# From the editor
The next two months seem
to be quiet for village activities, but we have a chance to enjoy the new
Cricket Pavilion and the improvements to the Village Hall and gear ourselves up
for the village Fete come the end of August. Instead take a look inside for
details of an
Zena Knight
Milton
Common
NHW (
This is a message from the Crime Reduction Adviser at
Thames Valley Police.
The government is promoting a switchover from analogue to
digital television, which will be carried out over the next four years. There
is some concern that this may create yet another excuse for the distraction
burglar, i.e. a smooth talking person conning their way into the home of a
vulnerable person.
If any of your members need assistance in receiving
correct advice appertaining to the switchover, they are advised to visit the
website: www.digital.co.uk
or telephone 0845 6 505 050 for further information.
Trading Standards have been alerted that two young women
are going door to door throughout Oxfordshire, asking for donations for the
Farmoor Reservoir Pontoon Project.
There is such a project, but a trustee has said that they
are not collecting door to door. This is noted on their website www.pontoonproject.com
One of the women is described as being in her late
teens/early 20's, of large build and wearing very small glasses.
If you receive a call from these women, please call the
police on 08458 505 505 and quote URN 1226 of
LASSCO (Three Pigeon’s) have joined the NHW.
They put on a very impressive launch party and fireworks,
enjoyed very much by some of the neighbourhood.
Remember to tell me when you are going on holiday – so we
can organise Dog-Watch.
Enjoy the summer – remember to shut those windows when
you go out.
To our new neighbours please return your Data sheets to
me – thanks.
On behalf of NHW, I would just like to thank Angela
Tremayne for all her hard work over the past years as our Parish Councillor.
Elaine
Horne
NHW
Co-ordinator M/C
01844
279520
Parish Council News
Parish Council
Election Results
The following councillors were elected unopposed
at the recent Parish Council elections:
Mr Roy Boughton
Mr Ken Field
Mrs Elaine Horne
Mrs Zena Knight
Mr John Nowell-Smith
Mrs Janet Willis
Mr Nowell-Smith and Mrs Willis were elected Chair
and Vice Chair respectively, and Mr Ken Field was elected as representative to
the Village Hall Committee.
Mr Alan Stratton and Mrs Angela Tremayne did not
stand for re-election and the Parish Council would like to thank them for all
their hard work over the last few years.
New code of
conduct for Councillors
The government has now published the revised Model
Code of Conduct for Councillors. A copy
of the revised code, the Local Authorities (Model Code of Conduct) Order 2007
No. 1159, is available at the attached link http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2007/20071159.htm
Tiddington with Albury Parish Council Members
Chair John Nowell-Smith 339650
Econ.development, businesses
Vice Chair Janet Willis 339415
Environment,
conservation, recycling,
waste
Councillor Roy Boughton 339497
Health and safety,
transport
Councillor Ken Field 339671
Housing, planning,
building & controls
Councillor Elaine Horne 279520
Planning, highways and
Milton Common
Councillor Zena Knight 339340
Planning; recreation,
arts, grants
Clerk Jenny Stoker 339709
Thelma Cottage,
Tiddington
The code came into force on
Change of
date of June monthly meeting
Please note that the Parish Council meeting will
be held on Thursday, 7 June at
Internal
Auditor
The Parish Council would like to thank Mrs Pam
Papps, who has decided to step down as the internal auditor of the Parish
Council accounts after many years.
As a consequence, the Parish Council is seeking a
new internal auditor. If you can help,
please contact the Clerk or one of your Councillors.
Dog waste
bins
The Parish Council will be purchasing dog waste
bins for the village. There will be one
for Milton Common and two for Tiddington, one on either side of the A418. The Parish Council would welcome the views of
dog-walkers on the most appropriate sites for these facilities. Please contact the Clerk or one of your Councillors
with your comments.
Review of
Bus Services from Sunday 3 June
Following a recent review, funding for the service
275 was withdrawn. However, Red Rose Travel is proposing to continue to provide
a number of journeys between Oxford-Aston Rowant/High Wycombe on
Mondays-Fridays on a commercial basis.
It has been agreed that the 124 route between Watlington-Thame will
operate on Tuesdays to Saturdays inclusive, thereby retaining a Saturday
service. This will mean that on certain days of the week there will be up to 7
buses per day in each direction along the section of the old A40 between Milton
Common and the Lambert Arms (although fewer on Mondays (3), Tuesdays (5) and
Saturdays (4)).
The Clerk is awaiting timetables and will post on
the village notice boards on receipt.
Bus Service
280
Please ensure you signal clearly to the drivers of
the buses on service 280 to alert them to your wish to board as the bus stops
in the village are request stops. If
drivers fail to stop, please advise the Clerk or one of your Parish Councillors.
