Oxfordshire County Council’s trading standards team is encouraging caution if anyone knocks and offers to start work immediately, particularly if they are pushy or claim that urgent repairs are required. Each year, springtime and the start of the growing season results in an increase in offers to assist with gardening.
Here are some top tips from Oxfordshire County Council’s trading standards team:
More details and the full press release - Residents warned about rogue traders posing as gardeners and roofers in Oxfordshire Oxfordshire County Council are currently conducting a study to investigate the feasibility of area based weight restrictions.
In this engagement activity, we are inviting local stakeholders to share their views on where there are existing or potential future challenges with inappropriate Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGV) movements to help inform the study. Background The county council adopted a new Freight and Logistics Strategy alongside the Local Transport and Connectivity Plan (LTCP) in July 2022. The Freight and Logistics Strategy provides more detail about the challenges associated with the movement of goods in the county, key principles and actions. Work is currently ongoing to progress the actions in the strategy. The Freight and Logistics Strategy outlines that one of our priorities for local goods movement is to encourage use of the most appropriate HGV routes. In order to achieve this some action will be required, including restricting HGV traffic in exceptional circumstances. Traditionally, this has been through point based weight restrictions. These are weight restrictions on individual roads or structures such as bridges. However, we have found that in many cases this approach does not address the issues with inappropriate HGV movement. This approach often causes HGVs to move onto surrounding roads creating a new issue elsewhere. An example of this was the Burford Experimental Traffic Restriction Order (ETRO), which is set out on pages 30-31 of the Freight and Logistics Strategy. The Freight and Logistics Strategy therefore made the commitment to explore an area based approach to weight restrictions (action 10). This approach will consider how we can keep HGVs on appropriate routes across larger geographic areas to reduce freight traffic in our towns and villages and stop issues being moved from one road to another. The first step in this process is conducting an area weight restriction study. This will assess feasibility and set out a proposed countywide approach. It is important that we conduct this countywide piece of work first to set out a consistent approach and consider the potential impacts of any restriction. To help inform the study we would like to capture local stakeholder views about where there are existing challenges with inappropriate HGV movements. These suggestions will be one piece of evidence used, we are also analysing a range of data to ensure the outputs are evidence based. Have your say Area weight restrictions - stakeholder engagement | Let's Talk Oxfordshire On Monday (19 March), the Cabinet Office launched a new system that will give the government and emergency services the capability to send an alert directly to mobile phones when there is a risk to life.
The Emergency Alerts system will allow the government to get urgent messages quickly to nearly 90 percent of mobile phones in a defined area. The system is now ready to be tested across the country following successful tests in East Suffolk and Reading. The alerts will only ever come from the government or emergency services, and they will issue a warning, the details of the area impacted, and instructions about how best to respond. Emergency Alerts will be used very rarely – only being sent where there is an immediate risk to people’s lives – so people may not receive an alert for months, or even years. Emergency Alerts will be used across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and their initial use will focus on the most serious severe weather-related incidents, including severe flooding in England. By broadcasting from cell towers in the vicinity of an emergency, the alerts are secure, free to receive, and one-way. They do not reveal anyone’s location or collect personal data. Some vulnerable groups may want to opt out of the emergency alerts system. However, the government strongly recommends that people do not opt out of the service, as it is intended to warn people when lives are in danger. The government has produced a toolkit to help councils communicate key messages as part of the Emergency Alerts campaign. A UK-wide alerts test will take place in the early evening of 23 April which will see people receive a test message on their mobile phones. Announcement: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/launch-of-life-saving-public-emergency-alerts More information: https://www.gov.uk/alerts FAQ: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1143765/Frequently_asked_questions_about_Emergency_Alerts.pdf At 7pm on the 2 March 2023 in the Ordish Room, Aston Village Hall, Cote Road, Aston, OX18 2FS the TVP 'Speedwatch' Co-Ordinator will be making a presentation to the Parish Council and all are welcome.
More information about Speedwatch is available on the website at .https://communityspeedwatch.org/FRONT-v2-Home.php?mr=0 The latest Community Speedwatch newsletter is below for information. Help put a local school top of the leader board
The Street Tag app helps encourage communities to be active, by rewarding movement with points. We'd love your help in sharing the benefits in your communications or conversations with residents. It's easy for anyone to get involved. They just need to download the app through the links below or on our website, select the Oxfordshire school they'd like to support, get moving, and watch the points start to build. So far Oxfordshire’s teams have competed for over £5,750 of prizes and clocked up over 425,650 miles. Points can be collected in so many ways:
The points help school teams climb up the rankings. Those that top their district leader boards win money for their school. If schools local to you don’t have a leader board, they can sign up to Street Tag here. Download for iOS > Download for Android > Find out more about Street Tag > As part of an ongoing local crime survey, the Police and Crime Commissioner for Thames Valley is today (15/12) asking residents to share views on where they would like the policing budget to be focused in 2023/24.
Yesterday, the Home Office announced the funding settlement for police forces across the country for the next financial year. In Thames Valley, this means an additional £5.1m in Government grant, an increase of 1.8%. Alongside this funding from the Home Office, the Government has also allowed Police & Crime Commissioners to increase council tax by up to £15 (for a Band D property) in order to make additional investments in policing. In Thames Valley, that would mean that for less than 29p a week for the average household, more than £14m could be invested in frontline policing. Matthew Barber said: “As your Police & Crime Commissioner, I am aware of the ongoing cost pressures that many households are facing and I want to ensure that any rise in the policing element of council tax will deliver value for money. “Despite funding received through central government, policing isn’t unaffected by increasing cost pressures and faces a difficult time to fund vital services. This year’s policing budget is set against a demanding economic environment with rising inflation, utilities, pay and fuel costs. “By providing your feedback, you can help shape important decisions about police funding and how Thames Valley Police can continue to work to keep us all safe.” Following an increase of 83p per month in council tax last year, which was below inflation, this has helped enable the following: · Development of a specialist Rape & Sexual Offences team · A dedicated team to fast track cases, reducing delays for victims and releasing officers back to the frontline · Improvements in forensics to speed up investigations and bring more criminals to justice · The continued recruitment of more officers, beyond the Home Office funded recruitment programme · Continuation of the Rural Crime Task Force and the introduction of a Drugs Task Force · Improving essential technological infrastructure and systems to better support service delivery Matthew added: “I want to see increased investment in community policing and improving communication between the public and the police. Final decisions on council tax and the policing budget will be made at the end of January. By contributing towards my ongoing survey, you can help shape how Thames Valley Police continues to improve and tackle crime across our communities.” The survey can be completed at https://survey.alchemer.eu/s3/90503915/OPCC-public-consultation or by visiting the PCC website. If you would like to share your views on the policing budget for 2023/24, please complete the survey by 12pm on Friday 13th January 2023. |
AboutNews and information from Aston, Cote, Chimney & Shifford Parish Council. Archives
April 2024
Categories |