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.
If you would like to find out when refuse and recycling collection will take place over the Christmas break, or would like to find out the opening times of the various council services, please click here
I hear tell that it was back in 2001 that Headington West Residents Parking Zone was introduced - before I was a councillor and when Oxford United still graced Headington with its presence. At the time, it was said that the Zone would be reviewed a few months after its introduction: eight years on, and the review is now about to happen!
So we are clear: ‘Headington West’ covers the north end of Headley Way (Franklin, Woodlands, Staunton, Sandfield etc), and the south side of London Road, from Brookside up to (but NOT including) Lime Walk. It also includes, outside Headington Ward, Highfield Avenue, Little Oxford and the Valentia Road estate.
The County are sending out today a consultation questionnaire on what you would like to see in the Zone. Obviously, the big issue is the timing — the times at present still reflect football match times, long after the United ground has become the Manor Hospital. But there will also be local issues in your own street that you will want to mention — introducing or removing a disabled bay, say, or changing the balance of parking between residents and visitor. Ruth and I do know some of those but the real experts are you, the residents yourselves. So, please do respond to the consultation — the County have set a deadline of 8th January.
What the County is not including in this consultation is the issue of enforcement. I realise that this is a problem for many residents and is needed, for instance, to combat dangerous parking around school drop-off and pick-up times. We will be interested to hear any issues you have about this so that we can encourage the powers that be to deal with them. Please do drop us a line.
Following on from discussions with the Friends of Bury Knowle Park, and comments made by Park users, the City Council has put together a draft management plan for Bury Knowle Park which you may like to read. To see the full document, please click here
If you have any comments or suggestions you would like to contribute to this plan, then please contact Friends of Bury Knowle Park at buryknowle@googlemail.com by 9 December or drop a line to David and Ruth
Londis has applied to extend its opening hours for the sale by retail of alcohol. For more details click the Licensing applications menu option on the central orange toolbar
The incidence of theft from motor vehicles in the Oxford City area is showing signs of increasing and as we move closer to the festive season the opportunities for theives to break into cars will become more frequent.
Please try to combat this type of crime by never leaving valuable and attractive items on display in your vehicle, most especially when it is left unattended.
If you see anyone acting suspiciously around parked vehicles or properties, please do not give a second thought to phoning the police on 999.
You prompt action could help the police to apprehend a criminal or prevent a crime taking place.
Many thanks for your continued support.
There has been a rise in cycle thefts around Oxford, including North Headington. If you want to report a lost bike, email eastoxfordbikedatabase@thamesvalley.pnn.police.uk . Please provide details about the cycle including frame number, colour, make and any distinguishing features. This data will be input onto a local police database and the police will run a check when they stop a thief on a cycle. It doesn’t matter if the cycle is worth £20 or £2,000. If you would like the police to engrave your bike with a postcode then please email the Headington North neighbourhood team to arrange a time for them to visit you. (see details on the central orange menu bar)
If you would like to sign a petition against the closure of public toilets in Oxford, including the toilets at Headington Hill Park, please click on this link.
David and I are campaigning for improvements to be made to our existing public toilets and for opening hours to be extended - if other councils can manage this for less money, then we think Oxford City Council should too
Objections to the proposal to exclude two properties in Lime Walk should be made to the County Council no later than 10 December - the address is given below
THE OXFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL (HEADINGTON CENTRAL)
(CONTROLLED PARKING ZONE AND VARIOUS RESTRICTIONS) (VARIATION No.10) ORDER 20**
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that Oxfordshire County Council proposes to make the above mentioned Orders under Sections 32, 35, 45, and 46 of and Parts III & IV of Schedule 9 to the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 and all other enabling powers.
The effect of the proposed Orders will be to amend
1. The City of Oxford (Headington West) (Controlled Parking Zone) Order 2000 (as amended) and revoke the Oxfordshire County Council (Headington West) (Controlled Parking Zone) (Variation No. 6) Order 2009, effectively replacing Schedule 7 Part A; and;
2. The Oxfordshire County Council (Headington Central) (Controlled Parking Zone and Various Restrictions) Order 2005 (as amended) revoking the Oxfordshire County Council (Headington Central) (Controlled Parking Zone and Various Restrictions) (Variation No.8) Order 2009, effectively revoking and replacing Schedule 4 Part A.
The effect of the proposals is to:
1exclude the following properties from eligibility for residents and visitors permits in Headington West : Acorn Cottage (2A Finch Close), 50 Grays Road (Flats A, B, & C) and 1A and 1B Old Road.
2.exclude the following properties from eligibility for residents and visitors permits in Headington Central: 50A and 50B Lime Walk, 119A, 119B, 121A, and 121B London Road.
Documents giving more detailed particulars of the proposed Order are available for public inspection at County Hall, New Road, OxfordOX1 1ND from 9.00 am to 4.30 pm Monday to Friday during normal opening hours.
Objections to the proposal, specifying the grounds on which they are made, and any other representations, should be sent in writing to the Director for Environment and Economy (ref. MJR/TRO) at the address given below, no later than the 10th December 2009. The County Council will consider objections and representations received in response to this Notice. They may be disseminated widely for these purposes and made available to the public.
Dated:15th August 2008
Huw Jones, Director for Environment and Economy, Oxfordshire County Council, Speedwell House
David and I respond to a large number of enquiries about trees, and appreciate that residents are very concerned and upset when a well-loved tree is felled because it is diseased.
As you may recall, I asked at NE Area Committee if we can have tree matters discussed on a forthcoming agenda. This is to let you know that one of the Council’s Tree Officers will attend the NEAC meeting in December to respond to any questions about tree-related planning issues which have arisen in our local area.
The officer would like to know what information we would like him to bring along to the meeting. If you have a planning-related concern about trees that you would like to raise, please can you let David or me know by 30 November so that we can alert him in advance?
Cllr Roz Smith and I made a site visit to Wharton Road/Margaret Road recently and a number of local residents came along gave us their views. We sent the feedback we’d had both from the site meeting and from emails sent to us by residents of nearby roads, and the County has decided not to proceed with the proposed works.
A substantial number of people we spoke to felt the proposed build-out in Margaret Road would not be a cost-effective use of money which could be better spent on infrastructure improvements elsewhere.
Having analysed the responses from local people, the County Officer has said they will be undertaking an improvement to the Margaret Road/York Road junction instead, and are hopeful that this will take place in this financial year.
Your local councillors are pressing for a lollipop crossing person in Margaret Road following discussions with parents of children who attend Windmill School - at the moment this is looking promising, but we must wait and see.
As you know, local councillors were asked just over a week ago to provide comments on the suggestion of trial road closures in Highfield and I advised the County that I would be collating responses and getting back to them by the end of this week. However, to my surprise and (to be honest) annoyance, the County has not waited for that feedback but announced a decision. The e-mail which I have just received sets out in detail their argument and decision. To cut the chase: the County has decided not to carry out trial closures in the Lime Walk area, primarily because of lobbying from the emergency services.
Many residents have expressed an opinion on this issue. Some will be relieved, others dismayed, others downright angry — there is a wide variety of views within the area to be affected by the closures and adjoining streets. Some will feel that the area has been robbed of possible closures after the press coverage a couple of months back but, as I have said before, the newspaper was misinformed by the present MP for Oxford East: he went to the press claiming that trial closures were definite without either having a written guarantee that they were to take place and without thinking through the controversy his action would cause. He should have known better. But that is behind us and the question now is how we move forward.
I am determined that we do not lose the opportunity actually to get measures to help the Lime Walk area. I have represented Headington for over seven years and in that time I have seen detailed proposals drawn up, then torn up, followed by a refusal to consider any changes in the area. What has happened has now put the issue back on the agenda and we must capitalise on that. The County is now, after years of saying ‘no’, offering to come up with measures for the area, within what seems to me a curiously short time period. I welcome that but what I will welcome more is fuller consultation with all local residents so that they can be engaged in the solutions to the problems that they have to face.
I and my ward colleague, Ruth Wilkinson, will be meeting members of the Highfield RA traffic group later this evening. We expected the meeting to be about our response to the County in consulting on trial closures. The agenda will be different now. What remains the same is my determination — and that of everyone around the table, I am sure — to get to solutions of the situation and not to allow this very real issue once again to disappear from the County’s view.
As always, if you want to contact me or Ruth, please do drop us a line.
The Oxford City Homes Contact Centre is now able to deal with your bin collection, recycling, bulky refuse and street services enquiries on the Oxford City Homes freephone number – tel0800 227676.
For out of hours emergency waste, recycling and street services enquiries, call the duty out of hours officer on 07802 904000.
During the last fortnight there has been a spate of thefts from vans in the Oxford City area. On each occasion a spare wheel has been removed from either the rear or the underside of the vehicle. This type of theft requires the use of tools, so the offenders(s)would probably be with the vehicle for a few minutes or so.
If you see anyone acting suspiciously around parked vehicles, please call the police on 999 or if you have any historical information relating to these offences please call the Neighbourhood Watch Office on Oxford 335133.
Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg MP yesterday announced at the Core Cities conference in Liverpool that every city in the group under Liberal Democrat control has signed up to the 10:10 campaign. Bristol, Liverpool, Newcastle and Sheffield make up half the Core Cities group of England’s major regional cities. But on the same day, the Conservative group on Oxfordshire County Council voted out a Lib Dem motion which would have committed the council to achieve the same 10% reduction in carbon emissions during 2010.
The city regions represented by the Lib Dem run city councils together have a population of over five million people, contain over 50,000 businesses and emit 40,406kt of carbon (or 7.8% of the UK total). The Liberal Democrat councils’ commitment therefore shows real leadership in these major cities. Oxford City Council has also signed up to the 10:10 campaign, with cross-party support. (There are no Conservatives on Oxford City Council.)
Oxfordshire County Council committed during 2006 to reduce carbon emissions in its own buildings (including the county’s schools) by 18% by 2012. In a media event at Oxford Castle with Conservative Party Leader David Cameron in attendance, the county administration invited people to judge their commitment to the environment by their achievements in energy reduction. Recent reports indicate that despite a 4% reduction in carbon use in the first year, current levels are falling well short of target. There is now no clear programme for achieving the 18% target by 2012.
Oxford East’s Labour MP Andrew Smith recently voted against the Lib Dem parliamentary motion calling for the Government to sign up to the 10:10 campaign, though he turning up to climate change demos lobbying on the campaign! Lib Dem spokesman in Oxford East Dr Steve Goddard said: “It is a shame that our MP’s principles have deserted him at the crucial moment. Sadly this is not the first time - he also voted to close several post offices in Oxford despite posing with campaigners trying to save them. It’s clear that if you want real action on climate change the only party to support is the Liberal Democrats.”
The motion and voting record can be seen here, on Public Whip
It’s fair to say that one of the most controversial proposals to have come up recently is the suggestion that there should be trial road closures in the Lime Walk and Latimer Road area. Ruth and I have received a very large post-bag (yes, even during the strikes) from people both in favour and extremely worried about the suggestion.
As we have said before, the County has not made any firm commitment to going ahead with closures. Last week, we received the latest communication about the proposals from the County. They have asked for our opinion and we will be sending a formal response but before we do so, we’d be interested to hear from you. We certainly intend to emphasise to the County the importance of seeing any trial closures in the context of wider traffic management measures — we certainly do not want to get into a situation where, if there are trial closures and the County judges them as a failure, that there are no other options on the table. We will also stress that the range of possible measures should be put to the local population for their comment, with the intention of making sure we do get action to help deal with the traffic problems in the area. Of course, that consultation will also need to make clear what would be judged a success or failure for any trial closure.
Any there other comments you’d want us to add? We already have a sense of the range of attitudes in the area, but are always ready to hear from more of you! You can respond by leaving a comment here, or by e-mailing myself, Ruth or Altaf.
The next Headington North drop-in police surgery will take place on Tuesday 10 November at 4.00 pm in the Baptist Church, Old High Street. Please do come and speak to the team about any issue that is troubling you about quality of life in your area
These surgeries are very popular, and many people have benefited from advice on how to protect their property from burglary, which is one of the priority issues local residents have raised.Do drop in, even if it’s just to say hello!
A company from Swindon are leaflet dropping in the Oxfordshire area. They follow up with a knock on the door and explain they have a number of builders from the Swindon area looking for work. (Beware they are from Swindon however they give an address in Oxford) The trader will then quote a cheap price for anything from small jobs to a house extension. We have had a number of complaints and an expert is of the opinion that some of the work is of poor quality.
If you are unsure then Trading Standards advice is not to deal with anyone who cold-calls and to get several quotes and references. Oxfordshire County Council Trading Standards also have an approved list of traders in Oxfordshire. A list of traders can be obtained from Trading Standards calling 0845 051 0845 option 1 or 2
However if anybody leaflet drops and inform you they are from Swindon area and match the above scenario please contact Martin Woodley Doorstep Crime Team Leader for Thames Valley Police on 01865 815331.
Natalie Lella is organising a programme for young mothers to get out and about and take some exercise. Her Headington class takes place at Bury Knowle Park, Thursday mornings, 9.30am-10.30am. If you want to contact her, here are her details and you can also find information on Daily Info, Gumtree and Netmums/Baby Directory.
Her web page is here. Her class in University Parks is oversubscribed, so sign up quickly!
I have asked the county officers to explain the procedures they take when a road accident is reported, and I thought you might be interested…
When accidents are loaded onto the system, they keep a track on whether there are any developing problem sites requiring investigation. These are identified taking account the number and severity of accidents, the type of accident (e.g. if there are common patterns in terms of vehicle movements or road users involved) and the traffic flows.
They currently have around 200 problem sites where at least 5 accidents over a 5 year period have been recorded, and these form the focus ofthe County’s accident remedial programme. They will of course also review possible safety measures at sites with a lower accident history, and also - in the case of new schemes - monitor closely their safety performance to confirm that they are operating acceptably.
I have found out that the County logs only those accidents reported to them by the police, and this can take up to four weeks. David and I would be interested in your views…
What could a sustainable future look like? If you are interested in attending an inspiring and visionary community event towards creating a sustainable future, then visit this website and find out about the exciting activities on offer from 09.00-19.00 Saturday 17 October in West Oxford
In readiness for Halloween the Neighbourhood Watch Office has obtained a stock of “No trick or treat” notices which may be displayed at your home if you so wish.
If you would like a small supply of these notices for your neighbourhood they may be collected from the front counters of St. Aldates or Cowley Police stations.
As some of you may already have spotted in the news, Planning Alerts has
been effected by legal action by the Royal Mail: see this link.
Tom Watson MP has tabled an Early Day Motion in Parliament calling on
the Royal Mail to allow non-profit organisations to use the postcode
database for free. If you feel strongly about this, please write to your MP asking him to sign this Early Day Motion (number EDM 2000) and protest at the actions of The
Royal Mail.
Landlord Accreditation is a set of standards, or a code of conduct, relating to the management and physical condition of privately rented accommodation. Landlords who join the scheme and abide by the standards are ‘accredited’.
The overall aim of the accreditation scheme is to improve the condition and management of privately rented homes and reduce the need for intervention for the Council. It will also enable tenants to recognise private landlords and agents who are committed to providing good quality accommodation.
A possible problem is that the scheme is entirely voluntary so there is every possibility that bad landlords won’t sign up to it
The City Council would like your comments on the proposals, to complete a questionnaire please click on the website for the scheme.
There is a limited pot of money allocated to the North East Area Committee to spend on Area Committee grants to local projects. The total amount of money allocated to areas outside those eligible for social inclusion money e.g. Headington, Marston is £8553 for this financial year.
The closing date for this round of applications is 16 October
If your group wishes to apply for a small community grant, the relevant application form should be completed and submitted by the end of the month.
For all information on grants, please visit the council’s web page here.
The County has proposed to make some alterations in Margaret Road: they are asking for comments on proposed changes to the junction of Margaret Road and Wharton Road, and also on a build-out in Margaret Road.
County Cllr Roz Smith and City Cllr Ruth Wilkinson are making a site visit at 6 pm tomorrow Friday 2 October to discuss these proposals with local residents. If you would like to come along and give us your views, you will be very welcome.
If you cannot come to the meeting but would like a copy of the proposals, please email Ruth for details
As several residents have asked us about declaration of interest with regard to the decision-making on the Brookes application at last week’s full council meeting, I felt I should publish this reply.
I gave my apologies for the full meeting of Council for the following reason. Councillors are bound by a code of conduct which is available for you to see on the council’s website. Where the subject for debate is a planning application, any councillor who has an interest must declare it. If the interest may be deemed to be prejudicial to any decision that councillor may take in the eyes of the general public, then the advice to councillors is that they should formally declare a prejudicial interest and withdraw from the debate, and that they are ineligible to vote on the application.
This item had already come up at Area Committee for comment. I sought legal advice about whether I should declare a personal or a prejudicial interest, and was advised that members of the public might be led to believe that I would not have an open mind on the merits of the application because I am employed by Oxford Brookes University (as Site Services Librarian at the Wheatley Campus). I declared a prejudicial interest and withdrew from the meeting at the point that the planning application was discussed.
The special council meeting called at short notice had only one item on the agenda - the Brookes application. If I had made the decision to attend, I would have walked into the Chamber, declared a prejudicial interest, and been obliged to withdraw again. I made the decision that this would not be in the best interests of the ward I represent, and chose to spend the time instead making ward visits and completing casework. I duly sent in my apologies on the grounds that I would have to declare prejudicial interest in any case, but this was not reported in the Press.
So if you are wondering why Cllr Wilkinson’s name was missing from the list of those present, this is why!
A large number of residents who live south of London Road have contacted us about the newspaper stories concerning planned road closures in Lime Walk and Latimer Road. We have been looking into this and have written to all residents with an update. Here’s the text:
We were as surprised as many of you to hear from the press that it had been decided to close Lime Walk and Latimer Road for a trial period of a month. The press story has created a lot of controversy and we have been investigating exactly what has been decided. Here are the facts:
There has been no decision made to close any roads.
Highfield Residents Association has, for a long time, been rightly raising the traffic problems in the Lime Walk / Stapleton / Bickerton Rd area. One of their suggestions, among many, has been to close Lime Walk and Latimer Rd.
The County has agreed to look at the feasibility of trial closures but made no commitment to do them. There is no timescale or detailed plan for them.
We have talked to residents regularly and know that some of you are keen to see road closures and others are dead-set against them. Whatever your view, you have all been let down by the way the press was persuaded to run with an inaccurate story. It has only served to heighten both expectations and alarm.
But we need to look ahead and consider what are the next steps. Our position, as your local councillors, is clear: road closures should not be the only proposal on the table. And any proposal must go to proper consultation with all affected residents between London Road and Old Road.
There is, of course, a danger that a trial closure could prove a dead-end. The County could judge the experiment a failure. If no other proposals were on the table, Highfield area would be left back at stage one, with no answer to the real problems residents endure. The solution that will work is one which helps Highfield but does not put extra strain on Windmill Road, which is already congested, or on smaller residential roads. We are committed to working with you to find that solution and get it put in place.
We have also been in contact with the traffic group of Highfield Residents Association to discuss with them their meeting with the County and how best to get a result which works for all of Headington. This is, of course, a big issue that won’t be decided with one news story: we’ll be here to carry on working with all residents on the very real traffic problems in our area.
Many of you have let us know that you are unhappy with the appearance of the area in front of the Nat West Bank in the London Road, which has been fenced off with orange and white boards for quite some time. Having talked to the Manager, it would appear that there is an ownership issue between the bank and its landlord; which of the two owns the land that is affected? We have discussed this with the manager of the Nat West Bank and he has kindly agreed to contact his Legal Dept. and let us know the latest. Watch this space for further information!
Have you ever seen a five year old child who’s never seen a book before?
I have. When I helped at the primary school in my local area, I gave a lad a book and he looked at it suspiciously. Then he shook it, to see if it made a noise. When it didn’t, he kicked it, to see if it made a good football. It didn’t. So he left it on the floor and walked away.
Together with a group of volunteers, I am helping to start a library in a community centre on an inner city estate. It’s a very different sort of library because the people we hope to attract are those who don’t ‘do’ reading, or are scared of filling in forms to join, or of working out complicated numbering systems to find a book or magazines they would like to look at. Our aim is to get books into people’s houses and promote a reading culture in an area of cripplingly poor educational attainment and social deprivation. It’s about adding value to the quality of people’s lives.
The local volunteer helpers at this library like to talk about ’stuff’, not books. They want their place to be called “Read/Swap”, not The Library. (”Library” is a scary word). They want material to have interesting pictures on the covers. Categories of stuff are called “Things to do outside” (sport, woodwork etc.), “Things to do inside” (cake decorating, sewing etc.), “Stories about people” (Biography), “Stories for grown ups” (Yes! That includes literature as well as novels) etc.
I would like to thank the New Headington Residents’ Association for donating unsold books from their Headington Festival stall to Read/Swap, and for the donations from individual residents who have got to hear about the project. A story on the Read/Swap library is featured in the Oxford Mail on 2 September. If you have any good quality “children’s stuff” or picturebooks that you would care to donate, I should be very grateful to receive them, or they can be left at Rose Hill Community Centre, The Oval, Rose Hill, OX4 4UY between 10.00 and 12.00 weekday mornings.
Thanks! Ruth (Chartered Librarian in my working life. Or should I say “Stuffperson”?!)
Figures obtained by the Liberal Democrats under Freedom of Information show that Oxfordshire County Council spent half a million less than the average last year on pavement maintenance, compared to the other 19 county councils who provided figures. Perhaps as a consequence, there were 88 claims for compensation in Oxfordshire last year, 56 of which have not yet been settled.
These figures come as the Liberal Democrats reveal that 90 councils have paid out over £82m in compensation following pavement trips and falls over the last five years.
Cllr Purse, Shadow Cabinet member for Growth & Infrastructure, said, “It is not just the compensation that councils have to pay out that concerns us, but the additional costs of treatment that inevitably fall on the health service if people are injured by falling on uneven surfaces. And even more important for the individual concerned is the potentially serious loss of mobility and confidence. It is for that reason that the Liberal Democrats have proposed additional sums for road and pavement maintenance for each of the last four years in our draft budgets - it is a shame that this has not been taken up by the administration.”
Cllr David Turner, Shadow Cabinet member for Transport Implementation, said, “The failure of the Conservatives to support our proposals for more weed control on pavements is creating a big future bill to repair pavements crumbling under the pressure from uncontrolled weeds.”
Leader of the Opposition, Cllr Patrick added, “National studies show that the average time spent walking is no down to just 11 minutes day. We want to encourage more walking and good quality and well-maintained pavements are just as important as road surfaces. We have welcomed the concept of increasing pedestrianisation in Oxford City, but we hope that people are taking particular care whilst the works for this are going on in Queen Street. We don’t want to see the figures for falls and trips increase dramatically this year.”
Oxfordshire County Council is seeking to recruit two independent members from the community to join its Standards Committee.
The committee is responsible for promoting and maintaining high standards of conduct by councillors and others who sit on the council’s committees. There is a limited time commitment involved as the committee normally only meets twice a year but it plays an important role in corporate governance.
More information is available here or from the Committee Services team on 01865 810177.
The deadline for receipt of applications is 18 September 2009.
David and I are getting more and more concerns raised with us over commuter parking.
