The Town Hall, Corn Exchange and Burwell Hall will be closed from Friday 20th March in the interests of staff and customers and to adhere to the Government advice on social distancing.  You can still contact us by telephone or email and please keep a look out on our Facebook, Twitter App and website news posts to stay up to date with useful updates.

Town Hall  01993 704379
email: info@witney-tc.gov.uk

Corn Exchange  and Burwell Hall 01993 702309
email: publichalls@witney-tc.gov.uk

This is the current position regarding all local bus services from Monday 23 March but obviously they are subject to change so please keep checking with bus companies where you can.
STAGECOACH
S1 and S2
Peak service to operate largely as normal to enable key workers to continue.
Off peak Sunday service.
S7
Normal service.
15
Saturday service.
19
Saturday service.
233
Hourly service.
Oxford Tube
Unchanged.
PULHAMS
X9
Normal service.
SWANBROOKS
The 09.30 to Cheltenham will not operate.
The 13.15 will operate as normal with a return at 16.10
WOCT
Town service
Hourly service between 08.55 and 12.55 on routes 214 and 215.
213 suspended.
210
Return shoppers service from Milton including Deer Park.
Service leaves Milton at 09.00 and serves Deer Park at 09.32. Return at 12.20.
VILLAGER
All services suspended.

There are lots of excellent Community Action and Business Resilience posts dotted around on Facebook.

Many of you have one for your own village or area and they are great for keeping your fellow residents up to date with what is going on.
Witney Land Army are centrally organising volunteers through their page and you can sign up using this form. This will help co-ordinate all the offers of general help.

Witney land army covid19 volunteer

Meanwhile, local businesses continue to make generous offers to help each other and members of the public on various sites. The main one for Witney seems to be: Support your Witney community during the Covid-19 outbreak:

Support your Witney community during the Covid-19 outbreak link

and there are others offering help in the surrounding towns and villages such as Carterton & Brize Coronavirus community assistance group- which offers “Advice, Resources and Kindness”

Please don’t forget Volunteer Link Up who always need volunteers and will need them more than ever right now and finally take care of yourselves.

If you are finding it all a bit much and need some support with anxiety or other mental health conditions MIND offers help and support

Mind Mental Health Information and support link

It’s time for the Spring Newsletter. This issue will be delivered to all Witney Homes around the end of this month but if you can’t wait till then you can read about your Council Tax and what the Town Council spends its share of that on.

WitneyNewsletter(Spring2020)

There is also our Annual residents’ satisfaction survey asking you to rate our services and also as part of that survey a focus on Youth Services.
www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/3BJHS9

This one isn’t Witney but will affect journeys to Swindon and put some extra traffic on other local routes

Temporary Traffic Regulation Notice – S14 Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984
Temporary Road Closure and “No Waiting” Restriction at Faringdon, Faringdon Road

Temporary Traffic Regulation Notice – S14 Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984
Temporary Road Closure at – North Leigh, A4095
In the interests of public safety it will be necessary for Oxfordshire County Council to close the road as detailed above in order to facilitate carriageway resurfacing and improving signage.
A temporary Notice is being made to implement the temporary closure and will operate from 19/05/2020 (at 19:30hrs).
The anticipated completion date is 22/05/2020 (at 06:00hrs).
Night closure and each night from 19:30hrs to 06:00hrs.
A Temporary Traffic Regulation Notice is being made to implement the temporary closure and restriction and will operate on the days shown above.
Please note that Notices for urgent works can last up to 5 consecutive days only.
Access will be maintained for emergency service vehicles and for those frontages within the closure area, subject to the progress of the works and liaison with the works supervisor.
A copy of the drawing showing the extent of the closure and also the alternative routes for traffic is attached.
Further information regarding the works may be obtained by contacting Oxfordshire County Council on 0345 310 11 11.
T7496/MR

Please note that the scheduled Policy, Governance and Finance Committee meeting  on 23 March will now be postponed.

The Climate and Biodiversity Sub Committee meeting scheduled for 4pm on Wednesday 18th March has been postponed until further notice.

Please be advised that the Witney Traffic Advisory Committee meeting scheduled for today (17th March) at 2.30pm has been postponed until further notice.

