Read a bit about what I’ve been up to during the month of June 2010 – some more details can be found on the Press & Media page.

30^th June 2010. Site meeting – Airsoft combat gaming at the Dell

The Carterton Celebrates weekend (11th & 12th Sep) will include an Airsoft combat gaming experience. For those who don’t know it is a bit like paintballing but using replica weapons and plastic ball bearing ammunition – excellent!

At a site meeting today we decided on the format and structure and that it will be a scenario based objective driven experience. the gaming will run from 9am until noon on 12th Sep at the Dell.

29^th June 2010. Extreme Wheels project meeting

The project meeting at the skate park to discuss the Tee-shirt and poster designs, security, legal arrangements, bands, bungee run, competitions and all the rest of the admin that goes on behind the scenes in preparation for the Extreme Wheels Festival.

Preparations for the Carterton Celebrates weekend still demands some of my time as we work up plans for an air-soft playing area at the Dell (a type of paintballing type activity).

28^th June 2010. Carterton Community Centre Board of directors

The board of directors met this evening and discussed the usual array of business. The Community Centre is run by the board of volunteers which includes town councillors and other members of the Community who give their time freely for the benefit of the town

Also today I did a photo call for the Witney Gazette and Oxford Mail to raise awareness of the possible risk to the funding of the renovation of the Alvescott Road Recreation Ground.

26^th and 27^th June 2010. Website functional updates

The website has been running a lit slower on the servers of late so my good friend Mark Excell has been busy installing a new plugin

I’ve made a few other changes to the functionality of the site, hopefully these will further enhance the experience of using the site. I always welcome feedback and suggestions!

25^th June 2010. Publicity for Extreme Wheels Festival

The very kind people in the RAF Brize Norton Training Development Flight have kindly started to work-up a poster to publicise the Extreme Wheels Festival on Saturday 14th August.

I would particularly like to thank Cpl Rob Burns for putting this together at such short notice!

I am really grateful for this assistance and I will be presenting this initial design idea to the project team for their feedback and suggestions

The Extreme Wheels meeting will be held at Carterton Skate Park at 7.30pm on Tuesday 29th June, it will be the penultimate project meeting of the year!

24^th June 2010. Carterton Celebrates

The working group who are planning and will deliver the “Carterton Celebrates” weekend met at the Town Hall today. We were joined by the Flt Lt and Sqn Ldr responsible for organising Party in the park which takes place the following weekend and they are kindly arranging a fly past for our civic service on 12^th Sep.

We are hoping for a “3-ship” of one aircraft from each squadron at Brize (VC10, Tristar & C17) but we will be delighted to have a flypast of any sort, dependant on weather conditions and operational needs of course.

23^rd June 2010. RAF Brize Norton Neighbourhood Watch meeting

Scottie Ginn and his army of neighbourhood watch volunteers met this evening at the quarterly meeting which was also attended by a member from the RAF Police. I attended in my capacity as the Town Councillor for Upavon Ward and as a resident of Service Families Accommodation and a member of the station community support team.

There are a number of issues which are probably better pitched at the Families Consultative Group meeting on 12^th July when we will have members from Defence Estates (if they turn up), TVP and RAFP as well as others from the community safety team.

22^nd June 2010. Visit to Carterton Football Club

The Town Mayor and I visited he Carterton Football Club ground and social facilities this evening, we were hosted by the club chairman and a representative from the Windrush Valley Boxing Club, which also use the facilities.

What a fantastic facility the Football Club is and what a valuable addition it is to the life of our town! It is organisations such as this one which deserve our full and active support in order to allow them to flourish!

21^st June 2010. Armed Forces week

At 11am today, the Mayor, myself, Town Councillors and armed forces veterans joined the Station Commander at RAF Brize Norton, Group Captain Dom Stamp, OC Base Support Wing and the Station Warrant Officer in a short ceremony to launch armed forces week and to raise the flag at the war memorial.

The mayor said a few words and the vicar from St John’s church led the prayers, in particular for the armed services personnel currently serving in Afghanistan and other areas of the world.

18^th June 2010. Preparations for “Carterton Celebrates” in September

I have looking into the idea of having a morning of paint balling at the Dell as part of the Carterton Celebrates weekend and I think I can safely say that this is most definitely “a goer”.

I’ve had some really useful conversations with Ed Brodhurst from the Community College and I think we have found a way forward which will be greatly enjoyed and well within budget! Carterton Celebrates will be on the weekend of 11^th and 12^th September – more to follow as details emerge.

16^th June 2010. Recreation Ground working group

I called a meeting of the Recreation Ground working group which includes councillors as well as Lin Kennedy (Community Development Officer) and Tina Cockroft (Area Youth Worker) to take stock of where we are and where we are going.

In short; we already have £65K of grant funding and a substantial amount in the council reserves which means that the refurbishment is now looking entirely possible in the short term! The children’s play park will be phase one – a completely new play park which will cater for a wide age range – watch this space!

15^th June 2010. Full Council meeting

The monthly meeting of the full council and an opportunity to open the debate about Whittington Place – I had encouraging support from my fellow councillors and the idea of the allotments is being researched by Town Clerk.

It was also an opportunity to speak to members of the public (before the meeting) about the problems associated with Anti-social behaviour on the Recreation Ground. Noise and litter seem to be the main concerns, underage drinking is seen as the underlying matter to be addressed. Something for me to raise with the Neighbourhood Police Team and the NAG.

14^th June 2010. What makes a good school?

I was invited by the Head Teacher of the Community College to a meeting to discuss “What makes a good school” and to consider what the school does well and what scope there is for improvements.

The main points to note seemed to be consistency and standardisation, from the teachers, parents and the governing body. It was felt that on the whole the school is in a good place and moving forwards to greater things but there is always room for continuous improvement! More to follow!

9^th June 2010. Whittington Place

There is a patch of land at Whittington Place which has been unused and most definitely unloved for some considerable time.  I had a site visit today and spoke with one of the residents to discuss what we could do about it

The outcome was that firstly the place needs to be weeded and tidied because it is an eyesore. Secondly and more long term it could be better utilised as a small plot of allotments. Some research is now required to establish whether this could be deliverable … more to follow (…I hope!)

4^th June 2010. CCTV in Carterton

This week residents, local businesses and visitors to Carterton will feel even safer with the introduction of CCTV to the town centre.

Four CCTV cameras have been placed at selected locations around the town to provide the widest coverage possible. One of the cameras is ‘deployable’ so it can be moved from place to place if required.

The concept of CCTV in Carterton was first considered almost 5 years ago by the Neighbourhood Action Group, which I chaired at that time, but back then the cost was simply unachievable.

4^th June 2010. Extreme Wheels Festival headliners at BBC1 Big Weekend!

You will have the opportunity to see Pegasus Bridge at the Extreme Wheels Festival on Saturday 14th August 2010 at Carterton Skate Park! The band also recently played at BBC1 Big Weekend – which is all rather useful publicity! As coordinator of this project I have been supported by several hard-working volunteers and young people from the Skate Park.

Download ‘Ribena’ FREE, including the lyrics at http://extremewheelsfestival2010.bandcamp.com/track/ribena

2^nd June 2010. Recreation Committee

I am delighted to have been re-elected as the Chairman of the Town Council recreation committee. The committee has had a very busy few years with the Tower Square redevelopment, the regeneration of the Maples play area and now we have the master plan to regenerate the Alvescot Road Recreation Ground.

Another ongoing matter which the committee will be tasked with is to resolve problems with a number of small patches of land which do not seem to be used for very much at all. One such site is at Whittington Place where we are considering the feasibility of a small allotment site/community garden.