Declaration of interest in planning applications

As several residents have asked us about declaration of interest with regard to the decision-making on the Brookes application at last week’s full council meeting, I felt I should publish this reply.

 I gave my apologies for the full meeting of Council for the following reason.  Councillors are bound by a code of conduct which is available for you to see on the council’s website. Where the subject for debate is a planning application, any councillor who has an interest must declare it. If the interest may be deemed to be prejudicial to any decision that councillor may take in the eyes of the general public, then the advice to councillors is that they should formally declare a prejudicial interest and withdraw from the debate, and that they are ineligible to vote on the application.
 
This item had already come up at Area Committee for comment. I sought legal advice about whether I should declare a personal or a prejudicial interest, and was advised that members of the public might be led to believe that I would not have an open mind on the merits of the application because I am employed by Oxford Brookes University (as Site Services Librarian at the Wheatley Campus). I declared a prejudicial interest and withdrew from the meeting at the point that the planning application was discussed.
 
The special council meeting called at short notice had only one item on the agenda – the Brookes application. If I had made the decision to attend, I would have walked into the Chamber, declared a prejudicial interest, and been obliged to withdraw again.  I made the decision that this would not be in the best interests of the ward I represent, and chose to spend the time instead making ward visits and completing casework.  I duly sent in my apologies on the grounds that I would have to declare prejudicial interest in any case, but this was not reported in the Press.

So if you are wondering why Cllr Wilkinson’s name was missing from the list of those present, this is why!

Nat West pavement issue

Many of you have let us know that you are unhappy with the appearance of the area in front of the Nat West Bank in the London Road, which has been fenced off with orange and white boards for quite some time.  Having talked to the Manager, it would appear that there is an ownership issue between the bank and its landlord; which of the two owns the land that is affected? We have discussed this with the manager of the Nat West Bank and he has kindly agreed to contact his Legal Dept. and let us know the latest. Watch this space for further information!

Can you imagine a life without books?

Have you ever seen a five year old child who’s never seen a book before?

I have. When I helped at the primary school in my local area, I gave a lad a book and he looked at it suspiciously. Then he shook it, to see if it made a noise. When it didn’t, he kicked it, to see if it made a good football. It didn’t.  So he left it on the floor and walked away.

Together with a group of volunteers, I am helping to start a library in a community centre on an inner city estate. It’s a very different sort of library because the people we hope to attract are those who don’t ‘do’ reading, or are scared of filling in forms to join, or of working out complicated numbering systems to find a book or magazines they would like to look at. Our aim is to get books into people’s houses and promote a reading culture in an area of cripplingly poor educational attainment and social deprivation. It’s about adding value to the quality of people’s lives.

The local volunteer helpers at this library like to talk about ‘stuff’, not books. They want their place to be called “Read/Swap”, not The Library. (“Library” is a scary word). They want material to have interesting pictures on the covers. Categories of stuff are called “Things to do outside” (sport, woodwork etc.), “Things to do inside” (cake decorating, sewing etc.), “Stories about people” (Biography), “Stories for grown ups” (Yes! That includes literature as well as novels) etc.

I would like to thank the New Headington Residents’ Association for donating unsold books from their Headington Festival stall to Read/Swap, and for the donations from individual residents who have got to hear about the project. A story on the Read/Swap library is featured in the Oxford Mail on 2 September. If you have any good quality “children’s stuff” or picturebooks that you would care to donate, I should be very grateful to receive them, or they can be left at Rose Hill Community Centre, The Oval, Rose Hill, OX4 4UY  between 10.00 and 12.00 weekday mornings.

Thanks!  Ruth (Chartered Librarian in my working life. Or should I say “Stuffperson”?!)

Pavement Trips Cost Council

 County Cllr Altaf Khan inspects a pavement in Franklin Road    franklin-altaf.JPG

Figures obtained by the Liberal Democrats under Freedom of Information show that Oxfordshire County Council spent half a million less than the average last year on pavement maintenance, compared to the other 19 county councils who provided figures. Perhaps as a consequence, there were 88 claims for compensation in Oxfordshire last year, 56 of which have not yet been settled.

