Lining work in Headington

The City Council’s re-lining team has done a sterling job in Headington over the past few weeks: here is a list of all the work they have done.  The lines are much more clearly marked now, and it’s easier for NSL to enforce parking regulations.  Motorists – please remember your Highway Code when deciding whether or not to enter a box junction as it is likely that it’s the only way out into London Road for people who live in side roads like Osler Road and Stephen Road

NB DYLs stand for Double Yellow Lines.

 

Kennett Road
  • cycle lane + symbols
  • parking bays
  • loading blips
  • DYLs
  • access protection lines
  • remove unwanted DYLS in bays  ( to be finished off )
  • Road arrows
3 men 7 hours + 2 men 3 hour to burn off unwanted DYLs in Bays
Bateman Street
  • parking bays
  • DYLs
  • junction
  • access protection line
2 men 3 hours
Latimer Road
  • parking bays
2 men 1 hour
Old Road
  • parking bays
  • DYLs
  • access protection lines
  • yellow hatched box
3 men 3 hours
Stephen Road
  • DYLs
2 men half hour
Fanklin Road
  • parking bays
3 men 2 hours
London Road
  • BUS STOP bay
  • TAXI bay
  • loading bays
  • DISABLED bay
  • right hand filter lane + arrows
  • yellow hatch box at Osler Road
  • yellow hatch box at Stephen Road
3 men 6 hours

Road Works – Warneford Lane (South Parks side)

We have been notified by Oxfordshire County Council about road works to be carried out on the carriageway adjacent to South Parks only in Warneford Lane

Oxfordshire County Council are programmed to carry out road reconstruction works on half of the dual carriageway between Morrell Avenue Roundabout and Gipsy Lane junction. Due to the narrowness of the carriageway and the nature of the works to be undertaken it will be necessary to close this section of Warneford Lane.

The road closure will be for two weeks commencing 11th February 2013 to take advantage of school half term holiday, however this timescale may change should inclement weather or unforeseen issues arise during the works. I have for your information attached a location plan of the works and the diversion route which will be in place and signed for the duration of the road closure.

For those who live or work in Cheney Lane, entry will be available from the Gipsy Lane junction via the central reservation access points in Warneford Lane opposite Cheney Lane. Exiting will be via one of these access points onto Warneford Lane, depending on the status of the works, then on to Morrell Avenue roundabout. There will be no access from the Morrell Avenue roundabout into Warneford Lane.Parking along both carriageways will be suspended for the duration of the works to facilitate additional movements brought about as a result of the works.

Footways and pedestrian access to all properties will be maintained at all times.

If you have any problem or query regarding this, please contact Ruth or David and we will put you in contact with the project manager.

Latest licensing decision

William Osler House, Osler Road, Headington, Oxford, OX3 9BL has been granted a new premises licence for:

Plays and Films: 11.00 hours to 23.30 hours (Sunday to Saturday)

Indoor sporting events: 08.00 hours to 23.30 hours (Sunday to Thursday); 08.00 hours to 00.30 hours (Friday and Saturday)

Live music:11.00 hours to midnight (Sunday to Thursday); 11.00 hours to 01.00 hours (Friday and Saturdays)

Recorded music / Performances of dance:11.00 hours to midnight (Sunday to Thursday): 11.00 hours to 01.30 hours (Friday and Saturday)

Late night refreshment: 23.00 hours to 05.00 hours (Friday and Saturday)

Sale of Alcohol: 11.00 hours to 23.30 hours (Sunday to Thursday); 11.00 hours to 00.30 hours (Friday and Saturday).

The licensing application number is 12/02143/PREM

London Road plan – option for consultation announced

 

The senior County transport planner who attended the public meeting in December called by Cllr Roz Smith has released more details of the scheme going out for consultation. He writes:

Following the public meeting in December and consideration of the comments made, together with further work on estimating the costs and benefits of the scheme, major changes have been proposed.  The new scheme is cheaper and delivers much greater benefits to buses and other traffic; it also minimises the impact on cyclists and pedestrians and should avoid the loss of any trees.  The changes were considered and approved by Cllr Rose at a recent Transport Strategy meeting.

