What do you think of the London Rd plans?

It was good to see so many people at the exhibition on Saturday morning! If you haven’t yet seen the County Council’s plans for upgrading the London Road, please click on this link

If you haven’t yet submitted comments/feedback on the new scheme, please do so online here

Please note: you will need to click on Next to complete the feedback form.  David and I are very keen that everyone fills this in.  Among the concerns that were brought to my attention on Saturday were the lack of attention given to cyclists, the narrowing of Old High Street at its junction with London Road in respect of the advent of Waitrose, safety concerns about the London Road/Windmill Road junction, and the removal of the subway at a cost of tens of thousands of pounds.  People were also concerned about the lack of planting in London Road

Lib Dem budget proposals honour their promises

UK Money - notes and coins

At the Oxford City Council budget debate on Monday, the Liberal Democrat group will propose a set of amendments intended to honour undertakings to community groups which the Labour administration’s proposals have abandoned.

Deputy Leader Stephen Brown says: “We find it unacceptable that Labour should let down those in the city who are most in need of help in these difficult times. The users of our community centres, those in fuel poverty and other financial hardship, and those in fear of crime, are not getting the help from Labour that they deserve. Instead, Labour is proposing a stonking 4.5% increase in Council Tax, which will hit those on low incomes hardest.”

Added Cllr Brown: “Last year, the Lib Dems proposed an increase in council tax of 2% for the financial year 2009/10, and we still think that is the right level. We also want to see the council honour its promises to repair the Covered Market, to keep the Museum of Oxford open, and to maintain area grants for the many valuable community initiatives. We also want to correct the serious effects of new business rates on community centres, and to cancel cuts in the budgets for Street Wardens and Social Inclusion initiatives which Labour wants to make.”

Proposals include cutting the amount of savings that the Museum of Oxford must make next year; this would allow more time for a Trust to be set up to ensure that the Museum has a long term future. This has been an issue that has generated much concern from residents in our Ward.

No single Party has a majority on Oxford City Council. The Labour group is the largest and runs a minority administration, but the combined votes of the opposition parties in council can prevent their budget being adopted. The Liberal Democrat amendments will be debated along with proposals from the Green group at a full council meeting starting at 5 p.m. on Monday 16th February in the Town Hall. Members of the public are welcome to attend

St Aldate’s customer services centre closed due to snow

The St Aldates chambers customer service centre has had to be closed this morning due to the adverse weather. There is a notice on the door giving telephone contact numbers and there is a free phone in the lobby so that queries can be dealt with by phone.

They have called all customers ( where they have given a telephone number) who had made an appointment for meetings today. They have been offered alternative appointments or referred to Templars Square one stop shop which remains open and is being staffed by three officers .

There are currently eleven customer service staff and  phone lines at the telephone contact centre were open from 9.30am . The sites will close at 16.30  in order that staff can get home safely, this time may be brought forward now that bus services have been suspended.  Probably best to ring before you go!

Tree management in the City

We’re often asked questions about the way in which trees are managed in our ward, and particularly in Bury Knowle Park, so I have asked for a copy of the City’s operational policy on managing trees under City control and posted it onto a page called Tree policy in the centre toolbar for your information.  Hope you find it useful!

Am I being watched?

A number of people have asked questions about the surveillance that is carried out by City Council Officers on members of the public under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, and our Lib Dem colleague representing Barton, Chris Scanlan, has been pressing for a statement on this.  I thought you might be interested in this response from the appropriate officer in the Legal and Democratic Services department:

For your information the Council has authorised directed surveillance on 24 occasions since the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) came into force. The Act came into force in October 2000. Of those 24 authorisations 6 related to benefit fraud investigations, 13 related to anti-social behaviour/crime & disorder investigations and 5 related to internal disciplinary investigations.

None of the above include investigations into littering, dog fouling or any of the other minor offences, which have made the press in recent months. Over a period of 8 years I think it is fair to say that the Council has used these powers very sparingly.

Under the Council’s current RIPA policy and procedure (which is available on the Council’s website) I receive a copy of each authorisation. If I felt that the Act was being used inappropriately or that the ‘necessity and proportionality’ test had not been applied then I would intervene and require the investigating officer and the authorising officer to justify their actions.

If you have any queries or concerns about this, just hit the Comment? button or email David or me directly (see Contact us in left hand tool bar for details). 

Oxford City Centre plans

We know there is a lot of interest and speculation about the County Council’s ideas to pedestrianise the centre of Oxford, and there have been a lot of hits on our previous post which summarises a briefing given to City Councillors by the County Leader and his Cabinet member for Transport

There’s been nothing tangible to report on this since then, but there is a lot of political to-ing and fro-ing behind the scenes. The chief concerns reported to us from our residents are that the east of the City would effectively be cut off from the rest under the Tory plans, and people who live in Headington and commute regularly to London are extremely concerned about the implications of the scheme for the Oxford-London bus route. David and I are speaking to the top people at both major bus companies and to bus users but cannot report back at present until more details are known.

There are also big concerns about the lack of identified cycle routes in the new scheme, but it would be fair to say that most people would ideally like to see the middle of Oxford pedestrianised, and this is something that Lib Dems would be keen to look at (and have done so many times over recent years).

Like most new ideas, some of what is suggested is worth consideration, and other parts of it appear to be unworkable. Please do contact David and me with your views; we would be interested in any alternative suggestions residents may have for maintaining the current quality of bus services between London, Headington and Oxford whilst reducing the number of buses passing through the City Centre itself.

