The Communication Workers' Union (CWU) has called off strike action which had been set for later this week.

The suspension comes as the union's executive continues talks on whether to accept a Royal Mail deal.

The CWU must decide whether or not to recommend the offer, which is aimed at resolving a long-running row over pay, jobs and pensions.

An announcement is expected on Tuesday on whether the CWU will accept Royal Mail's 6.9% pay rise over two years.

A series of 48-hour stoppages and unofficial walkouts is estimated to have cost Royal Mail more than £200m.

The union had plans for strikes to be carried out in various parts of the country on different days this week.

Postal workers' union leaders are meeting to decide whether to accept a deal to end nationwide strike action at the Royal Mail.

If the postal executive of the Communication Workers' Union (CWU) accepts the settlement, a ballot of 130,000 workers will be called.

The BBC has learned that under Friday's outline deal,CWU members will get a 6.9% pay rise over 18 months.

Despite Friday's agreement, some wildcat action continued on Monday.

Liverpool and parts of London are affected by the unofficial action, which is likely to add to the backlog of mail in these areas.

POSTAL workers in Oxfordshire returned to work this morning but union leaders are warning it could be Friday before any mail is delivered.

Communication Workers Union representative Bob Cullen said there was a backlog of "millions and millions" of letters and parcels at the Oxford Mail Centre in Cowley.

As a result, staff who would normally be delivering mail have been called in to help with the mass sorting operation.

Mr Cullen said: "The problem is that it is not just mail backed up in the system - the public and businesses have been told to hold back until today and there is going to be a deluge of new mail."

Meanwhile, postal workers in the Liverpool and Glasgow areas refused to go back to work today and there are fears the wildcat action could spread nationally.

The situation is also likely to remain chaotic next week with strike action staggered across the service on different days.

Talks over pay, jobs and pensions remain deadlocked, although the CWU claims there has been significant movement.

But Royal Mail chief executive Adam Crozier fuelled the flames by claiming Royal Mail staff were paid 25 per cent more than workers in rival post firms.

He added that other companies in the business were 40 per cent more efficient, which is why the Royal Mail wanted a long-term solution to the current dispute to help it compete more effectively.

Source: Witney Gazette.

Since his weekend decision not to hold a general election Mr Brown has sought to regain the political initiative with statements on Iraq and on his government's tax and longer-term spending plans.

But those tax plans - on inheritance tax, "non-doms" and green taxes on flights - have prompted accusations from both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats that their policies have been stolen.

In the Commons, Mr Brown faced a volley of abuse from Mr Cameron, who accused him of lacking courage and "bottle".

'Flunk an election'

The Tory leader mocked the prime minister for denying that he would not have called an election even if the polls showed he would have secured a 100 seat majority.

"Do you expect anyone to believe that?" asked Mr Cameron, who added that Mr Brown's failure to hold a referendum on the EU treaty also "damages your credibility".

WITNEY was in the pink on Saturday, when a dedicated band of women held their annual Breast Cancer Awareness Month fundraiser.

The sixth Witney in the Pink Day was an enormous success - with £5,000 raised for the Oxfordshire charity Against Breast Cancer by the Witney Fundraising Team.

The town was a sea of pink balloons and pink shop window displays in what has become a very popular community event, as well as a hugely successful fundraiser.

As a band of volunteers shook tins, shoppers were entertained by Hazazz belly dancers, Mason's Apron clog dancers, soprano Elizabeth Cameron and Witney Town Band. Even Witney police officers got into the spirit of the occasion by wearing bright pink ties.

The event was opened by the Mayor of Witney Chrissie Curry, resplendent in a pink wig, who arrived in a bright lipstick pink convertible Mini driven by Karen Gibson, before cutting a pink ribbon stretched across the High Street. She then toured the town to judge the shop window display competition and the winner was Vente Tsunami hair salon, with Top Bags second, Mellers Art Café third and Reids hair salon highly commended.

