Latest on Dorset House

To follow up on Ruth’s posting, she and I are continuing to investigate all possible routes to persuade the owners that the original buildings on the Dorset House site are worth saving. We’ll keep you updated with news of those discussions. Some residents have contacted us asking to sign a petition to save the House. So, we oblige! If you look down the right of the screen, you’ll see our survey has changed. If you do want to try to save Dorset House, do respond to the survey, replying yes, and please provide your e-mail address. This is so that we can validate our response before submitting the on-line petition to the owners of the site.

We will also provide hard copy for those who prefer to sign it that way. But, also, to those who would prefer to see Dorset House go or who don’t care, do also vote in the survey. We do want to know the whole range of opinion out there.

Dorset House destined for demolition

A demolition notice has been sent in by contractors on behalf of Quintain, the owners of the Dorset House site, to demolish all buildings on the site except for the three nearest the corner of Latimer Road and London Road. The demolition work is scheduled to take place week beginning 8 June. This came as a complete surprise to local residents.

This means that Dorset House itself is set to be demolished, along with 1A Latimer Road, and the newer buildings to the rear of the site facing Latimer Grange.

Residents are perplexed about how the owners can simply announce demolition when the City Council has previously recommended the retention of the old buildings as being of local interest. In fact, five years ago, David and Stephen Tall called for extra protection for the House and the buildings were put on what’s called ‘the Local List’. But that’s not the same as a nationally listed building and the site is not within a Conservation Area. In legal terms, when there are no other safeguards, an owner has a right to demolish their own property. That means that the Planning Department, to everyone’s frustration, can’t just stop the demolition happening.

There are, though, other aspects to the issue. We have also found out that there are various trees on the site that have preservation orders on them, and we have requested the planning enforcement officer to contact the demolition project manager to make this clear to him

There are also parts of the site which would not be a loss, in particular the newer buildings at the back of the site. We know that Latimer Grange residents are keen that the demolition of those buildings takes place as soon as possible, to stop the chance of anti-social behaviour on the site. We are setting up a meeting between them and the project manager to discuss issues around dust, noise, parking, access and egress, and, most importantly, security.

Latest on London Road

We are informed by the County that the contractor is looking to complete the current phase of the redevelopment scheme by the 1st week in June. There are a number of works to be completed throughout the site and a list is being compiled by county planning staff to aid the contractor.

We have followed up residents’ concerns about the disappearance of the wooden seat next to the Sandford Road/London Road bus shelter – this seat was taken away by the contractor and will be re-sited in its original location

We have chased the County for the re-instatement of the bus stop at Sandford Road/London Road.  There is a bus shelter, but no bus stop! Currently Arriva buses are not stopping there or picking up passengers and this is greatly inconveniencing our elderly residents in nearby homes. We have had an assurance from County this morning that

flag posts are on the way.

We’ll keep pressing for action.

Message to County Council on London Road: stop and learn!

Thank you to all those Headington residents who responded to our survey about the next phase of work on the London Road. We have formulated our response to the County Council having taken on board the wide range of comments made and talked to more local people.

One thing which is very clear to us is the level of frustration there has been over the way the roadworks for Phase I have been handled. We have regularly had to deal with issues of blocked drives, traffic lights switched off, unacceptable noise at night — like you, we have lived with this! The next Phase, because it’s in the very centre of Headington, is likely to be all the more disruptive. If the works were managed like this Phase has been, that would be a nightmare for our district centre. So, one of our key messages to the County is that they should stop and learn before they rush ahead.

We have also stressed to them that the roadworks should be part of a larger strategy, co-ordinated between different agencies: what we want to see is nothing less than our district centre on the up, being regenerated. For that to happen, we insist, it must involve local residents and their representatives at every stage.

We have also made comments on specific proposals. The one issue that has caused the most interest in the press has been pedestrian crossings. Our survey results show that the vast majority want to see an extra crossing on London Road — but that many do not want to lose the underpass. There are a significant minority who would prefer not to use the underpass, and we want those people to be able to have a crossing. But there are equally others who would not feel safe using a new crossing. What we have recommended is that there should be a new crossing, next to Osler Road which means that there would be no reason to waste money on losing the facility of the underpass, which some people find so useful. In short, we don’t see it as a case of either / or: it can be win / win!

I have uploaded the full submission so that you can read in detail what we have said on this and on other elements of the scheme. Thanks again to those who filled in our survey.

London Road Submission

Cycling in Pullens Lane

We have been contacted by a resident who cycles along Pullens Lane who is concerned about the London Road improvements.  He contacted us to say that the junction with Pullens Lane has an obstructively high kerbstone and this is dangerous to those riding bikes, and particularly so for those riding trailer-bikes as the cyclist has to dismount to negotiate the junction between London Road and Pullens Lane safely.  We have contacted the County Officer concerned and here is his reply:

In the short term a fillet will be placed on the road to remove the vertical face on the kerb.

A change will be made to the kerb line but the inclined face was a requirement of the scheme.

We are discussing what further action we can press for with County Councillor Altaf Khan