Category: Missed a ThameNews story?

A group of environment activists from Thame and Towersey were among over a thousand others from all over the country, who joined Naturalist, Chris Packham at Denham Station on Sunday, for the Stand for the Trees event at Denham Country Park.

Popular TV Presenter of programmes such as Spring Watch, Chris Packham, led campaigners in a Walk for Wildlife and Water through the Colne Valley in an event jointly organised by Extinction Rebellion, Stop HS2 and Save the Colne Valley Wildlife Protection Group.

Danger to water supply

The day was aimed at highlighting the fact that despite there currently being a review of HS2 which could lead to the project being cancelled, ‘the destruction continues unabated’, not just around the Colne Valley, but along the entire 140 miles of Phase 1, of HS2.

The route meant walkers could see first hand the destruction that has already happened and the even more devastating loss of wildlife and habitats that would happen should HS2 go ahead. The event also highlighted the fact that HS2 potentially endangers the water supply of some 3.2 Million Affinity Water Customers and there has still been no published assessment of this risk.

Protection camps

The event was the latest in a number of collaborations between Stop HS2 and Extinction Rebellion, many of which have focussed on the Colne Valley Protection, which is one of four sites where campaigners have set up protection camps, with the intent of stopping HS2 Ltd from damaging habitats and the ecosystem, especially given that HS2 is not only under review, but has not received final ‘Notice to Proceed’.

‘Expect ferocious public opposition’

Chris Packham, on behalf of the Rethink HS2 alliance of environmental organisations said: “HS2 involves one of the largest deforestation programmes since the First World War, damaging more than 100 ancient woodlands along the planned route, along with dozens of wildlife habitats. If this project gets the go ahead, and I sincerely hope that it doesn’t for so many reasons, you can  to it, and I will be happy to lead that from the environmental perspective.”

Cathy Gaulter Carter, who lives in Towersey, was among the group from Thame who joined Chris on Sunday. She explained why she decided to support Chris Packham’s walk:

“I have been opposed to HS2 from the start: the destruction of our countryside with no benefit to locals. Since joining the walk I have actually seen an example of just one the magnificent areas for wildlife that is about to be devastated.

‘It is criminal for this scheme to go ahead’

“As we are facing a climate emergency, it is criminal for this scheme to go ahead. The area where we were walking is above an aquifer that naturally purifies drinking water for London – this will be replaced by concrete pylons. This is literally right by Boris’s constituency in Uxbridge. Horrifying! Birmingham airport is already spending £500 million to expand for the proposed increase in passengers. This a a nonsense when I thought the whole point of the train was to replace the aeroplane.

“HS2 must be stopped! The walk has made me much more aware of the tragedy that is unfolding.”

Sarah Green, founder of the Colne Valley HS2 Protection Camp said: “People need to be made aware of the horrendous impact HS2 will have, especially on water supplies. If people knew what was actually happening, there would be an outcry as the chalk is prone to cracking and fissuring and working around historic landfills is a recipe for disaster. The work HS2 are conducting now must be halted.”

‘Wanton devastation’

Joe Rukin, Stop HS2 Campaign Manager said: “Even though there is currently a review that could lead to the cancellation of the project, the destruction continues relentlessly, and it is now clear that while HS2 Ltd want to continue with this wanton devastation, the HS2 project will face more and more direct action against it. HS2 has only got this far because it has been lobbied for by the construction industry, and the whims of these vested interest bodies cannot be prioritised against taking action to fight the climate emergency.”

Threat to the Chilterns

Part of the phase 1 of the HS2 route cuts right through the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Beauty and the Chilterns Conservation Board, based in Chinnor, has been opposed to HS2 from the beginning. It welcomed the review announced by the government and has recently written to Douglas Oakervee at the Department for Transport, explaining why it believes HS2 should be scrapped. In the letter, the Board writes:

Scheme is ‘directly contradictory to key Government policies and ambitions’

“Since the HS2 route was first announced in 2010, we believe the context of HS2 has changed considerably. In particular, the nation’s -and the Government’s -understanding and appreciation of the value of our natural world has increased significantly. We therefore take the view that to continue with HS2 would not only be damaging to the environment and people’s wellbeing, but also be directly contradictory to key Government policies and ambitions. In recent years the Government has increased its focus on the environment and has made a commitment to leaving the natural environment in a better state for future generations. It also aspires to be a global leader on the environment.”

What could HS2 mean for Thame?

