11th March 2022

The PC have been in contact with Paul Silver of Dorchester Group who is very supportive of our request to be included in a bus service of some kind, that would be able to meet up with the new bus service between Heyford Park and Bicester. How often this would run remains to be seen, or indeed if it is feasible to run between Upper and Lower Heyford to meet the new service.  We have also been in touch with Middle Barton who run a community bus service and they have indicated that they would consider running a service through Upper and Lower Heyford to Bicester.  At our request Ian Corkin, our County Councillor, has been involved in setting up a meeting with Oxfordshire County Council and ourselves and is also meeting with Paul Silver to see what options may be available.

11th February 2022

The PC met last night and heard concerns from a number of residents of the village who attended the meeting.  The Chair thanked those present and those who had written in with their concerns.  There was some confusion on what service was stopping and what was not, please read the original post below for clarification on this. At the meeting the PC advised that all concerned residents should write to the Parish Council as this would provide evidence of the concern that parishioners have. Residents can also write to their County Councillors and transport planners at Oxfordshire County Council.

After continuous pressure from the parish council and our County Councillor, Ian Corkin we have secured a round the table meeting. We are anticipating a meeting with the transport planners in the near future to start the discussion on what can be done to retain a service for both Upper and Lower Heyford that would meet up with the new service between Heyford Park and Bicester, we do not have a date for that meeting yet. We have also approached Paul Silver of The Dorchester Group to meet with us and discuss options that may be suitable, again no date set yet.  We will keep residents updated.  

1st February 2022

The PC attended a briefing this evening by OCC on the Local Transport and Connectivity Plan. This was an overiew of the entire plan as laid out in the link below and also a Q & A on various issues. Your chair, Jo Allen raised the first question about how parish councils are not involved in the discussion stages of these plans. Councillor John Disley has requested that we contact him directly to discuss the specifics of our issues and how we may be able to resolve this.

10th January 2022
The 250 bus service is ending as we know it in December 2022. Funding for the current service has been heavily subsidised by Dorchester Group’s Section 106 agreement as part of their undertakings for the development at Heyford Park. The funding will continue to support a new service that runs only between Heyford Park and Bicester, as this is the obligation laid out between OCC and Dorchester (in fact the Dorchester funds are already supposed to be directed towards a regular service between Heyford Park and Bicester, but OCC have continued to apply these to the existing service).

The planning for this has been in place since 2015 where OCC took a decision that funding for so called ‘socially necessary’ services were no longer supported. Your Parish Council have been working with the relevant authorities in order to secure whatever service we can for at least the village of Upper Heyford and hopefully Lower Heyford after these changes are implemented.

The most recent meetings took place in August of 2021 under the banner of the Mid Cherwell Neighbourhood plan as there are other transport issues within the MCNP area that are under consideration and planning currently – Traffic calming or reduction in Middleton Stoney being a key aspect. Present at the meeting were Tim Bearder and Duncan Enright of OCC, both part of the transport team.

Whilst engagement with OCC and CDC was initially quite good, we have been told that it is NOT appropriate for Parish Councils to be involved in any discussion regarding transport planning and alloctation of S106 funds. The PC continues to lobby Dorchester and OCC for inclusion of our village on the new route, or an alternative.

We need the residents of the village to voice their opinions to OCC and Dorchester in order that they understand the strength of feeling within the residents of Upper Heyford.

You can review the LTCP and complete an OCC survey here

If you would like to get involved, please contact the parish clerk here

As news progresses this page will be updated with more detail.