It could be, for example, that a resident in one part of a Controlled Parking Zone decides to drive to another part of that CPZ and park there for the day while they go off to work, thus creating parking problems for other people - this seems to happen near the JR.
There is London commuter parking going on in and around Bury Knowle Park in areas like North Place.
There are perennial problems with parents dropping off children and leaving cars in residential streets near schools while they go off shopping
If you are inconvenienced by commuters parking in your road, please let us know - we want to build up a picture of just how big this problem is becoming in our area. Thanks!
The County’s Trading Standards department together with Fire and Rescue Services are offering free checks on electric blankets. Last year they found that a third of those they examined failed the safety check
If you would like to make an appointment to have your electric blanket tested, please phone 01865 815607. Tests will be carried out from 7 September onwards at venues across the County
Those of us who get planning alerts will receive notification of trees to be felled or pruned in conservation areas, and these applications have the suffix CAT. Here is an example below:
HEADINGTON HILL HALL
HEADINGTON HILL
OXFORD
OXFORDSHIRE
OX3 0BT OX3 0BT (09/01799/CAT)
Fell Cherry, Silver Birch, Willow and x3 Sycamore trees; prune Oak and Sycamore trees (as specified)
I have queried the procedure for these with the Tree Officers.
During the 6 week notice period they have to consider the impact on the conservation area and, bearing in mind the reasons, if any, given for the proposed work, decide whether to make a TPO. Interested third parties can make comments if they wish which officers will also take account of if they are made within the notice period.
In this case the Tree Officer had a pre-notice meeting with Brookes’ arboricultural
consultant to discuss the proposed works. It is not expected that a TPO will be made because the works are reasonable landscape management and will not have an adverse impact on the appearance or character of the Headington Hill conservation area.
If residents want to make comments on these CAT applications, they can do so, but it should be in writing and on the specific merits of the proposed works. General anti-tree felling comments are not helpful because comments need to be specific to the location . Tree Officers will make TPOs to protect trees which are important to the appearance asd character of the conservation area unless works are justified by need.
NB Applications for consent to do work to TPO trees have a TPO suffix.
The North East Area Committee is meeting on Tuesday 18 August at 6.00 pm at the Royal British Legion hall, Hadow Road.
Items on the agenda include the review of public conveniences within the City (including Bury Knowle) and consideration of the Oxford Brookes University planning application 09/00695/FUL. The committee is able to make comments on the latter application for consideration by the Strategic Development and Control Committee which is meeting on 26 August
All members of the public are allowed to speak at the Open Session about these or any other agenda item or issue. You will need to arrive slightly earlier than the start time and fill in a Speaker’s form, giving your name and indicating what subject you would like to address the meeting about.
We are expecting a very lively (and lengthy) meeting
Oxford City Council is running two citywide consultations at the moment on their consultation website. The first is on finding out what our residents key priorities are and the second is on public toilets provision in the city. To access it, and to register your vote, please clickhere.
It’s really important for us to hear your views and gives us evidence to show that people’s views really count!
Other consultations that are taking place can also be found at the same web address.
A number of residents have asked us when the new 20 mph speed limits will come into operation. Our latest news from the County is as follows:
We’re anticipating the speed limit will come into effect in late August / early September but have yet to confirm the exact date (as you can appreciate, there is a lot of signing work) - the contractor is making very good progress with installing the poles, and we expect the signs themselves to be installed in the latter half of August.
If you live on the Windmill Road side of the London Road, and you are worried about any issue that you think the police or street wardens can help with, please take the time to drop in at one of the neighbourhood surgeries. Your views will be dealt with in the strictest confidence.
Here are the surgery dates and times:
Co-op, Atkyns Road on Friday 24th July between 4pm and 5pm
NuffieldOrthopaedicHospital, main reception on 21st July between 11am and 1pm
Headington Community Centre, Drop-in café, Gladstone road on
Yesterday I went to an extremely interesting briefing on the criminal justice system. There are more people than ever before in prisons. Yet there is less recorded crime.
How can this be?
I wonder if the policy makers have looked into the research findings of Bernard Gesch? I attended an Open University course on well-being about three years ago, and Bernard Gesch was a keynote speaker. He had done some research into diet and re-offending. It was not insignificant research: his cohort size was significant. He had found out that programmes to teach prisoners how to eat healthily were more successful in cutting the rate of re-offending than the normal rehabilitation programmes. His work had been recognised in Scandinavia but not in the UK.
There is a huge groundswell of research to back up the links between antisocial behaviour and fast food.
I wonder if this will be taken up in the forthcoming Local Government Information Unit report to be launched next week by the All Party Parliamentary Local Government Group at Westminster?
As you may know, Brookes are objecting to the present phrasing of section CS 26 in the City Council’s Core Strategy, and want more specified sites listed for student accommodation.
We are surprised and frustrated by Brookes’ approach. The sites mentioned are relatively small and can hardly be called ’strategic’ (which is the point of that part of the Core Strategy). What’s more, they include parcels of land which should be preserved as green space. No councillor has come out and said that allotment space in the city should be slashed. Brookes should realise that asking to be allocated an allotment site will be highly contentious and counter-productive for them.
Because of the procedure, David and Ruth can not now speak at the Inspector’s hearing but we are making it clear to the officers that they have our support in opposing the Brookes proposal which we believe is both wrong in principle and in its specifics.
If you wish to see the Brookes submission in full, click brookes11.pdf
If you are interested in looking at all the submissions and seek more information about the Core Strategy DPD examination phase, please click here
Oxford Brookes University has rethought its plans for the proposed student centre. If you would like to see the revised plans, please click here
If you would like to make comments on the plan directly to Brookes, or ask the University questions about the plan, you can email spacetothink@brookes.ac.uk
If you want to lodge any comment or concern with the City Council, you will need to contact Planning Officers (see Planning website for City Council on the central orange tool bar)
One of the most important topics in our area are the plans to change London Road. The County Council has now produced their response to the consultation, and what I’ll say first of all is that the consultation has been much better than previous ones. The proposal is to continue with the scheme with some small changes — for instance, it has been suggested that the Old High Street pavement does not need to be extended. But, other features, like getting rid of the subway, remain. As we have continually said, instead of replacing the underpass with a crossing, as the County proposes and which would please some pedestrians but infuriate others, what would be best is to have both a crossing and a subway in this major shopping area.
As reported in The Oxford Times, we are also calling for the County to step back and review what went wrong with Phase I of the scheme before giving the green light to another long period of disruption. I hope to be allowed to address the Committee to speak up for residents’ concerns.
The County’s report is available at on-line. Annex 5, in particular, is the response to the consultation. If you have any comments, do drop us a line.
As many of you in the Headley Way area know, the White Horse recently applied for an extension to its opening hours, to stay open into the early hours and also to open in the morning from 9am. They also asked for an extension for the time that under-18s could be in the dining area. Ruth and I have heard several complaints recently about the pub and the behaviour in the local area that flows from it. Local residents have been especially concerns about this application, with serious worries about the impact of later night opening and the danger that the pub would become more like a night club. Residents organised a petition, submitted representations, held a meeting at which I discussed their concerns and where several families and elderly couples asked me to represent them at the hearing.
The hearing occurred yesterday evening and here’s the result of it. Greene King attended and, at the beginning, announced a very significant change to their application — they removed any extension of night-time hours completely. The application, then, was only for morning opening from 9am, and for the extension of times for under-18s attending. They explained this was because they wanted to emphasis the pub as a food establishment rather than a ‘liquor-driven’ location. As a result, the police withdrew their request for a condition to have door staff but retained several other conditions. I spoke, reflecting residents’ concerns and trying to make sure that there were no loopholes. The committee accepted the revised application, with the police’s conditions attached.
So, in short, while the pub can now open earlier in the morning, it can not stay open any later than it presently does. This is a very significant climbdown on their part and I sense that this is largely due to the hard work of residents, led by Peter Combey, who organised the petition. He deserves a round of applause!
What also came out of this event was that Greene King have agreed to have an evening when they will host residents and allow you to talk with the licensee about your concerns and what can be done to overcome them. I have offered to help arrange that meeting and will do so in the near future — please drop me a line if you want to attend.
Of course, there may still be issues with how the White Horse works. Personally, I am pleased that a condition to have bouncers was not imposed because that would have institutionalised the night-club-like aspect: much better to keep them to their word that they want to turn the venue into a ‘family-friendly’ pub. We do need to monitor this and I ask you, please, to contact me or Ruth Wilkinson if you are affected by any incidents involving the pub in the coming months. Needless to say, we’re ready to work with you and the brewery to make sure we get the improvements that are said to be on their way.
We regret that the copper beech tree at the rear of the Dorset House site opposite Latimer Grange has been inspected and has been found to be dangerous. Here is the Tree Officer’s report in full (and please see the postscript about a further tree)
Background
The Tree Preservation Order (TPO) was made on the 19th of Octoberin 2004 as part of the Council’s continuing programme of TPO review; the Order replaced an older ‘Area Order TPO dating back to 1961, which was significantly out of date and effectively unenforceable. Around the same time the Dorset House School site became vacant and available for redevelopment. The TPO included 11 individual trees and 2 tree groups incorporating a further 10 trees. Due to an assessment made of tree conditions and quality a number of trees on the site were excluded from the Order.
An application under the TPO to fell T11, a mature copper beech tree, was registered on the 8th of June 2009. The reason given in the application is that the tree is infected with a root-decay fungus, Meripilus giganteus, and that an arboriculturalist advises that the tree is thus dangerous being liable to windthrow. The application is accompanied by a Tree Survey Report, which includes photographic evidence of the presence of the ephemeral fruiting body of the fungus concerned.
Officers Assessment
The photographs included in the application show a large fungus at the base of the tree, which is unmistakably the fruiting body of Meripilus giganteus. The photograph was taken in October 2008 and at the time of my inspection in June these had largely disintegrated; nevertheless I am in no doubt that a correct identification has been made. The inspection comments of the 2008 survey indicate that there was some incipient die-back of shoot tips in the crown of the tree, which may be symptomatic of disease or dysfunction in the root system. These crown symptoms have since become very much more pronounced, with as much as a 25% reduction in the density of the tree’s foliage being evident.
The host/pathogen combination of Meripilus on beech is one of the most significant disease associations in terms of tree hazard evaluation. The fungus causes a pervasive and aggressive rot in the anchorage roots of the trees’ root-plate, which the tree is not able to counter effectively. In addition to causing the internal decay of woody structural roots the fungus is a moderate pathogen capable of killing roots. The definitive reference in the literature is provided by Dr David Lonsdale, in the Government published text, Principles of Tree Hazard Assessment and Management, (HMSO 1999). Dr Lonsdale’s summary of the significance of the fungus to tree stability is unequivocal,
‘By the time that large fruit bodies of M. giganteus appear, especially on F. sylvatica [beech], it is likely that a high chance of windthrow exists. Crown symptoms may be present by this stage, but by no means always. Indeed, the upper roots may be largely sound, even though the deeper ones are extensively decayed. Due to this pattern of symptom development, and to the severe weakening of the partially decayed wood, M. giganteus is one of the most dangerous decay fungi to be found on F. sylvatica.’
Under section 198(6)(a) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 Local Planning Authority (LPA) consent is not required for the cutting down of a TPO tree if it is dead, dying or dangerous. Given the widespread and progressive crown die-back symptoms evident it is reasonable to consider that the tree may be dying although this is not certain. However the confirmed presence of Meripilus considered in combination with the crown symptoms indicate that the tree is definitely potentially dangerous and in my opinion the exemption at section 198(6)(a) does apply.
Government advice given to LPAs at paragraph 6.44 of Tree Preservation Orders- A Guide to the Law and Good Practice, is clear in that LPAs should not purport to ‘decide’ works applied for which are in fact exempt; instead the applicant should be written to without delay and advised that the TPO does not apply.
Under section 206(1) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 a duty exists for the replacement of a tree removed under section 198(6)(a). The duty is to plant another tree; of an appropriate size and species; at the same place [as defined by the schedule and map of the TPO]; as soon as this can reasonably be done, i.e. before the end of the next planting season. The duty transfers to a new owner if the land changes hands.
Conclusions
Evidence has been presented to the Council, which reasonably demonstrates that the copper beech tree is dangerous; the tree is therefore exempt from the protection of the TPO. The Council must not therefore attempt to determine the application under the TPO; instead it should write to the agents of the tree owner without delay informing them of this position and of their statutory duty to replace the tree (further advice over species selection can be provided in due course).
Post Script
The condition of one of the horse chestnut trees within G1, along the London Road frontage was also identified as a cause of concern in the 2008 tree survey; this is related to a severe infection with chestnut bleeding canker (Pseudomonas syringae pv aesculi); I am anticipating an application related to this tree in the future following a further more detailed assessment of the tree.
Our latest information from Southern Gas is that there may be a gas leak where the main in Osler Road joins the main in St Andrew’s Road i.e. in the middle of the road junction
It would appear that traffic lights will not be appropriate in this location, and there are moves to obtain a road closure order, we will keep you posted.
Some of you may remember that we started a Water Watch site when there were so many problems involving Thames Water, and our inbox was ‘overflowing’ with emails from unhappy customers.
We are pleased to announce that we have just helped obtain compensation for another resident whose garden suffered from sewage overflow on four separate occasions, and our caseload has now reduced to one outstanding claim.
It was great weather for the Friends of Old Headington’s Open Gardens Day yet again this year, and the event was very well attended today. The event is not only legendary for its wonderful variety of attractive gardens, but also for its excellent refreshments, especially the home made cake by the WI.
Please click here if you would like to see the Friends of Old Headington website, it is hot off the press, and a valuable community resource.
It’s a bit confusing but there are two different police teams in Headington, and residents either come under the Headington North team or the Wood Farm, Headington South and Quarry neighbourhood team.
If you live North of the London Road, in the Headley Way/Sandfield Road and Old Headington areas, then your local police team is Headington North. Their drop in surgeries will be held in the Baptist Church in Old High Street at the following times:
Wed 1 July 12.00-14.00
Wed 29 July 18.00-20.00
Wed 26 August 12.00-14.00
If you live South of the London Road in the Brookside/Latimer Road/ Lime Walk/ Windmill Road/ New Headington areas back to Rock Edge and the Churchill Hospital, then your local police team is the Wood Farm, Headington South and Quarry team. Their drop in surgeries are as follows:
NOC main reception on 16 June from 11.00-13.00
Headington Community Centre drop-in cafe, Gladstone Road, on 17 June 10.00-12.00
Co-op, Atkyns Road on 26 June from 16.00-17.00
Do drop in if you have any question for the teams or want to raise any issue of concern, you’ll be made very welcome
Thanks to everyone who attended yesterday evening’s surgery, Altaf and Ruth enjoyed meeting you and discussing your concerns
These included issues around road signage, parking, ways to improve traffic junctions, hazardous traffic light sequencing at the Windmill Road/London Road junction, a county council legal matter, damage to pavements by refuse collection lorries, proposed Ruskin developments, sewage and drainage problems, and the lack of cycle track along London Road
It’s good to hear that so many residents enjoy living in Laurel Farm Close
We shall update residents as we make progress with their issues
Our next street surgery will take place at 6.30 pm on Tuesday 9 June outside St Andrew’s Church in St Andrew’s Lane. If it rains, Altaf and Ruth will retreat to the White Hart pub opposite! We’d love to hear your views on any local issues, and all are welcome. We look forward to seeing you!
Thanks to all who signed up to become Friends of Bury Knowle Park, we will be in touch with you shortly to let you know the date and time of our first meeting (probably 24 June)
The campaign to save Dorset House from demolition was mentioned briefly in yesterday’s Oxford Mail , click here for the link.
Five residents from Latimer Grange and McMaster Court attended yesterday’s site meeting with the demolition company, along with the Latimer Grange manager and Ruth.
The project supervisor’s name is Eric and he will be present on the site at all times during demolition. The work is scheduled to start on Monday 8 June and the hours of work will be between 8.00 and 18.00 Monday to Friday, and 08.00-13.00 Saturdays, this was agreed with approval of residents. It is scheduled to take 8 weeks and all access will be from London Road.
The dismantled materials will be recycled as much as possible - bricks, roof tiles, timber. In the unlikely event that contractors’ machines will damage the pavement outside (making it difficult for the elderly with buggies), the demolition firm will make good the damage. Asbestos is present on the site but appropriate safety precautions are being taken. Some of the trees have a protection order on them and ‘crowd barrier’ style fencing will be placed around them with signs to warn demolition staff to keep clear of them. A map was produced which shows which trees have TPOs and which not (the majority along the London Road boundary). There will be no burning on site. Dust will be damped down as much as possible. The site will be locked up as now during the project, and the side gate to Latimer Road may need to be strengthened. Contractor parking will be on site.
Representatives from Quintain arrived towards the end of the meeting. They said that they would shortly be approaching Oxford City Council for pre-application advice regarding development of the site but they didn’t know what would be in the application. (They withdrew their previous application four years ago which was for student accommodation) One person from Quintain said that in his view there was only one tree on site worth keeping and that was a copper beech at the rear of the site opposite Latimer Grange, but that was diseased. It also turned out that this particular tree is in the way of the demolition. I rang the Tree Officer immediately to ask him to do checks on this, and also the Head of Planning Control and Development at the City Council. To be frank, I am concerned that trees may be lost, although there is no evidence to back this up, and I have already arranged that an enforcement officer keeps a close watch on the project
The local residents have been invited to visit the site at any time and raise any issues they may have with Eric the supervisor. If any resident from Latimer Grange needs Eric’s contact number I suggest they contact Andrew the manager, and I have it too.
Details as follows for meeting re demolition of Dorset House
Site meeting: Dorset House
11.00
Led by project manager Terry Hawken tel 07973 210677
Andrew Galloway from Latimer Grange has kindly agreed to raise the
issue of the preservation order on the trees on my behalf, and is
going to alert the Latimer Grange residents to the change of date and
time. Neighbourhood police have also been asked to attend.
The following issues will be covered:
ask when work is at its noisiest and limit noise to specified hours of the day
clarify the number of times heavy traffic will need access/egress
to/from the site and ensure contractor parking is on site
explain method of demolition (not the trees!!)
give information re dispersal of dust or any burning
make sure the site is left secure at all times
explain timescale of work
The demolition will start first thing on Monday morning June 8, but for the first week there will be no heavy machinery as work will be surface stripping.
It’s the European and County Elections tomorrow. You will get two ballot papers and have three votes: one for a party in the European and two for County candidates to represent the area comprising Headington, Marston and Northway. Your two County Councillors are presently part of the LibDem team and one of those, Altaf Khan, is standing for re-election. Alongside him, Barry Crossman who works on the University research site on Old Road, is standing hopefully to join Altaf. I am hoping that our team will remain at full strength as only that way can we best represent the people of Headington. I see that the Tories’ slogan is ‘Vote for Change’ — and considering the Conservatives have run the County for the past four years, introducing residents’ parking charges, cut budgets for traffic maintenance, messed up the buses in our area etc etc, I certainly hope that Headington will vote to send the County Conservatives a message that we need a change of Council!
Enough of the soap-box. Here is the public service announcement. Where to vote between 7am and 10pm:
if you live between London Road and Old Road, between Windmill Rd and Brookside (and also including the Rock Edge area), you vote at the old Scout Hut on Perrin St in New Headington
if you live in Old Headington, between Dunstan Rd and Larkins Lane, or between Osler Road and Old High Street (including North Place), you go to the Baptist Church (NOT, please note, the Viking Sports Centre — you go there if you live in the area bounded by Barton Lane and Barton Rd)
if you live around the top half of Headley Way, from Franklin Rd over to Sandfield Rd, taking in Beech Rd too, you vote in St Antony of Padua Church Hall, just below the entrance to the JR
As the area covered by the County division extends beyond Headington, it might be useful to give the other polling stations as well:
if you live around the bottom half of Headley Way, including the ‘Lakes’ area and Copse Lane, you vote at New Marston First School on Copse Lane
if you live in Northway, you vote in the Community Centre, just next to the old school which Labour want to flog off and demolish
if you live on the north side of Marston Road, including Crotch Crescent, Lynn Close and the Jack Straws Lane, Haberton Mead area (but excluding Moody, Pritchard, Peacock and William St), you vote at St Michael’s Church, at the bottom of Jack Straws Lane
if you live on the south side of Marston Road, from Ferry Road over to Wadham Park, or in one of the streets north of Marston Road excluded from the Jack Straws Lane polling district, you vote at the Scout Hall, at the corner of William St and Marston Rd (note this new location)
if you live in the Croft Road estate or Ouseley Close, you vote at URC on Marston Road, just opposite the entrance to Croft Road
if you live in the Carter Estate or in Old Marston Village, you vote at Mortimer Hall
Got it?! If you have any questions of if you want a lift to the polls, give us a call on election day on 01865 798777.
Do you have concerns about the application to extend the licensing hours at the White Horse Pub on the corner of Headley Way and London Road? Do you want to come to a meeting to speak up about your worries and understand more about the process of making your views known?
There is a public meeting planned in the Victoria Court conservatory at 7 pm next Monday 8 June, do come along if this issue concerns you. David will be on hand to explain how licensing applications are dealt with by the City Council
To follow up on Ruth’s posting, she and I are continuing to investigate all possible routes to persuade the owners that the original buildings on the Dorset House site are worth saving. We’ll keep you updated with news of those discussions. Some residents have contacted us asking to sign a petition to save the House. So, we oblige! If you look down the right of the screen, you’ll see our survey has changed. If you do want to try to save Dorset House, do respond to the survey, replying yes, and please provide your e-mail address. This is so that we can validate our response before submitting the on-line petition to the owners of the site.
We will also provide hard copy for those who prefer to sign it that way. But, also, to those who would prefer to see Dorset House go or who don’t care, do also vote in the survey. We do want to know the whole range of opinion out there.
A demolition notice has been sent in by contractors on behalf of Quintain, the owners of the Dorset House site, to demolish all buildings on the site except for the three nearest the corner of Latimer Road and London Road. The demolition work is scheduled to take place week beginning 8 June. This came as a complete surprise to local residents.
This means that Dorset House itself is set to be demolished, along with 1A Latimer Road, and the newer buildings to the rear of the site facing Latimer Grange.
Residents are perplexed about how the owners can simply announce demolition when the City Council has previously recommended the retention of the old buildings as being of local interest. In fact, five years ago, David and Stephen Tall called for extra protection for the House and the buildings were put on what’s called ‘the Local List’. But that’s not the same as a nationally listed building and the site is not within a Conservation Area. In legal terms, when there are no other safeguards, an owner has a right to demolish their own property. That means that the Planning Department, to everyone’s frustration, can’t just stop the demolition happening.
There are, though, other aspects to the issue. We have also found out that there are various trees on the site that have preservation orders on them, and we have requested the planning enforcement officer to contact the demolition project manager to make this clear to him
There are also parts of the site which would not be a loss, in particular the newer buildings at the back of the site. We know that Latimer Grange residents are keen that the demolition of those buildings takes place as soon as possible, to stop the chance of anti-social behaviour on the site. We are setting up a meeting between them and the project manager to discuss issues around dust, noise, parking, access and egress, and, most importantly, security.
We are informed by the County that the contractor is looking to complete the current phase of the redevelopment scheme by the 1st week in June. There are a number of works to be completed throughout the site and a list is being compiled by county planning staff to aid the contractor.
We have followed up residents’ concerns about the disappearance of the wooden seat next to the Sandford Road/London Road bus shelter - this seat was taken away by the contractor and will be re-sited in its original location
We have chased the County for the re-instatement of the bus stop at Sandford Road/London Road. There is a bus shelter, but no bus stop! Currently Arriva buses are not stopping there or picking up passengers and this is greatly inconveniencing our elderly residents in nearby homes. We have had an assurance from County this morning that
A licensing application has been made for the White Horse (Hungry Horse) in Headley Way and the deadline for representations is 4 June 2009. If you wish to know more about this application, please click Licensing Applications on the central orange toolbar.
David is willing to hold a meeting with local residents to explain the procedures if you think this would be helpful? Please comment here or email either David or me if you would like us to organise this
Thank you to all those Headington residents who responded to our survey about the next phase of work on the London Road. We have formulated our response to the County Council having taken on board the wide range of comments made and talked to more local people.
One thing which is very clear to us is the level of frustration there has been over the way the roadworks for Phase I have been handled. We have regularly had to deal with issues of blocked drives, traffic lights switched off, unacceptable noise at night — like you, we have lived with this! The next Phase, because it’s in the very centre of Headington, is likely to be all the more disruptive. If the works were managed like this Phase has been, that would be a nightmare for our district centre. So, one of our key messages to the County is that they should stop and learn before they rush ahead.
We have also stressed to them that the roadworks should be part of a larger strategy, co-ordinated between different agencies: what we want to see is nothing less than our district centre on the up, being regenerated. For that to happen, we insist, it must involve local residents and their representatives at every stage.
We have also made comments on specific proposals. The one issue that has caused the most interest in the press has been pedestrian crossings. Our survey results show that the vast majority want to see an extra crossing on London Road — but that many do not want to lose the underpass. There are a significant minority who would prefer not to use the underpass, and we want those people to be able to have a crossing. But there are equally others who would not feel safe using a new crossing. What we have recommended is that there should be a new crossing, next to Osler Road which means that there would be no reason to waste money on losing the facility of the underpass, which some people find so useful. In short, we don’t see it as a case of either / or: it can be win / win!
I have uploaded the full submission so that you can read in detail what we have said on this and on other elements of the scheme. Thanks again to those who filled in our survey.
The police in Headington North have received a number of complaints from residents who say that too many cyclists are riding on pavements, and they are keen to find out how often this happens, where it happens, and what time it happens. They are producing a leaflet to give to cyclists that will explain to them the consequences of cycling on pavements, the safety hazards this causes for pedestrians, and some information on safer routes to take.
If you see a cyclist riding on the pavement rather than on the cycle track, please report it to Headington North neighbourhood team, giving the date, time and place. This will help them identify the areas they need to focus on.
You may already know that the police hold monthly surgeries in the Baptist Church on Old High St. Here is the list of their forthcoming sessions:
Tuesday 2 June 12pm - 2pm
Wednesday 1 July 12pm - 2pm
Wednesday 29 July 6pm - 8pm
Wednesday 26 August 12pm - 2pm
Most of them are in the day time but you’ll see that the event in July is in an evening. If you can’t make any of those but want to speak to the police, they give the following contact numbers:
David and I are working hard to address the problem of illegal parking on the grass verge outside the parish hall in Dunstan Road. It is wrong to park on this grass verge because:
it ruins the grass in a beautiful conservation area
there are yellow lines on the road at that point, and the verge forms part of the highway so parking here is illegal
parking on a bend like this obstructs the line of sight of oncoming motorists
The Principal at Ruskin College is assisting us by ensuring that Ruskin users are aware of the regulations, and David and I are in touch with enforcement officers. If you recognise anyone who parks their car on the grass verge please let them know that they are likely to be served fixed penalty notices. I will raise this issue with neighbourhood police at this morning’s Neighbourhood Action Team meeting in Old High Street
UPDATE 8/5/09
There is some confusion over who owns this land and I am following this up with officers and with the Land Registry. In the meantime, the neighbourhood police team from Headington North has undertaken to patrol this area on a regular basis
We have been trying to sort out the problem of litter in the area next to the bus stop in Windmill Road.
Here is an update on progress. The environmental development officer has written to the owners of the land and discussed the siting of the bus stop and the height of the retaining wall and advised them who to contact regarding this.
As the problem is continuing, he will seek to serve a litter clearing notice on the owner of the land and arrange for concentrated litter enforcement in the area
We have been contacted by a resident who cycles along Pullens Lane who is concerned about the London Road improvements. He contacted us to say that the junction with Pullens Lane has an obstructively high kerbstone and this is dangerous to those riding bikes, and particularly so for those riding trailer-bikes as the cyclist has to dismount to negotiate the junction between London Road and Pullens Lane safely. We have contacted the County Officer concerned and here is his reply:
In the short term a fillet will be placed on the road to remove the vertical face on the kerb.
A change will be made to the kerb line but the inclined face was a requirement of the scheme.
We are discussing what further action we can press for with County Councillor Altaf Khan
The two Lib Dem candidates for Headington and Marston Division are Cllr Mohammed Altaf-Khan and Barry Crossman.
Altaf has been your local County Councillor since 2005. He has lived and
worked locally with his family for more many years and is currently
finishing a course in labour economics and law at Ruskin College in
Headington.
Altaf has always been at the heart of our community and led the campaign to
retain the IT hub at Northway community Centre.
As a City Councillor, Altaf is also a member of the local neighbourhood
action group and is a trustee of the charitable trust of Old Marston.
Barry works in Headington as a Clinical Trials Co-ordinator for the
University of Oxford - making life saving medicines available to the wider
public.
He has been actively involved in campaigning to retain and improve sports centre facilities and he helps to represent leaseholders in the City. He is keen to involve Headington and Marston residents in developing local plans and amenities
David and I are re-starting our popular open air street surgeries in June, and look forward to meeting you in a place near where you live
9 June 18.30 - 20.00 Informal street surgery outside St Andrew’s Church, St. Andrew’s Road. All residents in Old Headington are welcome to come and share their views and concerns with David and Ruth.
30 June 18.30 - 20.00 Informal street surgery in All Saints Road by the community noticeboard. All residents in Highfield and New Headington are welcome to come and share their views and concerns with David and Ruth.
There is no need to book in advance, just come along, we’d love to see you!
If you need to speak to us about any issue, our contact details are at “Contact us” on the central orange toolbar
Further to our post of 26th April, we have been in contact with the County Council about the re-surfacing of London Rd from Headley Way to Osler Rd and the related closures. There are two main issues. First, the simultaneous closures of Lime Walk, Latimer Road and Sandfield Road. We are now told that the hope is not to have them all closed at the same time, and that it does not take a full five days. I’m not sure how reassuring that is: it might be better to know all the roads are closed that having to leave it to guess work!
Second, and at least as important, is the impact of the night-time working on residents on or near London Road. This has already been a problem further up for the dormitories at Headington School. Our main concern now is for the residents of the sheltered accommodation that lines London Road. We have been assured that a letter has gone to each building but we are urging the County to try to make contact with individual residents in those blocks. If you know any residents in London Court, Victoria Court, McMaster House or any of the other residences around there, do help us make sure they are aware of the unfortunate (but necessary) disruption that’s going to occur.
If a member of the public has recently visited one of the countries or areas where human cases of influenza have been identified, and are well, there is no need for them to isolate themselves from other people as long as they remain well.If during the first 7 days of return from aboard, they develop a feverish illness accompanied by one or more of cough, sore throat, headache and muscle aches, they should follow the advice below:
·stay at home and
·contact their GP by phone or
·seek advice from NHS Direct (0845 4647) or
·Ring the Influenza Information Line: 0800 151 3513 (pre-recorded information and advice – this line is not manned by staff)Those with symptoms should avoid attending their local GP practice or hospital emergency department, where possible. The individual should make sure that they tell those from whom they are seeking advice about their recent travel to an area affected. Depending on their symptoms they may be advised that further investigations may be necessary.
General infection control practices and good respiratory hand hygiene can help to reduce transmission of all viruses, including the human swine influenza. This includes:
Covering your nose and mouth when coughing or sneezing, using a tissue when possible (Catch it!)
Disposing of dirty tissues promptly and carefully (Bin it!)
Maintaining good basic hygiene, for example washing hands frequently with soap and water to reduce the spread of the virus from your hands to face or to other people (Kill it!)
Cleaning hard surfaces (e.g. door handles) frequently using a normal cleaning product
Making sure your children follow this advice
It is important to stress that swine influenza virus is not transmitted by food. There is no risk of catching the illness from eating properly handled and cooked pork or pork products.
Many residents have commented to us despairingly about the London Rd roadworks. They have taken much longer than was anticipated and have been far from well-managed. And I’m afraid, from what we’ve just learnt, things are going to get worse before they get any better.
You will have noticed that the road is going to be re-surfaced (at long last). The works to do that are to occur at the beginning of May with a night-time speed restriction of 10mph. At the same time, a letter sent from the County announces that there is going to be a temporary road closure ‘to the junctions of London Road with Sandfield Road, Latimer Road and Lime Walk. This will operate for 24 hours from 5 May 2009 and the estimated duration of the works is 5 days.’
This sounds to us as a potential recipe for chaos. We have contacted the County questioning whether a week with no exit from either side of London Road between Headley Way and Osler Road is really essential. We have also asked for reassurance that all residents will be fully informed about what is happening. I would hope that that would happen as a matter of course, but as the County has not handled this at all well, I wouldn’t want to put any faith in that.
We will keep you informed as the situation develops. It certainly seems to me that some hard questions need to be asked of the County Council about their handling of this whole scheme.
Lib Dems believe removing bus stops from Queen Street without reducing buses makes no sense
Liberal Democrats have “called in” a decision by the county council cabinet member for transport to initiate an expensive short-term programme of changes to Queen Street in central Oxford. Said Lib Dem shadow cabinet member for transport Cllr Roz Smith: “Moving the bus stops out of Queen Street, without reducing the number of buses, will increase congestion on St Aldates and the High Street. It will also severely worsen the air quality in St Aldates, High Street and surrounding streets where there are many residents and even more full-time workers.”
Cllr Smith added: “Pedestrians in Queen Street will still have all the disadvantages of having buses in the street, but without the advantage of being able to actually get on them. An interim surfacing scheme, to be replaced with a new surface when Queen Street is fully pedestrianised, is a waste of taxpayers’ money.”
The matter will now be considered by the Environment & Economy Scrutiny committee of the county council at a meeting on Tuesday 5th May, starting at 2.00 p.m. in county hall. This meeting is open to the public, and members of the public may ask to address the committee.
In theory, members of scrutiny committees exercise their analytical skills impartially, in the interests of all the citizens of Oxfordshire, including those living in and visiting Oxford City. As with Select Committees in the Houses of Parliament, Party considerations are not supposed to determine the recommendations of scrutiny committees. It will be interesting to see whether any Conservative members of the committee break ranks and respond to the outcry among many groups, and vote to alter the decision of their cabinet member.
Residents in Franklin Road have contacted David and me about the unexpected appearance of bus shelters in their road, despite the fact that they no longer have access to public transport themselves since the no.10 bus route was pulled from Headley Way
I made a site visit this morning, and David and I will investigate this today with Rye St Antony School and the county council. We shall keep residents informed of developments
UPDATE 23 April
David is arranging to meet the Bursar of Rye St Antony School to discuss this and other issues early next week
We have been informed that the developers have allocated an area for
disabled parking and can also confirm that they have cross hatched four
bays, allowing traffic to flow more freely around the car park.
We are waiting for an instruction to confirm that it is possible to remove a
section of the car park wall to allow access onto the footpath.
The disabled parking could then be relocated
over to that area so customers with walking difficulties will have a
shorter distance to walk to gain access to Headington.
Over the last couple of days council officers have indicated that the general
situation does seem to be improving. This seems to be confirmed by a
reduction in complaints. Officers will be visiting the site again next
week to check on the progress made, and update us on developments
After a considerable period of time, and a great deal of inconvenience to those who live alongside Boundary Brook, we have received this promising message from Thames Water:
In terms of progress, the whole house misconnection in New High Street
consisting of 13 separate misconnected appliances has now been dye tested
to confirm correct rectification to foul. More significantly, further
investigations have taken place at Manor Hospital and the flow monitoring
has confirmed that the surface water discharges from their storage tank do
correspond to the high flows experienced in the open culvert in Brookside.
However, whilst the connection of this tank to the surface water system is
in accordance with normal practice, our further investigative survey work
has lead us to believe that some of the flats behind the hospital are
misconnected into this tank rather than the foul sewer. A meeting with the
Hospital has taken place to explain our findings and appraise them of their
responsibilities for the private drainage on their site. As the flats
drain to the sites private sewer it is the Hospital’s responsibility to
ensure the appropriate Housing Association rectify the misconnections. This
is now being pursued by the Hospital who are thus far cooperating fully. I
would just add that whilst our investigations to date have found evidence
of domestic sewage misconnection from the flats, we have not found any
evidence of misconnection at the hospital itself .
We are delighted that the hospital is giving full co-operation in trying to ensure the housing association sorts out the problems in the flats. We shall keep you posted of further developments and continue to press hard for as speedy a resolution as possible
The situation is still not wholly satisfactory but some progress is being made. Some signage is up and more is promised. The contractors also accept the need to improve disabled facilities, in terms of both spaces and access.
Another issue has been raised and that is pedestrian access to the car-park now that the entrance from Dead Man’s Walk (next to the Park) is now blocked off by the contractors’ compound. The suggestion has been made that part of the breeze-block wall at the top end of the car-park is knocked down for the duration of the works and replaced by the builders at its end. So far, I’ve only heard support for doing this. Can anyone see any objection?
David and I are being updated several times a day on the situation with regard to the Old High Street (Waitrose) car park.
Signage is going up over the weekend which will help a great deal as motorists get to grips with the temporary relocation of disabled parking spaces and the recycling bins are moved to a temporary location. Officers have requested that Waitrose creates disabled access at the entrance to the car park, albeit temporarily until the usual disabled car park spaces are back in operation after the refit.
Many of the bulkiest delivery vehicles have now departed, the heaviest of these were delivering materials to construct and fill the compound near the store
A complaint was made by a resident that some of the contractors were parking in the car park spaces but were not displaying permits. This was investigated and it was established that the builders doing this had paid by the Ring Go system, so payment for parking had indeed been made although a paper ticket was not displayed. We have requested that the number of car park spaces is monitored closely over the period of the refit; we are aware that three cars were queuing for places on Friday lunchtime at a busy period when some extra car park spaces were coned off temporarily to allow turning space for the larger lorries.
The City Officer responsible for liaising with Waitrose over the development is Andrew Bradfield-Barnes: he is away for a week’s holiday after Easter but if you have any concerns, please contact either David or myself, or Andrew’s deputy Jason Munro who is working on the Easter bank holiday weekend and all of next week. His office number is 01865 252489 and his email is jmunro@oxford.gov.uk.
Please copy David and myself into any emails you send Jason as we want to ensure that all complaints and concerns are receiving prompt attention, our email addresses are:
The Home Office has compiled an information pack to help keep homes safe. You can order your pack by phoning 0800 456 1213 and quoting “burglary pack”. If you order this pack you will also receive a discount voucher for home security supplies from a major DIY retailer.
The arrival of Waitrose in Headington is a key development for our area. There are a lot of benefits it could bring, helping revitalise the district centre, but there also possible difficulties. So Ruth and I have been keeping a careful eye on how things develop. I met with a regional manager from Waitrose this week and he outlined their plans for the store. They formally took ownership of the store on Thursday — if you’d been there on the previous days, you’ll have seen the clear-out sale which left Somerfield looking like a Soviet-era supermarket. The shop is now closed for a re-fit, with the plan being to open on Thursday 7 May. No great fanfare is planned: they intend to start trading quietly and iron out any teething problems they have (pardon the mixed metaphors!).
They are up-beat about the prospects for this store. If it does go well, they have plans for a small extension. There have been rumours about their taking over the former Threshers store and they are indeed looking to lease that site. They would also be interested in re-locating the sub-station next door — which would remove a real eye-sore — but it is unlikely Southern Electric would agree to that. If Waitrose did take over the Threshers site, they would apply to knock it down and replace it, but that is some way off. In the short term, they would lease out that site.
There have also been rumours about their closing the Old High Street entrance: I’m told that this is highly unlikely. In fact, they seem to see that entrance as very significant as it’s the closest they have to main road frontage.
They are also interested in discussing the future management of the car-park off Old High Street. I’ve made it clear that this car park is used by a range of local people and must remain public. But if Waitrose are willing to work with the Council to improve the look of the car park, I’m sure we would all see that as positive.
The issue of parking relates, of course, to the big question: the traffic impact of Waitrose. There are understandable worries about this in the area and potential problems for residents of Old Headington if the village is used as a back route to the store. At this stage, we need to know what Waitrose’s own calculations have been about the catchment area of the store and the traffic generation they would expect. I have been promised this information. Only then can we work out how to work with our new neighbours to ensure that the impact for Headington is a plus, rather than a headache.
What’s happening to the car park on Old High Street? Several of you have noticed that it’s been taken up by lorries and contractors’ vehicles today. Here’s what I know is going on:
Waitrose are re-fitting their shop and the vehicles belong to their contractors. They came to an agreement with the City Council that, for the period of the re-fit, which will take a month, they will have use of a small part of the car-park. 70 out of the 110 spaces should still be available for users and it is anticipated that that will be sufficient for the expected usage. (Waitrose, by the way, are paying the going rate for using the car-park). The recycling bins are also being moved to near the Bury Knowle wall for the interim.
Obviously, what happened today wasn’t in line with the agreement: most of the car-park was taken up and one observer has called the scene ‘organised chaos.’ Council officers have been promised by the contractors that this was happening because it was the first day; I have asked them to provide firmer reassurances that this is a one-off and that they will be keeping to the agreement. They have also been reminded that they need to put up notices explaining what’s going on and, in addition, to provide disabled access, as the usual route next to the shop is going to be closed. When we hear more, we’ll keep you informed.
I have also more to report on Waitrose’s plans so keep looking for the next post!
Please see information attached that relates to a Temporary Speed Restriction for the London Road, Headington, commencing 20 April 2009 and lasting for 5 weeks. This will be introduced while carriageway resurfacing works take place.
Leon Jolly from Enterprise Mouchel confirmed the following locations and estimated timeframes for delivery.
Phase 1: 19 Apr - 30 April, Headington Campus to Gipsy Lane
Phase 2: 1 May - 12 May, Gipsy Lane to Headley Way
Phase 3: 13 May - 22 May, Headley Way - Osler Road
It’s not clear from the information that we have received what this temporary speed restriction will be in terms of miles per hour, but it’s pretty unlikely that it will be breached given our experiences of the last few weeks
Recently, it’s been hard not to notice the poor state of Dunstan Road: the road humps have become so delapidated to be dangerous. We have raised this issue with both Councils. As you may have seen, just over a week ago, the humps were patched up by the City Council helping deal with the immediate problem. But this isn’t enough: we do need more large-scale work to be done. For that, we will need the co-operation of the County. As yet, they have not committed anything to deal with this problem but, be sure that we will pursue it!
Oxford’s bus companies want to work together to eliminate the need for buses in Oxford’s Queen Street
Oxford City Council and Oxfordshire County Council Lib Dems want plans to remove bus stops from Queen Street in central Oxford later in 2009, to be delayed, and bus company proposals to reduce the total number of buses in the centre of the city, to be brought in first.
Cllr Roz Smith, Shadow Cabinet member for Transport, said: “The Liberal Democrats have long been calling for improvements in Oxford city centre to help both pedestrians and bus users. But the Conservatives’ half-way house for Queen Street is just not the way to do it. The idea that the bus stops can be removed but not the buses doesn’t make sense. People will have all the disadvantages - and potential dangers - of having buses mingling with pedestrians, but none of the advantages of being able to actually get on a bus.
“Instead we will just get more congestion and air pollution in St Aldates immediately, and we know that the bus stops removed from Queen Street will eventually be moved again in later phases of the Transform Oxford scheme. In addition, re-surfacing Queen Street now, only to resurface it again in a year or two when the buses are finally relocated fully, is an outrageous waste of taxpayers’ money.”
Cllr Zoé Patrick, Leader of the county council Liberal Democrats added, “‘The Conservatives say they want to work with the bus companies but show little sign of rolling up their sleeves and getting on with it. Instead of complaining about the bus companies, they should be sitting down with them to create a proper partnership. This will enable joint timetabling and joint ticketing, and hopefully then reduce the number of half-empty buses coming into the centre. And this will then make room on the other roads to remove buses completely from Queen Street and allow it to be properly pedestrianised.
“This Partnership needs to be set up urgently now. The aims of ‘Transform Oxford’ cannot be delivered until the bus companies can work together. I am surprised at the slowness of the County Council in doing this.”
Note:
The 2008 Local Transport Act allows bus companies to discuss routes and introduce joint ticketing, without being accused of running a cartel, but only if the Transport Authority - in this case the County Council - is involved in the process, acting as “honest broker”, in what is called a Bus Quality Partnership.
It was good to see so many people at the exhibition on Saturday morning! If you haven’t yet seen the County Council’s plans for upgrading the London Road, please click on this link
If you haven’t yet submitted comments/feedback on the new scheme, please do so online here
Please note: you will need to click on Next to complete the feedback form. David and I are very keen that everyone fills this in. Among the concerns that were brought to my attention on Saturday were the lack of attention given to cyclists, the narrowing of Old High Street at its junction with London Road in respect of the advent of Waitrose, safety concerns about the London Road/Windmill Road junction, and the removal of the subway at a cost of tens of thousands of pounds. People were also concerned about the lack of planting in London Road
Here is the full result for Thursday’s Headington Hill and Northway by-election,
with percentage vote shares and change in shares since last May:
Roy A. Darke (The Labour Party Candidate) 548 38.3% +2.0
Marc Anthony Borja (The Conservative Party Candidate) 443 31.0% -2.6
Ruth Margaret Beer (Liberal Democrat) 378 26.4% +2.4
Katherine May Wedell (Green Party) 62 4.3% -1.8
This is a good result for the Lib Dems, as we increased our percentage vote share by more than the other parties. It is interesting to note that the total votes cast increased, yet the total number of Conservative Party votes went down from last year’s total.
[Ruth writes…] I am taking a group of potential councillors to Birmingham on Monday 30 March to a ‘Be a Councillor!’ workshop (19.00-21.00). If you would be interested to go to this, give me a call on 07789 368300
Some excellent advice has been sent out by City officers on how to deal with debt and mortgage worries. Please click on Debt and Mortgage Help on the orange centre toolbar to view this
The county council is planning to make improvements to London Road through the centre of Headington during 2010.The scheme will includeenhancements to the shopping area.
You are warmly invited to a public exhibition in Headington, where you will be able to view the plans, talk to planners and designers, and tell us your views
HeadingtonBaptistChurch, Old High Street, Headington
There are two licensing applications in process as follows, select licensing applications on the central orange toolbar for the website link
09/00227/PREM
Waitrose
9 – 11 Old High Street
Premises Licence for Waitrose supermarket, 9- 11 Old High Street, Headington. Licensable activities are recorded music and sale of alcohol.
Deadline for representations: 3/4/09
09/00223/PREM
Oxford Brookes University
Helena Kennedy Centre, Headington Hill, OxfordOX3 0BT
TIME LIMITED Premises Licence application for Oxford Brookes Student Union, Helena Kennedy Student Centre, Headington Hill Campus and Grounds, Headington, Oxford, OX3 0BT. Licence is for Student Union Ball on 23/05/09 19.00 hrs until 03.00 hrs on 24/05/09. Application contains the following activities: Films, live music
Here are some of the things we’ll be discussing at Tuesday’s area committee meeting at Wood Farm School at 6 pm. Don’t forget that all residents can come along and join in the debate:
Roads on which there should be 20 mph speed limits
Improvements to Queen Street
Whether land at Court Place Farm should be leased to Oxford City Football Club (we’ll also consider an objection to this)
Planning application re land on the corner of Marston Road/Cherwell Drive
Then please report it online to the County Council’s Report a Problem site. I have set up a sticky link to this from the central orange toolbar. Do let David and me know if your complaint is not dealt with.
In the past few weeks, the wrapping has come off Headington’s newest buildings — the flats and offices at the top of Lime Walk. It’s the site where the Royal Mail sorting office used to be and I suspect that you, like us, would prefer that to have stayed. But, in their wisdom, Royal Mail closed it down and sold it off and now we have a new addition to Lime Walk’s street-scene.
The buildings are designed by Douglas Riach, who was also the architect for the elegant London Road building used by Scott Fraser, and for John Leon House, further up on the corner of the main road. When the plans were first presented, I must say I was worried by the design, particularly the arch of the metallic roof curving down half the height of the building. So, it was a surprise to me when I saw the building and thought it was actually an interesting arrival in the street…
…But I expressed my opinion the other day to one of the residents of Lime Walk whose reaction was ‘how can you? It’s the worst building I’ve ever seen.’ As another person present commented on our difference of opinion: tastes differ. But Ruth and I would both be interested to hear your views on the Lime Walk building — and on the architecture of Headington more generally. Do leave us a comment!
David has been pressing the NOC and I have been pressing the Highways Technical
Officer in a sort of co-ordinated pincer movement on getting a seat installed next to
the bus stop at the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre in Windmill Road.
I thought you might like to see the latest communication we have received on this:
I’ve been checking with the NOC as it is still their property. [This] hasn’t been adopted as Highway yet but this rests with the County. In any event, it would have to perform through a 12 month maintenance period.
This notwithstanding, subject to the approval of the NOC I expect to
get a seat put there soon.
Several residents have contacted us with their concerns about the lack of seating at this bus stop. Many of the patients visiting the NOC have mobility problems so we hope that this work progresses as quickly as possible. We will keep lobbying hard for this!
Headington residents will have noticed that the crossing introduced next to Osler Road was removed today. It’s not a surprise: the crossing was always intended to be temporary, to be there during the roadworks further up on London Road. But was perhaps a surprise to those at the County who put it there was the popularity of the crossing. Ruth and I have certainly had several messages saying how pleased local people have been with a crossing that links the road to the Manor Surgery with New High Street and the district centre.
It begs the question: would people like to see it stay? I believe London Road deserves another crossing and it seems to me that the logical place is where this crossing was placed, helping to link the shops on the corner of Osler Road in with the rest of the district centre. What do you think?
The whole issue is, of course, tied up with plans for the ‘improvements’ to London Road. The suggestion is to close the underpass (the one local residents painted 7 years ago) and to replace it with a crossing at the same spot. But wouldn’t it be better to have a crossing AND an underpass? It doesn’t have to be ‘either / or’, it could be ‘win / win’.
Ruth and I, as your local councillors, are sending out a survey to you on the next phase of the London Road development, including questions on the issue of crossing. Please do let us know your opinions. If you would like to see the e-copy please click on
The Oxford Bus Company and Stagecoach share many of the objectives of Oxfordshire County Council’s Transform Oxford vision, but do not agree with their proposals for how the bus network should serve the city. Their joint proposal can be found at this site
Oxford Brookes and Stagecoach have confirmed that the Gipsy Lane bus stops have been moved due to the roadworks. Wheatley bound, the stop is nearer the gates to Headington Hill Hall, and City/Harcourt Hill bound it is nearer the entrance to the new Buckley building .
Signs have been put up but passengers are still getting confused. On a couple of occasions people have been seen jumping the orange barriers, this is not safe, and Oxford Brookes University has asked us to pass on this information to anyone we know who travels on the Brookes bus.
Thank you to all the wonderful people from New Headington Residents’ Association and the Friends of Old Headington for allowing David and me to help them clean up the centre of Headington this morning. Here are one or two photos to make you smile, courtesy of the Headington and Marston Forum
[THAMES VALLEY COMMUNITY MESSAGING - Oxford - B_04/03/09]
During the last week there has been a series of burglaries in the
Headington area. Electrical items and jewellery have been taken.
Please remember to make sure your home is secure, particularly when
you leave it unattended.
Permission has been given for a certificate of lawfulness to erect a telecomms mast on Rock Edge, and permission has been refused for an application to extend property in St Anne’s Road this week ending 27 February. Please click on Planning decisions on the centre orange menu bar for details
Many residents in the Lime Walk area will remember the planning application for 91 Lime Walk, demolishing the house and replacing with a set of houses and flats. Many people understandably felt that this was cramming far too much onto the site. It was rejected by the planning committee and the developer took that decision to appeal.
I offered to represent the Council in this case. This morning saw the site visit of the Inspector. The applicant, his consultant, a Council officer, two residents and myself were present. It’s one of the curiosities of the system that you are not allowed to raise issues there, only to point out physical features ot the Inspector. But I made sure that he noted various aspects of the site, and the relationship of the site to Cecil Sharpe Place.
So, no significant news at this point. We should expect a result in a couple of months. We’ll keep you posted!
A resident reported that there is a small spring which flows over the path opposite the Morrell Halls near a padlocked gate on one side and a recently created tree stump on the other. He suggested that this could be remedied by opening up the ditch so that the water flows down hill into it.
I asked council officers to investigate this and they confirmed that water is running off Headington Hill Park over the path and into Brookes’ site. He agreed with our resident that the simplest way would be to reopen the ditch along the park boundary. He commented:
The upper section seems to have been lost to this point. It would required the removal of some of the shrubbery behind the iron railings that has grown.
I’ve just had some good news from Parks to let us know that they have been instructed to undertake the ditch extension in Headington Hill Park and hope to be starting in the next couple of weeks.
Result! Do please keep sending in your ideas for improving our environment!
David met representatives from Thames Water on Friday to discuss a number of unresolved issues and he has found out more about the source of the clean water discharge down Boundary Brook and where further misconnections may be found
Thames Water representative Huw Thomas will visit one resident to apologise in person, and will look into compensation and get back to us about their policies. He will also investigate how Thames Water has dealt with one particular compensation claim. He has ensured that incorrect instructions given on the Thames Water website have been corrected.
The Liberal Democrats are proposing the Freedom Bill - http://freedom.libdems.org.uk - and here’s a selection of the measures it incorporates:
• Scrap ID cards for everyone.
• Restore the right to protest in Parliament Square.
• Scrap the ContactPoint database of all children in Britain.
• Remove innocent people from the DNA database.
• Reduce the maximum period of pre-charge detention to 14 days.
Oxford City Council have teamed up with the Energy Savings Trust (EST) to bring the EST Renewable Energy showcase to Oxford Town Hall on Saturday 28th February 2009.
The event is on between 10.30 am and 3.30pm and includes stalls, advice and information from providers of specific energy saving and renewable technologies demonstrated by industry representatives.
Oxford City Councils Energy Team will also be on hand to answer any questions you may have on specific technologies and grants for installing such technologies.
David and I have had a meeting with the officer in charge of car parks in the City to discuss the future of the Old High Street car park with the advent of Waitrose. Many people have mentioned that they think there will be a pressure on parking places once the new Waitrose store opens in May
We have flagged up a number of issues which include the need for improved lighting, the provision of a shelter over the ticket machines, the location of recycling bins, access and egress from the car park by motorists and by pedestrians, and the provision of cycling racks.
It became clear that some of these issues relate to phase 2 of the London Road redevelopment, and lighting can also be an issue for consideration by the Crime Prevention team. To this end, David is organising a bigger meeting which will include relevant stakeholders e.g. County transport planners
We should like the main entrance to the car park to be re-modelled at some point, but it looks as though this would require capital funding. Capital funding has been cut drastically this financial year so prospects of this are not great.
The car parks officer confirmed that blue badge owners will continue to park free for four hours in any 24 hour period.
The next meeting of the Bus Users’ Forum is scheduled to take place at the Town Hall on Wednesday 11 March. The venue has changed to accommodate a bigger audience. There will be an opportunity for all bus users to discuss the bus companies’ plans to move bus stops in line with plans to pedestrianise Queen Street.
We would urge residents from Franklin Road, Woodlands Road, Fortnam Close and the top end of Headley Way to attend this meeting so that we can call for buses to be reinstated along Headley Way. There will also be an opportunity for Headington residents to lobby for a through route from Headington to North Oxford.
We have been told by the bus companies that they have been working on a joint scheme that will be ready in early March - this may be the first time that the public (and maybe also councillors?!) will learn about it. The meeting will be some time between 17.30 and 20.30, we will post up timings when we have more information
People who have served the City with distinction are to be invited to receive a Certificate of Honour at a special presentation ceremony and reception in the Town Hall in May. As councillors, we are not permitted to propose or second a nomination, but nominations from the public will be considered by a panel comprising the Lord Mayor, Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire and the Director of Oxfordshire Community and Voluntary Action (or their nominated representative).
The recipients can be of any age, including young people. They can live anywhere but their service must benefit the people of Oxford. Nominations for this year’s ceremony need to reach Jude Skipp at the Town Hall by noon on 27th March 2008, and David and I have copies of nomination forms.
For more details, contact either David or me in the usual way, or Jude Skipp at the Town Hall by telephone on 01865 252414 or by e-mail at jskipp@oxford.gov and we will send out a form.
I have lots of meetings lined up for Monday 23 February, and two of the officers I shall be meeting (separately) have responsibility for car parks - including St Leonard’s Rd and Somerfield’s - and for the spending of what is called Section 42 money, which is the money given to the City Council by the County Council for repairs and maintenance to roads and pavements.
If you want me to raise any issues with these officers please let me know either by using the comments box or by emailing me on ruth.wilkinson@oxfordlibdems.org.uk
The major political news of the week (apart from the gagging of debate between democratically elected councillors in the Council Chamber by the Labour Mayor on Monday) was that a by election has been called in the Headington Hill and Northway ward. Names of candidates have to be in by Friday 27 February and the election will be held on Thursday 26 March
In a turn of events which left opposition councillors, members of the public and the press gasping, the Labour group on Oxford City Council last night prevented any debate on their budget proposals in council, and then forced them through on the Lord Mayor’s casting vote. The increase in council tax will be 4.5%, well above the increases in income which most Oxford residents are likely to get this year.
David says: “You have to wonder why Labour were so keen to avoid discussion of their proposals. In recent weeks we have seen them going back on their promises to keep the Peers Leisure Centre open, and on their undertaking to traders in the Covered Market to invest in repairs and improvements. They are saying they will keep the Museum of Oxford open, but have not budgeted enough money for this. What else are they trying to hide?”
Deputy Leader Stephen Brown added: “We proposed our own alternative budget, setting the Council Tax increase at 2%, which we felt was more reasonable in the present climate. But we still found ways to honour the council’s promises on the Covered Market, and the Museum, and to help community centre users which are going to be squeezed with the new business rates, and the various other local groups who rely on grants from the area committees. Labour seems to have no understanding of what life will be like for people during this recession.”