A Big Pink Balloon race, with prizes donated by The Good Deal Directory, Lloyds-TSB Bank in Witney, and the North Oxford Mini garage at Long Hanborough, was a huge success, as was the sale of helium-filled balloons to youngsters. Stalls selling pink accessories, cakes, jewellery and bric-a-brac also did a good trade. T-shirts from the Perfectly Pink Company were snapped up, and shops and businesses in Witney supported the cause with their own fundraising events too.

OXFORDSHIRE was today facing up to the start of yet another postal strike.

About 2,000 workers across the county were due to walk out at noon today, along with colleagues across the UK, as the next round of action in the national dispute is launched.

Staff will stay out for 48 hours until 12pm on Saturday, but effectively there will be no deliveries as another two-day strike starts at 3am on Monday.

The disruption is expected to cause a backlog of millions of items of mail, which union officials say could take up to two weeks to clear.

The strikes focus on pay, changes to working conditions and also the closure of the Oxford Mail Centre in Cowley, which has been put on the national agenda.

Oxfordshire Communication Workers Union representative Bob Cullen said: "If the situation is allowed to continue, what we are facing is the end of the Royal Mail in three years.

"We have got to win it back, but if we don't have the equipment, the offices or the capacity to handle the mail, then it won't happen."

Businesses are facing up to the prospect of another damaging period of no deliveries.

Barry Wheatley, chairman of the Oxfordshire Federation of Small Businesses, said: "This just puts more pressure in businesses and people are now looking for alternatives. We are an advanced economy and to not have a reliable postal service is unacceptable."

Source: Witney Gazette

A PLASTICS firm is creating new jobs and undergoing major expansion after completing its ninth acquisition in ten years.

Data Plastics, in Station Lane, Witney, has seen its turnover soar, with managers confidently predicting it will reach £3.5m this year, up almost 40 per cent on 2006.

The firm has also taken on seven staff this year, taking its workforce to more than 50, and it is looking for three more to fill senior positions.

Managing director, Joe Reeve, said the firm had actually profited from the recession in the UK plastics industry.

He added: "When we started, there were about 5,500 dealers in the UK, but now there are 780. We have grown by buying out other companies, but we have also managed to grow organically."

PETROL prices were on the verge of breaking the £1 barrier today as motorists were warned to expect further price rises this week.

Car owners have borne the brunt of Monday's 2p rise on fuel duty and the AA predicted prices would increase further by Friday as supermarkets used up their remaining stock bought before the rise.

Private motorists and businesses, who have seen the average price of unleaded petrol rise 7p in the past 12 months, spoke of their dismay at the prospect of more increases.

Some predicted rises in taxi fares and a tough time for small businesses and families who have been forced to swallow the increase.

Yesterday, motorists in Yarnton teetered on the verge of a £1 litre of unleaded fuel as Blenheim Service Station in Woodstock Road raised prices to 99.9p.

Diesel prices peaked at 102p at the BP garage in Thame Road, Stadhampton, while an Asda self-service petrol station in London Road, Wheatley, claimed the cheapest prices for unleaded petrol and diesel at 93.9p and 95.9p respectively.

Brendan McLoughlin, co-founder of website www.petrolprices.com, said: "I would be very surprised if the price doesn't go up to £1.

"The future of the price of petrol is pretty bleak."

MOTORISTS have been caught speeding at up to 65mph in a crackdown run today by Thames Valley Police and Oxfordshire County Council.

Police and road safety officers carried out speed checks for two hours this morning on the A329 between the villages of Stadhampton and Little Milton.

Between 8.30am and 10.30am, 14 motorists were pulled over for driving at excess speed along the 50mph road. All were issued with a fixed penalty ticket of £60 and three penalty points.

However, 12 motorists caught driving at speeds below 62 mph were offered the chance to speak with county council road safety officers and, after taking advice, were allowed to hand their ticket back.

PC Mark Pilling, from Abingdon Road Policing Department, said: "I had visited the site before today's event and it was clear to me that there is an issue with speed.

"In the past six years between Stadhampton and the M40 junction there have been three fatalities, 23 injury collisions and a number of non-injury accidents. Nine of those were classified as serious injury collisions.

