The Save Headington Library Group will have a stall at Sunday’s Headington Festival.
The County’s proposals and supporting documents will be available for all to read, and there will be feedback forms for you to collect and fill in
Please send in a response to this consultation if you want the best for your library!
From Jan-May 2011, enforcement officers have made 128 visits to the 3 hour parking bay in All Saints Road, and issued 10 parking notices.
As many of you are aware, there has been what looks like a U turn by the County Council following its initial plans to axe libraries across Oxfordshire
The County Council’s website is now displaying this change of heart.
Based on the needs analysis of each area which should have been done before any proposals were made, the following 22 libraries make up those that would meet the council’s statutory requirement to provide a comprehensive and efficient network of libraries and would remain fully staffed under the latest proposals:
Abingdon, Banbury, Berinsfield, Bicester, Blackbird Leys, Botley, Carterton, Chipping Norton, Cowley, Didcot, Eynsham, Headington, Henley, Kidlington, Littlemore, Neithrop,Oxford Central, Summertown, Thame, Wallingford, Wantage, Witney.
The council would welcome volunteers to supplement these fully staffed libraries – potentially allowing libraries to extend their opening hours.
You can tell the County Council your views in any of the following ways:
The Save Headington Library Group committee will meet later this week to discuss the proposals. We are aware that Old Marston Library is one of the county’s 16 libraries for which
There would also be a positive future … as a result of free access to a suitable building, to the county’s book stock and to the library stock management system.
The staffing emphasis in these libraries would shift from county council staff to volunteers in a phased way over a three year period
This is cause for concern. Our group forms part of the wider Save Oxfordshire Libraries Group which will meet in June to discuss future action.
It is curious that the County had initially said it has no money to keep Bury Knowle Library open, but now it is saying it can not only keep it open but fully staff it. As ever, we need more information to understand this change of position!
Residents in Windmill Road and neighbouring streets will be glad to know that we have obtained an assurance from the City Council that checks will be carried out before and after waste collections in their area following complaints about uncollected rubbish
A preferred options paper is going to be considered by the City Executive Board next Wednesday. It has information on sites proposed for housing and development and many are in Headington Ward or will affect Headington Ward residents. These include (preferred option in brackets):
Library use of the Dorset House site has been rejected
For a full list and commentary please click here
The City Council has been swamped with requests for brown bins or the new bags and demand had outstripped supply.
Officers advise that
We now have bins back in stock and delivering with upto four crews instead of the one. All should have their new bin within 10 working days of ordering by the end of the month. In the meantime crews will empty the hessian bags until the residents new bin arrives until the end of the month when normal delivery times will be being met (10 WORKING days from clearance of payment)
The public meeting for Osler Road residents was well attended and a number of agencies have taken away actions to try to address issues including:
We are circulating the list of actions to all residents in Osler Road and will convene another meeting in three months time to review progress. We are grateful to Stagecoach, Oxfordshire County Council, Oxford City Council, the JR and Thames Valley Police for assisting us in trying to resolve local issues.
We are also delighted that Osler Road residents are setting up a new Residents’ Group and will helping to facilitate this
If you would like a copy of notes taken at this meeting please contact us
The referendum results for individual district councils has been released. Once again, Oxford City bucks the trend amongst the district councils that form the county
The result for Oxford was:
| No. of Votes | |
| Yes | 21,693 |
| No | 18,395 |
Rejected ballot papers: 113
Total number of ballot papers counted: 40,201
Turnout: 37.9%
Interestingly, the other areas of the UK that voted YES! were as follows:
Schools, colleges, and major businesses have signed up and are raring to go for the county’s largest ever cycling competition: The Oxfordshire Cycle Challenge 2011.
However, there is still time to sign up to the challenge. All you have to do is visit the dedicated website
The challenge begins on Monday 9 May and ends on Sunday 29 May. It aims to encourage as many people as possible to discover the benefits of cycling as well as logging their details of the journey on the website when they get on their bikes.
It’s a fun, free competition which saw over 1,300 people take part last year.
Workplaces and community groups can compete in six size categories to see who can get the most members of staff to ride a bike for at least 10 minutes.
The Oxfordshire Cycle Challenge is being organised in conjunction with CTC Challenge for Change, NHS Oxfordshire, Go Active, Oxfordshire County Council and the Oxfordshire District Councils.
There are ‘weekly spot prizes’ which will be presented during the three weeks of the competition which include a lunch time river cruise for two from Oxford River Cruises, a pair of theatre tickets from Pegasus Theatre or tickets for Cotswold Wildlife Park.
By Stephen Tall | Published 28th April 2011 – 10:45 am
I will be voting ‘Yes’ to the alternative vote in the referendum on the 5th May. Here’s why.
For me, this referendum is all about choice. The ‘Yes’ campaign stands for giving voters greater choice — the choice to rank candidates standing for election according to our individual preference.
But, in fact, the ‘Yes’ campaign stands for more choice than just that. If you prefer, you don’t have to rank your candidates by preference. That’s right, under the alternative vote, you can express as much preference, or as little preference, as you choose:
It’s a simple system, one which places control firmly in the hands of you, the voter.
The ‘No’ campaign wants to withhold that choice from you, to deny you the choice that the alternative vote offers. The ‘No’s want to boil down all your thoughts on politics, all the nuanced views you hold, all the arguments you’ve ever had with family and friends, to a single, crude cross against one party’s name.
It’s absurd that we as voters — with our increasing expectation of consumer choice, and of the responsiveness of institutions, private or public, to our aspirations — should have our only expression of political power trampled into such a blunt, meaningless anachronism as a single ‘X’.
The referendum campaign has, sadly, generated more heat than light. And nor should those of us who are voting ‘Yes’ heighten expectations unreasonably. Our politics will not be magically transformed overnight by a new voting system, even one that’s fairer than at present.
But it will improve things. It will remind the elites in power that we citizens value our vote. And it will give us all as much — or as little — choice as we individually want.
That’s why I’m voting ‘Yes’ on 5th May. I hope you will consider voting ‘Yes’, too.
For more articles by Stephen and others, please click on LibDem Voice