The members of the Parish Council were saddened to hear of the death of one of their longest serving councillors Michael Holland in June. He had been a councillor since 1976 with one break of service from 1991 to 1998. The Chairman paid tribute to his work as a councillor and led a minute’s silence to his memory. The vacancy on the council would be advertised in August.
A letter had been received from Network Rail to say that the work to replace the railway bridge at Redbridge on the old Abingdon Road would take place from November 2010 until March 2011. It explained that that the route into Oxford would be closed to vehicles for the five months. Cllr. Fatemian said he had been informed that there would be a temporary pedestrian and cycle bridge. Network Rail would take down the old bridge between 23:00 on 24th December to 05:00 on 27th December. Work would be happening at night as well as in the daytime so people at the north end of the village might be disturbed by it. They could only work when there were no trains running if they needed to be near the tracks. They would try to keep noise levels down.
On 28th June 2010 there was a fire at the Links play area. Someone had set alight to tyres near the Twinfly equipment and the bark had caught light and the nearby bench had been burnt. The police had been informed and they were pursuing a number of witnesses to the incident. The missing swing had been installed but it was too high. Still to be rectified was the lining of the bark pit under the nest swing. A number of people had applied for the position of Play Area Warden and interviews would take place in July. The Clerk was trying to source suitable fencing to prevent dogs entering the play area from the Memorial Field.
A number of councillors met the young people at Forest Side. Everyone agreed that that the site behind the trees was suitable for a dirt cycle track. The Clerk had heard from the agent for St John’s College that they were considering the request. The Clerk had spoken to the Community Development Adviser from the Oxfordshire Playing Field Association who had offered to assist with advice on the dirt track. He would need a preliminary design. There was a constructive meeting with the contact manager about the verge and playing field grass cutting contract. The cutting seemed to have stabilised and was of better quality. The Amenities Committee would review the areas to be cut in August and the contract would be advertised again in September.
The Clerk had requested a set of the waste bins for display in the Village Hall. She had enquired about bins for the pavilions on the Playing Fields and enquired about how waste at the cemetery would be handled.
