Speakers for Tuesday’s Ward Focus meeting

We are delighted that Mary Gill, from Low Carbon Headington, and Marcus Thompson, representing Asylum Welcome!, will join us on Tuesday 29th September from 6:00 pm at Headington Baptist Church Hall, Old High Street

The meeting will finish promptly at 7:30 pm as Ruth has a Headington Neighbourhood Forum Steering Committee meeting at 7:30 and Roz is going to the St Andrew’s Church meeting which finishes at 8:00 pm. Tuesday is a busy evening for Headington folk!

Admission is free, and all are welcome to attend the whole meeting, or just a part of it.

Outdoor street surgeries with your local councillors

 

Here are details of our next two outdoor street surgeries

  • Thursday 23 July from 6:30-7:30 pm on the corner of Windmill Road and Langley Close
  • Thursday 30 July from 6:30-7:30 pm on the corner of Osler Road and The Croft

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

Next public meeting set for 28 July

Our next Headington Ward Focus Meeting will take place on Tuesday 28 July from 6:00-7:30 pm at All Saints Church House, New High Street.

Last time, residents asked to know more about car clubs in Headington and Ellie Grebenik will be our guest speaker.

The main topic is Transport in Headington and the new County transport proposals.

Bring your councillors to account and raise any Headington issue in our Open Session. All welcome! 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

What happens at Ward Focus Meetings?

Over 40 residents attended our monthly meeting on Tuesday. Here are some notes to give a flavour.

​Anna Clews came to talk to us about the Albany care home and said she was hoping to organise some community events which will include:

  • A champagne reception on National Care Homes open day on Sat 19 June
  • ​​Teapot Tuesdays from ​2-4 pm from 7 July

She also hopes to transport some of the Albany’s residents to future Ward Focus meetings. The Albany Care Home is located behind London Court at 7 London Road.

County Cllr Roz Smith reminded us about National Carers’ Week from 8-14 June and gave us web links to various websites relating to carers:

Care Matters Summer 2015

Partner Organisation Directory 2015

Further information for carers and updates on Carers Week can be found on the County website or on Face Book or by telephoning 0845 050 7666.

Anthony​ Frankland gave us a presentation on the work of the County Council’s Learning Disabilities Daytime Support Service. This includes helping people into education and employment and equipping them with social and everyday living skills. Ruskin College and the Co-op help with this too.
If you want to know more about the services provided in Headington, please check out their website

We reported back on the actions we had taken following last month’s meeting. And here are some further issues that residents raised with us:

  • Granite fletts in North Place need pointing as cycle wheels get stuck in them 
  • ​The Plain ‘improvements’ – more use to pedestrians than cyclists? Is it a waste of money? We discussed the County Council’s proposed measures of success
  • Problem with taxi parking on the corner of Latimer Road
  • ​Headington Car Park – dangerous driving and a need for a half hour tariff?
  • Ingle Close open space – can this be used for allotments?
  • Road sweeping needed in 6 roads in Highfield and New Headington
  • Pavement cycling by Cheney School pupils at the  London Rd bus stop
  • Osler Rd parking outside the designated areas
  • ​Trimming of trees outside the NOC
  • Digital citizenship survey – is too much council money being spent on digital delivery of services?
  • ​Bus stops and through routes
  • Parking in St Andrew’s Road – it’s going to be surfaced on 24th June

Last but not least – we all plan to go along to the Headington Festival this coming weekend 30/31 May, and invite you to check out the Neighbourhood Forum stall in the Park on Sunday where copies of the character assessments of different parts of the area will be available for you to see, as well as draft policies for comment into the Headington Neighbourhood Plan.

Headington is the only City ward where councillors hold open monthly public meetings and invite residents to raise issues of local concern.

Ward Focus Meeting on Tuesday

  • Do you think the Green Man crossing lights stay on long enough? 

  • Do you know how to get buildings onto the Council’s Heritage list?

The answers to these questions and more will be given at our next Headington Ward Focus Meeting  on Tuesday 24 March at the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre Lecture Theatre from 6:00-7:30 pm.

Our guest speakers are from  Oxfordshire County Council and Oxford City Council.

 

Bring your councillors to account and raise any Headington issue.

All welcome! 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 Altaf on 07931 345554  altaf.khan@oxfordlibdems.org.uk or Ruth on 01865 485644 (W) ruth.wilkinson@oxfordlibdems.org.uk.  For county matters please ring Roz Smith on 07584 257156 or email her at roz.smith@oxfordlibdems.org.uk

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.

 

Students and Council Tax

Residents asked us about the situation re students and council tax at our Ward Focus Meeting on Tuesday. Here is some information from Oxford City Council.

Do students have to pay Council Tax?

  • Properties occupied by full time students only are exempt from payment of Council Tax. You will need to ensure that the Council receive letters from all residents confirming your student status before this exemption can be applied to your Council tax account.
  • If you are a student and you share your address with someone who is not a full time student then we can reduce the Council tax bill by 25%.
  • If you are a student and you share your address with two or more joint tenants who are not full time students then there is no reduction and the people who are not students will be named on the Council Tax bill.

If you have any further questions on council tax, you may find this link helpful. Please note that there are distinctions depending upon whether a student is full or part time and how old they are, so it’s best to follow the link where there is information on this and other more general issues regarding council tax eligibility