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Front Page Post

Death of the Duke of Edinburgh:

Following the announcement of the death of the Duke of Edinburgh:  Kirtlington Parish Council would like to pass on this message from Yvonne Rees, Chief Executive Of Oxfordshire County Council, which has been circulated to the County’s local authorities;

It is with great sadness that today we hear of the death of His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh. This sadness, I am sure, is shared by many of you who will want to remember and recognise the service of Prince Philip.

During the pandemic, we cannot host and open physical books of condolence as it is not safe to do so. We would encourage those who would like to share a message to sign Buckingham Palace’s online book of condolence at www.royal.uk This will close at 5pm on the day after the funeral. It is not live yet.  

Outside of COVID-19, we would, at this time, be working to identify suitable locations around the county for the laying of flowers, should anyone wish to do that. Unfortunately, we need to discourage this. Alternative donation arrangements may be announced by the government or Buckingham Palace in the coming days.

During the period before the funeral, a period of national mourning will be observed. As part of this, councils are now reviewing our meetings schedule and civic functions in the days ahead and there are likely to be some changes. Our websites will be updated to reflect any changes.

Yvonne Rees

Chief Executive, Oxfordshire County Council

In terms of next steps, as per the protocol, we advise of the following issues that local councils may wish to give specific consideration:

  • Flags

Where arrangements exist to ensure that only essential staff are going to their place of work it is suggested that no one should be required specifically to travel to various buildings to lower flags to half-mast. If staff are resident on the premises where a flag is being flown and can lower it to half-mast then by all means do so, but the health of the wider community outweighs the need ask staff to leave their homes and travel around to lower flags at other sites.

  • Organisation of Local Events

The idea of bringing people together within their local communities is no longer possible. Councils may wish to postpone any plans that they have to hold events (including civic church services).  You may wish to use social media to explain the events that you had planned and to say that arrangements will be made for this to happen when all movement restrictions are lifted and it is safe to do so.

It is hoped that television broadcasters will step in to fill gaps should the need arise. 

  • Books of condolence and flower laying

For the duration of the current emergency it is not appropriate to open physical books of condolence.  The only safe option is to use the online books of condolence where these are available, we anticipate an official Book of Condolence on www.royal.uk however this is not yet live. Clearly it is very difficult for members of the public to lay flowers and Councils may wish to actively discourage people from doing so.  An alternative might be to suggest that people should make donations if they so wish, with details expected through the official Buckingham Palace website in due course www.royal.uk It needs to be made very clear that Councils do understand the enormous financial pressures that the current situation is placing on some people and that nobody should feel obliged to donate. 

  • Organisation of Local Events

The idea of bringing people together within their local communities is no longer possible.  Councils may wish to postpone any plans that they have to hold events (including civic church services).  You may wish to use social media to explain the events that you had planned and to say that arrangements will be made for this to happen when all movement restrictions are lifted and it is safe to do so.

It is hoped that television broadcasters will step in to fill gaps should the need arise. 

Update – Proposed community shop at The Dashwood

After our hopeful article in the last Village News and further consultation with some specialist advisers on potential profitability, with the utmost reluctance, the shop action group has come to the conclusion that it is simply too risky to go ahead. The main issues are:

  • The space is too small to stock a large enough range of products to generate sales (it would need to be at least twice as big).
  • Projected running costs are higher than we could afford, to be really comfortable we would need free premises. 
  • We would need to run the operation with no paid staff, and we know that to be successful we probably need a manager for at least 20 hours per week.
  • We are lacking sufficient personnel for several key areas in the ‘management’ team (accounts/stock taker/buyer) and volunteers from the village to fill these slots have not been forthcoming.
  • The opening hours of other profitable shops are 2 – 3 times longer than we can sustain with volunteers.
  • There is a lot of risk with retail operations due to the opening hours, need for reliable staffing and risks of products going out of date. 

The team has had the benefit of invaluable advice from the Plunkett Foundation that supports community businesses all over the UK and helpful meetings with neighbouring community shops. We have spent a year thoroughly investigating the project’s potential, with the support of Scott Patterson at the Dashwood, whose business has naturally been thrown off course by the pandemic. We are acutely aware of the importance of a shop for the village, as shown by the willingness of many households to commit to regular purchases and to support our farmers’ markets despite atrocious weather, so this has been a very difficult decision for us all.

