I think you will understand that no political significance – at election time – is intended if I say a few words on our long-serving County Councillor, given after all that she is retiring. Carole Soden has spent fully 30 of these last years in continuous service as a Councillor looking after the interests of, amongst others, our own village. While she has had a long list of impressive leadership roles under her belt in the Cabinet and committees of Wiltshire Council, the Police Authority, the Cotswold Water Park, in parallel she has an even longer list of individuals in Oaksey whose personal issues she has championed over and over again.

Our last week of term before Easter was busy with the older children taking part in a Cluster Joint Schools Performance at Malmesbury Secondary School performing songs with a theme of ‘The Four Elements’ and a modern dance to ‘La Mer’. The level of performance was very high and we need to say a huge thank you to Mr Maloney for organising our band for the evening which allows our children to sing as a large choir. (The band also included past pupil James Adey, who hit the headlines recently for winning a large grant from Dysons in Malmesbury for his entrepreneurial skills in design technology – congratulations James!)

Youth Action Wiltshire will be running 2 water sports days at the Cotswold Water Park in June.  One is for 8 - 12 on Saturday 8th, and one for 12-16 on Sunday 9th.  The cost is £5.  If anyone who comes to Youth Club or who helps, would like to take part, please contact Miriam.  This will have to be on a first come first served basis. 

Now the summer has finally arrived (almost), it is time we announced the Oaksey PHEW. This is a joint initiative between the Parish Council and Oaksey Playing Field Trust to promote community activities in Oaksey.

After the success of the Oaksey 10k run at last year’s Jubilee celebrations we are pleased to announce that the event will be staged once more at this year’s Fete on July 6th. The course starts and finishes at the playing fields where the Fete crowd will cheer the runners out and back again. If you wish to participate as a runner or volunteer as a marshal please contact Martin Davies on 01666 577835 or email martindavies2@me.com  The clock is ticking so time to start getting in shape.

The annual Village Fete this year will be on Saturday July 6th, and plans for the event are well in hand. In addition to the usual attractions, in the morning we are planning a 10km Run and a Family Cycle Ride.

Once again a very reasonable month in terms of low level crime. The most noticeable crime was a break in to Licensed premises in Crudwell. The licensee disturbed persons who had broken in to the pub in the early hours of the morning and ran off to a car that then headed off towards Cirencester. They got away with a quantity of cash and believed to be linked with other pub burglaries in the County. There is no doubt the offenders would have looked at the premises prior to the crime and once again I would encourage anyone to report any suspicious vehicles or persons that you may feel are acting oddly. Often this is just a feeling or gut reaction, if you get this call it in on non-emergency number 101.