New environmental
services team at South Oxfordshire District Council
Following a re-organisation, Public Amenities and Environmental
Health have merged to form the new Environmental Services Team. Environmental Health’s work includes food and
safety, health and safety, environmental protection, pest control and
licensing. Public Amenities is
responsible for abandoned vehicles, car parking, engineering, flooding, grounds
maintenance, public conveniences, street cleansing, street naming, waste and
recycling collection.
If you have a query about any of the areas of
work, you can email the team on environmental.services@southoxon.gov.uk. You can still contact
them by telephone on the usual numbers, Public Amenities on 01491 823416 and Environmental
Health on 01491 823214
Garden waste
service – update
To date, the SODC has taken orders for
11,014 brown
wheeled bins for the garden waste service.
The number of orders is increasing each week now that the weather is
improving, so don’t miss out, order yours now!
To order yours, visit our website at www.southoxon.gov.uk, call 01491 823416
or email public.amenities@southoxon.gov.uk.
From your
Council Chairman
Annual Report
The most important event of the year was the
retirement of Zena Knight as Clerk to the Parish Council, a position she had
held since 1996. Without her I do not think the Council would have functioned
at all – indeed all Councillors might be in jail! Thankfully we will continue
to have the benefit of her advice and continuing editorship of the Newsletter,
at least for the time being. We are also extremely grateful to her in her new
capacity as Councillor. We are very lucky to have the services of Jenny Stoker
as her successor.
The great disappointment of the year was the
continuing refusal of Oxfordshire County Council to fund and install the
promised Pelican Crossing. Roy Boughton with the help of our
There have been a number of planning applications
as usual, the major development being the removal of the buildings at Manor
Farm to Draycot and their replacement by four new houses. There is currently an
application in for the building of a house in the
The District Council has withdrawn the bus token
scheme for the under 70’s but the Parish scheme continues.
We are threatened with landfill refuse collections
being reduced to every two weeks, but your District Councillor is doing his
best to resist this.
Other notable events – not Parish Council business
– have been the completion of the new Cricket Pavilion and the improvements to
the Village Hall.
Since the end of the year Angela Tremayne and Alan
Stratton have retired from the Council, having not sought re-election and
Elaine Horne has been elected together with Zena.
Many thanks to Angela and Alan for all their good
work over the years.
John Nowell-Smith
339650
Green Bins
for recycling
Remember these may be collected free from Tiddington
Garage
Refuse skips
Skips for non-recyclable waste are available
on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays at:
8.00 – 12.00 or until full
Skips for non-recyclable waste are
available every Saturday at:
Thame Cattlemarket
8.00 – 12.00 or until full
There are no longer skips for garden waste
From your
District Councillor
At the recent election the Tories retained control
with an increased majority, winning 38 of the 48 seats. Ann Ducker was
re-elected leader so we can expect much of the same.
There are due to be some shake-ups in planning,
both at District and National level, over the next four years, which may prove
significant. Waste and refuse collections will also be on the agenda.
Having been re-elected myself, I hope I will
continue to be of assistance.
John Nowell-Smith
The Old Rectory
Albury
Tel: 339650
From your
Annual report
During the last 12 months I have served on the
following committees:
Children's Services Scrutiny.
Planning & Regulation.
Cotswolds & Malverns Transport Partnership.
Oxfordshire County Council South Africa Link
Group.
Oxfordshire Youth Advisory Group (representing the
voluntary sector).
I am also a member of the Shadow Cabinet with the
portfolio of Schools Improvement. I have
regular briefings with the Director of Children's Services and also the lead
member of the Cabinet for Children's Services with regard to schools
improvement.
The Budget. This year's budget showed a County Council
Tax increase of 4.0% compared with last year's increase of 4.375% and the
previous years 4.5%. You may recall that
a manifesto commitment of the now ruling group was to reduce the rate of
increase of the Council Tax. However this was done at the expense of cuts in some
services and no improvement to the road maintenance budget, about which I get
more complaints than anything else put together!
Education. The results in GCSE's and “A” levels
show a steady improvement, but there is still much to be done to raise our
performance to the level of some similar authorities.
Bus
Services. The bus services for
Tiddington have just been reviewed as part of the four-yearly review for this
area. I am pleased to report that
services remain intact. The 275 service
through Milton Common will no longer receive a subsidy from the County Council due
to low usage. However, the bus operator
"Red Rose" have said that they will still run a service commercially
on the route and we await a new timetable.
Highways
Issues. Despite representations we
have not managed to reinstate the Tiddington pedestrian crossing into the
highways programme. The Cabinet member
responsible and the officers of the County Council maintain that the Government
regulations prevent them from doing this work, which they claim cannot
demonstrate satisfactorily that it would save lives. Please rest assured that I will not be
letting up in trying to reverse this policy.
