The candidates standing in the County Council election on May 1st 2025 have now been announced. Langford Village is in the Bicester South ward.
Click here for further details.
OCC Election Candidates – May 1st 2025
New 20mph speed limit gets the go ahead
A new maximum speed limit of 20mph on Langford’s roads will be introduced following a decision taken at Oxfordshire County Council (0CC).
OCC’s Cabinet Member for Transport Management, Councillor Andrew Gant, dismissed objections, including that of the Langford Village Community Association which had submitted evidence to indicate why it considered that the change here was unnecessary..
All Langford’s estate roads, with the exception of part of Gavray Drive, will now become 20mph.
A total of 704 people had responded to the online consultation organised by OCC before the decision to go ahead was taken and 69% of those responding objected to the 20mph plans.
Langford Community Hall To Be Polling Station For ALL Our Residents
A change is being made so that ALL electors living on Langford Village will be able to cast their votes at election times in the Hall at Langford Village Community Centre.
Residents on New Langford will no longer be made to go to the Garth to vote, which some found difficult because of the distance and having to cross the railway line. Instead New Langford electors will be able to vote in the Hall along with residents of the original Langford estate starting from the County Council elections on May 1st.
In another change, residents of Graven Hill will now have their own mobile polling station there and will no longer need to come to Langford’s Community Hall to vote.
The changes were agreed following feedback from many local people and some of Langford’s councillors. Full details can be found as part of a Cherwell District Council report that was approved in December 2024. You can click here to view it.
This new structure will apply for all elections from now on. Any questions about it should be referred to the elections team at Cherwell District Council which manages all the elections and polling stations in our area.
Anyone who’s unsure about where they should vote should carefully check the documents they receive at their home prior to election day. For example, Flanders Close residents, who are just outside of Langford, will still need to vote at the Garth.
On elections day we expect to now have three polling booths within the Langford Community Hall and when you come to vote our teams will help direct you to the correct polling booth. This will depend on exactly where you live on Langford and you must also place your vote into the correct ballot box within the Hall.
We look forward to seeing you there soon!
Chris
(Presiding Officer at Langford Polling Station for 1st May 2025)
Proposed 20mph limits on Langford
Oxfordshire County Council has a proposal out for consultation until February 14th to reduce all 30mph speed limits on all Bicester’s estate roads to 20mph. Please respond individually to the consultation as once again it will be the quantity of responses that will count in any final decision. The consultation closes at 5pm on Friday 14th February 2025.
To get to the consultation survey page please CLICK HERE
LVCA (Langford Village Community Association) has discussed and reached a conclusion to oppose the proposal after assessing the facts shown here :
FACT 1:
After two years’ worth of data collected from our speed awareness camera, Langford Village does not have a speeding problem. There are only 14.5% of vehicles travelling above 30mph compared to a national average of 50%. The 14.5% breaks down to 12% between 30 and 35mph, 2% at 35 to 40mph and 0.5% above 40mph. The above 50mph tends to be late at night or in the early hours of the morning.
FACT 2:
There is not a speeding issue outside school at drop off/ pick up times, again verified by the speed awareness camera. Due to the large number of vehicles parked, it is not possible to drive at any speed along Peregrine Way.
FACT3:
Accident figures from OCC for the last 6 years – 2019 to 2024 show a total of 4 accidents in 6 years, none involving speeding, and no reported accidents on New Langford.
2019: one accident
Ø a car turning into a parking area in the dark, hit a pedestrian, slight injury
2020: no accidents
2021: no accidents
2022: two accidents
Ø a goods vehicle reversed into a pedestrian causing serious injury
Ø A car and bike both turning left car caught bike, slight injury
2023: no accidents
2024: one accident
Ø a car reversed into a pedestrian, slight injury
Anecdotal Feedback:
Residents in Launton, which now has a 20mph speed limit, say it has made the road more dangerous as impatient drivers are now overtaking cars doing 20mph.
The conclusion of the LVCA committee is:
There is no evidence to warrant a reduction in the speed limit for Langford Village, therefore we are opposing the proposal on the facts above and our concerns are that we could create an issue with cars overtaking those doing 20mph making the estate roads more dangerous. The money could be better spent on repairing the road surfaces – in particular Gavray Drive where vehicles are using the wrong side of the road to avoid the horrendous bumps that are back once again.
Langford Village Community Association Committee
London Road – Final Chance for Feedback
Our very last chance to have a say is NOW! Please take a few moments to send in your feedback to the East West Railway Company using the link that’s at the bottom of this post.
The EWR Consultation closes on Friday 24th January. Please fill in the form to say how you will be affected by closure of the crossing and why it’s vital to keep a crossing for vehicles there. EWR will only consider feedback made in this way or via the hard copy forms from the Library.
