County press release on Southern Cross

As many of you are aware, the Albany residential care home in London Road was owned by Southern Cross. Here is the latest press release dated 11 July  from the county council

Oxfordshire County Council has called for calm following the announcement by Southern Cross regarding the future of the care home provider.

Trading in the shares of Southern Cross, which operates six homes in Oxfordshire, was suspended today after its landlords said they wanted to leave the group.

However the company said that the continuation of care for all of its residents in its 752 homes nationwide was its top priority, a view echoed by the county council.

Southern Cross has 223 beds in its Oxfordshire homes, 115 of which are currently occupied by clients funded by Oxfordshire County Council.

The company plans to transfer the operation of its care homes to other providers, which could include current landlords taking over the operation of some homes. However it is not fully clear at this early stage when this may happen.

The council therefore expects that Southern Cross will stop running homes in the future – but this would not mean that homes would close. The company is working with other parties to ensure the continued operation of their homes by other providers.

Officers at Oxfordshire County Council have been in close contact with Southern Cross for a number of months and have been developing a contingency plan to identify sufficient capacity in other care homes, should those places be required.

Discussions have been and are being held by the council with a number of other organisations about the situation, including The Care Quality Commission, The Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust and Age UK Oxfordshire.

Council officers have been in contact with the management of Southern Cross’ Oxfordshire care homes today about the company’s announcement.

Council staff  are on hand to answer questions about the current situation regarding Southern Cross. They can be reached on 0845 050 7666.

Focus meetings in Headington Ward

We are planning to hold meetings on topics relating to your local area called Headington Focus meetings. This will give people a chance to book surgery slots, raise local issues in open session, find out what is happening across the area from community groups and local councillors, and discuss topics that will lead to the formation of a local plan for each area of the ward

The first meeting will be held on Monday 19 July at Headington Baptist Church Hall at 6.00 pm. For more details, please click on the Meetings/surgeries tab in the top menu bar

Missing? £20K for local projects

Those of you who attended the last Area Committee meeting will know that there was a £20K carry-forward sum left over from the last council year from the committee’s funding allocation for community projects in the North East area of the City, comprising Headington, Barton, Marston, Wood Farm, Northway and Quarry. At that time it was unclear how youth services and library services would continue next year. It was agreed that an application for the £20K to be carried forward for projects in this ring-fenced North-East area up until Christmas 2011 would be submitted.

The Corporate Management Team at the City Council (officers) has discussed carry-forward items and a  “Provisional outturn report for the year ended 31st March 2011” has made recommendations to the City Executive Board (councillors) to approve a list  of approved carry forward requests. Click here for details

We can’t find any mention of the £20K carry-forward for projects in our area in this report so we assume the council officers don’t think this is a priority.

Ruth will ask CEB to reconsider this officer-led decision at next week’s meeting.  Councillors Coulter, McManners and Lygo are members of CEB and are also members representing wards in the NE Area

Consultation on housing sites includes car park

A preferred options paper is going to be considered by the City Executive Board next Wednesday. It has information on sites proposed for housing and development and many are in Headington Ward or will affect Headington Ward residents.  These include (preferred option in brackets):

  • Churchill Hospital site (reduce car parking provision on site)
  • Dorset House site
  • Gipsy Lane campus
  • Headington car park, Old High Street (car-free residential and/or student accommodation)
  • Headington Preparatory School (do not allocate)
  • Headington School (do not allocate)
  • JR Hospital (reduce car parking provision on site)
  • Manor Ground (100% affordable housing)
  • NOC (healthcare and medical research – reduce car parking provision on site)
  • Old Road campus (hospitaland medical research – reduce car parking provision on site)
  • Park Hospital (medical teaching and research – reduce car parking provision on site)
  • Ruskin College (main academic site)

Library use of the Dorset House site has been rejected

For a full list and commentary please click here

Osler Road public meeting

The public meeting for Osler Road residents was well attended and a number of agencies have taken away actions to try to address issues including:

  • traffic congestion
  • parking issues and lack of enforcement
  • damage to roads
  • near misses and accidents
  • specification of buses
  • need for a transport strategy for Headington

We are circulating the list of actions to all residents in Osler Road and will convene another meeting in three months time to review progress. We are grateful to Stagecoach, Oxfordshire County Council, Oxford City Council, the JR and Thames Valley Police for assisting us in trying to resolve local issues.

We are also delighted that Osler Road residents are setting up a new Residents’ Group and will helping to facilitate this

If you would like a copy of notes taken at this meeting please contact us

NAG news – neighbourhood priorities

After extensive surveying in and around Headington, the neighbourhood team has identified three priorities:

  • Littering
  • Antisocial behaviour
  • Parking issues

A problem-solving session will be held at the next meeting (Wed 13 April at 18.00, at the Baptist Hall Old High Street) to inform our action plans for the summer.

There is a new neighbourhood inspector for the area called Insp Marc Tarbit, and we are also able to call on support from Oxford City Council Street Wardens who are now deployed across the City.

We also discussed a range of issues including the reliability of road accident statistics, the safety audit of London Road following the redevelopments, the Highfield traffic scheme proposals, and the behaviour of summer school and language school students in parks.

PCSOs have been issuing fixed penalty notices to people caught cycling on pavements in Lonson Road

If you would like to get involved in the Headington Neighbourhood Action Group and come to our meetings, please contact either David or Ruth. If you have a concern about any matter relating to your neighbourhood, please let us know

Part of Cuckoo Lane closing for 10 weeks

As from next Monday 7th March, Cuckoo Lane is to be closed for 10 weeks for work to be done on reconstructing the wall to the garage nearest Osler Road.

It is on the authority of Oxfordshire Council who are the highways authority.

