Oxford City Council is now offering an online reporting service to further speed up the reporting of abandoned trolleys.
An online form can be used to report abandoned trolleys within the city 24 hours a day at a time that is convenient to residents. The forms go directly to Trolley Collection Services Ltd who are funded by local supermarkets to collect trolleys on their behalf.
Here is a link to the new reporting form
This is a reminder to anyone involved in voluntary and community groups that there is still time to bid for grants of up to and including £15,000 from Oxford City Council. The closing date for grant applications is 21 November
There is a lengthy form to fill in if your group wishes to apply for a grant. Please contact Oxfordshire Community Voluntary Action (OCVA) for details on 01865 251946 or email info@ocva.org
Bidding is open for the following projects so long as they are not the primary responsibility of another statutory agency, not provided by another agency, and not funded significantly by another agency:
The criteria under which you can apply for grants are really tightly set. I’ve been to a training workshop on how these grants are allocated and have used the criteria to assess an application. If you want advice or guidance on filling in the form, please don’t hesitate to contact me! (click on contact us in the left hand menu bar for my contact details)
Elderly residents have been talking to David and me about the Octabus Dial-a-Ride service that operates with a subsidy from the County Council. Here is a link to a leaflet which will tell you more about this service.
It is operated by Walter’s Limousines out of Forest Hill, it costs £3 for membership (which includes vouchers for two free single journeys) and it’s a door-to-door service for those who are unable to use, or find it difficult to use, public transport due to disability or infirmity. Those with concessionary bus passes travel free, and so do their escorts, but you’re not allowed to use it for journeys to the hospital or to a County Council-run social centre – that’s because there are other transport schemes to cover this.
Do contact David or me if you experience any difficulties in ordering journeys as we want to monitor how over-subscribed this service is getting
We know there is a lot of interest and speculation about the County Council’s ideas to pedestrianise the centre of Oxford, and there have been a lot of hits on our previous post which summarises a briefing given to City Councillors by the County Leader and his Cabinet member for Transport
There’s been nothing tangible to report on this since then, but there is a lot of political to-ing and fro-ing behind the scenes. The chief concerns reported to us from our residents are that the east of the City would effectively be cut off from the rest under the Tory plans, and people who live in Headington and commute regularly to London are extremely concerned about the implications of the scheme for the Oxford-London bus route. David and I are speaking to the top people at both major bus companies and to bus users but cannot report back at present until more details are known.
There are also big concerns about the lack of identified cycle routes in the new scheme, but it would be fair to say that most people would ideally like to see the middle of Oxford pedestrianised, and this is something that Lib Dems would be keen to look at (and have done so many times over recent years).
Like most new ideas, some of what is suggested is worth consideration, and other parts of it appear to be unworkable. Please do contact David and me with your views; we would be interested in any alternative suggestions residents may have for maintaining the current quality of bus services between London, Headington and Oxford whilst reducing the number of buses passing through the City Centre itself.
Please press the comment button above to record your views, or by all means email David or me at:
david.rundle@oxfordlibdems.org.uk
ruth.wilkinson@oxfordlibdems.org.uk
There will be a Consultation Event on the re-development of Windmill House, 157a
Stonham is Home Group’s care and support business which operates the support service at the above property. Jointly, they are working with Oxford City Council to re-develop the above site. The proposal is to demolish the existing building and construct a new one to provide supported accommodation for young people and supported living units for individuals with learning difficulties.
Representatives from Home Group Development Team, Stonham and Oxford City Council will be in attendance to answer questions and listen to the views of invited local residents to ensure the development has minimal impact on the area. David and I will be there too.
Please click here to see the County Council’s plans to pedestrianise the centre of Oxford
I went to a briefing on this tonight. I get the impression that very few people have been consulted. This is
a vision, not a solid immutable blueprint (Keith Mitchell).
