PAGE Campaign

Fundraising Ball at the Crazy Bear Hotel, Stadhampton, 12th June

 

An exciting event for your diaries!   

A fundraising ball in aid of PAGE is being held at the Crazy Bear Hotel in Stadhampton on Saturday 12th June.

Starting at 7:00pm, the evening includes a drinks reception, string quartet, sumptuous buffet, casino tables, dancing and more.

This promises to be a fantastic event and a great start to our fundraising campaign.  

Tickets: £60 per head.   Dress: Black tie.    

For details & bookings please contact either Catherine Roe on 01865 890843 (please note on holiday 28th May - 5th June) or Jane Fowler on 01865 890365.

Oxfordshire County Council delay decision on preferred options

The PAGE area is listed in four out of the five spatial options for minerals extraction.  Oxfordshire County Council have delayed their decision on these options until September.

The County Council are likely to chose one or two preferred options.  These will then be open to a full public consultation across the county.  This will happen at some point in the autumn.  

In the meantime, the new government coalition has given news of its intention to make changes to regional planning policy.  These new Bills may come into affect in 2011 and could have a positive impact on our campaign, so any delay to the County Council decision-making process will give us more time to build our case.

Oxfordshire County Council agree to oppose regional minerals target

The County Council Cabinet met earlier today and agreed to formally oppose the 2.1mtpa (million tonnes per annum) regional quota issued by the Secretary of State in March 2010.   This 2.1mtpa represented a 17% increase in the quota over that which was agreed in 2009, and the County Council Cabinet must be commended for standing up for Oxfordshire and it's rural communities.

PAGE was represented by Richard Douglas, John Taylor and Steve Thompson at the Cabinet meeting, with John giving our verbal submission to the debate.  We also submitted a written report to the Cabinet highlighting the PAGE concerns and proposed that the Cabinet should reject the 2.1mtpa quota.

Our County Councillor, Lorraine Lindsay-Gale, also spoke on behalf of all the constituents that would be affected by this top-down imposed system of minerals quotas.

Other community representations were made by OUTRAGE and BACHPORT, who are similar groups in the west and south of the county.  

If the county is successful in having this 17% increase removed, then that will be great news.  But it will not remove the PAGE area from the threat of minerals extraction, so we shall continue to work with the county planning officers and challenge the Council Cabinet for further reductions.   The PAGE campaign goes on, but this could be a great first step in the long battle ahead.

Oxfordshire County Council set to oppose regional minerals targets

We have been given notice that Oxfordshire County Council intend to oppose the regional minerals target proposed by the Secretary of State at the end of March.  The County Council Cabinet will sit on Tuesday 18th May and are being recommended by the Head of Sustainable Development to oppose the Secretary of State's proposal.   This target was a 17% increase on previous quotas, despite other counties in Southern England having their targets reduced!   Furthermore, the Government Office for Southern England (GOSE) increased Oxfordshire's apportionment of the regional quota, such that Oxfordshire would be contributing the highest levels of sand and gravel into the region.   

We oppose this system of targeting as it does not accurately reflect the demands made at a local level.   We have found that primary aggregate production in Oxfordshire has been falling year-on-year since 2001, despite a constant target being imposed by region.  These year-on-year falls in production have occurred in a decade of booming housing and public sector construction illustrating that the minerals quotas are purely hypothetical and are not achieved in reality.

PAGE will be attending the Cabinet meeting on the 18th May and will be submitting a verbal and written submission in support of the recommendation.   

You can read more about this latest news on the County Council website (item 6 on the Agenda).

The Oxford Times has covered this important step in our Campaign in an article on 13th May.  You can read this article on the Oxford Times website.

Public meeting in Stadhampton - Sunday 16th May

We will be holding a public meeting in Stadhampton on Sunday 16th May at 7:30pm.

The meeting will be held in the Community Hall at Stadhampton School.   Please come along to find our more about the County Council plans for minerals extraction in the Stadhampton - Chiselhampton - Drayton St Leonard - Newington area.   We will show how residents can help to support the campaign and how PAGE are going to fight the plans.

Public meeting in Benson - Thursday 13th May

We will be holding a public meeting this week at Benson Parish Hall on Thursday 13th May at 7:30pm.   

We will be presenting as part of the Benson Parish Council Annual Parish Meeting, so there will be other information about local issues and events in Benson being presented throughout the evening.

Slideshow - the reality of sand and gravel extraction

Here is a short Flickr slideshow of the reality of sand and gravel extraction, showing a real quarry and the associated processing plant and equipment.   We soon hope to show you recent video footage to demonstrate the noise and dust created by gravel works.

View the PAGE Campaign gallery on Flickr, and watch the 2003 PAGE Campaign videos on YouTube.