News

It was an unseasonably bright Saturday afternoon when 22 of our younger villagers congregated in the Red Room of the “Red Lion” for the village Hallowe’en party: ghouls, witches, magicians and blood-sucking arachnids gathered to enjoy the festivities organised by our CLP committee.  Amongst the activities were dancing, party games and a ‘wrap the mummy’ competition with plenty of fun had by all.  The children enjoyed a  hot sausage supper courtesy of Frank and Lesley, followed by freaky fancies baked  and contributed by some of the parents.  A fun-packed two hours for all involved!

Thanks to everyone who helped but particularly to Victoria Osborne for organising it and the Red Lion for hosting the party gratis.

If you have any photos you would like to have added, please email them to enquiry@pcclients.co.uk

Saturday 31st October 2015.

Winners of the 100 Club draw for the month of October 2015 are :-

£30 – John Woodward (61)

£20 – Josie Williamson (107)

£10 –  Graham Nash (87)

£10 –  Lourdes Holliman (24)

A warm welcome awaited all the family from 3 pm in the specially decorated Parish Church and no one was to be disappointed. The weather was fine and some 40 people sat down to a sumptuous afternoon feast, sipping tea from beautiful vintage crockery kindly supplied by Poundon House. A selection of speciality teas were supplied by Alex Smith, a resident of the village who owns The Tea House. Cream teas with scones and a multitude of cakes were consumed, all baked by local people and sandwiches were kindly provided by the Red Lion so grateful thanks to Lesley and Kevin who got up early to make them!
The sound system and an eclectic mix of music from vintage years gone by was put together by our very own multi-talented Mike Gore. To add to the fun a draw was held with some great prizes for the lucky winners and a prize went to the best dressed man and woman.
The event was held to raise money for the Church Porch Restoration Fund and a donation was also made to Sobell House. In all, the event raised £450 after expenses of just £25. Grateful thanks go to everyone who helped organise and generously support this event and in particular to Sarah Watkins and Anthony Flack for bringing it all together.
We are delighted to report that everyone managed to stagger out of the church after 5pm and we suspect that few people were planning to eat an evening meal.

As previously announced, the no 8 subsidised bus service that runs through Stratton Audley from Bicester to Brackley is officially now under review as part of OCC’s (Oxford County Council) need to save money. This is part of a county wide review and we have been told that 100 local bus services that are currently subsidised but not used enough are under threat. Stratton Audley Parish Council, on behalf of the village, attended a public meeting on 6 July to find out more.

THE DETAIL

OCC are looking at two options, either to withdraw all bus subsidies altogether, or reduce funding to subsidised buses and prioritise services to those used by the elderly and disabled – the more likely outcome.

Under option 1 of the consultation, all subsidies will be removed across Oxfordshire. The No 8 service is shared with Northamptonshire and there would have to be some discussions with them about whether they intend to continue subsidising the service within their county, and also some conversations with the operator Stagecoach. Removing a subsidy does not necessarily mean that the service itself will cease. If the service is used to a profitable level, the operator may decide to continue running it without any OCC subsidy or another operator might step in.

Under option 2 of the consultation there will be some budget available for providing subsidies in Oxfordshire. Based on their analysis, the no 8 service has been given a “Medium” risk level. So they have ranked the 100 bus services under review in order of priority and the no 8 bus falls roughly in the middle of the table. All of this information is available on line. Any money available will be given to the services identified as ‘low risk’ first and then they would move down the list trying to retain as many services as possible. It is not entirely black-and-white how far the budget would stretch, and we are told they would aim to spread it to retain at least some level of cover for as many services as possible.

OCC are genuinely looking for any comments, suggestions, or ideas from users of this service. For example a number of people have indicated that they would be prepared to pay a small universal charge for each journey if it meant that some of the subsidy was retained to keep the services operating.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

The public consultation ends 14^th September and there are 3 ways to register your views on the matter:

1. Everyone who is likely to be affected is encouraged to go online and answer a short survey at oxfordshire.gov.uk/stconsultation If this is difficult perhaps a friend or relative will help you. Paper copies are also available in libraries.
2. If you would like to discuss this you may call the ORCC on 01865 883488 who are the independent facilitators for the consultation process.
3. Alternatively you can register your concerns by sending an email to: parishclerk@gmail.com

Additionally the Parish Council is in contact with our local district councillor Barry Wood and you can be sure that he will be lobbying OCC on our behalf.