16. Acoustic all-girl band Under Duress also won the competition. Guitarist and singer Abbie Festa, 14, said: “I really did not want to enter the competition in the beginning because I was a bit shy. “But I am really glad we did now and I’m really excited about playing at Cornbury.” But she said she was “quite nervous” about the performance and said that the band still needed to finish writing their set. The group performs “stripped down raw” versions of rock songs, Abbie said, and also features singers Lana Sumners, 14, and Ellie Quick, 13.

Chipping Norton School headteacher Simon Duffy said: “It is really exciting. It is good for them and it is a really positive affirmation of the quality of music at the school.”

This is the third year bands from the school have been chosen to play at the festival. Festival organiser Hugh Phillimore said: “It gives local kids a really great opportunity to play on a big stage at a festival. We have developed a relationship over the years with Chipping Norton School, and we were really impressed with what a great amount of students play instruments. I was knocked out by it.” The festival also gives work experience places to youngsters from the area. Mr Phillimore added: “I think it’s a good thing to do. I never got those opportunities at school.” The teenage bands also won the opportunity to get professionally recorded at a Yarnton recording studio.

The picture shows: Hugh Phillimore, centre, and the winning bands' members, from left, Lana Sumners, Abbie Festa, Ellie Quick, Mikey Krzyzanowski, Jamie Morton and Alex Chastrey

 

FUNNY WAY OF OPENING A HOSPITAL


Think about it. Hundreds of people have marched and petitioned for five years to keep a hospital in the town.  The building is finished, operational and ready for an official opening. Wouldn't you think this would be an occasion for a big celebration. Bunting, brass bands, a street party. After all the last hospital opening was nearly one hundred years ago. An occasion for somebody to make a public commitment that this will remain a proper hospital with NHS staff well into the future. Hundreds of people would have been happy to turn up and celebrate an important step in the hospital campaign. A chance to thank everyone for helping to make it happen.

Forget all that - this opening was a private affair. Nobody without a ticket got past the front gate. The unveiling of the foundation stone took place inside. No cheering locals inside or outside - not surprising since the opening had received zero publicity. No Press Release or photos from the PCT. The Order of St John - who run the care Home - had a huge number of guests. They had appropriated the empty land opposite to create a car park and had erected a marquee in the garden of the Care Home. Clearly all good PR for them. Many people still have worries whether there is a real commitment from the NHS to keep all the hospital services there - including intermediate care beds. This Order of St John  jamboree will have done nothing to dispel their concerns.

Who was there from the town? My little bird only saw the Mayor Jo Graves, Chunky Townley and John Grantham. Any others? Impossible to imagine that Eve Coles, Rob Evans, Keith Ruddle, Bruce and Sheila Parker or the Vicar had not been invited. Were they perhaps lurking behind a bed pan somewhere.

Hilary Biles - appearing on Sunday morning (15th May) on the Bill Heine Show on Radio Oxford - revealed that while David Cameron was opening the new Chippy Hospital a baby was born.  A new mother would not necessarily expect a visit from the Prime Minister thirty minutes after giving birth. This new Chippy mum got one!  A wonderful, unpredictable and delightfully non-commercial turn of events.

Now all we have to do is make sure this place stays a hospital!

 

 

Have you got a flair for fundraising and a passion for the local community?

The Lawrence Home Nursing Team, a charity providing skilled care for the terminally ill who wish to remain at home, is looking for volunteers to join its local fundraising support group.

Fundraising is an essential part of the Lawrence Home Nursing Team who offer their services, without charge, to anyone living in Chipping Norton and the surrounding area.

If you are enthusiastic and willing to help run a wide range of functions including teas, barn dances and musical events or, even organise your own activities, we would love to hear from you. We are also looking for volunteers to pack and distribute our annual charity Christmas card.

For further information, contact our Fundraising Coordinator, Mrs Nikki Knott on 01608 677665.

 

CONGRATULATIONS TO EVE

 Against a massive Tory onslaught Eve retains her District Council seat
and comes top of the Town Council poll. Well done to her!

 

 

 

DISTRICT  COUNCIL ELECTION  RESULT

Sue Bartholomew Independent 537
Eve Coles Labour 881
Amanda Phyllis Epps Liberal Democrats

59

Catherine Hickman

The Green Party

94

David Lydiat

Conservative Party

833

.

 

Election of Town Councillors for

the Chipping Norton Town Council  on Thursday 5 May 2011

 

COLES, Evelyn Mary The Labour  Party Candidate 1265 Elected

GRAVES, Josephine Mary Independent 1170 Elected

BARTHOLOMEW, Susan 1039 Elected

DAVIDSON, Donald Independent 1003 Elected

WILKES, Sarah Jane The Conservative Party Candidate 998 Elected

LYDIAT, David Edward Stephen The Conservative Party Candidate 913 Elected

DIXON, Michael John Independent 883 Elected

HASAN, Tahirul The Conservative Party Candidate 820 Elected

CORFIELD, Alexander Miles Dickens The Conservative Party Candidate 812 Elected

ROY-BARKER, Anne Kathryn The Conservative Party Candidate 812 Elected

BUTTERWORTH, Christopher John The Conservative Party Candidate 809 Elected

JARRATT, Peter Martin Independent 748 Elected

HERRIN, Rebecca Elizabeth The Conservative Party Candidate 717 Elected

TYSOE, Michael George The Conservative Party Candidate 713 Elected

WATSON, Charles Neville Richard The Labour  Candidate 710 Elected

HEYES, David Marshall The Labour Candidate 683 Elected

KITCHER, James Robert The Conservative Party Candidate 641

YAPP, Richard Lawson Transition Chipping Norton 504

HOMER, Neil Richard Transition Chipping Norton 465

LUNEY, Michael Francis Transition Chipping Norton 491

WIGGLESWORTH, Matthew  Richard Transition Chipping Norton 498

MCHUGH, Patrick 432

 

Tom Jennings reports the final WODC result

THE Liberal Democrats took a hammering in West Oxfordshire, losing almost half their seats. Group leader Richard Andrews was one of three Lib Dems voted out in Thursday’s election. The party, the council’s main opposition to the Conservatives, now has only four of 49 council seats. The Tories increased their majority from 40 to 44, winning the former Lib Dem seats and gaining another after an Independent switched sides.

Conservative leader Barry Norton said: “What a fantastic night for the Conservatives. It’s a ringing endorsement of the work we are doing for the people of West Oxfordshire. Year after year they have put their trust in us and we will repay that every time.”

Deputy Liberal Democrat leader Julian Cooper said: “It was a very disappointing evening for us, there’s no hiding from that. I think it was national issues to some extent. There are tough times and tough decisions. We are experiencing major setbacks as the consequence of being in Government, but we will battle on and we shall be back.”

Richard Andrews lost the Eynsham and Cassington seat and Liz Leffman failed to win the Charlbury and Finstock seat, after Michael Breakell stepped down.  Peter Madden lost his former Carterton South seat to Conservative Michael Brennan. Charles Cottrell-Dormer switched from Independent to Conservative, winning the Tories the Stonesfield and Tackley seat.

Labour’s Eve Coles retained her Chipping Norton seat, with 23-year-old Conservative David Lydiat a close second.

In Witney East, Labour’s Duncan Enright received 1,006 votes, narrowly losing to Conservative candidate Sian Davies’ 1,131 votes. Mr Enright said: “It’s frustrating that we weren’t able to take Witney East, but we came really close.” He said the left-wing parties had split the vote, allowing the Conservatives to hold the ward. He added: “It’s clear there’s majority support for the things we have stood for in the election. I hope that next time the opposition can unite and fight together to win.”

The make-up of the council is now 44 Conservatives, four Liberal Democrats and one Labour. It was previously 40 Conservative, seven Liberal Democrats, one Independent and one Labour.

 

Mayor gets a flea in his ear from the Leader of WODC

Recently the mayor wrote to the Tory Leader of WODC regretting the fact that Hilary Biles had been sacked from his Cabinet. (you can read the full text below). The letter emphasised all the terrific work that Hilary had done for Chippy and the high esteem in which she is held in the town. At last week's Town Council meeting Barry Norton's reply was read out. Amazing.  None too politely the mayor was told that this was no business of the Chipping Norton Town Council. The Leader did not know why they had been discussing it. The question of membership of the WODC Cabinet is entirely one for the Leader. And as for the idea that the Cabinet should be geographically representative and include a member from North Oxfordshire - where on earth did that idea come from?? The Leader would compose his Cabinet how he likes. The Leader was very miffed that the letter had been published on chippingnorton.net. In this situation the letter should have been clearly marked OPEN LETTER and not passed off as a private one. (what difference does any of that make we ask)  Barry accused the Mayor's letter of being inaccurate without saying how. Cutting a long story short  Mr Norton seemed to be telling both the Mayor and the Town Council to get stuffed. Surely a taste of things in store over the coming years.

If you want to read the letter just pop into the Guildhall and ask the Town Clerk to see it. Its in the public domain. But nobody is going to give it to me I guess. The Mayor is in enough trouble.

 

POLICE LEAN ON THE WEBMASTER
TO TRY AND CENSOR THE FORUM

I cannot believe I am actually writing this.

Last night I was rung up by the Police who said thay had received a complaint from Cicely Maunder about a thread in our Forum - "Whats going on with the Alms Houses then?". She had taken legal advice. As a result the Police were asking me to remove the following two comments from the thread.

From me (Gerry): The only thing happening is that Cicely is behaving like a little dictator - but then she always does.

From Noodles: If you are contemplating legal action, think first... i am sure it would be much cheaper and easier to have Cicely Maunder um removed

Cicely thought the first comment was defamatory and the second was a criminal threat.

I told the police officer that defamation is a civil matter and Cicely should serve her writ on me personally. It was absolutely nothing to do with the Police.

I asked the Police officer whether he thought there was the slightest chance that somebody would interpret Noodle's comment as a serious threat. My view was that they could not possibly do so - considered within the context of the Forum generally and the thread in particular.

I didn't actually launch into a speech about how surely the Police had better things to be doing with their valuable time than harassing webmasters of small town websites - but I nearly did.

Cicely is of course Chairman of the Chippy Tories so she expects the Police to jump to her tune.

Remembering what happened to my colleague Keith Greenwell recently I am now expecting a police van from Banbury to appear at my front door any time soon.

 

Chippy First pack it in - with no happy memories

Hooray. Last day of term. Some people have been kind enough recently to ask why I am not standing for the Town Council again - after eight years. Well let me tell you. The reason is incredibly simple. Its all about one incident. This story is being told for the first time. Not long ago ago I was stitched up by the then Mayor on a charge that I had harassed the Town Clerk.  He said she had kept a diary of a number of occasions when I had been in her office alone with her and frightened her by raising my voice. The kangaroo court was held in private at a Town Council meeting and many of the town councillors who I had regarded as colleagues - even friends - all jumped on the bandwagon and joined in a  personal campaign which deeply impugned my character. There was no suggestion that this might not be the whole story. They were like a pack of hounds after blood.  In a harassment case the first thing that must be done is the anonymity of the people involved should be protected and both sides of the case must be impartially gathered. That wasn't the Mayor's way. He openly accused me (without having bothered to get my side of the story) of something so serious that there was no point in any discussion. He proposed to call the Standards Board in from outside immediately. Other town councillors were all egging him on. For me it was a defining moment. I had spent my life in tough business situations strongly arguing cases in the face of strong opposition - but I had never been faced with this sort of personal animosity - dragging my reputation through the muck. I simply did not want to remain part of a gang of really nasty small-minded manipulators who were perfectly prepared to punch well below the belt if it suited their agendas. In the event I said there must be some mistake. I had a very good relationship with the Town Clerk. We got on well. This must be a misunderstanding. I needed to talk to her, find out the problem and apologise if necessary. Which I did. My apology was accepted. I was extremely grateful that the Town Clerk had courageously dropped the stance she had previously been "persuaded" into. The whole sordid stitch-up collapsed and the Mayor had the good grace to resign not long after. I decided then that at the first opportunity I would get out of this dreadful council. Not nice people. Not my scene I'm afraid. This whole incident still makes me angry when I think about it. I'm glad to be going.

This incident came at the end of a succession of equally nasty trumped-up actions against other members of Chippy First. If you go back more than eight  years the The Town Council was run by an old guard of chums who just quietly settled things between themselves. The Town Council wasn't elected. There weren't political parties. Then suddenly along came a gang of pushy non-establishment people wanting to get their foot in the decision-making door. The Tories, Labour, the Independents - they all hated it. Chippy First and chippingnorton.net  had to be beaten off. Any way was OK. 

The Old Guard all decided to support a trendy new-fangled organisation called a Town Partnership. Anyone with half a brain could see that this whole scheme was dead in the water before it started. Intended to develop jobs the headmaster was appointed Chairman. Whatever their strengths creating jobs is not something headmasters know much about. The Partnership talked for five years and achieved nothing. There was £400,000 available which was effectively just thrown away. No sensible schemes to use it were proposed. Councillor Glyn Watkins went to every Partnership meeting. He carried on nagging for years that the focus must remain on jobs - as the partnership wandered off  into other peripheral areas. He was a real thorn in their side.  Councillor Glyn Watkins wrote a humorous account of the partnership AGM on Chippingnorton.net that offended the then Marketing Manager’.The Partnership rose as one in self-righteous indignation.. The headmaster wrote an absurd rambling letter to the Mayor criticising Chippy First. complaining about the insult and demanding an apology.  Instead of quietly binning this the Mayor proceeded to circulate the letter to all the local Press. It was only picked up by the Cotswold Journal and their report made everyone in the town look totally daft. Major own goal by the Partnership but they were only interested in damaging Chippy First.

The following year Keith Greenwell - with very good reason - suggested that the school's GCSE results had been well below par (which they were) His "attack" created a lot of fuss among the governors. The Mayor publicly "instructed" Keith to write to the Headmaster and arrange to receive some indoctrination on why the results were really very good.  He had to be joking.

Well-established council traditions were simply ignored to try and kick Chippy First into touch. Keith Greenwell did a very successful year as Deputy Mayor and it is settled precedent that a Deputy Mayor takes over as Mayor. In Keith's case this tradition was simply ignored and someone else appointed. This sort of sniping just went on and on and on.

After a year spent working intensively on the refurbishment of the Town Hall Keith Greenwell gave a final update to the council. "Is there any reason why there are so many electric plugs in the kitchen" was the only contribution Councillor Jarrett chose to make towards the discussion. No thanks just carping. At the following council meeting the same councillor wanted to know why nobody had explained to him that Councillor Withers worked for Renov8 - the company owned by her brother that had submitted by far and away the lowest quote for work on the Town Hall bar, which they had completed outstandingly well.  The quotes had all been discussed in detail at a Council Meeting and Kristel has been absenting herself from Planning meetings for the last six months explaining that she works for Renov8. Councillor Jarrett had apparently not put the bits of the jigsaw together but he wasn't really interested in doing that. Councillor Withers was a member of Chippy First so she was fair game.

