I was reminded this morning that the Mayors Blog is meant to be a ‘living’ document i.e. I have to write one as often as possible and I have suddenly realised that the last one I wrote was before the election.
Just briefly going back to those warm days in May it was great to see that there were enough candidates to have a meaningful Town Council election – we were pleased to welcome some new faces to the Town Council as well as welcoming back some old friends meaning we have a good mix of parties and interests. The first few meetings of the new council tend to get a little bogged down with ‘getting to know you’ but this year we also managed to complete some of the business that we started under the last council – things do take time to arrange.
What have we finished since the last blog
OCC finished the repaving of Walterbush Road / the new railings in front of Sainsbury’s are in and were below budget and CNTC now has ownership of these / Guy Wall kindly replaced the planters around Jaffe and Neale and Bitter and Twisted. The refurb of all the recreation grounds is just about finished with some nice remarks being made by a lot of people – the benches in New Street recreation ground have just been stripped and repainted and now we need volunteers to paint the railings around the kiddies area to finish that off.
The new ‘adult’ equipment was funded by the developers of Penhurst and is proving to be very popular – still to be done is the new surface around the equipment / new surface around some of the old equipment and a new path from the kissing gate at the bottom through to the path by the MUGA – this will all be done shortly after the schools go back and we are also putting in new gates in the fence to assist wheelchairs users etc – I hope that once all that is done then Chippy will have one large recreation ground and 2 smaller ones which we can have pride in – when we have some more funds we will try and put a zip wire in as well ! We still have some problems with deliberate damage being done to equipment and the not-too pleasant graffiti which happens from time to time and dog mess being left behind!!
Penhurst developers are cracking on and I am told that Beechcroft have already sold some of their units but there does seem to be some damage to trees which is a great shame and we will be asking WODC to investigate and take whatever remedies they can.
Vets and doctors have all moved and had their various premises opened by various people whilst the High Street keeps changing with the Co-ops smart new store / Tickitty-Shake in Middle Row / Café Nero on Top Side and a new estate agent in West Street – and Aldi have at last started work on their new store.
And we mustn’t forget the refurbishment of the Fox Hotel which looks like they are planning something quite special and also the Premier Inn development which will be getting off the ground shortly.
Our next two weekends will bring the summer holidays to a busy end with Feastival this weekend and then the last Emma’s Trust event over the following weekend. I hope that Emma’s Trust will help us fund some of the expense of the Skate Park / Multi Wheeled Sports Facility which is in the process of being planned for Greystones – it is possible that we will have a large amount of the funding available shortly due to Section 106 payments from the developers of Chadlington Downs Farm BUT we do need the help of the skaters/bikes etc for planning/design and there will only be two more opportunities for them to voice their opinions – one is this Thursday afternoon in the Lower Town Hall when all the current designs we have will be on show and the final opportunity will be on Saturday 5th September when CNTC will have a stand at the Emma’s Trust event – please come and talk to us otherwise without input from the younger generations this will not happen.
Future events of note in the Autumn
Sunday 20th September Chipping Norton Jazz Festival
Saturday 17th October there will be a BARN DANCE in the Town Hall – all ages welcome – run by the Friends of St Marys Church (looks after the fabric of the building)
Sunday 8th November Remembrance Day parade plus the 11th November gathering at the War Memorial on London Road at 1100 hrs Saturday
28th November the Lions are having their annual Reindeer races
Friday 4th December and Saturday 5th December an event is being planned by various parties including CNTC and ECN which will involve some late night shopping / some food experiences during the day and finishing off with an informal dance in the Town Hall dancing to Monday Blues – further details will be available shortly
POSTERS
PLEASE NOTE at the July Council meeting it was agreed to ban the posting of adverts all around the centre of town – within the next few weeks there will be notices attached to the railings that the Town now own and are therefore responsible for keeping in good condition – as of today there is a new notice board in the carpark by Bitter and Twisted – events can be placed on there maximum one month before the event and will be removed immediately afterwards.
There are other notice boards in Town – one by the Fox – which I believe will be replaced with a new one shortly and there is one by the Guildhall which is policed by the Guildhall Staff – if you have posted posters then please ensure that you remove them after the event and don’t forget trees are living things and don’t particularly like rusty old drawing pins going into their skins …. also there is availability for more permanent business adverts around the map in the centre of town (Details from the Guildhall) – if you want to advertise then please use the boards and not the railings – thank you
Enjoy the rest of the summer
Cllr Mike Tysoe
Mayor Chipping Norton
Wednesday 26th August 2015
