David and I have had several enquiries about setting up residents’ groups since the last councillor surgery in Windmill Road/Langley Close and the Barton West presentation at the Baptist Church in Old High Street
I have compiled an information sheet on this – please let us know if you would like a copy by hitting the orange comment? button at the top of this post or by emailing either of us at:
ruth.wilkinson@oxfordlibdems.org.uk
david.rundle@oxfordlibdems.org.uk
We are happy to talk to anyone hoping to get more involved in community action and positively encourage it!
As Vice Chair of the North East Area Committee I have asked for Joy White (the author of these proposals) to come along and update us on the response to the consultation and what the likely options may be. That meeting is happening on Tuesday 20 July at New Marston Primary School, Copse Lane at 6 pm. You are very welcome to come along and hear the latest news on this! I shall ensure there will be an opportunity for the public to ask questions and give comments.
Successful lobbying by Highfield Residents Association for measures to make Highfield streets less congested with through traffic and to reduce the speed of vehicles using its streets has heightened the awareness of county planners of the problems experienced by residents in their area
The county planners have now produced proposals for a traffic management scheme for Highfield that is currently out for consultation. We asked the county officer responsible for these proposals to convene a meeting with residents’ groups, and she kindly agreed.
The meeting took place on 10 June. Here are some of the notes I took away with me from it. The closing date for comments and objections to the scheme is 1 July
Notes from the meeting about the traffic scheme held on Thursday 10 June
Present:
Cllr Altaf-Khan (County Councillor and Chair of the meeting)
Joy White (County planning officer)
2 representatives from Highfield Residents’ Association Traffic Group
3 representatives from New Headington Residents’ Association Traffic Group
2 representatives from Friends of Old Headington Traffic Group
1 representative from Friends of Old Headington (the Chair)
1 representative from Central and North Headington Residents’ Association
Cllr Ruth Wilkinson (Headington ward)
What we agreed about:
·There should be a master plan for traffic management across the whole of Headington
·The strategic health authority and the hospitals trust should be required to manage transport issues more effectively, particularly in respect of hospital staff
·Everyone wants safer, less congested traffic routes in their area
·Traffic calming in residential streets is a good idea
Things people were worried about included:
·Traffic is like water: if you stop it in one area, it will spread into another and this will result in more rat runs. Some feel this scheme is piecemeal
·No right turns would mean longer journeys and restricted access to homes and businesses for some affected residents – more fuel, more time and less freedom
·Possible loss of parking spaces
·Confusion for visitors and delivery drivers (won’t show up on sat navs)
·The disadvantages of the scheme outweigh the benefits for some residents
·The bollards in All Saints Road
·We need some traffic flow modelling to be done so we have more evidence to go on
·The timing: some people felt we should wait until after the London Road redevelopment as this may affect the way traffic flows through Headington
·The London Road junctions with Windmill Road and Headley Way will come under much more pressure, and some people are worried about safety at the Windmill Road junction already. Can the existing infrastructure accommodate the dispersed traffic?
We thought about new ideas which would not restrict access so much including:
·The replacement of some pinch points with a pedestrian crossing in Lime Walk
·The possibility of making Bickerton Rd and Stapleton Rd one way
·Ways to makeLime Walk look more like a residential road than a main road to calm speeds, for example planting (non-sticky) lime trees on alternate sides of the road
·Putting bollards in New High Street at the junction with All Saints Road
Actions
·Residents’ associations will hold open meetings to discuss their response to these plans
ØNew Headington: Fri 25 June All Saints Church Hall at 6.15
ØHighfield: Mon 21 June (tbc)
·Ruth and Altaf will continue to hold street surgeries in New Headington, McMaster House and in Windmill Road: next surgery Wed 16 June at 6.00-8.00 pm, 24 Wilberforce St.
·It’s important that people have more time to make a considered response after they have attended open meetings. Many people are still angry and upset. Joy has now made 1 July the closing date for responses
PLEASE RESPOND TO THIS VERY IMPORTANT CONSULTATION
– the feedback form is on the link above.
Please contact David and Ruth if you have particular concerns
There is a limited pot of money allocated to the North East Area Committee to spend on Area Committee grants to local projects. The total amount of money allocated to areas outside those eligible for social inclusion money e.g. Headington, Marston is £8553 for this financial year.
The closing date for this round of applications is 16 October
If your group wishes to apply for a small community grant, the relevant application form should be completed and submitted by the end of the month.
For all information on grants, please visit the council’s web page here.
