Honorary Citizens, County Councillors District Councillors, Retired Mayors of Chippy

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Honorary Citizens, County Councillors District Councillors, retired Mayors of Chippy, Town Councillors, Residents and Members of the press welcome to the Annual Town Meeting for 2017

It always amazes me that when I sit down to write this report how many of the subjects crop up every year but it does seem that to get anything done nowadays requires a lot of patience.

Roads etc - I have very little to report except that the holes seem to get bigger but the white lines have been painted but the road signs still get dirtier

Firestation - the latest we have heard is that we still have one engine and that the Police are likely to join the Fire Brigade - perhaps with the ambulance service as well ?

HGVs/Horsefair/Pollution etc - there have been various surveys done about traffic flows which are interpreted differently by different bodies but we know that the westerly and southern flow of traffic is basically A361 joining A44 and flowing towards Moreton in-Marsh - conversely the north / easterly flow in the majority is A44 splitting towards Banbury on the A361 and then to Oxford on the A44 - there are, naturally, some vehicles which decide to proceed towards Burford and Churchill but they are in the minority - more on this later.

Last year we had hoped we might do some or all of the following

-the railings around the playarea in the New Street Recreation ground but we need an army of mums and dads to help with that

-the ladies and gents signs on the Town Hall

-Refurbish the railings around the Town hall - done

-paint the town railings on the main road again

-power wash some of the older equipment in New Street Recreation area

-power wash some of the street furniture around town - and maybe help out OCC and power wash some of the road signs

We didn't manage to do those jobs for various reasons including lack of time / good weather and staff and in order to get these jobs done this year we are contemplating hiring in some ‘labour …’ but in addition to some of the above we will also be replacing some of the equipment on New Street Recreation Ground and refurbishing some of the soft play surface there and there will be some refurbishment / improvements at the other recreation areas. We will also have to start planning soon for the design of the new LEAP which we takeover at the Cotswold Gate development.

But we have demolished the old scout hut and refurbished the foul water system at Greystones and the provision of a new scout hut in joint venture with the scouts plus the reorganisation of Greystones especially the car parking started in earnest yesterday morning - we hope that within 10 weeks this project will be finished and the funds are now in place for the work that the Rugby club and Swifts want to - not forgetting the Rifle Club.

We have replaced the Guildhall Notice board / Town Hall Notice board , placed a new notice board just up from the pelican crossing and refurbished the notice board just down from the pelican crossing and new curtains up here in the man hall.

We also had an exceptional number of open meetings in town namely a well-attended pre-Brexit european debate/ two town meetings re planning and one interesting evening concerning the Football Club - I hope that the fact we arrange such debates / evenings does show that we do listen to the Town and want to hear opinions and ideas.

OTHER DEVELOPMENTS IN TOWN

-The Town has changed this year - the redevelopment of Penhurst was eventually finished in December much to the relief of my close neighbours and those using New Street recreation ground

-the rebuild of the Baptist Church has been completed , Churchill House on Hailey Road has been completed by Cottsway , Vernon House is cracking on and the first Bellway Homes were occupied before Christmas with about 55/60 being occupied at the moment and the 72 bed Premier Inn also opened before Christmas and seems to be doing reasonable business.

Last year I said ….

-I would not be surprised if planning is applied for Tank Farm before the end of the year and we wait and see when the extra care home in front of the new Medical Centre will start

-Replacement of Dean Pit - has not yet been resolved however I can tell you that various local town and parish councils together WODC are trying to get a plan together.

