Goring Heath Parish Council

Annual Parish Meeting

Goring Heath Parish Hall

Thursday April 11th 2023

8pm

ALL WELCOME

There will be reports form all our lovely Parish Clubs and Societies, including The History Society, the Scouts and Guides and of course The WI.

Refreshments will be served.

contact

goringheathparishcouncil@gmail.com.

NEXT PARISH COUNCIL MEETING

TUESDAY APRIL 11th 2023

GORING HEATH PARISH HALL

B471 OPPOSITE THE CHURCH

7 PM (please note earlier time. we have a shortened april meeting before the Annual Parish Meeting)

ALL WELCOME

PLEASE LET THE CLERK KNOW IF YOU WISH TO ATTEND

goringheathparishcouncil@gmail.com

See Parish Council tab for agenda and minutes.

The Parish Council has a vacancy for a Parish Councillor.

If you are interested in this role please would you contact the Clerk on the email above for further details.Goring Heath is having an ELECTION – check your voter registration and ID before it’s too late

People across South Oxfordshire and the Vale of White Horse are being urged to check that they are ready for the upcoming elections.

On Thursday 4 May, residents will go to the polls to choose local councillors who will make decisions on important issues, such as where we should focus our efforts locally to help tackle climate change, where and how new housing gets built, how we work to ensure there’s enough affordable housing and much more.

As we get closer to polling day, there are four key things people need to know:

Everyone aged 18 or over who is eligible can vote in the local elections, but you must be registered at your current address by midnight on 17 April – if you need to register, apply now at gov.uk/registertovote

If you intend to vote at a polling station on 4 May, you must bring valid photo ID with you. This is a new requirement, introduced by the UK Government which will be in force for the local elections. To find out which ID you can use, visit electoralcommission.org.uk/voterID

If you don’t have the accepted photo ID, you need to apply for a Voter Authority Certificate which is free of charge – visit electoralcommission.org.uk/voterID. Please note – if you need to apply for a Voter Authority Certificate, you must do so by 5pm on 25 April.

If you can’t make it to the polling station on 4 May – you can apply to vote by post – the deadline for postal vote applications is 5pm on 18 April, or you can apply to allow someone else to vote on your behalf, this is known as a proxy vote. The deadline to apply for a proxy vote is 5pm on 25 April. To find out how to apply for a postal or proxy vote, visit southoxon.gov.uk/localelections2023 or whitehorsedc.gov.uk/localelections2023

Mark Stone, Electoral Registration Officer at South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse District Councils, said: “This is your chance to help to decide who represents you and makes decisions about local issues that affect you directly.

“We don’t want anyone to miss out, so please check now to make sure you are registered to vote at your current address and that you have the photo ID you need if you intend to vote at a polling station on 4 May.”

For more information about the 2023 local elections, visit southoxon.gov.uk/localelections2023 or whitehorsedc.gov.uk/localelections2023

Please note :

To apply for the Voter Authority Certificate, voters will need to provide a photo, full name, date of birth, the address at which they are registered to vote and their National Insurance number. The deadline to apply is 5pm on 25 April.
Details of those standing for election in South Oxfordshire and the Vale of White Horse will be confirmed on Wednesday 5 April – this information will be published on southoxon.gov.uk/localelections2023 or whitehorsedc.gov.uk/localelections2023

Key dates for this election

20 March – candidates nomination period opens
5 April – details of who you can vote for published (by 4pm)
17 April – deadline to register to vote in this election (midnight)
18 April – deadline to apply to vote by post (5pm)
25 April – deadline to apply to vote by proxy (5pm)
25 April – deadline to apply for voter ID (5pm)
4 May – voting day (7am to 10pm)
5 May – election results day

Do you know anyone who is interested in becoming a councillor?

Oxfordshire Association of Local Councils (OALC) have provided this useful presentation.

Further information can be found on the OALC website.

The council’s website has some useful information for those wishing to stand as a parish councillor including instructions on how to complete a parish nomination form and a completed form. Please see link

COMMUNITY SPEED WATCH FOR GORING HEATH

Crays Pond Goring Heath Community Speedwatch (CPGH CSW)

Crays Pond Goring Heath Community Speedwatch (CPGH CSW) Report

Spring 2023

Activity during February

The group had eight sessions during February. A total of 55 (38) offenders were reported to Thames

Valley Police (TVP) from 779 (437) passing vehicles. Figures in brackets are from the preceding

month. Current hot-spots for speeders are the B471 at St Johns Church, Whitchurch Hill and the

B4526/B471 in Crays Pond.

Sessions

A consolidated Activity Report for the period is appended as Appendix 1. An amended version of this

should be included on Notice Boards, the GHPC Newsletter and Woodcote Correspondent.

List of firms/establishments written to is appended as Appendix 2. I have had to withdraw a

communication to Camp Hobson in Newbury (the department store) as the trucks seen on 7th and 8th

February were actually from Camp Hobson Removals which is an entirely separate company.

