All future Drop-In meetings will be back in the Village Hall. The next two sessions will be held on:

18^th March and the 1^st April, 10.30 until 12.00 noon

Yvonne Collins 01235 850989

OIL SYNDICATE

The next order is scheduled to be placed on Monday 15th March. To be included, I need to have your orders by Saturday 13^th March at the latest.

My contact details are (preferably by e-mail) colin.batchelor@eggconnect.net or by telephone 01491 671253 (after 7.00pm).

Colin Batchelor

The Parish Council is looking for volunteers to join the grass cutting team. You will be required to use our mowers to cut the Recreation Ground and the Children’s Play Area three, or possibly four times during the next 8 months. The job takes about 3 hours working in pairs. A schedule will be produced giving you the approximate date that it will be your turn but the actual time and day can be anytime agreed with your working partner

Safety training and any other help you may need will be provided. If you can help us out please give me a call.

Mike Brown 850135

This years Litter Pick is being arranged for Saturday 20^th March. If you can spare us an hour or two, please come along to the Village Hall at about 9.30 where there will be a cup of tea and biscuits awaiting you before setting out to help clean up our parish.

Mike Brown 850135

The Vale of White Horse District Council today announced that waste and recycling collections in District will return to normal non-holiday collection days from Monday (11 January), subject to the weather not getting worse.

Residents are therefore asked to put waste and recycling out for collection on the days they would normally have scheduled collections on in non-holiday periods.

The decision to return to standard collection dates was taken after prolonged adverse weather caused a significant backlog, meaning that it was no longer possible to run waste and recycling collections to the planned holiday schedule.

It is hoped that collections run as smoothly as possible next week, however in view of the weather forecast for next week problems may still occur with collections in particular areas where access is difficult because of road surface conditions, either because of the risk of damage to property by sliding vehicles or where the health and safety of residents and collection staff may be compromised.

Vale waste contractors Veolia will be sending large waste collection vehicles to clear main roads backed up by smaller street cleaning trucks which should be able to address the less accessible areas.

Householders who live in side roads and less accessible areas are asked to try to get their waste to the nearest clear road on their collection day.

Volumes of waste will be high and resources will be stretched. Priority will be given to waste collections, however green box recycling and brown bin crews will attempt to complete their rounds as best they can. Similarly, the clinical waste collection crew will do their utmost to get round all on their list on the appointed day.

Matt Prosser, Strategic Director for the Vale of White Horse District Council, said: “As a result of the adverse weather the last few weeks have obviously been quite a difficult period in terms of waste collections, not just in the Vale but throughout the country and we would like to express our thanks to our residents for their patience throughout this time.

“Hopefully the conditions will get better over the next few days so that we can begin to collect waste and recycling as normal. By going back to non-holiday collection days, rather than trying to catch up on the original schedule, we should be able to carry out as many collections as possible rather than having to make detours to areas that have had missed collections.”

Residents who are unsure of their standard collection days should see the Vale’s website www.whitehorsedc.gov. or look under Calendar in this website.

Upton woke on January 6th to about 15cm of snow, with roads out of the village virtually impassable. The following night saw temperatures drop in nearby Benson to -17.7C, the lowest in the UK.

The following photographs were taken by Ian Robertson, Mike Brown and Esther Sassoon Blandford.

Upton Village Hall Amenities Trust are holding a Jumbo Jumble Sale on Saturday 30th January in the Methodist Church Hall starting at 2.00 p.m. Please come along and support this event which is to raise funds to purchase new furnishings for the extended Village Hall.

Please bring any Jumble along to the Hall on the morning of the sale.

More details from Clare Lightfoot on 850486

The next police Neighbourhood Watch Drop-In surgery will be on Monday 4^th January 5.45 – 6.45 in the Methodist Hall.

Feel free to call in and discuss in confidence any neighbourhood issues or concerns with your local Community Police Officer.

Celia Davies

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that 2010 will be a good year for us all. How about joining us in the Methodist Hall for the first Drop-in session of the year.

The next three sessions will be held on:

7 January – 21 January – 4 February

10.30 until 12.00 noon

Yvonne Collins 01235 850989