LINK HERE –  HS2 Railway – What it could mean for Thame –

The case for HS2, phase One

According to the government: “The main benefits of Phase One (from London to Birmingham) will be to provide more intercity train services; additional capacity on the main lines for commuter services in to Birmingham and London and additional capacity for freight. In addition, from day one, Phase One will improve journey times and train services to the North West because these will use the new track from Birmingham to London.” LINK https://www.hs2.org.uk/

Rev John Fieldsend has been awarded a BEM for his services to Holocaust education, having spent a decade touring schools, colleges and churches to talk about his escape from Nazi Germany.

The 88-year-old great-grandfather, who lives in Thame, has spoken to thusands of students about how he and his brother fled Germany as young boys in 1939, travelling to England by train via the Kindertransport programme.

Tragically, his parents stayed in Czechoslovakia during Hitler’s genocide of Jewish people, and later died in the Auschwitz concentration camp.

FACING what it is calling ‘a financial dilemma’ over years of reduced financial support from government and a need to increase the council tax beyond allowable levels to keep up with its service committments, South Oxfordshire District Council’s Leader, Sue Cooper, has written to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government.

Mrs Cooper writes: “Dear Mr. Jenrick, on Thursday, December 19, South Oxfordshire District Council passed the following motion:

‘Recognising the financial position of the Council, and the need to ensure that residents are represented by a robust and sustainable council, officers are asked to bring forward proposals for South Oxfordshire District Council to consider whether or not a formal merger with the Vale of White Horse District Council, with the same total number of District Councillors, creating a single district council based on their combined geography with increased financial resilience would be beneficial. This work should also consider the options for the development of Area Committees within this model, to ensure that decision making is devolved to the lowest appropriate level.

Should any formal merger proposal be developed in future, the Constitution Review Group will be asked to recommend appropriate constitutional models for consideration by Council’.

‘Give councils stability’

‘Further, in recognition of the recent General Election and the fact that Local Government finance has been cut by nearly 50 per cent in the last 10 years, with funding often short term in scope and tied to national government goals, Council requests the Leader in the first instance to:

· Write to the Minister for Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Chancellor of the Exchequer to urge that a Local Government Financial settlement is devised as a matter of the utmost urgency that is sufficient to give stability to all councils across the Country and will support the ability of local councils to make decisions on their statutory duties in line with their local elected mandate’.

“I would also like to draw to your attention, the final part of my Leader’s report to Council:

Reduction of the New Homes bonus

‘Our financial situation is poor, following years of holding down our Council Tax to levels well below the national average and even further below that of other neighbouring districts (with the exception of the Vale which also has severe but different funding problems from ours). I am hoping that we shall have all-member briefings in the new year to explain the financial situation following the removal of government grant and drastic reduction of the New Homes Bonus on which we have been over-reliant in recent years.’

‘Relax limit to Council Tax rise’

“One way round our current problem would be for the government to relax, even if just for this year, the restrictions which are put on increases in council tax. The small percentage or £5 per year won’t do much at all for councils in our position and we mustn’t forget we are an extremely efficient and low-spending council when compared with our peers. It is not our spending or our number of staff, both of which are comparatively very low, but the means by which they have been funded which are problematic. Funding from non-sustainable sources is risky and we are about to pay the price.

“Another financial pressure we face is that the five Councils outsourcing contract with Capita has not delivered all of the savings we were promised when it was announced with a fanfare many years ago now.”

“This means that if the funding problem is not sorted out, the people of South Oxfordshire will face service reductions.”

Need for ‘certaintly’ to deliver key services

“We have now received the draft local government settlement which confirms our funding for 2020/21 only. We have no indication therefore as to what our future government funding will be. We do however know that our core spending power in 2020/21 is lower in cash terms – and even lower in real terms – than in 2015/16. If government funding is to reduce further, our financial situation will get even worse. Along with all councils, we need future settlements to provide us with financial sustainability and certainty if we are to remain in a position to deliver key services to residents.

“Given that we are a low spending, efficient council when compared with our peers, the uncertainty in our position seems very unfair. By having maximum increases in Council Tax effectively restricted over many years, the income gap between historically high and low spending councils widens. Recently we have been given the alternative of the higher of a £5 increase in council tax or a 2% increase but this really does not go very far. Surely it should be councils with above average council tax who are subject to the greater restriction rather than those below that threshold?

Overall government funding has fallen in real terms

“The letter I received dated December 20, 2019, from the Minister of State for Housing points out that the New Homes Bonus is ‘a flexible, non-ringfenced fund, for local communities to spend as they see fit – from reinvesting it in housing or infrastructure, supporting local services or local facilities, or using the funds to keep council tax down’. Supporting local services and keeping council tax increases within referendum limits whilst overall government funding has fallen in real terms is exactly how the New Homes Bonus has been used for over many years in South Oxfordshire.”

