Energy pipe works set to start on 28 November in Highfield

Conditions attached to the planning consent have now been signed off. Letters are being distributed today by the Oxford University Hospitals Trust outlining the schedule of works. A 12 page booklet will be distributed mid-November giving fuller details e.g. the times of day works will be carried out, how to obtain visitors’ parking permits when the works are immediately outside your property, and other useful information. The proposed dates for works are always provisional at the start of a major project because of external circumstances – a protracted period of bad weather for example. If dates are delayed, residents will be notified of the revised timetable for works but we hope this eventuality will not arise.

From Monday 28 November to Friday 16 December, there will be three-way traffic lights at the Lime Walk/All Saints junction, and the 4th arm of the crossroads will be closed off between the midpoint of the entrance to Barrington Close and the above junction. Lime Walk will remain two way during that period, and access to Barrington Close will be from Bickerton Road and Stapleton Road. The planters at the junction will be removed and stored until the works are completed and will then be returned. Some bollards may be removed and stored temporarily during the works.

From Monday 28 November to Friday 16 December, the top of Latimer Road will be closed as far as the midpoint of the entrance to Latimer Grange.  There will be no entry to Latimer Road from London Road. Those wishing to access Latimer Road from London Road will need to take a different route, either via Gipsy Lane/Old Road/Bickerton or Stapleton Roads; or via Lime Walk and a wait at the three way lights, Old Road, and either Bickerton or Stapleton Roads.

Works affecting Sandfield Road will not start until the New Year.

Contact numbers for information

Daytime: Jo Lennon 07342 086843 (9am – 4.30pm)

Email: hospitalenergyproject@ouh.nhs.uk

Website: www.ouh.nhs.uk/about/developments/energy

Twitter: OUH_Estates #OUHEnergy

More details will be made available in the Trust’s booklet which is currently being printed. Ruth, Roz and Altaf have ensured that the County’s Networks, Access to Headington and Parking Teams have been fully involved throughout. Vital Energi, the contractors for the Trust, are working co-operatively with Winvic, the contractors for the Beech House development, over access to the Beech House site from Latimer Road.

If you require further information, please contact Jo (number above) or your local councillors Roz, Ruth and Altaf

How to contact your councillors

By phone:

Roz: 07584 257156

Altaf: 07931 345554

By email:

Ruth: ruth.wilkinson@oxfordlibdems.org.uk (email preferred)

Twitter:

Ruth

@ruthwilk

 

 

What’s on in Oxford in November

  • Thursday 3 November, Monica Fooks Memorial Lecture, Sommerville College, 5.30pm.Professor Guy Goodwin, Professor of Psychiatry at Oxford University, will be leading a memorial lecture on the topic: ‘Mind the gap: do psychiatry and science belong together or not?’.
  • Saturday 5 November, Oxford Round Table Fireworks Display 2016, South Park,4.30 to 10.30 pm. Annual charity fundraising event which includes a firework display and bonfire, Jack FM sound stage, event catering, family area, public bar tent and funfair. www.oxfordfireworks.co.uk
  • Saturday 5 November, Oxford Poppy Day, Broad Street, 9.30 am to 4 pm. Oxford Poppy Day in aid of the Royal British Legion poppy appeal, including a street collection and live music by youth bands and information/outreach regarding the RBL. www.britishlegion.org.uk
  • Sunday 13 November, Remembrance Day Service and Parade, St Giles, 10 am to 12.15 pm. The annual Remembrance Day ceremony will be at the memorial on St Giles along with a parade. www.oxford.gov.uk
  • Sunday 20 November, Thames Valley Orienteering Club – Orienteering Event, Shotover Country Park (Brasenose Woods), 8 am to 4 pm. Competitors will have individual time slots at the start and run by themselves around the course through Brasenose Woods. www.TVOC.org.uk
  • Friday 25 to Sunday 27 November, Christmas Light Festival 2016, City Centre inc. Broad Street, Gloucester Green & Oxford Castle, 5 to 10 pm (Fri), 10 am to 10 pm (Sat) & 10am  to 4 pm (Sun). Annual city event with the core outdoor event happening on Friday evening and various different cultural activities, most of which are free, taking place throughout the weekend. www.oxfordschristmas.com
  • Saturday 26 November, Have Your Say Meeting, Manzil Way Gardens, 10 am to 2 pm. This info stand by OCC’s Community Response Team aims to get resident’s views on issues in the area as well as the issues that matter most to them. www.oxford.gov.uk
  • Saturday 26 November, Documentary Screening: A Plastic Ocean, St Anne’s College, 6.30pm. Screening followed by a Q&A session with the Executive Advisor to the film, David Jones. Tickets available at https://fixr-app.com/event/12130

