Brize Norton Parish Council Newsletter

The Communities of Brize Norton and Carterton

You are here: Community > Brize Norton > Parish Council Newsletter 

Please note that this might not be the latest issue of the Parish Newsletter. 
For a full listing and to find the latest issue click here.

Here is the text from the June 2010 Newsletter Published here with permission of the Parish Council.

CHAIRMAN'S REPORT CARTERTON EXPANSION

Firstly I must thank the two retiring councillors, Erica Conlan and Christine Naus; they have both worked long and hard over the last four years on all aspects of Parish Council business. Their input will be sorely missed and I feel sure you will join me in wishing them well on their sabbatical!

It is also the time to welcome two new Councillors Lindsay Meeks who has re-joined us after a short away spell and Laurence Taylor who has joined us for the first time.

Planning.

Following a change of government the South East Plan to build thousands of houses in Oxfordshire has been scrapped and the requirement for the numbers of houses required will rest with local councils. This may not be the panacea we all hoped for. It is too early yet to say how this will affect Brize Norton and the development of Carterton. West Oxfordshire District Council (WODC) is, apparently, reviewing its position and awaiting further information or legislation from Central Government. In the meantime the village still has the threat of large housing developments in the area. Cllr Gary Griffin has prepared a report on the latest situation with planning and detailed below the process that has so far been followed. It is suggested that the scrapping of the South East Plan will not stop speculative planning applications from developers/landowners or dent the aspirations of some councillors who seem determined to build everywhere. With powers being devolved to local councils the WODC and Oxfordshire County Council (OCC) will be more answerable to you for their actions and unable to blame Central Government for the continuing rape of the county by building on Greenfield sites.

Gravel Extraction.

OCC, as part of the continuing process for the extraction of minerals from the county, have been undertaking a consultation to provide a government set target of 2.1 million tonnes per year of sand and gravel from the county. One of the propositions is to extract gravel from areas abutting the river Thames from Lechade to Aston. To visualise this enormous quantity of material it equates to 84,000 Lorries per year or 269 Lorries per day carrying 25 tonnes each - for 6 days per week!

The requirement for this large quantity of building material was to meet the expected demand for the thousands of houses that were planned under the 2026 plan. Of major concern for Brize Norton is the vast increase in the numbers of heavy goods vehicles on local roads. It should be noted that the majority of the deposits are to the north of the Thames, this raises the question of which routes the Lorries would take. The bridges spanning the Thames to the south, Radcot Bridge, Tadpole Bridge and Newbridge all have weight restrictions in force, thus, traffic will be forced to find alternative routes to the A40/A420/A361.There are many concerns in the establishment of even more sand/gravel workings in West Oxfordshire and views or concerns expressed by members of the public can be found on the OCC website. Local Parish Councils are objecting to the planned extraction of sand/gravel in west Oxfordshire.

Uncertainties.

There are many areas of uncertainty surrounding planning that hopefully will be resolved over the next few months. In the meantime we must remain vigilant and respond vigorously to any public consultation that may be issued by WODC or OCC.

Keith A Glazier

2026 PLAN, CORE STRATEGY, THE PREFERRED APPROACH

I was pleased to see so many of you attending the Annual General Meeting, where we, the parish council, gave an update on the current situation. I thought it would be useful to provide you with an update here as well, dealing with the present position and what will happen next.

WODC were pleased to receive a large response to the 2026 plan - 624 people responded. Of the 214 responses received in relation to the preferred strategy for Carterton, over 100 were from Brize Norton residents and 52 from Shilton residents. Out of the 3 proposed sites around Carterton, the most preferred was for development on the western side, while 40% stated that Carterton should see no further expansion.

For your information, at Carterton's Annual General Meeting, their Council explained how they are keen to increase their population to around 20,000. They believe that this is the number required to attract more retailers to the town, thereby hopefully improving their infrastructure. The question as to where an additional 1,000 houses would be put, which is above the required number, is still to be decided. For these extra houses, Carterton Town Council has not declared a preferred site, and indeed they have engaged a planning consultant to give them guidance. However, it is for WODC to make the final recommendation.

As you are aware, most people in our village are concerned that any large scale development in Carterton could have a detrimental effect on our village by producing more traffic, noise and congestion and lead to coalescence and loss of identity with a build which could possibly encroach upon our village. I believe that from your very strong voice, we have shown quite clearly that if there must be a new site in Carterton, then the western site could suit our village better, and may well provide the new houses easier access to the south west and north, rather than funnelling the increased traffic through Brize Norton.

What happens next?

WODC will be analysing the many responses and aim to publish a draft final version of the Plan (including which of the sites submitted they intend to allocate) in the Autumn.

At this point we will be able to make further comment before any final decisions are taken, prior to the Plan being submitted to Government for approval. A planning inspector will then hold a public examination before giving the final decision.

Until then, we as a parish council will continue to monitor the development of the 2026 plan closely, and will try to update you as and when we feel it is necessary. May I remind you that you can go onto the WODC website and keep yourself up to date; furthermore, if you feel there is something that we should pass on to others, please let us know.

