Cherwell District is 27th for recycling

In the national league table of all councils according to LetsRecycle, Cherwell District ranked 27th for the financial year 2006/7. Oxfordshire came 78th.

High St & Church St kerb resurfacing

Starting on 3rd December and running for over a month until 25th January next year Oxfordshire Highways is doing kerbing and resurfacing works. Weirdly the relevant Oxfordshire Highways web page does not list this imminent work, even though that is where it should be posted. The way I found out is with a letter through the letter box. Oh, and by the way if you live on either Church or High St, then you need to clean back any vegetation...

Who are our local bobbies?

If you want to know who is patrolling our streets then check out this page on the Thames Valley Police site.

Thames Valley Police computer systems to be run by a finance computer boffin

If I was to appoint someone to a job in the police force, whether it be IT or anything else then I think security would be one of my considerations. Not so Thames Valley Police, where it seems that they consider managing IT budgets is more critical. At least that is the message that I take from the appointment of John Hall as joint IT chief to both Thames Valley Police force and Hampshire Constabulary. And that budget cutting is obviously part of his remit if you see his job description which includes, "operational effectiveness and efficiency". In the UK the accountant rules once again.

How does Cherwell District bucking the trend so successfully?

According to The Taxpayer's Alliance blog, fortnightly collections do not in general reduce the amount of rubbish sent to landfill. And yet this is one reason, if not the main reason that Cherwell District council is to achieve its high levels of recycling. The principle as I understand it is to have the wheelie bins in which we chuck plastic, paper & tins etc on the premise that that is easy for the average householder to do, mixed with the technology that is at the recycling facility to sort all this out.

If you are wanting a taxi this weekend, think again!

It seems that taxis in the Kidlington area may be affected by a strike. So getting hold of one could be should slightly difficult! Check out the Oxford Mail for more details....

Well done to St Thomas More

St Thomas More school has come 15th in a national league table. Read more at the Oxford Times website. This reflects good work in all fields as recognised by Ofsted.

Putting the finger on Ardley Quarry

We all associate Ardley Quarry with it being a recycling centre. It wasn't always that way. If you look back in time, and I mean back in time. I don't mean a year, or five years. I don't even mean a hundred years ago. I actually mean 168,000,000 years ago. That is the time of dinosaurs, and if you check out this page you can actually see a dinosaur footprint. Actually to be precise the animal was a Megalosaurus.

Please support your LOCAL freecycling group

Here in Kidlington we are increasingly proud of our group. It starts, like all such groups in a small way, but is growing steadily. Many groups discourage members joining who do not live locally. That is not our policy.

We take the view that some people may wish to join our group because they work in the area, or even have relations who live here and perhaps those relations do not have access to the Internet.

Whatever the case we work hard to ensure that when an item is offered that both the person potentially taking that item and the offerer consider travel costs as part of the equation. There seems little point in spending a couple of pounds worth of petrol in a car, never mind the maintenance, and any associated ecology downsides such as carbon emissions, noise pollution etc if the item to be collected does not justify the journey.

If the journey is a "local" one then of course such issues pale into insignificance, and that is the main reason we ask people to add their location (a village name or the first 3 characters of your postcode) at the end of the subject.

This of course is only a guideline. Neither do we, nor do we wish to enforce this guideline. We leave it up to the offerer and the taker to decide in their own minds whether such issues are relevant and how important they are.

If you are concerned about travelling then we recommend you might also wish to consider joining other local groups. To the north we have Cherwell Valley group, to the south we have Oxford group, to the west we have the Witney group and to the east we have Bicester group.

Reflections over the River Cherwell

As the winter draws near and we have ever darkening skies I thought I would try to brighten us all up with a picture of the River Cherwell from the water meadows which I took over the summer whilst walking to Thrupp.

Will the lorries ever stop?

In my post Wasting our Countryside I reported that plans were afoot to turn the silo at the where the road between Oxford and Kidlington crosses the A34 (by the Water Eaton Park and Ride) into a waste recycling plant. You never get something for nothing in this life, and a Malcolm Baker of Long Hanborough has pointed to the increase in the number of lorries coming and going from that junction could rise by 372 per day. If that is the case that means almost one per minute, over say an 8 hour day. That figure is staggering and would turn the junction into a complete nightmare blockage of an already over-stressed part of Oxford's clogged up road system. (Malcolm, if you are reading this blog then please can you verify the number of lorries etc.)

Privacy

In a day when the UK government has announced a very serious breach of privacy for half the UK population with names, bank account and national insurance details simply "lost" on a CD it should act as a reminder to each and every one of us to take care of our privacy on-line, and that includes freecycling groups. As of today I would like to institute a policy that any personal details, other than name, general location and email address will be removed from all posts by your owner-moderator team. If the details cannot be removed then the post will be deleted. In all cases the originator will be informed and asked to repost as necessary, without any personal data. By personal data we mean details about your family, your home, including telephone number and actual address. Of course for you to actively freecycle you needs must tell someone where you live. That is generally not a problem since it is a communication such as one you would do if you sold an item in a newspaper. You are only telling one individual in this instance, rather than the group. We will continue to look at this issue and if we find other ways of helping members maintain privacy then we will discuss, inform and amend our guidelines and processes.

Can you survive without buying anything for six months?

On MoneySavingExpert.com there is a report of a new reality TV show that might interest freecyclers. The core question asked by the programme is, can you survive for six or even twelve months without buying anything, except basics. == VOLUNTEERS FOR BBC TV PROGRAMME == This came in to the York Freecycle mailbox the other day. It sounds like a great opportunity. .. "I am recruiting potential volunteers for a television show in which people agree not to buy anything (except basic food, toiletries and medicine) for 6-12 months. The show will investigate shopping addiction, consumer culture, debt, and the impact of consumerism on the environment. The volunteers would be encouraged to barter, forage, or trade skills to procure the extra things they needed. The presenter, Robert Llewellyn (currently undergoing his own year of not buying anything), would serve as an encouragement to the volunteers, providing any support and resources needed. This show is not meant to be an exploitive journalistic piece about irresponsible people - it is meant to help people all over the UK by encouraging them to stop unnecessary spending. This show is my baby: I have always dreamed of re-starting a bartering culture/economy and helping the environment. I know it could have a really encouraging impact on the UK." Do you know of anyone specifically who might be interested in participating in this project? If so, contact Amanda.Graham@ bbc.co.uk

49% of BT customers love Branson

A recent poll of BT's business customers put Richard Branson clear ahead of other household names such as Alan Sugar as the South East's business icon.