FEBRUARY
Council responds to criticism around Emergency Plan
Steeple Aston Parish Council has responded to criticism from villagers about their lack of response when there was a power cut in the village of over 24 hours.
Former council chair John Coley wrote to Steeple Aston Life magazine asking whether the village’s Emergency Plan was activated, as intended, to help elderly and vulnerable villagers to keep warm and safe in the event of a prolonged power cut. In particular John and two other villagers who responded to his letter were concerned that SSE provided hot food from a van in the Village Hall car park but villagers, some without phone or internet access, were not informed about it.
The Emergency Plan is out of date as you can see on the homepage of this website. Now the council says it will be updated and are asking for villagers to volunteer to help out if it needs to be activated in future.
Here is the statement from the Parish Council:
At the January meeting of Steeple Aston Parish Council one agenda item was a conversation around the current emergency plan. We wanted the chance to discuss this as a group before responding to recent letters printed in Steeple Aston Life.
In the past year our village and surrounding area has suffered from multiple power outages and even a water shortage. These have ranged from short periods across a handful of houses, to longer stretches such as the recent power cut caused by Storm Darragh. This affected approximately 15 per cent of the population in and around Steeple Aston. That population included more than Steeple Aston residents impacting both Middle Aston and local businesses. In total 75 households and businesses were without power for approximaately 29 hours.
Having reviewed our Emergency Plan against those supplied by the Joint Oxfordshire Resilience Team, the processes outlined within it are in line with common practice. The plan does however need updating in terms of contacts and roles and responsibilities which the Parish Council are now working through. One such improvement is a notification system whereby, in this case, SSE should have contacted the PC, which did not happen, and in turn the PC would activate its network of local residents to check on neighbours.
As a village we are powered (pun intended) by our community, the Parish Council are one small part of this giving of their time to help maintain and improve our spaces and community. Whilst we navigate updating the Emergency Plan, we will be keen to hear from those within our community who are willing to take their small role should an Emergency Plan need to be actioned.
Your Parish Council
Appeal for Village Hall Chair to replace Barbara
Richard Preston writes:
Have you ever visited the Village Hall?
Have you ever wondered how it is managed?
Do we actually need a Village Hall?
Why do villages usually have a community building and what purpose do they serve?
These are a few questions that might be asked occasionally, but in reality, who cares?
Being someone who has lived in Steeple Aston all of my life, I am a little biased as I went to school in what is now the Village Hall for 10 years of my life. I served as chairman of the management committee for many years but handed over the reins to Barbara Brewer many years ago now. For me, it is a place where I attend various functions within the village from a quiz to a wake, a Valentine Club meeting to a celebration. I wonder what it might be like if the Village Hall simply did not exist. Is this leading somewhere you may ask?
The straight answer is YES! At the Village Hall management meeting in May, we will lose our chairperson, Barbara, after many years of service. Thank goodness, she is staying on the committee along with another 10 committee members, sometimes described as trustees but more accurately should be called village volunteers. They attend up to 11 monthly meetings a year, lasting about one hour and from there, the Village Hall functions efficiently for the use of the village.
With few exceptions, the existing ‘committee’ are of an age and not really wanting to take on the position of chairperson. Saying that, an incoming chairperson would not have that many duties other than to chair a monthly meeting, prepare, alongside the secretary, an agenda, report to the village through SAL or the website, what the Village Hall is doing and keep the village up to date with proceedings and take a lead in the management of our Village Hall. We have a very competent secretary and treasurer so no worries there and the hall is in a very sound financial position.
The structure is actually owned by Dr Radcliffe’s School Foundation and the exterior upkeep is the responsibility of the parish council, so all the management committee have to do is make sure the hall is used to its best ability and covers the regular ongoing costs associated with the hall.
So here is the challenge! Do you think you could be the next Village Hall chairperson and bring your own ideas to the management committee? What a great way to meet people in the village and make your mark on what must be the best village community around.
Rather than bother Barbara or any existing committee member, just give me a call or email or simply knock on my door and I will try and answer any questions you might have.
The village needs YOU. Please give some thought to my plea as the village is relying on YOU!
Many thanks for taking the time to read this and I look forward to having a “no obligation” chat with you very soon.