GLAMOUR model Danielle Lloyd posed on a pink sofa to help raise funds for the Oxfordshire charity Against Breast Cancer (ABC).

Danielle was approached by ABC's Witney fundraising team to help promote the auction of a bespoke pink sofa, manufactured and donated by the Witney company, Wesley-Barrell, to coincide with National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (October).

Accompanied by Natasha Hall, a member of Witney ABC, Danielle was driven by Neil Haine from her home in Essex to Witney to do the photoshoot at the studios of photographer Stephen Randall.

Danielle, 23, posed on the pale pink sofa with her pet Pomeranian dog, called Trouble. She modelled a T-shirt from the Perfectly Pink range - £2 from every T-shirt sold is donated to ABC.

She was happy to help the charity, following her own breast cancer scare earlier this year.

She said: "When I was working in New York, I found a lump in my breast. Because I was working so much, I didn't actually tell anyone about it for about three months. I have a good friend who is a surgeon at the Linda McCartney Centre, and when I finally told him that I'd discovered this lump some time earlier, he went absolutely mental!

"He sent me for a biopsy, and I had the lump removed - luckily, it was benign."

LAND which was under water ten weeks ago at a notorious flooding area of Witney has been given planning permission for 15 new homes.

West Oxfordshire District Council has approved the scheme, near the corner of Crawley Road and Hailey Road, despite warnings and fears of worse flooding from residents and one of its own councillors.

A key factor, however, is that the Environment Agency did not object because the site, at 1A Crawley Road, is not actually within the River Windrush floodplain.

Yet the property next door, owned by the county council, is still not back in use because of July flood damage, caused by a massive surge of run-off water which the drains in Hailey Road could not cope with.

Resident Malcolm Willis, who lives opposite, is unable to return home while his property is being dehumidified.

He and his wife are still living in temporary accommodation in the town.

He said this week: "We were flooded just like many others on July 20.

WITNEY is gearing up for its annual Pink Day - and organisers promise it will be bigger and better than ever.

The sixth Witney in the Pink Day takes place on Saturday, October 6, and the Witney fundraising team of the Oxfordshire charity Against Breast Cancer (ABC) is aiming to smash last year's record total of £5,000, with a packed programme of community fun.

As always, the town centre will be a vista of pink balloons, and ABC Witney is hoping that as many shops and businesses as possible will show their support by putting up balloons and taking part in the best dressed shop window competition - which will be judged by the town mayor, Chrissie Curry, who will be chauffeured by Karen Gibson in her pink Mini.

Witney in the Pink Day is the Witney team's major fundraising event of the year. Last year, they raised more than £24,000 from a range of events - from a ladies' dinner and fashion show to craft stalls and coffee mornings.

THE owners of Witney's main shopping centre are planning a revamp to increase the number of stores.

A substantial two-storey extension is to be built after partially demolishing the Cargo shop in the Woolgate Centre.

French Square, outside the Waitrose supermarket, is also to be realigned under plans submitted by owners the Universities Superannuation Scheme, and approved by West Oxfordshire District Council's lowlands planning sub-committee.

However, the clock tower, imitating the town's landmark Buttercross, is to be retained.

The changes will result in two new shops, while the facilities for cyclists in the town are to be enhanced by doubling the number of racks from 36 to 72.

WITNEY has landed a windfall £400,000 from housebuilders to provide a new site to meet the 'insatiable' demand for new allotments in the town.

But the town council admitted it 'doesn't have a clue' where the land will come from.

The money is coming from developers Persimmon Homes under a planning gain agreement to build 16 houses at the Madley Park estate, on a small plot of land behind Court Gardens and Judd's Close. The 0.45 hectare site was originally earmarked to provide a replacement for the development of nearby allotments at Newland.

However, following a change of plans, the Newland site will stay - meaning a net gain with money to find a new allotment site elsewhere in the town.

Town mayor, Chrissie Currie, said it should make a 'significant difference' to the long waiting list for allotments in the town.

The news was welcomed by the town's allotments association.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has been ranked as the wealthiest person in America for the 14th year in a row.