I am afraid the situation remains about the same on both fronts but with WODC now having to put their revised Local Plan in front of the inspector. As I think the town is well aware this means a total of 2400 dwellings being contemplated for greater Chippy with 1400 of them being built at the Strategic Development Area called Tank Farm - but to clarify that statement the latest we have from OCC and their developers is that they feel that a total of 1200 should be the maximum with the breakdown being 100 houses at the Pillars on the Banbury Road / 63 at the possible new Macarthy and Stone site (Parker Knoll) and 1037 on the rest of the Tank Farm along with recreation/sports areas and a new primary school (needed because of the new houses ) - these would not be dumped on us straight away but certainly about 200 over the first 5 years while the rest of infrastructure is sorted out . BUT having said that your town councillors and district councillors are united in saying that this is still too many for the site - we agreed 600 in the last local plan - we have not agreed to this new figure of 1037. Development there has been on the cards for years so some building is inevitable but we (all District and Town Councillors) are in the process of fighting this increase and we will be attending and speaking to the Inspector over the next months to ensure the final figure is close to 600 houses. Today we have sent the Inspector a 5 page letter with comments as to The Matters and Questions Stage 2 paper as issued by the Inspector and we intend to attend and participate in these hearings during May. I am prepared to run through this with any interested parties.

On the subject of the Local Plan 2031 I would also like to comment that one of the Town Council’s biggest problems with the current plans is the so-called Relief Road - this will only be built if a minimum of 1200 houses are built - we don’t think that planners have got their numbers stacked up correctly - the amount of money this will cost (if it is done properly) will be millions of pounds and we think that the Town can benefit from such a large amount of money in a better and different way when it comes to roads and traffic.

We have several well-known problems - 1) we are a small market town with very few roads which are not on a hill and with a large number of roads only suitable for the horses and carts that they were originally built for - or perhaps for small post war lorries - they are definitely not suitable for todays juggernauts and 2) we have the well-known bottle-neck of Horsefair and 3) Parking.

SO today CNTC are going launch Chippy 2020 - this is a very embryonic but very feasible and comparatively inexpensive reorganisation of the centre of town - the traffic and other related topics ie car parking /speed limits / hgv’s etc have been discussed for many many years and we think that the time has come to grasp this prickly subject with both hands and try and come up with a

new / revamped and modern approach to the problem.

We (some individual councillors and the entire town council) have had discussions with two traffic consultants who are basically suggesting as follows:-

using the premise that we have a town with an area restricted by buildings and roads (ie limited space) with at least one severe pinch point then a good solution

would be a one way system (there could be others ie Rollright Stones road etc etc all of which will cost many millions of pounds etc etc )- the scheme would be launched over a period of time in three stages

First Stage - introduce a one way system (there a 3 versions of this) - using Albion Street in a southerly direction and the A44 in a northerly direction - this would not be expensive and once we have jumped through all the necessary legal hoops this could be done with some whitepaint / a few new signs and a couple of kerbs realigned- at this stage this would not be irreversible ie if it works great if not back to the drawing board

Second Stage - once we have proved this works then Albion Street could be re-built into a type of Streetscape enhancement scheme - more of this in a minute

and then

Third Stage we move onto a Streetscape enhancement scheme for the centre of town and even down New Street and up the London Road

(Please note thjs is very very embryonic at the moment)

Streetscape enhancement schemes are popular in the Netherlands/ are being used in France and Germany and gaining popularity in the UK - see youtube Poynton Regenerated - a very interesting 14 minute video

the main premise is that all road users share the space available (in a controlled way) - it has been proven that this cuts traffic speed down considerably and also cuts down accidents

A local example of this sort of arrangement is Frideswide Square in Oxford (next to the railway station) - I have recently driven through this square and it was working well at 1500 hrs in the afternoon - although I am all too well aware of the bad press this square has received as theydesigned the area incorrectly for bus use ….but as a town we feel we have to try and be innovative. At a recent meeting of the Traffic Advisory Committee the representative of Thames Valley Police actually put forward a suggestion that we should look at this sort of scheme - he will get a copy of what we have later this week.

