W4w Magazine May 2015-Web.Pdf
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thewindowforwallingfordthewindowforwallingford Editorial ith the General Election on 7th May, the Window for Wallingford has offered each of the candidates we knew about at the time of printing the opportunity to speak directly to residents of Wallingford. What Wthey have sent us is printed on the centre pages of this month’s magazine, in the order in which it was received and with no changes or amendments: what you see is what we got, and we’re grateful to the candidates for working with us in this way, and meeting our special deadlines. It would have been good to have comments from candidates for the District Council too, but sadly space didn’t allow us to do that. For the Town Council, we have 15 candidates nominated for the 16 seats, so we won’t have a contested election and we know who will be on our new Town Council from May onwards. See page 8 for their names. I very much hope that you’ll find the Parliamentary candidates’ comments interesting and that you’ll bear it in mind on 7th May. By the time you read this, it will be too late to register to vote, but please do go out on the day and have your say Editor [email protected] Experience a ‘Night at the Museum’ Mayoral Information Needed! xperience a special am trying to put a face to the past Mayors of ‘Night at the Museum’ Wallingford. If anyone has any old photographs of Eat Wallingford Museum I the Past Mayors, or relevant paperwork, that they anytime from 6pm – curfew would allow me to copy, I would be most grateful. (9pm) on Friday 15th May! Following the great success of Any information or photographs could be brought last year’s World War II event, into the Town Information Office. this year the clock is turning back to The Middle Ages! Lynne Thorpe Be sure to bring your torch so you can explore the museum’s medieval secrets at night and seek answers to our special quiz. If you are brave enough, you can find the man in the dungeon, the hooded monk, the wicked robber on the pillory... and much more. You can even dig for ‘treasure’. And even if this isn’t your thing ... it’s a great opportunity to see the Museum in an evening, instead of our normal opening daytime opening hours! There’s plenty to see – not only can you read original letters from Agatha Christie, you can find out more about her life in Wallingford during the 42 years she lived at Winterbrook House. You can also discover the fascinating story of Wallingford’s Royal Castle and learn about the Town’s place in Magna Carta. All this for the price of the entry ticket – just £4 for an adult, and free for children – but if you’ve already visited this season, of course you can use your ticket again, and again and again…. Stu Darby www.wallingford.co.uk PLEASE MENTION WINDOW FOR WALLINGFORD IF YOU RESPOND TO ANY OF OUR ADVERTISEMENTS 1 thewindowforwallingfordthewindowforwallingford Eccentric Oxford: a History of ages! Apart from joining in with the coaching and match play sessions, visitors can join in on a fitness- Mischief & Mayhem based cardio tennis session. Light refreshments are available. Anyone wishing to attend the Open Day ay’s talk to The can just turn up on the day or go to clubspark.lta.org. Wallingford Historical and uk/OpenDay search for Wallingford and register for MArchaeological Society your free place online. (TWHAS) will be by Richard O. Smith. He will present ‘Eccentric Oxford: a Portcullis Tennis Club has over 270 members drawn History of Mischief & Mayhem’. from a wide area of South Oxfordshire. For more details see www.Portcullistennis.net This entertaining talk will present an amusing, yet historically accurate, trawl through Oxford’s alternative Membership packages are extremely reasonable and lesser known eccentric history (covering the writer compared with all major gym chains. A family of 4 can expelled from Oxford on his second day for fighting a play all year for the equivalent of just 71 pence a day! duel in a college quad, the University’s official advice An individual aged from 5 to 25 can play for only £50 on ‘How to tell if an Oxford woman is a prostitute’ and per year. how Oliver Cromwell discovered you should never Steve Gothard mess with an Oxfordshire Librarian!). Club Chairman Richard O Smith lives in Oxford and is a tour guide, running the Eccentric Oxford Tour. He is also a comedy writer and contributes material to Radio 4’s The Now Show and The News Quiz. This talk will be held on Friday 8th May, 7.45 for 8pm at Wallingford Town Hall. Visitors (£3) are most welcome. Stu Darby ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ Open Day (and prize draw) at Local Wallingford Tennis Club Sunday 17 