Forbes magazine put Gates' fortune at $59bn, with investment guru Warren Buffet in second place with a net worth of $52bn.

Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and software tycoon Larry Ellison remained at third and fourth place on Forbes' list of the 400 richest Americans.

It took a net worth of at least $1.3bn to earn a spot in the rankings.

POSTAL workers today reacted with shock after an announcement that Oxford's main sorting office, the Oxford Mail Centre, is to close in 2009 as part of a £20m expansion plan for the Royal Mail centre in Swindon.

It was announced 12 months ago that operations at Reading and Gloucester would be moved to Swindon, but the announcement regarding the closure of Oxford's mail centre came as a shock to postal workers in Oxford.

One postal worker said the switch would mean that, from 2009, all Oxford mail would have to travel from Swindon each night before it reached the county's delivery offices.

More than 430 staff work at the mail centre at Oxford Business Park, and members of the Communication Workers Union were today considering the implications of the closure.

Oxfordshire's CWU spokesman Bob Cullen said: "Obviously we are very hostile towards this decision and see it as an attack on the branch - there is no logic to it.

"It is going to lead to an inferior quality of service for the Oxfordshire public with their mail arriving later.

"There was no notice or consultation over this - even the mail centre managers did not know and they were breaking down in tears last night. I don't think any jobs will go and we are going to fight the closure."

SMALL shops are fighting back against the threat of 'big boy' chain stores in Witney town centre.

They say there is a future for them in the town, despite the fact that yet another locally-owned business, Stokes Bakery, in Corn Street, has decided to shut in November.

And they have been backed by the town mayor, Chrissie Curry, who says Witney could be in danger of becoming 'yet another clone town' with the building of the new Marriots Close redevelopment - and a further expansion of the Woolgate Centre.

One successful business, Sandwich de Witney, is this week celebrating its tenth anniversary in the town, and another recent newcomer is independent shoe shop McSaw.

Sisters Maria Switzki and Alison McKendrick, both born and bred in Witney, say many of their shoes are unusual, and cannot be found on the high street.

"Witney independent retailers need all the support they can get, otherwise the town will become like so many others, that have the same shops as everywhere else," they said this week.

ALL 46,000 households in West Oxfordshire have been given vouchers to enjoy some of the district's tourist and leisure facilities.

The WOW scheme, formerly known as West Oxfordshire Weekend, has also been extended into a week-long offer, from September 17 to 23.

It is run by the district council, and gives two-for-one entry to a variety of attractions, including Blenheim Palace and the Cotswold Wildlife Park, near Burford.

Children can also swim free all week at leisure centres in Witney, Carterton, and Chipping Norton, when accompanied by a paying adult.

Hilary Biles, cabinet member for leisure and tourism, said: "We asked residents what changes they would like to make for 2007, and people said they would like the programme to last longer.

"We have also made sure that the vouchers are sent to every household, rather than having to apply for them."

The vouchers also apply to Oxford Bus Museum, at Long Hanborough, Chastleton House, near Chipping Norton, the Burford Ghost Trail, Witney Wool Trail, and Wychwood Brewery Tour on limited days.

Source: Witney Gazette

The bank hopes fewer customers will get a nasty surprise Lloyds TSB has become the first High Street bank to cut its charges for unauthorised overdrafts in the face of a continuing customer revolt.

The bank, one of eight facing a High Court test case next year, will introduce the charges on 2 November.

Lloyds will cut its interest rates for unauthorised borrowing by about a third and charges for going into the red and bouncing cheques will also be reduced.

Other High Street lenders may now also cut their charges, analysts said.

Richard Hunter of stockbrokers Hargreaves Lansdown said that Lloyd's move was probably the "thin end of the wedge".

WITNEY Feast, dating back to 1243, is back in town.

The event, which normally attracts thousands of children and families to the funfair at The Leys recreation ground, stll retains its religious and seasonal origins.

It was once to celebrate the re-dedication of the town church and St Mary's has several events. There is also an art and photography exhibition and model fairground display.

The funfair is open today and tomorrow.

Souce:Witney Gazette