Graham & Jen leave Great Coxwell today with a heavy heart. We have really enjoyed living in the village for the past five years - with everyone making us feel most welcome. We are off to Hailey, just outside Witney.
 
We have left some vegetable plants on the wall by the War Memorial - tomatoes, runner beans, French beans, courgettes, leeks & brussel sprouts. Please help yourselves & if someone could kindly water them until they have found new homes.
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​The following documents have been added to the website:

Parish Council Meeting Agenda - July 5th 2021
District Councillor Report - June 2021
County Councillor Report - June 2021

Speaker Ian Gunn talking on Here Comes the Failed Bank Manager! on Thursday 8th July at 2.30pm.  Ian is a former senior banker and prisoner governor.  Living in Dunblane, using technology, he present his talks to many groups including cruises;  his speciality is prisons and crime.   In his second career he was a Governor-in-Charge of four contrasting prisons in Scotland.  Ian will take you “behind bars” and tell you about the intriguing culture of prisons, introduce you to some of the very interesting characters he met, his biggest mistakes, and why he had to ban his mother-in-law from visiting one of his prisons!  Find out more!

Government and Covid permitting

We are hoping to hold our Summer Lunch at the Braithwaites on Thursday 12th August.  This may be subject to any restrictions imposed and numbers are likely to be restricted so respond quickly to any e-mail sent out in July about this event.

Here's an update from Annabelle about the Little Ranch

A few recent press releases that may be of interest:

The White Horse Community Lottery is ready to help good causes - link
Abbey Meadow outdoor pool ready to reopen - link

Hopefully everyone will have seen that our defibrillator has been installed outside the Parish Reading Room.  It’s registered and has been deemed ‘Rescue Ready' by the ambulance service and is also registered with the HeartSafe charity website.  
 
In case of emergency, dial 999 and they will provide the unlock code and support.
 
Mandy Burns kindly sent me the link to a useful video clip showing how to use a defibrillator: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-45114982
 
A really useful app for your smart phone is ’Save a Life’ - this shows the location of defibrillators in the South Central Ambulance Service Area.  (If you download the app and open it up, you’ll see the location and some details of our machine on the display.)

Save a Life - Apple App Store
Save a Life - Google Play

Thanks to everyone for their support of this important project.

Dear town and parish council colleagues
 
We’ve now had notification that from Saturday 26 June at 12.30pm, Oxfordshire’s four symptom-free community testing sites will be closing – this includes the testing centre at The Beacon in Wantage.
 
The symptom-free testing sites were opened to respond to a need to encourage as many symptom-free people as possible to get tested using rapid lateral flow devices (LFDs) to help stop the spread of the virus at the height of the pandemic.
 
Over time, a number of alternative options for accessing LFD tests have been developed and made available to the public. These include:
workplace testing, secondary school and college testing, collecting home test kits from pharmacies or our symptomatic testing sites or jumping online to request a home delivery.

This has made it much easier for people to choose how and when they get tested.
 
Very few people are now visiting the symptom-free sites for in-person testing and are opting to use the wider range of alternative options to do their bit. With one in three people with COVID-19 not having any symptoms – twice-weekly testing will remain crucial to help us find these cases and prevent the spread of infection. This applies even if people have been vaccinated. All the symptom-free testing information is available on the county council’s website.
 
We’re aiming to re-open The Beacon to the public on 6 September, and we’ll be sharing this news with the public on Monday.

There will be a service of Holy Communion tomorrow,  Sunday, 13th, here at St Giles at 10.30.   As Maureen is away the service will be taken by Revd Dick Whittington, who helped us out several times during the vacancy.

I have been asked about Covid measures so will repeat them here.  We have done a Risk Assessment which is up in the church porch.   As usual social distancing will be observed at the service, with just alternate rows of pews being used. and you will be shown to a seat.  Masks will be worn and we will only be able still to hum the hymns.  Communion is by wafer only at present and it is brought to you in your pew by the vicar.

We hope you will join us.  If possible, please let me know if you are going to come.

We look forward to welcoming you.

Pat
Churchwarden

01367 241632
phemes43@gmail.com

​This was posted on the Faringdon Facebook page yesterday - maybe worth letting the villagers all know:
 
I don’t often post so this is an exceptional moment. Last night while walking our dog the Catalytic Converter from the car was stolen - apparently it takes only a couple of minutes and the cost to replace is over £1000.   We were parked at Tythe Barn in Great Coxwell - exactly not where you would  expect such an incident to take place.  The car involved is nothing special - just a hybrid Toyota, apparently hybrids are high on the list of the scummy thieves who would do such a thing. The net result is there is two week wait for a new catalytic converter as well as massive amount of inconvenience caused.
 
So beware people you can get a catalytic converter lock to protect it and I would recommend highly you did such a thing. The cost to replace is a couple hundred pounds my partner spent all day sorting out insurance, Police, garages as well as numerous other people.
 
Just be aware!!!
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