News from the Wantage and Grove Campaign Group WaGCG

First Thames Water. In the last email (which you can find at https://wantageandgrove.org/newsletter.php?DateID=2403141951) I gave lots of links to press articles about the poor service offered by Thames Water, now I have an example of their local billing service which might help you.
One of our readers wrote to me recently and pointed out that Thames Water are never up to date with the water bills. Every time one arrives it is headed  'Estimated water use'. At the end of February when his last bill arrived they suggested that he was £21.60 in arrears, not a lot I know, but he thought that if they were all being estimated, how much extra money are they accumulating from the whole of the vast area they cover. So he challenged them as to why they estimate every bill and the answer he received was that in this area, no meters have been read since the beginning of 2022. He kept them on the phone whilst he read his meter, which then resulted in the fact that instead of owing them £21.60, they owed him £139.85. As he pays by monthly direct debit that payment was reduced from £31.00 per month to £18. If this just a small illustration of what can happen then others will be in the same situation, with Thames Water not bothering to even read meters. A bit like solving water waste.
So it might be worth checking your bill and reading your meter.

CPRE and GARD have launched a petition https://you.38degrees.org.uk/p/stopTWreservoir to ask The Secretary of State for the Environment to stop Thames Water’s costly mega-reservoir plans and fix the leaks. Please follow the link and sign the petition and get all of your family and friends to do the same.

A reminder about the Playing Pitch and Leisure Facilities Strategies.
The consultation on both new strategies for the Vale of the White Horse runs until 17 April. The reports are not easy to read (my cynical mind wonders if that is deliberate but I think they are just badly written) but please persevere, they are important. As I mentioned in the last update, we also have a presentation which was given to the councillors at both Wantage Town Council and Grove Parish Council which makes a little bit more sense of the leisure strategy but only covers these two parishes. I've loaded this onto our website so that you can take a look. It's available at https://wantageandgrove.org/images/Wantage-GroveLeisureAssessmentMar2024.pdf

You still have time to review the Local Government Boundary Commission second phase of consultation about new division boundaries for the County Council.This consultation closes on 22 April. You can access it at https://www.lgbce.org.uk/all-reviews/oxfordshire/feedback

South Oxfordshire District Council and Vale of White Horse District Council are looking for volunteers to join an Independent Remuneration Panel to help review councillors’ allowances. You can apply for the position until 8 April 2024  so don't delay. Please click here for the application pack. 

If you are gardening over the Easter break, don't forget that if you are subscribed to the brown bin garden waste service, you can have extra garden waste collected for free, on your normal collection day, between 15 and 26 April. To be eligible for collection, the extra waste must go in standard sized (60L) sacks and should only contain natural garden waste such as cut grass, plants or branches (less than 10cm thick).  Alternatively, it can be placed in boxes / containers totalling no more than a standard bin full.

You still have time to share your stories and photos of Second World War with the University of Oxford project. You have until 5th April to do so at https://oxford.omeka.net/s/theirfinesthour-archive/page/direct-submissions

Finally Road Resurfacing: nearly 100 roads across Oxfordshire will be improved as part of a £7 million highway maintenance programme beginning this spring. Oxfordshire County Council and its contractor Milestone Infrastructure Ltd will be visiting more than 50 locations between 8 April and 3 June to carry out surface dressing work. The programme is part-funded by the government, with £2.629 million coming from the Department for Transport’s road resurfacing fund.
As far as I can tell, the only roads affected in OX12 are the road between Steventon and Hanney, from Frilford traffic lights to Marcham, and from Kingston Lisle to Uffington through Fawler.
For details of all roadworks - see https://one.network/.

As you know, you can read previous newsletters at https://wantageandgrove.org/newsletters.php and find a list of many of the sports, cultural and community organisations in OX12 at https://wantageandgrove.org/organisations.php

Julie Mabberly