PAGE Campaign

Fundraising update - thank you for your donations

Following a series of successful public meetings in each of the Parishes, the fundraising campaign is building momentum and we are receiving a great number of donations.

Thank you to the Warborough & Shillingford Society for their generous contribution to the PAGE Campaign.   The Society supports local groups and initiatives in both villages and are a great benefactor to the local community.  

Thank you to everyone who has contributed with individual donations, the Steering Committee is hugely appreciative of your contributions.  

The PAGE Campaign was kick-started with funds from the Parish Councils in the alliance. To ensure adequate funding of our professional planning consultant to represent our communities, to provide the finance to pay for archaeological investigations and other research, and to build the funds required to lobby regional and local government, we urgently need your financial support.  Any donation, large or small, is most gratefully received.

If you have any experience in fundraising, or have any ideas which can help the campaign, please contact PAGE via email info@pagecampaign.org 

Facebook and Twitter updates

Our online campaign has hit it's first milestone - PAGE now has over 50 followers on Twitter and 50 members in our Facebook Group.  

Please join our Facebook Group and encourage your teenage children, friends, family and work colleagues to join - Facebook is a great way of raising awareness about the Campaign to people outside our immediate area, and highlighting the threat to our local lifestyles and countryside.  

Facebook is also an opportunity for the teenage children and young people in our area to get involved in the Campaign.

Twitter gives us the opportunity to reach out to another audience of supporters (followers), highlight the aims of the campaign, and keep them updated with news.  We also follow other people and organisations in the area to listen to news and views of relevance to the PAGE Campaign.  

Our followers on Twitter include the World Wildlife Fund as well as people and organisations in the Oxfordshire area.  

Thank you to all our new supporters this week

 
 Evening view from Berrick Salome across the fields under threat towards Warborough

Thank you to everyone who came to the public meetings in Stadhampton and Berrick Salome this week.   Residents from Chiselhampton, Stadhampton, Berrick Salome, Roke and other neighbouring villages came out on glorious sunny evenings to find out more about the County Council mineral extraction plans will disrupt and destroy their local environments.  Thank you for all your questions, suggestions, ideas and votes of support.   

Nominated sites - maps to download

Residents who attended the PAGE launch meetings have asked where they can access maps of the nominated sites for minerals extraction in their villages.    Here are the maps for download from the Oxfordshire County Council website:

SG-03 Land adjacent to Benson Marina (view map)
SG-09 Land north of Drayton St Leonard, Berinsfield and Newington (view map)
SG-13 Land at Shillingford, Warborough and Overy (view map) 
SG-59 Land at Stadhampton (view map)

The five spatial options are illustrated in an OCC Planning presentation (download).

More information is available on our 2010 Campaign page.

Oxfordshire Rural Community Council highlight the importance of Parish Plans

It was great to meet up with Anton Nath, Community Development Worker, ORCC at the Drayton St Leonard public meeting on Saturday.

Drayton St Leonard have been developing their Parish Plan over the last year, and Anton gave advice on how the Parish Plan is a useful tool to capture the views of local residents in the development of their communities. 

Parish Plans are recognised by both District and County Councils as formal documents that should be considered in any major developments such as minerals extraction.

For more information, please visit the ORCC website.

Article:  A new PAGE for Drayton St Leonard

Public meetings this week in Stadhampton and Berrick Salome

A reminder that PAGE will be holding public meetings this week in Stadhampton and Berrick Salome.  Please come along to find out more about the County Council plans for this area and how you can help fight against the disruption and destruction caused by minerals extraction.

Stadhampton - Tuesday 20th April, 7:30pm, Stadhampton Community Hall
Berrick Salome - Thursday 22nd April, 7:30pm, Berrick Village Hall

We have had great attendances at the Newington, Warborough, Dorchester and Drayton St Leonard meetings; the village halls have been at full capacity with standing room only.  

Please turn up early to the Stadhampton and Berrick meetings if you want a seat!

Drayton St Leonard launch meeting

Thank you to everyone from Drayton St Leonard who turned up to see the PAGE Campaign launch presentation on Saturday.

And many thanks to the Drayton Parish Council for their hospitality and invitation to join their open day celebrations for the refurbished village hall and local plan exhibition.