Their view of the City Centre is that there are too many buses, dirty
cluttered streets, and poor quality pavement materials
The exemplar of good practice they want to aspire to is the Castle redevelopment
They are aiming for:
The buses from East Oxford via Cowley Road/Iffley Road/St
Clements/Marston Road will turn round at the Plain – that’s the
current thinking. But they will think about extending the route for
through buses from further out if this is not possible. From St
Clements? From Gipsy Lane? From London Road roundabout? From Park
and Ride? That’s all up for debate and the bus companies will have a
big role in sorting this out. But at present they are assuming the
buses from our end of Oxford will turn round at the Plain and will not
diminish in frequency. People will then change onto buses that run through the City Centre
Buses from North Oxford will turn round at a strange new turning place by
the Ashmolean short of the Martyrs’ Memorial, councillors are concerned
this will upset St John’s College
Mr Hugh-Jones (Env/Econ) mentioned talks starting about running a bus service
between Thornhill, the hospitals, and Peartree.
A bendy bus had been superimposed on the presentation slides, it resembled an airport bus for people to stand in, with very few seats. “What about the elderly? What about
people with luggage?” we exclaimed! But the type of bus has not been decided upon yet
Ian Hudspeth and Keith Mitchell seem to think the scheme frees up the options for London buses to depart from other areas of the City. I pointed out that 25%
Tube passengers get on the coach between the Plain and London Road
roundabout, that many Headington residents have bought houses here in
order to access the London buses, and that proprietors of bed and
breakfast accommodation and hotels in Headington had acquired premises
precisely because they were on the main route to London.
I pointed out that the bus companies would be hard to persuade that
their established routes should be changed as they stood to lose a lot
of money, at least initially.
They want to pedestrianise Broad Street and pave it with high quality
materials funded from developer money! (from where? Where can they
develop Broad St.?)
They have no budget for this at present. They are interested in
getting money from the Transport Innovations Fund and they think
they’d be successful, although this would not be enough
Bus stops would move from Queen St to Castle St. and New Road
They will do an audit of cycle racks, then decide where to site new
ones. Lots of concern about the need for cycle routes – The Plain may
become a death trap for cyclists? They would like a rent-a bike scheme as in Barcelona
Phase 1 is putting a non-stopping bus lane down the middle of Queen St
with pedestrian walkways either side.
The plans for consultation are not yet firmed up, but residents will be able to give their views via the County Council. There’s a lot to sort out before plans get as far as that!
I have a meeting booked on Monday with two representatives from Royal Mail concerning issues raised by residents about the collection of postal deliveries. The topics you have raised with me include:
Other issues include misdelivery, the return of parcels and the physical state of the pavement outside the post office in Headington. 
If there is any other issue you want David and me to raise, please leave a comment on this page by pressing the Comment button and typing in your views. We shall be talking to the manager of the Delivery Centre and to the area manager.
Thanks to everyone who attended the area committee meeting tonight, it was good to see so many residents willing to ask questions of the representatives from Thames Water, and I am really pleased we were able to discuss our issues with them.
I mentioned the complaints procedure to follow if you feel that an issue you have reported has not been dealt with appropriately or there has been a service failure. The first thing to do is to use Thames Water’s own formal complaints procedure – click here for details
If you are unable to resolve it, you can contact the Consumer Council for Water Thames – for consumers of Thames Water, Three Valleys Water, Sutton and East Surrey. Their address is
Fourth Floor (South), High Holborn House, 52/54 High Holborn, London, WC1V 6RL
Click here for details – their services are free
A survey is being carried out across the county, and you may be one of the lucky people to get a questionnaire through your letter-box! It’s part of a national Place Survey Programme which is asking residents aged 18 and over to comment on their immediate neighbourhood, public services, and whether they get involved in their community.
If you need any help in filling in the form or want to know more about the survey, please click here for details. Your comments are important to us – let the Councils know how happy you are with their local services!
Got a problem with Thames Water?
David and I have started up a campaign site called WaterWatch Oxford for any resident in Oxford to email us with reports of the issues they have with Thames Water utility services. We want to log how many issues there are across the City so that we ask Thames Water about them next Tuesday and continue to chase progress
If YOU have a problem you wish to report, please click on WATER WATCH OXFORD on the left hand toolbar and tell me
WHAT happened?
WHERE it happened?
WHEN it happened, and has it happened again?
WHO did you contact to get it fixed?
WHAT did they do to fix it?