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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

ALMOST a hundred members, helpers and volunteers at the Thame and District Day Centre, came together at the Oxford Belfry Hotel today (20/12) to celebrate Christmas together, the first Christmas party since they moved to the new Thame Cricket Club pavilion earlier in the year.

 

 

Following a warm welcome by the Centre’s Manager, Gill Coleman, a three course meal, wine, mince pies and coffee were enjoyed by all and, following the Chairman’s report from Alison Champken Woods, came the fun, provided by the multi-voiced, multi-talented, one-woman ‘Isabel’s Frantic Theatre’. The show ranged from a singing Dalek, to Three Little Maids from School, who shared one pair of legs between them! Comedy, song and theatre furiously interspersed with each other kept, what on paper should have been ‘a challenging audience’, fully engaged throughout her 45 minute show. Well done Isabel!!

All the members, their drivers, helpers and guests, eventually went on their way, no doubt with their spirits lifted and a song in their hearts, all thanks to the centre’s tireless Manager (who personally has faced her own year of challenges), the trustees and the army of volunteers who make it possible for the more senior members of Thame’s community to get out of their homes once or twice a week to socialise, to be stimulated and to enjoy Christmas with their peers, to meet old friends and make new ones.

You can watch Alison Champken Woods, the Chair of the Trustees of Thame and District Day Centre, deliver her Chairman’s report, HERE  Apologies for the abrupt ending of the recording before the end of Alison’s report. Unrecorded, Alison went on to say:

A long waiting list!

“We have also managed to recruit further three Trustees who will bring differing skills to the Board of Trustees. We have submitted the paperwork for the ‘sustainability grant’ again, applying for three years’ funding this time based on the pressure we currently find ourselves under with our current waiting list plus those wishing to attend from Holton. The grant application was supported by the updated sustainabilitity plan incorporating achievements and an updated business plan for the coming year.

‘Need to be flexible to meet the challenges ahead’

“It is essential that the Day Centre is innovative in what if offers members and continues to a friendly and welcoming environment for all concered. As previously stated, we need to be flexible to meet the challenges ahead and there is arequirement for a ‘drop in’ service for those elderly who do not want to attend the full Day Centre but pop in for tea/coffee with their friend etc. This is where the Day Centre needs to work closely with other nearby facilities.

A growing elderly population

“A significant amount of work will need to be undertaken over the coming years, including significant engagement with both local communities/businesses and national organisations to ensure a crucial service for a growing elderly population continues for both Thame and the surrounding communities.

“We have engaged the services of a marketing expert, who is with us today, to help us over the next few months in reviewing our brand/website/information leaflets. What we as Trustees must do is to continue to move forward, to look ahead and to plan for the predicted increase of the elderly within our community, especially those over the age of 80/85.

 Thanks to all supporters

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Trustees and all volunteers for their support over the last 12 months, but most importantly Gill and Kate for their tireless efforts in the move which was extremely stressful for us all. I would also like to thank thank the Cricket Club for their support and help during the move and helping us to settle into our new environment, particularly Angus, Judith, Christine and John. Thank you too to all the local organisations who continue to support the Day Centre, including staff from White Stuff.

“I would also like to thank the staff here at The Belfry for looking after us all so well and it just remains for me to wish everyone a merry Christmas and a happy new year. THANK YOU ALL!”

THAME Town Council is to write to a land owner where a large advertisement board offering land for Commercial purposes has been erected, asking for it to be taken down.

The decision to write to the land owner was made by the council following a presentation by a concerned resident of Pickenfields, Thame, opposite the green field site where the sign suddenly appeared two weeks ago. The wording of the sign appears to be aimed at attracting expressions of interest from third parties regarding the availability of employment land.

Part of the sign reads: “ANOTHER DEVELOPMENT BY STOFORD”

As the resident pointed out, and confirmed by the town council’s Neighbourhood Plan Continuity Officer, Graeme Markland, the sign is probably unlawful as it has not been the subject of planning consent, the land where the sign is situated is not included within the Thame Neighbourhood Plan as Employment land, and there is no planning consent in place for that site.

The resident, Mr Duncan Nickless, told the committee: “Other developers will see it (the sign) and want to erect their signs all around the town. This action undermines the confidence of the public in the Neighbourhood Plan.”  He added that he understood that the developer was carrying out a ‘needs analysis’ for employment land in the town, but was concerned that it would not be ‘credible’ or ‘independent’. When he suggested that there was a need for an independent look at the needs of the town for commercial needs, the Chair of the Thame NPCC, Cllr Catherine Jones, replied that the town council was already in the process of seeking professional help with this aspect of the revised Neighbourhood Plan it is about to undertake.

