News from our District and County Councillor – Peter Stevens
Peter provides us with a summary of local news on traffic problems, flooding, Thames Water's reservoir plans, recycling and more.
Published: 18 October 2024

Happy Halloween!
Work has now started on building the new slip roads onto the A34 at Lodge Hill Interchange north of Abingdon so traffic can go both ways. Before building, they check for archaeology, and the archaeologists have indeed uncovered evidence of ancient river systems and early human life half a million years ago. Worked flints were found, probably from the Neolithic to Bronze Age periods, along with quantities of Roman pottery and medieval tile fragments. These flint tools gives an insight into the mobility of these ancient humans, since flint raw material would not have been available locally. The human species involved was probably Homo heidelbergensis, ancestors of the Neanderthals, who periodically occupied Britain in warmer climatic episodes between c. 800,000 and 400,000 years ago.
These days we need to recycle old stuff rather than throw away. I am pleased to say Oxfordshire has a 57.2 per cent recycling and composting rate, making our residents the best in England for 10 years in a row. This year’s annual Recycle Week theme is ‘Rescue Me, Recycle’. Around half of the average rubbish bin is made up of items that could have been recycled. So, the ask is for people to look for things that could be recycled (like old aerosol cans or any plastic) and put them in the recycling. Please see if you can. 😊
Now that autumn is with us, the county’s Tree Service are starting their annual planting, so look out for new trees across highway network, which help both bio-diversity and climate change.
On roads, there is often dissatisfaction over the regular traffic queues on the Sutton Courtenay – Culham bridge, so I have investigated improving the flow rates – letting more traffic flow north during the morning rush hour and south for the evening rush. An Engineer has checked the operation of the signals and found them to be working correctly without any current faults. I can confirm the site does run VA (vehicle actuated) mode so the lights will stay green longer when there are more vehicles detected on the approaches to the signals. The maximum available green times have been set to allow for more flow northbound during the morning peak and then more southbound during the evening peak. They will continue to monitor but the current timings are the best achievable at this location for now.
Last month saw historic levels of rain. We were hit with more than a month’s worth of rainfall in the space of 36 hours, which created many localised flash floods, and general flood levels rise to heights not normally seen until late winter. Climate change means that for some time now this country has been seeing more intense spells of rain and increased instances of flooding. None of the issues are Oxfordshire specific – all of our neighbouring areas have experienced the same incredibly difficult impacts this week. Indeed, drainage systems across the UK and Europe were overwhelmed by extreme rainfall last month. Unfortunately, this has been compounded by underinvestment by water companies. To help, Oxfordshire County Council, have diverted extra funding to flood prevention, and there is a national programme funding flood defences.
We know that climate change is accelerating, and this will get worse for at least 30 years while we get to net zero emissions. Even if it were possible or affordable, replacing all of our drainage pipes with bigger ones, won’t work when a month’s rain can fall in a day. We need to work out with every local landscape, how you hold back rainwater wherever it lands, slowing down the rate at which it hits or flows down our streets, flooding rivers and highways. We need to look at smarter ‘water farming’ practices, putting trees and other water holding measures on hillsides, and breaking up impermeable paved areas in villages, towns and cities. Fortunately, all of these can also make better places to live and work, and protect against air pollution and other weather extremes like heat, and gales. It is going to be a long term thing.
If residents or businesses are in a flood risk area, they can access the council web site’s flooding toolkit, which provides advice and support, including on preparing for instances of flooding. Residents can call the Environment Agency’s flooding hotline for advice and support at any time on 0345 988 1188. NB. Please avoid driving through flood water, as just 30cm of flowing water is enough to lift and move a car.
We continue to feed into Thames Water’s strategic water management plans which includes a massive new reservoir to serve the South East called SESRO. If this reservoir was overwhelmed during flooding, it could double the worst floods we see. This risk needs to be addressed and mitigated properly. There are several other issues which I have fed into the consultations for Thames Water to address ahead of building SESRO, including:
- Sewage discharge – Thames Water must prioritise stopping this first, and along with stopping spills, better waste treatment means recycling more
- Recycling water – if we matched what Los Angeles and Australia already achieve, we would not need SESRO
- Fixing leaks – if we stopped losing so much water, apparently, we could save more water than SESRO would provide
- Transport water from areas of oversupply – it would be more environmentally friendly to transport excess water from wetter areas in the UK to London than build a reservoir that would take years to build and fill and may struggle to keep filled if the South East does continue to get drier
- Turbid flood water – currently large amounts of flood water go to waste – strategy should be developed to manage turbid flood water, and treat it for consumption ahead of new reservoirs, as this would also help alleviate local flood levels.
- Use local gravel pits first – Thames Water should take the water held in local gravel pits and use these first ahead of building new reservoirs. Given the ongoing strategic need for gravel extraction, there is a plentiful supply of gravel pits for water reservoirs.
- Focus on grey water – a lot of water is never drunk – by enabling businesses and homes to use rain and grey water locally collected – would reduce demand for clean tap water, and reduce demand for new reservoirs. Strategically, Thames Water should help develop local grey water suppliers, rather than making everything drinkable.
- We are also concerned about the impact of construction and ongoing operations for local villages and those downstream of it
Lastly, the new Joint Local Plan is now for open for public consultation. The plan identifies just one major redevelopment – the brownfield site of Dalton Barracks on Abingdon Airfield – as we believe enough house-building has already been authorised to meet central government targets. The rest of the plan focuses on driving better standards for house building and better places to live.
With that ambition for building better places to live, I sign off for this month
Enjoy the Autumn
Peter Stevens