I won't go over again the appalling treatment which Keith Greenwell has recently received at the hands of the local police with the Chairman of the local Tories apparently involved. Letters to the Police from me complaining how the publicity for Keith's case was handled have been completely ignored.  Its all scandalous but completely consistent. The local "establishment" have taken every opportunity to rubbish Chippy First and its members.

The departing Chippy First councillors leave their council seats with absolutely no happy memories. But don't worry. They will be around. They will be attending Council meetings and Glyn Watkins will be writing many more of his satirical reports. Should be fun. chippingnorton.net will keep its beady eye on things. Your webmaster will have more time to write more rambling political articles.

 

 

FOXHOLES IS LOOKING GREAT !



http://www.oxfordshirecotswolds.org/DBIMGS/Foxholes%20Reserve.pdf

 

TWO MORE MONTHS OF WATER DISRUPTION

A PROJECT to improve the quality of Chipping Norton residents' tap water has entered its final eight weeks. By Wednesday, July 13 miles of old cast-iron pipes under the West Oxfordshire town will have been replaced and relined. As well as improving customers' water quality, engineers hope the improved pipe network will lead to fewer bursts and leaks. Work has been going on since November and has involved the use of a number of different innovative techniques, aimed at reducing disruption and environmental disturbance. Andy Popple, programme manager for Thames Water, said:“Our contractors have put in some hard graft on this project, enduring the coldest start to winter in 100 years, which made things extra tough in the run-up to Christmas. Equally, we would like to thank the people of Chipping Norton for bearing with us for the last six months."

Work has been completed in Station Road, Wards Road, A361 Burford Road, Churchill Road, Worcester Road, West Street, New Street, High Street, Horsefair, West End, London Road, Finsbury Place and Hill Lawn Court. Albion Road will be closed from Wednesday, May 4 for eight weeks and customers in Portland Place, Rowell Way, Albion Place, Albion Court, Cattle Market, Glovers Close, Burford Road, Dickinson Court, Shepard Way, Cooper Close, Brassy Close, Foxfield, Hithcman Drive, Withers Court, Rock Hill and Fox Close are likely to experience disruptions.

All businesses, including the Lido, will remain open as usual.

 

Super Sole is British champ
by Russell Smith

Niki Sole the 20-year-old, from Over Norton, near Chipping Norton (pictured left) has scaled new peaks by becoming the British alpine ski champion. She captured the overall title at Meribel in France after winning two of the five disciplines. With British No 1 Chemmy Alcott’s sidelined through injury, she triumphed in downhill and super giant slalom as well as finishing third in giant slalom. Her results were completed by a sixth place in the slalom, while she failed to finish in the super-combined. “I was absolutely ecstatic,” she said. “It was superb and I am really, really happy.”

Going into the event, Sole, who won the British junior title at the same venue last year, was unsure of how she would fare – especially as she is now training independently in France. “It is always a bit of an unknown,” she said. “You are not sure how everyone else is doing and how you relate to them because I don’t train in the British system. I train with the French team, and everyone goes in there to win it and I was just fortunate to achieve my goal.” Having made her debut on the Europa Cup circuit this season, Sole had an up and down time, which meant ending with the British title gave her special satisfaction. “It has not been a great season snow-wise in the Alps, so as far as training goes it was limited, so I was thrilled,” she added. “It was really good confidence-wise as well for next season.”

Now Sole, who is based at Champagny in France during the winter, is hoping to continue her progress with a place in the British squad for the 2014 Winter Olympics at Soshi in Russia her big target. “That was the first year I competed in the Europa Cup, which is a step down from World Cup,” she said. “The 2014 Olympics is the ultimate goal. There is still a lot of hard work to be put in, but I am progressing. I have still got a long way to go as far as getting on to the World Cup circuit. Probably in reality I am a year or two away, but I definitely think I can achieve that. I have taken a step in the right direction.” In the meantime, Sole will spend the summer months fitness training at home or in the Southern Alps of New Zealand.

 

The Chequers, Chipping Norton 

By Christopher Gray

I rarely visit the little theatre in Chipping Norton without enjoying a drink, or sometimes a meal, in The Chequers next door. This excellent old-fashioned pub was known to me even before the theatre opened in 1975: it was in fact my first port of call on a booze-drenched odyssey a year earlier around the hostelries of Chippy during which former RSC actor John Malcolm told me, with many expletives undeleted, of his and wife Tamara’s bold plans to convert what had formerly been the town’s Salvation Army citadel. Not a place he was likely to have much frequented, I remember thinking as he spoke.

The Chequers had a conversion of its own in 1991 when it was sold by Ind Coope Retail and became the farthest flung outpost of London-based brewery Fuller’s. Reopening the place after tasteful renovation, company chairman Anthony Fuller rightly forecast that people were going to ask: “What’s been done to the pub? Wasn’t it always like this?” The timeless traditional decor achieved then, with warm fabrics and rugs and a fascinating collection of old pictures, remains largely as it was two decades later — in the bar and front rooms at any rate. Behind, in the conservatory restaurant, there is a more modern feel.

My preference is always for the bar, and it was here a couple of Saturdays ago that Rosemarie and I had a delicious lunch before going next door to watch the young dancers of Ballet Central on their annual tour. There had been no plan to feature the meal in this column, but it was so good that I felt readers deserved to hear of it. The best part of lunch, for both of us, were our main courses. Mine was a “casserole of local rabbit”. The menu might have added, as landlord Jim Hopcroft told me later, that this rabbit was very local indeed, its passage to the pot having followed a mismatched encounter with a ferret belonging to one of the pub’s customers. This practised killer accounts for the 20-or-so rabbits delivered to The Chequers each week. Pigeons and game in season come courtesy of the various ‘guns’ who use the pub. With rabbits and pigeons both a serious nuisance in the country, it’s a wonder — given the cheap and healthy nutrition both supply — that more use is not made of them.

The Chequers’s appositely named chef Nathan Tuckwell has a super recipe for his rabbit casserole: the two juicy pieces I had — one of them a well-fleshed saddle — tasted wonderful in the rich cider, Dijon mustard and tarragon sauce. Celeriac mashed potato, and fresh carrots and purple sprouting completed a perfect dish. Rosemary, meanwhile, was sampling with considerable delight Nathan’s pie of the day, which happened to be lamb and potato. A second, chicken and bacon, was also available. Venison and juniper, and steak and London Pride are other favourite fillings. And I do mean fillings. These are not those pitiful apologies for pies in which pastry lid and the meat beneath are united only moments before serving, but old-fashioned examples of the piemaker’s art in which meat and gravy are completely enclosed in a casing of shortcrust pastry.

In concentrating on the main courses, I must not, of course, dismiss the rest. My starter of Italian-style white bean and vegetable soup, from the blackboard specials, had the fresh flavours of the sunny south, and Rosemarie’s tarted up prawn cocktail, with added crayfish tails, was fine for her. Both of us had good fresh bread. Having met Kingham cheesemakers Karen and Roger Crudge at a party a few days earlier, I felt I had to try — not for the first time — some of their excellent products: buttery Kingham Green, from cow’s milk, and Sarsden (sheep’s), a similarly hard cheese, rounded the meal off perfectly.

 

Lido re-opens for summer season

The Lido re-opens for the 2011 season on Thursday 21 April, in time for the Easter weekend and a week earlier than in previous years.  Children are being invited along on opening day at 2pm for some Easter fun and games, including an egg hunt, and the chance to be one of the first swimmers to test out the brand new slide which has been generously donated by Thames Water. The new café, now under the management of Sally Brown, will also be open for tea, cakes and ice cream. In addition to the usual public swimming, The Lido will continue to offer free swimming for the Over 60s every Wednesday morning and is introducing a new Family Floatarama session very Saturday and Sunday from 12 – 1pm.

Season ticket prices have been held for the second year running and still represent the most cost-effective way to swim through the summer. Buy before 29 April and your name will go into a draw to win your 2012 ticket – an offer worth nearly £200 if you have a family season ticket.  Season tickets are on sale now at Jaffe & Neale Bookshop & Café. Alternatively, an application form can be downloaded at www.chippylido.co.uk or picked up at the pool after 21 April.

 

 

Kebab shop skewered and not welcome in Chippy

A BID to open Chipping Norton’s first kebab shop has failed after an outcry from residents. Thirty-six residents wrote to West Oxfordshire District Council warning the plan for Horsefair would increase antisocial behaviour, noise, littering and create cooking odours. They also warned parking was inadequate. There were fears the shop would damage trade at neighbouring bridal store The Sassy Wedding shop. A petition with 57 signatures also opposed the plan while Chipping Norton Town Council “strongly objected”. The applicant has said they will come back with a new scheme.

Members of the district council’s uplands area planning subcommittee rejected the plan after backing an officers’ report that said it would have an “unacceptable urbanising impact harmful to the rural character of the area”. The report did not raise noise or road safety concerns but said a ventilation shaft would be an “alien feature” and “detract from the character and appearance of the area”.

John Dix, 60, (pictured left) who lives next door to the planned kebab shop spoke at the Planning Committee, Afterwards he said: “We are very pleased that they have come to their senses and rejected it. We were all extremely concerned. It would have completely ruined our health and happiness.” He added: “All the smells would have filled the area. We wouldn’t have been able to enjoy our gardens.” Sally Jaffé, 79, of nearby Rockhill, said: “I’m very relieved. It would have been completely intolerable if it was built. It’s a completely unsuitable site – it’s on a corner, there’s no parking and it’s a residential area. And we’ve already got a kebab van.”

The van parks in Market Street in the evenings. The planning application was to change the currently empty building’s use from commercial to hot food takeaway. Committee member Annie Roy-Barker said she had been assured the wedding shop would move if the plan went ahead. She said: “This application concerns me greatly. I really do believe that the living conditions of neighbouring residents will be materially affected, contrary to what the application states.”

David Scott, the agent for the applicant, said: “We believe we can overcome the understandable anxiety about the effect on the conservation area, and we will be seeking a meeting with the council to find a solution.”

 

Are we being served?

The Westgate department store in Chippy has been sold by the Anglia Co-Op to Beales of Bournemeouth in a deal worth £7.5m involving 19 Westgate branches. Both firms and a union believe the deal will bring benefits and job security. About 830 store workers, and Peterborough head office staff, will transfer to Beales. The company's chief executive, Tony Brown, said it was a "transformational deal for both businesses. We are a market town operator, not in the big cities, and people will be shopping locally more than ever before, because of the price of petrol."

Anglia is providing upfront financing, with terms that will see it receive the money back over the next few years.It has also agreed to provide financial support for some stores to help Beales return them to profitability. Beales aims to rebrand the stores over the next two years.

Anglia chief executive John Chillcott said: "Combining the respective store portfolios into one enlarged group makes strong commercial sense for both parties.It also improves job security and opportunities for the 900 staff employed in the Westgate stores covered by the deal."

Sharon Ainsworth, national officer for retail union Usdaw, said: "The announcement has obviously come as a shock to members and it will no doubt cause some degree of uncertainty and worry. However, Usdaw believes the deal could be in the best interests of staff and may help secure the long-term future of the business. Beales is a dedicated department store company with over 100 years of history and experience behind them and they have clearly been looking for further opportunities for growth."

 

 

KEBAB SHOP APPLICATION REFUSED!

This afternoon (4th April) the Planning Committee finally found their technically safe reason for turning the application down.  As we all know they are terrified of applications going to appeal and the planners not having a watertight case for refusal based on District Planning Policies. Noise, litter, yobs, smells ..........none of that cut any ice. It was quite clear that the committee thought there was already all of that along Horsefair and one new establishment wasn't going to make much difference. So what was new today?? This was really fast footwork because it was obvious that they wanted to turn the application down,

The Environmental Health Officer had produced a report which said that the extractor system would only be acceptable if the vent was 1 metre above the nearest neighbouring roofline. That would have resulted in a stack that looked more like a factory chimney. In a conservation area? No chance. Wrecks the streetscene. Application refused. Still who cares what the reason was? There is more than one way of skinning a cat. Well done Cicely and all your mates who were there in force. Well done Annie who fought a great fight.

 

USE IT OR LOSE IT

250 Visits a month or it closes.

 

 

TOWN MAYOR RATTLES HIS CHAIN AT BARRY NORTON
 

Dear Barry Norton
 
I was asked by the Chipping Norton Town Council at the Full Council Meeting on Monday 21st  March to convey to you our very deep anxiety at the news that District Councillor Hilary Biles has been dismissed from the WODC Cabinet.
 
For the last few years Hilary has been the only member of the Cabinet with a deep and detailed understanding of Chippy issues. She has been incredibly helpful and supportive on a whole range of  projects which have been important to us.  To mention just a few : her work as WODC representative on the JHOSC was crucial in bringing negotiations about our new hospital to a successful conclusion. Her support to keep the grant subsidies to the Lido and the Theatre has been unswerving. She was pivotal in securing funding for the new playground.
Her help to Chippy Swifts and the continuous pressure on OCC to keep a Youth Centre have endeared her to younger residents. Getting pedestrian crossings across London Road has been warmly welcomed by young mums. Most recently she steered us through the process of obtaining £100,000 of grant money towards refurbishing the Town Hall and we are indebted to her for steering the complex deal over Greystones House between Chipping Norton Council and WODC through the Cabinet.

Hilary's work for the town has been widely acknowledged and much appreciated. Without exception people are shocked by her departure. Many of us wonder where we will ever find such superb support again.
 
The concern of the Town Council was unanimous and cross party. We hope that you will find it possible at your next reshuffle to find a slot for Hilary's  undoubted talents once again.
 
Please be assured that this letter is not intended to be in any way political. We would just like Hilary back please!
 
Yours sincerely

Mike Dixon (Town Mayor)

 

 

Road deaths rise after camera switch-off

DEATHS on Oxfordshire’s roads rose 50 per cent during the first six months speed cameras were turned off, police said last night. Road safety campaigners warned the situation should never be repeated as police prepared to turn the cameras back on next week. They were switched off last August after Oxfordshire County Council decided it would not pay its £600,000 share of their operating costs. Since then, 18 people have been killed in road accidents in the county, compared with 12 deaths in the same period for the previous year. It was the first time road deaths had risen for four years.

 

Education system 'failing children with special needs'

CHILDREN with special needs in Oxfordshire are being failed by the education system, according to one mother. The criticism comes as figures uncovered by the Oxford Mail showed the county’s special needs pupils had among the poorest results in England.

But Oxfordshire County Council last night defended its provision, saying the league tables were worthless. National tables show that in Oxfordshire, results achieved by children with special educational needs (SEN) are significantly lower than the national average at ages seven, 11 and 16. The council said it was impossible to compare areas, because each set its own criteria for identifying special needs. School inspectors believe hundreds of thousands of children are being wrongly assessed under the SEN system.