Please press the comment button above to record your views, or by all means email David or me at:

david.rundle@oxfordlibdems.org.uk

ruth.wilkinson@oxfordlibdems.org.uk

County Council’s city centre plans

Please click here to see the County Council’s plans to pedestrianise the centre of Oxford

I went to a briefing on this tonight. I get the impression that very few people have been consulted. This is

a vision, not a solid immutable blueprint (Keith Mitchell).

Their view of the City Centre is that there are too many buses, dirty
cluttered streets, and poor quality pavement materials

The exemplar of good practice they want to aspire to is the Castle redevelopment

They are aiming for:

  • more pedestrianisation
  • low-emission buses (trams are too expensive)
  • optical registration of bus routes
  • significantly reduced no. buses but the same no. passenger journeys
  • smartcard bus ticketing
  • cleaner streets
  • better pavement materials

The buses from East Oxford via Cowley Road/Iffley Road/St
Clements/Marston Road will turn round at the Plain – that’s the
current thinking. But they will think about extending the route for
through buses from further out if this is not possible. From St
Clements? From Gipsy Lane? From London Road roundabout? From Park
and Ride? That’s all up for debate and the bus companies will have a
big role in sorting this out. But at present they are assuming the
buses from our end of Oxford will turn round at the Plain and will not
diminish in frequency. People will then change onto buses that run through the City Centre

Buses from North Oxford will turn round at a strange new turning place by
the Ashmolean short of the Martyrs’ Memorial, councillors are concerned
this will upset St John’s College

Mr Hugh-Jones (Env/Econ) mentioned talks starting about running a bus service
between Thornhill, the hospitals, and Peartree.

A bendy bus had been superimposed on the presentation slides, it resembled an airport bus for people to stand in, with very few seats. “What about the elderly? What about
people with luggage?” we exclaimed! But the type of bus has not been decided upon yet

Ian Hudspeth and Keith Mitchell seem to think the scheme frees up the options for London buses to depart from other areas of the City. I pointed out that 25%
Tube passengers get on the coach between the Plain and London Road
roundabout, that many Headington residents have bought houses here in
order to access the London buses, and that proprietors of bed and
breakfast accommodation and hotels in Headington had acquired premises
precisely because they were on the main route to London.
I pointed out that the bus companies would be hard to persuade that
their established routes should be changed as they stood to lose a lot
of money, at least initially.

They want to pedestrianise Broad Street and pave it with high quality
materials funded from developer money! (from where? Where can they
develop Broad St.?)

They have no budget for this at present. They are interested in
getting money from the Transport Innovations Fund and they think
they’d be successful, although this would not be enough

Bus stops would move from Queen St to Castle St. and New Road

They will do an audit of cycle racks, then decide where to site new
ones. Lots of concern about the need for cycle routes – The Plain may
become a death trap for cyclists? They would like a rent-a bike scheme as in Barcelona

Phase 1 is putting a non-stopping bus lane down the middle of Queen St
with pedestrian walkways either side.

The plans for consultation are not yet firmed up, but residents will be able to give their views via the County Council. There’s a lot to sort out before plans get as far as that!

Rubbish collection in Kennett Road

In response to residents’ concerns, I have made several phone calls and sent a number of emails to staff at City Works about the possible confusion caused by refuse collections being carried out in Kennett Road on the same day of the week as the Farmers’ Market 

The flats whose access is into the first part of Kennett Road are London Road addresses and their scheduled collection is Thursday – the refuse collection vehicle will collect this waste from the London Road End.

The Kennett Road residents will have their refuse collected on Fridays. On the Fridays when the market is in operation, the refuse collection vehicle will reverse, using a bansksman, from Bateman Street as far as the “No Entry” signs at the far end

City Works believe that the refuse collection will not affect the operation of the Farmers Market.  They say..

The market organiser has in fact stated that there is sufficient room for our vehicles to turn around near to the market without affecting it if we so wish.

As far as other road users are concerned, these problems are faced daily: in other parts of the city and in roads that are considerably narrower. There is sufficient space in Kennett Road for other vehicles to pass the Refuse Collection Vehicle but do recognise that sometimes this may cause a delay to other road users but not normally more than one or two minutes.

One would expect all drivers to take note of all road and traffic
conditions and manoeuvre accordingly

Please let David and me know if there are any operational problems when the new scheme commences.

Councils await news of funds invested in troubled Icelandic banks

Councils across Oxfordshire are amongst at least 40 local authorities across the country that have been caught up in the current Icelandic banking crisis and are waiting to hear when their investments in three Icelandic banks will be re-paid.
The councils, which between them have budgets in excess of £1.3bn, have at any one time, cash flow balances which are invested within the banking sector.
In common with all councils, this investment is regulated to seek cash security and uses national bank ratings to ensure credit worthiness. Councils also ensure that risk is spread by limiting the maximum exposure to any one institution – this applies in financially stable times as well as in the current turbulent times.
The Icelandic banks have been highly rated.

The Oxfordshire councils have £28.5m invested with the Icelandic banks, which is repayable at different dates over the year. The situation with the Icelandic Banks remains unclear and has changed several times over the last 24 hours – the council’s are pushing the government for a clear statement on the position of these funds.
How is each council affected?
The breakdown of the funds invested across the council is: £m
Cherwell District Council 6.5
Oxfordshire County Council 5.0
Oxford City Council 4.5
South Oxfordshire District Council 2.5
Vale of White Horse District Council 1.0
West Oxfordshire District Council 9.0

For more details, please see the Oxford City Council website