Some sketches kindly sent in by children in the village of their ideas for the playground.

Click on a sketch to view an enlarged version.

Sketches

There will be a coffee morning in the Village Hall on Saturday 26th March, 10.00 – 12.00 noon.  Cakes, raffle and bring and buy etc.  This is being held instead of our annual house to house collection for the Children’s Society.  Please drop in for a coffee………..  If you would like to help, please let me know.

Clare Lightfoot 850486

We have now submitted a further two grant applications for funds to improve the Play Area in Upton.

I wanted to say a big thank you to all of the "under 18" residents of Upton who have sent back either their questionnaire form, with or without sketches, or a response to say they support the scheme.   Our applications for grants won’t be taken seriously unless the vast majority of under 18s show that they are keen, so the support is vital if we want to raise money to go ahead.

So far, I have had responses from approximately 65% of the young people in Upton.  It’s definitely not too late to send your form / questionnaire back to us if you haven’t already done so and we would love to hear from you, particularly if you have any ideas.

We are trying to improve facilities to include exciting equipment for a wide age range!

We have tried to make contact with all of the young people in Upton but if for any reason we have missed you out, please let me know and we will make sure that you have the chance to be included.

Sketches that we’ve received are available to view on the village website, and will also be on show at an ‘open day’ event that we’re planning in order to collect ideas and explore the siting of the playground.

Many thanks. Ros Caffyn 01235 851605

the.caffyns@btinternet.com

The Parish Council together with UVHAT have again agreed that the National Caravan Club can hold its Easter meet on the Upton Recreation Ground.

Please be aware that whilst the club are using the ground it does not restrict our use of the facilities. The playground and the area of the ground not used to park up the caravans are, as last year, for you to go and enjoy and make friends with visitors from other parts of the country.

We hope that the weather will be better than it was last year.

Mike Brown 850135

Upton Parish Council

Following on from the success of last year’s Uptonogood? bike event it is planned to repeat the event on Saturday the 18^th June 2011.

Last year we rose just short of £3K for the Village Hall, £500 for Blewbury School, and donated £200 to Didcot Air Cadets for their contribution to marshalling. This year we hope to raise even more money, as we expect to increase the number of participants from the 300 mark to nearer 500.

As the Village Hall projects are largely complete we expect this year’s money to go towards the new Play Area project. However we would be interested to hear of other village improvement ideas that you may have.

As before, a large number of volunteers will be required to ensure things run smoothly. If you would like to get involved this year please contact Bob Lott or Mike Tibbetts on 851222 or 851474 respectively.

A VERY BIG THANK YOU TO EVERYONE

We made it! So a very big thank you to everyone who made this result possible. Apart from a very few properties including those standing empty, almost every single household in Upton voted, an amazing record. The result is that we became one of the six exchanges that will be fibre optic enabled in early 2012.

My thanks to everyone for their support and special thanks to all the people who knocked on doors, spoke to people and generally cajoled everyone into voting. One of the many things about this campaign that was really gratifying was the number of people who don’t have broadband, or even in some cases a computer, who wanted to vote anyway and we were able to vote for them by proxy. They realized the importance of high speed Internet and saw this as a benefit to the village and its community.

Over the past few years Upton has become a much enabled community, and when the campaign started in October many of the early voters for the Blewbury exchange were from our village. The remarkably high percentage of parishioners on email is a powerful tool for the dissemination of information, and in a case such as this has proved to be very effective.

There were a couple of major wobbles in the very closing stages of the campaign – first with a big vote audit among the leaders (which we survived unscathed) and second with the emergence of six exchanges, all with 100% of their votes, vying for the advertised 5 prizes. To make matters worse, Blewbury (for reasons no one quite understands) was ranked 6th at the moment the competition closed on 31^st December 2010. So we spent the weekend in a slightly nervous “will-they-won’t-they” state of mind, wondering whether BT would do the decent thing and just award the main prize to all six 100-per-cent-ers.

And they did! It was confirmed at 8 am on Monday 3^rd January 2011 – a nice present for the New Year – so we’re definitely on for fibre optic broadband in early 2012.

Our final score was 1234 out of 1236 lines, a total of 99.8% and an extraordinary achievement over the four villages.

The other five successful exchanges were:

Whitchurch, Hampshire (104%)
Caxton, Cambridgeshire (103%)
Madingley, Cambridgeshire (102%)
Innerleithen, Scottish Borders (101%)
Baschurch, Shropshire (95%)

What next?

Well over the coming months and as the results of the BT survey become apparent, things hopefully will become clearer. We think it will be helpful to villagers to publish information about FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet) and VDSL2+ (Very High Speed DSL) plus an explanation of all the jargon as well! We hope to do this on both the website and in the Upton News. So keep an eye open in both places.

In the meantime thank you again to everyone who made this possible.

Graham de Wilde

Many assume that playing tennis equates to warm Summer weather but you would be wrong! Tennis enthusiasts braved the elements on Bank Holiday Monday to welcome in the New Year.

27 people of all ages and abilities gathered at Blewbury Tennis Club and enjoyed getting out into the fresh air, catching up with friends and of course playing tennis! Mulled cider and mince pies sustained our reserves and those of spectators too who enjoyed watching their children racing about the courts.

This social event is one that the club hopes to run regularly now that all 4 courts have been upgraded. We will soon have a courtside “hut” to shelter in or make tea, which will improve the facilities even more.

The club welcomes new members at any time throughout the year and membership rates are extremely good value – especially for families. For 2011 we are delighted to be able to host Attack Tennis – all year round coaching for children of all ages and abilities, so book in early and get playing! All details can be found on www.attacktennis.co.uk. The classes are also open to non-members in the first term, so come along and give it a try!

Membership enquiries can be made to rosemary.dewilde@mac.com or www.blewburytennis.co.uk.

We look forward to seeing you soon.

We would like to thank all those who contributed to the survey on a new playground for Upton. Please find the results below. We will keep you updated on our progress in the New Year. If you have any question please contact David Mason at Netherbrook 851306.

• Most popular equipment, existing and requested
• Requests to retain existing equipment
• Requests for new equipment

Thank you so much to everyone who came carol singing on the perishingly cold night of 22nd of December and above all, thanks to the many Upton residents who so kindly filled our collecting boxes. We raised a grand total of £177.13 for Simon House, a local charity supporting the homeless in Oxfordshire. Well done to everyone involved.

Sarah Tenant-Flowers