Sophie Evans, 36, from Chipping Norton, (pictured with Finlay) said she had been forced to move her son to a private school. Seven-year-old Finlay has conditions including severe dyslexia and dyspraxia. The council said everything possible had been done to support him at Great Rollright School and St Mary’s School in Chipping Norton. Mrs Evans believes her son’s conditions are so severe that he should have been given a legally-binding statement of special educational needs, detailing the extra support he should get. Instead he was put on the School Action Plus programme, for pupils with less complex needs. But Mrs Evans said health and education officials had failed to communicate about Finlay’s needs. She added: “If the education people listened properly to what the doctors were saying, I think a lot of money would be saved. Every single term, I had to go in and fight for support for Finlay.”

Last December, her father used money from an inheritance to pay for his grandson to attend Windrush Valley School, in Ascott-under-Wychwood, at a cost of £500 a month. Mrs Evans claimed he had made more progress in one term there than in several years at county council schools. She said: “I fear there are lots of children like Finlay whose needs are not being recognised properly.”

Council spokesman Louise Mendonca said: “The schools did all within their powers, given that Finlay was judged not to require a statement. He was making progress at St Mary’s and the school, working with the council and four external agencies, responded to and adjusted support as appropriate.” Prime Minister David Cameron, who is Mrs Evans’s MP, has vowed to write to County Hall about her case.

He said: “Of course, no-one should feel that they have to pay for private schooling in order that their child should receive quality SEN support.” National tables show that in Oxfordshire, between 14 per cent and 18 per cent fewer children on School Action Plus reach the expected attainment levels than the national average. Elsewhere results are higher, the council claims, because children with less complex needs are put on the programme. A new Government policy paper proposes reducing the number of pupils identified as having special needs, but giving more support to those who are.

 

Chipping Norton School Win Under 15 County Cup Vase Trophy



Back row (from left): Alex Brown, Adam Burchell, Mark Ferguson, Sam Barnes, Tom Dee, Jack Haggett, Finn Hunt. Front: Jay Webb, Liam Case, Joe Holland, Jack Fowler, Tom Empson (captain), Warren Holland, Charlie Warhurst, Sam Humphries, Dan Austin and Ashley Paige

On Thursday 10th March Chipping Norton School played Matthew Arnold School In the final of the Under 15 County Vase Rugby competition. They won the trophy for the second year in a row. Outstanding performances from Tom Dee who scored three tries, and Captain Tom Empson who also scored three meant CNS were victorious by 39 points to nil. Congratulations to everyone involved. A great performance!.

 

Teaching children to sing

COTSWOLD music maker Myles Granger wants – in the words of the famous song – to teach the world to sing. For music teacher Myles runs a business Mr Myles Music writing songs for children at his home in White Hart Mews, Chipping Norton. Myles, who after graduating spent five years teaching in the Middle East and Far East, developed his skills as a songwriter after being regularly required to come up with new songs for his pupils. The 34-year-old, who teaches at Headington School in Oxford, is a great advocate of teaching through music.

“If you have a song about the subject they are learning about, tailored to them, they will learn more effectively. I will use spelling words to help with their English and facts and figures in the song,” said Myles. Not everywhere has the facilities for a full-time musician and I can’t teach everywhere, therefore you can access my songs and CDs online,” he said. He loves the fact that teaching children songs is never the same two days in a row. We maybe get a bit miserable and cynical but when you are a child the world’s a very exciting place,” he added

 

When David Cameron furrows his brow and vows, “We’re all in this together”, is it any wonder that the British people jeer back, “OH NO, WE’RE NOT!” We know civil servants are no more likely to axe themselves than turkeys are to vote for Christmas. Eric Pickles may talk tough, but he is hamstrung by the Government’s strategy of devolved localism. Is it really such a good idea to give even more power to the regions when a sense of grandiose entitlement has spread like fungus through councils across the land? Suffolk is closing libraries, has sacked lollipop ladies and cancelled children’s travel cards. Meanwhile, Freedom of Information requests reveal that Andrea Hill, Suffolk’s chief executive, who is paid £218,592 a year, spent £14,188 of public money on a leadership adviser who gave her lessons in how to “liberate herself” to do her job better. For £525 an hour plus VAT, I’m sure we’d all be delighted to suggest how Mrs Hill might liberate herself. Slashing her own monster pay packet in half and distributing the excess to starving librarians would be a start. .

 

CHIPPY TORIES SAY : STAND BACK. HERE COME OUR A TEAM

Your webmaster let his little bird out for a fly around town at the end of last week. The bird settled comfortably for a couple of hours on top of a cupboard in a back room at the Blue Boar where the Chippy Tories were having a secret  election campaign session. Like most Tory meetings these days it was not at all clear who was in the chair....nominally it was supposed to be Chris Butterworth, but Cicely (pictured left) kept interrupting (so what's new?) but the real star of the proceedings was the recently-selected super-pushy Tory candidate for the forthcoming District Election. He did all the talking. We  don't know his name yet but he has been helicoptered in from Yarnton. He has just got himself a degree in politics and is out to create a big political career for himself. "A very bright boy" was how my little bird put it. Chipping Norton is to be his stepping stone. It seems he was found the slot by his influential dad. A further bit of background is that the young go-go tyro has got himself some work with Mail Boxes Etc. -  a franchise operation up at Cromwell Park. All this is exciting stuff - clearly he is far more whizzy than any candidate that could have been found from within the town! Unfortunately Bonzo (lets call him that for the time being)  doesn't know anything about local politics. He presented a grand policy strategy for the District election. Headlining this was a demand that the District Council should improve its snow clearing performance. He had to be told on three separate occasions that snow-clearing was the responsibility of the County NOT the District. Looks as if Bonzo might be about to challenge Annie's hard-won record for gaffes. Apparently Bonzo is set to run the election campaign (Has Edwyn Stobart been given the heave-ho? He wasn't at the meeting) and outlined his plans for endless leaflet distributions and canvassing.

All we really need to know from Bonzo is whether he supports the stand of principle which Tory County Councillor Hilary Biles has taken to try and protect some of the grant funding allocated by the District to local communities and which got her sacked from the Cabinet. Or has he been sent to Chippy to toe the party line and whip the plebs into order ?

The meeting then moved on to passing a motion of censure on chippingnorton.net accusing the website of defamation when the webmaster recently suggested in the Forum that....My little bird tells me that Cicely Maunder has been selected by the Tories to stand for the District Council. She would then join Annie Roy Barker and Patrick McHugh to form the most useless team that has ever represented any town in the whole history of local government. What have we done to deserve this? We await the writ.

But the main business of the meeting was to settle the list of candidates in the forthcoming Town Council election. In recent years  Tory town councillors like Honor Stobart and Hilary Williams have simply not turned up to Town Council meetings or Sarah Wilkes who has turned up but never said a dicky bird. It is obvious that somebody has decided that the Chippy Tories must try harder. Bright, new bushy-tailed candidates are the order of the day who will be expected to have a lot to say for themselves. The Tory revolution finally reaches a Town Hall near you. First up is Mr Hassan - Indian chef, charity campaigner and  taxi driver - who has tried unsuccessfully to get on the council before. His selection this time was a bit of a surprise because Cicely made her personal lack of support for the lovely Mr Hassan more than obvious.  As a result poor Mr Hassan didn't say a word throughout the proceedings. Also standing is the hapless Annie Roy Barker who has tried before and failed to get on the Town Council (so she went off and got elected to the District Council instead  which is a much much easier project altogether.) Next is architect Alex Corfield who tried and failed to get on the Town Council as an Independent a couple of years ago. Good luck this time round Alex. Lets drink to that. New to the fray are Jo from the Leather Shop and then there's the big guy who runs Cotswold Lettings. Not the best known folk in town but apparently very active retailers. Continuity is to be preserved at all costs so Sarah Wilkes will be standing again. We presume her Alsatian will be running on the ticket as well because it usually attends council meetings. Cicely will be throwing her hat in to the ring - as compensation for being dumped as the District Council candidate in favour of a 22 year old lad. At least she can resume her interrupted tour of duty as Mayor! Last but not least is the only Tory candidate who chippingnorton.net is very happy to support. Chris Butterworth. Chris has worked really hard as Deputy Mayor - particularly on the Town Hall Committee - and fully deserves to get re-elected. Chris will be the only Tory to secure one of your webmaster's sixteen votes.

I only hope that Cicely has got all the admin right on this. She does know that a District Council candidate has to live in the District, doesn't she? Well Yarnton is not in West Oxfordshire. Where will Bonzo claim to live? Its a serious business misrepresenting your place of residence. Also any Tory candidate has to be a paid up Party member for three months at the time of nomination. Not true with all this list methinks - some of whom have been press-ganged into party membership at very short notice. chippingnorton.net will be watching.

The Chairman of Chippy First commented : What a disaster. The Tories are taking the piss. The late great Sydney Scarsbrook once said to me that the Chippy Conservatives would vote for a nodding donkey as long as it was wearing a blue rosette. Looks like we are close to that situation here.  I just don't think I could even contemplate sitting round a table with a bunch of losers like that. Looks like the end of political life as we know it in Chipping Norton. If this crowd of jokers seriously think they could run the town then my inclination is to leave them to it.

 

BONZO'S IDENTITY IS REVEALED AT LAST

Psst. Here's a clue. Bonzo is NOT the one without a tie

David Lydiat has lived in West Oxfordshire his whole life. David works in franchise sales in Chipping Norton at the Cromwell Park Business Estate for a company called Mail Boxes Etc. He lives on the Worcester Road in Chipping Norton. He has a degree in Politics from Liverpool John Moores University. David has previous experience working for an MP, helping to deal with local issues concerning members of the community. He has also been an active member of the Conservative Party for many years. David has previously raised concerns regarding the snow clearance and recycling in Chipping Norton, as a local resident, to the West Oxfordshire District Council Environmental Committee.
David is very passionate about his community and working towards a better future for Chipping Norton. At the Chipping Norton Conservative Party AGM, David was selected to be the Council Candidate in the 2011 local elections. David wishes to listen to your opinions and represent your views at District and Town Council. Please contact David if you have any concerns within Chipping Norton or would like him to campaign on particular issues that are important to you. Your opinion truly matters and by establishing strong communication with our councillors positive action can be taken. Feel free to contact David by emailing dlydiat_chippingnorton@hotmail.co.uk.
David would be honoured to have the opportunity to become a District and Town Councillor for Chipping Norton. Please give your support and vote for David on Election Day (May 5th).I am campaigning for a number of local issues in Chipping Norton. But your views and concerns are the most important to me. I will campaign for you - please get in touch dlydiat_chippingnorton@hotmail.co.uk

I wish to review the safety concerns of the narrow road in Horse Fair and then to take the appropriate action which is best for all.
I wish to help prepare the town for the snow so that all parts of the community can come together to take action when needed and to help the elderly and vulnerable in Chipping Norton during the heavy snowfall.
I wish to make representations on your behalf to push for faster action on the potholes of local roads.
I wish to help tackle anti-social behaviour.
I wish to secure Chipping Norton’s future and play my part in development in the town over the coming years.
I pledge that if elected I will dedicate myself to working to improve Chipping Norton for everyone

From David's Facebook Page:
March 11 at 8:06am
Spoke with the Prime Minister today - he wished me well and gave me advice for my campaign (pass the sick bag ED)

 

MARINA FROM HOLY TRINITY COMPETES FOR
SCHOOL CHEF OF THE YEAR AWARD

FRESH ingredients, strong flavours... and not a Turkey Twizzler in sight. The future of school dinners was laid bare yesterday as cooks from across the South East went head-to-head to see who could whip up the best meal. Cuisine ranged from Moroccan to Italian at the School Chef of the Year regional finals, at Oxford Brookes University’s restaurant on the Gipsy Lane campus. And on hand to taste the creations were two judges from Rose Hill Primary School, pupils Isis Parrott and Cindy Kama.

Ten cooks had to create a main course and dessert suitable for an 11-year-old, costing no more than £1.35 per child, in 90 minutes. Representing Oxfordshire was Marina Faulkner, (pictured left) who works at Holy Trinity RC School in Chipping Norton. She said: “Everything has changed. You could call it the ‘Jamie Oliver effect’ because ever since his show about the state of school dinners, there has been a revolution in the kitchen. Now we are cooking with fresh ingredients and introducing children to cuisines they may never have tried before.” Mrs Faulkner’s main course was Thai mince, noodles and stir fried summer vegetables, followed by duo of melon with strawberry yoghurt and ginger fortune cookie. She said: “I was very proud to represent Oxfordshire, although very nervous. It’s so important that children get a healthy and varied diet. When I think back to my school dinners I can’t believe how much it has changed. Lumpy custard and boiled cabbage are certainly things of the past.”

Sadly, for Mrs Faulkner, she wasn’t among the winners. The crown went to West Sussex’s Kay Gill, who wowed judges with a Thai spiced burger with noodle and vegetable salad, followed by papaya and banana oatcake and fruit smoothie. Great try Marina!

 

 

Council pays for plush resort for meeting and overnight stay instead of choosing its own HQ

TRANSPORT chiefs at Oxfordshire County Council spent more than £4,500 on a meeting and overnight stay at a prestigious resort. Seven highways officers attended the two-day workshop at the £50m Heythrop Park resort, near Enstone. Despite being 15 miles from County Hall, council employees stayed overnight at the resort, where facilities include a swimming pool, health spa and golf course. Andrew Allison, from the Taxpayers’ Alliance, said: “It is a deplorable waste of money given County Hall is so close.” The meeting, which was held on January 17 and 18, was in the same month the council’s cabinet agreed a £119m of cuts, including slashing £13m from the transport budget.

The authority has said the workshop was part of a new “groundbreaking” contract that will lead to significant savings. It said the meeting was not held at council offices as “an important part of building integration, rapport, trust and joint understanding, is to have time away from the day-to-day interruptions of the office”. But the meeting, which was also attended by three contractors and two facilitators, cost the taxpayer £4,678.36, which included £3,747 in consultancy fees. Room hire was £144.04, accommodation cost £634 and the food bill came in at £153.32. Evening drinks were paid for by staff themselves In total, 10 people stayed overnight, including five of the council officers.

Last night the council’s leader Keith Mitchell said paying for overnight accommodation and off-site costs was not justified. He added: “It won’t happen again.” Liberal Democrat group leader Zoe Patrick said: “It looks bad when people are losing youth services and libraries. It is one rule for one and one for everyone else.” The details of the workshop were revealed in a Freedom of Information request passed to the Taxpayers’ Alliance. Mr Allison added: “The reason of team-building is just nonsense. It is unjustifiable.”

But Steve Howell, the council’s deputy director for highways, said the meeting was part of a 10-year contract with contractor Atkins that would save the authority 20 per cent of its highways costs when fully operational. He said: “This contract is the first of its kind in this country because it integrates the management teams and staff of the two organisations. In order to get best value for Oxfordshire taxpayers and make the savings envisaged, the contract needs to operate in an integrated manner. This ‘integration’ does not happen automatically or overnight. It involves a considerable amount of challenge and ongoing effort.” On the need for an overnight stay, Mr Howell said it allowed the team to “get to know each other informally”.

Council spokesman Owen Morton confirmed staff would have been able to claim mileage expenses if the journey to Heythrop was further than their regular commute to work.