Cllr Gary Griffin

A REPORT ABOUT THE ROADS

The county engineers are aware that there has been a lot of damage done to roads due mainly to the heavy frost this year, and that potholes are a serious issue. They are pleased to say that they are managing to clear the backlog, as well as dealing with new problems. There are many teams working around the County, and indeed recently you may have seen a team working in Carterton to clear the worst of the recorded potholes. They have also been working on surrounding roads and hopefully you will have seen that a lot of our own potholes have also recently been fixed.

County are pleased to say that they have now established a new contract, this time with Atkins, who will be starting work for them soon.

POLICE REPORT

The police told us at the AGM that crime in this area remains low; however, they do rely on us to be their eyes and ears. Therefore they encouraged us to inform them if we felt we had seen or heard something that they should be aware of. Speeding was a hot topic and many people were of the view that too many people speed through our village. The police told us how they are keen to stop this, and that they are willing to deploy radar speed monitoring equipment to take action against speeding motorists where, we believe, there is a significant breach of the law. It may surprise you to learn that in fact of those caught speeding, 50% are locals. The definition of local was however not stated.

ST BRITIUS CHURCH

The church will be open and full of flowers arranged by ladies who are opening their gardens for the NGS Gardens Open Day on Sunday 27 June from 1pm to 6pm. Everyone is also most welcome at our "Songs of Praise" service that closes the day's events at 7.30pm. Members of the congregation have chosen the hymns and readings, and there will be refreshments after the service.

At the Horticultural Show and Cricket Festival on August Bank Holiday Monday members of the church will be providing teas and refreshments, and a tombola stall.

After only five months of fund raising the Friends of St Britius have already raised £11,105 towards the total of £115,000 needed to repair the roof. We would like to thank everyone in the village for their fantastic support and the Fund Raising Team for their time and commitment. There are now 62 Friends and the village has enjoyed several social events, a pancake supper, quiz night at the Chequers and a Car Treasure Hunt. There are several sponsored events and thanks are due to everyone who took part in, or sponsored, the Bluebell Walk, Neolithic Marathon, Edinburgh Marathon and those hoping to do the 3 Peaks Challenge in July.

We ask for your support for the following events: Summer Bridge Drive with lunch at the Elderbank Hall on Wednesday 2nd June starting at 10.30 am (contact Ann Elsmore on 843605); Foxbury Farm Open Day on Sunday 13th June from 10 am when Colin & Di Dawes are very generously donating the gate money for "Stop the Drips at St Brit's". Also watch out for the next Chequer's Pub Quiz Night.

Thanks to Brize Norton Parish Council, Carterton Lions, the Chequer's Pub, the Mason's Arms, and Foxbury Farm for their continuing support. We are applying for a grant from English Heritage and the Historic Churches Trust.
 

BRIZE NORTON PRIMARY SCHOOL

We are very near to the end of another school year and it has been another very busy one. Our Year 6 children have recently completed their end of Key Stage assessments and we are extremely proud of all the hard work they have put in over the year. They are now starting to think about the big move to secondary school. Transition events have begun for our 15 new Foundation Stage children starting in September. The children have visited the school over two half days, have had lunch with us and are now looking forward to their new school, hopefully. Further events are planned after half term to ensure that our youngest children settle into school.

This year has seen the first year of a fantastic Comenius project, linking us with schools in Poland, Spain, France and Germany. From 17th to 21st May children and teachers visited Brize Norton (despite the ash cloud and airline strikes) from each country for a special Comenius week. Some of these children were kindly hosted by families at the school. During the week all of our children and visiting children took part in a games festival having shared and learnt playground games from each country. The children loved these games and had great fun playing together in between tea and scones! Other activities included a day at the Cotswold Wildlife Park and a Picnic in the Park for all families. This event was very well supported and the atmosphere on the playground and recreation ground was amazing. Children climbed the 10 metre high climbing wall, played on the bouncy castle, played team games and even the Morris Men called in. Our final activity day included all children in a range of activities including French cooking, Spanish Dance and much more. This was a fantastic week, thoroughly enjoyed by our children and those of our partner schools. We look forward to a return trip to Bordeaux next summer.

This term our School Council and Eco-teams have been busy promoting the health and environment benefits of cycling to school. They organised a very successful cycle ride around the playground raising money for a new climbing wall for the school playground. This event raised over £600. The children have now started contacting companies to get quotes. They may need to raise a little more though - I think they are planning a cake sale quite soon!

Forthcoming events include our Summer Fete on the afternoon of Sunday 4th July and our school open evening on Wednesday 7th July 5.30 - 7.30pm. So please join us!

NATIONAL GARDEN SCHEME BRIZE NORTON

This year Brize Norton has fourteen gardens opening on Sunday June 27th between 1pm and 6pm as part of the NGS Gardens open for charity scheme. Last year we raised £903.77 was raised with some of the monies being donated to Brize Norton over 60's club, Brize Norton Brownies, St.Britius Church and the Brize Norton Horticultural Society to help them continue to organise their annual show in August. National charities like Macmillan Cancer Support and Marie Curie Cancer Care are supported through a donation to NGS.

This year we are pleased to welcome one new garden, 95 Station Road. There are also a number of gardens open this year that were not open last year. The WI will again be providing cream teas in Elderbank Hall and the Flower Festival will be held in St. Britius Church. There will be a 'Songs of Praise' service in the Church at 7.30pm

Please support our members by visiting the gardens. £3.50 per adult ticket offers great value for money.

If you would like more information or would like to open your garden next year, please get in touch.