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Thames Valley Police are encouraging you to register for Community Messaging to receive free police alerts about where you live. You can get the alerts by email, phone or text and they will include information about scams and other activities in your area, crime alerts and witness appeals.

No Parking at Dickredge bus stop

The marked bus stop at the top of the Dickredge is on the whole doing both its jobs, enabling easier access to the buses and giving better visibility for drivers emerging from the Dickredge. However, the Parish Council has received complaints, especially from Senior Citizens that the stop is still from time to time blocked by parked cars.

Please note that this is now a 24 hour per day enforceable NO PARKING area and vehicles parking on the hatched lines at the top of the Dickredge could be treated as obstruction both to the Dickredge exit and the bus stop.

So, please don't park on the hatched white lines or in the yellow bus stop box. If you do at any time you are liable to receive a ticket from the police.

Steeple Aston Parish Council
February 2012

Footpath bridge closed

The bridge on the footpath from Cow Lane to Upper Heyford, known as the Rifle Plank Bridge, was closed by Oxfordshire County Council at the beginning of February because it was in a dangerous condition. The closure has now been extended for up to a further six months from March 21st 2013.

OCC say that the bridge has been under water for the past few weeks, but they hope to make the necessary repairs soon. They will arrange for a repair/replacement as soon as ground conditions allow. They apologise for any inconvenience that this continued closure may be causing. For further information, please contact Sarah Aldous on 01865 810222.

Bogus callers say they are from alarm company

Bogus callers have been reported as calling on elderly people in Steeple Aston saying they come from the company that provides their alarm system.

Community Voice, the company that provides alarms for people to wear around their neck or as a bracelet, has reported that two people in the village have received a visit from someone saying that he was from their conmpany and need to carry out either maintenance or to test their alarm system.

On both occasions the residents in question contacted the head office to validate this call and found it was false. It is not policy for employees to call unannounced from either Community Voice or Sanctuary about any alarm system.

Many elderly people have these alarms which link directly via the telephone system to a 24/7 call centre. If you know anyone who has such a device please alert them to these bogus callers. It isn't known how they know who to call on. Either they have inside information or they are calling on houses with key-safes that can often be found near an entrance door as they are often fitted at the same time.

Annual Quiz - Questions and Answers

Steeple Aston's popular Annual Quiz was held on a very snowy Saturday, January, 19th. There were only five rounds this year as it was decided to cut out the last round so everyone could go home a bit earlier.

The winning team were The Devil's Brigade with 88 points out of a possible 100. The questions were set by the Whybrews.

Police warning on cold callers

Local police have been made aware of cold callers claiming to be from Thames Valley Police themselves targeting people for advertising and sponsorship.

A police spokesman said, "This is not something we would normally do. If you wish to check the identity of a TVP employee then ask for their shoulder number and name, then dial the police non-emergency number 101 and ask to speak to them. Do not use any other telephone number that the caller may offer for you to check their identity."

Volunteers Wanted for the British Red Cross

Do you want to get out and about in your local community?

Would you like to raise funds for a worthy cause?

The British Red Cross are active across Oxfordshire helping people in crisis and providing welfare provisions for vulnerable people. We are on the lookout for volunteers who could help us manage our collection boxes in local shops and businesses, and also for people willing to help during our national week of fundraising in May 2013.

Join the network of Red Cross volunteers in Banbury and surrounding villages.

Can you help save lives in Steeple Aston?

Two years ago, Steeple Aston established its own group of Community Responders, funded by enthusiastic fundraising efforts in the village. The Community Responders are a team of local volunteers who are trained and equipped by the South Central Ambulance Service. No prior medical training or experience is needed.

If you are taken ill, the local Community Responders can be with you immediately to give life- saving support and reassurance until the paramedics and the ambulance arrive. Because of our distance from the nearest ambulance stations, this can take fifteen minutes or more - which can be too long in cases of strokes or heart attacks.

Over the past eighteen months, our Community Responders have responded to around fifty calls for help averaging around ten callouts per person in that time.

When the snow comes........

This year's preparations for winter weather are already underway.

Oxfordshire County Council, having announced last year that they will no longer top up our grit bins after the initial fill, have replaced the P.O. /Paines Hill bin with a larger model and some of the new yellow bins they dropped round the village have been replaced with green ones.

Again, OCC has provided bags of salt for the Parish Councillors to distribute around the village. This is a pretty tedious way of dealing with salt distribution in a snowed up village as Parish Councillors have as much difficulty as everyone else in these conditions, not being equipped with a suitable OCC vehicle or a central storage point.