 


Cabinet member Sacked

by Tom Jennings

A LEADING West Oxfordshire District Council cabinet member has been sacked for failing to toe the party’s line, it was claimed last night. Conservative councillor Hilary Biles was fired by council leader Barry Norton last Monday for opposing cuts. At a full council meeting on February 23, she refused to vote for reducing the amount of grant aid community groups could apply for, from £100,000 to £50,000. The vote was whipped, meaning Mrs Biles, cabinet member for leisure, young people and health, had to vote in favour of the plan. Failing to vote along a party whip is a sackable offence.

Chipping Norton Town Council member Gerry Alcock, a friend of Mrs Biles, said she had been fired for standing by her principles. He said she had fought to protect the grants budget for sports facilities and village halls. He added: “They had to get this budget approved, so they put it on a whipped vote to cabinet, and she didn’t vote in favour of it, and that’s a sacking. Barry wrote to her formally and removed her because she had failed to support the leadership on a whipped vote. I don’t think anyone expected her to dig her heels in.” It was unclear whether Mrs Biles abstained from the vote or opposed it. A West Oxfordshire District Council spokesman said records were not kept. Mr Alcock said: “It wouldn’t have been difficult to find a compromise to allow her some way of protest. They thought, let’s take this chance to get rid of her. It’s nasty stuff, really raw politics.” He said Mr Norton owed the public an explanation.

Mrs Biles refused to comment on the matter, except for a short statement, which said: “It really has been a pleasure to be on the cabinet. I wish my successor every success, and I hope they enjoy it as much as I have.” She refused to comment further, but a source close to her confirmed what Mr Alcock has said. Mrs Biles, who will remain the member for Ascott and Shipton, has served on the cabinet for six years, and is also chairman of Oxfordshire County Council. Mr Norton refused to comment despite repeated calls from the Witney Gazette.

Julian Cooper, deputy leader of the district council’s opposition Lib Dem group, said Mr Norton should be “open and upfront” about his decision. He added: “When you concentrate power fully in one person, and if that person doesn’t want to talk to people, it isn’t very transparent. You can structure your standing orders that council selects who is in the cabinet, but West Oxfordshire has always chosen that one person selects who goes in the cabinet.”

Feelings were also expressed on the Gazette’s website. Mr E Mann’, from Oxford, said: “One begins to realise that it isn’t only in North Africa and the Middle East that a ruling elite believes it can do what it likes and is not accountable in any way to the people.” ‘Porphyro’, from Witney, said: “Mrs Biles and Mr Norton are not ordinary members of the public. They are elected representatives who should be answerable to their electorates. Any Government minister who resigns or is sacked would normally issue a parting message to the public, so why do West Oxfordshire Tories think this basic courtesy is unnecessary?”

Her responsibilities will now be shared among other cabinet members. Carys Davies, communications manager at the council, said: “This is a private matter between the leader of the council and councillor Biles.”

 

ALICE SIGNS WITH MANOR

Motor racing ace Alice Powell from Chippy has signed up for the 2011 Formula Renault UK series with Manor Competition – the most successful team in the history of the Championship. Alice, 2010 Formula Renault BARC Champion and recently named BWRDC’s Elite Gold Star winner for the second year in succession and recipient of the Club’s prestigious Lord Wakefield Trophy, completes the same quartet of drivers who raced with Manor Competition in the FRUK winter series last November. Formula Renault UK is established as the country’s leading single-seater championship, launching the Formula 1™ racing careers of Lewis Hamilton, Kimi Räikkönen and Heikki Kovalainen. The championship enjoys a high level of exposure due to its place on the support package of the British Touring Car Championship, leading to comprehensive television coverage in the UK on the ITV Sport network. Two races are also held at World Series by Renault, which attracted a crowd of 125,000 in 2010, making it the best attended one-marque single-seater series.18 year-old Alice first joined the Nottinghamshire squad back in 2009 following a season in Ginetta Juniors. She said of her recent signing; "I am delighted to be working with Manor again. Sarah (Shaw) and the team know how I work and, hopefully, together we can produce the right results in 2011! ”Sarah Shaw at Manor Competition says of the renewed partnership; “We're really happy to have Alice back in the team - it was important to us to have her as part of our line-up. We all enjoy working with her and she is very quick, so we're looking forward to a strong season together."Alice is the reigning Formula Renault BARC Champion scoring two wins, seven podiums and two pole positions last year. Alice made history by becoming the first female to win a Formula Renault race and the first female to win a Formula Renault Championship.If you would like to support Alice through sponsorship, please visit www.alice-powell.com or email info@alice-powell.com.

 

OPENING FOR BUSINESS AT LAST

Tel: 01608 648200 (main switchboard)

 

 

Mystery over cabinet departure

5th March  THE leader of West Oxfordshire District Council last night refused to say why a top councillor was no longer a member of his cabinet. Hilary Biles quit her post as cabinet member for leisure, young people and health on Wednesday. But council leader Barry Norton, who chooses the cabinet, refused to explain why the decision was made, saying only: “No comment.”

Mrs Biles, who remains the Conservative member for Ascott and Shipton, said she was not willing to comment. The Oxford Mail has spoken to every cabinet member but they also either declined to comment or said they did not know what was going on. Carys Davies, communications manager at the council, said: “This is a private matter between the leader of the council and Councillor Biles.” Mr Norton took Mrs Biles’ place at a meeting on Wednesday to award grants to young achievers in sport and art.


Your webmaster comments ..... Whats the mystery? How utterly stupid to describe this as a "private matter".  How absurd for members of the Cabinet to say they don't know what's going on. They know all right. Everyone in West Oxfordshire knows that Barry Norton is not exactly the retiring type.  Make no mistake ...... Barry has sacked Hilary from his Cabinet.  She didn't resign. She was stuffed.  But Barry may soon realise that he has made a huge error of judgement this time and may  just have slung his weight around a bit too far. This is not good news for Chippy. Hilary has fought for the town in numerous Cabinet battles over the last few years. Hilary procured the new playground at the rec. She was a fantastic ally in helping to secure a grant of £100,000 for the Town Hall refurbishment. She has been absolutely pivotal in getting WODC to give up a restrictive covenant on Greystones House. Hilary has got us a new Youth Centre and most recently she has been attempting to persuade the hopeless Simon Hoare to restore the rate relief on the Lido. As we all know if Hilary feels passionately about something she fights like a tiger. And so when the hopeless Simon Hoare and Barry got the big axe out last week and started hacking away attempting to decimate two budgets of Hilary's about which she feels really really strongly (grants for sports facilities and village halls) Hilary refused to back down, got on a white charger and took them on. So Barry sacked her - just like that. Any half-decent leader with someone like Hilary on their team would have fought like crazy to keep her on board. Instead of which by behaving so petulantly Barry has made himself look a right Charlie. He has sacked his most effective Cabinet member by a mile on a budget technicality. He has shown zero respect for a senior local politician who just happens to be Chairman of the County Council. He has welcomed Hilary back from a two month absence fighting a nasty virus to what has all the appearance of a stitch-up. And now he is trying to keep it all quiet. Shameful. How completely ironic that all this is happening the day before the official opening of Chippy's new hospital - a project which Hilary - more than any other individual - is responsible for bringing to fruition.  For five years she has battled with a succession of PCT Chief Executives. An absolute model of commitment to the interests of her constituents (in Shipton as well as Chippy)  "No comment" doesn't really cut it Barry. Hasn't Dave mentioned to you that we are now in a new democratic era when our local leaders are supposed to tell us the truth about the way we are being governed. What on earth do you think you are up to?

Lets bomb Barry with e-mails telling him how daft he has been!!

barry.norton@westoxon.gov.uk

Cheer Hilary up with a supportive message

hilary.biles@westoxon.gov.uk

 

 

Our new  hospital opens on Monday

AN eagerly anticipated new community hospital will open in Chipping Norton on Monday 7th March  The new Chipping Norton War Memorial Community Hospital features 14 en suite bedrooms, plus physiotherapy and speech and language therapy for outpatients recovering from long-term illness. It will also offer podiatry and X-ray services, consultant clinics and a new community maternity unit. Alan Webb, Director of Service Redesign for NHS Oxfordshire, (pictured right) said: “This is an exciting time for local patients, residents and NHS staff because a brand new, modern health facility will be open for business.” Last month the Oxford Mail revealed South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS) response times to West Oxfordshire were the worst in the county. It is hoped a permanent member of ambulance staff, who will be based at the new site to treat patients with minor problems who walk in on weekday evenings, weekends and bank holidays, as well as responding to 999 calls in the local area, will help boost flagging response times. Patients from the ‘old hospital’, in Horsefair, which has been used since 1920, were moved to the new Intermediate Care Unit at the Henry Cornish Care Centre, in London Road, at the end of February, with the first outpatients set to be treated on Monday. The unit will continue to provide the short stay in-patient services of the old community hospital using the existing NHS staff but will be managed by The Orders of St John Care Trust.

Sandra Allen, unit manager of Community Health Oxfordshire, said the old building was a well-loved facility and part of the history of the town. She added: “While moving marks the end of an era, the new hospital building is modern and fresh and offers excellent facilities for local patients and staff. “ Mr Webb said: “This has been a complex project which started eight years ago and has involved us working together across different organisations. We hope those who use these services will come to love this facility as they did the old hospital.” Services including district nursing and community services for occupational therapy and physiotherapy, will also be based in the new building. The community midwifery unit, which is part of the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals’ maternity services, also moved to the new hospital.

The new facilities will be called the Cotswold Maternity Unit and will have two birthing pools, a larger and improved waiting area and improved space for antenatal and postnatal drop-in and breastfeeding support. Community Midwife Cheryl Keeble, team leader at the Cotswold Maternity Unit, said the community had fond memories of the old hospital. She added: “However, we are looking forward to using our new purpose-built facilities which are really lovely. This is an exciting time for Chipping Norton.”

 

Councillor says the ambulance service is so poor that patients
needing emergency care “might as well phone a taxi”.

 Government targets say ambulance trusts must send medical help to the most serious emergencies within eight minutes of a 999 call at least 75 per cent of the time. But an Oxford Mail report shows some people in need of medical help are being left to wait more than eight minutes 70 per cent of the time. In West Oxfordshire it answered more than 75 per cent of emergency calls within eight minutes during only one month in the past three years l Much of the time, fire officers or volunteers with medical training, rather than parademics in ambulances, reached the scene first.

West Oxfordshire district councillor Peter Handley said the service was so poor that patients needing emergency care “might as well phone a taxi”. He said: “When you look at the statistics it is still an appalling situation. Ratepayers in West Oxfordshire are not getting value for money. What is needed is more ambulances. As far as I am aware, the majority come from Kidlington or Oxford. It is totally unacceptable.” Chipping Norton and Witney lost their ambulance stations in 2003, although vehicles are supposed to be at designated stand-by points in the district.

In December, councillor Hillary Biles, who co-authored a critical review into ambulance services in West Oxfordshire in 2009, waited 50 minutes for an ambulance after her doctor phoned for one to come to her home in Shipton-under-Wychwood. She said: “Some people have said that this is what happenes if you live where you live, but I do not find that acceptable. The Wychwoods are not remote. I feel that if they had not closed the ambulance stations, all the ambulance times would be in the target.”

And Robert Towney, from Chipping Norton, added: “If an ambulance has to come here from Adderbury or Kidlington, there is absolutely no way it can get here within eight minutes. There used to be two fully-manned ambulances in Chipping Norton, so to try to convince people they are getting a better service is laughable.”

 

 

County agrees £119m cuts

AT 5.57PM yesterday (15th Feb) , the axe fell on £119m of public services in Oxfordshire. With one decision, 20 libraries and more than 20 youth centres are set to close, home care for the elderly will be passed into private hands and £13m will be wiped off road maintenance. Three county rubbish dumps will shut, park-and-ride charges will rise and motorists will have to pay and display on city streets at the weekend. Some 1,000 council workers will lose their jobs, transport to day centres for the elderly will halt and subsidies for vital bus links will be cut back. Only the fire service and child protection escaped the axe.

The ruling Conservatives on Oxfordshire County Council admitted their austere budget, which was voted in at the full council meeting, was “breathtaking” in scale. Opposition leaders said it would decimate public services and throw the county back to a “Victorian age”. But all agreed on one thing – this is just the beginning.

They agreed the full impact of yesterday’s decision – to cut £119m over four years – will begin to bite over the coming months and years, and will be felt in every corner of the county. As the reality of those service cuts dawn, council tax is set to soar. Frozen with Government help next year, the county’s share of the bill will rise by 2.5 per cent (2012/13) and then 3.75 per cent (2013/14).

Council leader Keith Mitchell said: “These are breathtaking sums and we would be foolish to claim they can be made without affecting frontline services. “However, I do believe the Coalition is right in setting ambitious targets for cutting public spending.”

 

ORIENTAL TURTLE DOVE relocated in Chipping Norton

The first-winter ORIENTAL TURTLE DOVE that first appeared in Chipping Norton (Oxfordshire) in mid December 2010 was relocated on Saturday morning in a different garden and was still visiting on Feb 14th. It has been feeding with Collared Doves and Woodpigeons on seed placed on the lawn and has been showing down to just 10 feet from the occupant's window. The owner of the property has very kindly agreed to allow access on Tuesday 15 February from 1000 to 1600 hours at a charge of £5.00 per person. The bird is situated in Chipping Norton in the back garden of 41 The Leys. Please park in the town centre and walk to the site and then wait patiently in a queue for your turn inside the living room. If over 200 people queuing, you may be limited to just 5-10 minutes per viewing and there will be no special dispensation to photographers whilst the pressure is on to get as many people possible to see it.

 

UPDATE!  More than 500 twitchers descended on the doorstep of amateur ornithologist Steve Akers, 56, from 6.30am after he spotted the Oriental Turtle Dove feeding in his garden.The bird – normally found in Russia and Siberia – has only been spotted twice before in Britain and news of the discovery spread like wildfire through the birdwatching world on Monday afternoon.

By yesterday morning a queue of ornithologists stretched for hundreds of yards along Mr Akers’ road in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire.The father-of-two drafted in two ‘bouncers’ from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) to control the crowd. Entrants were charged £5 each and herded into his kitchen in groups of ten, which were each given a five-minute time slot to photograph the bird.

Mr Akers – who is donating all the proceeds to charity – described it as a ”once in a lifetime” experience.He said: ”It is brilliant to see this beautiful and very famous bird – especially in my own back garden.”I was massively excited when I spotted it. You know this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience and for it to happen here is very overwhelming.We must have more than 450 people outside now waiting to see it. Word got round quickly in the birding community – they are all being well behaved at the moment.They are waiting at the door and it is all being well organised – there are people from the RSPB here.We are letting people in ten at a time. They then get five minutes in our kitchen, starting from when they spot the dove.”

Mr Akers, a trade union regional officer for Unison, lives with wife Sharon, 46, and sons Rory, eight, and Louis, six, in the Victorian property.They first spotted the dove’s distinctive red eyes and feet as they were sitting down to breakfast on Saturday morning. The bird was eating scraps underneath the bird table in his 120ft long garden.Mr Akers immediately realised it could be the Oriental Turtle Dove and called in RSPB experts to have the sighting confirmed. They identified it as the Eastern Orientalis, which, along with the Western Meena (corr), are the two sub-species of the Oriental Turtle Dove.

