Author: Sonja Francis

TOWN and Parish Councils across Oxfordshire have been feeding their ideas to County Councillors for changing road layouts for safer social distancing and to encourage more cycling and walking.

The Government has awarded Oxfordshire County Council a first tranche of  £2.5 million to help it comply with new, statutory Guidance for all local authorities, on managing their road and pavement space, in response to the Corona virus (COVID-19) outbreak.

Part of the statement reads: “The government therefore expects local authorities to make significant changes to their road layouts to give more space to cyclists and pedestrians. Such changes will help embed altered behaviours and demonstrate the positive effects of active travel. I’m pleased to see that many authorities have already begun to do this, and I urge you all to consider how you can begin to make use of the tools in this guidance, to make sure you do what is necessary to ensure transport networks support recovery from the COVID-19 emergency and provide a lasting legacy of greener, safer transport.”

At a meeting on Friday morning, Thame Town Councillors debated what could be done in Thame Town Centre quickly and easily, and what they thought would be acceptable to Oxfordshire County Council within its budget. Councillors debated several suggestions, including one to make the high street one-way from the Black Horse Pub, to the Rising Sun, providing more space for cyclists and pedestrians on either side. After some robust discussion, the majority of councillors voted for a less ambitious plan to restrict parking from the Pelican Crossing to the Zebra Crossing at the bottom of the high street, on the Boots side, to enable safer social distancing where queues for shops overlap reducing pavement space, and to apply to have the Oxford-bound bus stop moved from outside the Co-op to outside the Masonic Hall.

Before the town council hears from OCC what it decides to do in Thame, from today, specially printed stickers have started to appear on pavements in the town centre, every 2 metres reminding people to safe distance from one another, and Greyhound Walk will have a two-way system marked out, keeping to the left walking in one direction, and to the right in the other direction.

The new ‘take a ticket’ SmartQ App, to help businesses manage queues safely, has now been launched and can be downloaded. See LINK

You can read Grant Shapps’ full statement and Guidance HERE

SOME South Oxfordshire District Councillors and their supporters have warned the Government’s Planning Inspectorate that it needs to take care not to exclude the public from the impending Local Plan hearings.

The examination in public of the controversial South Oxfordshire Local Plan 2034, will take place from July 14, after the Housing Minister Robert Jenrick, blocked the ruling Lib Dem and Green Councillors from withdrawing the plan previously drawn up by the then Conservative-led administration.

Due to the Corona virus lockdown, the hearings may now be held completely online with speakers needing to connect from their homes.

Some Councillors are particularly concerned too about the short time frame of the hearings, and the fact that they will be taking place at the height of the summer holidays after a spring of lockdown, and that the virtual medium has known potential drawbacks, especially in this  rural district where broadband connections can be very poor.

Will all opinions get a fair hearing?

In a statement today, the South Oxfordshire Green Party said: “The Corona virus pandemic has already had major impacts on how we live and work, many of which will continue for years to come. Many people are becoming used to using technology to work from home and reducing unnecessary travel. Council committees and even parliament have been able to meet online.

“However, the specific requirements of this local plan examination, operating to a fixed deadline imposed by the Secretary of State, demand that all objections and opinions get a fair hearing. While the council’s excellent officers have the expertise and professional ability to meet these deadlines, and Councillors are reasonably confident using the online conferencing technology, this is an examination ‘in public’ and it is the public’s ability to interact successfully with the process that is a key democratic principle.

‘Hearing should be postponed’

Sam Casey-Rerhaye, Green District Councillor for Sandford and the Wittenhams, said:”The December deadline imposed by the Secretary of State ought to be extended, and the hearings postponed to allow public participants to get up to speed after the interruption and pressures caused by the pandemic, and to allow the possibility of the lockdown easing sufficiently for better public access to the examination.

“We would welcome a hybrid process whereby the examination takes place at a physical location in South Oxfordshire, with social distancing if required, and parallel online interactivity, allowing the best of both worlds in terms of accessibility. At minimum, a location should be provided for those with poor internet connectivity to access the examination.” 

A ‘foregone conclusion’?

In a letter to the Planning Inspectorate, the Chair of SODC’s Climate Emergency Advisory Committee, Green Cllr Sue Roberts, has written:

“There is a feeling among the people of the district that this is a ‘show-trial’ with a foregone conclusion. The democratic deficit was already there, with Mr Jenrick forcing the district council to push the plan through inspection and forbidding us from voting to withdraw it. Mr Jenrick states that he will take ‘further intervention action’ should the plan fail. 

“Given the circumstances, please can we make this as robust a process as possible. Please would you consider deferring the inspection until September. It would be better if our plan, as contentious as it is, were not the one to be the first experiment with the virtual medium. At the least, we should like those without access to good internet to be able to meet in a public place and be given it. 

‘Fair and reasonable access’

“We feel that an inspection taking place in this way lays a path open for judicial challenge on fair and reasonable access. The last thing South Oxfordshire needs is more uncertainty and irregularity.”

