New council offices in Crowmarsh Gifford

We recently held an open exhibition and online survey for people to comment on the design of our new council offices in Crowmarsh Gifford, near Wallingford.

Working with our contractors, Ridge, over the course of the design and build phase of the project, we will publish further details as the project progresses, including the decisions made around sustainability elements of the building along with the compromises we need to make for cost-effectiveness.

If you weren't able to attend the open day, you can see the some of the design concepts on our website here.

Local Plan on hold

Before the general election in December, we received a temporary direction from the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government regarding our emerging Local Plan 2034. This means we are not able to discuss or work to progress the plan. Since this time, Cllr Sue Cooper, our Leader, and the Secretary of State have been in contact with a number of letters.

You can see the latest correspondence between the Cllr Cooper and the Minister on our website page here.

More recently, Oxfordshire County Council have recommended to accept an invitation to prepare our emerging Local Plan if the Secretary of State requests this, subject to assurances in recovering their costs. We are now awaiting the next steps from the Ministry.

Funding available to help tackle air quality

We still have some funding available to support town and parish councils to address air quality issues, with priority being given to projects in Wallingford, Henley and Watlington.

If you have an air quality project that we could help fund, please contact our environment health team.

This money comes from a £100,000 budget put by in 2018 to help tackle air quality issues in our district. So far, we've worked on a number of projects such as updating our air quality developer guidance, conducting feasibility studies to install more electric charging points in properties/car parks that we own and running an 'anti-idling' campaign to encourage drivers to switch off their engines whilst parked or waiting for a minute or more -www.southandvale.gov.uk/turnitoff

(Photo is of the Turn it off campaign as displayed on petrol pumps in our district.)

Tackling climate change

Since our Climate Emergency Advisory Committee made it's recommendations to the Council, we've set ambitious targets to become carbon neutral within our own operations by 2025 and have committed to becoming a carbon neutral district by 2030.

Our committee meetings happen regularly and everyone is invited to go along and to hear the discussion on how we can help tackle climate change.

You can find out more information on the advisory committee and the work we are doing to achieve our targets on our website.

'Reach' - hand sculpture

A new bespoke art piece called Reach has been opened by students from two local schools. The large hand sculpture has been installed on Great Western Park in Didcot and features small glass discs that light up at night.

Reach was designed and created by Michael Condron who drew from the innovative work and world-leading science coming out of Harwell, Culham and Milton Park business parks.

Pupils from the University Technical College Oxfordshire and Aureus School along with members of the local community helped the artist to create over 600 images celebrating the sciences into coloured glass discs that make up the large metal hand.

(Photo L-R is Micheal Condron, pupils from Aureus School and UTC Oxfordshire)

Be prepared for bad weather

You can keep up to date with the latest news on our services that may be affected by bad weather during the winter period. Our website and social media accounts will let you know if there are any disruptions to our waste collections and offer some further guidance on what to do if you are experiencing flooding and loss of utilities.

You can find out more information here.

EU Settlement Scheme

We've written an open letter to all EU Nationals living in our district to help them protect their rights to remain in the country after Brexit.

If you're an EU National and you're not sure what you need to do, take a look at our website for further details on the registration process and how you can apply for settled status.

Work for us

We've been working with Vale of White Horse District Council since 2005 and together we employ around 400 staff. We are always looking for enthusiastic team players to join us.

To keep an eye on the career opportunities we have on offer, you can visit our website page.

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https://campaign.emailblaster.cloud/OTQ5Mg/248.html

If you'd like to sign up to receive this newsletter direct to your inbox, please contact communications@southandvale.gov.uk - all we need is your email address.

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South Oxfordshire District Council
135 Eastern Avenue
Milton Park
Milton
OX14 4SB
southoxon.gov.uk