Adrian Wyatt for Witney South Council

05/05/2021

R.I.P. Adrian Wyatt passed away on the 20th December 2021. Born in Merthyr Tydfil on 1/8/1936. Moved to Oxford at an early age. Studied Chemistry and qualified as a Metallurgist. He held the position of Works Chemist for British Leyland for over 25 years. Following this he set up his own company from scratch. AWA International. Mainly importing and exporting. Including, but not exclusive, car hoses from Spain, cork powder from Spain and alloy wheels from Italy. The main companies were called Vincke which manufactured the hoses and Speedline that made the wheels. He went on to supply Lotus, Jaguar and many other car manufacturers. He also supplied touring cars, rally cars and the Formula 1 teams. These resulted in many successful years. As children we were lucky to be invited to many Formula 1 races and met and had signed autographs from Nigel Mansell, Keke Rosberg and Ayrton Senna to name but a few. After many years running an international business he later ran a local bike shop. After this in his retired life he spent 10 years commentating on the Oxford sightseeing buses. He loved to talk and loved to meet people. Even last year he ran for Witney Town Councillor as an independent and campaigned in the center of Witney for many days. He enjoyed his time and got good results compared to the larger parties.

His main passion outside of work was Rugby. This was probably due to his Welsh blood. He played for the 1st team for many years. If the 2nd team were short he was even known to play a following match. I can't imagine what it would be like to play two consecutive games of rugby. He initially played for the Oxford Citizens and then for Oxford Old Boys. He also excelled at boxing at a young age. He also liked animals and especially birds.

He was a kind and caring person to all that he met. A loving husband and supportive father. Thank you for bringing us two boys up to know right from wrong, be kind and respectful, be honest and work and play hard. Always there for us in both good times and bad. Thank you and you will be missed. 😢

Funeral at 11.30am Friday 18th February - St Mary's Church, Witney.

23/04/2021

23/04/2021

Witney South Local Elections

Independent candidate

Campaigning for a Better Witney

Vote for Adrian Wyatt

22/04/2021

Proud of Witney Town Day - I will support local events for people to enjoy together and to attract visitors, such as the Witney Carnival, Witney Music Festival, Witney Food & Drink, Witney Sports events.

Being proud of our town and having fun together is important for our community.

22/04/2021

National Health Service - is the no 1 source of public spending. The pandemic has put the spot light on many years of under spending and under investment.

There is no doubt that all parties will be supporting increased spending on the NHS. The challenge will be how much, when and on what (people, services, equipement, digital transformation) ?

At the local level, we need to support access to local health care. This means having adequate local doctors GPs and nurses who can treat people in their surgeries, at home or online, in order to avoid overloading our hospitals.

22/04/2021

Sports, health & passion

I believe that leading an active life is essential for leading a healthy life. We need to ensure that all generations of our community have access to facilities to practice the sport or physical activity they enjoy, both for physical health and mental health.

It is much easier to create a sporting habit that encourage people to take up sport later in life. People who regularly practiced a sport during the youth and much more likely to carry on later in their life.

I am conscious that a lot of younger people prefer video games to physical sport and I would encourage to enjoy their passion. However, I do believe they can enjoy both if we provide the right environment.

I played rugby for many years for the Oxford RFC and I know how this helped me. Even if I have a few aches and pains from some the injuries.

Practicing sport regularly helps us maintain our physical and mental health. A healthier population will also mean less strain on our health system. So funding sporting facilities will save money in the long term.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/78318/creating_a_sporting_habit_for_life.pdf

22/04/2021

Local businesses

All our local businesses are essential, they provide much needed local services, create employment and contribute to local financing through the taxes they pay.

I know how tough and stressful it is to run your business. I feel strongly for the people that run and work for our local businesses, many of whom will have suffered financially over the last year.

Finding the right solutions to support our local businesses to ensure their survival as we come out of lockdown will be an important issue for me.

22/04/2021

Mobility

Mobility is our life. For getting to work, to school, to the shops and to see friends and family. Encouraging environment friendly private and public transport is fundamental for our planet.

Some of us need a little help from electricity to get us around. Providing an infrastructure system of easy charging of cars, bikes and scooters will make peoples lives better and help save the planet.

22/04/2021

Our Police Force plays a key role in our community.

I would like to reinforce local community policing by getting younger residents and the police into an open forum to discuss issues.

The role of Police Force is to make our community safer by upholding the law fairly and firmly; preventing crime and antisocial behaviour; keeping the peace; protecting and reassuring our community; investigating crime and bringing offenders to justice.

The Police Force is also facing challenges in the way they work and the demands we make on them, whilst we ask for greater transparency and accountability.

We need to work closely with them, to ensure a strong connection between the Police Force, public bodies and the public, so they can do their job effectively.

Here is a link to a document which helps to understand the challenges they are facing:
https://www.npcc.police.uk/documents/Policing%20Vision.pdf

22/04/2021

Supporting charities

Charities provide a vital service in our society. The pandemic has increased demands on many charities but they have also suffered due to closures and a reduction in income sources. Many are still required to pay rent for their premises which has put a strain on their finances.

It is important that we support our local charities as we come out of lockdown and recognise the great work that the staff and volunteers do for our community

22/04/2021

Transport

Improving the road infrastructure and public is key to making improvements to peoples' daily lives.

The £100million upgrade to the A40 is the start of much overdue investment to solve the problem of traffic congestion. However, further investment in public transport, park and ride and bicycle lanes are desparately given the plans to build additional housing in the area.

22/04/2021

Education - our children and our grand-children are the future. Their future happiness and success is grounded in their education, their teachers that inspire them and the friends they make during this critical period of their lives. Access to quality education is fundamental to a society of equal opportunities.

Supporting our local schools, the school staff and the parents who are actively involved in improving the quality of the education experience and extracurricular activites will be a priority for me.

Education is the second largest budget in terms of public spending after health. Whilst efforts have been made in increase the budget for education since the 1990s, spending per pupil has been decreasing since 2010. Recent budget increases are good news but are insufficient to show an increase in real terms compared to 2010.

Some of largest cuts have come from local authority spending.

Here is a link to a report on education spending in the UK https://www.ifs.org.uk/publications/14369

21/04/2021