Category Archives: News

THE FIGHT GOES ON…

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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.

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Please 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

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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..

First test trains run on East West Rail route

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A landmark moment has seen trains travelling on the new rail route between Bicester and Milton Keynes for the very first time.

It happened on Monday 21st October when test journeys were made by both Chiltern Rail and GWR to and from Bicester Village station. When the new line opens for passengers in 2025 there will be a direct service between Bicester Village and Milton Keynes Central. There will be four more trains each hour using the existing London Road level crossing.

Local people who had learned about the first test run turned out to take images as history was being made. We’ve included some of these here in a small gallery.

You’re invited to share your thoughts in the comments box on this post or on the Langford Life facebook page.

Winslow (Credit: Thomas Walker-Werth)
Near Launton (Credit: Chris Squire)
Bicester Village (Credit: Dylan Roberts)
Bicester Village (Credit: Dylan Roberts)

Read more about this from Network Rail.

Langford’s Annual Meeting at the Community Hall

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Please ‘Save the Date’ now and simply add it to your phone or device calendar so you don’t forget. It’s Thursday 26th September at 7.30 in the Hall. Just click on the button provided here.

Do share the invitation and the date with other residents and friends of Langford Village.

See you there!

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Come along to Langford Village Community Association’s Annual General Meeting on 26th September.

LVCA Chairman’s Update

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Well summer is upon us, although some days it feels more like autumn or winter, I hope you’re enjoying the good weather when it’s here. Here’s my latest update on the LVCA’s activity.

The hall improvements continue, we are fast approaching the refurb of the ladies’ toilets, work taking place from August 12th – 25th is to bring them to the same look and standard as the gents and access toilet. We have been very fortunate to obtain government funding via Cherwell District Council which has given us the bulk of the costs, while we’ll also be using our own funding to pay the difference.

We have submitted a grant application for an upgrade to a heating control system that works with our online booking system that identifies what the required temperature is and uses indoor and outdoor probes to know when to put the heating on and for how long to heat the room to the required temperature. Within this grant application we have asked for more loft insulation. We hope to get an answer soon.

We will be starting in the autumn to apply for grants in the hope we can raise enough funding to upgrade the kitchen and install a dishwasher, hopefully this will complete the refurb for the next few years.

The VAS (vehicle speed indicator) unit has been along by the school for several weeks now and we have the first stats reports which will be published on facebook and our website shortly. It’s been a very useful tool and hopefully reminds people about their speed. We still have a few ‘boy racers’ who spoil things for the rest of us. We will continue to move the unit around as a reminder to continue the good speeds that the vast majority of people are adopting on the estate.

We now have agreement to replace all the street name signs on old Langford that are still the original ones. These will be done in batches hopefully during the financial year, all of which smartens us up and makes it once again easy for visitors to read the street names.

The general election has delayed the exhibition of the proposed two London Road options and as yet we don’t know when these will now be revealed. Please watch our facebook for updates.

We have had more changes to the 108 bus service through Langford. These started on July 1st, we have published the new timetable on our website for viewing or downloading a copy. You can click here to do so right now.

Finally, LVCA is in need of some help in the form of a person with a few hours to spare to assist in the administration of the classes we now run. This can all be done from home and just requires IT literacy. There must be someone amongst the 5,500 residents of Langford that can help with this.

Please contact me via email or phone if you’d like to discuss:

chairman@lvca.org.uk (tel: 07811 283257)

Kind Regards,

Carole

Carole Hetherington

Chairman, Langford Village Community Association (LVCA)

Voting arrangements for New Langford residents

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We’ve been notified ( via Councillor Cotter ) that residents of New Langford will need to go to the Garth to cast their vote at the General Election called for July 4th 2024. 

The previously used temporary polling station sited on Corncrake Way will NOT be in place and so we’re helping to give early notice of this to all on New Langford. 

The decision to make a polling station at the Garth instead of on Corncrake has been taken by the elections team based at Cherwell District Council. There has been no explanation.

Some residents have already expressed concern about this change and feel it is either too difficult or too distant for them to get to the Garth to vote.

If this is the case, there are two alternatives that New Langford residents can consider. You could choose to register to make your vote by post or by proxy, where you give another person permission to go to your local polling station and to make a vote as per your instruction.  

To apply for a postal vote the deadline is 5pm on June 19th and you should click here to read more and follow the instructions.

To apply for a proxy vote the deadline is 5pm on June 26th and to learn more you should click here and see if you wish to choose this method.

The polling station at Langford Village Community Centre will also be open on July 4th and remains the place for residents of original Langford Village areas to vote. People with New Langford addresses are not able to vote at the Hall and must go to the Garth on election day.

All polling stations will be open from 7am to 10pm and voters are reminded that they must now provide an accepted form of photo id in order to be able to vote.

EWR Update for Spring/Summer 2024

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To read the latest newsletter produced by East West Rail please click here.

EWR has also recently announced that because of the General Election called for July 4th there will now be a delay in revealing its findings on the possible route of a new crossing at or near London Road.

Originally this information was expected to be unveiled in June but this will not now happen until a later date which is so far unstated.

The Welcome to Langford leaflet is here

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Do you know of new people who’re moving onto Langford Village?

Langford Village Community Association and FLTR Coffee have recently worked together to produce a leaflet with essential local information to assist all Langford newcomers as they start to settle in here.

All our local Bicester estate agents and letting agencies now have supplies of the leaflet to hand out and there are also some in FLTR and at the Langford Village Community Centre Hall, in Nightingale Place, OX26 6XX.

Please ask any new residents if they’ve received a leaflet and, if they haven’t got one, encourage them to pick up a copy soon – or you could help out by dropping a copy to them.

Many thanks,

Carole, Chairman LVCA

Preparing for the next EWR consultation

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Understanding the formal process for a solution to London Road Crossing

Every person on Langford Village should be involved with the process beginning in June regarding the EWR proposals for the solution to London Road Crossing. 

On May 9th we all get a chance to understand this process before we see the proposals in the following month.

EWR are holding an event at Weyland Hall in Bicester from 2.00pm to 7.00pm on that day which is open to all.

This event is designed to help people understand the statutory consultation and Development Consent Order (DCO) processes. Members of the EWR DCO and engagement teams will attend to answer any questions and queries people might have.

These sessions are not formal consultation events and there will be no specific design information or proposals available to view, however that design information will of course be available at the statutory consultation, where there will then be the opportunity to share feedback about the proposals.

June will see the first phase of the statutory consultation and we will have sight of the first plans of the two proposed sites for a bridge for access to town to replace the London Road crossing at which people will be able to give feedback.

One of the proposals, as far as we know, is to have a bridge over the railway at Gavray Drive, anyone backing on to or near Gavray needs to be ready to comment as it would mean Gavray being turned into much busier road with an extra 7.000 vehicle  journeys daily. it also means we have lost an access road into town as that would feed into Launton Road.

The other proposal, as far as we know, is a curved bridge alongside London Road cutting through the carparks near the ambulance building and coming down along Station Approach, a much more sensible option retaining an existing road into town.

Whatever happens will have a huge impact on everyone south of London Road Crossing.

Carole

Chairman, Langford Village Community Association