DEAN TIP HAS CLOSED-

Mon 7 Nov 2011, 11:12

Can you believe that the officers did not brief the councillors and the committee, and that no one who knew the true picture drew their attention to it? There is something going on behind the scenes here.

It reminds me of the Cumonr Hill bypass, which was built after traffic flow figures showed excessive traffic on Cumnor Hill. Investigation by the District Auditor subsequently discovered that a special traffic flow measurement had taken place, which oddly showed double the flow shown by the council's normal meters. The reason? They 'forgot' to halve the axle count to get the number of vehicles (the road meters measure axles crossing them). And they built the bypass before it was realised. Someone benefited a few million from that.

Mon 7 Nov 2011, 00:50

I wrote to David Cameron to tell him that the information he had received about the reasons for the closure of Dean Pit was incorrect,that is the Environmenmt Agency told us it had not demanded a £1 million pound upgrade and they had no objection to Dean Pit being granted planning permission---also it turned out that Oxfordshire County Council had not costed the supposed upgrade so didn't know how much it would have cost anyway. He replied that he would write to Huw Jones, head of Environment at OCC to ask what was going on.
Mr Cameron sent me a copy of Huw Jones' reply; an amazing piece of bland evasion. Mr Jones says that the £1 million pond upgrade was for Redbridge NOT Dean Pit and it was 'mistakenly applied by some' to Dean Pit----the some presumably including the three councillors who told me very forcibly at the July council meeting of WODC that Dean Pit required a £1 million pound upgrade. He then went on to say that it was going to close anyway because the planning permission ran out---but OCC grant planning permission and could have renewed it AND we have always been told that the cost of the supposed upgrade was the major reason for not granting planning permission----the whole thing is so circular one gets quite giddy----no wonder in trying to explain it away OCC cannot tell one pit from another !!! So, it seems that we have lost Dean Pit through, as Mr Jones says 'a genuine case of crossed wires' or as we perhaps would prefer to call it, confusion and incompetence.

Sun 6 Nov 2011, 12:57

At the suggestion of a Chipping Norton resident, we went to the tip at Shipston on Stour on Saturday. From our house, Google route planner indicated that whilst the route to Dix pit was less in terms of miles, both journeys would take 29 minutes. Despite of the road closure and diversion on the Enstone road, the round trip took just under an hour, including a couple of minutes of queueing time. It is an easy drive to Shipston. Not sure what Warwickshire tax payers will make of Oxfordshire using their facilities. (Note: Shipston facility shuts at 12.30 at weekends)

Sun 23 Oct 2011, 12:57

Dix Pit at Stanton Harcourt - which is a 26-mile round trip requiring the use of non-renewable resources (unless you walk, have a horse-and-cart, or go by bike). So much for joined-up thinking on the part of our elected representatives .....

Sat 22 Oct 2011, 22:56

So where do we take our rubbish now??