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Nuneham Courtenay Parish Council News Dec 22

Nuneham Courtenay Parish Council News

 

Solar Farm

Since the last Newsletter some of you may have attended the drop-in session at the Village Hall on 8th November arranged by Renewable Energy Systems Ltd (RES), the developers of the proposed solar farm on the western side of the main road on the fields between Upper Farm and Lower Farm.  RES told the Council they will come back to a further meeting in a few months’ time when they have considered the feedback they have received.

 

Housing Infrastructure Fund 1 road scheme

The County Council published a huge amount of further information on 16th November about the road scheme connected with the Didcot Garden Town development which involves various new bridges and stretches of road between the A34 at Milton and the Golden Balls roundabout.  There is a new consultation exercise with a deadline of Christmas Eve. You can find the new materials on the County Council’s website: the planning reference is R3.0138/21.
The parish council is continuing to work with four other parish councils to challenge the proposals: Appleford; Burcot & Clifton Hampden; Culham; and Sutton Courtenay.

 

Gravel site

The parish council hopes the County Council’s Cabinet meeting on 20th December will finally see the County Council officially scrap the Minerals and Waste Plan which named an area of this parish as the site for most of Oxfordshire’s future gravel needs – before the parish council helped to point out that the site chosen was a major Romano-British pottery manufacturing centre and English Heritage listed it as a Scheduled Monument in December 2020.

 

Speeding and Road Safety on the A4074

Parish Councillor Nicola Misseldine attended the meeting County Councillor Robin Bennett arranged with a Highways officer on 18th October.  Jon Beale from Highways made clear that anything relating to traffic enforcement is strictly the remit of Thames Valley Police: this includes speed cameras; whereas the County Council can help with some traffic control measures and signage, including Speed Indicator Devices and Vehicle-Activated Signs.

He explained that the County Council is willing to install the poles for these devices but won’t usually pay for the devices themselves, which cost around £3,000 each – a lot of money for a parish council as small as this one.  He also explained why there can’t be peacock warning signs. He said signs can only warn road users about the presence of various wild animals. So, as peacocks are not considered wild, it is not possible to have a sign warning of them, any more than you can have a cat or dog warning sign.  Since the meeting, a speed survey has begun at the north end of the village and it will be interesting to see the results.

Also since the meeting, I understand Nicola has safely delivered a baby boy, Kasper, which is great to hear.

 

Deep Cleanse

The deep cleanse by South Oxfordshire District Council’s contractors is due to happen between 22nd and 24th November, so I hope you will notice a difference.
The pavements along the main road were inches deep in dry leaves when I took photographs to send to SODC to illustrate what needs doing.

 

Christmas trees

The parish council has asked the district council for a Christmas tree collection point once again in the Village Hall car park where the district council keeps forgetting to collect them, so this year I sent them an aerial snapshot from the internet to try to get them to understand where your trees will be – those of you who pay for brown bins can have your Christmas trees collected from outside your homes.

 

Meetings

The next Council meeting will be on Tuesday 10th January – 7pm in the Village Hall, as usual. This meeting will set the Council’s budget for next year, which determines how much extra Council Tax you pay for the parish council.

The Council usually meets on the first Tuesday of alternate months, but not on this occasion – nor on the last, as the Council met on Wednesday 9th November, when road safety and the proposed solar farm were two of the main topics it discussed. The meeting also voted to give a £400 grant to the Adult Lunch Club – it’s over four years since the Lunch Club last asked for a grant.
Now I will check my emails to see if I have received any more offers for salt bins or flashing fibre optic Father Christmases, the curse of a Parish Clerk’s Inbox at this time of year. They even ring me.

 

Geoffrey Ferres, Parish Clerk, Nuneham Courtenay Parish Council
Tel: 07419 991623     Email: clerk@nunehamcourtenay.org.uk

 

Nuneham Courtenay Village Hall News

 

December 2: Village Tree trimming and switch on. Come to the village hall to make Christmas decorations to decorate our community Christmas tree and have a nice social.

 

December 9: Christmas Bingo.  Lots of great prizes! Doors open at 7. Eyes down at 7:30. Bingo and raffle. Family friendly event!

 

January 20: Come along to a new event - Our Not so Youthful Club - board games, computer games, and refreshments. We aim to make a series of monthly Friday events to brighten up these difficult times

 

Yoga: Mondays at 7:30

Bookings: Please contact nunehamcourtenay.villagehall@gmail.com