Cllr Bob Austin said: “Residents on whose trust the first Neighbourhood Plan was built on are antagonised by this sign.  It is insensitive and misleading and we must express our disapproval.”

The matter of the offending sign has already been referred to South Oxfordshire Planning Enforcement who were unavailable for comment at the time of publication.

THE Christmas and New Year period is a time when Thames Valley Police, and other forces around the country, experience an increase in residential burglary, so they have issued advise to residents to avoid becoming victims themselves.

If you are celebrating at home over Christmas or at New Year, you can help to protect your property by taking a few simple steps:
• Don’t leave presents on view under the Christmas tree.
• Cut up packaging for any expensive items so that it will fit inside your refuse bin, never leave boxes next to the bin where they can be seen.
• Remember to mark your valuables using a UV pen and register them on the national property register at www.immobilise.com.

If you are going away, you can deter burglars by making your home appear occupied:
• Double check that you have locked your windows and doors before leaving.
• Light up your living room using timer switch. A TV simulator can also be used to make give the appearance of a TV screen being used.
• Invite a neighbour to park on your drive while you are away.

New Sergeant for Thame

IN other news, Sergeant Mark Davis has joined the Thame Neighbourhood Policing Team. Mark has years of experience with TVP and Neighbourhood Policing.

THAMES Valley Police is appealing for witnesses after a road traffic collision in Chinnor which caused damage to a house.

At around 1am on Sunday (15/12), the car, a black Lexus left Lower Road in Chinnor and collided with a house, causing significant damage.

The driver of the vehicle, a 31-year-old woman, suffered minor injuries and was taken to Stoke Mandeville Hospital for treatment. She has since been discharged.

Investigating officer PC Chloe Farnborough, based at Thame police station, said: “No-one was injured inside the property, but the female driver was taken to hospital for precautionary checks.

“I am appealing to anyone who saw the collision or who may have dash-cam or CCTV footage of the incident to contact police.

“You can do so by calling 101, quoting reference number 43190390771 or by making a report online.”

There were traffic jams in the area yesterday as the damage was coned off and school buses had to be diverted.

AN award-winning counter terrorism training course is being made available to the public for the first time and Thames Valley Police want you to sign up and help protect the UK.

 

Devised by CT officers and security experts, the ACT Awareness e-Learning package was previously only available to staff working in crowded places like shopping centres and entertainment venues.

Now Counter Terrorism Policing has decided to open up the training to anyone who wants to become a CT Citizen so they can learn how to spot the signs of suspicious behaviour and understand what to do in the event of a major incident.

The programme was originally devised in partnership with retail giant Marks and Spencer – and participants needed to be signed up by their employers. Today the online learning is available free of charge to anyone who wants to take part.

The decision to offer the training to the public was not made in response to the recent attack in London. However, the tragic events which took place just 10 days ago, when two people lost their lives to terrorism, were a stark reminder of the ongoing threat and the need for vigilance.

“ACT Awareness e-Learning is especially useful for anyone working in or regularly visiting crowded places,” said Detective Chief Superintendent Richard List.

“We developed each stage alongside industry experts and to date over one and a half million modules have been completed. The course has been so popular, with nine out of 10 users saying they would recommend it, we want to open it up to as many people as possible.

“The threat level remains at Substantial – meaning an attack is likely – so giving everyone the chance to be extra eyes and ears for police and local security teams help to keep all communities across the Thames Valley safe.

“The festive period is obviously a very busy one – so this is a good time to join up and become a CT Citizen.”

ACT Awareness is made up of seven modules that take a few minutes each to complete. You can pause and re-join at any time. In total it takes just 45 minutes – so less than an hour of your time could help to prevent an attack or help save lives if one was to happen.

The course is hosted by online training specialists Highfield. To register and start learning, click here

AS the nation went to the polls, students at Lord Williams’s School in Thame had already cast their votes – revealing a slightly different result than that of the official general election.

In a series of year group assemblies, students were presented with each of the four main party manifestos: Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrats and Greens.
A brief overview of the democratic history of voting and importance of using your vote was explained. Students then had the opportunity to cast their votes on ballot sheets and post their votes in ballot boxes. Jon Ryder, Head Teacher at LWS was delighted with the exercise: “We encourage our students to be informed about the wider world and to become active citizens.

“The school general election has been a fantastic example of democracy in action and a great tool to engage political awareness” he said.