At the West Oxfordshire District Council planning committee for the Uplands area (including Charlbury), two significant decisions were made today:
The retrospective application for the extraction unit on the Bull was withdrawn before the meeting.
Richard Fairhurst · Tue 31 May 2016, 17:38 · Link
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Or more precisely, £976.90, all going to fund refugee aid. Coffees, lunches and teas were served on Monday in St Mary's by a dedicated team of helpers in the latest fundraising initiative by Charlbury Refugee Action Group.
Including the wonderful people who baked cakes and made salads, quiches, stuffed bagels and much, much more, over 40 people were involved. Their efforts will be really appreciated by the people we are now able to help.
We won't name names, but there were several people who went far beyond the call of duty. Thank you so much to all of you.
And Charlbury Refugee Action Group is grateful to the many Artweeks artists who contributed cakes, to St Mary's for the use of the church, and to the St Mary's Fairtrade group for donating Fairtrade tea, coffee and sugar.
If you would like to join the mailing list for Charlbury Refugee Action Group, please sign up at eepurl.com/bCX1bz
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Jon Carpenter · Tue 31 May 2016, 11:59 · Link
Pulhams Coaches have confirmed that they will be continuing the X9 bus service to Chipping Norton and Witney after the withdrawal of subsidy. The Monday to Friday timetable will be:
A two-hourly service will operate on Saturdays:
Full timetables are at www.pulhamscoaches.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/X9-Service-Mon-to-Fri-21-July-2016-V3.pdf and www.pulhamscoaches.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/X9-Service-Saturdays-23-July-2016-V3.pdf .
According to director Andy Pulham:
"I have kept the peak journeys that are best used currently with little change and I hope the off peak ones although not as frequent will be better used. There will be fare increases on both services however we will endeavour to keep these to a minimum and continue to offer weekly and four weekly passes for regular commuters."
Richard Fairhurst · Fri 27 May 2016, 11:20 · Link
Today the amount of community investment into Southill Solar passed the £1,000,000 mark. This is a wonderful achievement and all of us on the Southill team would like to thank everybody for their support, without which this project would not be possible. The opportunity to own a share in your local solar farm remains and there is still time to join us.
From the Oxford Mail:
"Charlbury Town Under 12s were crowned champions at the national Precision Pass tournament, held at the King Power Stadium, home of newly-crowned Premier League champions Leicester City.
"A 2-0 victory in the final over Higham Town Colts, from Northamptonshire, was enough to secure Charlbury the title."
Full report on the Oxford Mail website.
Wed 25 May 2016, 18:31 · Link
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Here's how you can help.
Homes have been secured for them in Witney in the private sector. Although some are partly furnished, a great deal of furnishings and equipment have to be provided, and this is where individuals, organisations, churches etc. come in.
An 'Adopt a Room' scheme has been launched to share the burden (both financial and the workload) as efficiently as possible. It's the kind of thing a group of people could take on, maybe two or three friends, or perhaps a church or club or a political organisation. For instance, a church might take on equipping a kitchen, but a single member of the congregation might only contribute some crockery or a toaster.
Major items like beds and cookers are already provided.
If you are interested in knowing more, please email charlburyrefugee@gmail.com . We will send you the details and you can make up your mind what you might do. You will then be able to see which rooms in which houses have been 'taken' and what is still needed.
Jon Carpenter · Wed 25 May 2016, 14:45 · Link
At the recent elections, not enough candidates stood to fill all 12 places on Charlbury Town Council. As a result, there are two vacant places.
Could you fill one of those places?
The Town Council meets twice every month, usually in the last week: the Monday evening meeting is to review planning applications, while Wednesday is the full council meeting. Some councillors take on additional responsibilities but there is absolutely no obligation to do so. Being a councillor is a chance to help your town and make sure it represents the full spread of society.
If you would like to put yourself forward for one of the two vacancies, please write by Friday 17th June to Roger Clarke, the Town Clerk (charlburytc@btinternet.com), with a short statement explaining what you think you could bring to the council. Or if you would like to know more, contact Roger or any existing town councillor.
Richard Fairhurst · Mon 23 May 2016, 09:21 · Link
The following planning applications have recently been lodged. Click on the address to see full details at the WODC website.