For those who have been taking an interest in the state of the Buttercross clock, here is an update. The clock repairman has been up inside the roof and made a full assessment of what is causing the clock’s inability to keep accurate time.

The good news is that the actual mechanism is in perfect order.  The issue lies with the receiver which picks up the time signal. The current receiver is no longer powerful enough to consistently pick up the signal from the UK transmitter which has moved.

Therefore, next week Councillors will be asked to approve the purchase and installation of a new, more powerful receiver, identical to the one that is successfully keeping time for the Corn Exchange clock and this should resolve the issue.  For the time being the clock hands have both been placed at 12 for stability and to help protect them.

The theme for Commonwealth Day 2020 is:Delivering a Common Future: Connecting, Innovating, Transforming.

Lovely words on this theme, in this year’s affirmation, were read aloud by Mayor of Witney, Cllr Duncan Enright after he raised the flag above the Town Hall.

The Affirmation
We affirm that every person possesses unique worth and dignity.
We affirm our respect for nature, and that we will be stewards of the earth by
caring for every part of it, and for it as a whole.
We affirm our belief in justice for everyone, and peace among peoples
and nations.
Joining together in kinship and affinity, in diversity and unity, as members
of a worldwide family of nations, we build on shared inheritances.
We cooperate with mutual respect and goodwill to deliver a common future
for the good of all.
Through Commonwealth connection we learn from one another, and innovate
to transform our communities, our nations and our world.

A £30,000 fund is one of the ways in which Witney Town Council is aiming to support children and young people in the town.

The money will go towards supporting sustainable youth work and services.

Early in 2019 the Town Council held meetings with key professionals from youth service providers and followed up with direct consultation with the town’s youth through a young people’s survey. This enabled them to identify problems and issues in the town, available provision and resources, and current and future need.

While existing provision in the town is of high quality, there are gaps and barriers to access that need to be addressed.

Based on the information gathered the Town Council resolved to set a budget to support Witney-based projects and collaborations working with local children and young people and to strengthen the town’s youth sector provision.

Cllr Luci Ashbourne, Chair of the Youth Services Working Party commented;

“Young people and their lives are shaped by, and help shape, our community as a whole.  Government cuts to local authorities, schools, policing and mental health services have had a significant detrimental impact on the support and services available for children and their families.

As a grassroots authority, Witney Town Council have the ability to help understand, bring together and share – visually and accessibly – what the town’s offer is: From birth to adulthood, in terms of recreation, leisure and learning, to open access and specialist support.

Knowing this will also enable us to know where the gaps are, to look for solutions, and indeed to help positively promote the lives of a generation and beyond.”

Witney Town Council will also be working alongside agencies at Oxfordshire County Council and West Oxfordshire District Council, reviewing and adding to existing directories to create an accessible and definitive ‘asset map’ of services within the town.

The twin offering from the Town Council consists of the services directory and a fund that could be used to support existing services, create new projects or remove barriers to accessing existing services, such as funding discretionary rates.

The consistent message is that the promotion of positive experiences and opportunities for 0-21-year olds demonstrates that the towns young people are valued and that investing in them will have beneficial outcomes.

The Town Council is continuing to gather information for its Youth Services asset map and you can help by filling in the section that focuses on this in our Annual Resident’s Survey which can be found at this link and in our Spring Newsletter.

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/3BJHS98

Posted on behalf of Oxfordshire County Council
Temporary Traffic Regulation Notice – S14 Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984

In the interests of public safety, it will be necessary for Oxfordshire County Council to close the road and impose a ‘No Waiting’ restriction as detailed above to facilitate carriageway resurfacing works.

Oxfordshire County Council will be conducting a short period of work along the A40 on a short section of the road just to the west of the Wolvercote roundabout. The work is being conducted as part of plans to improve the A40.

The work will involve some light vegetation clearance along with engineering surveys over a three-week period beginning this month. A temporary lane closure (at night) will be required in compliance with Oxfordshire County Council Highway regulations.

The surveys are to be carried out at night to minimise the impact on traffic, but no road closures are required. Any road users in the area from 20.00-05.00 over a period of seven days (w/c 24th February) may experience short delays due to temporary traffic lights. Any work during the day will be off the carriageway and confined to foot ways, cycle paths and verges.

