There is a saying that the only certainty in life is change. We are currently witnessing many changes in our Village, now is your opportunity to have a say in the changes over the next 10 years.
You may have seen in the National Press, the Government’s intention to devolve more power to local communities and a Neighbourhood Plan is the instrument by which limited powers can be devolved to each Parish Council. At the same time the Local Plan for the whole Vale will soon be adopted, which sets the framework that we must work within. Our Neighbourhood Plan can determine how the Vale’s Plan is applied to our Village.
Steventon Parish Council has embarked upon the creation of a Neighbourhood Plan , and we need your input
- What do you regard as the biggest threat to the well being of our village?
- What’s missing from our Village that you’d like to see added?
- How can we make the most of our resources?
We will soon be inviting you all to attend an open meeting, where we will present our chosen objectives, for your comment /discussion. In the meantime we will be using social media accounts on Facebook and Twitter to update you with our progress and invite your comments, together with online surveys. You can find the links below and we’ll be adding more information in due course.
For those that prefer more traditional media, there will of course be a monthly updates in Steventon News, or come along to the monthly PC meetings.
Steventon Neighbourhood Plan 
At our age, we are not inclined to leave the house for an afternoon or evening meeting to discuss changes in the village. We are quite happy with Steventon as it is!
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We are concerned, like many others, about the continuing applications being put forward for housing development, to the detriment of the character of the village. Little recognition appears to have been given to the village infrastructure to support such development, particularly with increasing traffic problems and potential flooding risks. Increased parking on the Causeway is now causing traffic hazards and we are aware that the pending electrification of the railway, with possible reduction of crossing access will merely exacerbate the problem.
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Tried to join the Steventon Neighbourhood Plan Group on Facebook today (23/7), but it doesn’t come up when I search: is it not live yet?
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Hello?
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I find it rather sad to see that the same old building companies profiting from block housing developments without suitable gardens to raise families. The very reason most people value these villages is because its housing is unique and built independently.
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I went to this site hoping to see some of the information that I missed seeing at the Village Hall, or a comment on what transpired at the evening meeting. Will the site be updated? Can anyone who was there comment, please? Thanks
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I would agree that over-development is the biggest threat to the village. There is so much pressure for more and more housing, but there is only a certain size that can be sustained without losing the character and sense of community of the village (not to mention infrastructure problems). I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels we seem to have no voice as more and more of the surrounding land is developed.
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The infrastructure, i.e. foul drainage, surface water drainage, traffic capacity, should all be sorted before anymore development within the village and the developers and the District Council should come to grips with these problems now. The school is at capacity with no room for expansion. Flooding issues are ignored. The village has had it’s share of expansion and the District Councillors who abstained recently when recent applications were passed are not fulfilling their duties and roles as representatives of the local community.
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The Vale of White Horse District Council (VWHDC) Local Plan states: “The countryside and villages will have maintained their distinctive character……Growth within the larger villages will have helped to maintain or enhance their services and to provide for residents day-to-day needs….”. The current and recently approved developments have already changed the character of Steventon and, time will show, given it a sub-standard infrastructure. Any new development proposals should be rejected. Unused/derelict buildings in the village could be converted into flats for young people, especially those with Steventon connection or, sheltered accomodation for elderly residents. Full use should be made of the current developers assigned money (before the VWHDC use it elsewhere) to provide recreational and leisure facilities and improved services to the village.
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RECREATION AND LEISURE
The Main points that arose from from Neighbourhood Plan meeting on the 23rd July 2015 in the Village Hall were:
1. There is a desire for a new “Community Sports Hall”.
2. Any new facility should not lead to the detriment of the Village Hall and Sports and Social Club.
3. There is a real concern regarding parking around the proposed Sports Hall.
4. There is concern about the size of the proposed Sports Hall, do not want it to be a “White elephant”.
5. Provide for more children’s activities on the green centred on the Social Club.
6. Provision of tennis and squash courts.
7. Provision of swimming pool adjacent to Sports Hall.
What are your thoughts on the size of a Community Sports Hall?
What are your thoughts on providing tennis, squash and swimming facilities?
Would you be prepared to volunteer and run a sports team?
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As the village continues to grow, it is important to think about the infrastructure to support it.
Our suggestion would be a ‘pop-up’ doctor/nurse facility once or twice a week (at least) Elderly residents,young families or anyone who has to rely on public transport would surely welcome this idea.
Secondly, a community sports hall would mean that the school would at last have excellent sporting facilities and the community would be able to use it after school/weekends and holidays.
It is also important to look carefully at any proposed housing develpoment to ensure that there is affordable housing included – and It would indeed be a bonus if any were earmarked for young people from existing village families. Houses with decent sized gardens of course!
