County Councillor’s Annual Report (April 2004/March 2005)

It is now 16 years since I first became the County Councillor for the Chalgrove Division of Oxfordshire County Council. The Division covers not only Little Milton, but also the parishes of Cuddesdon and Denton, Chalgrove, Garsington, Great Haseley, Great Milton, Newington and Stadhampton.

 

Committees. This time last year I was just completing my year as Chair of Oxfordshire County Council. Since then I have served on the following committees:

Learning & Culture (Vice Chair)

Planning & Regulation

Standards

Democracy & Organisation

Homes for Older People (Chair)

Teenage Pregnancy

The Budget. This year's budget making process was made a little easier with a better Government grant than in previous years. This enabled a budget to be set which results in a Council Tax increase of 4.5% a great improvement on the last two years of 6.25% and 13,4%.

Education. Education expenditure has remained at the level of the Government's Standard Spending Assessment (S.S.A) with all the Government's extra money for education being pass-ported straight through to the schools.

 

Bus Services. The TB1Q3 bus service of Thames Travel continues to run. I would be interested to hear from residents about how useful and well used this is and what changes would result in a more useful service. However, it is difficult to see how it would be financially viable to restore the hourly service in the off peak period.

 

Road Maintenance. I get more complaints about road maintenance than anything else put together. I am pleased t0 say that more money has again been put into road maintenance this- year. We saw the completion of the repairs- to the A329 from Milton Common t& Thame. The subsidence caused by the dry summer of 2003 on Oxfordshire's roads cost an additional £4M to put right.

 

Traffic Calming. The "Five Parishes A329 /B480 Action Group" which I chair still continues to be successful in gaining improvements. The work of this group is very supportive of the work done locally by your own village action team and see the traffic calming measures in Little Milton as key to the whole of the A329/B480 route from Milton Common to Grenoble Road. The Pelican crossings were completed in Little Milton and work is now almost completed on the budgeted build cuts at both ends of Little Milton. These should have the effect of slowing the vehicles down and hopefully deterring them from using the A329/B480 route to the Cowley industrial area, instead of the approved route via the Headington roundabout and the Oxford Eastern by-pass. The Strategic Routes study was completed which is a pre-requisite for us to push hard for the weight restriction from Milton Common to Grenoble Road.