We’ve updated our live consultations page and published details of some external consultations that we believe are of interest to you, along with our own live council consultations.

There are currently some important consultations taking place across Oxfordshire and the wider area on planning and infrastructure and we encourage everyone in the district to find and more and to submit comments.

For more information visit southoxon.gov.uk/liveconsultations 

We’d like to hear how you would like a brand-new Air Quality information website for Oxfordshire to work. 

We’re working with Oxford City Council, the county council and the other district councils in the county on the website which will help keep everyone informed about air quality issues across the county.

To find out more and to have your say on what information you’d like to see on the website, visit Oxford City Council’s consultation portal.  The consultation is open until 5 September.

This week the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published a report which gave a stark reminder of how our actions are impacting our planet, and the amount of work needed to tackle the climate emergency.   

As a council, we will do all that we can to take action to adapt how we work to achieve our carbon neutral targets, helping to reduce the impacts of climate change locally, nationally and globally.   

We’re encouraging everyone who lives and works here plays their part too.  We now want to hear from anyone who is taking climate action, both as a resident and as part of the local community – our aim is to share your stories to help and to influence as many people as possible to get involved in taking their own climate action, as we aim to become a carbon neutral district by 2030.

If you are taking climate action, please let us know by emailing climateaction@southandvale.gov.uk.

For more information on the work we are doing, and local climate action visit southoxon.gov.uk/climateaction 

Last month we told you that River Clean Up day is due to take place along the River Thames on Sunday 26 September.  If you are organising an event, we’d love to hear from you so we can help spread the message to get more people involved.

The event, which coincides with World Rivers Day, will help to restore river health, cut down on pollution, and to encourage people to protect and enhance the cleanliness, biodiversity and natural setting of our much loved river.    

If you are thinking about organising a local event there are a number of organisations that can offer advice and support:
 
Clean Access Clear Waters  
World Rivers Day  
Wandle Trust
Thames 21  

And if you let us know about your event we can help share the news - email communications@southandvale.gov.uk

From 28 August to 9 October, Community Action Groups Oxfordshire (CAG Oxfordshire) is holding an exhibition at the Old Fire Station in Oxford called From the Ground Up: Stories of Climate Action to celebrate community action groups across the county.

For more information visit from-the-ground-up.co.uk/  

Once the city exhibition is complete, parts of it will travel to venues across Oxfordshire to make it accessible to the public in more rural areas. 

Next month will see lots of things happening across the county as part of Oxfordshire Great Big Green Week, an eight-day event from 18 to 26 September aimed at helping and encouraging people and organisations to act to help tackle the climate crisis, and to protect and improve our environment.  

Great Big Green Week is a unique opportunity for groups and organisations of all types and sizes to organise something in their town, village, workplace, or school.  It will help people to take action, to celebrate what is already being done, and to send the strongest possible messages to politicians in the UK and world leaders at the UN event. 

To find out more, or if you are planning an event, visit greenweekoxon.co.uk/