Mon 23 May 2016, 07:05 · Link
Background
Charlbury School has 13 members on the Governing Body (including Clerk and Associates) who are drawn from parents, staff members, the local authority and our community. We are diverse in age range, background and skills. Our role is to ensure high standards of achievement for all the children in the school by:
• Setting the school's vision, ethos and strategic direction;
• Holding the Headteacher to account for the educational performance of the school and the children; and
• Overseeing the financial performance of the school and making sure its money is well spent.
Vacancy
At the end of this academic year (July), 2 of our longest serving Governors are stepping down and therefore we have 2 vacancies to fill. One we hope to be filled by a town councillor, the other by a resident of Charlbury who has an empathy with the school and education.
The people skills we are looking for are either
• A person who has some financial or IT background to join us on the Finance Committee
or
• A person who is interested in the educational side of school (rather than admin) and is willing to join us on the curriculum committee. An interest in Special Needs Children would be an advantage but not essential.
The commitment to the school is to 5 full governing body meetings per annum, held between 6-8pm on varying weekday evenings and to 5 Committee meetings which precede the full meetings. Another 1-2 ad hoc meetings on matters arising or sub-committees are also not unusual. There is an amount of preparation time for such meetings and Governors are expected to come into school during term-time from time to time on visits in association with their role.
We already have a full complement of parent governors and to maintain the correct balance on the Governing Body of all stakeholders of our town, the vacancies can only be filled by non-parents. Ex-parents are more than welcome.
I as Chair of Governors and the headteacher, Jane Holt, would be more than happy to discuss the position further with anyone who may be interested in taking up the role. I can also forward a short document which summarises the role of the School Governor to anyone interested.
I can be contacted at kaye@freegratis.net or 07813 015034.
Kaye Leggett
Chair of Governors, Charlbury Primary School
Kaye Leggett · Sat 21 May 2016, 14:04 · Link
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People in Witney, Hook Norton, Oxford, Swindon and Wycombe are working together to fill a container which will take food to people in desperate need
Charlbury Refugee Action Group is contributing too.
Aid workers in Syria risk their lives every day to provide vital and life saving aid to the victims of war. The aim here is to fill a container with provisions which will be sent directly to Syria within the next couple of weeks, reaching people who are being bombed and slaughtered on a daily basis, and are prevented from fleeing for refuge abroad.
If you can take part, our closing date is THURSDAY MAY 27 at 5 pm.
Please...
• do not bring anything that is not on the list.
• please phone 01608 811378 or email charlburyrefugee@gmail.com to find your nearest drop-off point in or near Charlbury.
• rather than an assortment of items, please donate multiples or trays/cases of just one (or at most two) items. They are much easier to package.
If you would like to contribute money to the Witney collection rather than buying things yourself, you can do so at https://www.gofundme.com/24jnsyus However, you are not able to add Gift Aid.
If you wish to donate direct to One Nation, who are the charity organising the filling of dozens of containers across the country, your money will go further if you pay income tax and apply Gift Aid (which increases the value of your donation by 25%). The link for making a donation is mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/onenationinsyria
Thank you for helping in any way you can.
Jon Carpenter · Wed 18 May 2016, 15:55 · Link
The following planning applications have recently been lodged. Click on the address to see full details at the WODC website.
Mon 16 May 2016, 07:05 · Link
Thames Valley Police will no longer be continuing the Monday afternoon 12-3pm sessions at The Corner House.
We would like to say a huge thanks to all of the volunteers who have supported us and the community over the years and given up their precious time. Your dedication and service has been invaluable. With the assistance of local volunteers such as you we can rise to meet the challenge and provide an excellent service to the public.
Thank you.
Chipping Norton Neighbourhood team.
Wesley Smith · Sun 15 May 2016, 17:21 · Link
The Quiz and Chilli night organised by Charlbury Refugee Action Group on May 6 raised £1065, as a result of amazing teamwork by no fewer than fifteen people that resulted in an extremely enjoyable evening combined with some very useful fundraising. Thanks so much to you all.
Here's how CRAG is spending this latest tranche of money.
We are giving £450 to a fund set up by the charity Help Refugees for camps in northern Greece. It emphasises the needs specifically of women and children in the camps. The fund uses MyDonate to receive money, so there are no commissions.
