Category: Uncategorized

Including an exhibition of historic village photographs

Dear Residents,

We are pleased to announce the Grand Opening of the Recreation Ground Pavilion’s new facilities, on Saturday 17^thJune at 10.30am.

As many of you will know, the Parish Council’s Environment and Recreation Committee has been working for 12 months with the builders SCM,  and with the project architect, Michael Simpson, to re-develop the north-eastern part of the Pavilion.  

The improvements include: new public toilets, accessible from outside; a small drinks and food servery, opening onto a paved and landscaped outdoor dining terrace, with new benches; an outdoor table tennis table; and inside the Pavilion, a new, small events/meeting room. 

We are particularly proud of the new outdoor disabled toilet/baby-changing facility,  which can be accessed from the new outdoor terrace via a gently sloping ramp.  

The project received an award of £73,016 from SODC’s capital grants programme and a grant of £67,238 from the FCC Communities Foundation, which gives grants for community projects through the Landfill Communities Fund. A generous grant of £75,000 plus contingency was also awarded to the project by Crowmarsh Parish Council. 

The new servery is equipped with two hot plates, a microwave oven with grill, a fridge/freezer, a small dishwasher and a tea urn.  It can be hired for one-off events (either inside the Pavilion, or outside), by local groups/residents wishing to serve refreshments at the Recreation Ground, either on a temporary or on a more regular basis.  If interested, please apply to the secretary of the Parish Council, Mrs Sue Rance (email: [email protected]). The small events/meeting room will have a table with seating for up to 12 people, a large monitor for presentations, and WiFi.  Users will also have direct access to the servery, with all of its refreshment facilities.

At the Grand Opening, on Saturday 17^th June, we will cut a ribbon to open these new areas at 11.00am, as a band plays “Oom-pah” and refreshments are served. There will also be a special exhibition of historic village photographs in the Main Hall of the Pavilion. This has been kindly brought together by local historian David Beasley, especially for the event. We hope this will be of interest to both long-established and new residents of Crowmarsh alike.

Do come and join us at this special celebration marking the further development of our village facilities. We hope you will agree that Crowmarsh residents can now enjoy a Recreation Ground facilities that are second to none!

Andrew Johnson

Oxford’s Botley Road will be closed to through traffic from Tuesday 11 April to October 2023 to allow Network Rail to begin work on its redevelopment of Oxford station and rail upgrade. A second period of closure to through traffic will take place from March to October 2024. This is to enable the bridge to be replaced and highway improvement work to take place.

Access for residents and businesses
Local residents’ access to their homes will remain at all times, with some diversions in place.
Local businesses on Botley Road will remain open and accessible to vehicles
via the west end of Botley Road only.

Travel guidance
Motorists who usually use Botley Road to get into the city are advised to use one of the city’s park and ride sites. The closure is expected to increase traffic on other main routes into the city, such as Abingdon, Banbury and Woodstock Roads.
Until the end of September 2023, passengers can take advantage of a combined
park and ride ticket at a reduced price. This covers both parking and return bus
travel at a rate of £4 for a car with one adult, or £5 for a car and two adults. With both options, up to three children under 16 can travel for free. Buses will turn around just before the rail bridge, allowing passengers to continue their journey to the railway station and into the city centre on foot. An accessible bus service called the Botley Road Comet will operate to and from the city centre from Osney and Botley. It will run every hour between 10am and 2pm on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. It will pick people up from outside Tumbling Bay Court, next to West Oxford Community Centre and the Seacourt Bridge car park, and will travel into the city centre via Woodstock Road and Jericho. This additional service will be run by the team that operates the Oxfordshire Comet.

Cyclists and pedestrians will have access to the railway station and onwards into the city throughout the work. Cyclists will need to push their bikes through a small section of the roadworks site.
Electric scooters can be used to travel across the works area, although riders will need to push their e-scooters through a small section of the roadworks site – like cyclists.
Trains will operate as normal. Any temporary impact on services will be advertised well in advance.

Emergency services
Emergency services are working to put mitigations in place during the closures.
Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue will be moving a fire crew from Oxford to Eynsham to ensure a timely response to the west of Oxford during the daytime and reach
affected areas within their 11-minute response time. Current arrangements will
remain in place at night through the Eynsham on-call crew and the Rewley Road fire station.

Further information
Travel guidance: www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/oxfordstation
Redevelopment of Oxford station: networkrail.co.uk/oxfordshireconnect FAQs about the project: Oxfordshire connect FAQs (networkrail.co.uk)

At the council elections on 4th May, you will need to take an identification document with a photo in order to be able to vote at the polling station. A range of photo ID will be accepted, including passport, driving licence, disabled parking blue badge, concessionary bus pass or proof of age PASS ID card.
If you don’t have an accepted form of photo ID, you can apply now for a free voter ID document known as a Voter Authority Certificate. 
Visit https://www.gov.uk/apply-for-photo-id-voter-authority-certificate or call 0800 328 0280. The deadline to apply for a Voter Authority Certificate is 5pm on Tuesday 25 April. 

The plan is to meet at 10am on Saturday 11th March by the bus shelter under the horse chestnut tree at the Street end of Thames Mead. Kit will be provided, but bring gloves and high-vis if you can.

If you do an hour’s litter collecting, you can then reward yourself with coffee and cake at the community cafe in the village hall!

The date is because I found out after our meeting that the Wallingford 1155 group (who have some Crowmarsh members) are organising it on that date and it makes it easy to get the kit and have the rubbish collected afterwards.

Tell your friends and neighbours!