Tag Archives: parish council

Update on the OxCam Expressway

Posted on by

The following are extracts from a letter to the Parish Council the Expressway Action Group received on 6 August. More recent information may be available before Dorchester News is published.
“A letter from Kit Malthouse, Minister of State for Housing has been obtained The clear message from this letter is that the Expressway project and its associated 1,000,000 new homes appear to be going ahead, with Government support. Our local authorities have just been given 6 weeks until the 14th September to prepare and submit proposals for ‘new settlements’ along the OxCam Arc, to try and achieve the 1 million new homes target. Oxfordshire’s ‘pro-rata’ share of this total would be around 300,000 more homes, effectively doubling the County’s population in just 20 – 30 years (this is on top of the 100,000 new homes already planned for construction in the current Local Plan by 2031). These ‘new settlements’ would presumably also influence where the Expressway would go.

We believe this is both unachievable and undemocratic, since there won’t be time to consult Councillors on any plan which Council officers might prepare. Any plans for a large or very large settlement should involve proper environmental, habitat, transport and services studies before a sensible decision on location and size could be made. Clearly they could not be carefully worked out in just 6 weeks – New Towns take years to plan, not weeks!

There would certainly not be time to ask all Oxfordshire residents if they want a New Town (or towns) built here, nor for any public debate on where it might go.

Many of our member parishes are in the South Oxfordshire District Council area, and we know that SODC full Council have voted and formally resolved that any Expressway route / corridor should run West of Oxford and via Bicester. SODC and its officers should therefore oppose any large new settlements / towns in lands to the South of Oxford – but I would suggest that as many of us as possible write to them asking them to respect and conform with that Council resolution, and not to propose any new settlements there to the Minister.

For everyone: can I ask you to read the Minister’s letter, circulate it as widely as possible and write to your District and County Councillors, your MP and to the District and County Council leaders to express your surprise and great concern?”

Best Regards
Chris Hill

Dorchester on Thames Housing Survey

Posted on by

Message to all Dorchester residents!

Please don’t forget to fill in and return the Housing Survey, which was circulated with the recent edition of the Dorchester News.

Following on from the successful Neighbourhood Development Plan referendum in March, we need to find out more about housing needs and intentions in our village.

In most cases the survey only takes a few minutes to complete.

The survey is being organised with the assistance of Community First Oxfordshire (CFO), a charity that works with and supports communities across the County.

If you haven’t got the questionnaire, need assistance with completing the form or additional survey forms please contact:
Tom McCulloch at CFO: tom.mcculloch@communityfirstoxon.org Phone 01865 883488.

EAG NEWS/PHOTOCALL NOTICE – Time for Action is NOW!

Posted on by

Thursday 12th April at 10.30 am, at Rippon College, Cuddeson and Denton, Oxon OX44 9EX

Please join us to meet supporters of the EAG including councillors and representatives from many of the 34 Parishes that now make up the EAG membership protesting against the OxCam Expressway in the beautiful Cuddeson valley which would be affected by all three of the possible corridors being considered by Highways England without any proper public consultation. Dorchester could also be affected by the routes depending on the final choice by Highways England this summer. This is your chance to be in the news for this good cause.

Meet in the car park at Rippon College, where we will then go to a vantage point over Cuddesdon valley which has terrific views over the Thame valley, and is now heavily flooded.  Cuddesdon is approximately 100 feet above river, so great views over the valley.

Expressway Action Group – urgent request for action

Posted on by
The group, of which Dorchester is a member, held  a “Stakeholder Engagement” meeting with Highways England’s team and their Engagement contractors Jacobs in late December.  Because Highways England recognise that the Expressway Action Group represent a large number of communities across Oxfordshire and beyond and have a wide range of issues of concern re the Expressway, they have given EAG a special status alongside the ‘Environmental’ groups they are consulting. This allows us to bring evidence to them on the O2C Expressway’s impact in economic, amenity, growth and other areas as well as our important Environmental / Wildlife evidence.
They have opened an email address for us, so that we can submit evidence directly to the Highways England experts who are studying the 3 proposed Corridors for possible O2C Expressway routes: we are already submitting evidence using this new portal, including environmental data as they become available.This gives EAG and its member communities and their environment / wildlife friends direct access to the technical team at Highways: so we want to maximise this opportunity to affect O2C corridor and route choice – and we need your help.
We have been asked by Highways to gather as much information on important wildlife habitat areas, heritage sites and other risk areas and places which an Expressway would harm, either directly or by running nearby within the ’Noise Footprint” which a major dual-carriageway / motorway-standard road would generate.
Can I therefore ask all of you to speak to your, neighbours and friends within your Parish, and draw up a list of important locations in the parish which would be impacted by an O2C through / past your community: this needs to be in the form of a list giving details of each site / heritage building, plus a map showing those sites.
Please note, the evidence has to be based on objective data and should ideally be validated by one of the recognised Oxfordshire wildlife organisations: they may be willing to help you with data on your local key wildlife areas.
These include important Heritage sites – for example, here in Dorchester-on-Thames we would want to include Dorchester Abbey on the list of sites threatened by Noise pollution: we would list the Abbey and give a short description of its huge historical importance etc. There will undoubtedly be many Heritage sites and buildings which Highways team may overlook if we don’t tell them…!
We have very little time to gather this information – if we don’t get it to Highways England by the weekend of the 3rd February, we may miss the boat. Anyone able to make a submission should tryto get a map and list of sites back to us by the 3rd February: that will give us a few days to collate everything and submit it for inclusion. Please note, YOUR SUBMISSIONS WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE, AND COULD SAVE YOUR COMMUNITY FROM THE EXPRESSWAY’S IMPACT – so please do what you can!
Dawn McGiveron in the Baldons is kindly helping us by gathering all this data together: please send your responses back to her marked “EAG Evidence Pack from Dorchester on Thames Parish” at dawn@mcgiveron.co.uk as soon as it’s ready.
On the wider campaign there is an opportunity to meet the Treasury Minister on the 6th Feb in Whitehall, to make EAG’s case: we are also meeting John Howell MP and Ed Vaizey MP on the 2nd Feb to do the same (many thanks to Cllr Lynda Atkins and Cllr Lorraine Lindsey-Gale for setting up the Howell / Vaizey meeting).