It is only the third time the Orientalis has been seen in Britain since 1881 and the Oriental Turtle Dove only nine times in total. Mr Akers – a keen bird watcher since the age of seven – said: ”I immediately noticed its red eyes, red feet, white markings and distinctive brown and back tortoiseshell feathers. They usually migrate to Pakistan so this bird must have lost its way somehow. It is a very pretty bird. The birds are quite habitual by nature and I called the RSPB on Monday to come out and confirm it. We then put the word out to bird watchers.”

All the #5 fees will be donated to Bird Life International and Bird Life Malta, which works to protect the doves. Mark Thomas, an investigations officer with the RSPB who was on hand outside Mr Aker’s house yesterday, said the sighting was extremely important to ornithology in Britain. He said: ”It’s tremendously exciting – we are here today because of the huge interest in this bird. Our message is that this should encourage people to feed birds in their gardens – you never know what might turn up.”

However, the elusive bird only made a brief appearance yesterday morning but had not been seen since 8am. Only the first group of ten – who were admitted into the kitchen at 6.30am – got to see the bird. ”It turned up this morning, but has gone away again now – we have several hundred frustrated people outside,” said Mr Akers. Ian Lewington, a local volunteer bird recording officer, said strict rules were being enforced to keep back over-eager twitchers. He said: ”We are stewarding the operation. We have a number of people on the door and are managing the queue – which stretches up to the end of the road.”

The Oriental Turtle Dove, also known as the Rufous Turtle Dove, is most commonly found in countries such as Russia, Siberia and Afghanistan. In the winter the birds migrate across to Pakistan and India, southeast Asia and southern Japan. This small species has similar in plumage to its European counterpart, the Turtle Dove, but is a little larger. It has a black and white striped patch on the side of its neck, but the breast is less pink than its Western relative. The orange-brown wing feathers of Turtle Dove are also replaced with a browner hue, and darker centres and the tail is wedge shaped. The Orientalis sub-species has a grey tip to the tail.  Its call is quite different from the purr of the Turtle Dove and is described as having a four-syllable “her-her-oo-oo” sound.

MORRIS PHOTOGRAPHIC are offering a prize of a Bill Oddie Venture waistcoat to the best photograph taken of our rare visitor. Photographs must be taken in our locality and be the property of the applicant. Applicants can drop their photographs or download an image in-store. Images will be displayed on their Facebook page and their Blog.
Closing date for Applicants will be March 15th 2011
UNIT 9 Worseter Rd Estate (0) 8454 30 20 30  
www.morrisphoto.co.uk
 
lynn@morrisphoto.co.uk

TWITCHER IN CHIEF STEVE AKERS OF THE LEYS!

 

Turtle dove 'still in Chipping Norton area'     Friday 18th February

 

 

'£50,000 spent to tell council staff their jobs are gone'

CASH-STRAPPED council bosses are today expected to cut libraries, youth centres and care home places, spent £50,000 on management consultants to help them make savings. Armed with personality tests, the consultants were drafted into County Hall to help make about 30 managers redundant in a bid to save £1m.  Staff facing redundancy took psychometric tests in competency, skills and experience. But Labour group leader Liz Brighouse was outraged by the decision to spend money on external help when the council was cutting social services, libraries and youth work. She said: “It’s £50,000 to bring in consultants to tell people they haven’t got a job. It’s complete madness. The Barton and Churchill councillor said in-house human resources teams could have carried out the work and the cash used for threatened services instead. She added: “That amount of cash could have kept some people in a job or paid for a youth worker in Wood Farm giving young people 365 days of support. Instead we’re paying two and half times that youth worker’s salary to tell someone they haven’t got a job.”

 

 Gt Tew ‘Festival will be a feast of guilty pleasure

A MIXTURE of grizzled rockers, fresh-faced singers and boisterous new acts will grace the stage for a new-look Oxfordshire music festival. Cornbury Festival, which has taken place over two days each summer for the past seven years, is being relaunched as a three-day festival on a new site. Having parted company with its former site, Cornbury Park in Charlbury, the festival will take place over the weekend July 1-3, at Great Tew, near Chipping Norton.

And organiser Hugh Phillimore is celebrating with his strongest ever bill – headlined by what he described as a selection of guilty pleasures. They include three-chord rockers Status Quo, chart-topping singer-songwriter James Blunt, and vintage rock band The Faces – featuring original members Ronnie Wood and Kenney Jones, and new vocalist Mick Hucknall, of Simply Red. They will be joined by Ray Davies, former frontman of The Kinks, 1980s pop icon Cyndi Lauper, disco diva Sophie Ellis Bextor, Californian popsters The Like, and Canadian artist Buffy Sainte Marie – a member of the Cree Indian community (pictured left). Also playing will be award-winning folk big-band Bellowhead boasting melodeon player John Spiers, from Wootton, near Abingdon; 2009 X Factor star Olly Murs; pop princess Eliza Doolittle; and Irish rockabilly performer Imelda May.

Mr Phillimore said: “We’re proud to present what we think is our best line-up ever. We have lots of guilty pleasures, as well as some legends, national treasures, and bright young things. It is very diverse, but it all hangs pretty well together. It will be our best ever.” He also promised an “impressive” surprise act would be playing the main stage on the Sunday.

 

‘Crime will soar if youth centres cut’

YOUNG people drove home their message that crime will soar if youth centres close. Dozens of teenagers from Oxfordshire youth centres turned out to at a public meeting at Oxford Town Hall to call on the county council to scale back proposals to axe funding for 20 youth centres.

Youth centres under threat: Saxon Centre in Headington, Cutteslowe, Wolvercote, Bampton, Burford, Carterton, Chalgrove, Chiltern Edge, Chinnor, Chipping Norton, Cholsey, Eynsham, Faringdon, Henley, Standlake, Thame, Wallingford, Wantage, Watlington, Wheatley.

Instead council bosses plan to rely on seven ‘hubs’ tackling teenage pregnancy, drug use, school exclusion and youth offending. The proposals will save £4.2 m over four years. Matty Yallop, 16, from Carterton, helped organise Thursday’s meeting.Among the speakers was Steph Green, a tutor in youth and community work at Ruskin College, Oxford. Wood Green school pupil   Mr Yallop said many county councillors attended and listened. He said: “Young people accept there have to be changes but we don’t understand why another service for non-vulnerable young people is being taken away. Prevention is better than a cure. Youth centres work with young people to keep them out of trouble.”

Nicky Wishart, 12, from Eynsham, formed the Save All UK Youth Centres Facebook page, which has 2,000 members. He said: “There will probably be people on the streets, drugs, and things like that. I think the council realise that but don’t think it is a priority.”

Police have warned closing youth services will cause a rise in crime, but county council leader Keith Mitchell said there was no automatic link. He called on parents, schools and volunteers to provide alternative facilities.

 

Olympic hurdler tumbles with the tots

OLYMPIC champion Sally Gunnell visited Oxfordshire yesterday to teach youngsters about fitness and healthy eating.

The 400-metre hurdles champion met children aged six months to seven years who attend Tumble Tots activities group at Chipping Norton Town Football Club, in Walterbush Road. Mrs Gunnell said: “It was fantastic for me to get out and see for myself the energy and enjoyment the toddlers and the mums were having.”

Robyn Bissett, who runs the group, said: “It was really lovely to have her along. I think the children responded really well to her, there was a bit of excitement in the air. The event was about teaching the kids to eat healthily when they are young.” Kingham mum Rachel Tustain, who attended with 14-month-old son Edward, said: “It was really lovely for the children, and it was great for them to have a role model.”

 

The inside guide to Chipping Norton

Downing Street still refuses to disclose on which day over Christmas Rebekah Brooks, chief executive officer of News International, entertained David and Samantha Cameron, Rupert Murdoch and his son James at her home in north Oxfordshire, near Chipping Norton. Students of the shadowy "Chipping Norton set" will not be surprised by the group's disinclination to discuss its innermost workings.

This characteristic secrecy has only increased my ambition to arrange guided tours of the "Chipping Norton triangle" for American tourists and other interested parties, starting in my home in North Oxford. There is, of course, a legitimate dispute amongst scholars as to who are bona fide members of the set, and where exactly the "triangle" begins.

The Camerons and Brookses are obviously founder members, as are the PR magnifico Matthew Freud and his wife Elisabeth Murdoch. The car-mad Jeremy Clarkson of BBC2's Top Gear is also paid up, but I draw the line at Simon Kelner, editor-in-chief of this newspaper, partly because he lives in Woodstock, strictly speaking outside the "triangle", and partly because he does not have the necessary right-wing credentials. Unless we maintain rigorous geographical and political criteria, this thing is going to get out of hand.     Stephen Glover

 

 

Blur's Alex James to host music and food festival at his home

Blur bassist Alex James is to hold a music and food festival in the grounds of his Oxfordshire estate.  James, who in recent years has become renowned as an award-winning cheesemaker, has now decided to venture into the world of festival organising. He'll host a four-day event called Harvest from September 9-12 at his farm in Kingham, Chipping Norton.

The Independent reports that he is billing the event as set to showcase "the very best of the British food scene alongside a soundtrack of the finest bands around". So far KT Tunstall and Steve Earle have been confirmed to play the festival. James said: "We'll throw open the farm gates for Harvest this September. My family are looking forward to a celebration of all our favourite things – food, the farm and music. What more could we ask for?"  As well as music, Harvest will feature cookery master classes, pop-up restaurants, gardening workshops and a farmers' market.

 

Nordic Walking comes to Chipping Norton!

Nordic Walking is a great workout that tones the whole body.  Burns 46% more calories than ordinary walking   Great for back, neck and shoulder problems    Easy on the knees and joints   Suitable for all levels  Sociable, safe outdoor exercise  Nordic Walking is an enhancement of ordinary walking – it makes something we can all do…twice as effective! It is a specific fitness technique and is not to be confused with trekking, hill walking or rambling.

Nordic Walking poles add two major benefits to going for a walk, they use the upper body muscles  and they propel you along, making it feel easier to work quite hard!  In order to gain maximum benefit from Nordic Walking, it is essential to learn the correct technique from a qualified instructor licensed by Nordic Walking UK. The new course starts on 9th of February and runs every Wednesday for 4 weeks at 1.30pm.  The course costs £10 per person and includes the use of the poles during the course. For more information and to book on please contact Claire Goodenough on 07813012722 or email Claire.goodenough@westoxon.gov.uk  Places are limited so please book early to avoid disappointment.

 

Alice Powell lands top award again


Alice Powell, the most promising female racing driver in the country, has picked up a top award for the second year running. The 17-year-old from Chipping Norton, who became the Formula Renault BARC champion, was named the British Woman Racing Drivers Club’s elite gold star winner for her success in 2010. In front of TV crews and an army of photographers, Powell was presented with the award by BBC TV Formula 1 presenter Jake Humphrey.

The award is made on merit to a junior member who has shown the capability of and aspires to become a professional driver. Powell said: “I am so glad to have won this award, and this is a great way to start the year. To have it presented by Jake is brilliant and he wished me the best of luck for the year!” This year, she hopes to compete in the Formula Renault UK Championship, which receives live coverage on ITV.

 

 

WODC is one of 13 councils who have abandoned
weekly bin rounds since the general election

Town halls have continued to switch to fortnightly rounds despite a pledge by Eric Pickles, the Conservative Communities and Local Government Secretary, that weekly collections were "a basic right for every English man and woman". Among the areas no longer getting weekly collections is West Oxfordshire, where David Cameron has his constituency home. Figures provided by 237 of Britain's 380 councils show that 13 have abandoned weekly bin rounds in all or part of their area since the general election in May, moving 506,000 households to fortnightly collections. Eight of them are Tory-controlled, including West Oxfordshire. It means the number of British homes with fortnightly collections has risen to at least 6.9 million. A further 10 councils said they planned to switch to fortnightly collections in future. None had returned from fortnightly to weekly collections, or planned to do so.

Within a year the number of homes with fortnightly collections is on course to overtake the number with weekly rounds. Recent years have seen a steady stream of councils trying to increase the proportion of waste they recycle by switching from weekly rounds to so-called alternate weekly systems, in which recyclable rubbish is collected one week and residual waste the next. The last Labour government was accused of encouraging the trend by imposing targets on councils for the amount of waste recycled.

On coming to office, Mr Pickles scrapped the targets and declared: "I fully support all those households who are demanding the restoration of the weekly bin collection. It's a basic right for every English man and woman to be able to put the remnants of their chicken tikka masala in their bin without having to wait a fortnight for it to be collected."

Yet despite the changes introduced by the Coalition, there are still incentives for town halls to scrap weekly collections. Landfill taxes mean that councils face charges of about £70 for every ton of non-recycled rubbish sent to landfill, while local authorities are ranked in league tables which aim to promote recycling.

Doretta Cocks, founder of the Campaign for Weekly Waste Collection, said ministers were in "muddle" over the issue. "It is very disappointing because they were so vociferous about it in opposition," she said. Councils will be using the need to save money as the next excuse for making these changes, which are deeply unpopular with residents. Piles of uncollected rubbish can seriously affect people's quality of life."

However, Mr Pickles last week warned councils that fortnightly collections were unpopular at the ballot box. He said: "If councils want to continue to have fortnightly collections, then good luck to them in facing their electorates."

Reply from WODC

The Editor   Sunday Telegraph

Dear Sir,

Reading your front page article on bin collections last Sunday (23 January), it is clear that your reporter has not understood the information we supplied him about waste collections at West Oxfordshire District Council and regrettably has written an inaccurate and misleading article.

Your article refers to councils switching to fortnightly waste collection rounds and cites West Oxfordshire as one of these. Untrue - West Oxfordshire continues to operate weekly collection rounds.

In West Oxfordshire each week all households have a food waste collection and each week all households have a recycling collection. Recycling collected includes plastics, glass, paper, cardboard, metal, tins, foil, batteries, textiles and shoes. Collecting all of these materials weekly, means there is very little left for the residual waste bin which is collected on alternating weeks with free garden waste collections.

Clearly our scheme is not the same as the one he describes of councils collecting recyclable rubbish one week and residual waste the next.

Our current scheme was introduced in November 2010 and we believe it is a model for other councils as we are achieving high recycling rates without inconveniencing residents. Feedback has been extremely positive.

 Yours sincerely

David Harvey

Cabinet Member for Environment

 

Everything clear now folks ED

 


 

Michelin hand out their annual stars

Every January chefs across Britain nervously await the publication of the red Michelin Guide, which dishes out stars and Bib Gourmands, as well as rating hotels.  The Carpenter’s Arms, in Burford, has been awarded a Bib Gourmand in the Michelin Guide 2011 for serving “good food at reasonable prices” joining 116 restaurants nationwide.  The award is seen as the first indication a restaurant is on the company’s radar, with some going on to win a highly coveted Michelin star.  One pub to win a Bib Gourmand was 

The Masons Arms, in Chipping Norton and the Kingham Plough both retained the award.

