WaGCG : Wantage and Grove Campaign Group
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You may be wondering, where are all the promised schools, roads, hospitals, leisure facilities etc, collectively
referred to by the snappy title of “infrastructure”?
Before any bricks are laid, local planning authorities and developers agree to millions of pounds worth of
infrastructure, needed to serve the growing population, but that seems to be the point at which things get tricky…
You may be curious, or furious, or possibly both –
if you would like to find out more, and maybe contribute to the debate, you will be welcome to come along to
our meeting. We’d love to see you there.
Wantage Methodist Church on 22 June 2023 at 7.30pm
What are developer contributions and how are they spent?
Some 7,000 houses are in the pipeline for Wantage, Grove and the surrounding villages. More may soon follow as the 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 at 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:
Keep informed
For the most up-to-date information please see our newsletters and our Facebook page [opens in a new tab]
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 Town Council has been working on it ever since but it is still not finalised.
After The Water Resources South East Regional Plan Consultation and the Thames Water Draft Water Resource Management
Plan, we have now commented on the RAPID Gate 2 "Draft Decisions" released on 30th March 2023.
It seems that no selection has been made and that ALL options will be allowed to progress to Gate 3.
One of the Options is the South East Strategic Reservoir Option (SESRO) aka OX12 Mega-Reservoir.
It would hold between 100 million and 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.
We have been concerned for sometime that there is no "One Stop Shop" for Sports, Cultural and Community Organisations within OX12 (Wantage, Grove and the surrounding area) and decided that it was about time we did something about it.
We know that there are many organisations missing from this list and so if you have contact details for any of the organisers of other clubs, societies etc, or wish us to add your organisation to the list, please let us know.
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.
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.
Nothing has yet been made available.