News update no 102, Nov 10th 2022

To begin this information packed newsletter, here are just a few of the great photos (50 in total and a short video) from the village Halloween event, all of which can be viewed by clicking on this link:

Village Halloween Event

Halloween Village Trail Review
This report is from Sophie Nelson who is to be congratulated for organising the trail and the party in the pub afterwards:
“A huge thank you (and a few scary dreams) to everyone that took part in the pumpkin walk just over a week ago. We counted over 60 children participating which  was a great turn-out. It was wonderful to see so many families out and about in the village and just as many carving pumpkins and making displays for villagers to enjoy. The children’s party at the pub was also a fantastic success with a number of children creating jack o-lanterns and dancing to graveyard hits!
The winner for best house is Jonathan (and Theo) at 12 Glen Close for their terrifying display. Jonathan and family win an Autumn-themed goodie bag. A  special mention also has to go to John and Chris who turned their lobby into a Goul’s Den which was so frightening that some children – and their parents! – didn’t dare to enter.
There were also a number of winners from our prize draw. The following children have won a spooky tin of sensory dough: Bella, Dottie, Myka, Noah and Jess. These children have won a handmade bag and Halloween accessory: Ellie, Scarlett, Martha and Edie. And finally, Jonny’s fantastic Dino Skeleton Costume has won a fantastic spider play set! Sophie will be in touch to get your prizes out”.  
Christmas Advent Windows Trail Coming Up
Due to the popularity of the Halloween trail the next village event that people can participate in is the Advent Windows. We are looking for 24 volunteers around the village to decorate a front window, one for each day in December leading up to Christmas Day. The theme is “A Christmas Song”. You can interpret it as a song or a carol and as traditionally or as up-to-date as you wish! If you would like to take part, please contact Sophie on sophiejnelson@hotmail.com with your address and song/carol title.
There will then be a map for a Christmas Eve walk that people can do once all the windows are up.
Looking forward to seeing the next wave of creativity in the village!

Great News -Two New Vehicle Speed Signs for the Village
With the support of OCC Highways, the Parish Council put forward an application for HS2 funding to purchase two vehicle activated signs, one for the Launton Road and the other for Mill Road. Despite only a slender chance of success as we are not directly affected by the construction, it has been approved and the new solar powered signs should be installed prior to Christmas. The actual cost including installation and service contracts is in the region of £10,000 but thanks to the grant will cost the Parish Council and local residents absolutely nothing.
This means that each of the approach roads to the village will now have a permanent speed warning sign which will act as a reminder to reduce speed in the village.Stratton Audley ChurchThe following is from Becky Adams:
“The Remembrance Day service will be held in St Mary and St Edburga, Stratton Audley this Sunday,13th November at 10.50pm. All are welcome.
‘Little Lambs’ baby and toddler group continues on Wednesdays in term time in Stratton Audley Church, starting at 9.30am and finishing at 11am. Just turn up or for more information contact Alice  at rector@shelswellparishes.info“.

Please check the Shelswell website for details of services on other Sundays and in other parishes in the benefice http://www.shelswellparishes.info/services.phpHelp for the Hungry!
As the economic crisis continues to bite, more people are finding that they are really struggling to make ends meet.  The parish church are doing what they can to help.
A Foodbank Donation Point can be found in the church porchIf you can, please support this with your donations of tinned and dried goods, toiletries, and so on.  Urgently needed are tinned tomatoes, tinned fish, rice pudding, tinned meat, tinned fruit, and juice / squash.  (They have plenty of cereal and pasta)If you need to, you are very welcome to take whatever you need from the box, and any leftovers will be taken to the Bicester Foodbank on a regular basis.
The Rector, Alice Goodall is now a ‘Local Referrer’ and can refer you to the Bicester Foodbank. She would need a few basic details from you, and then will be able to give you a referral number.  You can then go into the Beacon in Bicester and collect a bag of food to keep you going for a few days, or you can phone them and they will be able to drop off a bag to you. Contact:
Alice Goodall, The Rectory, Finmere   01280 848192  alicegoodall313@gmail.com
The Beacon is situated in Wesley Lane, Bicester OX26 6JU (off Sheep Street – not the Market Square end but the other end!).  As well as the bag of dried goods, you may be able to collect some fruit and vegetables and a meat voucher.  Someone from Citizen’s Advice is there on a Tuesday from 10 – 12 am, and there is a wellbeing café on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, 1 – 4 pm.

