A big thank you to all who came along to the second Ward Focus Meeting on Tuesday. Despite it being the middle of the summer break and there were several people who we knew could not attend, it was good to see nearly seventy residents present. We were kindly hosted by Headington School, whose bursar briefly described the school’s plans for improving its facilities (without, he emphasised, any plans to increase numbers). We were also pleased to have Rob Lloyd-Sweet, Conservation Officer at Oxford City Council, who talked about the next steps for the now-adopted Old Headington Conservation Appraisal. Plus we reported back on actions Ruth, Altaf and myself have taken on your behalf since the last meeting, as well as having a wide-ranging discussion on new issues that local residents want raised.

One of the key issues discussed was how to use the new ‘Ward Member Budgets’ that are now available — £1.5k per City Councillor, so with Ruth and I pooling together, £3k for Headington Ward. This was a start of a dialogue and we will post shortly more information.

We will also post later this week the action points from the meeting.

The next meeting will be on 18th October. As you know, the plan is to hold these meetings in the months when there is not a North East Area Forum. Those Forums — the informal and infrequent replacement for Area Committees — are supposed to be every three months but the second one has slipped back from September to October. So, if you are wondering why there’s no meeting in September, that’s why! The Area Forum is presently planned for 12th October.

We hope to see you on 18th October but, in the meantime, if you have any issues, please drop us a line!