Guide editor Rebecca Burr praised the restaurants included this year. She said: “There is no doubt that 2010 was a difficult year but those hotels and restaurants that rep-resented value for money, at what-ever price, were the ones who were best placed to weather the storm.

 

Chipping Norton School victorious in U19 Rugby District League

On Tuesday 11th January Chipping Norton School played Burford School in the final of the U19 District League at Chipping Norton Rugby Club. In extremely difficult conditions both teams played very well and were a credit to their schools.

After a tense first half, in which Chipping Norton scored two tries, it was all set up for an exciting second half. Burford’s reply came through a penalty to make the score 10 points to 3. On a number of occasions Burford came close to scoring a try but Chipping Norton showed terrific defensive qualities to keep them out and eventually win the game 23 points to 3. Proud Chipping Norton Captain Sam Allen went up to collect the shield on behalf of the team. Overall, it was an outstanding season in all respects for the Senior team. In total 11 games were played with 10 wins and the only loss coming against a very strong Cokethorpe team.

This promises to be an exciting couple of years for Chipping Norton students as they are busy raising money for their second sports tour to South Africa in July 2012. This sees the Senior Hockey and Rugby Teams playing against local teams and being billeted by South African families. For further information please contact Mr Thomas, Head of PE on 01608 649414.

 

"Fun and Energetic" Mum of Three Succumbs to Flu within 24 hours

TRIBUTES have been paid to a mum-of-three who died just 24 hours after falling ill with flu. Tracy Watkins, 47, passed away at the Horton Hospital, in Banbury less than a day after she started displaying flu-like symptoms. Her husband Richard last night paid tribute to his “fun and energetic” wife who was heavily involved in life in West Oxfordshire.

Mr Watkins, of Over Norton, near Chipping Norton, said his wife, an otherwise fit and healthy yoga enthusiast, first became ill on Friday. He said the family had all been suffering with flu like symptoms and called for a doctor to visit. Mr Watkins, also 47, said: “On Friday morning the doctor called around to look at us, and he also gave us some antibiotics for the chest, just in case there was an infection. Then on Friday evening she became very ill and we had to call for an ambulance. Just from looking at her you could tell she was very ill.” He said his wife was pronounced dead at the Horton on Saturday morning.

Mr Watkins said the coroner told him initial post mortem examination results on his wife showed she had congested lungs, as a result of a flu-related illness. The Health Protection Agency had also contacted him and told him there was also evidence of invasive streptococcus, an infection that can make its way into the blood, deep muscle and fat tissue or the lungs.

Mrs Watkins ran Byline Communications, which worked on events including the Cornbury Festival. Mr Watkins, who met his wife while they were both studying at Reading University, said: “She was fun and energetic, a fantastic mother, who managed to balance her work and life perfectly. She had a huge amount of friends.”

Simon Duffy, headmaster at Chipping Norton School, described the news as devastating. Mrs Watkins worked with the school on a number of projects, including arranging for winners of the school’s Battle of the Bands competition to play at Cornbury Festival. Mr Duffy said: “She was great fun and incredibly bright and energetic. She was always willing to give you her time, always smiling, always positive.” Hugh Phillimore, organiser of the Cornbury Festival, said: “She was a wonderful friend and colleague and we miss her very much.”

 

COUNCILLOR GREENWELL IS FINED AFTER ROW WITH NEIGHBOUR

A Chipping Norton Town Councillor has been fined after a neighbourhood dispute turned sour. Keith Greenwell - a member of the Chippy First party - was fined after resisting arrest when police visited his house to investigate a public order incident on July 12th.

In a hearing last Thursday Caroline Oakley, prosecuting, told Banbury Magistrates how Mr Greenwell was having an ongoing dispute about a piece of land between his house and a neighbouring property. The land which leads out to a garage and shed is used by neighbours and is covered by a covenant which states it can only be accessed on foot rather than by car. When Mr Greenwell saw his neighbour drive across the land he told her to stop driving, used abusive language towards her and banged on her vehicle.

The court viewed a video of a hidden police camera showing officers arriving at Mr Greenwell's house on July 22nd. When questioned about the earlier incident he closed the door and refused to be arrested. Once police had finally got inside Mr Greenwell's house and got him outside, he used threatening and abusive language to the officers on duty.

Matthew Correy, defending, said:" My client has entered a guilty plea at the earliest opportunity today that is available for him to do so. We have seen from the videos that the police were quite heavy-handed with Mr Greenwell and he did suffer some fairly bad injuries, including injuries to his head and wrist. This neighbourhood dispute has bee ongoing for some time and he was a man at the end of his tether so his behaviour was out of character" Mr Correy added that Mr Greenwell's vehicle was also damaged by the neighbour, who was using  the concrete area to gain access to the garage after carrying out building work on their property. When he was ignored by the neighbour, the court was told four calls made by to the police about his car being damaged were not followed up.

Concluding the hearing, chairman of the bench, Malcolm farley said: "We have been considering two matters here today, both of which you have pleaded guilty to. We have taken into account your early guilty plea and the fine we are imposing is half the costs the Prosecution Service have asked for"  Mr Greenwell was fined a total of £520, which included £335 for the public order offence and £150 for obstructing a police officer in their duty.  An earlier charge of assault had been dropped.

 

Some more background from Keith

Here’s some background to my fine last week which I hope is useful.  I live in a row of four cottages at Southcombe. . My house is at the end - No 1.  At the side of my house is a piece of land with a drive leading to my garage and some other outbuildings. There is also an area of hard standing. Cottage No 2  owns one of the outbuildings and some hard standing. However No 2 has no right of vehicle access to either the outbuilding or the hard standing. They only have access on foot. This is clearly stated in the deeds and was clear when the present owners of No 2 bought the house four years ago. Daft but typical in situations where farm cottages are sold off over a period of time and different restrictions are introduced into conveyances.

From the moment they moved in No2 residents continually ignored the restrictive covenant and drove across the area over which they have a right to pedestrian access. Having taken legal advice we were told that we must challenge them at every opportunity when they did this in order to prevent an easement being created.  We started doing this.  I then  had a visit from a constable from Witney because the woman at No2  had complained to the police about harassment. I explained the circumstances and TVP eventually took no further action. The breaches of the covenant in the deeds continued and we carried on making challenges and also engaged a solicitor to start proceedings against No 2.

In individual incidents my car window was smashed and the complete length of my car was gouged by a screwdriver. I had strong grounds for believing that my neighbour was involved . In the first case the  responsibility was admitted and the damage paid for. In the second case the police gave me a crime number and refused to get involved.

We continued to challenge the residents of No 2 each time we saw them across the to which they only had a right to pedestrian access. On one occasion my wife and I were walking back from the garden when the woman got into her car, an old black VW Golf. As we were walking across she drove at me and hit me. My wife reported the incident to the police. We had a visit a week or so later from a couple of officers who took statements. We were eventually told they were taking no action

It would be tedious to describe any more of the many many incidents which followed – suffice it to say that our life became hell.. I will now turn to what happened on July 12th.  This is the incident which led to my court appearance when I was charged with abusive behaviour towards the police. This incident occurred when my car was once again scratched down the full length of one side. It was fine when I parked at about 10.30PM but when I went to use it at 08.30 the next morning it had been vandalised I had seen the woman from No 2 walk down the side of it earlier that morning. I rang TVP and was told they would take no action as I had not actually seen her scratch the car. Shortly after this I confronted the man at No 2  and asked him to come and look at the damage that had been done. As was his usual practice he just stood and said nothing, My wife Janette who was across on the garden with the dogs walked back and said leave it and go into the house which I did.

Ten days later on July 25th two Constables and a PCSO turned up in two cars at my back door and announced that they had come to arrest me for an alleged assault on the man next door. I told them that they had got it wrong and it was him  that they should be arresting.. At this they became aggressive, and I was forced to the ground and beaten up by the two PCs, arrested and taken to Banbury. It was clear to me that the constables had come looking for trouble. Why else would they need two PC’s and a PCSO plus a police van on hand to take me to the police station.

In the past we have attempted to reach an amicable settlement with the owner of No 2 but they have just ignored the correspondence from our solicitors while continuing to repeatedly breach the covenant. What mystifies us is how the police could repeatedly ignore the many reports and complaints we made and refuse to take any action. Yet in the case of the July 12th incident they accepted an unsubstantiated account  from the residents of No 2  and chose to proceed directly to my arrest . They should surely not have been surprised that they met some resistance to this high-handed course of action.

This is how Keith looked when he got back from his police interview in Banbury. ED

   

   

Journalists looking for more background on this story are invited to ring 07860 210 191
 

 

Local Planners are now all at sea without a paddle.

The poor old Planners don't know where they are. They were happily plodding on with a Local Development Plan - producing strategies, maps and documents. Consulting all over the shop. Chippy Town Council had their arms twisted a year ago to agree to a figure of 300 new homes for development. We were told this magic figure would get us a new primary School.

Move on a year. The new Coalition government have torn up the whole process. Its all going to be decided locally from now on. Back to the drawing board. Last week the WODC Cabinet met to start again.... The Witney Gazette reports:

"HOUSING chiefs are pressing ahead with a 4,300-home development blueprint for West Oxfordshire. The district council is sticking to the 4,300 target imposed by the Labour Government, even though the coalition Government said councils now have the final say. Some 1,000 homes would be built in west Witney instead of north Witney. It has not decided whether 1,000 homes will be built east or west of Carterton. Plans for 200 homes off London Road, Chipping Norton, have been scrapped."

Is that all clear? What it says to me is that we have wasted hours discussing a development plan for Chippy over the last few years which is now out of the window with nothing in its place. Welcome to the new "Localism" agenda.

 

Charlbury station car park to be extended

CHARLBURY railway station’s busy car park could be extended. Rail chiefs are looking at extending the car park by up to 100 spaces as a spin-off from the project to reinstate double track on the Cotswold Line. The £67m project will reinstate two tracks on the popular Cotswold Line rail route between Oxford and Worcester, to allow more train services and improve punctuality. They are using former allotments next to the car park to store equipment but the site could be used for the extra spaces when work is completed in late summer. Redoubling scheme manager David Northey said: “We are currently exploring opportunities for this site and looking for ways to finance the work.” The present car park has 158 spaces and is often full.

The move was welcomed by Nick Potter, chairman of Charlbury Town Council, who said: “We all know there’s insufficient car parking at the station. This, along with charges at the station, forces commuters to park in the streets and the car park in the town, causing problems for residents, visitors and shoppers. Charlbury is a very important station, serving the surrounding villages as well as the town, and deserves an extended car park.”

 

Top School turn in a brilliant GSCE result.   Well done!

League tables chart the performance of English secondary schools in GCSE – and equivalent – qualifications taken in 2010. Schools are ranked by the percentage of pupils gaining at least five A* to C grades, including the key subjects of English and mathematics.

These figures have been the subject of controversy in the past. For example, the percentage of Top School kids getting 5 GCSEs at level A* - C (including English and Maths)  suddenly nosedived from 65% in 2007 to 54% in 2008 and nobody seemed to know why.

This year Simon Duffy has led the school back up the tables to where they belong. Very close to the top. Brilliant performance. Well done everyone.
 

32 State Schools in Oxfordshire
(Excluding Special Needs Schools)
5 GCSE A*-C:
inc Eng
& Maths
Bartholomew, OX29 4AP 73%
Matthew Arnold, OX2 9JE 73%
Lord Williams's, OX9 2AQ 69%
Faringdon Community College, SN7 7LB 69%
Chipping Norton, OX7 5DY 68%
Blessed George Napier Catholic and Sports College, OX16 9DG 67%
The Cherwell, OX2 7EE 66%
John Mason, OX14 1JB 66%
King Alfred's (A specialist Sports College), OX12 9BY 65%
Wood Green, OX28 1DX 62%
The Henry Box, OX28 4AX 62%
Burford and Community College, OX18 4PL 62%
The Warriner, OX15 4LJ 62%
Wheatley Park, OX33 1QH 59%
St Birinus, OX11 8AZ 59%
Didcot Girls', OX11 7AJ 57%
The Marlborough Church of England, OX20 1LP 57%
Wallingford, OX10 8HH 57%
Fitzharrys, OX14 1NP 57%
The Cooper, OX26 4RS 56%
Kingham Hill, OX7 6TH 56%
Larkmead, OX14 1RF 56%
Bicester Community College, OX26 2NS 55%
Carterton Community College, OX18 1BU 51%
Cheney, OX3 7QH 50%
Icknield Community College, OX49 5RB 50%
St Gregory the Great VA Catholic Secondary, OX4 3DR 44%
Gosford Hill, OX5 2NT 44%
Banbury, OX16 9HY 40%
North Oxfordshire Academy, OX16 0UD 38%
Oxford, OX4 2AU 31%
Oxford Academy, OX4 6JY 31%

 

 

County councillors say "Don't touch our allowances!"

A BID to slash county councillor allowance payouts by £500,000 a year has been quashed. Labour members wanted all entitlements cut by 50 per cent, and the savings invested in under-fire services.  But ruling Tories, with Liberal Democrats, voted down the idea and agreed recommendations by an independent panel to freeze allowances at their current levels.  Labour group leader Liz Brighouse tabled the 50 per cent cut at a meeting of full council yesterday. She said: “The council needs to agree a scheme that is appropriate to the economic situation and considers all the staff who are losing jobs.”

County councillors are entitled to a basic allowance of £8,295. In addition, cabinet members can claim an extra £12,442. The leader of the council is entitled to an allowance of £33,179. Those opposed to halving allowances said reduced payments would deter people from standing for council, particularly those with families. Council leader Keith Mitchell said Labour’s proposed 50 per cent cut was aimed at grabbing headlines and added: “The reality is if you do not have a decent (allowance) scheme you will not get people to fill critical roles.”

 

And then there were five

PUBGOERS in Chipping Norton have been dealt a further blow after a plan was submitted to turn a watering hole into flats. A bid has been made to convert The Bell Inn, in West Street, into two homes, and build a further two new homes on the plot. Three out of eight town centre pubs are closed, with The Albion Tavern and Off The Beaten Track also shut. Only five left.

West Oxfordshire District Council last month gave permission to knock down The Albion Tavern, in Burford Road, for seven homes. Patrick McHugh, a council member for Chipping Norton, said: “I believe, at one point, there were 22 pubs in the Chipping Norton area. One of the things is that people are getting out of the pub habit, with so many Government incentives given to supermarkets to sell cheaper alcohol. I think it is very sad to see so many close. But if the culture changes, it is difficult to support all the pubs. It’s not their fault. They are just getting the rug pulled under them from all directions.”

In its planning application for The Bell, developer Giantflow said the last ten to 15 years had “seen a dramatic shift in social drinking trends”. Pubs had been hit by cheap supermarket alcohol, a ban on smoking in public places, tightening of drink-drive legislation, and a drop in income for the lower-paid, it added. It states: “The net effect has been a marked rise in pub and hotel closures. Only in highly-populated urban areas can pubs survive on wet sales alone.” The pub got through 157 barrels in 2003, but this fell to 67 in 2008, it added. It states Punch Taverns sold the pub after the “collapse of the business”, and said the venue was “within reasonable distance” of the King’s Arms, also in the town centre.

