Kidlington Action Plan

As a result of a recent detailed survey of opinions of the common folk of Kidlington, the Action Plan is now available on the Kidlington Parish Council website. The plan has the following sections:

1. First there is the background - a reminder of what the Healthcheck is supposed to achieve, and in particular its importance in setting out local priorities for
2. Then a summary of what the first stages of the Healthcheck, carried out by local working groups, highlighted as important issues facing the village.
3. Next are the significant priorities brought out in the public consultations that have been carried out, and how these form the basis of a vision for the kind of community people would like to see in the future.
4. Then this vision is translated into a set of strategic aims for action.
5. The next section looks at how the Action Plan ties in with the themes of wider strategies - the District-wide Community Strategy and Local Area Agreement, and how it needs to be a building block and a starting point for a Local Area Plan as part of the Local Development Framework.
6. Lastly in the main document the strategic aims are developed into specific objectives and projects. The Action Plan table begins to set priorities and targets. It includes as a specific action area the continuation of partnership work, and identifies where other players need to be involved and influenced.
7. The results of the questionnaire surveys are included as appendices.

Battery recycling

Recycling batteries is so important because they are full of heavy metals. Generally speaking using rechargeable batteries is better for the environment since you can recharge them many times, especially the lithium batteries.

In the end though all batteries go past their use-by date and we must consider how to dispose of them. The starting point of batteries, especially ones we use in the house, is that they are so small. We think small, insignificant, chuck 'em in the bin and forget about it. The problem with that approach is that batteries if dumped in landfill are about as bad as it gets. All those heavy metals...

It is really important to work out a way to recycling batteries properly - and that starts in the home. What I would recommend is using an old plastic bottle with a wide mouth, perhaps the kind that you get fresh squeezed fruit juices in. Put that in a safe place, say near your kitchen and simply pop any old batteries therein.

The batteries that can be recycled include AAA , AA , C ,and D size batteries as well as button, mobile phone , laptop batteries and rechargeable batteries.

When the bottle is nearly full then you can pop to your local recycling point and empty your bottle. So where are the battery recycling points? In Kidlington we have one at Sainsbury's, another in the Tesco shopping car park. For a complete list check out the relevant WRAP page.