We would like to thank everyone for the support that you’ve shown for the project and hope you understand our reasons for not being able to proceed.  

We intend to continue to create community events throughout the year, such as the Farmer’s markets which have proved popular.

From – Friends of Kirtlington village shop (Caroline Cater, Celia Hawkesworth, Chris Brett, Louise Goodman, Steve Rice) with additional help from Richard Sadler, Scott Patterson & Tony Summerfield.

Kirtlington Hedgehog Street

Kirtlington Hedgehog Street is connecting gardens in the village to give hedgehogs enough space to breed and to help keep them off the roads. This is part of the national Hedgehog Street campaign. To learn more see this article that was published in the national press.

  • 60 properties in the village are connected
  • c. 16 acres of gardens are included
  • The village pub, school and church are all connected.

The national Hedgehog Street organisation has told KWACS that Kirtlington has one of the biggest volunteer-run Hedgehog Streets in the country!  See the map in green.  To join, please make sure hedgehogs can pass from your garden to your neighbours’ gardens.  All it needs is a CD sized hole in your fence or wall.

In Spring 2020, there was a rapid and significant decline in Kirtlington’s hedgehog population.  We have written up the evidence for the decline which is very clear and the possible reasons for it.  Click here for that article and here for another article by Professor Patrick Doncaster who researched into hedgehogs in Kirtlington Park in 1992. Click here for coverage of the loss of our hedgehogs on local BBC news.

KWACS is delighted, whenever possible, to support other communities who would like to set up their own hedgehog street.  In particular, click here if you are interested in receiving a lecture about what we have done in Kirtlington.  This is given either in person (when Covid allows) or via Zoom by the brother of the KWACS committee member who leads our hedgehog work.  He is a wildlife photographer, film maker and public speaker.  In addition, visitors are welcome to come to Kirtlington (when Covid allows) to see in person what we have done.

DONATIONS

If you would like to support our work, please click on DONATIONS above.  That will take you to our on-line giving page for the KWACS Hedge Fund.

All donations will go directly to enlarging Kirtlington Hedgehog Street or supporting other communities start their own hedgehog street.




As hedgehogs have yet to evolve the ability to fly, where there is a ground difference between gardens we have to resort to innovative structures like this stone staircase and oak ramp:

As part of the project, we use foot print recording tunnels and camera traps to check on the presence of hedgehogs. A camera trap video of a hedgehog on the ramp posted to KWACS’ twitter feed went viral with over 33,000 views!

Traffic Calming Subcommittee – working for both the shorter and the longer term

Over the past few years there has been a substantial increase in traffic throughout the county including our village. The majority of parishioners are enthusiastic for actions to slow down the present traffic through Kirtlington, deter motorists as much as possible, and try to tackle access for HGVs. This is a tricky issue as the road through the village is an A road and this is unlikely to change soon.

The traffic calming subcommittee, set up by your Parish Council last year and including non-Parish Council residents and experts, has proposed a two-part approach to traffic calming involving both short-term and long-term targets. Both stages will offer a combination of traditional and progressive solutions to engage the motorist throughout their journey through the village. 

The Full Document can be downloaded here.

John Howell MP – COVID-19

Dear All

I am making contact via all Town and Parish Councils and Parish Meetings in the constituency in the light of the national situation due to COVID-19.

I know that you are all working hard on your own community response to the situation and thank you for all that you are doing on this. With much negative news in the media it is so encouraging to know that on the ground people are working together to support one another.

As the situation unfolds more and more questions are being asked as the implications for different people, different groups, and different businesses come to light. As new questions arise please do feel free to email me with the concerns (contact link below). If you are asking the questions it is quite likely that others are asking them too. I may not be able to get immediate replies for you, but I can do my best to make sure that your questions are raised with those who can provide an answer.

