PARISH PLAN PROGRESS REPORTS

Currently the two companies operate bus services through the village:
Thames Travel who run the '105' & '106' Oxford - Walingford every half hour or so during the day,
Stagecoach who run the '5C' evening service, a circular route from the City centre via Blackbird Leys & Sandford back to Oxford.

The village also has a complementary Tesco Bus service twice a week (see timetable). This runs on Tuesdays and Thursdays, leaving at 10 am from the bus stop near the Catherine Wheel (by the garage) and running via Littlemore, Rose Hill, Cowley Centre, to Tescos on the ring road at 10.30 am. Later at 12 noon the bus then leaves the store for the return journey, the driver is very helpful with heavy bags and baskets.

The current timetables will be included in the new Village Directory and on this web site, as part of the village information section of the Parish Plan.

The District Council offers concessionary bus fares and localy the Parish Council support the 'bus token' scheme for those over 60.

The County Council has a local 'Park and Ride' at Redbridge, just off the ring road, that provides a frequent service into Oxford.

As an added note, Salter's Steamers runs a regular river boat service (during the warmer months) that stops at Sandford Lock, see their Website.

The County Council 4 year review of subsidised bus services (August 2003) has been completed, no changes were made locally.

The Oxfordshire Rural Community Council (ORCC) also have a section on Rural Transport, and they conducted a transport survey at our first appraisal meeting. The results also showed that the existing bus services were not well publicised in the parish.
The bus companies also made no major changes to their bus services in the village at the last review (July 2004).

The current timetable runs to June 2005, when we hope to put the results of the Village Appraisal forward.

At the Parish Council meeting in March, our County Councillor, John Howell, reported that Thames Travel were proposing to make big cuts to the Oxford - Wallingford service. (however it seems the Oxford - Science Park service will continue).
Fortunately it seems that County Council is going to subsidise the service so it can continue until the end of the year, this allows time, along with other villages on the route, to mount a campaign against the cuts.

A further report at the August 2005 Parish Council meeting, suggested there would be little change in the near future.

	D11	The bus service as currently timetabled is excellent.
	D12	I would welcome a bus to take me to a superstore.

The 'Buses' section of the Parish Plan.

Other Progress Reports