Highways

All of the roads and footpaths in Yarnton are the responsibility of Oxfordshire County Council.

Many different types of problems with highways may be reported by residents using a website called Fix My Street which can be accessed by clicking here.

You don’t need to know which organisation or department is responsible for correcting a problem,as  Fix my Street will direct your report to the appropriate authority.

Some of the things that could be reported on Fix My Street are: 

• Abandoned vehicles
• Dog Fouling
• Flyposting or graffiti
• Flytipping or litter
• Street cleaning issues, such as broken glass in a cycle lane
• Unlit lampposts
• Blocked drains
• Potholes

Although not necessary to make a report, it is useful to register with Fix My Street and acquire the mobile app. This will allow you to receive feedback on progress and outcome of a problem reported by yourself or others. It also provides facility to photograph and report directly from the site of a problem.

Oxfordshire County Council has a wealth of information about the countryside for which it has responsibility.  

Click here to learn more about the Oxfordshire County Council countryside access:

Please remember that just because a path has been used by many people over a long period of time it may not be a public right of way.  

In such cases, land owners may prevent user access for any number of reasons.  

Click here to see the map of our local footpaths.

Click here to open a link to Oxfordshire County Council online countryside map.  

It is possible to move, expand/contract the area of interest and to view path reference numbers and details of route furniture such as signage, gates and stiles.

You can also click here to vist the Oxfordshire County Council countryside web pages. 

An important and regular cause for complaint around the village is irresponsible parking. 

Some of the worst affected areas are near William Fletcher School during drop-off and pick-up times, on Rutten Lane in the area of the park and on the Woodstock Road outside the Fraser’s Budgens BP service station.

We would ask you to please park sensibly and courteously by:

• Not parking or partially parking on pavements so as to block access for those on mobility scooters, or with pushchairs as pavements are for people.
• Not obstructing household entrances, or damaging lawns that edge the road.
• Not parking on bends, or in such a way as to dangerously obstruct the road.

For more information on parking please refer to the Highway code.

If you have photographic evidence of dangerous parking, residents should report it directly to Thames Valley Police by phoning 101.  

Unfortunately the Police are unable to respond to all incidents of bad parking, but where possible they will try to attend and assess the situation.

If you have any concerns about abandoned vehicles residents can contact Cherwell District Council by clicking here.

The speed limit throughout the village is 20 mph.

The Parish Council has a number of  initiatives to reduce speeding including:

• Supporting a village Community Speedwatch campaign.
• Speed Indicator Devices (SIDs) along Rutten Lane
• Promotion of Oxfordshire County Council’s 20's Plenty campaign

Speedwatch

Yarnton Community Speedwatch monitors traffic speeds at a number of sites in the village. Offending vehicles are reported to Themes Valley Police.  

If you would like to volunteer you can do so at the Community Speedwatch website by clicking here, then select ‘Thames Valley’, followed by ‘Oxfordshire’ and then ‘Kidlington-Yarnton’. 

You will then be asked to do some online training before you can join the team on the streets.

SIDs

Yarnton has two Speed Indicator DevicesSpeed Indicator Devices (SID).  One at the north end of Rutten Lane directed at traffic travelling south, and the other near Little Blenheim directed at traffic travelling north along Rutten Lane.  

Information is collected each month and vehicle speed records may be passed on to Thames Valley Police in order to consider mobile Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) combined with speed detection which may lead to prosecution.

Typically, 1 in 5 vehicles traffic travelling north in Rutten lane and approaching Little Blenheim are being driven over the speed limit. 

For vehicles travelling south approaching Aysgarth Road more than half are being driven in excess of the speed limit.

20's plenty

To encourage road safety and reduce carbon emissions the Parish Council is promoting the Oxfordshire County Council’s 20s Plenty campaign.  

The benefits of 20mph include:

• a significant reduction in fatal injuries (a child hit at 30mph is much more likely to die than if hit at 20mph)
• Noise pollution almost halves
• Vulnerable people feel safer
• Children are less intimidated
• Driving at 20mph lowers CO2 by 26% and NOx by 28% (https://www.20splenty.org/new_research_on_emissions)

To make our environment a safer place to live you can support this initiative by:

• Restricting your driving speed to 20mph when driving round the village (and other 30mph zones)
• Sticking 20’s Plenty stickers on your refuse and recycling bins. These can be requested free of charge from the Parish Clerk.

A44

The A44 section through Yarnton has a speed limit of 40mph and it is quite common for mobile ANPR to be taking place.  

Oxfordshire County Council is currently reviewing the A44 speed limits and the section through the village may reduce to 40mph.