Community Speedwatch – Need for more Volunteers

During the period we offered procedural advice and shared our protocols with the newly established

Wallingford Community Speedwatch. They already have eleven volunteers and they have yet to

commence field activities (expected April).

Our volunteer numbers have remained static at seven but only four currently active.

B471 at Whitchurch Hill – Need for speed reduction

This is currently 40 mph going past St Johns Church, the Village Green and the Village Hall.

Oxfordshire County Council has recently carried out a traffic survey and I would urge the Parish

Council to get behind the campaign to get this 40 mph speed limit reduced to 30 mph.

The same argument exists per the precedent set in Crays Pond, but we believe even more so in

Whitchurch Hill; we have the Church, the Village Green (with children’s amenities) and of course the

Village Hall. For the avoidance of any uncertainty, I will summarise:

DfT Circular 01/2013 Setting Local Speed Limits was issued in January 2013. The guidance contained

within the circular sets out the framework that highway authorities should follow when reviewing and

setting local speed limits. Fear of traffic can affect people’s quality of life and therefore the built-up

area of villages should have comparable speed limits to similar roads in urban areas. For the purposes

of applying a village speed limit of 30mph the definition of what constitutes a village is that there are:

• 20 or more houses (on one or both sides of the road), and

• a minimum length of 600 metres.

If there are just less than 20 houses, extra allowance may be made for any other key buildings, such as

a church, shop or school. The minimum length may also be lowered to 400 metres (and in exceptional

circumstances 300 metres) when there are 20 or more houses located within this shorter length.

30mph speed limits should be the norm on roads in areas with sufficient housing and/or key

buildings.

For Full report see link here:

CPGHCSWReport feb_march.pdf

Activity during January

The group had six sessions during the period due to lack of availability of trained operatives; one session was cancelled due to roadworks on the B471. A total of 38 Offenders were reported to Thames Valley Police (TVP) from 437 passing vehicles. Witness statements have been given TVP in relation to the ‘Garton End Incident’ in Crays Pond. This site is still suspended by TVP due to volunteer Health & Safety concerns.

Community Speedwatch – Need for more Volunteers !!

We are now at a critical point in relation to volunteer numbers which endangers the future of the scheme. We currently have SIX volunteers from Crays Pond and ONE from Whitchurch Hill. Of this, one operative whilst signed up as volunteer, has never participated in a single session. Another has a serious long-term illness which has precluded the operator from participation; and a further two volunteers are currently undergoing medical treatment in the coming months for serious health issues. The ‘Call for Volunteers’ notices which appeared in both the Parish Newsletter and the Woodcote Correspondent yielded not one single volunteer from this course of action. The scheme is in danger of collapsing due to insufficient numbers of volunteers.

Funding

We are still using the CSW kit borrowed on loan from Thames Valley Police. As the scheme is in jeopardy, I suggest no further major capital expenditure is undertaken in the immediate future e.g., to buy a CSW kit of our own – pause this Current funding balance £216.65.

Ian Reynolds CPGH CSW Group Coordinator 1 st February, 2023

December 2022 Report

Activity during December

The group had a limited number of sessions in the run-up to the Christmas period, this was due to

availability of trained operatives, and one session was cancelled due to the weather, so we had four

sessions during the period. A total of 36 Offenders were reported to Thames Valley Police (TVP)

from 416 passing vehicles. One site in Crays Pond, near to Garton End, was subsequently suspended

by TVP due to volunteer Health & Safety concerns - this due to there being a further public order

incident at this location. Same perpetrator as previous abuse of 23rd August, 2022. Matter formally

reported to TVP who are currently investigating. The perpetrator is a local resident and was given a

police conditional caution following the first incident.

Sessions

A consolidated Activity Report for the period is appended as Appendix 1. An amended version of this

should be included on Notice Boards, the GHPC Newsletter and Woodcote Correspondent. List of

firms/establishments written to is appended as Appendix 2.

Community Speedwatch – Need for more Volunteers

The ‘Call for Volunteers’ notices appeared in both the Parish Newsletter and the Woodcote

Correspondent. As yet, we have not yielded any volunteers from this course of action – not one

person! We currently have seven volunteers—one who has never participated in a session, and one

who is currently ill, so we are down to a net five. I repeat we only have one volunteer from

Whitchurch Hill which is very disappointing indeed.

Joining Instructions are included as Appendix 3. Please share to encourage more to sign up.

Funding

We are currently using a CSW kit borrowed on loan from Thames Valley Police. This will need to be

returned very soon.

Current funding balance £216.65.

Ian Reynolds

CPGH CSW Group Coordinator

19th December, 2022

Latest Newsletter

Click here to view the latest Newsletter

Goring Heath Update

For the latest news, see News Update.

For guidance on car sharing during the pandemic, see Goring Heath Volunteers.