Sign plea to help church be found

THE style and placement of a sign to the Our Lady and St John Church in Goring has been backed unanimously by the parish council.

Father Kenneth Macnab asked if a sign could be attached to the lamp-post at the junction of Manor Road and Station Road directing to the Roman Catholic church in Ferry Lane.

The lamp-post already has a sign directing to the Wheel Orchard car park, a 20mph speed restriction sign and a dog waste bin attached to it.

Fr Macnab said: “The church of Our Lady and St John cannot be seen from the main roads through the village.

“Services, such as funerals and weddings, often draw people who do not know the village.

“The parish covers 30 square miles and 16 Oxfordshire villages, not just Goring, so people also travel a distance to regular services.

“Visitors to the church and village frequently confuse the far more visible St Thomas’s Anglican parish church with the Catholic church.

“The junction of Ferry Lane, Manor Road and Station Road is a dangerous one with tricky sightlines, with some drivers taking the bend too fast and some slowing to a halt to try to read street names.

“A road sign to the church would improve health and safety for drivers, other road users and pedestrians as the pavements narrow at that junction.”

A new sign, which would match the sign to the car park, needs approval from Oxfordshire County Council, the highways authority, prior to installation.