Remember, you only need to complete the Bicester to Bletchley section, not the whole form.
IMPORTANT: In question 5a you must select ‘Other’ and you can then write your comments about the need for a vehicle route over London Road in the box.
To go directly to the online form just follow this link 
https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/8MJVPW/
Keep London Road Open: The Meeting Notes
The Langford Village Community Association’s notes related to the meeting on London Road and the campaign to keep a route open for vehicles there are now published online.
To view them please CLICK HERE.
Thank you to everyone who attended this important gathering to make comments and suggestions and to help plan next steps.
London Road: Online responding to the consultation
Once you’ve read this article, come back and CLICK HERE to go straight to the front page of the online form that we’re all asked to complete by 24th January. This will open a new tab and display the screen that you see below.
(We’ve added the orange arrows to help direct you and have called this ‘Step 1’)
Please note you ONLY need to use the ‘Oxford to Bletchley’ section of the form to comment on London Road. You do NOT need to complete any other route sections.
Next you should go through a few online pages that ask for your name and other information. Please complete this until you reach a page shown below. This is the start of the Oxford to Bletchley section of the online form (we’ve put in the arrow and called it Step 2, as below).
Now the very important bit!
On the next page YOU MUST SELECT THE ‘OTHER‘ INDICATOR shown by our arrow. Then go on to write your comments about what you want to happen (i.e. for EWR to ensure continuing access for vehicles across the rail line) in the box at the bottom of this screen.
Then just keep clicking on the ‘Next Page’ buttons until you reach the pages at the very end and eventually the Submit Feedback Form button.
That’s it, all done!
Except our local MP, Calum Miller, who’s also fighting to Keep London Road Open, is requesting that you also email him the comments you’ve made. His email address is calum.miller.mp@parliament.uk and we do urge you to please do this as well.
You might also like to write to the Transport Minister responsible for railways. This is Lord Peter Hendy and his email is hendyp@parliament.uk
Thank you everyone for all your support!
Public Meeting re London Road Crossing
Join us at a public meeting to cover next steps in the campaign to ensure continued access for all vehicles and pedestrians across the East West Rail route in Bicester once the London Road level crossing is permanently closed by EWR/Network Rail.
Monday 6th January 7.30pm at Langford Village Community Centre, OX26 6XX.
Add to Calendar
THE FIGHT GOES ON…
The next phase of the fight to secure a crossing for vehicles to still be able to use London Road into and out of Bicester has begun. Read on for more details of a TV report, a debate in Parliament and a forthcoming meeting to be held in Langford Village Community Hall.
ITV Meridian South reported live from the location on 11th December 2024 in the evening news. It covered the details and interviewed people about the proposed closure of this busy road route for local residents and visitors to Bicester.
⏯️ You can watch the report from here.
On the same day, our local MP Calum Miller managed to secure an adjournment debate in the House of Commons (quite an achievement we understand), where a Minister has to come forward and respond.
Carole Hetherington, Chairman of LVCA Chairman, was lucky enough to attend the debate along with Councillor Rachel Mallows and Councillor Frank Ideh.
Carole writes,
“Calum Miller represented the London Road Crossing situation very well and has secured the agreement of Lord Peter Hendy, Minister of Rail at Department of Transport to carry on looking at proposals for a solution for vehicles to continue to use London Road.”
The full debate is on record in Hansard and text be viewed and downloaded by a click here.
⏯️ WATCH from here:-
Finally, a date for the diary. a A Public Meeting is being held at Langford Village Community Centre Monday January 6th at 7.30pm to look at the next steps that everyone can be involved with in order to keep up the pressure on the government and East West Rail to bring about a solution for future crossing of the rail line for all in Bicester.
Add to CalendarPlease do come along to the Hall on that evening and spread the word about it to others.
Our picture here shows the Chairman of LVCA, Carole Hetherington (second from right) with Councillor Frank Ideh, the MP for Bicester and Woodstock, Calum Miller, and Councillor Rachel Mallows (also representing the Bicester Transport Action Group).
All travelled to the House of Commons for the adjournment debate and were mentioned during it.
London Road Crossing Latest
The long-awaited announcement from East West Rail appeared to have sealed the fate of the road crossing for vehicles at London Road in Bicester. It will close to traffic at a date yet to be set and no alternative crossing for vehicles will be built.
EWR suggests a new bridge or underpass for pedestrians and cyclists should be built near the existing London Road level crossing and is asking residents to express views on this as part of the consultation now underway and lasting into the early part of 2025.
To view the relevant sections of the consultation report click here
To view the technical report section on London Road crossing click here.
Please leave any comments below or join the conversation on the LVCA facebook page.
ADDED UPDATE:
The East West Railway Company issued a short video on the London Road crossing on 12th December 2024..