May 2015 he doors of one of Oxfordshire’s best tennis clubs will be thrown open to the public on Sunday 17 TMay from 2-5, as part of a national Great British Tennis Weekend campaign organised by the LTA. Portcullis Tennis Club (at Wallingford Sports Park in Hithercroft Road) is inviting everyone to come along for free fun at its annual Open Day and the chance for under 11 age pupils of six local schools to win prizes. Our open day is not only about encouraging people to consider becoming members. We want everyone to try out tennis, see our facilities and have a fun day. We are a very sociable club with 4 well-attended club sessions each week, a full competition programme, professional coaching for adults and juniors alike and an array of evening social events. To encourage children to attend and try out tennis, we are running a competition in six local schools to win two main prizes of 6 months’ coaching (a total of 24 one hour sessions valued at £132), plus 12 smaller prizes (two per school) of either 2 months’ coaching (8 one hour sessions) or a 2 day tennis camp, plus for any non member of PTC, a free membership worth £15 for our 2015/2016 season. Coaches and league players will lead sessions of free tennis for children aged 5 and over, to adults of all www.wallingford.co.uk 2 PLEASE MENTION WINDOW FOR WALLINGFORD IF YOU RESPOND TO ANY OF OUR ADVERTISEMENTS thewindowforwallingfordthewindowforwallingford Wallingford Town Council Update The planning application P15/S0191/FUL (Wates) was discussed and rejected by the Town Council as it is uring March there were meetings of the contrary to the local plan, it will exceed the maximum Finance & Properties and Plans and General number of houses included in the Core Strategy and DPurposes committees and the Town Meeting. that the Town council has concerns over infrastructure The Councillors welcomed four participants to speak. and access. Jerry Unsworth, a Winterbrook resident, presented a Grants report produced by the Save Winterbrook Group which discussed the Wates application for 85 unit housing The Sports Park – Wallingford Town Football Club estate and why we must resist their attempt to wear has been awarded £250 towards updating the locker down the local community and ignore local plans. doors. This was followed by Asher Ross of Boyer Planning who defended the application. A grant of £300 has been made to ENRYCH to support one physically disabled member. Kate Rayner,the Market Town Coordinator, and Iain Nicholson of Flashop Ltd, came with a proposal Wallingford Partnership has received £400 to help with regarding a pop-up shop project for Wallingford. They the costs of St George’s Day. were rewarded with a council strongly supportive of this proposal and it was decided to fund 50% of the An award of £500 has been made to help with the project (the remainder funded by SODC) to start from inauguration of Wallingford Festival of Cycling. the middle of March until the end of October. Rachel Rae, who has been employed to help with the Wallingford Volunteer Centre is to receive £750 to help organisation, promotion and administration of the Civil with the running costs of this valuable service. War Re-enactment, gave a summary of the expected sponsorship and support. Oxfordshire Play Association are to be given £250 to sponsor an activity at the Wallingford Play and Activity Day. SODC are planning to move from its temporary homes to Milton Park, starting at the end of May. St Leonards Churchyard Conservation Group will receive £100 to help with the removal of overgrowth Any disturbances caused by the Pettits renovations will in the Churchyard. be monitored and kept to a minimum. The format of the Remembrance Sunday Service was The Wallingford Regatta – Annual sponsorship of The discussed. The organisation will be different this year Borough Vase Cup will receive a grant of £120. because the Wallingford branch of the British Legion is closing. Moving the Remembrance service into OCVA request for £200 to fund a third of the the Market Place had proved very successful and community ambassador’s expenses was awarded. the numbers increase each year. Suggestions for improvements included seating for those in need, an Future Meetings improved PA system, the positioning of the choir and being increasingly inclusive to those of any faith and 18 Annual Meeting (Mayor Making) Town Hall those of none. This will be discussed with as many as 7.30pm possible of the others involved in organising and running the Remembrance event in the coming months. Agendas and past copies of minutes are available from our website www.wallingford.co.uk or from the Town Our response to the OCC traffic consultation concluded Offices.