UFFINGTON PARISH COUNCIL
Planning applications. - The district council has received a planning application, reference P25/V0188/PIP, for development work at the following location: Woolstone Road Uffington Faringdon Oxfordshire. The application is for: A phased development of up to 2 Custom and Self Build dwellings. The closing date for comments is 20th February. See: Planning Application P25/V0188/PIP
- The district council has received a planning application, reference P25/V0123/N4B, for development work at the following location: School House Farm Uffington Faringdon. The application is for: Conversion of existing agricultural barn to convert into a small dwelling under Class Q Permitted Development. Single storey extension New open post and rail fencing to small garden space at rear. See: Planning Application P25/V0123/N4B
WHAT'S ON - IN & AROUND UFFINGTON
UFFINGTON BAULKING AND WOOLSTONE MINIBUS ASSOCIATION. Annual General Meeting – tonight, at 7.30 in The Thomas Hughes Memorial Hall Uffington.
GENERAL
Have You Recently Needed Health or Medical Care Immediately or the Same Day in Oxfordshire? Healthwatch Oxfordshire would like to hear from anyone who has needed urgent or emergency care or help in Oxfordshire in the last two years. This might include calling NHS 111 or your local GP practice, going to a hospital A & E Department or contacting a mental health crisis team. See attached for more information and a link to the survey: https://mcusercontent.com/c90a1a7b6d1f693a28c947f92/files/5c438d38-a569-53fe-43c2-e4513989ea01/Healthwatch_consultation.01.pdf
From Elm Tree Surgery – New parking scheme in Shrivenham. From the 10th February, Oxfordshire County Council are implementing a new parking scheme in Shrivenham, as requested by Shrivenham Parish Council. This will impact the service we can provide as a surgery. All our clinical team commute in, and most of our admin team do as well. We have been running a campaign to try and stop this scheme and have over 600 signatures on our petition, and support from the Shrivenham Pharmacy and other businesses on the High Street.
As patients will be aware we have an 'unusual' building for a general practice surgery; we have no dedicated parking and are the only GP surgery we (or the County Council) are aware of where this is the case. We did robustly respond in the consultation period last summer with support from the BSW ICB (Integrated Care Board) but unfortunately no concessions were made in the scheme to accommodate the service we provide.
Due to the parking scheme staff will have to move cars every 3 hours to another parking spot. Or staff will have to park near the Memorial Hall and walk in. As most staff have a fixed window of time they can work, due to childcare and other commitments, this will unfortunately have an impact on the time during the day they can be seeing patients. Our GPs and other home visiting staff need access to their vehicles to perform home visits to see housebound patients. This includes for palliative cases from South Marston to Faringdon and maybe with minimal notice.
We have explored several options including other sites for parking and trying to acquire permits. We have liaised with the council officers implementing the scheme to understand it better, we have also asked our MP to consider looking at this. We really do feel we have explored all options available to us. We will be allocated up to two permits in total for our 33+ staff, these are vehicle specific and not transferable. We have explored if we can access more but have been advised that this is not possible.
Therefore, we feel we have no choice than to have 2 blocks a day when a clinical member of staff can move their vehicle if they are working the whole day, which would entail being in the building for over 10 hours.
Last year the BMA (British Medical Association) recommended that GPs see a maximum of 25 patients a day, however at the time as a surgery we did not implement these recommendations as we were aware that this would impact availability; sadly, we have now been compelled to move towards this model as we will need to allocate slots for our clinicians to leave the practice to move their cars. The BMA guidance for reference around workloads and appointments is available here:
https://www.bma.org.uk/advice-and-support/gp-practices/managing-workload/safe-working-in-general-practice/appointments
FROM THE VALE
Vale pledges to represent local communities following reservoir announcement. Following yesterday's announcement (30 January) from the Chancellor, which includes support for Thames Water's proposed new reservoir near Abingdon, the Leader of the Vale of White Horse District Council has pledged to do everything she can to represent the views of residents and businesses across the district. You can see details on our website by clicking this link
Changes coming this spring to garden waste service in South and Vale. Green fingered residents who use the garden waste service in South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse districts will have a change to their service subscriptions this year. You can see details on our website by clicking this link
COUNTY NEWS
Oxfordshire's transport and travel bulletin. See: Modular Template Patterns
Your Oxfordshire. Pizza and politics, weddings and traffic filters; see: Pizza and politics, weddings and traffic filters
Small Business Sustainability Workshop. This is about an exciting opportunity for micro and small businesses to learn the basic fundamentals about sustainability and how to these link to the continued success of their business. The inaugural session will take place on Wednesday 30th April at 17:30 at the BIPC Center, Westgate Library. It is an in-person workshop with interactive activities, great learning opportunities and time to begin carbon reduction plans with support from the facilitators. I have attached a poster detailing the event: https://mcusercontent.com/c90a1a7b6d1f693a28c947f92/files/91752985-8a72-eda4-4ea2-347f9fd42716/April_2025_Sustainable_Supply_Chains_Article.pdf
I have also attached the link to the booking site where free tickets can be reserved, which also has FAQs and additional information. Event Link
Max Button
Sustainable Supply Chain Lead
Oxfordshire County Council. Mobile: 07519700157| Email: max.button@oxfordshire.gov.uk
THAMES VALLEY POLICE
Police & Crime Bulletin Jan '25 -Crime prevention, shop theft & child abuse. See: Police & Crime Bulletin Jan '25 -Crime prevention, shop theft & child abuse
The February 2025 edition of OUR NEWS is here. Highlights from the February 2025 edition of Our News include: - Guidance on spotting Romance fraud and scams
- SimpliSafe demonstrates the importance of Professional Monitoring when it comes to home security
- Phonely provides answers and information on how to prevent scam calls with their services
- We celebrate a decade of partnership with Patlock!
READ THE FEBRUARY EDITION OF OUR NEWSLETTER
Community groups can apply for a share of £200,000 in crime prevention funding. Matthew Barber (Police and Crime Commissioner for Thames Valley) has opened the first round of this year's Community Fund, with a particular focus on supporting projects that tackle anti-social behaviour and vehicle crime. More information attached: https://mcusercontent.com/c90a1a7b6d1f693a28c947f92/files/05ffc4d2-d272-b1f3-c83b-6ed53cc98f92/Community_Fund_2025.pdf
And finally - Looking for a home – I have two halves (each c40 cm high and 60 cm diameter) of a former wooden wine cask which has been in use as a water butt for many years; no longer watertight but eminently suitable for plants, shrubs or a small tree! If interested, please respond to this email with a telephone number to arrange a viewing. Simon Jenkins.
FROM THE CHURCHES OF UFFINGTON BENEFICE
Please find attached the Weekly Sheet for Sunday 9 February: https://mcusercontent.com/c90a1a7b6d1f693a28c947f92/files/a9b91673-4f1d-82da-b1dc-245463ea759a/wsh_2025_02_09.pdf
For all information, please see: https://www.uffingtonbenefice.com/
| | | |
