Electric blanket testing – FREE!

date for testing

October 2016 dates

  • Monday 3rd – Oxford
  • Tuesday 4th – Banbury
  • Wednesday 5th – Wallingford
  • Thursday 6th – Abingdon
  • Friday 7th – Witney
  • Monday 17th – Wantage
  • Tuesday 18th – Bicester
  • Wednesday 19th – Henley
  • Thursday 20th – Oxford
  • Friday 21st – Chipping Norton

How to book your free test

To book your safety check appointment call 01865 815 000 option 4 or email: communityengagement@oxfordshire.gov.uk
Pre-booked appointments only on a strictly first come first served basis

2016 partners

  • Oxfordshire County Council Fire and Rescue Service
  • Oxfordshire County Council Trading Standards
  • Cherwell District Council
  • West Oxfordshire District Council
  • South Oxfordshire District Council
  • Vale of White Horse District Council
  • Age UK Oxfordshire
  • Witney Rotary Club

Why do electric blankets fail their test?

  • Because they were over 10 years old and had no safety features built into the controller.
  • Because of a leakage of voltage to the surface of the blanket.
  • The elements were able to move around inside the blanket with the potential to rub together and cause a short circuit.
  • Elements were not secured within the blanket and were exposed to the surface.
  • Power lead fasteners were broken and unable to be secured.
  • The surface of the blanket was worn, exposing the elements.

 

How can our Parks and Green Spaces be improved?

Oxford City Council would like to hear what you think of the parks, nature reserves and green spaces that it manages in Oxford. It wants to know what they mean to you and how they benefit the local area. It aims to learn how to make the parks and green spaces even better in the future.

Please clink this link to complete the online survey which closes on 31 January 2017

photo courtesy of headington.org.uk

photo courtesy of headington.org.uk

Details of next Headington Ward Focus meeting here

The next public meeting for residents who live in Headington Ward will be on

Tuesday 27th September

from 6:00-7:30 pm

at Headington Prep School, 26 London Road, Headington OX3 7PB

Guest speakers on 
Active and Healthy Travel (cycling, pedestrian and door to door integrated travel)  
and the Homeshare Oxford Project.
Plus up to the minute news on timings for the energy pipe and Access to Headington projects

An Open Session for your comments too.               Free of charge.                       All welcome!               Hold your councillors to account!

Ward Focus meetings are run on a drop in and out basis and are free of charge. There is an open session where residents can raise issues of concern. There’s no need to book.

If you would like to contact your Lib Dem city councillors for advice on any issue please contact

Latest news on Brookside spillage

We have received another bulletin from Thames Water regarding sewer capacity in Brookside and dated yesterday. It reads as follows:

I am pleased to confirm our Technical Specialist has assessed the footage from the recent clean of the sewers in London Road and Brookside. He has confirmed that the sections of sewer which have been cleaned are now free-flowing and fully operational. 

There is a final section of the foul sewer in London Road which we now need to clean and camera survey to ensure the sewer is operating at full capacity. This has been scheduled for 4 October. 

Further to our discussion about sewer size in the area, our Asset Management team have confirmed that they recently completed a catchment wide hydraulic modelling study using flow monitors. This did show a degree of hydraulic incapacity in the London Road – Brookside area but our Sewer Flooding History Database shows the last flooding caused by hydraulic overload was in 2010. 

All of the recent flooding incidents have been caused by blockages of fat and grease, so there is insufficient history of a capacity issue to justify further studies or a network upgrades at this time. They have also confirmed that increasing the size of the sewers is not the right solution for sewer flooding relating to blockages as even with a larger size sewer, blockages will still occur.

Once the clean of the sewer in London Road has been completed I will ask the local Field Operations Specialist to consider placing the sewer in London Road and Brookside on our Planned Maintenance programme. This will mean they are cleaned regularly to prevent flooding caused by blockages from happening.       

I hope this information is useful, I will continue to monitor our progress and will contact you with a further update by 7 October to confirm the final section of sewer was cleaned as planned.

Energy pipe given planning go ahead…with conditions

The East Area Planning Committee met tonight to discuss the energy pipe application 16/01565/FUL

It granted consent subject to 20 conditions, some of which were amended or added during the meeting*. There are also 6 informatives. Provisionally we noted these as follows (but are subject to change as minutes not yet available):

Conditions

  1. Development begun within time limit.
  2. Develop in accordance with approved plans.
  3. Materials.
  4. Tree Protection Plan (TPP) 2.
  5. Arboricultural Method Statement (AMS) 2.
  6. Monitoring and Supervision of Trees.
  7. De-compaction of RPAs.
  8. Noise mitigation measures.
  9. Temporary Car Park. *Extra lighting
  10. JR Compound.
  11. Churchill Compound.
  12. Welfare Compound.
  13. Visitor Permits.
  14. Construction Traffic Management Plan. *To be a living document with sign off by the Head of Planning and Regulatory Services in conjunction with the Chair of the East Area Planning Committee and the four ward councillors in the affected wards
  15. Hours of Work.
  16. Arch – Implementation of programme.
  17. Use of Pipework.
  18. Air Quality Measures.
  19. Communications* to include leaflet, web updates, disability provision, clear instruction on how to claim for damage arising from works, residents to be leafleted promptly if unexpected delays to works occur
  20. Charging point for electric vehicles* – check availability at hospital sites to ensure facility is available