Launch campaign news coverage

Here's a Wordle of the news reports during the launch campaign.  A Wordle shows the popularity of words used in articles and reports, and give a great indication of the keywords that have been written about us.  The larger the font size, the more times that keyword has been mentioned.

 Image courtesy of www.wordle.net

Dorchester launch meeting

Many thanks to the 100 or so residents who turned up to the Dorchester Parish launch meeting this evening - the PAGE Campaign is now building a great momentum in South Oxfordshire!

Warborough launch meeting

A great many thanks to over 70 people from Warborough & Shillingford who turned up to the launch event and demonstrated their support for the PAGE Campaign.

The PAGE team were given plenty of pertinent questions and a number of residents came forward with some extremely useful advice on campaign tactics.  

Thank you to Warborough Parish Council for hosting the event.   

The presentation is available on request - please contact Steve Thompson if you would like a copy.

  

BBC Oxford News this evening

The PAGE Campaign appeared on BBC Oxford News today in both the 6pm and 10:30pm evening bulletins.

The report highlighted the increased government targets on Oxfordshire versus other neighbouring counties.   Hansons were given the opportunity to express their corporate view on minerals extraction in the county.  Oxfordshire County Council were conspicuous by their absence!

Steve Thompson represented PAGE with an interview from the Wittenham Clumps and there was plenty of footage overlooking the target sites in the Dorchester - Warborough - Benson area.

   

PAGE Campaign in the Wallingford Herald

Our launch campaign is building momentum with more coverage in the local media this week.   

The Wallingford Herald carries a full page article, the editorial leader and a letter from our County Councillor, Lorraine Lindsay-Gale.

Now is the time to show your support for the PAGE Campaign - sign up for our email newsletters, send us a donation, join our Facebook group, follow us on Twitter and turn up to one of the campaign launch meetings in your village this month.

In addition, the West Oxfordshire protest group OUTRAGE have written to the Oxford Mail asking Oxfordshire County Council to challenge regional government over the minerals targets.   We agree that the County Council should be standing up for the rural villages and communities that will be affected by minerals extraction.  Instead, it is left to local groups like PAGE and OUTRAGE to fight those battles.

2003 Campaign video now on YouTube

During the 2003 Campaign, PAGE produced a high quality 16 minute video with which to lobby County Councillors and other government representatives.   

The video, now in two parts, can now be seen on the 2003 Campaign pages or on YouTube in the PAGE Campaign channel.

Many thanks to David Broscombe of 247 Television Limited for editing the video into an online-friendly format.

The communications team are looking to make a series of 2 minute short videos about the campaign and the local area.  We need a scriptwriter and participants (actors, voiceovers etc) to help us turn this idea into reality.  Please get in touch if you have skills in these areas of expertise.

Launch events diary reminder

A quick reminder of the PAGE Campaign launch events in local villages.   We are expecting large turnouts for each event, so please come along to find our how the County's minerals plan will affect your local communities.   We can fight these plans but we need your support to do it!

Warborough - Saturday 10 April - 11am - Greet Hall, Warborough


Dorchester - Wednesday 14 April - 7pm - Dorchester Village Hall


Drayton St Leonard - Saturday 17 April - 2pm - Drayton Village Hall


Stadhampton - Tuesday 20 April - 7:30pm - Stadhampton Community Hall


Berrick Salome - Thursday 22 April - 7:30pm - Berrick Village Hall 

Please contact us or your local Parish Council for more information.

PAGE Launch makes front page news!

The PAGE launch has received much interest from the local media this week

Oxford Times 1st April - FRONT PAGE - 'Gravel plan is threat to countryside' - also on oxfordtimes.co.uk

Oxford Mail 1st April - page two - 'More areas set for gravel pits'

Oxford Mail 1st April - opinion page - 'Between a rock and a hard place' - also on oxfordmail.co.uk

Oxford Journal - FRONT PAGE - 'Undermining our heritage'  and online news article - 'Councils fear gravel plans could lead to "chaos"'  on oxfordjournal.co.uk

BBC Radio Oxford Drivetime interview

Also a letter from our County Councillor, Lorraine Lindsay-Gale, has also been published in the Oxford Mail showing her support for the PAGE Campaign.

This is great publicity for our campaign, and we aim to get much more media coverage as the battle continues!

Every news article helps us to raise awareness of our campaign and ensures that County Councillors understand our opposition.