City Council underspend is questioned by Lib Dem Group

The City Council has reported an underspend of £494K for the year 2015/16. Cllr Jean Fooks who is a member of the Finance Scrutiny Panel, noticed that in fact the city had spent almost £2m less than its budget of £23.3m. About £1m was due to projects not having been completed, or even started in some cases, and this has been carried forward to be spent in 2016/17.  Of the rest, £360k was allocated at the last minute to bids not originally proposed, mostly extra spend not publicly agreed.

It looks as if Council Tax did not need to be raised as it was. LibDems asked why there had been no public discussion of how the £361k was to be spent and have queried this use of resources.

Lib Dem councillors will be keeping a very close eye on the Labour City Council accounts for this year and the proposals for 2017/18.

Experiencing flooding or sewage spills? This meeting is for you

Residents of Oxford and the surrounding areas are invited to The Oxford Area Flood Partnership 2016 OPEN FORUM at Oxford Town Hall on Tuesday 1 November 2016 from  7 – 9pm.

After a short presentation on the OAFP’s work, you will have the opportunity to put your questions to the Partners themselves:

  • Environment Agency
  • Oxfordshire County Council
  • Oxford City Council
  • Vale of White Horse District Council
  • Thames Water
  • Network Rail

For more information email flooding@oxford.gov.uk

Want to do up and sell your house? On TV?

We have been contacted by Channel 4 who are looking for people selling houses.

I’m a Jr Casting Researcher for Channel 4’s Selling Houses with Amanda Lamb and we are we filming 2 episodes in Oxfordshire next week.

I wanted to get in touch with you as I think you might be able to help get the word out there, you may even know of someone who is looking to sell and would like the opportunity to come on the show.

We’re looking for people whose houses are on the market, and what we do is have our property guru Amanda Lamb come in and give them advice on anything they might be able to do to make their property just that wee bit more appealing to potential buyers. We then give them £1,500 to put towards a mini-makeover of sorts, it’s up to them how they use that money.

At the end of the week we bring in a buyer whose already looking at buying in the area and show them the properties that have just had their mini-makeover. This person could then end up making an offer if they see something they like.

We’re looking to get in touch with people who might be interested as soon as possible, so if anyone does cross your mind then please do not hesitate to have them get in touch with us, we would love to chat with them and answer any questions they may have.

 

Do contact James directly if you are interested!

James Heath

Junior casting researcher

020 7539 2017

07971 743893

 

Access to Headington

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We have asked the County Council to update its Access to Headington website to show plans that were displayed at the Old Road Campus today. These show phase 1: works to the Roosevelt Drive Campus which are likely to take place from 17th October 2016 – the end of February 2017.

We have also requested that the County Council updates a special web page devoted to roadworks and road closures in Headington associated with both Access to Headington and the energy pipe works so that people can see at a glance which routes are useable.

We were not notified of the Old Road meeting until a resident brought it to our attention. We have asked when the public will be notified of future exhibitions and it seems that two are being arranged currently:

  • Headington Ward Focus meeting at Headington Prep School, 26 London Road on Tuesday 27 September from 6:00-7:30
  • another  venue possibly around the Cheney School area within the next two weeks, venue to be confirmed

The display boards were for the Roosevelt Drive and Old Road area works only.

We have given details of residents’ groups to Skanska so that communication can be enhanced.

It appears that minor tweaks may still be made following resident comment at these events, and we are hopeful that two parking spaces proposed immediately before the junction of York Road with Margaret Road will be dropped because of on-going safety concerns

Roz, Altaf and Ruth will attend a councillors’  meeting at County Hall on 28th September for a briefing on the Access to Headington scheme.

 

 

Unexpected sewer alert!