Stratton Audley Barn

The following is from Richard, Sara and the team:
“The clock seems to be ticking extra fast this year, Christmas is most definitely coming!! The shop has taken an extra festive feel this week, a real Christmas grotto, we’d love to welcome you in to explore. Times are tough for us all this year but we bring some cheerful festive news; we’ve worked extra hard to hold our prices both across our Cafe and on our Fresh Christmas Trees for this festive season, order this years tree at last years prices! All our stock Christmas trees will be on sale from 25th November and are also available to preorder online at www.strattonaudleybarn.co.uk. The order book is still open for the larger trees, for anything over 9ft, get in touch via info@strattonaudleybarn.co.uk and we can provide a quote to supply & deliver to your door.
Over in the Cafe our hearty daily soups and winter warmers are proving popular, pop on in for a catch up over lunch with your friends or a coffee and cake or cheeky milkshake with the family, back by popular demand are our classic homemade Ice cream flavours, why not treat the kiddies (or big kiddies!) and turn that Ice Cream treat into a delicious milkshake this weekend. Hope to see you soon”.

What’s on at The Red Lion
The Following is from Dillie:
“What’s on at the pub…
23rd November, Hunt Supporters Pub of the Month – thanks for choosing us!
24th November  Quiz Night and Play Your Cards right.
17th December Christmas Party with music.
22nd December Christmas Quiz and Raffle

Otherwise Opening hours, no change.  Fish as usual on Friday evenings, Saturday and Sunday lunches as usual.  If you’re hungry on a weekday lunch and Sapphire is around, she’ll make sure you get something nice to assuage your hunger!”

Bicester Heritage January Scramble
The next scramble takes place on 8th January, 9am to 2pm. The special local residents discount code is BristolBoxKite

100 Club Winners

The Winners in the 100 club draw for the month of November 2022 are:
£30                      Jeff Wakefield (117)
£20                      Good Family (68)
£10                      Flack Family (154)
£10                      John James (126)                                                                     

Next Village Road Sweep 15th December
Arrangments have been made with Cherwell District Council to sweeps the roads in the village on Thursday 15th December from 8am. This is the big one of the year when all the leaves have fallen, so please  make a note of it in your diary and keep the roads clear. It is the one exception to the rule, where we encourage residents to park on the verges where necessary or alternatively just to move cars when you hear the road sweeping vehicle, who usually makes several passes during the morning. Thanks for your continued co-operation.

Padbury Brook Solar Farm Academic Study and Questionnaire
Ronan Goss, a resident  of the village who lives at Elm Farm met with the Parish Council on 2nd November to request help with a dissertation he is writing, as part of his studies. He is a  third-year student at the University of Cambridge studying Land Economy, where he studies planning and development, among other modules. The following is from Ronan and outlines his plan:
“As you may be aware, JBM are expecting to submit a planning application for the Padbury Brook Solar Farm scheme  in the next couple of months. I understand this has caused a lot of interest within the community, with both negative and positive outcomes of the project being voiced. For me this has been really interesting, and I am intending to write my undergraduate dissertation on these exact local attitudes to the development.
For context, I have received permission to prepare a short questionnaire for the community, asking about attitudes towards the development. This will be distributed  door to door throughout the parish, hopefully sometime in late November/early December. These results will help myself and the parish council understand the views of the community (both positive, negative and everything in between) which will ultimately help the Council in deciding the best course of action that reflects everyone’s views. The questionnaire will be anonymous and will follow the strictest rigour in regard to data ethics, so please be assured your responses will not be used inappropriately.  I am also going to be conducting some short interviews afterwards, so if you would like to be considered for this please let me know on the initial questionnaire. These interviews which will be conducted face to face will be entirely confidential and anonymous when published.
If you have any worries or questions regarding this project, please reach out to me via my email or my number. I would love to hear any thoughts you had that may help my research. Please also keep an eye out for the questionnaires in the coming weeks.
Thank you for your time”.
Ronan Goss 
Email: rg641@cam.ac.uk  Phone: 07521518686

Bird Bath Water
A week ago a resident found a baby owl on a lawn in Cavendish Place and sadly, despite valiant efforts by a local vet the bird died a few days later – some  unpronounceable disease passed between birds sharing water. The vet suggested it is a timely reminder for people to give their bird baths a clean in an effort to try to decrease the chance of our beautiful birds contracting the infection.