The traffic calming measures in Milton Common were well received. It remains to be seen if the measured
reduction in speed following the completion of the work becomes a permanent
feature of driving behaviour.
Older
Peoples Homes. The new homes replacing older ones project
continues to bring provision up to modern standards. For example, larger rooms and removing the
shared room situation which was not liked, in particular, by new
residents. The
Donnington new home was completed in December 2006 and the first phase of the
Thame one is due for completion in October 2008 with the second phase following
early in 2009. You may recall that new
homes were opened in recent years in Didcot and
Unitary
Authorities You will probably have heard through the
local media that the
Please feel free to contact me about County
Council issues that concern you. My
contact details are as follows:
Address:
50 Hardings, Chalgrove,
Home
Telephone: 01865 891169
Email: david.turner@oxfordshire.gov.uk
David Turner
20 May 2007
Freedom of Information Act
Publication Scheme
Residents of the Parish can see the records of the Council held by the Parish Clerk or learn where they may be accessed. Records include minutes, financial information and responses to planning consultations.
Application can be made to the Clerk (Tel: 339709) and documents viewed by appointment. Any copies required will be charged at 10p per page.
Recycling
News
“Get
rid of things you don’t want for things you do - free”
Did
you know that Thame has its own Waste Action Group? They held their first Swap Shop on 20 January
and second on 10 March. The next will be
15 September at the Town Hall in Thame. You take along anything you do not want
rather than throw it away and you take home whatever you can use from the
things other people have brought along.
No
money changes hands!
If you have an item but cannot wait until September
take a look at The Wheatley and Thame Freecycle on http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wheatley-Thame-Freecycle/
All items are posted free.
Small
electricals to be recycled in July
In
July 2007 the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive takes effect. From July there will be special containers at
all eight Oxfordshire Waste Recycling Centres for householders’ small and
medium sized electrical equipment.
Previously, only large electrical household items were recycled, and the
new service represents a major step forward in the recycling of all electrical
goods. Items from hairdryers to powered
hedge trimmers can be taken. These will
then be broken down into their component parts, ready for recycling. Another step in reducing waste to landfill
and this service will be funded by the manufacturers.
“Making
good use of leftover paint”
Do
you have left-over paint taking up room in the garage or garden shed? Why not donate it to Oxford Community
RePaint? The paint will be used for
redistribution to community and voluntary groups, charities and individuals in
social need. Instead of being wasted
your old paint can do some good!
Paint
can be taken to Redbridge Waste Recycling Centre or direct to
Janet
Willis
From the
Vicar
Last week I preached on the passage in John’s
gospel where Jesus says
“peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you”
John 14:27. This got me thinking about peace.
In John 14 Jesus promises to send his Holy Spirit and links this
specifically with his promise to give us peace. Peace is Jesus’ divine gift to
his followers on earth. But what does this mean?
Peace is a word I misuse quite often; sometimes to
describe the uneasy truce that occurs if my children have had a difference of
opinion over a particular toy and I have removed it. But of course that state
is not really peace, it is merely the absence of fighting, and their previous
argument could erupt again at any minute. This is precisely the state of
affairs that exists in a number of conflicts. Negotiators know only too well
that true peace is about a lot more than the absence of war.
When Jesus spoke of peace he used the word shalom
- the ancient Hebrew word for peace. Shalom means far more than peace as the
mere absence of fighting or war. Shalom means completeness; it is used to
describe a condition of society in which there is total harmony. There is no one English word that completely
captures it’s meaning.
In the bible the biblical idea of Shalom is summed
up particularly well in this glorious passage from Isaiah 2
“And they shall beat their swords into
ploughshares,
And their spears into pruning hooks;
Nation shall not lift up
sword against nation
Neither shall they learn war anymore”
For Isaiah this time belongs in a glorious future.
Here Jesus steps beyond that vision.
This peace, this Shalom is the divine gift Jesus leaves for his
disciples. In so closely identifying peace with his person Jesus has added a
new dimension to the concept of Shalom. The fullness of Shalom is God’s gift
given to us by his presence in the Holy Spirit.
It is God’s desire for us that we experience this peace, this Shalom,
not in the future but now.
But we are still left enquiring how do we achieve
this. However much we desire peace in our own lives or in the world it always
seems illusive. Our human nature, our sinfulness somehow always gets in the way
of our own best intentions. But this should not stop us striving after the
peace that is after all Jesus’ desire for us all. In the gospel of John, Jesus’
gift of peace is explicitly linked with the coming of the Holy Spirit. Peace is
the presence of God bringing about in us inner transformation. The more we
allow the love of God to transform our lives and our relationships through
prayer and worship and deeds the more we will be agents of God’s Holy Spirit
transforming the world.
Caroline King