The major changes are that we now intend to provide inbound bus lane around the outside of the roundabout from the A40 into the A420 London Road as far as a relocated first bus stop.  This would be moved to almost opposite the existing outbound stop, a more convenient location for passengers.  This would allow buses priority up to and including this stop, and would allow non-stopping buses and other traffic to pass stationary buses.  This should reduce the problem of traffic backing up across the roundabout at times during the morning peak.

No further bus lane would be provided so inbound buses would then share the carriageway with other traffic as far as the next stop at Gladstone Road and would then continue via the existing inbound bus lane.  This and the existing outbound bus lane would remain unchanged.

Limited road widening would still be needed, but only for a short distance to the east of Northfield Road.  The shared use footway/cycleway on the north side of London Road would not be adversely affected as the cycleway switches to the service road just east of Northfield Road.

I should stress that this is work in progress and that there will be formal public consultation before it can be given final approval.

If you would like more information (plans available) please contact David or Ruth or County Cllr Roz Smith roz.smith@oxfordlibdems.org.uk

There is no promise here of funding to upgrade road or footway surfaces in any other part of the London Road outside the area covered by the scheme.

Windmill School expansion – consultation starts

A Statutory Notice has been published relating to the proposal to expand Windmill Primary School in Oxford to become 3 form entry with an Admission Number of 90.

The current capacity of the school is 510 and the proposed capacity will be 630. The current number of pupils registered at the school is 476. The current admission number for the school is 60 and the proposed admission number will be 90.

All the background papers and information are available here including catchment area maps.

There is an online form people can use when sending in comments. Online forms don’t always satisfy everyone’s needs, and there are other ways by which you can comment. you may email your response to:

WindmillStat2013-manager@myconsultations.oxfordshire.gov.uk

or respond in writing to:
Diane Cameron, School Organisation & Planning, County Hall, Oxfordshire County Council, FREEPOST.

It’s really important that you have your say – do please send in comments even if you already made them at public meetings so that they can be recorded

The consultation ends at midnight on 6 February 2013

Bins on pavements

bin  Our Community Response Officer Anton has done a sterling job today. He and his colleague Maria from the environmental enforcement team have completed a bin survey in New High Street. They identified a number of properties where owners needed to move bins off the highway, they gave out information to residents and have ensured that people have the right type of bin. Some houses have no frontage and benefit from a lilac plastic sack collection rather than having a big bin to wheel through the house.

Would you benefit from using lilac sacks?

Do you have any questions about collection days?

Do you live in a street which would benefit from this sort of audit?

If so, please do get in touch with either David or Ruth

County LibDems support concessionary travel for young unemployed

At the County Council meeting held on Tuesday 11th December, Cllr. Zoé Patrick, Leader of the Opposition, brought forward a motion calling for the Chief Executive and Cabinet to examine the feasibility of extending the concessionary travel scheme to include 18 – 24 year olds in receipt of Job Seekers’ Allowance or undertaking apprenticeships. This was recognising the fact that young unemployed young people are particularly disadvantaged by the current economic situation and they deserve extra support to move onto the first steps of permanent employment.

This move was also in support of the £1 billion Youth Contract scheme launched by the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg of the Coalition government as a result of Liberal Democrat intervention which opens up various opportunities for young people, including giving incentives to employers to take them on for work.

The costings for the scheme are estimated to be around £563K, but would benefit around 1,500 young people. However, the feasibility study could have explored other options including partnership working with other initiatives, for example the Local Enterprise Partnership to help support the scheme.

When put to the vote, the motion was lost.

