Draft April 2025 Minutes

Botley Solar Farm – Report from Group

Cllr Rogers has sent in the representation from the Parish Council.  The letter is now on the website.  There is a hearing on 13^th May.  If any parish Councillor would like to attend, we need to advise them by 16^th April. The things that are covered are: –

Assessment of alternatives

Cultural Heritage

Flood Risk Hydrology

Geology and Land use

Landscape and visual amenities

Ecology is not covered.

8. Correspondence
9. Email from resident re parking along Elms Road – People have been parking along Elms Road and blocking driveways. They have also been driving at speed from the recreation ground.  Cllr Mills has spoken to the groups that use the Pavillion
10. Email from Speedwatch re abusive driver – The speedwatch group were verbally assaulted by a DPD driver, who mounted the pavement and drove towards them. This has been reported to DPD and TVP.  DPD have advised that the driver will receive extra training and coaching.  There have been no updates from TVP except to give extra guidance to the Speed Watch team
11. Reports from County and District & Parish Councillors

County Councillor

Roads

Maintenance

A large amount of money has been made available by the County Council for road maintenance. You will start to see roads being fixed, now that the weather is improving. Potholes can’t be fixed when it is wet. Ideally you won’t notice that it is happening –

people notice the holes but not fixed roads – but inevitably there will be some temporary delays in some places.

A £7.4m project for surface dressing of roads, i.e. fixing the whole surface rather than just the holes is underway. We have brought back annual gulley clearance. The total budget for roads maintenance is £60m. It remains the case that the government has

grossly underfunded road maintenance in the whole country. The County Council has put additional money into the area but has to balance that with supporting children’s service and adult social care and other key, people-critical work.

A40

The work on the Shores Green junction in Witney has commenced. That will make the eastern Witney junction work in each direction and will also improve cycling access to Witney. You probably won’t be surprised to hear that the council’s contractors found a Thames Water main that Thames Water didn’t have on their maps!

You might have noticed that the traffic lights under the bridge on the way into Witney have already been removed. The team is trying to ensure that there is the minimum disruption during the work.

The other A40 work, from Eynsham to Wolvercote, is in the planning process and should commence by the end of the year. A reminder that it will have real benefits to Cassington residents, with a much-improved junction, a new bus stop at the bottom of Horsemere Lane, and additional services along the A40.

Buses.

Pulhams are now operating the H1 bus. It has doubled in frequency and runs at the weekends. It goes via Summertown and the JR to Headington. If you need to get to the JR, it is really convenient and saves the hassle of parking. If you choose to use the park and rides, we have maintained the cost of the combined multi-person parking and bus tickets, even though the cost of bus only fares rose at the government’s insistence. So, it is really good value to use the park and rides.

Local government reorganisation latest.

The initial response from the Oxfordshire authorities has gone to the Ministry for

Communities, Housing and Local Government (MCHLG) government department next week. There will be three options of differing merits.

1. A whole Oxfordshire Unitary authority
2. Two Unitaries – i) Vale of White Horse/South Oxfordshire,/West Berkshire and ii) WODC/Cherwell/City of Oxford
3. Three Unitaries: i) an enlarged Oxford City (including Eynsham and Cassington and probably Witney), rump of South and Vale and West Berks iii) rump of WODC and Cherwell.

The government will acknowledge receipt shortly and confirm that the next input will be required in November, responding to issues that will have been pointed out and giving more detail, to be followed by a decision from MGHLG thereafter.

Option 1 will cause the least disruption to key services and deliver the least financial shock, as well as meeting the criteria set out by government, e.g. to have new unitaries of at least 500,000 residents. That doesn’t mean the government will support it.

West Berkshire have yet to confirm that they want to be part of options 2 and 3 rather than remaining standalone or joining in a reconfigured set of Berkshire authorities.

We do need to make sure that whatever MCHLG decides, there is a role for parish councils embedded in the new arrangements and that decisions are taken at the most local level where they can be. A set of parishes in South Oxfordshire have written to the Sec of State pointing out that the Greater Oxford idea is unacceptable and that they haven’t been consulted. You might choose to do so here.

Thames Water

The High Court ruled that TW’s taking on extra very expensive debt could go ahead, despite the legal efforts of the MP for Witney and Windrush Against Sewage Pollution (WASP). I suspect this attempt to keep Thames Water going rather than accepting that it needs

to be put into Special Administration, will not work for long. TW have decided now that they want to be bought by US Private Equity House KKR, which will extract as much as it can, as Macquarie did before. In the meantime, our bills are going up, and TW continue to spill sewage into our rivers. The councils will continue to put pressure on TW to improve performance. We need adequate infrastructure to support the additional housing the government is insisting on here.

Botley West

As mentioned last month, WODC has objected to the Botley West plans, as has the County Council, and I have objected in my capacity as your councillor.  You can read in this month’s CAWN what out MP, Calum Miller, thinks of the proposals.

Elections

A reminder that there are elections for the County Council on 1 May, under the new boundaries set out by the Electoral Commission. I will be standing again in Eynsham Division, which now covers Cassington, South Leigh, Northmoor, Stanton Harcourt, and Eynsham.

And finally

As this will be my last report before the election, can I take the opportunity to thank all the members of this council, past and present, for their work over the past 4 years. You have held me and the County Council to account, and I am sure you will continue to do so, whoever is elected in a few weeks.

As ever, I can be contacted at dan.levy@oxfordshire.gov.uk

District Councillors

Parish Councillors

Cllr Rogers noted that a lorry came out of Cassington Nurseries and went down Bell Lane and then Horsemere Lane – Clerk to speak to Cassington Nurseries and ask them to remind not to use Horsemere Lane

Cllr King brought up that someone had fixed a mirror to the 20mph pole.  Notice to be put on the Village Facebook page to ask the owner to take it down.

Cllr Thompson has attended the Parocial Charities meeting.  They have had an extensive refurbishment.  New roof, plastering, flooring, heating systems.

9. Ditches, Drainage and Flooding

Cllr Thompson has been to the recreation field and looked at the ditches surrounding it.  He is concerned that if the ditches are so dry that if we receive a hard down fall of rain then it will flood again.

10. Maintenance/ Grants
11. Village Walls
12. Bin Licence for Churchyard – The Parish Council normally purchase the waste licence for the two churchyard bins. This year we haven’t been asked.  Cllr King said that she would have a look and report back.

11. Traffic

• Speed Watch

No. of sessions:                                             8

Total number of vehicles                         1,255

No. of offending vehicles:                        200

Between 25mph & 30mph:                         145

Between 31mph & 40 mph:                          53

Over 40 mph:                                                  2

Highest offender:                                           42mph

• Traffic Calming

Cllr Levy advised that he would speak to the correct person at OCC and would email the clerk and Cllr Metcalf.

12. Play Area & Recreation Ground

• Replacement Playground Equipment

Cllr Mills updated the Parish Council on the fund held by the Sports and Social.  It is £17854

13. Finance

Payments to be approved: