Charity Age Concern Oxfordshire has joined forces with Oxfordshire County
Council to urge those who think they may be entitled to the central
government Cold Weather Payment to find out more and claim money that is
available to them. The £25 payments are automatically distributed when the
average temperature is, or is forecast to be, zero degrees Celsius or
below, for a period of seven consecutive days where a recipient lives to
those who fulfil certain criteria.
David and I have received a number of enquiries about lack of postal deliveries, particularly in Old Headington, and the manager of the sorting and distribution depot has sent me this response:
The snow has presented a monumental challenge for us but the majority of
staff have gone over and above to complete as much of there deliveries as
possible. Now that the “big thaw” is under way we will be working to clear
the backlog of mail. All deliveries are going out today and I hope to be
back on track by Weds-Thursday next week. With regards to the deliveries
during the snow we had to rely on staff judgement with regards to what
areas we felt were safe to deliver and which were not.
If you believe you have still not received your letter deliveries by Wednesday 20 January please let us know and we will investigate further
You are invited to a consultation event on Monday 25th January from 7pm to 9pm at St. Andrew’s School, Headington
We would like as much involvement from residents, young people
and members of the local community as possible so please attend.
We would like to give more information about the proposal and
generate ideas for the refurbishment of the play area at Bury Knowle Park based on community needs.
If you have any queries or suggestions that you would like to voice
about the proposed refurbishment, or would like to get involved in
the scheme then please contact Groundwork at:
oxfordplay@groundwork.org.uk or on 07969 546494
Latest bulletin from the City Council 13/1/10 at 17.23
Today’s recycling and refuse collection services were suspended today due to the adverse weather conditions.
However, Oxford City Council, did provide a limited trade collection service in the city centre. We also operated a limited clinical waste collection service to areas that were accessible.
Tomorrow, we hope to be able to collect residual waste, weather permitting. However, we will be reviewing the situation tomorrow morning. We would advise residents to check our website for further information.
Tonight we will continue with our gritting schedule and our gritters will cover major routes throughout the city.
Tomorrow we will be clearing access routes to a number of secondary schools throughout the city.
Here is today’s update regarding what Oxfordshire County Council is doing to deal with the effects of the recent heavy snowfall and ongoing planning for the freezing temperatures forecast for the coming days.
Snowploughs and gritters have again been in operation day and night, keeping clear 100 per cent of the county’s priority routes, which amounts to more than 800 miles of road. On top of this we continue to plough a large number of more minor roads and we have done our best to grit pavements where resources have permitted.
Many routes to Oxfordshire’s more rural locations have been cleared in recent days. In large part this is due to the kind assistance of local farmers who have been using their own equipment to supplement the county council’s work. The county council is very grateful for this and wishes to acknowledge their efforts.
The operation to grit Oxford’s five Park and ride sites continues and we have also had teams out in town centres clearing snow from pathways and other areas. The council has also been focusing on snowploughing and gritting routes around schools.
As you are aware, the council’s contracted supplier Salt Union had not delivered any salt to the county since December. However, we have now received a number of lorry loads of salt. The council will be continuing to grit and snowplough throughout the weekend.
Council adult social care officers are still using 4×4 vehicles to get through the snow and access vulnerable people. There have been no significant difficulties with service delivery and senior managers remain happy with the way that services have been able to continue despite the adverse weather.
Oxfordshire County Council has issued a single number, that will run 24hrs a day, for residents to contact them during the cold weather. This number is non-emergency (999 is the only number for blue-light services) and does not deal with Transport or Highways (the number for this is 0845 310 11 11).The number is: 0845 050 7666.
It is also the existing number for Adult Social Care and the out of hours Emergency Duty Team and continues with this function during this period.
The council is keen to emphasize the non-emergency nature of this number. If residents begin to use this for emergency service or roads related issues, it will quickly become overwhelmed.
Following on from the presentation by county officers at area committee, David and I have submitted proposals for local schemes to be included within the county’s LTP3 “long list” (or should this be “wishlist”?) both directly to the County and also as part of the City Council response
These include:
1. Develop a transport strategy for Headington District Centre and beyond
2. Traffic calming/reduce congestion in Highfield area
3. Traffic calming/reduce congestion in Old Headington
4. Osler Rd cycle safety measures
5. Sandfield Rd/London Rd junction improvement
6. 20 mph soft enforcement measures in Headington residential streets
7. Improve safety at Windmill Rd/London Rd junction
8. Develop cycle routes parallel to London Rd, Headington
9. Improve cycle routes between Brookes Headington and Brookes Wheatley
10. Facilitate closer working of bus companies to rationalise services
through Headington
11. Improve bus access to/from Risinghurst
12. Upgrade bus service 10 to premium route
13. Review re-instatement of box markings on London Road
The long list will be collated from responses from members of the public and consultees in January. It will be whittled down to a shorter list at a later stage. It has been made clear to us that there will be little money available for LTP3 schemes in the next couple of years because of restrictions by the Tory administration on infrastructure spending, but we hope that one or two of the above schemes can be included in the final plan for relatively little cost.
The Tory cabinet has set down priority objectives for city schemes - if any scheme on the long list satisfies one or more of the following high priority objectives, it stands a better chance of being included within the final action plan:
reduce congestion
develop and increase the use of high quality, welcoming public transport
develop and increase cycling and walking for local journeys, recreation and health
Personally speaking, I would like to have seen “measures to reduce casualties and dangers associated with travel” given high priority along with “reducing carbon emissions, improving air quality and reducing environmental impact” from traffic. These latter objectives are considered to be ‘medium’ priority and no more by the County Cabinet, which makes decisions on transport in the city despite possessing not one single democratically elected councillor in the whole of Oxford City.
The draft plan is due to be completed in October 2010 and will come into effect from 2011-2030
We are aware that a water leakage from the building occupied by the NatWest Bank is causing health and safety hazards as the water turns to ice overnight. The County Highways Department has been alerted as this is a possible infringement of the Highways Act. We are working with Thames Water, the County Council and the assistant manager at NatWest to resolve this situation as soon as possible, and we hope to contact the property owner shortly to make sure that the drainage system and down pipes are replaced or upgraded
In the meantime, please take great care if you are using the cash machines in Stephen Road
David has been called to a family emergency out of the area, so if you have any casework or ward enquiries over the Christmas period from 21/12/09 - 31/12/09, please direct them to Ruth in the first instance.