Following on from further sewage problems in Stoke Place, Thames Water have investigated further and has found out that the course of the sewer doesn’t correspond with their map. Here is their latest communication:

Our Field Operations Specialist, Mark Roberts, attended a meeting with the landowners’ representative of a neighbouring property and a representative from the Developer, Allbright Dene. This was to locate the existing connection and confirm if it connects to our sewer network. It became evident after a physical inspection and trace with a metal detector, that the believed course of the existing sewer, does not match the maps.  We left the developers drainage engineers onsite continuing their investigation into the correct path of the sewer.

We have since been contacted by Allbright Dene’s representative who informed us that they had located a manhole on land west of Stoke Place. The sewer they located heads north towards our main sewer on the A40, Northern Bypass Road. Allbright Dene have agreed to continue their investigation, and we will return to confirm the connection once this has been completed.

We welcome all attempts by Thames Water to resolve these issues.

Details of next Headington Ward Focus meeting here

The next public meeting for residents who live in Headington Ward will be on

Tuesday 27th September

from 6:00-7:30 pm

at Headington Prep School, 26 London Road, Headington OX3 7PB

Guest speakers on 
Active and Healthy Travel (cycling, pedestrian and door to door integrated travel)  
and the Homeshare Oxford Project.
Plus up to the minute news on timings for the energy pipe and Access to Headington projects

An Open Session for your comments too.               Free of charge.                       All welcome!               Hold your councillors to account!

Ward Focus meetings are run on a drop in and out basis and are free of charge. There is an open session where residents can raise issues of concern. There’s no need to book.

If you would like to contact your Lib Dem city councillors for advice on any issue please contact

Latest news on Brookside spillage

We have received another bulletin from Thames Water regarding sewer capacity in Brookside and dated yesterday. It reads as follows:

I am pleased to confirm our Technical Specialist has assessed the footage from the recent clean of the sewers in London Road and Brookside. He has confirmed that the sections of sewer which have been cleaned are now free-flowing and fully operational. 

There is a final section of the foul sewer in London Road which we now need to clean and camera survey to ensure the sewer is operating at full capacity. This has been scheduled for 4 October. 

Further to our discussion about sewer size in the area, our Asset Management team have confirmed that they recently completed a catchment wide hydraulic modelling study using flow monitors. This did show a degree of hydraulic incapacity in the London Road – Brookside area but our Sewer Flooding History Database shows the last flooding caused by hydraulic overload was in 2010. 

All of the recent flooding incidents have been caused by blockages of fat and grease, so there is insufficient history of a capacity issue to justify further studies or a network upgrades at this time. They have also confirmed that increasing the size of the sewers is not the right solution for sewer flooding relating to blockages as even with a larger size sewer, blockages will still occur.

Once the clean of the sewer in London Road has been completed I will ask the local Field Operations Specialist to consider placing the sewer in London Road and Brookside on our Planned Maintenance programme. This will mean they are cleaned regularly to prevent flooding caused by blockages from happening.       

I hope this information is useful, I will continue to monitor our progress and will contact you with a further update by 7 October to confirm the final section of sewer was cleaned as planned.

Update from Winvic on Latimer Road build (aka Beech House)

We asked for a newsletter to be sent out for residents and here it is (dated today) from Steve Hatch, the Project Manager.

My intentions are to keep all stakeholders aware of what is happening on site at present and a 4 week look ahead. Currently on site the civil works are continuing to form the basement to the project which entails quite detailed construction methods,   once the civil works are complete the steel frame to the building will commence from the 14th of November with the aid of a luffing tower carne to be installed on the 05.09.16, once the steel frame has been installed the floor slabs will be poured which will commence on the 21.01.17 with the aid of a concrete pump which will be sited within the compound, from the end of feb the external cladding, brickwork, windows etc will commence with the fit out internally commencing alongside the external works,      

 

Progress to date

     Completion of secant and load bearing piles

       Bulk excavation ongoing

       Cropping of piles

       Installation of temp haul road

       Installation of concrete blinding to basement

 

 

Work to be progressed over the next 4 weeks:

 

       Complete bulk excavation

       Commence installation of water proofing system to basement

       Ongoing concrete blinding to basement prior to water proofing system

       Commence installation of pile caps

       Commence excavation for attenuation tank base

       Install attenuation tank base

       Commence capping beams to grid lines A1 and 1

       Integrity tests to piles