These figures come as the Liberal Democrats reveal that 90 councils have paid out over £82m in compensation following pavement trips and falls over the last five years.

Cllr Purse, Shadow Cabinet member for Growth & Infrastructure, said, “It is not just the compensation that councils have to pay out that concerns us, but the additional costs of treatment that inevitably fall on the health service if people are injured by falling on uneven surfaces. And even more important for the individual concerned is the potentially serious loss of mobility and confidence. It is for that reason that the Liberal Democrats have proposed additional sums for road and pavement maintenance for each of the last four years in our draft budgets – it is a shame that this has not been taken up by the administration.”

Cllr David Turner, Shadow Cabinet member for Transport Implementation, said, “The failure of the Conservatives to support our proposals for more weed control on pavements is creating a big future bill to repair pavements crumbling under the pressure from uncontrolled weeds.”

Leader of the Opposition, Cllr Patrick added, “National studies show that the average time spent walking is no down to just 11 minutes day. We want to encourage more walking and good quality and well-maintained pavements are just as important as road surfaces. We have welcomed the concept of increasing pedestrianisation in Oxford City, but we hope that people are taking particular care whilst the works for this are going on in Queen Street. We don’t want to see the figures for falls and trips increase dramatically this year.”

County’s standards committee seeks new members

Oxfordshire County Council is seeking to recruit two independent members from the community to join its Standards Committee.

The committee is responsible for promoting and maintaining high standards of conduct by councillors and others who sit on the council’s committees. There is a limited time commitment involved as the committee normally only meets twice a year but it plays an important role in corporate governance.

More information is available here or from the Committee Services team on 01865 810177.
The deadline for receipt of applications is 18 September 2009.

Electric blanket checks

The County’s Trading Standards department together with Fire and Rescue Services are offering free checks on electric blankets. Last year they found that a third of those they examined failed the safety check

If you would like to make an appointment to have your electric blanket tested, please phone 01865 815607. Tests will be carried out from 7 September onwards at venues across the County

Got something on your mind? Tell the police!

If you live on the Windmill Road side of the London Road, and you are worried about any issue that you think the police or street wardens can help with, please take the time to drop in at one of the neighbourhood surgeries. Your views will be dealt with in the strictest confidence.

Here are the surgery dates and times:

Co-op, Atkyns Road on Friday 24th July between 4pm and 5pm

 

Nuffield Orthopaedic Hospital, main reception on 21st July between 11am and 1pm

 

Headington Community Centre, Drop-in café, Gladstone road on

22nd July between 10am and 12pm

Brookes submission to the Core Strategy

As you may know, Brookes are objecting to the present phrasing of section CS 26 in the City Council’s Core Strategy, and want more specified sites listed for student accommodation. 

We are surprised and frustrated by Brookes’ approach. The sites mentioned are relatively small and can hardly be called ‘strategic’ (which is the point of that part of the Core Strategy). What’s more, they include parcels of land which should be preserved as green space. No councillor has come out and said that allotment space in the city should be slashed. Brookes should realise that asking to be allocated an allotment site will be highly contentious and counter-productive for them.
 
Because of the procedure, David and Ruth can not now speak at the Inspector’s hearing but we are making it clear to the officers that they have our support in opposing the Brookes proposal which we believe is both wrong in principle and in its specifics.

If you wish to see the Brookes submission in full, click brookes11.pdf 

If you are interested in looking at all the submissions and seek more information about the Core Strategy DPD examination phase, please click here 

Change to proposed Brookes Student Centre plan

 Oxford Brookes University has rethought its plans for the proposed student centre. If you would like to see the revised plans, please click here

If you would like to make comments on the plan directly to Brookes, or ask the University questions about the plan, you can email spacetothink@brookes.ac.uk

If you want to lodge any comment or concern with the City Council, you will need to contact Planning Officers (see Planning website for City Council on the central orange tool bar)

Friends of Old Headington open gardens day

It was great weather for the Friends of Old Headington’s Open Gardens Day yet again this year, and the event was very well attended today.  The event is not only legendary for its wonderful variety of attractive gardens, but also for its excellent refreshments, especially the home made cake by the WI.

Please click here if you would like to see the Friends of Old Headington website, it is hot off the press, and a valuable community resource.