Christmas is coming folks! #christmas???? #bicester #bicesterroundtable #fatherchristmas????

Today’s Bicester sunrise… #Bicester #sunrise #morningcommute

Bicester looking gorgeous in the #autumn???? sunshine. Love my little market town… #Bicester

I guess though they decide to put them in out of the way locations or on the first floors because libraries do not make any money whilst shops and restaurants do. For the record I do passionately believe in the importance of libraries, but I am also fully aware that I am in part responsible for their decline.

When I was little the library was an integral part of the weekly Saturday trip to town – and was some week’s even the primary objective – and I loved it. I can’t now really remember the last ime I really used a library. Why is this? When I love them so much? Partly it’s because I love books. I love reading them, and I love owning them. It’s also because hisorically I tend to be quite a slow reader. Back then, before the days of online renewals you borrowed your books and you had to return it after x weeks or remember to renew it, and I had never finished it, and…

These are not good excuses, but coupled with my love of owning books I have enjoyed, it is a reason. It has also formed a pattern of life and routine that has been hard to shift. This year though, with my inceased bus use has resulted in increased reading – expidentially – and so I’m today thinking whether I should perhaps dig out my library card and taking myself off down there and seeing what my local library has to offer.

Firstly, I am all for appropriate development in Bicester and improving the employment opportunities in the town, however this proposal is quite simply the wrong development, in the wrong place, at the wrong time.

There is already an existing proposal to move the main Tesco store across the road as part of a business park on land next to Bicester Avenue. This is an excellent location for office development. There is also land off Launton road and surrounding the large DHL building that would be a good location for other industrial/storage distribution. I also understand the MOD would like to sell some of the land near to Graven Hill – and this would be perfect for industrial use as there would be possibility for it to use the existing rail tracks in that area.

The site off Howes Lane that Albion Land are proposing to develop is situated on the far side of Bicester from the town centre and much of the traffic would be coming in from the M40 at Junction 10 and through Middleton Stoney, or through the middle of Bicester from Aylesbury. People working at this site would also drive into Bicester at lunchtime, whereas other sites would be within easy walking distance.

From talking to the representatives from Albion Land tonight I conclude that:

• they have not bought the land
• they do not have outline planning permission
• they have little or no local knowledge of Bicester (they were unable to answer several simple questions that I would have expected them to know the answer to)

This land is already earmarked for the Eco Bicester development but the company seem to have little concept of what is expected of an ‘eco’ development beyond that of building warehouses to the latest design constructions. Where is the Eco in encouraging the transport of goods by road on roads that are not designed for those kind of vehicles?

Furthermore, if development is to take place on the Howes Lane land it should only be after other suitable sites have already been used as part of the continued growth of Bicester.

I am writing to you to request that you oppose this development at every opportunity in favour of more appropriate developments that will actually enhance the future of Bicester as a market town in Oxfordshire.

Of course I’m not expecting the Right Honourable (sic.) Tony Baldry to do anything – he’s a true blue and just as dim – and probably in bed with tweedledum and tweedledee at Albion Land…

Future options for Garth House

MEMBERS of the public could soon be asked for their views over plans to create a new town hall for Bicester.
Garth House in Launton Road, has for some time been too small to comfortably accommodate the town council, staff and civic functions, and the much-loved old building is in need of structural repairs.

Three options are being put together by a team of architects, and Bicester Town Council’s Garth House working party is due to test the water with an outline planning application next month.

Options under discussion are to redevelop the existing building, add an extension, or to demolish Garth House and rebuild from scratch.

But working party chairman Cllr Debbie Pickford stressed the demolition option was not being pursued at present, and that a consultation with the people of Bicester would be held before any detailed plans were submitted.

She said Bicester, as a growing town, must have a bigger civic building. Cllr Pickford added: “We’re talking about a proper town hall. It could include a lot of other things like a cafe and restaurant, so we can use Garth Park as a crowning jewel, and we need a good building to go with it.”

The different schemes will be put to public consultation once architects have calculated the cost of each option, and if the bid for outline planning permission is successful.

Cllr Pickford said: “It will come down to whatever serves the town the best, and what’s going to be best for the next 100 years.”

* Last Updated: 16 May 2008 4:35 PM
* Source: n/a
* Location: Bicester

What next for school site?

GUIDELINES are being drawn up for developing the site of St Edburg’s School in Bicester following its proposed relocation.
Last year, governors of St Edburg’s CofE School developed a plan to relocate the school to the new 1,500-home housing estate to be built to the south-west of Bicester.

Members of Cherwell District Council are now preparing a planning brief, which
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gives potential buyers and developers information over how they may be allowed to develop the historic Cemetery Road site the school currently occupies if and when the relocation takes place.

“Cherwell District Council is preparing a planning brief for the school site as and when it may be developed,” said Cllr Michael Gibbard, Cherwell District Council’s portfolio holder for planning and housing.

“It will seek to preserve many existing features, if not whole buildings,” he added.

More detail on the planning brief is expected to be revealed in July.
The proposed school relocation, backed by governors, Oxfordshire County Council and the Diocese of Oxford, has not yet been confirmed, but proponents say funding for a new 14-class school is likely to be secured from developers of the new housing estate.

Backers say a purpose-built school would be bigger and easier to access, and have questioned the suitability of some existing Victorian buildings at the Cemetery Road site.

St Edburg’s School is Bicester’s oldest primary school and has around 170 pupils. The relocation, if it goes ahead, would be likely to cause some changes to local primary school catchment areas.

* Last Updated: 19 May 2008 9:35 AM
* Source: n/a
* Location: Bicester

Hot, hot, hot.

And still no thunderstorms!