🚧 UPDATE: raised road table on Wantage Road, by the Tyrrells Close bus stop (near the Westfield Road junction)

🏗️ Why this work is happening at all: it is part of the S278 highway agreement between Oxfordshire County Council (OCC) and Taylor Wimpey. This is a legal obligation attached to the planning permission for the housing built around Harwell, agreed in principle in 2008 via S106. The money and the works are ring-fenced: they can only be spent on the traffic calming measures set out in the S278 agreement (raised tables, a reduced speed limit and related measures), and cannot be redirected to anything else, however things have evolved over the years.

❌ What went wrong: the contractor working for Taylor Wimpey built this table outside the agreed specification, leaving it far too high with no proper ramp gradient. This is a construction fault, not what was designed or approved. OCC officers have confirmed it does not meet the agreed scheme and share residents’ frustration that it was allowed to happen.

✅ What is being done: we have asked that this be raised as a formal safety issue with OCC through a contractor safety-reporting channel, and Cllr Rebekah Fletcher, our County Councillor, has been pressing OCC officers. The officers have in turn been contacting Taylor Wimpey. As a result, Taylor Wimpey have just confirmed they are replacing the contractor responsible. That will mean a delay of a couple of months to finishing the remaining traffic calming works, which is frustrating, since those works were deliberately timed for the school summer holidays to keep disruption to a minimum.

⚠️ We do not yet have a firm date for when this table itself will be corrected. Until it is, please take care driving over and around it and watch for oncoming traffic, as there may not be room to pass safely. We will update this post as soon as we have a timescale.

💰 If you believe your vehicle has been damaged you can make a formal claim directly to Oxfordshire County Council as the highway authority: https://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/transport-and-travel/street-maintenance-z/compensation

🙏 We understand the frustration and thank you for your patience. We’ll post again as soon as we know more.

Harwell Parish Council, with Cllr Rebekah Fletcher

Close-up of a road drainage grate on Wantage Road where the surrounding tarmac has been built up into a raised mound roughly a foot high, with no ramp down to the normal road surface, and dry leaves along the kerb. — The raised table

A bus stop pole on Wantage Road with signs reading 'Bus Stop' and 'Tyrrells Close', a solar-powered passenger information display, standing beside a wooden bus shelter and hedge, with the newly raised section of road visible below. — The location (at the Tyrells Close jct of Wantage Road)

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This update was originally shared via the Parish Council Facebook page.