Public Services

I am writing to you as a volunteer, leading the Oxford Task Force for the Donate Your Cough initiative (developed by London-based startup, Novoic). The ‘Donate Your Cough’ campaign can be reached here: https://www.novoic.com/covid-19. We’re developing a free, scalable and remote screening test for COVID-19, based on the unique cough patterns caused by the virus. The technology uses advanced deep learning and signal processing techniques to ‘learn’ what COVID-19-specific cough patterns sound like. Upon validation, this test could theoretically screen the entire country within seconds.
Right now, we are building a group of volunteers in the Oxford area, to help with community outreach of this project – and achieve the target of 1,000,000 cough recordings by the end of July.

At its meeting on 23 June 2020, the Parish Council’s Environment Committee received useful updates from the County Council on proposed traffic calming measures in the village. The Committee hopes these will be implemented in the village over the coming months.
There have been slight delays with the proposals due to the Covid-19 Pandemic and a subsequent shortage of staff at the County Council, but the following were confirmed:

This insect has been found in several locations in the UK since 2016.  It is extremely harmful to honey bees and will decimate any hives it finds.  If anyone finds one please use the contact details on this poster. Alert_poster_Vespa_velutina_A4

Small businesses affected by coronavirus restrictions are encouraged to claim grants of up to £10,000 as the latest round of Government funding is rolled out.
Cherwell District Council is administering the new, discretionary scheme. It targets organisations that were not eligible for the previous grant schemes and which have ongoing property-related costs.
Applications will be accepted from Tuesday 2 June until Sunday 14 June. All applications will be reviewed and decided after the closing date.

The Parish Council would like to kindly remind residents that if litter bins in the Lucy Plackett Playing Field are full, please take your litter home and do not leave it around the base of the litter bin. Thank you.

It is so nice to see that the church yard is still kept looking so tidy during this lockdown. I have been walking through there regularly and there is always someone doing part of the grass. This weekend it had a really good cut and it looks fantastic. So thank you to all you mowers it is greatly appreciated.
Sadly there is always another side to this. Dog owners still do not pick up their dog mess in the churchyard when there is a dog bin near the Lych Gate to put it in and it would be even better if they did not mess in the church yard. Someone even tied a poo bag on the foot rail at the back of the church. Can you believe it!