Water Watch: Boundary Brook

tap1_thumbnail.jpgAfter a considerable period of time, and a great deal of inconvenience to those who live alongside Boundary Brook, we have received this promising message from Thames Water:

In terms of progress, the whole house misconnection in New High Street
consisting of 13 separate misconnected appliances has now been dye tested
to confirm correct rectification to foul.  More significantly, further
investigations have taken place at Manor Hospital and the flow monitoring
has confirmed that the surface water discharges from their storage tank do
correspond to the high flows experienced in the open culvert in Brookside.
However, whilst the connection of this tank to the surface water system is
in accordance with normal practice, our further investigative survey work
has lead us to believe that some of the flats behind the hospital are
misconnected into this tank rather than the foul sewer. A meeting with the
Hospital has taken place to explain our findings and appraise them of their
responsibilities for the private drainage on their site.  As the flats
drain to the sites private sewer it is the Hospital’s responsibility to
ensure the appropriate Housing Association rectify the misconnections. This
is now being pursued by the Hospital who are thus far cooperating fully. I
would just add that whilst our investigations to date have found evidence
of domestic sewage misconnection from the flats, we have not found any
evidence of misconnection at the hospital itself .

We are delighted that the hospital is giving full co-operation in trying to ensure the housing association sorts out the problems in the flats.  We shall keep you posted of further developments and continue to press hard for as speedy a resolution as possible

Help us keep our individual freedoms!

The Liberal Democrats are proposing the Freedom Bill – http://freedom.libdems.org.uk – and here’s a selection of the measures it incorporates:

• Scrap ID cards for everyone.
• Restore the right to protest in Parliament Square.
• Scrap the ContactPoint database of all children in Britain.
• Remove innocent people from the DNA database.
• Reduce the maximum period of pre-charge detention to 14 days.

You can read the full set here

Cuckoo Lane

David has received the following email from the Senior Technician at Oxfordshire County Council

I have spoken to the contractor today who informs me that the footpath should be re-opened by next Wednesday 4/3.

The delays were due to the cold spell and the contractor offers his apologies.

Renewable Energy exhibition

Oxford City Council have teamed up with the Energy Savings Trust (EST) to bring the EST Renewable Energy showcase to Oxford Town Hall on Saturday 28th February 2009.

The event is on between 10.30 am and 3.30pm and includes stalls, advice and information from providers of specific energy saving and renewable technologies demonstrated by industry representatives.

Oxford City Councils Energy Team will also be on hand to answer any questions you may have on specific technologies and grants for installing such technologies.

Call for local heroes

People who have served the City with distinction are to be invited to receive a Certificate of Honour at a special presentation ceremony and reception in the Town Hall in May.  As councillors, we are not permitted to propose or second a nomination, but nominations from the public will be considered by a panel comprising the Lord Mayor, Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire and the Director of Oxfordshire Community and Voluntary Action (or their nominated representative).

The recipients can be of any age, including young people.  They can live anywhere but their service must benefit the people of Oxford. Nominations for this year’s ceremony need to reach Jude Skipp at the Town Hall by noon on 27th March 2008, and David and I have copies of nomination forms.

For more details, contact either David or me in the usual way, or Jude Skipp at the Town Hall by telephone on 01865 252414 or by e-mail at jskipp@oxford.gov and we will send out a form.

Labour’s budget forced through without debate

 

In a turn of events which left opposition councillors, members of the public and the press gasping, the Labour group on Oxford City Council last night prevented any debate on their budget proposals in council, and then forced them through on the Lord Mayor’s casting vote. The increase in council tax will be 4.5%, well above the increases in income which most Oxford residents are likely to get this year.

David says: “You have to wonder why Labour were so keen to avoid discussion of their proposals. In recent weeks we have seen them going back on their promises to keep the Peers Leisure Centre open, and on their undertaking to traders in the Covered Market to invest in repairs and improvements. They are saying they will keep the Museum of Oxford open, but have not budgeted enough money for this. What else are they trying to hide?”

Deputy Leader Stephen Brown added: “We proposed our own alternative budget, setting the Council Tax increase at 2%, which we felt was more reasonable in the present climate. But we still found ways to honour the council’s promises on the Covered Market, and the Museum, and to help community centre users which are going to be squeezed with the new business rates, and the various other local groups who rely on grants from the area committees. Labour seems to have no understanding of what life will be like for people during this recession.”

To see the report in the Oxford Mail, visit:

http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/yourtown/oxford/4131037.Council_tax_to_rise_by_4_5_per_cent/

Transform Oxford – your views count!

The Lib Dems have conducted an on-line survey associated with our county and city group websites. We now have over 100 responses. The participants are of course anonymous, and no claims can be made that they represent a balanced cross-section of the population. However, there is also no sign that any individuals or groups have tried to influence the results in any direction – there has been a constant flow of a few a day.

County Cllr Ian Hudspeth  mentioned at Central South & West Area Committee that he had received a couple of hundred feedback forms as a result of the consultations to date. Here are the (unedited) results of our survey and thank you to everyone who took part from the Headington Ward

Q1, Do you feel that more pedestrianisation of central Oxford would attract you to visit more often?

Yes, definitely – 3%

Probably – 34%

It depends on other factors – 30%

Probably not – 31%

No – 2%

Q2, Which streets do you feel would benefit most from being pedestrianised?

