Oxford City Council is now offering an online reporting service to further speed up the reporting of abandoned trolleys.

An online  form can be used to report abandoned trolleys within the city 24 hours a day at a time that is convenient to residents.  The forms go directly to Trolley Collection Services Ltd who are funded by local supermarkets to collect trolleys on their behalf.

Here is a link to the new reporting form 

A survey is being carried out across the county, and you may be one of the lucky people to get a questionnaire through your letter-box! It’s part of a national Place Survey Programme which is asking residents aged 18 and over to comment on their immediate neighbourhood, public services, and whether they get involved in their community.

If you need any help in filling in the form or want to know more about the survey, please click here for details. Your comments are important to us - let the Councils know how happy you are with their local services!

Got a problem with Thames Water?

David and I have started up a campaign site called WaterWatch Oxford for any resident in Oxford to email us with reports of the issues they have with Thames Water utility services. We want to log how many issues there are across the City so that we ask Thames Water about them next Tuesday and continue to chase progress

If YOU have a problem you wish to report, please click on WATER WATCH OXFORD on the left hand toolbar and tell me

WHAT happened?

WHERE it happened?

WHEN it happened, and has it happened again?

WHO did you contact to get it fixed?

WHAT did they do to fix it?

In response to residents’ concerns, I have made several phone calls and sent a number of emails to staff at City Works about the possible confusion caused by refuse collections being carried out in Kennett Road on the same day of the week as the Farmers’ Market 

The flats whose access is into the first part of Kennett Road are London Road addresses and their scheduled collection is Thursday - the refuse collection vehicle will collect this waste from the London Road End.

The Kennett Road residents will have their refuse collected on Fridays. On the Fridays when the market is in operation, the refuse collection vehicle will reverse, using a bansksman, from Bateman Street as far as the “No Entry” signs at the far end

City Works believe that the refuse collection will not affect the operation of the Farmers Market.  They say..

The market organiser has in fact stated that there is sufficient room for our vehicles to turn around near to the market without affecting it if we so wish.

As far as other road users are concerned, these problems are faced daily: in other parts of the city and in roads that are considerably narrower. There is sufficient space in Kennett Road for other vehicles to pass the Refuse Collection Vehicle but do recognise that sometimes this may cause a delay to other road users but not normally more than one or two minutes.

One would expect all drivers to take note of all road and traffic
conditions and manoeuvre accordingly

Please let David and me know if there are any operational problems when the new scheme commences.

If you have problems with flooding or sewage or you are confused about your water bills, then come along to the next North East Area Committee and make your views known to the staff from Thames Water ! The meeting is at Bayard’s Hill School, Bayswater Road (parking off Waynflete Road) in Barton on Tuesday 21 October at 6 p.m. Please make yourself known to me as well - I’ll be there to grill them too!

Public consultation on Oxford’s CORE STRATEGY (2026)

Residents have asked about the extended bus service to Cherwell School which was expected to start in September. I have received confirmation from the County that this is going ahead and will start on Monday. Here is the email:

I can confirm the minor change to 700 that has been agreed with R H Transport, will take place as from Monday 1st September 2008

The existing 700 journey that currently leaves the J.R. Hospital at 08.05 and operates via Marsh Lane and the Northern By-Pass (i.e. the peak hour anti-flow route) will instead, from Monday, operate via Cherwell Drive and Marston Ferry Road (i.e. the normal daytime route). This will be just this one journey via this route at this time; the next Marston Ferry Road and Summertown routed journey is not then scheduled until 09.05.

Separate discussions are ongoing about a further extension of 700 to/from Churchill Hospital via Headington (London Road) and I suspect that the company was confused by this reference - hence the negative reply. The diverted 08.05 bus will, of course, still start from the J. R. Hospital bus terminus as now.

The company do offer a 10 jny multi-ride card (12 trips for the price of 10). Journeys are then cancelled as a when undertaken. The last 700 in the afternoon calls at the school at about 15.20 so later children will have to return on the Stagecoach 14 service in any case.

Following on from a number of enquiries from residents and via the eForum, I have received the following comments from the regional External Relations Executive that I though I would share with you. Please hit the comments button to register your views.

1. Inaccessibility to Ledgers’ Lane by public transport from Headington to
collect undelivered parcels.

I fully understand that for customers who do not have access to a car they
may find it difficult to travel to the new location. However, our
understanding is that there are bus stops (for the number 1, 5 & 5a bus
services) in the locale of Ledgers Close.

Perhaps it would help if I explained that there are various options
available to customers to avoid the need to travel to our East Oxford
Delivery Office to collect their undeliverable mail.

The options that are then available to the customer are:

Have the item re-delivered to their address or any other local address
free of charge at a mutually convenient date & time.
Local Collect Service - for 50p the item can be taken to their local
Post Office branch for collection.
Another person can collect the item on their behalf from the delivery
office upon producing the card and suitable ID for the named addressee.

The first two options can be arranged by telephone or via the Royal Mail
website.

Also some mail order companies will allow customers, at the point of
purchase, to nominate an alternative delivery address.

2. Concerns over the resourcing and management of the Delivery Office at
Ledgers’ Lane as there are often queues. Someone has been informed that
there is a shortfall of 17 staff there.

Following the move of Headington to East Oxford the weekday opening hours
of the Callers Office were extended to cope with the increase in customer
numbers, the opening hours are now: 07:00 – 17:00 Monday – Friday and 07:00
– 12:30 Saturdays. These extended hours have helped to spread the workload
on the staff working in the office and enabled them to offer a far improved
service to customers who have a need to visit or make contact with them.

We would like to apologise to our customers for the length of the queues on
occasions that is due to the extremely high number of packages at certain
times of the year e.g. Easter, Valentines day, Christmas etc. Our staff
always working very hard to serve people as quickly as possible. Again it
is worth referring to the other options available to customers that I
detailed in my response to point 1.

There are a number of vacancies in the office, however, the callers office
is always fully manned.

3. The popular suggestion that undelivered parcels could be collected from
Headington Post Office (I believe that this service used to be available in
Headington before a building was disposed of, so expectations are still
high that this service can be replaced).

There are several Post Office branches in the area, which we believe
includes the Headington branch, where customers can request for their item
to be taken to their local Post Office branch for collection for a nominal
charge of for 50p (Local Collect Service).

4. There are also concerns that there isn’t always a daily postal delivery
service to homes in the area - it would be useful if you could provide some
statistics on this!

As part of The Licence issued by the Postal Services Commission (Postcomm)
Royal Mail is obliged to provide a delivery service to all addresses within
the UK Monday to Saturdays, unless the receiving address has been
classified as a Universal Service Obligation (USO) exception. Any failures
have to be reported to Postcomm on a monthly basis.

The Delivery sector Manager has confirmed that deliveries are being made
daily to every house in Headington that receives mail that day.

I trust I have allayed your concerns regarding the issues above and we are
confident that East Oxford Delivery Office will continue to strive to
provide an exceptional service to all their customers.

However, if you feel it would still be beneficial for you to meet with both
the Delivery Sector Manager and local Delivery Manager please let me know.

Further to our earlier post about opening times of public conveniences, the Area Manager would find it helpful if details of early closures are reported to
the Contact Centre on 01865 252900 or by e-mail to
streetscene@oxford.gov.uk in order for remedial action to be taken.

There have been a lot of emails on this issue lately on the Headington and Marston e-Forum. People are saying that they are having difficulty collecting undelivered parcels from Sandy Lane, Littlemore, and would like to be able to pick them up from Headington Post Office instead.

Do you think this would be a good idea?

Have you had problems contacting the Collection Centre in Sandy Lane? If so, I’d like to hear about it, please!

If a significant number of people are concerned about this issue, we will try to facilitate a public meeting