Collection Point for Disposal of Ink Jet Cartridges
The collection service in the Glen Close bus shelter is no longer in operation. Thank you to those who regularly deposited cartridges.

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And a few previous items that are still relevant:

Don’t Forget – Fresh Fish every Thursday 
Jack from Grimsby continues to come to the village on Thursday’s between 6.30-7pm and parks his van outside the Red Lion. He has a wide selection of fresh fish and shellfish. You can just turn up or place orders in advance by text and his mobile number is 07535 935119.

Fish & Chips Van in the village on Saturdays
For those new in the community, a Howe’s Fish and Chip van comes to the village every Saturday lunchtime from 1.30pm to 2pm. You will hear a bell (like a school bell) and his first stop is in Cherry Street. He then drives along Cavendish Place and stops again at the junction with Mill Road.
Howe & Co was established in 1930 and now has over 100 vans serving villages. You can track each van by going to their website and you need to look for van no 4:
https://howeandcofishandchips.co.uk/#findvan
They also have a general number you can call 07809 901761.

The Red Lion – Formation of a Community Bid Team?
Is anyone interested in leading a community bid for the Red Lion if the owners decide to sell? Ideally it will be a few people who are prepared to form a team which will be supported by The Paris Council and other outside organisations.
As previously reported The Parish Council has been successful in registering The Red Lion as  a community asset which means that the owners need to give notice of a sale to the village and allow up to six months for a bid to be put together.
The PC has been in touch with The Plunkett Foundation which provides professional services and advice free of charge for community projects such as this and Government grants are also available to potentially match funds raised.
Those agreeing to help will need to be prepared to invest time in the project and work in a team with others.
At this stage the owners, Stonegate, have just confirmed that there are currently no plans to market either the lease or sale of the freehold. However, having a plan in place is a sensible approach and those interested should contact either myself or Dillie (who is in agreement with this approach).

Bad Parking in Church Street

We have previously reported on parking issues concerning the entrance to The Manor and their grounds which are private, but recently a number of vehicles have partially blocked the entrance gates for the cottages to the left hand side of the pub. There are clear signs indicating that this entrance is in constant use and it would be much appreciated if more care is taken when parking on the road.

Parking on Grass Verges
A number of comments have been relayed to the Parish Council about cars being parked on more than one occasion, on the grass verges in the village in particular in the Bicester Road. This is sometimes unavoidable, however it can be a danger for pedestrians especially where the verges are used by pedestrians in the absence of footpaths. It is also a problem when the grass is to be cut which is done on a frequent basis.
The verges are an attractive part of the village and we are lucky to have such greenery, especially in the absence of a proper village green and not only is it unsightly, some verges are slowly being eroded.
It has long been the convention to keep the verges free of vehicles and the Parish Council respectfully wishes to take this opportunity to bring this matter to the attention of everyone especially those new in the community.

Access to The Manor Grounds in Church Street
From time-to-time residents of the Manor have legitimate cause to remind everyone, especially visitors to the village and those who are new in the village, that the grounds of the Manor are private. This is not necessarily obvious as the gates are kept permanently open for ease of access by residents. Situated next to the pub, it means vehicles of people visiting the pub are frequently identified as parking in the Manor grounds. Likewise a few Manor residents have recently seen an increase in dog walking, pushing prams and generally using the grounds as either a recreational area or as a cut through to Mill Road.
The Management Committee of the Manor are looking at new signage to install at the entrance, but have asked for it to be pointed out that the grounds are private for the use of the residents and invited visitors.

Local Police Bicester and Kidlington Rural Team News
To report a crime or contact the police there are now three options:
·       Call 999 if you see a crime being committed or in an emergency
·       Call 101 to report anything else to the police – or go online to do so
·       And now police are partnering with CrimeStoppers to remind everyone of ‘The 3rd Number – 0800 555 111’ that enables you to report your information totally anonymously if you prefer.
Finally for the latest crime statistics there is a useful national site into which you can put your post code. Click on this link  Bicester Rural | Police.uk (www.police.uk)