Plans are being drawn up for the next stage of the London Road ‘improvements’. Whatever you feel about the first phase, which has seen disruption around the Headley Way junction, the next stage, from Osler Road to Bury Knowle Park, will be all the more high-profile and will have a significant impact on the area. Ruth and I both think that the opportunity should be taken really to improve the whole area, in conjunction with the changing shop-face of the centre. First of all, though, there needs to be real consultation on what the County is proposing.
At present, there are some controversial proposals from the County: having a raised junction at Windmill Rd but keeping the present layout for cars crossing the junction, moving bus stops, decreasing the taxi rank, changing the parking arrangements and — most controversial of all — removing the underpass and replacing it with a pedestrian crossing, just west of Stephen Road.
As you know, your local councillors have worries about getting rid of the underpass, which many elderly people, and young mothers, tell us is the only way they feel safe crossing the road. A crossing would not solve all those problems, as some who are slower of the mark feel pressured by the limited timespan of the green man. On the other hand, I have heard people also say they would like to see a crossing permanently where there is a temporary one now — next to Osler Road. So, perhaps this should all be re-thought.
But, at this stage, Ruth and I want to hear your views. Please do send us your comments, writing them here or sending us an e-mail. At this point, we want to get as broad a range of opinions as necessary. Let’s make this into a big conversation!
A petition signed by more than 1300 citizens of Oxford pleading for the continuation of the Museum of Oxford was snubbed at the full Council meeting at the Town Hall tonight. The Labour administration did not allow this issue to be debated further as part of the budget proposals. I was ashamed at this blatant disregard for the views of the City’s residents.
Furthermore, the Labour administration did not allow further debate on other important issues including the refurbishment of the Covered Market, the reinstatement of a street warden post in Northway, area committee discretionary grants weighted according to Indices of Multiple Deprivation, additional citizen advice to cope with financial hardship (at a time when jobs are being cut at BMW), the imposition of business rates on community centres, and the introduction of fuel poverty hardship grants. Democratically elected members have been denied the right to speak up for their constituents. This was no way to run a council meeting.
For the first time since I was elected a city councillor, I felt appalled at the way council business was conducted tonight. David and I were not even given a chance to speak on issues that matter to the people of Headington. If you care about democracy, for sanity’s sake vote Lib Dem.
The Lib Dems have conducted an on-line survey associated with our county and city group websites. We now have over 100 responses. The participants are of course anonymous, and no claims can be made that they represent a balanced cross-section of the population. However, there is also no sign that any individuals or groups have tried to influence the results in any direction - there has been a constant flow of a few a day.
County Cllr Ian Hudspeth mentioned at Central South & West Area Committee that he had received a couple of hundred feedback forms as a result of the consultations to date. Here are the (unedited) results of our survey and thank you to everyone who took part from the Headington Ward
Q1, Do you feel that more pedestrianisation of central Oxford would attract you to visit more often?
Yes, definitely - 3%
Probably - 34%
It depends on other factors - 30%
Probably not - 31%
No - 2%
Q2, Which streets do you feel would benefit most from being pedestrianised?
Broad St - 3%
George St - 10%
Queen St - 19%
Turl St - 15%
New Inn Hall St - 19%
Magdalen St/Magdalen St East - 20%
Beaumont St - 14%
High St - 0%
Q3, If you travel from East Oxford, would you find it acceptable if you always had to change buses at the Plain?
Yes - 1%
No - 98%
Don’t know - 1%
Q4, Do you feel that the number of buses on the High St is ….
Far too many - 2%
Too many - 49%
About right - 47%
As many as there need to be - 2%
Q5, Do you feel that the traffic lights outside Debenhams (Cornmarket/George St junction) make it safer for pedestrians?
Yes - 2%
No - 97%
Don’t Know - 1%
Q6 - Any other suggestions for improving things for pedestrians in central Oxford?
Plan not joined up - needs of cyclists being ignored.
Pembroke St should be considered for pedestrianisation.
Broad St has great potential - introduce continental style cafes and places to lounge around.
Frideswide Square is a mess for both traffic and pedestrians - this needs special consideration.
Traffic on High St and St Aldate’s should be slowed right down, and pedestrians allowed to use road space.
Bus routes need to be rationalised - more needed between Park & Rides/station and residential areas.
Pedestrianisation is a mad idea - reopen Cornmarket and George St to through traffic.
There isn’t enough in central Oxford to make pedestrianisation worthwhile.
At the Oxford City Council budget debate on Monday, the Liberal Democrat group will propose a set of amendments intended to honour undertakings to community groups which the Labour administration’s proposals have abandoned.
Deputy Leader Stephen Brown says: “We find it unacceptable that Labour should let down those in the city who are most in need of help in these difficult times. The users of our community centres, those in fuel poverty and other financial hardship, and those in fear of crime, are not getting the help from Labour that they deserve. Instead, Labour is proposing a stonking 4.5% increase in Council Tax, which will hit those on low incomes hardest.”
Added Cllr Brown: “Last year, the Lib Dems proposed an increase in council tax of 2% for the financial year 2009/10, and we still think that is the right level. We also want to see the council honour its promises to repair the Covered Market, to keep the Museum of Oxford open, and to maintain area grants for the many valuable community initiatives. We also want to correct the serious effects of new business rates on community centres, and to cancel cuts in the budgets for Street Wardens and Social Inclusion initiatives which Labour wants to make.”
Proposals include cutting the amount of savings that the Museum of Oxford must make next year; this would allow more time for a Trust to be set up to ensure that the Museum has a long term future. This has been an issue that has generated much concern from residents in our Ward.
No single Party has a majority on Oxford City Council. The Labour group is the largest and runs a minority administration, but the combined votes of the opposition parties in council can prevent their budget being adopted. The Liberal Democrat amendments will be debated along with proposals from the Green group at a full council meeting starting at 5 p.m. on Monday 16th February in the Town Hall. Members of the public are welcome to attend
People often ask us questions about who to report things to, or how to find out what’s going on in the area. It’s certainly worth trying oout the following web pages if you haven’t already
Fix My Street www.fixmystreet.com is a sort of (non-party) online casework service. The site encourages people to register their local issues, and then monitor how, when and by who they’re fixed by.
Enter your postcode (or a postcode in the middle of the ward you represent) and you’ll get a list of issues in your local area. You can also sign up for email alerts every time someone enters a new issue.
Planning Alerts www.planningalerts.com has been around on a trial basis for a little while now - its pretty straight-forward: give your postcode and email address and in return you get news of planning applications by email. The email alerts seem to be comprehensive and complement the ones offered by the City council. It covers 315 local authorities at the moment.
Write to Them
Another website from the same people as Fix My Street is www.writetothem.com. Enter the postcode in your ward, and hopefully you should come up with the details of your city councillors, county councillors and MP
People are to be asked for their views on where 20mph speed limits
should go in Oxford as the county council starts a consultation
exercise on February 12.
In Autumn 2008, the people of Oxford were asked what they thought
about the idea of introducing 20mph speed limits in the city.
Two-thirds of people who responded were positive about the idea.
The county council now wants to know what people think of the detailed
plans in terms of which roads are to be included in the proposal and
which should remain excluded.
WHERE COULD LIMITS BE INTRODUCED?
The proposals recommend that 20mph limits could be introduced in 2009 on:
Minor roads within the city including outlying areas such as Sandhills
Un-numbered through roads except where they are part of heavily-used
bus routes into the city, for example the section of Blackbird Leys
Road (north west of Balfour Road) and Barns Road (except for the
section immediately adjoining Between Towns Road), and Old Abingdon
Road
Some sections of the main A roads and the B road network where there
are busy shopping areas, for example the London Road through Oxford
Brookes University/Headington and on parts of the B4495 through Temple
Cowley
EXISTING 20 MPH ZONES
There are already a number of 20mph zones and limits in Oxford and
these would be incorporated into the wider project. The area of the
city centre that would be covered by the 20mph limit would be expanded
significantly.
HOW WOULD MAIN ROADS BE AFFECTED?
Radial routes such as:
Abingdon Road
Banbury Road (either side of Summertown)
Woodstock Road
Botley Road beyond Abbey Road
London Road either side of Brookes/Headington Shops
Iffley Road beyond Temple Street
would NOT be included.
Routes around the city such as:
the ring road
Oxpens Road/Thames Street
Marston Ferry Road
Donnington Bridge Road
would also NOT be part of the limit.
The Botley, Cumnor and North Hinksey areas will NOT be part of any
20mph plans with people from those areas having already stated that
they do not want to be part of the proposal.
BENEFITS
The introduction of 20mph speed limits, which are designed to be
self-enforcing, can reduce accident levels, especially when associated
with traffic-calming measures. The 20mph limit would encourage more
walking and cycle trips and bring associated health benefits.
HOW TO HAVE YOUR SAY
Consultation officially begins on February 12 and runs until March 5 .
You can find out more and have your say by:
Going to your local library in Oxford, viewing information about the
plans and filling in a response form. Participating libraries are
Blackbird Leys Cowley, Headington, Central Oxford and Summertown. The
same information will be available at receptions in County Hall and
the county council’s Speedwell Street headquarters.
Visiting Oxfordshire County Council’s website at
www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/20limits and filling in the same form.
Writing to the county council at Oxfordshire County Council, 20 Limit
Consultation, Speedwell House, Speedwell Street, FREEPOST OF260,
Oxford, OX1 1BR .
Emailing 20@oxfordshire.gov.uk
I had a meeting on site yesterday with a representative from Waitrose and three officers from the City Council to discuss the building works which will take place in April. The Project Manager for the re-fit is Mark Sharkey and I have his contact details; he managed the Asda refit in Wheatley and has practical working experience with some of the sub-contracters on this project.
It was agreed that 30 car park spaces would be cordoned off for use by the Waitrose construction team for storing materials and for skips. Work vehicles will have sole use of the entrance nearest the London Road junction (next to the Audio shop) for access to the site. This will leave the main entrance accessible to the public. There will be a crane on site while they are working on the roof of the building. Cycle parking will be moved elsewhere on site during the re-fit as a temporary measure. Two trees that currently overhang the building are considered a hazard and will be trimmed back by the Parks Dept.
Waitrose are keen to relocate the recycling bins on the far side of the car park near the wall with Bury Knowle Park, this has also been suggested by residents. We are asking the City Works Dept. to advise us on the most suitable location.
Signage will be put up and Waitrose will re-line the car park at the end of the project. It is recognised that the lighting in the car park isn’t very good, Waitrose will paint the lamp posts in corporate colours (black and silver).
Timescale
It is likely that the project will run from 9/4/09-30/4/09
1 month before the start date, Waitrose will write to those in neighbouring properties, explaining what will happen and when, and giving contact details of the site manager and project manager
6/4/09-8/4/09 Allowed on site (busy traffic, setting up huts etc)
8/4/09 Last day of trading for Somerfield’s
9/4/09 Ownership transferred to Waitrose
16/4/09 Real work starts
Noise
We have specified that that noise is kept to a minimum (they are working 24/7) and also that that they should not be using noisy equipment after 20.00. They will keep the doors closed at all times while work is going on. The power will be taken off as part of the re-fit so there will be use of generators, the project manager is sourcing the quietest ones he can find.
Shoppers’ tickets
The officer in charge of car parks at the City is negotiating terms with Waitrose concerning ’shoppers’ tickets’ i.e. a discount on parking for those who buy goods at Waitrose. More on this later!
Staff
I understand that it is Waitrose policy to retain staff from the existing Somerfields’ store, at least for twelve months, during which time they will have the opportunity to attend staff training courses and may be retained on a permanent basis after that date.
Plans
I don’t have the detailed plans yet but it would seem th
