Up and coming events in March

  • Friday 2 to Sunday 11 March, Dancin’ Oxford Spring Festival, various locations. Annual dance festival offering a variety of workshops and performances.
  • Sunday 4 March, British Universities Orienteering Championships, Shotover Country Park, 10 am to 1 pm. Orienteering Event by Oxford University Orienteering Club.
  • Wednesday 7 March, Teddy Hall Relays 2018, starting and finishing at Iffley Road Track with a route around the city, 1.30 pm to 4 pm. Annual relay race organised by Oxford University Cross Country Club.
  • Saturday 10 March, Dancin’ Oxford – aerial performance by Gravity & Levity, outside façade of Westgate Centre opposite Bonn Square, 12 pm, 1.30 pm and 3 pm. Gravity & Levity, one of the UK’s leading aerial dance companies, will give three performances throughout the day.

New appeal – 29 Old High Street

We’re advised of the following by Oxford City Council:

Site Address: 29 Old High Street, Headington

Appeal Reference: APP/G3110/X/17/3191929

Mr Young has appealed against refusal of planning permission issued by the Council for the application to certify that Proposed sub-division of existing house to form 2x 2-bed flats and erection of x3 dwellings to create a 2x 2-bed flat and 1x 1-bed flat is lawful (planning reference 17/02576/CPU).

This appeal will be decided by an Inspector appointed by the Secretary of State at a public inquiry, date to be determined.

Those who sent in comments during the initial consultation period have until 5th April to amend or withdraw those comments, or to submit new or additional comments, copies of which will be sent to the appellant and the Inspector.

 

Timing for boundary review of Oxford City wards

In 2020 the City will have a new set of ward boundaries and work has been underway on this at the Town Hall. Boundaries need to be re-drawn as the population pattern changes and new housing developments are built.

Here is the latest information received. Each phase has been delayed slightly so the “New” column is the one to note.

  Old New
Warding patterns consultation ends 19 March 2018 2 April 2018
Draft recs consultation starts 8 May 2018 5 June 2018
Draft recs consultation ends 16 July 2018 13 August 2018
Final recs published 4 September 2018 2 October 2018
Implementation May 2020 May 2020

Woodlands Road to be repaired

In response to complaints by residents in the area, Altaf and Ruth have agreed match funding with Oxford City Highways Engineering to fix potholes, patch road edges and surface skim (where necessary) Woodlands Road either side of Headley Way up to the Sandfield Road junction with money from Headington Ward’s CIL budget and Vital Energy community contribution.

Half the work is likely to be completed by the end of this financial year (end of March) and the rest is scheduled for the start of the new financial year. It is likely to take 5 or 6 days in total, exact dates to be confirmed.

Ruth comments:

We have wanted to get this work done for some time, but have needed to save up for it as the total cost is over £2300. We are grateful to Oxford City Council and Vital Energi for their assistance with funding.

Road lines to be refreshed in Headington Ward

Lines will be refreshed in the following roads, date to be confirmed.

  • Sandfield & Staunton parking spaces
  • Woodlands Rd & Beech Rd give ways
  • Windmill/London cross-road junctions
  • Outside Barclays bank 2 hr bays
  • Gardiner Street, Piper Street, Perrin Street, Windsor Street, Bateman Street & Wilberforce Street refresh of all lines
  • London Road from Horwood Close to main cross-road. Give way and cycle symbols of shared space
  • Kennett Road – burn off lines obstructing parking bays/Double Yellow Lines

Altaf and Ruth negotiated match funding of the above work with City Highways Engineering along with allocations from the Headington Ward budget and Community Infrastructure Levy budget.

Altaf comments,

 This will help with highway safety and enable NSL to enforce parking regulations to benefit our residents.

Headington car park charges soar to new heights

Residents tell us they strongly oppose the huge car parking charge rises for the Headington and St Leonard’s Road car parks. The Neighbourhood Plan called for 30 minutes free parking with stepped charges thereafter.

Altaf set out your concerns at the last City Executive Board meeting but the Labour Group decided to retain the suggested proposals for the following tariffs:

£2:00   0-1 hours

£2:50   1-2 hours

This was discussed again at yesterday’s Council Budget meeting. The Lib Dem budget amendment included mitigation of the proposed charges, and Ruth spoke to this but the amendment was voted down by the Labour Group and the Green group abstained.

It was still possible to submit individual budget lines for debate, and we tried again – Altaf spoke in favour and Ruth summed up. This was for a budget line that would peg the increase to:

£1.70   0-1 hours

£2.20   1-2 hours

That budget line of £52K would be made up of savings to the car parks resurfacing budget for 2018-19.

Once again the single line amendment was voted down by the Labour Group.

Some comments were made about Waitrose shoppers by a Labour councillor which some people in the chamber found offensive. Independent Cllr Mick Haines spoke in favour of the Lib Dem amendment.

The car park charges coming into effect will be:

£2.00   0-1 hour

£2.50   1-2 hours

Signs will go up in the car parks in March/April alerting people to the changes and asking people to comment before the charge is increased.

Recycling your used cooking oil


If there’s one thing everyone should know about throwing away cooking oil, it’s that you should never pour it down the sink, or down drains. Even if you break down the oil with soap and hot water, it can re-solidify and cause drain pipes and sewers to get blocked. It can also travel get into rivers and lakes causing oxygen levels to drop, which can suffocate wildlife.

Now the solution for Oxford residents is at hand – and it couldn’t be simpler – recycle it!

All you need to do is put your cooking oil in a plastic bottle that will fit in your food caddy or red bin. That could be a water bottle or a plastic oil bottle.

Our new service will take the oil away along with your food waste to be anaerobically digested at the recycling plant at Cassington. There the plastic is removed, and the resulting process produces biogas to generate electricity and fertiliser for local farms.

Expiry dates on visitor parking permits

We have had enquiries from two people about current batches of car parking permits being dated 2016/2017/2018. This means that the permits themselves expire in 10 months, and residents will need to apply again at Christmas.

Here is the response from the County Council’s Parking team.

Visitor permits dated 2018,2019 & 2020 are in production as we speak.

The first batch of 25 issued from the existing stock 2016, 2017 & 2018 are for 6 months therefore should the resident apply for their second allocation ( Aug/Sept time) they will be issued permits from our new stock.

Of course there may be some residents that find 25 are enough to cover them for a full year therefore in this instance any returned permits will be replaced. Replacing permits will strictly apply to those who have not obtained a second allocation during their permit year.

We have asked for better information on the website. It seems strange that Resident Parking Zone parking permits stretch from year to year, but visitors’ permits have a cut off date. We have asked for parking permits to be colour coded to aid enforcement officers but have not yet received a response.

 

UPDATE

We learn that the replacement of unused visitor permits is not advertised. Why not?

It is very uncommon that a resident returns the unused/expired permits and it is not advertised. Residents over the age of 70 ( and who qualify for their second set free of charge) should be encouraged to apply for this second set instead of attempting to replace existing permits.