Broad St – 3%

George St – 10%

Queen St – 19%

Turl St – 15%

New Inn Hall St – 19%

Magdalen St/Magdalen St East – 20%

Beaumont St – 14%

High St – 0%

Q3, If you travel from East Oxford, would you find it acceptable if you always had to change buses at the Plain?

Yes – 1%

No – 98%

Don’t know – 1%

Q4, Do you feel that the number of buses on the High St is ….

Far too many – 2%

Too many – 49%

About right – 47%

As many as there need to be – 2%

Q5, Do you feel that the traffic lights outside Debenhams (Cornmarket/George St junction) make it safer for pedestrians?

Yes – 2%

No – 97%

Don’t Know – 1%

Q6 – Any other suggestions for improving things for pedestrians in central Oxford?

Plan not joined up – needs of cyclists being ignored.

Pembroke St should be considered for pedestrianisation.

Broad St has great potential – introduce continental style cafes and places to lounge around.

Frideswide Square is a mess for both traffic and pedestrians – this needs special consideration.

Traffic on High St and St Aldate’s should be slowed right down, and pedestrians allowed to use road space.

Bus routes need to be rationalised – more needed between Park & Rides/station and residential areas.

Pedestrianisation is a mad idea – reopen Cornmarket and George St to through traffic.

There isn’t enough in central Oxford to make pedestrianisation worthwhile.

Response from Royal Mail about parcel delivery complaints

 I passed on various comments from local residents to the Delivery Centre manager at Ledgers lane, here is his response in full

I hope you are well sorry that it has taken so long to reply but things
have been extremely hectic here due to an increase in short term SL that we
were experiencing. This has led to managers being out on delivery until
quite late in the evening again to try and ensure that we met with delivery
specification. However I have got some good news in that our recent
recruitment campaigns have paid off and we now have 7 new members of staff
in post who should be fully trained up within the next 2 -3 weeks, this
will obviously reduce the amount of late deliveries that some of our
customers have been experiencing.

With regards to your enquiries please see below:

Packets for delivery to the majority of Headington deliveries should be
back in the office within 24 hours of the card being left. We have had some
issues where items have taken longer than this due to the deliveries being
completed on OT in the afternoon and as such the collections that bring the
mail back to the unit from the post office have already happened before the
items have been brought back to the pouching off point. However this should
be resolved in part by the new entrants and the reduction in need of
utilising OT for delivery coverage. We also still have a couple of people
who have been putting 48 hours on the card for safety sake, by this i mean
that they don’t want their customers to come to the office and the item not
being here.

Another of the issues raised was that some residents were told that they
could collect their parcels within 5 hours of the card left. The time left
for collection will depend on the method of delivery and where the delivery
is. For example most of the East Oxford deliveries come back to the office
once they have completed and subsequently bring the items straight back.
Further more if the items were large packets and delivered by a van then
these to come back to the unit and thus a shorter collection time will be
offered.With regards to the Headington deliveries these do tend to finish
at their last delivery point and this leads to the packets being returned
to the post office and sent back to us via the normal collection route
which is why the delay occurs.

I would be extremely surprised if the staff chose to just leave a card for
an item without trying. The simple reason for this is that it takes longer
to write out a card than it does to deliver the items in the majority of
occasions. It is possible that the wrong time has been placed on the card
or that the customer was in a part of the house where they could not hear
the door. I would state however that the guys cannot spend very long
waiting at each door as it would be impossible for them to finish. During
the Christmas period our parcel traffic increased dramatically and this led
to an increase in work load for the staff and would also reduce the amount
of time that they could spend at each door. That said i still feel that the
majority of staff would have left a reasonable amount of time for the
customer to answer.

Parking is an ongoing issue with the site and i am also aware or the issues
that you other customer had in which they were fined for parking on the
road outside of the unit. With regards to parking on the road outside i
believe that this allowed as it is a public highway and the only yellow
lines are to the side of the building. I have heard that the company that
are responsible for parking control of the actual units are known to be a
bit to enthusiastic on occasion. As i have already stated it is my
understanding that people are allowed to park on the road.

With regards to the parking bays they are often full first thing in the
morning. A large percentage of our staff utilise their cars on delivery and
they park there vehicles in this area so they can load them with mail. I
will have a look to see if we can free up set of bays for customer parking
only which should relieve this problem. I will also raise this with the CWU
representative this morning in our strategic liaison meeting.

With regards to the black Multipla this is one of my managers cars – he has
to park on site as we often need to go out and visit staff etc at short
notice. Further more due to a H&S order we have limited space to park at
the rear of the building.

I think that if we can free up the first set of bays for our customers that
this should reduce this problem significantly. I would also like to add
however that we have had occasions where people have been parking in our
bays that are nothing to do with us and this also unfortunately reduces the
amount of space for our customers.

Planning decisions – will they listen?

Full Council meets at 4 pm on Monday 15 December to discuss a proposal that has been driven through by the Labour administration without any consultation with the public. Nor has there been any consultation with Group leaders of opposition parties or the Chairs and Vice-Chairs of area committees. The proposal is to take away the powers of the area committee members (local City councillors) to make decisions on planning applications in wards they represent. The administration and officers have also refused to let this badly-argued paper be properly examined by the main scrutiny committee.

This proposal spurns local democracy

  • You have emailed us and told us this proposal will not result in better decisions
  • You have phoned us and told us this proposal will not save money
  • You have written to us and told us this proposal will turn away local people from getting involved as active citizens
  • You have organized written and verbal statements to full Council to tell all councillors that making changes like this without engaging with the community is fundamentally wrong

But will they listen? We will know Monday night.