The dates of the work will be:

W/c 17th Feb days– No impact to traffic. Pedestrian marshals will be overseeing the footpaths to escort pedestrians and cyclists safely past the works.

W/c 17th Feb nights – Surveys with no impact to traffic.

W/c 24th Feb days- No impact to traffic. Pedestrian marshals will be overseeing the footpaths to escort pedestrians and cyclists safely past the works.

W/c 24th Feb nights – 2-way traffic lights on A40 and lane closures on A40 and around Wolvercote roundabout but travel in all directions will remain open.

W/c 2nd March – Surveys with no impact to traffic.

Oxfordshire County Council apologises for the inconvenience that may be caused during the work. The schedules above have been designed to keep the area open to business as usual as far as possible.

Annual Town Meeting Wednesday 11th March 2020

Main Hall, The Corn Exchange, Witney 7.30 pm

[Refreshments available from 6.45pm]

The meeting is an important part of local democracy and is open to all registered electors in the town.

Annual Town Meeting Agenda 11 March 2020 c

Held once a year, the Annual Town Meeting  is facilitated by the Town Council on behalf of the electorate. This is not a Council meeting, but an opportunity for residents to raise and discuss matters affecting the town and to ask questions and express views about the year ahead.

The Mayor will open the meeting and Town Council committee chairs will present brief reports to let you know what the Council has been working on for the last year, and its future plans.

The evening also includes a display from charities and organisations that have received financial grants from the Council; giving an insight into how the money has been spent and the benefit this has brought to the town.

Residents are encouraged to take part in the public question session. If you have any questions you would like to raise it would be helpful, but not essential, if they could be submitted in advance of the meeting.

Questions asked in advance can be researched in order that a more informed discussion can take place and a comprehensive answer may be provided at the meeting. Submit your questions by letter or email  to the Town Clerk: townclerk@witney-tc.gov.uk

After the formal session of the meeting, there follows an opportunity for residents to take part in a Youth Services mapping exercise and the input from this will to highlight gaps in provision and to steer funding to where it is most needed 

Tea and coffee will be available before the meeting.

In response to recent inaccurate and misleading social media posts, the Council feels it is necessary to provide a summary of Witney Town Council’s position in respect of Pitch One at The Leys.

Sport is not being banned at The Leys, as sport and recreational use will continue, in line with its historic purpose.

The Sainsbury’s side of the Leys where Pitch One (the adult pitch) is located is also used for a series of highly popular events throughout the summer, which are fast becoming staples in the town’s calendar.

As a result, Pitch One has been degrading over the last five or so years as a result of increasingly heavy usage throughout the year, despite Witney Town Council’s increased investment in renovation and maintenance work. In 2019 the football season finished two weeks early to allow for pitch work to be carried out before the first of the events on the Leys, but the benefits of this work were undone once the event season started.

It has now dropped below the required safety standards for organised competitive sports, as set out by a number of bodies, including the Football Association and  STRI, the Sports Turf Research Institute who inspected the pitch and documented their findings in a report, two years ago (see extract below).

It has become apparent that, it is no longer sustainable to use the pitch for both sports and events, as there is insufficient time between the two to carry out the full remedial works required to bring the surface back into playable standard. Other solutions have been explored but have not proved practical or affordable. For example, to purchase the necessary boarding to hold events over the top of the pitch without affecting it, would cost in excess of £100,000.

Witney Town Council, has a responsibility to both the Home and Away teams using this sports pitch to provide a safe surface, as well as a responsibility to the town to ensure the continued success of its events. After much discussion between Councillors, as well as dialogue with the various groups that use the pitch, the decision was taken to dedicate that half of The Leys to events only.

The Town Council remains committed to supporting local, grassroots sports, and accommodating additional need as our town continues to grow.  As part of its investigations into possible solutions, replacement sports sites have been identified, which will offer facilities not only comparable to those at The Leys, but of an arguably higher and more modern standard, in the future.

At the same time, it is also committed to providing and facilitating the top-quality culture and leisure events that the people of Witney have come to expect. To achieve both of these outcomes is not an easy balancing act and requires difficult decisions to be taken in the short term in order to resolve the matter satisfactorily in the long-term.