Expressway Latest News

Posted on by

 

County Councillors Kirsten Johnson and Lorraine Lindsey Gale are being very supportive to the EAG. Lorraine said: “The option to take the Expressway to the West and North of Oxford using the existing A34 has far more to recommend it than destroying the Green Belt and blighting the lives of thousands of South Oxfordshire residents. I urge Highways England to reconsider their decision not to engage with local residents until one corridor has been selected. This determination to keep plans and discussions secret has given rise to widespread anxiety among residents that may in the final event prove to have been unnecessary. I support the Expressway Action Group – WEST IS BEST!”
Councillor Lorraine Lindsay-Gale, Cabinet Member for Property, Cultural & Community Services, Oxfordshire County Council, Member for the Berinsfield & Garsington Division which includes Dorchester on Thames.

The following update was issued from the EAG yesterday – Friday 10th November
Oxfordshire Expressway Action Group Update – Fighting for Oxfordshire’s countryside – once it’s gone, it’s gone.

The Oxfordshire EAG consists of over 23 villages from across Oxfordshire representing over 25,000 people and more are joining every day. The Group is trying to find out more about the Oxford to Cambridge Expressway and the proposed routes to encourage proper public consultation before any decision is made. We are calling for a full public inquiry into this proposed new motorway route and development corridor for 100,000 houses because we believe that ten miles of Oxfordshire’s green belt, unspoilt countryside and irreplaceable wildlife havens are at risk of being concreted over without any proper public consultation or a democratic mandate

Peter Rutt, Co-ordinator of the EAG) commented, “Because these proposals have been kept so quiet or discussed behind closed doors, most people in Oxforshire have had no idea the proposed Oxford to Cambridge Growth Corridor and its Expressway motorway even existed, or that there was any opportunity to comment on these proposals. Oxfordshire deserves to be consulted on a project which would massively affect its residents’ quality of living. Without a full public inquiry to examine the environmental, housing and amenity impact of each Expressway route, we could end up with the worst of all outcomes. The thousands of Oxfordshire residents impacted by these huge changes deserve to have their voices heard.”

The Expressway Action Group -key points we are raising with potential influencers on the route decision – please help us by liking our page, writing to your MP, Councillors, local media and sharing our posts and press release.

The Routes: The EAG realised in August 2017 that there are basically two options for this new Motorway. Either, the A34 is sorted and enhanced with the £3 billion of government money being made available for this project OR a completely new motorway is built destroying 10 miles of the Green belt, countryside and wildlife havens of South Oxfordshire and the Thame Valley
The arguments for the Northern Route are compelling.
– The A34 has to be improved no matter what happens. However, only the Northern route will sort out the A34 problems properly with the full force of central government cash behind it.
– Only the Northern route connects the growth towns of Bicester and Buckingham and Banbury to the Expressway
– Only the Northern route links the new Expressway with the new East-West Rail link – It would be far less invasive than a brand new road and would cost £400 million less. (But money is not the only issue as another objective is for 100,000 more houses…)
A southern route …
– A southern route would separate the Expressway from the Rail Link and the new stations at Oxford Parkway and Bicester.
– The environmental, amenity and wildlife impacts of a Southern route would be catastrophic. It would destroy 10 miles of Green belt, causing massive damage to rural lands and
wildlife and will change the character of the area forever.
– It represents a huge danger to the Thame and Thames Flood Plains and associated rare wildlife and their havens
– The proposed Southern routes don’t achieve the aims of the Growth Corridor and ‘Knowledge Spine’ at all as they run along its southern edge. This route would produce more commuter-belt
housing and even more traffic into London and the Southern commuter towns.

Lorna Campbell/Arthur | e: lornacampbell1@gmail.com | t: +44 7836 625999 | twitter:lornacampbell | skype: lornac999

The Expressway Action Group are launching their Facebook Page later today – at

fb.me/expresswayactiongroup or https://www.facebook.com/expresswayactiongroup/