A number of residents have asked us when the new 20 mph speed limits will come into operation. Our latest news from the County is as follows:
We’re anticipating the speed limit will come into effect in late August / early September but have yet to confirm the exact date (as you can appreciate, there is a lot of signing work) – the contractor is making very good progress with installing the poles, and we expect the signs themselves to be installed in the latter half of August.
Some of you may remember that we started a Water Watch site when there were so many problems involving Thames Water, and our inbox was ‘overflowing’ with emails from unhappy customers.
We are pleased to announce that we have just helped obtain compensation for another resident whose garden suffered from sewage overflow on four separate occasions, and our caseload has now reduced to one outstanding claim.
The campaign to save Dorset House from demolition was mentioned briefly in yesterday’s Oxford Mail , click here for the link.
Five residents from Latimer Grange and McMaster Court attended yesterday’s site meeting with the demolition company, along with the Latimer Grange manager and Ruth.
The project supervisor’s name is Eric and he will be present on the site at all times during demolition. The work is scheduled to start on Monday 8 June and the hours of work will be between 8.00 and 18.00 Monday to Friday, and 08.00-13.00 Saturdays, this was agreed with approval of residents. It is scheduled to take 8 weeks and all access will be from London Road.
The dismantled materials will be recycled as much as possible – bricks, roof tiles, timber. In the unlikely event that contractors’ machines will damage the pavement outside (making it difficult for the elderly with buggies), the demolition firm will make good the damage. Asbestos is present on the site but appropriate safety precautions are being taken. Some of the trees have a protection order on them and ‘crowd barrier’ style fencing will be placed around them with signs to warn demolition staff to keep clear of them. A map was produced which shows which trees have TPOs and which not (the majority along the London Road boundary). There will be no burning on site. Dust will be damped down as much as possible. The site will be locked up as now during the project, and the side gate to Latimer Road may need to be strengthened. Contractor parking will be on site.
Representatives from Quintain arrived towards the end of the meeting. They said that they would shortly be approaching Oxford City Council for pre-application advice regarding development of the site but they didn’t know what would be in the application. (They withdrew their previous application four years ago which was for student accommodation) One person from Quintain said that in his view there was only one tree on site worth keeping and that was a copper beech at the rear of the site opposite Latimer Grange, but that was diseased. It also turned out that this particular tree is in the way of the demolition. I rang the Tree Officer immediately to ask him to do checks on this, and also the Head of Planning Control and Development at the City Council. To be frank, I am concerned that trees may be lost, although there is no evidence to back this up, and I have already arranged that an enforcement officer keeps a close watch on the project
The local residents have been invited to visit the site at any time and raise any issues they may have with Eric the supervisor. If any resident from Latimer Grange needs Eric’s contact number I suggest they contact Andrew the manager, and I have it too.
Details as follows for meeting re demolition of Dorset House
Site meeting: Dorset House
11.00
Led by project manager Terry Hawken tel 07973 210677
Andrew Galloway from Latimer Grange has kindly agreed to raise the
issue of the preservation order on the trees on my behalf, and is
going to alert the Latimer Grange residents to the change of date and
time. Neighbourhood police have also been asked to attend.
The following issues will be covered:
ask when work is at its noisiest and limit noise to specified hours of the day
clarify the number of times heavy traffic will need access/egress
to/from the site and ensure contractor parking is on site
explain method of demolition (not the trees!!)
give information re dispersal of dust or any burning
make sure the site is left secure at all times
explain timescale of work
The demolition will start first thing on Monday morning June 8, but for the first week there will be no heavy machinery as work will be surface stripping.
David and I are working hard to address the problem of illegal parking on the grass verge outside the parish hall in Dunstan Road. It is wrong to park on this grass verge because:
it ruins the grass in a beautiful conservation area
there are yellow lines on the road at that point, and the verge forms part of the highway so parking here is illegal
parking on a bend like this obstructs the line of sight of oncoming motorists
The Principal at Ruskin College is assisting us by ensuring that Ruskin users are aware of the regulations, and David and I are in touch with enforcement officers. If you recognise anyone who parks their car on the grass verge please let them know that they are likely to be served fixed penalty notices. I will raise this issue with neighbourhood police at this morning’s Neighbourhood Action Team meeting in Old High Street
UPDATE 8/5/09
There is some confusion over who owns this land and I am following this up with officers and with the Land Registry. In the meantime, the neighbourhood police team from Headington North has undertaken to patrol this area on a regular basis
