Welcome to our website

This is the official website of Marcham Parish Council. It aims to provide information about the role of the Council and what we have been doing on behalf of the village. Please let us know if there is anything else that you would like to see on these pages.

How to contact us

All enquiries about the work of the Council should be addressed to our Clerk, who is Mrs Linda Martin. She can be contacted by telephone/fax on 01865 391833, by email to clerk@marchamparishcouncil.gov.uk or by post to 90 Howard Cornish Road, Marcham, Abingdon OX13 6PU.

News

• Taylor Wimpey Oxfordshire has lodged a planning application to build 51 houses on half of the Anson field and a new Community Hub on the field behind Longfields / Hyde Copse. The Parish Council and Jane Hanna, our District Councillor, have organised a village-wide consultation about the application. A questionnaire has been delivered to everyone aged 16 and over in the parish. If you have received a form then we would be grateful if you could complete and return it in the reply paid envelope as soon as possible, and certainly no later than Friday 25 May. If you are a resident of Marcham aged 16 or over and you have not received a questionnaire then please contact Mrs Martin (details above) or David Walton (391239) to obtain a replacement. The results of the questionnaire will aid the Parish Council and Cllr. Jane Hanna in their representations to the Vale of White Horse District Council who will be determining the application.

• Our next meeting will be held at 7.30pm on Wednesday 6 June 2012 in the residents' lounge, Duffield Place, Marcham. The main agenda item will be to determine the Parish Council's response to the Taylor Wimpey planning applicaton. Any member of the public is most welcome to attend any of our meetings.

• The Parish Council has negotiated with Oxfordshire County Council to install a pedestrian guardrail at the end of the footpath that emerges onto the A415 next to the Baptist Church. This should add substantially to the safety of residents, particularly younger children, who use the path on their way to clubs held at the Church and also for others generally using the rights of way network. The barrier has been located centrally in the footway close to the base of the steps, to leave room for pushchairs or wheelchairs etc to still gain access, and still leave sufficient room to pass around the outside of the barrier.

• The Parish Council has been approached by a developer wishing to discuss proposals for one of the sites under the Vale of White Horse District Council Interim Housing Supply Policy. As the policy at the District Council is at a draft stage and has not been adopted by the Council, no one knows what the final policy will be. The Parish Council thought that it was too soon to discuss issues under the draft policy, and that the sites needed to be reviewed in a planned fashion if and when the policy is adopted by the District Council.

• The 31 bus service is now using buses that transmit real time information about their position. This is how the displays like those at the bus stops on Stratton Way in Abingdon are kept up to date. You can find out what time the next 31 bus is due here in Marcham by using an online system called OxonTime. Just tell it your postcode and you can then find out what time the next bus is due at any of the 8 stops here in the village. Click here if you would like to use it. As with all of our bus services, we need to use them whenever possible if we want to keep them running. Could you use the bus the next time you take a trip to Abingdon, Oxford, Wantage or Witney and leave the car in the garage? Click here for the current 31 timetable. or click here for the X15 timetable.

• The village Post Office is now open from 9.00am to 1.00pm, Monday to Friday each week. This is a temporary arrangement for the Post Office only until a permanent tenant for the shop and the Post Office can be found.

• The Freedom of Information Act gives you the right to request information held by public authorities. Under this legislation the Parish Council has now set out where access to public information held by the Council can be found. If you would like further details, then please click in the Publications box on the left of the screen.