Vale unveils ambitious new plans for Abingdon’s outdoor pool and Abbey Meadow
Vale of White Horse District Council has confirmed that it will immediately begin working towards securing the long-term future of Abingdon’s Abbey Meadow Outdoor Pool, alongside plans to improve the wider riverside area. Earlier this year the district council unveiled a new vision for the popular Abbey Meadow 
area which is located on the banks of the River Thames in Abingdon. The plans set out how more than £600,000 would provide new play areas, changing facilities, picnic benches and a multi-use games area for use throughout the year. The plans for the wider Abbey Meadow area are an exciting opportunity to make this area more attractive to visitors all year round. Many people in the Vale are very passionate about the outdoor pool and I have always promised that when the existing pool came to the end of its life we would find a long term solution. Good to our word, we have now reached that stage and will immediately begin working up plans to replace the existing pool. Read more at www.matthewbarber.co.uk
Maintenance of pools at White Horse Leisure & Tennis Centre
The temporary closure of the swimming pools at the White Horse Leisure & Tennis Centre has begun smoothly with swimming lessons being transferred to the Abbey Meadow open air pool. There are lots of options for anybody wanting to carry on swimming over the s
ummer – they can use their membership to swim at any of the following ‘Better’ leisure centres in the Vale of the White Horse and South Oxfordshire, at no additional cost:
- Abbey Meadow outdoor pool
- Abbey Sports Centre, Berinsfield
- Didcot Wave
- Faringdon Leisure Centre
- Henley Leisure Centre
- Thame Leisure Centre
- Riverside Outdoor Pool, Wallingford
- Wantage Leisure Centre
Competition in superfast broadband
Communities in the Vale are amongst 30 across the UK to benefit from a new broadband scheme by Virgin Media. Whilst the BT rollout run by Oxfordshire County Council continues the initiative by Virgin will increase competition and consumer choice in the District. Marcham, Shrivenham, Sutton Courtenay and Watchfield will benefit with the new service due to be available from spring 2017.
New businesses in the Vale
There were 733 new companies were formed in Vale of White Horse in 2015. Across the county there was an increase of 5.1% in the total number of companies registered, bringing the total number of companies based in the Oxfordshire to 37,207. 
Last week I had the pleasure of joining a number of existing local businesses at Shrivenham's "Business Biryani" event. It was great to share ideas about some of the challenges facing local business and how local government could make changes to help. One of the liveliest topics of discussion was parking.
Planning committee changes
The Vale is about to embark on a number of changes to improve procedures at Planning Committee meetings. These will ensure that the most significant planning applications get more time to be considered carefully by the committee and there will be more interaction between the committee and those speaking for or against an application. There will also be changes to the way planning proposals are dealt with before they reach the committee. Parish and town councils have been consulted on the changes which will be considered by the District Council on 20th July.
Devolution presentation
Last week I met with parish and town councils from across the Vale to explain the latest progress on the proposals for devolution and new local unitary councils for Oxfordshire. If agreed by the Government I believe these changes can see a dramatic improvement in public services across the county. The presentation provided to parish councils can be downloaded by clicking here.