THE FIGHT GOES ON…

Posted on 12-Dec-2024 by Chris A

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 Calendar

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

Posted on 14-Nov-2024 by Chris A

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..

Port Tasting in the Hall

Posted on 12-Nov-2024 by LVCA Team

Save the Date! Specialist tea tasting will also be available as an alternative to Port and Sherry tasting. Just turn up on the evening but if you’ve any questions about this LVCA event please email Sandra (bookings@lvca.org.uk). We look forward to seeing you there!

Light-up Langford 2024 – The Countdown

Posted on 31-Oct-2024 by Admin

The Christmas Clock is ticking again and heading to 6pm on Sunday 1st December 2024.?

Share the clock and let’s all light up Langford together. ?

Follow the Light-up Langford facebook group.

First test trains run on East West Rail route

Posted on 22-Oct-2024 by Chris A

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.

The Annual General Meeting 2024

Posted on 28-Sep-2024 by LVCA Team

A very big ‘thank you’ to all Langford’s residents and friends who came along to the LVCA AGM in the Hall. It was one of the best ever attendances for the community meeting – despite the heavy rain outside.

Thank you also to all the speakers who joined us to relay latest news and information, including Calum Miller the new MP for Bicester and Woodstock.

The Minutes of the meeting, held on Thursday 26th September, will be published here soon.

Meanwhile, the Chairman’s Report, as presented at the meeting is already available here.

Information presented as the Treasurer’s Report is also available here.

Langford’s Annual Meeting at the Community Hall

Posted on 04-Sep-2024 by LVCA Team

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!

Add to Calendar

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

Driving Speed Near The School

Posted on 06-Aug-2024 by LVCA Team

We now have the latest stats from Langford’s traffic speed indicator device/sign which has been on Peregrine Way at a spot near to the Langford Primary School for a few months.

To provide analysis, we’ve taken a snapshot from Monday 13th May to Sunday 19^th May 2024. The data for this covers vehicles travelling past the speed sign from the direction of the Goldcrest Way/Pipits Croft roundabout and travelling towards the village shops.

This is a busy section of road, with 11,007 vehicles passing in this one direction over the whole 7-day period.

Overview

The daily. morning peak is between 8am and 9am – 127 Vehicles

The daily afternoon peak is between 5pm and 6pm – 172 Vehicles

The average vehicle speed recorded at this spot is 22.5mph

Over the Limit Speed

The top speed at which a vehicle passed this point was 45mph recorded on 17^th May at 5.50 in the afternoon. More detailed information on the vehicles over the 30mph speed limit is shown in the table below.

Day	Number of vehicles speeding	% OF vehicles speeding	Average speed
Monday	53	3.1%	32.9mph
Tuesday	40	2.9%	32.8mph
Wednesday	73	4.3%	33.1mph
Thursday	48	3.1%	33.0mph
Friday	88	4.9%	33.1mph
Saturday	100	6.6%	33.0mph
Sunday	128	9.8%	32.8mph

The figures are presented as a fair indicator for this one ‘typical week’ during term time in May 2024.

Pick-up and Drop-off Times

Residents have always shown a lot of interest in traffic behaviour at school drop-off and pick-up times. So below we have detailed analysis for each weekday over a four-week period. This shows traffic between 8:30am and 9:00am, and between 2:30pm and 3:30pm.

You can study the total number of vehicles, the number speeding and the average speed.

Days when pupils were on holiday or not attending because of a bank holiday are noted.

(PLEASE CLICK ON ANY OF THE CHARTS OR GRAPHS FOR A LARGER/READABLE VIEW)

The detailed breakdown shows that generally the average speed at key drop-off and pick-up times is under 20mph with very little speeding. This is in stark contrast to school holiday times when the instances of speeding are greater.

To round off the data, the charts below show for the week beginning the 13^th May, the hourly volume of traffic right through the day, with the clear morning and evening peaks.

The next chart shows details of speeds on this section of road during all times that week.

Conclusion

While there is a degree of speeding on this section of road, during the critical school drop off and pick up times, most drivers are generally respecting the speed limit.

We’ve now turned the device to face the opposite direction and will share results later.

LVCA continues to receive a lot of positive comment regarding its work to introduce the speed indicator device to Langford and is grateful for all the support being shown.

The whole purpose of the sign is to help raise awareness of correct driving speeds and to help make Langford Village an even safer place for everyone who lives here or visits the area.

Thank You! from the LVCA Committee

LVCA Chairman’s Update

Posted on 09-Jul-2024 by Carole

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 – 25^th 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 1^st, 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)