WaGCG : Wantage and Grove Campaign Group
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Thames Water want to build an above-ground reservoir which will be contained by walls between about 30 metres high with building starting in 2025. It will cover 4 square miles between the A338 and the A34 north of the railway line. The surface of the water will be covered with solar panels. There will be no space around the reservoir for leisure facilities.
It would hold about 150 million cubic metres of water and be capable of providing 600 million litres per day. For details see our Abingdon Reservoir page.
To see the draft map of the new reservoir see this page from the Thames Water Reservoir - Technical Report.
The National Drought Group met on 26 July - calling the October meeting forward due to concerns about dry conditions, water source levels, and a potential return of the hot weather in August/September. The Environment Agency has issued this statement relating to the outcome of the meeting.
The Oxfordshire 2050 Plan will set the broad scale and pattern of future development in Oxfordshire from 2020 to 2050. We believe the plan proposes excessive growth. If this plan is accepted it will be impossible for Oxfordshire to meet zero carbon commitments and would be detrimental to the evironment and biodiversity.
The Oxfordshire Plan 2050 consultation proposes 3 different growth options (we have about 300,000 homes in Oxfordshire now):
1. "Standard Method" - 102,000 more houses (33% growth)
2. "Business as Usual" - 123,000 more houses (41% growth)
3. "Transformational" - 153,000 more houses (51% growth).
We have responded to the consultation and our response is available HERE. The form is a typical submission form so the most important page is PART B – 30.
We question the basis of the housing growth figures and how these can be used as the basis of local plans for Oxfordshire and would urge all those with any influence to share our concerns.
For background see our Oxfordshire Plan 2050 page.
Following the cancellation of plans for a new Leisure Centre in Wantage and Grove, the District Council is now working out how to spend more than £6 million of developer contributions on leisure facilities in our area.
In February 2021 the District Council said that they would be issuing a Leisure strategy shortly.
In July 2022 they have issued a 5 page Active Communities Strategy but stated that a Leisure Facilities Strategy wouldn't be started before the end of the year.
There has been talk for almost 20 years about the possibility of re-instating the Station in Grove. We have summarised the issues that need to be resolved for that to happen here.
Wantage Neighbourhood Plan was first drafted in 2014/15, with the help of the Campaign Group but was rejected by a planning inspector in 2016.
The Plan has been modified to amend or remove the policies that were deemed unacceptable. All other policies remain unchanged from the document published in 2016.
Formal consultation closed on 14 July 2022.
We held our AGM on Wednesday 25 May 2022. The meeting was followed by a presentation/discussion about the future of OX12. The slides and some notes from the evening are available to download HERE
In July 2021 the Government launched a consultation seeking views to help them create a vision for the Oxford-Cambridge Arc Spatial Framework, and "in doing so guide the future growth of the area to 2050". This is a subtle way of saying employment growth and 1 million new homes.
We have responded to the consultation and our response is available HERE.
No further information has been released by the Government.
For background see our Oxford-Cambridge Arc page.
Some 7,000 houses are in the pipeline for Wantage, Grove and the surrounding villages. More may soon follow as the new Council is thinking about the plan to 2050.
Government guidelines say that development should be "sustainable". We do not think it is sustainable to put thousands of houses where medical facilities are increasingly inadequate, schools are virtually above capacity, there is little employment in the area, and roads to where there is employment are unsuited to commuting.
We came together to campaign for a better deal for our area. As it says in our Aims:
We are not against any development in Wantage and Grove but:
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