A start of a year and a chill has set in, both in the economy and in the weather. But there are some things to celebrate — and one small one comes with 2009 ushering in ‘The End’ of one of last year’s less happy sagas.

You may remember that the Labour City Council proposed to centralise planning decisions away from local communities, without even consulting those communities. It was hardly a surprise: Labour had been saying for some time that centralised is more ‘efficient’, and that local decision-making was poor decision-making that must not be allowed. I’ve picked apart their arguments before; the point is that, whatever the weaknesses of their claims, the way they presented them was, to be frank, woefully handled. The debate at the Town Hall  was no fine display of oratory and, as the Oxford Mail reported, nearly ended in farce — Labour lost a key vote, but a final resolution was not reached, leaving the question simply undecided.

So, it was expected that there would be a re-run of the debate at next Council on 19th January. The item is on the agenda but I heard this week that Labour have decided to accept common sense: the status quo will continue, and local planning decision-making is saved.

This is a victory both for common sense and for local people — for those who bothered to write or to phone their councillors, and especially those who took the effort to come to the Town Hall and express their concerns. To those who did: thank you.

But we should not be naive enough to think this is the definitive end, with no possible sequel. There is an engrained attitude in Labour that is suspicious of decision-making away from the Town Hall, where they fear they can not control it. It may well be that we’ll find that this particular vampire, through whose heart we thought we’d thrust a stake, might walk again. Perhaps, but at least for now local decision-making is safe.