If you would like to make a personal donation to this work, and you pay income tax, you can add Gift Aid, increasing your donation by 25% at no cost to you. The site to use is mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/refugeechildren1
The camps at Calais and Dunkirk are extremely under provisioned at the moment, especially when trying to find tents and bedding for 30-50 new arrivals DAILY at Calais. We are giving £450 to CalAid, a charity trying to meet those needs. Last month we gave money to the Calais Kitchens food fund, and this one would cover a wider range of needs. CalAid also use MyDonate so there is no commission.
If you wish to make a donation yourself commission-free, once again you can add Gift Aid: the link is mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/calaid
There are upwards of 500 asylum seekers and refugees 'camping' on the streets in Paris in dire conditions. Support for them is not well organised, but we are in touch with a woman (Danika Jurisic) who lives in Paris who is distributing food, sleeping bags etc as best she can, with a group of other volunteers. We are giving her £200 towards this work. If you wish to donate yourself, please email charlburyrefugee@gmail.com for details.
These are all drops in their respective oceans, but each drop makes a tremendous difference to those who benefit. CRAG is very grateful to you for making this possible, and being part of the contribution that Charlbury makes. People in towns and cities across the country, indeed across the world, are doing similar things and the end result is fantastic.
Jon Carpenter, Secretary
www.facebook.com/charlburyrefugee
charlburyrefugee@gmail.com
Jon Carpenter · Sun 15 May 2016, 11:05 · Link
A substantial number of Volunteer Forms were returned as part of the recent Charlbury Survey. People expressed their wish to be part of one or more of the 20+ voluntary organisations in Charlbury listed with the survey forms delivered to all households in Charlbury.
if your organisation is looking for volunteers, even if you are not one of the organisations included in the survey, please let us know on:
info@charlburyneighbourhoodforum.org.uk
We will put those who have expressed interest in specific organisations in touch with you.
John Hole
on behalf of Charlbury Neighbourhood Forum Comittee
The following planning applications have recently been lodged. Click on the address to see full details at the WODC website.
Mon 9 May 2016, 07:05 · Link
The church clock will be stopped in the next day or two for refurbishment of the "going". We hope the repairs will take no more than 3 weeks. in the meantime we suggest users consult the sundial thoughtfully provided by our forebears on the south wall of the church. PS Don't forget to add an hour.
Mike Summers · Fri 6 May 2016, 12:15 · Link
Tickets are now on sale for " Dancing at Lughnasa"
available from Cotswold Frames, the Charlbury Post Office, www.wegottickets.com/cads or Box office 01608 676642
Curtain up 7.30pm each night this multi-award winning play is about five impoverished spinster sisters in a remote part of Ireland in 1936. With them lives Michael son of the youngest sister Also their brother, Jack, who has returned from missionary work in Africa. The events of that summer are related by the grown-up Michael, unfolding a tender study of these women's lives in rural Ireland.
This has been made into a film, with Meryl Streep
Tickets available from Cotswold Frames, the Charlbury Post Office, www.wegottickets.com/cads or Box office 01608 676642
Curtain up 7.30pm each night
Tim at Cotswold Frames · Fri 6 May 2016, 09:17 · Link
Liz Leffman (Liberal Democrats) has been re-elected to West Oxfordshire District Council for the Charlbury & Finstock ward on a turnout of 48% - the highest in the district.
Full results are:
There was no change to the overall makeup of the council which remains Conservative-controlled.
The next election will be for the Charlbury & Wychwood division on Oxfordshire County Council next May.
Richard Fairhurst · Fri 6 May 2016, 02:28 · Link
Southill Community Energy (SCE) has just announced that it has construction finance in place for Southill Solar (subject to contract). This means that anyone buying shares in Southill Solar can be confident that their investment will be used to see the project through.
This means Southill Solar is a definite go. Work is expected to start on the site in July, and the solar farm should be up and producing electricity by the target date of 6 September.
Construction funding will come from Solarcentury, the company contracted to build the solar farm. Solarcentury will use its own funds to complement the funds raised to date. Solarcentury is a world leading solar developer and EPC, based in the UK and working across Europe, Africa and Latin America. They are highly experienced, having helped fund, install and run 550 MW of solar farms in the UK.
SCE want this project to be owned by the local community, and are still looking for investors to buy shares - people who want to create positive social and financial impact.
The share offer remains open:
southillcommunityenergy.co.uk/investing-southill-solar/
Dan Raymond-Barker · Thu 5 May 2016, 08:30 · Link
The following planning applications have recently been lodged. Click on the address to see full details at the WODC website.
Mon 2 May 2016, 07:05 · Link