Still, that is the way it is nowadays and we hope that last year's volunteers who agreed to monitor their nearby grit bin and re-fill when necessary are prepared to do this again this winter. We probably have some bags in hand still but this season's bags of salt will be delivered to, or collected by them in mid-November. If this salt supply runs out, the PC will have to order in, and pay for, some more to deliver to the volunteers at around £100 per ton.

OCC are unhappy that so much salt is taken away for people's drives etc. It is supplied only for the public roads and pavements. Salt can be bought easily at the moment from builder's merchants and DIY stores for home use. Please think ahead and get some in.

It is evidently important to use the salt sparingly, only a light sprinkling is needed to keep tarmac clear but this will not deal with deep snow, which needs clearing first. The Parish Council has given a snow shovel to each of the grit bin volunteers, for local use. Please make sure you return it to the volunteer if you borrow one.

OCC have now included Paines Hill in their snow clearing schedule but Fenway still is not included. We will be relying on 'in village' clearance again if we have much snow, as OCC admit they may well not get to the villages for a couple of days. If we do get snowed in, PLEASE try to keep your cars off the roads, or at least park sensibly only on one side if you can. This makes the snow clearing much more possible and avoids vehicles slaloming through the village.

Parking at the top of Sixtyfoot, in order to avoid negotiating the village roads, has proved really problematic for other drivers approaching the junction as they have to try to avoid the parked cars. PLEASE don't park there!

In the past, the village showed its team spirit as usual and people helped each other to get round or get supplies if needed. This was really appreciated and made things much easier for the less mobile. Particularly if you have a 4x4, keep an eye on your neighbours again and give them a hand.

Below is the list of volunteers and grit bin locations:
1. Fenway / opp. Bridleway Cathy Fleet
2. Shepherds Hill Kate Quist
3. Fenway /Bottom of Grange Park Roderick Nicholson
4. Grange Park The Whybrews
5. Church Corner David Kewley/Stuart Ferguson
6. opp. The School Bob Bickley
7. Paine's Hill John Coley
8. Post Office / Paine's Hill The Tosh's
9. Nizewell Head Marian Trinder
10. The Crescent Kevin Osbourne
11. Top of Jubilee Close Gordon Hallam
12. Foot of Jubilee Close / South Side The Stewarts
13. Red Lion Corner The Red Lion

Food Caddy Liners are here!

Until now, it's been necessary to go to a major supermarket or the Cherwell District Council offices to buy compostable liners for the small brown food caddies. But, at the request of the Parish Council, Cherwell has agreed to supply compostable caddy liners to Raj at the shop. This means they will be much more easily available to everyone in the village.

A roll of 40 liners at the shop costs just £3 (less than the supermarkets).

As requested by Cherwell, Raj will sell the liners at cost, and the small profit made on them will go to village charities to be decided by the Parish Council each year.

So no more messy caddies or soggy newspaper linings. Just visit the shop for your roll of liners, put a liner in your caddy, and any waste food in the liner. When the liner is full, put the liner and its contents into your brown garden bin for Cherwell to take away and recycle - quick, easy and simple.

CAB Caseworker Help for disabled & vulnerable

• Are you living with a hard to manage mental or physical condition?
• Do you need some help to cope?
• Our Specialist Caseworker can visit you at home, offer a full welfare benefits eligibility check, and help you to access other relevant support services within your community.

Contact us if you:

• Are under 60 years old, and
• Live in Oxfordshire, and
• Have limited ability to get around on your own, and
• Need support to continue to live independently

To discuss your requirements in complete confidence, please leave a message with your name and contact number for Lynn on 01608 646990

Have YOU ever thought about FOSTERING?

There is a recognised shortage of 10,000 Foster Carers in the UK. PACT, founded in 1911, is also known as the Oxford Diocesan Council for Social Work inc. We are a registered charity working to improve life chances for children. The focus of our work is within Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire and aims to build and strengthen families.

We are an approved Adoption and Fostering Agency. We have a history of finding safe, loving families for children in care. Here are a few facts about Fostering:

1.Did you know you don’t have to be married to become a Foster Carer?
2.You don’t have to have children already although you do need to have experience of caring for children.
3.Did you know you get paid a Fostering Allowance of £335.70 a week to be a Foster Carer which is tax free and won’t affect any other benefits?
4.Most of the children who need fostering are known as ‘hard to place’ children, they will usually be 8+ years of age.