Licensing application for Polish Taste (Oxford), 115 London Road

Comments on this should be sent to Licensing by 25/03/15

15/00800/PREM

Application for a New Premises Licence: The application is: ‘A food retail store selling Polish and European Food. Retail sale of alcohol Sunday to Saturday 08.00 hours to 23.00 hours (off sales only)’.

Polish Taste (Oxford) Ltd., 115 London Road

All comments on this application should be sent by 25-03-2015 to The Licensing Authority, Oxford City Council St Aldates Chambers, 109 St Aldates, Oxford, OX1 1DS, or by email to: licensing@oxford.gov.uk

Latest planning permissions in Headington Ward

All the following have received planning permission this week.

14/03311/FUL

Demolition of and erection of new garage.
206 Headley Way

15/00010/VAR

Variation of condition 2 (approved plans) of planning permission 14/02892/FUL (Single storey side and rear extension) to allow and increase in width and raised ridge height of garden room and replacement of log store with timber pergola.
13 St Anne’s Road Oxford

15/00135/FUL

Erection of a part single, part two storey side extension and two storey rear extension. Infill of existing side entrance. Formation of rear dormer window and insertion of 1 no. front and 2 no. side rooflights in association with loft conversion. Alterations to enable additional parking space.
8 Staunton Road

 

No sympathy from the County Council for wheelchair-bound resident

Here is the County Council’s response to a wheelchair-bound resident who had to wheel into Windmill Road traffic to avoid inconsiderately parked cars in front of the shops:

though pavement parking is inconsiderate and potentially dangerous when pedestrians are pushed out into the road, fortunately, this does not appear to result in road casualties.  With funding reductions we’ve had to prioritise our resources where they bring the greatest casualty reduction benefit.

This is unacceptable. We are discussing this with the police and the Council. It’s a problem for families with buggies and for our less mobile residents driving motorised buggies too. We have considered printing off Pavements are for Pedestrians stickers but

TVP advised us to not give out the stickers to be used by residents as we could be seen to be assisting ‘criminal damage’.  We asked if we could still use the stickers but place them under the wiper blades but were advised the same – that a car owner could accuse us of damaging their car (and making the car illegal to drive if wiper blades not working properly).

To be continued…  If you have any suggestions about other ways to resolve the pavement parking in London Road and Windmill Road, we’d like to hear from you

Headington Lake update

There has been concerted action to address the Headington Lake problem within the last 48 hours.

Thames Water drawings show that there is only one surface water sewer on the other side of London Road outside Greggs, and this is being re-checked.

Oxford City Council’s jetting crew attended yesterday. They emptied the gullies and jetted the connections. There was a blockage between the lowest gulley and the main which runs up the centre of London Road. Following the jetting, they flooded the area and it all drained quite rapidly. They went back and checked at around noon yesterday while it was raining. The lake did not reappear so they are hopeful that the issue is now resolved.

If the gulley connection blocks again, County Drainage will have to consider replacing the gully connection across the road, which would mean closing London Road  in sections to carry out the works. This would be done as a last resort, but in the meantime the situation is being monitored by Highways.

Please let us know straightaway if the Lake reappears.

Police Have your say meetings

You are welcome to attend the Police Have Your Say meetings and raise issues with Thames Valley Police. Here are the dates:

Have Your Say Meeting
Date: Thursday, 26 February 2015
Time: 10:30 – 11:30
Venue: Headington Village Hall, Quarry
Contact: PCSO Victor Phillips

Have Your Say Meeting
Date: Monday 9 March 2015
Time: 15:30-16:30
Venue: Caffe Nero
Contact: PCSO Victor Phillips

Have Your Say Meeting
Date: Wednesday, 25 March 2015
Time: 10:30 – 11:30
Venue: Headington Library
Contact: PCSO Victor Phillips

Have Your Say Meeting
Date: Thursday, 26 March 2015
Time: 10:30 – 11:30
Venue: Headington Village Hall, Quarry
Contact: PCSO Victor Phillips

Have Your Say Meeting
Date: Wednesday, 29 April 2015
Time: 10:30 – 11:30
Venue: Headington Library
Contact: PCSO Victor Phillips

Headington Lake

There were repeated calls for action to tackle the Headington Lake at yesterday’s Ward Focus Meeting. The puddle outside Barclays Bank at the weekend was deeper and wider than ever.