Laura Coyle and Richard Benwell, speaking on behalf of the Henley and Wantage Constituency Lib Dems, have voiced their concerns::

“Many areas of South Oxfordshire have poor broadband services and making the inspection process online-only carries the real risk of excluding people whose voices should be heard.

“Bear in mind that there are also plenty of people who wish to take part in the inspection but do not have the technical skills or computer equipment in their own house to enable them to speak in an online inspection.

‘Lockdown shouldn’t leave people locked out!’

“Public safety must come first, but we must also ensure that lockdown doesn’t leave people locked out of local decision-making. Before defaulting to digital-only proceedings, it is right to ask whether some people could attend in person with effective social distancing for staff, councillors and public in place.”

South Oxfordshire Lib Dem and Green Party Councillors will be making the case for, what they consider to be, further improvements and changes to the submitted plan, whenever and wherever the examination takes place.

THAMES Valley Air Ambulance has launched its first ever urgent appeal in response to an anticipated shortfall of £1 million in fundraising income due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The charity, the only pre-hospital advanced emergency critical care provider serving all those living and passing through Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire, continues to provide their usual critical care service but has recently also deployed its paramedics and doctors to serve alongside NHS colleagues within the region in response to pandemic.

This initial estimate of a £1 million shortfall could be a significant understatement. Nevertheless, it represents more than 10% of the charity’s annual income. With the majority of this loss expected to come from the cancelation and postponement of community and business fundraising events and efforts.

The local air ambulance service is calling on the public, where they are able to do so, to consider donating to help meet at least some of this shortfall. The charity has in its 21-year history been entirely funded by the public and community it serves and has not received any funding from the government or National Lottery.

On it’s website, the TVAA state: “We are truly in an unprecedented situation. Never before in our history have we anticipated such a large loss in fundraising over such a short period. We do want to reassure the public that whatever the response to our appeal, we will continue to provide lifesaving care in the immediate future and be on hand to back-up the NHS in our efforts to tackle the pandemic. We are calling on those that can give, to back us at this time and help us secure our service well into the future.”

Neil Harman, Director of Fundraising, Thames Valley Air Ambulance, said: “While continuing to provide a pre-hospital critical care service during the pandemic via its helicopter and critical care response car, the charity has also covered the staffing costs of its doctors and paramedics taking shifts within the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxfordshire, providing a new inter-hospital transfer service for Covid-19 patients, and the additional training required for these new roles.”

In the last financial year, the number of times Thames Valley Air Ambulance were dispatched to patients in need increased by more than 110%. In total, the charity’s teams of paramedics, doctors and pilots were called out to 2,670 patients across our region.

The public can donate online at www.tvairambulance.org.uk/donate

 

 

THE Alzheimer’s Society is running a Cycle for Dementia campaign, challenging participants to cycle 100 or more miles, indoors or outdoors, to raise funds for dementia care. 

The Society does fantastic work to help fund the cost of care for dementia sufferers and to fund research into a disease that affects 850,000 in the UK and for which there is currently no cure. It can affect anybody of any age, not just the elderly. It’s estimated that 1.6 million people in the UK will suffer from this cruel disease by 2040. 

Local resident Helen Johns has set herself the challenge to ride 100 miles on her exercise bike during May, trebling what she is used to doing. She explained: “I decided to do something to help others at a time when Covid-19 has gripped the nation and the vulnerable need our support more than ever. Amongst those are sufferers from dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease. I am also motivated by the fact that my own father succumbed to this dreadful disease.”

Helen continued: “Care homes were hardest hit by Covid-19, and 70% of dementia sufferers are in care homes, underlining the need to support people at risk. Perhaps, as you read this, you will be reminded of people you know who either have the disease or who have been taken from us because of it. 

“This is the final week of the Cycle for Dementia Challenge and I’m hoping to beat my target of 100 miles. I’ve been bowled over by the fantastic donations made so far by all kinds of people. It would be fantastic if, with your help, we can beat the target of £1,000.”

You can support Helen’s Cycle for Dementia Challenge now by visiting https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/cyclefordementia-hjohns and help raise funds for the Alzheimer’s Society. You can find out more about the work they do at https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/

THAME’S MP,  John Howell, is supporting calls for the Cabinet Secretary to arrange for an independent investigation into Dominic Cummings’s alleged breaking of the lockdown rules for fighting the spread of Corvid 19.

Mr Howell expressed his views in replies to two separate constituents who had written to him, and who subsequently shared the MPs replies on social media.

According to both tweeters, Mr Howell said: “Dominic Cummings is a public figure and as such is action deserve scrutiny. I said over the weekend that I would seek more information and I have now done so.

“However, Dominic Cummings has been a figure of hate for some time amongs some and we need (to) try to separate the politics and the personal in this situation. In the interest of due fairness, I believe that the only way this can be done is for an independent investigation rather than simply dismissing him, and I have supported the calls for the Cabinet Secreary to do this quickly.”