The diversion applies to pedestrians and is for that part of Cuckoo Lane between Osler Road and Stephen Road.  Pedestrians are asked to use The Croft as a diversion.

David and I are asking whether the closure period needs to be this long, bearing in mind how many pedestrians, JR employees and joggers use the lane. It’s a key walkway too for people visiting the hospital and GP surgery. We will keep you posted.

Bury Knowle Library

You will have heard the news that Bury Knowle Library is one of the 20 libraries (out of a total of 43) highlighted by the County Council for discontinuation of funding. Details are still sketchy about what exactly it is that the County means by this – would it for example include lease of properties, or replacement stock as well as staffing? We don’t yet know. What we do know is that Bury Knowle House belongs to the City Council, not the County Council, and the County pays the lease to the City. Our portfolio holder is in contact with the relevant senior manager at the City to ascertain whether the City would accept a “peppercorn rent” from any group of volunteers who would like to take over the running of the Library – we haven’t had a response so far

This is part of the County’s press release from 26 November:

Please note these are proposals not decisions

Big Society proposals for the future of Oxfordshire’s libraries

Oxfordshire County Council is asking local communities to come up with innovative ideas to run their local libraries as it proposes to cease funding 20 of the 43 facilities that currently operate in the county, with possible further changes to service levels in future years.

Following the Government’s Spending Review and cuts in funding to local authorities, Oxfordshire County Council currently calculates that it will have to save around £155m up to 2015. These savings will need to be made across all of its services and the library service is one of the areas that will have to contribute to making that saving. The council is already on target to make £35m of savings in 2010/11 with a pay freeze and driving down the costs of contracts with suppliers contributing to this.

What is the vision for the future of libraries?

Proposals have been formulated around a clear vision of providing library hubs centred on key areas of population in Oxfordshire with a quality support network of mobile library services and an extension of the library loan service to include e-books and e-audio downloads, so people can get the books they want direct to their home PCs. Residents will continue to be able to go online and order books from an online catalogue. The books can be delivered either to the nearest library hub or to the village/town by the mobile library service for users to collect.

In formulating proposals for a new way forward there has been a strong emphasis on the comparative quality of the public transport links that enable local communities to reach libraries in individual localities and geographical spread. Usage figures have also been considered.

Are these the final proposals?

Details could yet change when more information becomes available on Local Government Settlement Day – the day when all UK councils learn in detail what their grant funding from central Government will be in future years. Oxfordshire County Council receives 65 per cent of its funding from central Government.

Cash to help innovative ideas

In line with the Government’s Big Society agenda, Oxfordshire County Council is to set up a pot of money to which local communities can bid for funds to help them take responsibility for any library that the council is seeking to end funding.

Which libraries will see funding cease?

A total of 82 per cent of library visits take place to the 23 libraries that are currently proposed for continued funding by the county council.

Oxford and Banbury have excellent transport links with a high quality bus service meaning that libraries are very easy to reach. Oxford Central Library is accessible to everyone in the city and it is proposed that opening hours should be extended to include Sundays. Cowley Library is also proposed to remain as part of the county council’s network of libraries.

Summertown, Headington, Littlemore, Old Marston and Blackbird Leys in Oxford would see funding discontinued as would Neithrop in Banbury.

Adderbury, Bampton, Benson, Berinsfield, Botley, Charlbury, Chinnor, Deddington, Grove, Kennington, North Leigh, Sonning Common, Stonesfield and Woodcote would also see funding cease with opportunities for the community to take over their running.

When will funding cease?

Funding will be phased out during the 2011/12 financial year although there is no exact timetable at the moment. Any further funding changes will be announced in future financial years.

Our latest information from County is that:

information is being worked out for each library – and will be available the week commencing 13th December. Each area will need a different solution, even if the community wants to take it over – because some buildings are leased, some are owned by the County etc etc. So it is taking some time to get the information together to help communities decide what they would like to do. The consultation is likely to start in March 2011

Unofficially a figure of £200K has been mentioned as a possible sum of money for which volunteer groups can bid to maintain their libraries, but this has not yet been confirmed. As soon as we have more details we will let you know, and we shall be meeting Headington Action shortly to discuss a local response

Dates for digital TV switchover

REMAINING SWITCHOVER DATES ANNOUNCED

The remaining dates for digital TV switchover in the Central region have been announced by Digital UK. Analogue signals will be switched off at nine transmitter groups in 2011, allowing digital signals to be boosted to reach virtually all homes. A full list of dates for regions has been published:

Transmitter group: Oxford

Area covered: Oxfordshire, parts of Berkshire and Buckinghamshire

Stage one (BBC Two analogue off):  14 September 2011

Stage two (All analogue channels off) :  28 September 2011

ROADSHOW DATES GO LIVE!
Digital UK will be running 240 roadshows across the Central TV region next year, both before switchover and at both stages. The roadshow will visit shopping centres and market squares in major cities and towns offering free advice and support about any aspects of the switchover process. The full list is now available on the Digital UK website and you can check locations and dates here.

Tell the council what you think!

There are an increasing number of consultations online lately from the City Council and the County Council.

It’s easy to miss out on these. The City Council is asking for your feedback on:

  1. Parks and open spaces
  2. Its sustainability strategy
  3. New governance arrangements

The County Council wants you to comment on:

  1. Design approaches to Frideswide Square
  2. The Oxfordshire Big Debate (basically where to make cuts!)
  3. How important is Oxfordshire’s countryside to you?

Please do send in your comments – it is becoming increasingly common for councils to say that they have consulted residents but residents tell us they don’t know these consultations are happening. That is because they are very often online, and this bothers me because I know very well that some of our residents feel ‘disenfranchised’ by not having (or not choosing to have) access to the Web.

I shall set up sticky links to the the consultation websites so that you can click on them to make sure you haven’t missed out on anything!