Danger of ‘signicant cuts in services’

“If overall government funding for South Oxfordshire continues to fall in real terms, and we continue to be restricted in our ability to raise council tax, there will be an even larger financial gap between our expenditure and income. It is not reasonable for us to ask for special treatment over funding, but given our years of low council tax it does seem reasonable to ask that we should be able to increase council tax here to a more realistic level. If we cannot do this, in the short term we shall have to make significant cuts to services. This is very unfair, when as mentioned before we are an efficient council with comparatively low levels of staff. It also makes it very difficult to find capacity to work up proposals to bring in additional income to support longer term financial stability which is our aim.

“If you or your officers can think of any other ways out of our financial dilemma we would be very pleased to hear about them. I am sure our long-standing local MP, John Howell, would be able to confirm the position I outline.”

“I look forward to a practical reply in the new year.”
With best wishes for a happy Christmas
Councillor Sue Cooper, Leader of the Council

CORRECTION text in red: THERE seems to be considerable confusion about whether or not the new Tory Government has scrapped the proposed Expressway between Oxford and Cambridge, or merely intends to review it.

The Oxford-Cambridge expressway is part of the £5.5bn Oxford-Cambridge manufacturing and research ‘brain-belt’ linking the two cities through the construction of infrastructure and a million new homes by 2050.

The government’s preferred route for the OxCam Expressway is a corridor ‘broadly aligned’ with the proposed East-West rail route from Abingdon to south Milton Keynes via Winslow. It is yet to be decided whether the route will pass west or east of Oxford. The government has stated that the road will create vital jobs, skills and housing.

Thame’s MP, John Howell tweeted during the election campaign: “Great news. After a lot of heavy campaigning the Oxford-Cambridge Expressway has been cancelled.” He repeated the same thing on Radio Oxford during a radio hustings.

Also during the election campaign, James Frederickson, the Tory candidate who eventually failed to take the seat from LIb Dem Leila Moran, wrote on his website under the heading ‘Expressway plans stopped due to public response to our survey’: ” “Thank you to everyone who responded to our survey. We received well over 1000 responses, It was this data that convinced the Secretary of State to scrap the expressway plans. Not only is this great news for local residents living under the blight of the Expressway proposals but this decision frees up the money to invest in the east/west rail and cycling infrastructure.” See LINK

But the Minister for Transport, Grant Shapps, said that if elected, a Conservative Government ‘would carry out a review’ of the project. Both Oxfordshire County Council and South Oxfordshire District Council have both voted not to support the expressway, but Cherwell District Council supports it.

Campaign group demands meeting with minister about government’s ‘Priority Review’

THE leading campaign group opposing the construction of the Oxford to Cambridge Expressway and associated one million new homes – the ‘No Expressway Group’ (NEG) – has written an open letter to the Secretary of State for Transport, Grant Shapps, demanding an urgent meeting to discuss his proposed ‘review’ into the road, NEG’s request to be part of any such review and that the review itself should be extended to include the one million houses target to 2050.

NEG is requesting this meeting because the only response to two letters, dated November 22, and December 4, and to speaking with Grant Shapps’ constituency office, as well as the matter being raised by them directly with his Chief of Staff, Nicholas Langley, on November 29, has been to ask NEG to get back in touch yet again after the General Election.

Review could be ‘a whitewash’

NEG spokesperson, Olivia Field, said: This is a matter of great concern to the communities all along the Oxford to Cambridge Arc, made worse by the huge uncertainty that both the delays in consultation and the pledge to review have created. Some people are concerned that a review could be a whitewash, as was the case for the HS2 review. Others are confused by some of the Conservative party candidates during the recent election period who said the expressway was ‘effectively cancelled’ but that this couldn’t be announced because of purdah. People need clarity of when any ‘review’ might happen, of what the approach of the review will be, of who will be involved and whether or not they will be represented by NEG in this process.’

This is not ‘game over’

Ms Field continued: ” Having still had no contact, other than to ask us to make contact again, we must now meet with Grant Shapps as a matter of urgency, to ensure he really understands the issues and concerns involved, to agree how NEG will be involved in any Ox-Cam Expressway review and to understand the timescale of future events.

“NEG is continuing to urge people not to see the Government’s announcement as ‘game over’. It’s not. It’s vital that as many local people as possible make their voices heard by supporting NEG at www.noexpressway.org where they can sign a petition to demand the Government abandons plans for the Ox-Can Expressway and associated over inflated housing targets.”

Wildlife concerns

Many wildlife and nature conservation groups are fearful of the effect on the environonment by the Expressway route, and BBOWT recently won a legal case against the goverment, arguing that it has failed to assess the environmental impact of its plans, before choosing the corridor of land within which the Expressway and related housing will be built.

NB Catch up with previous back stories to this topic HERE