Help your Lib Dem councillors take action to fill empty homes

Did you know that Empty Homes Week starts on November 26th? It is a real scandal that when so many people want a home to live in, the previous Labour government let numbers of empty homes rocket upwards.

Thanks to Lib Dem pressure the government has been working hard on turning this round and filling empty homes. Lib Dem Andrew Stunell MP announced earlier this year that £160 million was being put towards this goal. This included £70m allocated to bring empty homes back into use as affordable housing and £60m for local authorities to do this, as well as £30m for community groups or voluntary organisations leading local schemes.

In September 2012, the Government announced it would bring a further 5,000 empty homes back into use. The number of empty properties has fallen from a high of 783,119 under Labour to 709,426 under the current government. A lot still to do but Lib Dem action in government is tackling Labour’s neglect.

The government also announced in September 2012 that local authorities had brought nearly 38,000 long term empty homes back into use over the past two years through the New Homes Bonus Scheme. Under the scheme, where local authorities build new homes or convert empty properties back into use, the Government match-funds the additional council tax raised, with an additional amount for affordable homes, for the following six years. In this way, £63m additional funding has been released for local communities thanks to Lib Dems within Government working hard.

And the Government is now allowing councils to charge the full amount of Council Tax on empty homes – with an extra 50% premium for homes left empty for more than 2 years.

Do you know of an empty home in Headington Ward? You can let us know by clicking on Report a problem  in the top right corner of the screen and we will work together to put pressure on the council and try and fill them!

Ward Focus meeting with Council chief a hit with residents

Tuesday’s Ward Focus meeting at the NOC attracted a crowd of engaged and interested residents.

Mark Trumper, Director of Estates at the OUHT, outlined latest developments at the hospital sites, and gave us some very useful information about the proposed cancer research centre in terms of what work will go on there, how many visitors/patients it will attract, approximate timescales, and how it will be funded.

He answered questions about the overall master planning of the trust, he confirmed there is currently no plan to sell off the green space from the Manor House to Cuckoo Lane, promised to investigate the railings at the cemetery end of the JR site, and outlined the three markets for any potential housing that may be built on the Churchill site.

Peter Sloman, Chief Executive of Oxford City Council for 5 years, said that Oxford has problems arising from its own success. It is one of the fastest growing cities in the country, one of the cities with the youngest population, and one of the most diverse cities in the country

Major issues are:

– educational attainment in some parts of Oxford are among the worst in England
– transport constraints on growth
– housing to help employers recruit and enable our people to find homes

He answered questions on the  notification to residents of planning applications in their area, the difficulties in enforcing car-free development, support for Commonwheels projects by freeing up delays in negotiations with City officers, the value of neighbourhood planning (“a battle worth fighting”), planning enforcement with especial reference to a property in Old Headington, the management of green space and its insufficiency in Headington, building on allotment sites, the County Council’s Health and Safety decisions to prevent residents walking or cycling to Redbridge with material for recycling only to be told the site may be entered by vehicle only, and Oxford turning into Bin City.

We have notes of the meeting, so if you are a resident in our ward and would like a copy, please hit the Contact Us! button or drop us a line.

Better still, come to our next Ward Focus Meeting on Tuesday 15 January to make sure you’re up to date with the latest Headington news!

Brookes/Sony “Magic” Wonderbook hits the bookshops

A key Christmas product for Sony using technology developed by Oxford Brookes’ Computer Vision Group hit the shops last week (16 November). 

Complex computing from Oxford Brookes helped to create a ‘magical’ new technology called Wonderbook which is now on sale complete with a Book of Spells game from the World of Harry Potter series.

The all-new Wonderbook for the Sony PlayStation 3 uses a technology known as Augmented Reality (AR) and has been praised for its ‘technical wizardry’. 
Wonderbook’s AR uses objects in the player’s environment, captured through a camera, and mixes them with virtual objects presented in a game on screen. 

The contribution from Oxford Brookes was to enable the computer to distinguish the skin of the player’s hands from the background.