 

Something to sell? Offering a job? Announcing an event?
Place your own ad in 
CHIPPY CLASSIFIEDS  It's free!

 

.....that was the year that was.....
A few highlights picked out of a hectic Chippy 2010
 

JAN
Keith Greenwell gets his project team underway to completely re-furbish the Town Hall steps. The project will take all year. Two architectural students from CNS have been co-opted. The year starts with deep snow and impossible road conditions.
 

FEB
Long time (if ever) that we had a Town Clerk take Maternity Leave. Vanessa will be away for a year but we are all hoping she will be back early in 2011. She left with all our best wishes.

MARCH
Solar panels being fixed at the Lido - ready for the seasons opening. An even bigger and better Music Festival this year A glittering Mayors Ball

APRIL
PCT wobbles on its commitment that nurses at the new hospital can continue to work for the NHS. The placards come out again for a protest march.
Lido reopens with a £140000 new solar heating system.

MAY
General Election and Dave becomes PM (just) But more importantly Annie Roy Barker stands against Gina for Chunky's district
council seat. Amazingly she wins. First example of somebody who knows absolutely nothing about Chippy being elected to the District Council Being a Tory is enough these days!

 

JUNE
The "Chain Gang" - The  Mayor and the new  Leader of Oxfordshire County Council Hilary Biles - continue their double act at the second celebration of Armed Forces Day .

JULY
Art from all the town's Primary Schools is exhibited on the hoardings surrounding the Town Hall during the refurbishment of the steps. Superb Display The first Chipping Norton Festival is held in the Market Square with live music all afternoon. Big success

AUG
A group of university students start work on an architectural survey of an Iron Age settlement - just outside Chippy. The Chequers changes ownership and the Station Rd Antiques Centre goes up in flames with extensive damage to the roof.

SEPT
 Jazz Day is another superb success. Well done Mike Howes. Lido Auction (with a Sound of the 70s theme) run by Jeremy C raises another huge sum. Emma's Day takes over the Lido for another brilliant weekend.

OCT
Spectacular end to the season for Alice Powell as she wins the last race by a mile and secures the Formula Renault Championship, She will now drive in a senior group and is well on the way to realising her ambition to become the UK's first Formula 1 woman driver. Go Alice!

NOV
Sudden sad news that Gina had passed away. She will be badly missed. St Mary's was packed for a beautiful service at which her son and Rob Evans paid moving tributes.

DEC
Snow blankets the town
and brings everything to a standstill for several days. Justified moaning about the Council's gritting efforts. The state of the carparks and pavements is truly a disgrace. Still the Christmas lights look nice.

 

 

CN ALL STARS - a group of young musicians who are based
at Chipping Norton School and play swing, blues and rock 'n roll
have just launched their own excellent new website.
Created by Jamie Biles. Take a look. Its really good.

www.cnsallstars.com



 

 

A44A is a well-established group based in Woodstock
 doing great work to try and get the number of HGVs on the A44 reduced.
DOWNLOAD THE SIX-PAGE UPDATE HERE AND SEE HOW YOU CAN HELP

 

West Oxfordshire police fear impact of cutting youth centre cash

WEST Oxfordshire’s most senior police officer has warned youth centre cuts will see more youngsters getting into “mischief”. Chief inspector Jack Malhi, area commander for West Oxfordshire, spoke out over Conservative-run Oxfordshire County Council’s plan to cut funding. Centres in Bampton, Burford, Carterton, Chipping Norton, Eynsham and Standlake would lose cash. Mr Malhi said: “Young people are more likely to get into some mischief than not without the youth centres, and that will have an impact. As to what impact that will be, we don’t know. I suppose I would be a little bit worried. Each cut can have an impact on society, and we need to work together to minimise the impact. It may be that we need more big society initiatives, like people volunteering.” Yet he said he was not criticising Oxfordshire County Council.

Eynsham youth centre user Nicky Wishart, 12, welcomed Mr Malhi’s comments. Nicky, who held a protest outside Witney MP David Cameron’s constituency office over the proposed loss of the youth centre, said: “I strongly agree with what Jack Malhi has said. “I will probably end up on the street and getting into trouble if Eynsham youth centre closes.” Nicky, who hit headlines after being quizzed by police before the demo, added: “There’s always people that are complaining that young people don’t have anything to do, and now they are taking youth centres away.”

Adrian Coomber, deputy mayor of Carterton, said warned youths will be “at risk of getting into trouble”. He said: “We are a town of more than 15,000 people and, with RAF Brize Norton close by, we have a large number of young families, and therefore a much larger number of young people than other towns in the district.”

But county council leader Keith Mitchell said: “Closure of youth clubs does not automatically equate to a rise in crime. Youngsters are perfectly capable of being responsible young adults who do not indulge in antisocial behaviour with or without youth centres.” He said he hoped the community would take over the centres. The axe would hit 21 centres and save £4.2m.

And Councillor Charles Mathew, Tory county councillor for Eynsham, said: “I can see where Jack Malhi is coming from, however, the financial circumstances of the council made its cabinet decide that some youth centres should be deprived of funding. The problem is, if it isn’t youth centres, what other necessary expenditure would have to be axed?”

Mr Malhi’s comments echo comments made by Inspector Graham Dix, responsible for youth justice and engagement at the force. Insp Dix said: “The loss of those services would mean more opportunities for young people to get involved in crime and antisocial behaviour, so we would oppose their closure.” He said the force had not been consulted about the cuts.


 

I haven't let bone cancer hold me back

Despite serial amputations of her leg, Caroline Smail tells Victoria Lambert that she - accompanied by her trusty horse, Jigsaw - has no fears about taking part in the Boxing Day hunt.

 

WHEN Caroline Smail heads off to take part in the Boxing Day meet of the Heythrop Hunt in the Cotswolds, she’ll be hoping that Jigsaw, her cheeky gelding, just over 14 hands high, doesn’t play up too much. Earlier this summer, in a tussle with that much loved pony, who was trying to munch through a hedge, her foot got caught in a bramble. Unfortunately, for Caroline, in the ensuing scramble, her entire left leg fell off.
'It really isn’t as bad as it sounds,’ says Caroline, who is 30, and lives near Chipping Norton. 'My left leg is a prosthetic and it is always coming off at awkward moments. All I could do was sling it over the front of the saddle and head home. Unluckily, a van drove round the corner at that point; the driver took one look at me riding along with a false leg thrown across the saddle and crashed into the hedge too. I felt awful for him, but you have to see the funny side.’
Caroline has been seeing the funny side of a situation that would have taxed the best of us for 20 years. A childhood battle with bone cancer left her with a false knee and shin bone, placed inside her skin. After a series of infections and terrible pain, which went on for more than a decade, Caroline opted for complete amputation in 2007; a further operation this year has left her with just half a thighbone.
Yet throughout, Caroline has retained an optimism that stuns friends and family, organising major fundraising events for the charity Help for Heroes, talking to soldiers returning from Afghanistan as amputees, talking to the public on how it feels to miss a limb.
Her work is vital as the number of servicemen and women returning home missing at least one limb is reported to have increased five-fold. Official figures from the Defence Analytical Services and Advice centre (Dasa), part of the Ministry of Defence, show that in 2009 55 personnel suffered the “traumatic or surgical amputation” of one or more limb; in the first half of 2010, that figure was already 38. Yet few of us can ever know how these amputees feel or the challenges they face.

 

Never missed a year, never missed a day and never missed a street - collecting for Penhurst

That is how carol singing Trevor Cowlett has managed to bank £50,000 for charity in 50 years. The 78-year-old is celebrating half a century of singing Christmas carols to villagers in Kennington, raising cash for children at a special needs school. The private music teacher has been collecting money for Penhurst School, Chipping Norton, since he took his three young children out carol singing in 1960 with members of Kennington Methodist Church. Now he plays accordion for his own choir of singers. “It started as a bit of fun, then just grew and grew.” Deep snow, heavy rain, and an accordion splitting in two haven’t stopped him calling at every home in the village over the years.

Wendy Daw, 80, who has been listening to her neighbours singing carols since 1970, said: “The carol singers signify the official start of Christmas for me. They are wonderful, I always donate. “Trevor is such a dedicated man.” John Marson, 78, who has been shaking his collection box for 38 years, said: “There is amazing support. People wait on their doorstep for us, crowds come out on to the street to listen, and there are always lots of residents willing to help out. Sometimes, we have 50 villagers singing.” In 1960, the carol singers raised £100. Now, nearly £2,000 is donated. An anonymous donor often tops up the pot – sometimes doubling the amount.

Mr Cowlett has also helped raise £350,000 for Penhurst, by organising Kennington and District United Church Choir concerts. He wanted to help after visiting the school. Mr Cowlett began directing the choir 37 years ago. Penhurst School principal Stephen Bajdala-Brown, which offers residential care for children with multiple learning difficulties, said: “He is a wonderful man who does wonderful work.”

 

 

WODC offers fully funded private medical insurance to staff earning £24,000 or more. Currently 70 officers use the package.  Unbelievable.

COUNCIL bosses in West Oxfordshire have been criticised for spending £40,000 of taxpayers’ cash on private health insurance for top managers. West Oxfordshire District Council is the only council in Oxfordshire to offer the deal, which bosses said was needed to attract the best possible employees.

But the TaxPayers’ Alliance called the scheme “outrageous” because taxpayers already paid for the NHS. The council’s Simplyhealth package offers fully funded private medical insurance to staff earning £24,000 or more. Currently 70 officers use the package. This year it cost the council £39,736, a rise from £27,009 in 2005. The council was not able to say how many officers received the package in 2005.

Simon Hoare, cabinet member for finance (pictured left), said: “People were hired at the time and offers were made in order to ensure that we attracted the best officers we could, in order to deliver that quality of service council taxpayers expect. Historically, as part of some contracts, healthcare cover has been covered. To which, of course, employees also make contributions. What we can’t do is take away a benefit enshrined in someone’s contract of employment.We are not envisaging a need for any new recruitment where the need to offer healthcare is part of the package.”

But Emma Boon, campaign director of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “It’s outrageous that taxpayers are picking up the bill for council workers’ private healthcare cover. We are already paying for the NHS through our taxes and if that’s good enough for everyone else, it’s good enough for council staff. Many West Oxfordshire residents could never dream of being able to afford the privilege of private healthcare, it’s unfair to expect them to pay for it for someone else.”

Oxfordshire County Council, Cherwell District Council, Vale of White Horse District Council, South Oxfordshire District Council and Oxford City Council do not offer the package.

Edward Turner, the city council’s portfolio holder for finance, said: “We pay our staff and they pay their taxes, and that contributes to the NHS. We don’t see why we should hand over additional money to the private health sector. We would not want to send a message to people that they should be going private. It’s not for us to say how West Oxfordshire should pay its officers, but we wouldn’t consider it justified in Oxford.”

Richard Webber, Vale of White Horse District Council portfolio holder for finance, said: “Offering perks would be way down our list of priorities, particularly in these times of hardship we all face. We wouldn’t dream of going there at the moment.” He said offering perks could potentially be divisive and affect officer morale, but he said he was reluctant to criticise West Oxfordshire for offering it.

Witney resident James Robert-shaw, 55, said the cost was “unnecessary” in the current economy climate. He said: “Why should the public pay for it when we are all suffering

 

FAREWELL TO PENHURST HEADMASTER

PUPILS have bid a fond farewell to the principal who turned their struggling special school into a successful institution which has praised by education inspectors. The children, who have multiple learning difficulties, held up painted banners and sang songs to say goodbye to Stephen Bajdala-Brown, headteacher of Penhurst School, in Chipping Norton.

The outgoing head said: “I’m blessed. I have always loved coming to work. “I am really proud of the work the staff do with the young people. It really is a wonderful place to be.” Since joining the residential school as head six years ago, Mr Bajdala-Brown has led staff in achieving two outstanding Ofsted reports. Before he joined, the school had been on the edge of special measures. This month Ofsted commended the school for its work in the area. Working closely with the deputy, Derek Lyseight-Jones, Mr Bajdala-Brown focused on providing pupils with a greater range of therapies and greater one-on-one support. He said highlights included opening a home for adults at the school in 2006. Previously, students had to leave when they turned 19. He said: “There was nowhere for these guys to go, we couldn’t find places for them. Now, they are given residential care until they’re 25.” He also allowed the school to stay open for an extra 14 weeks a year. He added: “When I first arrived I felt that the school was tucked away. Now, the kids are seen as valued members of the community.”

Mr Lyseight-Jones, who will become the new principal, said: “Stephen has thrown himself wholeheartedly into the role. “He’s got lots of energy, is always willing to get involved, and has a determination to do everything in the best interests of the children.” Mr Bajdala-Brown, who was forced by staff to dress up as Elvis Presley for the Christmas party, is leaving to be the chief executive of Prior’s Court School in Thatcham, West Berkshire. He said: “There has been part of me that has thought ‘why am I leaving? But I won’t stay away; I’ll still come and visit.”


 


"On the Piste" by the Webmaster

 

  
"West Street" by Jim Crease

 

 
"Horsefair" by Andrew Cooke  &  "Over Norton" by Carol Henderson

 


"Rowell Way"   by Hannah Charles
 


The biggest Icicle in Town?  Kate Hickman

 

A NEW COALITION CUT
THAT REALLY MATTERS TO CHIPPY

The requirement for ambulances to attend serious but not life-threatening cases within 19 minutes has been dropped.

Ambulance services will still be required to respond to 75% of all category A (immediately life-threatening) calls within eight minutes.

The GMB union said the plan was a ''shocking scaling back'' of ambulance services currently provided to patients. But Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said the Government wanted to provide a ''balanced and comprehensive view'' of how emergency care works and stop the ''isolated'' focus on faster care. Justin Bowden, national officer of the GMB union, said: ''The announcement to scrap the 19 minute response time for ambulances is a shocking scaling back of the service currently provided to the public. Andrew Lansley says he knows what matters most to patients but misses what matters most to the public when they dial 999 - that an ambulance arrives, and arrives quickly. Mr Lansley's statements about timeliness of care, without a target time for ambulance crews to arrive on the scene is a euphemism for get there when you can".

 

More Gloom from the County Council

Dean Pit WILL close after all.  Funding to the  Chipping Norton Theatre will be cut completely. Half of Oxfordshire’s street lights will be turned off at 12.30am to save £350,000  Roads maintenance budgets will be cut by about £5m  1,000 council jobs will go Those were among the measures outlined by Oxfordshire County Council yesterday as it seeks to cut £155m from its budget over the next four years.

And as for the old folk. God help them. The council will cut £37m from its adult social care budget, with £20m reinvested to deal with the county’s ageing population. Personal budgets will be given to those in need, which will see the number of council care staff reduced. The authority hopes to cut the numbers admitted to care homes by providing more services at home. Council-funded transport for day services will be axed to save £1.3m.

