Your Oxfordshire - County Council News

Friday October 30 2015

Autumn events Got plans for Fireworks night? Experience Oxfordshire has a great roundup ofactivities taking place across the county for you to check out.  Trick Or Treating at Oxford Castle A ghoulish line-up of inmates will be locked up in the old cells of Oxford’s former prison this Halloween to put the fun and frights into trick or treating at Oxford Castle Pumpkin recipes Are you putting a pumpkin outside your house this year? Send us your best designs! In the meantime – save on food waste with these ideas for your carving leftovers. Tip: they’re so good that you’ll probably want another pumpkin!  Calling all budding writers! They say everyone has at least one novel in them, and Oxfordshire libraries want to publish yours as an ebook. Following last year's very popular competition the libraries have two android tablets to give away, so get writing! Wifi in Libraries Despite the savings we have to make, we have no plans to close any of our 43 libraries. In fact we think they’ll be needed more than ever as public spaces, so it’s great that we’ve beenawarded a grant to add wifi to any libraries that don’t have it already.  Fireworks safety We know you don’t like it when we remind you to stay safe, but every year our firefighters see too many horrible injuries to families and friends. Please do follow our safety checklist, and have fun!   Opportunities across Oxfordshire Ready for Winter  As the nights start drawing in, the weather is getting wilder. While there's plenty to enjoy there are a few things you can do to make sure you're ready for the winter. Oxfordshire History Centre Open day BBC’s Who Do You Think You Are recently featured the Oxfordshire History Centre, and they’re running anopen day on Saturday 14 November to help you  take a closer look at their range of resources for local and family history. Go behind the scenes in our strongrooms, see some treasures from our collections and grab a cuppa or some cake in the recently refurbished café Wheels to Work Struggling to get to your job, apprenticeship or learning?Wheels to Work can help get you on the road by providing safe, taxed, insured, fully serviced and maintained vehicles from as little as £26/week.  Healthy Oxon Our new Healthy Oxon page is full of tips, advice and encouragement on how to stay well and healthy. We’d love to hear what you’d like from the page – healthy recipes? Ideas for school lunches? Offers and vouchers for sport in the county? Let us know! Free Social Media workshops for women Want to learn more about how to use social media in business or develop a career in social media? How about all that for free? These courses have been wildly popular and there are a few spaces left so grab them before they go!  Roadworks Get the latest on essential work to keep Oxfordshire moving direct from the teams on site, and stay up to date ahead of any changes. Frideswide Square Resurfacing work is taking place overnight with signed diversions in place. Park End Street – resurfacing work is taking place and we will be moving into the second phase towards the end of next week Cutteswlowe and Wolvercote Resurfacing is taking place on the A40 and A44 whilst work continues on other areas of the scheme Hagbourne Hill Work is progressing well under a full closure of Hagbourne Hill. Signed diversions are in place during the work.  Milton Interchange The next phase of traffic management is planned to be beginon 9 November. More information here  Chilton north facing slips Work is progressing well and is not affecting the local road network Budget Savings Options (Closes 30 November) We are now consulting on our budget for 2016 and 17 and are asking for your thoughts in the context of the budget limitations the council is facing.  You can comment on individual savings as well as on Council Tax levels, our overall priorities and the council’s budget in general. Take part here  Children's services (Including Children's Centre's) (Closes 10 January) We would like your views on our proposal to adopt a new model of children's services in Oxfordshire for children aged 0-19 to save £8 million from the budget by 2016-17. Have your say and find out more about our consultation events here We think this news story will be of interest to our visitors. However, please note it is from another source and does not necessarily represent the views of Oxondads.  If you would like to comment on this article please click on the "No Comments" below or alternatively E-Mail  info@oxondads.co.uk