Informatives

  1. All works to be noticed in accordance with the NRSWA Act including applying for Section 50 licence….
  2. All works must comply with the code of practice for NRSWA, namely chapter 8 Signing and Guarding, and reinstatements
  3. Traffic management associated with the proposed work to be agreed …with County Council officers….
  4. Any Temporary Traffic Regulation Orders or Temporary Traffic Signals required must be duly applied for in a timely manner..
  5. City Council’s legal position re ownership of land affected*
  6. Additional maintenance work may require planning permission*

Minute

To include the willingness of the applicant to make available a community contribution

Before sign off of CTMP, clarification/action needed for:

  • road sweeper will be hired to clean roads as required  – required by whom?
  • highways condition survey must be done and recorded for the entire route prior to commencement

The draft minutes will be produced by Friday afternoon 9/9/16 and any 12 councillors may call in the decision for deliberation by a further planning committee Tuesday 13/9/16.

If unchallenged, the decision notice is likely to be sent out before the end of next week.

Technically, the County Council requires three weeks notice before works can start so works could theoretically begin as early as 10th October, however work will need to be done to satisfy certain conditions first. The start date for works will also need to fit around the Access to Headington works which are due to start at the Roosevelt Drive/Old Road junction the following week. No energy pipe work can be carried out in Churchill Drive till the Access to Headington works finish in Roosevelt Drive so the phasing of works will need to be revised.

 

New planning application

Another B56 application has come in for 112 London Road. Comments invited by 4/10/16.

16/02150/B56

Change of use of part first floor from office (Use Class B1(a)) to residential (Use Class C3) to provide 1 x 2- bed flat and 1 x studio flat. This application is for determination as to whether prior approval of the Council is required and, if required, whether it should be granted.  This application is assessed solely in respect of transport and highway impacts and contamination and flooding risks.

 

 

Update from Winvic on Latimer Road build (aka Beech House)

We asked for a newsletter to be sent out for residents and here it is (dated today) from Steve Hatch, the Project Manager.

My intentions are to keep all stakeholders aware of what is happening on site at present and a 4 week look ahead. Currently on site the civil works are continuing to form the basement to the project which entails quite detailed construction methods,   once the civil works are complete the steel frame to the building will commence from the 14th of November with the aid of a luffing tower carne to be installed on the 05.09.16, once the steel frame has been installed the floor slabs will be poured which will commence on the 21.01.17 with the aid of a concrete pump which will be sited within the compound, from the end of feb the external cladding, brickwork, windows etc will commence with the fit out internally commencing alongside the external works,      

 

Progress to date

     Completion of secant and load bearing piles

       Bulk excavation ongoing

       Cropping of piles

       Installation of temp haul road

       Installation of concrete blinding to basement

 

 

Work to be progressed over the next 4 weeks:

 

       Complete bulk excavation

       Commence installation of water proofing system to basement

       Ongoing concrete blinding to basement prior to water proofing system

       Commence installation of pile caps

       Commence excavation for attenuation tank base

       Install attenuation tank base

       Commence capping beams to grid lines A1 and 1

       Integrity tests to piles

 

Energy pipe latest

The situation currently is that the energy pipe works cannot proceed until
consent has been given by the County Council as local highways authority for
Vital Energi to break open the highway surface (this takes the form of street
licences) and planning consent has been granted by the City Council as the
planning authority.

A small but informed group of residents and councillors attended the County’s
Planning and Regulations Committee meeting yesterday, raised issues that still
need resolving, and fought for improvements to conditions. There was a proposal
to defer the decision until after planning consent was given and to allow time
for further discussion of other issues to take place but that was voted down
7-5. On the second vote along the lines of the officer recommendation (with one
slight change to one condition which is covered in the Construction Traffic
Management Plan already) councillors voted 9-0 to permit the licences with
several abstentions.

Following that meeting, the small but informed group re-assembled at the Town
Hall to ask questions of City Council officers and Vital Energi about legal
issues. Vital Energi gave a presentation in which for the first time slides
were presented showing workings for costs and energy efficiency that are not
included in the documentation submitted with the application on the planning
website, but explained they cannot display this more widely as it is
commercially sensitive.

The issue of whether to grant planning consent will be discussed by East Area
Planning Committee at the Town Hall on Wednesday 7th at 18:00 and is the first
item on the agenda. Members of the public speaking for or against need to fill
in a speaker’s form ahead of the start of the meeting. The Chair has discretion
to allow longer speaking time but it is likely not to exceed 10 minutes in
total for all speakers put together.

Any decision taken by East Area Planning Committee is subject to a call-in
period of 48 weekday hours following publication of the minutes. If the
decision is not called in, it will stand.

If the application is agreed subject to a long list of conditions and
informatives, works could start as early as three weeks after the decision
notice is sent out by the planning authority. (required lead-in time for the
County Council to publicise street works/TTROs)

However there is another external factor. We have been advised that Access to
Headington works will start in Roosevelt Drive mid October (date to be
confirmed) so the timing and sequence of energy pipe works may be affected by
this. The County Council is giving priority to its own project with regard to
road closures so there are lots of meetings going on to work out the logistics
of it all.