I am told on very good authority that our Youth Centre will definitely be built. But there is no money to staff and run it.

Remember everyone. This is what you voted for!

 

School pupils fight for sports partnership

MORE than 3,500 people have teamed together to fight cuts to a school sports scheme. Youngsters involved in the North Oxfordshire Sports Partnership will now join other UK schemes in protesting to Downing Street on Tuesday. The partnership oversees the district’s 18,500 children in 56 schools, and runs teacher training, sports activities and competitions for ages five to 19. Supporters say it has boosted participation in sport from 25 to 90 per cent. But the partnership has seen its entire  budget cut by the Government. More than 3,500 people have added their names to a petition.

The campaign comes after Labour leader Ed Miliband read a letter out in Parliament from Jo Phillips, school sports coordinator for Chipping Norton, complaining about cuts to the partnership. In the letter, the teacher said: “I am devastated to witness the potential demise of this legacy with the sweep of a pen.” Mrs Phillips, who has been a PE teacher for 28 years and a school sports coordinator for eight, said said: “I really can’t believe that such a fantastic programme is being cut.” Mr Miliband read the letter to Prime Minister and Witney MP David Cameron during last week’s Prime Minister’s Questions.

He called the cut “daft”, adding: “Since 2002, we have seen an increase from 25 per cent to 90 per cent in the number of kids doing more than two hours of sport a week.” He called for Mr Cameron to make a U-turn as soon as possible. But Mr Cameron said the partnership simply did not work and insisted: “Only two in every five pupils play any competitive sport regularly in their school. That is a terrible record.” He said the money would now go directly to schools, adding: “That is the way that they will make a real difference.”

 

Last week our Youth Centre was safe. Now its under threat. What is happening?

20 youth centres will close unless volunteers can come to their rescue, as part of Oxfordshire County Council proposals to save £155m by 2015. The council yesterday announced plans to slash back youth services to save £4.2m.

But council leader Keith Mitchell said facilities could stay open if volunteers step in to run them when funding is phased out next year. He admitted: “This will lead to a reduction in services across the county. People are going to see things and places they have loved disappear. We did not get elected to close things down but to make things better, and  youth services are one of our most well-loved services. It is uncomfortable, but we have a national crisis in terms of the financial situation and we are all going to bear the pain.”

He said he was “confident” Big Society initiatives in towns and villages would save some but not all of the  youth centres.

Volunteers also have until early next year to propose ways of running otherwise doomed youth centres. Under County Hall plans, seven ‘hubs’ in the county’s larger towns will become centres of a restructured youth service, tackling school exclusion, teenage pregnancy, drug use, antisocial behaviour, youth offending and unemployment. Youth centres under threat are Saxon Centre in Headington, Cutteslowe, Wolvercote, Bampton, Burford, Carterton, Chalgrove, Chiltern Edge, Chinnor, Chipping Norton, Cholsey, Eynsham, Faringdon, Henley, Standlake, Thame, Wallingford, Wantage, Watlington, Wheatley.

Community worker Liz Edwards, of Cutteslowe Community Centre, warned closing youth centres would cause antisocial behaviour and teenage pregnancies to soar. She said: “We will have a lot of young people hanging around with nothing to do. It does not take a huge amount of imagination to realise what that will lead to.” The number of redundancies in youth services has not been confirmed,

Oxfordshire County Council leader Keith Mitchell told the Oxford Mail in a statement: “I fear petitions and protests will not be effective".

Meanwhile our County Councillor says that it has definitely been agreed that the Chippy Youth Centre will be built. The problem is finding the money to staff and run it. Her proposal is that a trust should be set up to run the Centre which will seek sponsorship and adopt a commercial approach to generating revenue from the building. Hilary is particularly keen on attracting some local business men to join the Board of Trustees. Volunteers to help run the youth activities will also be welcomed. Needless to say all this scrounging is being dignified by descriptions like "Big Society"

 

Bellringer Betty Retires after 40 Wonderful Years‏

Pictured  Left to Right John Benfield, Rosie Hall, Chris Harris, Joe Johnson, Betty Hawtin, John Beacham, and Les Waller. Missing from photo Emma Bailey

Betty Hawtin (in the blue top) has been ringing the bells at St Marys Church for over 40 years, and on Sunday 21st November she hung up her rope for the final time!   Over the years Betty has rung at over 2000 services and more than 250 wedding's! The other ringers and everyone at St Marys church wish Betty a happy retirement. She now plans to spend her Sunday mornings with her husband David or enjoying an occasional round of golf.

 

Glyn Watkins was the only Town Councillor at Monday's
meeting of Snowbeat.    Here is his report

Paul Aitken (the organiser of Snowbeat) started with a short presentation he had made showing a film of last year’s snow highlighting the serious problems encountered particularly around the Leys area (where he lives). Paul's presentation  included film of gritters standing idle at the old council yard next to Cromwell Park and showed the lack of salt in bins around the town. He commented to the OCC Highways representative present - Paul Wilson - that the criticism was nothing personal.

The discussion about path clearing was lively. There was a widely-held public belief that to clear snow left you open to prosecution in case of accidents. However this appears to be an urban myth. Someone commented that their insurance company told him not to clear snow for fear of being sued. But everyone knows insurance companies do not wish to ever get involved in litigation (much the same as they would prefer you not to drive your cars) Generally the view of the meeting was that people used this as an excuse to do nothing.

Paul Wilson said no one has ever been prosecuted for clearing the snow. However the footpath must not be left in a worse state. This means that once you have cleared the snow you shouldn't throw a bucket of water over it to clear it off because it will turn to ice (obviously). Ex-Mayor Don Davidson said ‘shopkeepers also have a duty to keep the footpath clear in front of their shops for their customers.  It was pointed out that homeowners also have a duty to the public to keep pathways clear on their property for people such as postmen, milkmen or visitors. This is true whether it is leaves, mud or toys, but for some reason snow seems to escape their responsibilities.

Unfortunately Paul Wilson of OCC was the bearer of bad news, he explained why last year’s road clearing was a fiasco and hopefully with increased salt stocks it would not happen again. However the salt bin news was not so good. Paul explained that the contract with the gritting company included a set number of bins, that is to say the number of bins in place when the contract was signed. These would be filled as per the contract. However  newer bins put in place after the contract are not part of the contract and would only be filled once.

It gets worse. He also said that with council cutbacks of up to 40% it is possible that the bins under contract may also be filled once only and that the bins may have signs on them telling homeowners not to take salt to use on their own property.

Councillor Watkins said that after last year the council have been looking at the idea of buying our own snow clearing equipment but certain aspects such as public liability, storage and insurance to use motorised equipment still needed to be clarified.

Congratulations to Paul on the excellent organisation of the meeting. Pity there wasn't a better turnout for this first get together. However the initiative  is certain to gain momentum and grow. Paul Aitken will publicise the next meeting.

Further details from Paul Aitken  home: 642039  w: 649310  paulaitken1@yahoo.co.uk.

 

JOBS FOR THE BABES?

Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt was under fire last night because his department gave a civil service post to the daughter of Lord Chadlington - a close business associate who is a major donor to the Tory party and one of the prime minister's political allies. Sources close to the coalition government told the Observer that the decision to employ Naomi Gummer, eldest daughter of Peter Selywn Gummer, the working peer Lord Chadlington, has "raised eyebrows" in Whitehall. While there is no suggestion of impropriety, it has revived concerns about ministerial appointments at a time when the government is encouraging an austerity drive.


Gummer, 26, who was once interviewed by the Times as a modern debutante, was made Hunt's parliamentary assistant, based in his private office, two years ago. But in June of this year, following the formation of the coalition, she was given a job within the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) that gave her a fixed-term civil service contract. The civil servant who had held the position moved to a different job within the department. One Whitehall insider said it was "not normal to take your researcher or parliamentary assistant into the civil service in this way". Another DCMS source confirmed the move was "highly unusual".


Gummer's appointment came weeks after the government announced there was to be a freeze on hiring in the civil service until April 2011 that would apply across all government departments, agencies and quangos. Over the summer Hunt attracted criticism when he talked of the "absolute pain" of losing his chauffeur-driven car while telling staff they faced massive job cuts. He told DCMS employees: "The best-case scenario is still going to be a scenario in which there are going to be bigger cuts than any of the areas we represent have ever had to face, probably in their history. We've made a small start with changes in policy on ministerial cars, which is an absolute pain, but we're all getting used to it."


Hunt, the MP for South West Surrey, became a multi-millionaire after founding a company, Hotcourses, that provides educational services. Records at Companies House reveal that Chadlington was a director between 2000 and 2004.


A brother of former Conservative party chairman John Gummer, Chadlington's links to the Tories are extensive. His country estate borders the Camerons' home in Oxfordshire and he is often described as the prime minister's closest political ally. As president of the Witney constituency party, where Cameron is the local MP, Chadlington was a major supporter of the prime minister's campaign to become Tory leader in 2005.


Records kept by the Electoral Commission show that Chadlington and the PR firm he runs, Huntsworth, have given more than £77,000 to the Tories between 2005 and 2010 in the form of donations and donations-in-kind.


A spokeswoman for Hunt said: "Naomi Gummer has been Jeremy Hunt's parliamentary assistant since July 2008. When Mr Hunt was appointed culture secretary in May 2010, Miss Gummer was employed by the department on a fixed-term contract to provide departmental support in addition to her previous role. This is in line with civil service appointment rules and was approved by the Cabinet Office."

 

When chippingnorton.net started six years ago we summarised the main worries people had about the town in 13 questions. We promised we would go on nagging until we got answers.  We have answers to only six so far!!!!!


The following questions have been answered

Q
What is happening to our hospital? When does building start?
A
Building began in July 2010. Opening in 2011  Three cheers and thanks to the Hospital Action Group
Q When do we get an Action Plan for the Horsefair Air Quality Management Area ?
A We have one involving HGV speed limits and lorry routes. However not much seems to be actually happening about it.
Q When do we get some pedestrian crossings at the East End of the town?
A There are two now. We still need one across Albion Street
Take another bow Councillor Biles
Q
When will the flower and shrub borders in our town start getting a bit of TLC?
A
A local company Toparius  kindly offered to look after the beds in the town centre this year  They are doing a fantastic job. Thanks to them from us all.
Q What is the Partnership for?

A The Partnership turned out to be for nothing. It spent a packet and folded having achieved nothing  What a waste of everyone's time

This question was answered but is back in the melting pot!
Q
Why is the Youth Club only open two nights a week?

A A deal was done in 2009 with OCC whereby the Town Council contribute £200,000  (from delling greystones) towards a new £1m Youth Centre which will be open five nights a week - including the weekend  Well done to everyone -  particularly Councillor Biles  Spring 2010 This deal has now been changed by OCC. They don't want the town's money any more. Not sure now whether things are going ahead or not. Winter 2010 The County is going ahead with building the Youth Centre but says it has no money to actually run it. Go figure.

The following questions have still not been answered after six years .... Unbelievable really
Q When do we start getting the promised help in creating new local jobs to replace the 4OO lost at Parker Knoll?

Q
When do we get a regular foot patrol by Police on Fridays and Saturdays around midnight in the Town Centre?

Q When will a proper ambulance be positioned in Chippy as promised?
Q
When will the proposals for a Minor Injuries Unit be published?

Q Why isn't there a disco for teenagers in the Town Hall every month? 
Q
When is 15 minute parking along Topside going to be officially sanctioned?

Q Why can't we have a Visitor Information Centre ?  

 

HOP ABOARD THE CHIPPY TUBE!
Councillor Glyn Watkins has designed a brilliant new town map.
No prizes for guessing what inspired it!
See the full-size version on the Information Board in the Market Square
Download a print quality pdf of the map HERE

 

 

Something to sell? Offering a job? Announcing an event?
Place your own ad in 
CHIPPY CLASSIFIEDS  It's free!

 

 

There's been some tidying up of this Front Page.
The following articles are now in the Archives
 

GINA BURROWS TRIBUTE
MIKE WATKINS TRIBUTE

SAINSBURY DEVELOPMENT 2010
HOSPITAL CAMPAIGN 2010

SCHOOL ART AT THE TOWN HALL
TOWN COUNCIL MEETINGS 2010
HILARY VISITS ST MARY'S SCHOOL
FAIRYTALE  FARM
ELECTION 2010
WORTH'S BUSES GIVE UP WITNEY ROUTE
PARISH PUMP 2010
ANTIQUES CENTRE FIRE
REMEMBRANCE DAY 2009 &2010
REVIEW OF THE YEAR 2009

EMMAS DAY & JAZZ DAY & CHIPPY FESTIVAL DAY
IRON AGE SETTLEMENT
TIME CAPSULE
ALICE POWELL WINS
HORSEFAIR WINDOWS
SPORTS AWARDS 2010
COUNTY COUNCIL ISSUES 2010
DEVELOPMENT OF CHIPPY
TOWN HALL MATTERS 2010
AIR QUALITY - THE SAGA CONTINUES
PLAYBUS
ALL CHANGE AT THE CHEQUERS
SCHOOLS 2010
NEW YOUTH CENTRE 2009/10
FOOD FESTIVAL
ARMED FORCES DAY
HIGHLANDS DAY CENTRE
DAVE OUT & ABOUT

 

SNOW PICS 2010  HILARY BILES WORKS HER SOCKS OFF!     TRIBUTE TO TONY CRIPPS    
TOWN COUNCIL MEETINGS  BEER FESTIVAL 2008    GLYME VALLEY GATES  
DAVE HAIGH AWARDS 2008 & 2009    MISKER ELECTED
COUNTY COUNIL ELECTION 2009   CHIPPING NORTON LIDO IN 2008 & 2009   LAW & ORDER 2009
CCTV   BRUCE & SHEILA BECOME HONORARY CITIZENS   AMBULANCE SERVICE 2008 & 2009
COUNCIL MATTERS 2008/9   HOSPITALNEWS 2008&2009   PLANNING ISSUES 2008 & 2009
TOWN COUNCIL ELECTION 2009  TOWN HALL REPAIRS 2009  DAVE'S EXPENSES   SPORTS AWARDS 2008
NEW YOUTH CENTRE   KEITH GREENWELL VISITS CHIPPY SCHOOL   POLICE AND LAW & ORDER 2008
TOWN PARTNERSHIP ASKS FOR FUNDS   HAILCORNS PLAYGROUND OPENS  GLYME VALLEY GATES
EMMAS TRUST EVENTS   GENERAL STOPFORD BLUE PLAQUE   DEAN PIT & THE TOFFS
SNOW SCENES FEB 2009   SAINSBURYS OPENS   PARTNERSHIP MATTERS 20089  
TRAFFIC & AIR QUALITY 2008 & 2009
  FIRE AT THE BLUE BOAR   FEBRUARY SNOW 2009
BURGAGE PLOTS PLANNING

 

COMPLETE NEWS ARCHIVE INDEX

 


CHIPPY SKY AT NIGHT
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Just type in
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 Don't miss
 BBC Video of Chipping Norton Town Centre
Jeremy drives into the Pool

 

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