I fully appreciate the alarm that this situation is causing for many. I share with others the concern at the fake news circulating together with the part that social media can play in inducing fear and panic. All of the information that is available from Government is in the public domain, MPs are not privy to other information. The two key links for up to date information are:

On the Government website at https://www.gov.uk/government/topical-events/coronavirus-covid-19-uk-government-response

On the NHS website at https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/

Anyone can sign up for email alerts when there is any new information at this link: https://www.gov.uk/email-signup/confirm?link=%2Fgovernment%2Ftopical-events%2Fcoronavirus-covid-19-uk-government-response

With thanks again and my best wishes

John

John Howell OBE MP FSA
Member of Parliament for the Henley Constituency

Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to Nigeria | Member of the Council of Europe | Deputy Chairman Industry and Parliament Trust | Government Neighbourhood Planning Champion | Chairman Communities and Local Government Conservative Backbench Committee

House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA

To find out more about my work and to sign up to my email newsletter visit www.johnhowell.org.uk

Kirtlington Park Festival Licence granted

Cherwell District Council Licencing Sub-committee met on 21st January 2020 to hear the application of the KITE Festival in Kirtlington in June. The Licencing Authority decided to withdraw their objection following representation from the event organisers and the Committee resolved to grant the licence. http://modgov.cherwell.gov.uk/documents/s43173/Determination%20Letter%20U%20Live%2027%201%2020%202.pdf
The conditions to the granting of the license are set out in the Promoting Licensing Objectives: http://modgov.cherwell.gov.uk/documents/s43095/Promoting%20Licensing%20Objectives%20V3.pdf

The Parish Council is pleased to note the following:
Condition 4. The Licensee will attend a Parish Council meeting prior to each Event and will provide a monthly update to the Parish Council upon the plans for delivery of the Event for each of the three months prior to the event and will attend a Parish Council meeting after each Event to share information and receive local community feedback.
Condition 6. The Event Management Plan (EMP) shall be subject to scrutiny by the Safety Advisory Group (SAG) and shall be discussed with and approved by the Licensing Authority at least one month prior to each Event.
Kirtlington Parish Council is looking forward to meeting the U-Live (Promotor) representatives who have confirmed their attendance at the next Parish Council meeting on 18th February 2020 at 7pm when they will outline their plans for the Kite Festival in more detail. Members of the public are encouraged to attend.

Dog Mess Update

Since our announcement in January via the Village News and Website regarding the dogs walked in this village, we are pleased that the feedback has been so positive.  Our campaign to try to stop irresponsible dog walkers from allowing their dogs to leave their messes around the Village is ongoing, not only as regards the pavements but also the footpaths, the open spaces, the quarry, other people’s front gardens and the verges by roads and bridleways, as well as the churchyard and the playing field.

It is worth repeating that dog poo bags are available free from the village shop (supplied by Cherwell District Council).  There are five poo bag bins in the village which are collected regularly by Cherwell District Council, and that Council advises that where there is no specific dog poo bin nearby such bags with their contents should be placed in your GREEN bin.

So there is no excuse for bags to be thrown up into trees, hung on farmers’ gates or left in verges.  Please do be considerate of others’ property   Of course, our village has no 24 -hour dog warden to police inconsiderate behaviour, day and night, but we rely on our villagers to act responsibly and we are grateful to community-minded villagers who take the trouble to talk to those who do not act responsibly.

KIRTLINGTON PARISH COUNCIL

KWACS Talk: The History and Wildlife of RSPB Otmoor – 4th October

The History and Wildlife of RSPB Otmoor, presented by Gary Smith
Wednesday 4th October at 7.45pm
St Mary’s Church, Kirtlington

We hope this message finds you well after a fun-filled summer and now that the nights are drawing in, the leaves are falling off the trees and our hedgehogs are curling up into tight little balls we welcome you to KWACS 2017 – 2018 winter lecture programme.

Otmoor is a truly special place for wildlife and particularly birds with nearly 200 different species recorded this century, including the spectacular starling murmurations, but Otmoor has a varied and very interesting history from a huge expanse of marshland that villagers used as common land in the 1300s to the SSSI classified nature reserve we know today.

The talk will be followed up with a visit to the RSPB reserve on Sunday 19th November at 1pm to hopefully experience the starling’s breathtaking ballet of the sky.

We look forward to seeing you soon.

 

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