A briefer report than usual. I managed to get away on holiday, post budget.
Roads
It finally appears to have stopped raining every day all day. That means that the roads teams can get on with fixing the backlog of road repairs, including replacing the temporary fixes (to fill holes when it is wet) with the permanent ones. Clearly if money was no object, every road would be fully resurfaced, but as mentioned many times, we get about half the money required just to stand still from national Government.
The work is getting done and will accelerate. As ever, I expect people will notice the holes and mostly fail to notice newly smooth roads. Do please keep reporting faults on
FixMyStreet, with photographs if possible.
The new junction at Shores Green, east of Witney, is coming along and is still ahead of schedule, despite the deluges. The remaining work is the final tarmac and lining and putting in the traffic lights. We expect it to be open for traffic before the summer.
Schools
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The County Council, working with the primary school, Thames Valley Police and concerned residents, is making it clearer where outside Eynsham Primary School it is appropriate for parents to stop their cars. The main concern is to make it safe for pupils, and encourage them to be able to walk or bike to school.
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You may have seen the Government white paper on SEND reform and its associated agreement that it will – with strings attached – write off accumulated deficits on SEND and – also with strings attached – pick up the future costs of SEND provision. The most important thing is that we need to build on the huge improvements there has been in SEND provision in Oxfordshire since the change in administration.
Local Government Reorganisation
A reminder that the statutory consultation for local government reorganisation is running until 26 March. More details and a link to the consultation is available here.