Richard Preston – Richard.preston5@btopenworld.com or tel. 01869 340512 or knock on my door at Primrose Garden, North Side.
JANUARY
Community Land Trust members meet for the first time
The new Community Land Trust for Steeple and Middle Aston held its first members’ meeting on Wednesday, 29th January. The Trust was set up following a public meeting last April. Villagers have been invited to join the trust for a token payment of £1.
Julia Whybrew reports:
The Steeple Aston and Middle Aston Community Land Trust has a lot going for it, except for the length of its name. For simplicity this report on its first members’ meeting will refer to it as our CLT. All the members and others who had at some point expressed an interest in the scheme were invited and there were 36 of us there. Martin Lipson, the chairman of our CLT Board, explained that the meeting had been called for two reasons. First it would provide an opportunity for the committee to explain to members what they had done already and secondly for members to discuss and tell the committee where they would like to see the CLT going.
Martin explained that the CLT members had been extremely generous with their initial donations, and that the organisation had now become a legal entity. The intention now was to see if it might be feasible to develop both affordable homes for local people and some wider objectives which could benefit villagers now and in the future. The CLT is hoping that its structure may enable a different sort of tenure to normal so that affordable homes for locals can be created now and stay available in the future. These homes could be for sale, rent, co-ownership, co-operative housing or self-build. Many CLTs in other areas got going earlier than us and so far CLTs have built 2,000 affordable homes with a further 7,100 in the pipeline.
We know there is a shortage of housing around here, especially of one and two bedroom properties because there was a recent survey of local housing needs. Two local sites have been identified by the Neighbourhood Plan for development and it is hoped that there might be further sites suitable as Rural Exception Sites. The point of the latter is that they are highly unlikely to get planning approval for market housing but might get approval as a Rural Exception Site as long as the development is mainly affordable housing. The CLT committee is approaching local land owners of the potential development sites around the villages to discuss if, and how, the CLT may be able to take forward these ideas. These discussions are at a preliminary stage and members will be told if and when anything develops from this.
Questions were invited and one person said he understood that the property should be affordable and for locals in perpetuity, but he was unsure how this could be achieved in practice. He asked if he could give or bequeath his CLT home to a family member who did not live in the village. Someone asked where the CLT would find the finance for developing affordable housing. Others suggested single storey dwellings for the elderly and starter homes for the young which one person pointed need not be at each other’s expense. Some wanted to be certain any affordable homes could be confined to those with genuine local connections.
At this point the participants divided into groups and were asked to identify both housing and non-housing issues where our CLT might contribute. There were lots of ideas and the ones that came up the most in relation to housing were:
- If houses had few bedrooms the idea of communal spare bedrooms made sense
- Houses should be built to encourage social cohesion by designs such as homes facing into a courtyard
- Large extensions should be prohibited to prevent small houses becoming large houses
- Working locally might be sufficient to be considered for an affordable home.
There were lots and lots of other suggestions not related to housing such as:
- The desirability of a footpath between Fenway and Northside near the stables
- A smaller bus so it might be able to negotiate Fenway and Water Lane
- Sustainable shared power generation
- Community facilities such as a room for medical appointments.
The full list of questions and suggestions can be found on the CLT website . If you would like to become a member and influence the future of the villages the details of joining are on the membership page of the same website.
Council agrees to fund Blandford Fly initial spray
Steeple Aston Parish Council has agreed to fund a pilot project to spray the larvae of the dreaded Blandford Fly. At their meeting on Monday, 20th January councillors agreed to spend £5,000 on spraying at a single site this year in the hope of encouraging other councils to contribute towards a much bigger project along the Cherwell Valley in future.
Researchers from Bournemouth University will visit the River Cherwell in March to assess optimal time and location to treat the water in the following weeks. The location is likely to be well upstream of Heyford Bridge where it will be of most benefit to the village.
But be warned! Though this pilot is expected to reduce the number of flies this year, it will not eradicate the risk of bites anywhere nearly as effectively as the full project.