Councillors have sent in a whole catalogue of complaints about this for a long period of time. We discussed it at length with the team leader of the County’s Drainage team today to try and agree a course of action.

There is an underlying problem to which officers refer as “deformation of the carriageway”. That would require significant expenditure on the road surface to resolve.

But the second problem centres on the gulleys and the sewer beneath, responsibility for which is shared by the Council and Thames Water.  Questions that need answering are:

 “Are the gulleys in good working order?”

“Are there sufficient gulleys?”

The City’s Highways Dept has checked out the gulley situation for the County Council, and have confirmed that the gulleys have been jetted out twice and are in good working order. There are sufficient gulleys there for surface water to run off.

So this now brings us to another question.

“If the gulleys are working fine, is there some sort of fracture in the pipe between the gulleys and the sewer?”

The City is currently investigating this for the County Council but it doesn’t look as though this is the case.

So now to the final question:

“Is the underground system so overloaded that surface water floods from the sewer back into the road?”

If that is found to be the case, then Thames Water must be brought in to make an assessment and come up with a plan to increase the capacity.

We are on the case and are ensuring that all parties are communicating effectively with each other. Meanwhile, if YOU have any photos of the Headington Lake, please send them through to us as these will give more clues as to whether the system, rather than the gulleys, is overloaded.

 

Events in the City up to mid March

 

 

Wednesday 25 February Good Deed Day Bonn Square 11.30am -3pm A celebration of Student Volunteering Week. Students and community members will be asked to pledge to do a good deed. www.oxfordhub.org
27 February -9 March Dancin’ Oxford Various City Centre Sites For a complete list of scheduled events visit: www.dancinoxford.co.uk
Saturday 7 March Science in your world Bonn Square 10am- 4pm The aim of this event is to let people see science in action and have a go themselves with a full range of stall.
www.oxfordshiresciencefestival.co.uk
Sunday 8 March East Oxford Science Busking  Manzil Ways Garden 11am- 4pm EOSB is part of the Oxfordshire Science Festival, 3 weeks of science events and activities taking place in venues and locations across Oxfordshire.
www.oxfordshiresciencefestival.co.uk
Wednesday 11 March Teddy Hall Relays  Long Bridge/ Towpath 11am-4pm 3 Mile relay running race
www.ouccc.org.uk
Saturday 14 March Saturday Series Orienteering  Cutteslowe / Sunnymead 10am- 1pm Low-key orienteering event designed to introduce newcomers to the sport and to provide continued opportunities for those that are just novices.
www.tvoc.org.uk

Windmill School pedestrian crossing latest

The installation of the new zebra crossing in Margaret Road has suffered many setbacks, however it seems that it may be operational starting in the middle of next week. Our latest information is this:

There has been a lot of conversation with SSE about the installation of the zebra crossing poles and beacons.

They have now been installed and weather permitting the lining crew will be on site today to install the line.

Once this has been done we will let the SSE know and they will put in the fuses and commission the lights.

Hopefully it will be all completed by Monday / Tuesday of next week.

Pedestrian crossings – the invitation to begin crossing

Image: Green man traffic signals.RCN-D13^23291573.JPG

At yesterday’s packed Ward Focus meeting, residents asked us to invite a County Officer along to talk about phasing of crossing lights.

We get asked a lot about pedestrian crossings. Those who are less mobile have concerns that they may not make it to the other side of the road in time before the traffic starts moving again.

Here is our latest information from the County Council re the crossing outside Douglas Veale House.

We still have this common misunderstanding. The Green Man period is the “invitation to begin crossing”. Its purpose is to make sure all waiting pedestrians are able to set off. The following period is much longer and is the time allowed for pedestrians to complete crossing.

 Here we have 5 seconds Green Man and when it goes out there are a further 13 seconds before the traffic is shown a green light (be careful if you measure this as the crossing has detection and the traffic can be released a few second earlier if all pedestrians have cleared the crossing).

You may like to view this article from the Daily Telegraph about the issue.