Previous residents have voiced their concern about water drainage and increased traffic to which we would also add our concerns.
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We are desperatly in need of a bus shelter on the Abingdon Road between the Miller’s B&B & the bakery site side. Several children around 10 plus which may be more in September have to stand on the grass, on the verge side to wait for their bus. There is no shelter for them if it is pouring down with rain and no protection from the cars speeding through the village. It would only take one car or lorry to clip the pavement or a child to step off the kerb into the road and we could have a fatality on our hands. With all the extra housing proposed for the bakery site I would like to see these children cuing for their bus safely. More housing means several more children attending the Didcot schools.
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We note from the information meeting that the village ALREADY has more new houses in building, or approved, than its fair share from the Vale of White Horse Local Plan for the 5 villages (including Steventon and E and W Hanney). The newly built or approved houses total about 225, and these 5 villages are only required (by the VofWHDC) to have 375. Thus there is no need for a neighbourhood plan to have ANY areas marked which ‘might be suitable’ for housing. The Steventon Neighbourhood Plan should try to overrule the Vale’s allocation of ‘areas potentially suitable for housing’ and go for a ‘no more housing developments’ blanket rule. The ‘potentially suitable’ sites which the Vale shows are either in flood risk areas (behind the present Linden Homes developments) or overload the drainage system (behind Field Gardens) or both, or they are in areas where they would seriously degrade the scenic beauty or natural areas around the village (as with the ‘potentially suitable’ area in the field between Castle Street and the Copse).
The neighbourhood plan should insist on adequate traffic exits from developments, on adequate flooding drainage protection and on adequate waste drain infrastructure. As things stand all the developments being built have ludicrously inadequate exit roads (eg the Linden Homes and Barnett Road area developments) and this will turn travel into and out of the village at peak times into a gridlocked, unsafe, mess. We should definitely oppose the ‘phase 3’ for Linden Homes at the back of Tatlings Road, and the ‘phase 2′ behind Barnett Road. It is also essential to get the Thames Water drainage upgraded as the new developments all drain into it. The fact that it has not yet been upgraded shows that the Vale’ planning rules are being flouted at will by developers. Is it possible for us to insert into a neighbourhood plan a VILLAGE rulebook for developers?
We are also concerned about the heavy traffic down The Causeway, particularly the south side of the railway line, and the equivalent heavy traffic into the Deans Close development on Castle Street. This is causing damage to the area and ruining the character of The Causeway, a special Grade 2 listed monument. We believe that, as much as possible, heavy lorries should not be allowed south of the railway line in a new plan, and that The Causeway should be ‘engineered’ to take the remaining heavy traffic (eg. the farm vehicles and the emergency services). Verge protection posts, properly tarmaced passing places and a reinstatement of the drainage ditches at each side are examples of what is necessary.
Finally we believe that the village life still requires both level crossings to remain in full function (ie. as vehicle and pedestrian crossings) and that should be a goal of the Neighbourhood Plan.
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Having lived in Steventon most of my life, the village was always a quiet small village but over the last few years it has grown and grown, and not always for the good. With ever growing pressure on our road and water systems, with big concerns over flooding risks as we had major flooding in 2007 a lot of houses were flooded, and new developments are not helping this problem, due to the fact we are loosing our fields where water drained away. How the village school will cope with such an increase in children in the near future just being able to accept village children is beyond us.
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We are very impressed by the work already undertaken by the Parish Council on behalf of the village.
We have lived in Steventon for 15 years and during that time have seen the village put under increasing pressure to build homes and cope with even more people living here.
We believe that a few of the most important issues are;
1. To ensure that all future developments have adequate foul and surface water drainage, connected to the main sewers.
2. That access to all developments can cope with all eventualities. The houses sited at Brind Close off The Causeway are accessed over a narrow bridge which in cases of emergency would create a real problem.
3. There is an obvious lack of small or modest sized properties within the village. Any future developments must include 1 or 2 bedroom homes. These should be aimed at first time householders or people later in life, downsizing. Also sheltered housing should be considered.
4. We live in a conservation area and feel that Network Rail should be challenged over the design of their new gantries. We have to abide by the rules and regulations to conform for a very small extension to our property but it seems that NR are exempt from this? Why?
5. We really feel that a Sports Hall is a very positive move for the village but is adjacent to the School the right place for it? Perhaps near to the Sports Club would be more appropriate?
Parking during school time is already a big problem around the North Star area, this of course impacts on the potential safety of all road uses but particularly children who may be less safety aware?
We are delighted to live in Steventon and hope to continue to do so and not feel forced out due to overdevelopment.
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