Henley Town Council 11th February 2025
End of Term Report 1
I thought that I would do a comprehensive end-of-term report detailing some of the things achieved for Henley. I will say that I have thoroughly enjoyed the role of County Councillor sorting things for Henley. Quite a bit of my work cannot be detailed because of confidentiality but it includes a number of lengthy special educational needs (SEND) cases, social services and access to beds for patients leaving hospital, fostering and adoption. Many of these are rewarding BUT some of them should not take so long.
Roads
I have succeeded in securing a record £2 million plus of funding for road repairs for Henley. As I have said before I will always priorities getting roads fully resurfaced rather than patched. We are suffering from the legacy of roads funding and other services being slashed during 2010-2024 George Osbournes austerity. 14 years of neglect. Because the basic maintenance of roads and services did not happen, we are now catching up on the maintenance backlog.
Over 30 major road Schemes have been completed in Henley. These secure the carriageway and means that for some time they will not suffer from Potholes for at least 20 years.
We must keep on top of the basic maintenance. With the extra funding from Central Government and our Oxfordshire resources we can do some repairs. Doing all the repairs across the Network of Oxfordshire it is estimated would cost over £120 million against a budget of £30 million.
The Roads complete are: –
Hop Gardens, Kings Rd, Kings Close, York Rd, Clarence Rd, Mount View, Harpsden Rd, Green Lane, St Andrews Top, St Andrews, Wotton manor, Gravel hill, Leaver Rd, Cul de Sac bottom of DeanField, Marlow Rd Entrance and Crossing, Nicholas, Elizabeth, Leaver, Adwell, Albert Rd, Top Valley rd., Elisabeth Close, New Street, Bell Street, Hart St, Thameside and the Thameside Path.
Plus Drainage schemes at Kravett Close, Mill Lane, DeanField Road and Watermans Road.
Drainage
Planned major Schemes Fairmile and Reading Rd.
Fairmile
I was hoping for a chipping resurface for the Fairmile where a “cheap” Tar and chipping surface is laid on top of the existing to seal the road and get a few more years of life out of it. However, after the OCC engineers looked at the road and took core samples thy decided that this would be a waste of money because the tar and chippings would disappear after 6 months. The Road has “failed” therefor needs an expensive large “proper” road repair to be done, whereby the surface is planned and then re-laid. As you can imagine this is very expensive and has to wait to the next year of funding.
Reading Rd
Is in the advanced state of planning as can be seen form these drawing and I hope they will be done soon.
Further Schemes Planned
Crossings
We have achieved 3 Crossing in Henley, Greys Rd, Gravel Hill and Swiss Farm. With two more planned Bell Street and Kings Rd.
Library
The refurbishment is totally £700,000 approximately. Movable bookshelves to create new spaces, new IT infrastructure, new spaces for groups to hold meetings do activities. The windows will be replaced, new heating installed as part of reducing carbon emissions. It has been funding from Developer CIL contributions and central government decarbonisation Grants.
Bus
A New electric Bus will start in March with a new 5-day Service, Mon -Friday 9 am to 2pm. We are currently registering the new times and days and we are also creating a new marketing campaign.
Car parks
Cllr Arlett, Cllr Hinton and myself successfully achieved 1 HR free parking in the Greys Rd and Kings Rd car parks. This has proved to be a great success with more car/foot fall into the car parks and achieving further churn with in the car parks.
CPE
Controlled Parking Enforcement. Cllr Arlett led a spirited campaign to introduce CPE to henley which has been successful. Our own Traffic wardens now patrol and are very responsive to local issues. It is great that this has happened because it relives the burden from the police who should be tackling other matters. Cllr Tom Buckley or brilliant chair of planning will be starting another review of parking soon in conjunction with OCC officers.
SEND and OCC
This continues to be worrying. When parents lovingly care for a special needs son or daughter, what they do not want is the extra burden and obstacles places in their way by the bureaucracy of the council. The new Labour government has provided some extra funding BUT this does not wipe out the existing deficit. What should happen is that with the elderly and young we should have a Rolls Royce service for these vulnerable sections of OUR community.
Parents should be told clearly how much extra provision they are being given WITHOUT having to fight for every penny. I recently had a case which lasted 12 months for funding for provision of a young person at Gillotts School. It took the parents and me fighting for 12 months to get the correct package in place for a combination of Home and school provision. I am currently dealing with 3 other cases.
This should not be when parents have a child then the Council and State should say “here you are this is the rolls Royce funding model” AND we as a society should be prepared to pay for it.
Parents should not have a constant fight. Having said that OCC is improving BUT there is some way to go!!
Townlands
Cllr Reissmann and I successfully secured the long-term funding of Townlands hospital. We secured a commitment from Oxford health, the ICB and Royal Berkshire hospital that the funding is secure and long term. This has been exemplified by the commitment from the Royal Berks to provide more clinics on the third floor of Townlands. Ian and I have a great relationship with Ben Riley Oxford Health and the Royal Berkshire Hospital
Chiltern Beds
I am still committed to fight for Bed provision for discharge patients in Chiltern Court. 9 were provided and 9 we should have. The current position is that short stay beds are being reviewed when contract end in the summer and Ian and I will be making our case for provision in the south of South Oxfordshire.
HGV
I will circulate shortly a summary paper to all residents, council and councillors. Briefly the timetable is as follows.
- The ANPR study has happened
- Feb data analysed
- Meeting with the Transport Strategy Group Late Feb
- Option proposed and decision made March
The transport Strategi Group, myself and Amanda Chaumas’s action group are of one mind. Henley needs a 18T limit all of the evidence points to this being needed to provide healthy Street, cope with Historic Buildings, narrow streets, narrow pavements, tight corners, AQ, intimidation of pedestrians by the size, weight and length of lorries.
This should not be HAPPENING!!
Just getting stuff done!!!!!