Parish Councillors and project leads Mat Watson and Greg Elphick explain the plan:
The Blandford Fly (Simulium posticatum) is a small species of black fly found in Europe and has commonly been prevalent in the Stour valley in Dorset. Or at least it used to be. It is now endemic along our stretch of the River Cherwell from Clifton (Deddington) as far south as Kidlington. It’s most common during May and June, flying low to the ground and normally biting ankles and legs. The painful bites can lead to swelling, blistering, joint pain and occasionally a high temperature, as many villagers have found to their cost. In severe cases the bite can cause ulceration and secondary infections. It is a public health nuisance.
Its larvae thrive and develop to maturity on the particularly accommodating, undulating, long river weed, ranunculus, that looks so beautiful as you walk across Heyford Bridge. The fly’s name derives from a major outbreak of people being bitten around the town of Blandford Forum in Dorset, in the 1960s and 70s. The town straddles the River Stour.
Researchers at Bournemouth University (BUG is the name of their commercial environmental programme team) developed a solution which for over 30 years has reduced the population of Blandford Fly by up to 98 per cent in affected areas along the River Stour. They spray the larvae in their breeding grounds amongst the weeds in the water course before they become flies and start to bite humans. Control is effected by targeting the filter feeding larval stage with a specific larvicide Vectobac AS, which is an aqueous solution of Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (Bti) – a group of bacteria used as biological control agents for larval stages of certain dipterans. Bti produces toxins which are effective in killing various species of mosquitoes, fungus gnats, and blackflies, while having almost no effect on other organisms. This is a link to their 2024 report on last year’s treatment.
The total cost of the first year’s treatment is £23,000 with subsequent years costing around £18,000. These costs have been derived from an initial scoping project last year with multiple visits and testing by BUG scientists during June 2024 in various locations along the river course. Thanks are due to local OCC councillor Arash Fatemian for sourcing the funds for these investigations. Full approval has already been gained from the Health and Safety Executive as a result of the longstanding evidence from the River Stour and contact over the autumn with the Oxfordshire offices of the Environment Agency and Thames Water has secured their go ahead approval as well.
It had been hoped that Oxfordshire County Council would provide all or part of the £23,000 require for the first year of treatment and get the project underway in the spring of 2025. But as this money has not been forthcoming, the council decided to approach local parishes to see if they would share the cost between them. Unfortunately, at this stage in parish budget cycles, gaining sufficient commitment has proved impossible. Dorset County Council funds the spraying programme on the River Stour.
It is hoped that a publicity drive involving a widely shared video podcast produced by Mat Watson (of Car Wow fame) demonstrating the treatment process and impact of the spraying will create the level of interest and support needed to secure the required initial funding and ongoing spending in subsequent years. To that end, on 20th January Steeple Aston PC voted to release £5,000 from reserves to fund a pilot project on a single site close to the village. If you have views on the proposal please let Cathy Fleet, Parish Clerk, know of these, email parishclerk.steepleaston@gmail.com. We have already received a handful of comments, some positive and some understandably seeking further reassurances over potential impact on the wider ecology. These are being responded to by sharing the detailed academic follow up study papers from which the project draws its high level of confidence.
Steeple Aston to remember with a poppy cascade
From the Poppy Committee:
“This year we shall be remembering 80 years since the end of the Second World War. A small group of us thought it would be a good idea to get together to create a commemorative cascade of poppies tumbling from the church tower.
“So how many poppies have you made? It’s great to report that many people are enthusiastically supporting the project and are promising to make poppies – people from the church, the WI, the Valentine club, members of SACs and the Brownies are some of the groups we know about. That’s terrific but we are going to need a great many poppies!
“Please keep going or get started if you haven’t yet produced a poppy!
“There will be the First Great Poppy Count at the end of February to check how we are getting on. Please make sure you have delivered as many poppies as possible into the box in church by then. We’ll let you know how much progress there has been!”
The members of the Poppy Committee are Kay Francis, Hildy Frenken, Merrill Bayley and Eileen Baglin-Jones.
The WI got started making poppies before Christmas. The photo above shows samples of the various styles of poppies made so far by members. They were on show at their January meeting – woolly ones, fluffy ones and even some felt ones.
Why not have a go at making your own poppies? There are no rules except that the poppies must be red with a black centre. If you need them, there are patterns in the box in the church plus some wool and knitting needles. And if you need more wool, ask Merrill Bayley from the WI on 01869 347802 or email merrill.bayley@gmail.com.