In order to ensure that the original spirit of The Leys as a place of sports and recreation will continue long into the future; the other side of The Leys (where the Coffee Shed is) will be used almost solely for sports, with the exception of long-standing traditions and family favourites such as Witney Carnival and Witney Feast. Football will continue with the four junior football pitches and tennis, mini golf, bowls and cricket, and along with the Splash Park and play area will provide a wide range of high-quality opportunities for physical activity.

The Town Council has the deepest respect for our sports teams and over the last decade has increased the number of Junior pitches by twelve to help accommodate our mix of 49 adult and junior football teams. It welcomes anyone who wishes to constructively help achieve this, for the benefit of the whole town, now and in the future.

Finally, Witney Town Council is disappointed to see inaccurate, deliberately misleading rumours being disseminated on social media while it is working tirelessly to provide the modern, safe, and accessible facilities that the people of Witney deserve.

These kind of comments generate further unhelpful and unfounded speculation, such as the suggestion that the land will be sold off for housing or other development. Witney Town Council can reassure its residents that The Leys is safe from this particular threat.

In 2018 the Town Council had the foresight to register and designate The Leys as a Field in Trust which affords it protection from development and preserves it for the enjoyment of future generations.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

The issue with Pitch 1 was highlighted in an advisory report to the Town Council following an inspection of all our sports grounds; football, cricket, bowls etc. by our sports turf consultants.

Here is the extract.

The area designated for football pitches at Leys is deemed unsafe for use following continued use for alternate events throughout the year prior to the football season. The surface has become severely

compacted during the installation and take-down of a stage during inclement conditions, when no protective boards were employed to spread weight and wear to the area. A Clegg Hammer reading

was taken in the site of one of the goalmouths and a value of 315 gravities was recorded when the typical value expected for a football pitch is between 70-90 gravities. As such, it is recommended that the site is no longer used for natural sports pitches as it presents a genuine Health & Safety risk with regards to significant injury to players and officials alike. With the provision of a sound and permanent irrigation supply, extensive renovations and the reservation of the field solely for sportspitch use, the area could be restored to provide a playable and safe surface BUT this will deteriorate significantly if other events resume.

An upgrade of five of Witney’s play areas is set to begin.
Contractors will begin work in the next week or so on the £48,000 project, after councillors selected equipment that would fit available space in five of the town’s play areas. It is hoped that the modern, bright and colourful equipment will add interest and play value to the parks, for older children as well as little ones.
One such play area set for a boost is at Newland’s King George V Fields, where a new IXO multi-climbing system is to be installed, incorporating slides, ladders, platforms and bars. The new apparatus will cater for children of all ages and abilities, with the additions also including a Speed Gyro roundabout, with a non-slip deck, which at 400mm from the ground is the perfect height for transfer from a wheelchair.

Multi play Ixo for King George V field

There will also be a fresh look at the Fieldmere Close play area, with the installation of a climbing and balancing trail, including a balance beam, log walk, stepping stones, and a rocking log. The play area on Moorland Road, meanwhile, is set to welcome a brand new cone-shaped rotating climber, which is bound to appeal across multiple age groups.
Small improvements will also be made to play areas at the Leys and Burwell, which have been updated more recently. The music station at Burwell Recreation Ground is being replaced by a climbing hut, playhouse, and eight-seater wooden see-saw, while the Leys – which until now has had an absence of equipment for younger children – will feature a new toddler slide and tunnel unit.
The equipment is being installed across Witney by specialist suppliers Proludic, and will begin to appear over the next few weeks.

We are nearing the closing date for our One Witney survey – just 3 questions for you to tell us what you like, what you’d change and what’s important to the town. Please follow the link to the survey.
https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/D6TBWCC Closing date is 31st January. Make sure you get a chance to give us your views.

Posting on behalf of Oxfordshire County Council.
A request has been received from MV Kelly Ltd for a temporary road closure to apply to a section of New Yatt Road whilst carriageway resurfacing and installation of services and remedial works are carried out.

A temporary Notice is being made to implement the temporary closures and will operate from the 23 March 2020 up to and including the 27 March 2020. This is a 24 hour road closure.