I stress again that this is very very embryonic - we think it is feasible - we think that with some careful planning we can persuade HGV’s that Chippy is not the best place for their vehicles and it would improve the centre of town , offer a few more parking places and this is probably overall mostly a win win scenario - we will be putting this out to public consultation soon hopefully with the blessing and assistance of OCC and WODC - we think the entire process will take 3 years (after all consultations etc ) but with the work the Town Council have done so far we think we are already close to starting on Stage 2 of this process which will be Vision and Objectives (which will take 2 months and is the responsibility of CNTC to enable the process to go forward)

this will entail

a. Establishing a vision for the project in a succinct form of words

b. Set objectives for the proposed scheme

c. Consider funding opportunities

d. Identify design brief

And within 3 to 5 months time we should have some concrete plans and designs to place before the Town. We will keep the Town advised of the developments of Chippy 2020. Anyone want to help the Town council with this ??

While on the subject of traffic - the Council have been persuaded to ask the higher authorities to approve a plan to introduce a 20 mph limit throughout the majority of the town - final plans are in the process of being drawn up - but this is not without its problems as the A44 is regarded as being a major arterial road.

As a town we also commemorate various events which seem to arrive thick and fast but we cant commemorate them all - last year the notable events were:-

-Lighting of the Beacon on 21st April for Her Majesty's 90th Birthday

-May 31st a short ceremony was held to commemorate the Battle of Jutland where two residents of Chippy lost their lives

-Early in June we dressed the Town with nearly 100 Union Flags in readiness for the June 12th when we held the town festival to celebrate The queens official birthday together with more traditional Town festival activities - this was a great day for all - the flags stayed up until September as we seemed to find a reason to keep them up - I think the first was the Olympics then the Paralympics and then Euro 2016

-Remembrance Sunday - again we were blessed with a lovely autumn day and what we think was one of biggest parades we have seen for some time - this event really does go from strength to strength

-And we must not forget the amazing Chippy Christmas Fair - put on in this style for the first time last Xmas - it was such a success this will happen again this year - date still to be confirmed and we hope to have new lights for the Xmas trees / maybe some lights on the big trees and a better way of hanging the lights on the Town Hall. - so our sincere thanks to the Xmas in Chippy team namely Julia Cook, Nicola Edgington, Gary Kitcher-Jones, Don Davidson and last but definitely not least Vanessa Oliveri our Town Clerk -

-and the final event of the year was my Casino Mayorale which we think was a great success and about £2500 was earned for division between our two chosen charities Luekaemia Research and the Chippy Scouts

On the subject of events as always the Council’s sincere thanks go to the non-council groups who also try help the town

-the Green Gym and Experience Chipping Norton

-ECN also have to be thanked for confirming Chippy’s place on the map again this year with the Town becoming the Runner Up in the Market Town category of the 2016 Great British High Street Awards competition - second place was a great achievement but the competition was pretty fierce

-Rotary for running the Town Festival on June 12th last year when the celebrations included the Towns celebration of the Queens 90th birthday and also for their efforts in getting the Good Neighbour shuttle Service bus scheme up and running .

- the Lions for their generosity in continuing to look after the defribulators for the Town so as another reminder there is one in the square / one at the Red Lion / one at the Masonic Hall one on Hailey Road and for everything else they do - we are trying to organise others for the Greystones and for the Cotswold Gate estate - and we have recently purchased some emergency blankets which are in the process of being distributed around town - a list will eventually go on the central defrib board

-also to the organisers of the other events and festivals Music Festival, and ChipLitFest,

-and to Graham Beacham for organising Sports Awards yet again this year

-and a special thanks also to Peta Simmons for continuing to organise the visitors centre on Saturday mornings ( amongst other things)

And as always we have to thank all our residents who help in town as well as our County, District counclillors together with my fellow Town Councillors for all the hard work they do on our behalf - and last but not least to the Town council staff who do a sterling job in making sure various contractors do what they are meant to do /ensure that bills are paid / arrange the allotments / look after the cemetery and arrange all Town Hall functions - many thanks indeed.