The Oxford Mail is supporting the City Lib Dems’ campaign to demand a refund from the County Council for residents who have bought parking permits between April 2010 and March 2011.
Although this is meant to be a not for profit scheme, the Tory County Council has pocketed £110,442.76 of Oxford City taxpayers’ money
The Oxford Mail is publishing a letter today that you can cut out, complete and send to the County Council asking for your money back. It applies for a £10 rebate. Please support this Lib Dem/Oxford Mail campaign and buy today’s Oxford Mail!
Lib Dems put forward a motion in Council on Monday night that was passed unanimously. It said the surplus came
despite repeated assurances from representatives of the county council that residents were only being asked to ensure that residents’ parking zone administration costs were recovered.
Council condemns this duplicity and asks the Chief Executive to write to the County Council to demand that a rebate is paid to residents who have been forced to pay excessively high charges for the privilege of parking near their own homes”.
Apologies everyone, here’s a Dept for Transport announcement from February that we should have blogged earlier. This does not apply to resident parking zones that are half on, half off the pavement as in Gathorne Road and Bickerton Road
The Government is making it easier for councils to tackle pavement parking and stop it causing an obstruction to pedestrians Regional and Local Transport Minister Norman Baker has announced.
Vehicles parked on pavements can cause particular problems for people in wheelchairs or with visual impairments and those with pushchairs. The Minister has written to councils prompting them to use their powers to prevent parking on the pavement where it is a problem.
Along with the letter, the Department for Transport has given all councils in England permission to use signs to indicate a local pavement parking ban. Until now councils have had to gain special signs authorisation from Government each time they want to put a pavement parking ban in place.
While in some circumstances pavement parking is unavoidable – for example in narrow residential roads with no off-street parking – the Government believes that in many cases it can be avoided. Pavement parking is completely banned in London.
Dai Powell OBE, Chair of the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee said:
“Inconsiderate parking on pavements can stop disabled people from gaining access to services and can also put them at great risk if having to resort to using roads. This practice also damages pavements, causing trip hazards and costing local councils who have to undertake repairs.
“DPTAC welcomes the move by the minister encouraging local councils to use their powers to enforce the law, freeing our pavements to make them accessible to all.”
The public meeting for Osler Road residents was well attended and a number of agencies have taken away actions to try to address issues including:
traffic congestion
parking issues and lack of enforcement
damage to roads
near misses and accidents
specification of buses
need for a transport strategy for Headington
We are circulating the list of actions to all residents in Osler Road and will convene another meeting in three months time to review progress. We are grateful to Stagecoach, Oxfordshire County Council, Oxford City Council, the JR and Thames Valley Police for assisting us in trying to resolve local issues.
We are also delighted that Osler Road residents are setting up a new Residents’ Group and will helping to facilitate this
If you would like a copy of notes taken at this meeting please contact us
After extensive surveying in and around Headington, the neighbourhood team has identified three priorities:
Littering
Antisocial behaviour
Parking issues
A problem-solving session will be held at the next meeting (Wed 13 April at 18.00, at the Baptist Hall Old High Street) to inform our action plans for the summer.
There is a new neighbourhood inspector for the area called Insp Marc Tarbit, and we are also able to call on support from Oxford City Council Street Wardens who are now deployed across the City.
We also discussed a range of issues including the reliability of road accident statistics, the safety audit of London Road following the redevelopments, the Highfield traffic scheme proposals, and the behaviour of summer school and language school students in parks.
PCSOs have been issuing fixed penalty notices to people caught cycling on pavements in Lonson Road
If you would like to get involved in the Headington Neighbourhood Action Group and come to our meetings, please contact either David or Ruth. If you have a concern about any matter relating to your neighbourhood, please let us know
Ruth is attending a Scrutiny meeting on Monday 10 January to present a paper to councillors on car park tariffs at Headington car parks
Those of you who braved the snow and came to the last NE Area Committee meeting will know that many residents’ groups and businesses have huge concerns about the proposed increases which even the officer calls “significant”
The paper outlines some alternative ways to raise car parks income so that rises don’t have to be so severe. Here are just some of our concerns:
Families and friends of Old High Street residents unable to find the very few visitor spaces available in Old Headington will have to pay £12.50 for a stay of four hours in Headington Car Park on Sundays
Resistance to the increase in charges (for 2-3 hours, the charge is set to double from £1.50 to £3.00) will mean less trade for our businesses as shoppers will park for as short a time as possible because of the expense
We have worked with members and officers of local residents groups and businesses to come up with an alternative plan which will generate as much income but encourage shoppers to stay for up to two hours. We shall see how much support the Labour councillors will give to these ideas and will let you know the result. You can find the relevant papers here.
In the recent past, these tariff charges have been decided by local councillors at Area Committees but a decision has been made by the City Executive Board that they will be made centrally now and in the future. We’ll know tomorrow whether that change is for better or worse!
We are working with Headington’s businesses to get an important message across to the City Council’s Executive Board members..
We must keep decisions on parking charge increases local!
The Town Hall is putting the viability of Headington’s shopping area under threat. Oxford’s Labour City Council is proposing to take the decision about car parking charges away from the local area and to introduce a huge hike in charges for Headington’s car parks.
Their plans will increase the charge by up to 100%: that means parking for 2-3 hours will go up from £1.50 to £3.00
We urge the the City Council’s Executive to see sense and:
Keep local decisions locally, being made in meetings in the local community
Back-track from the proposed hike in car parking charges that can only hit trade in Headington at a time when the Council should be working with local businesses to help improve the economy, not planning to undermine it
We support the petition that local businesses are asking customers to sign – if you feel strongly too, ask to sign the petition at shops in Old High Street and London Road
And another thing to consider…the tariffs will now run Mon-Sun till 8pm not Mon-Sat (till 6.30 pm) with a fixed charge on Sundays. This will hit the pockets of Sunday customers and those shopping in the evenings or using the car park to attend meetings at the Baptist Church Hall hard!
I hear tell that it was back in 2001 that Headington West Residents Parking Zone was introduced – before I was a councillor and when Oxford United still graced Headington with its presence. At the time, it was said that the Zone would be reviewed a few months after its introduction: eight years on, and the review is now about to happen!
So we are clear: ‘Headington West’ covers the north end of Headley Way (Franklin, Woodlands, Staunton, Sandfield etc), and the south side of London Road, from Brookside up to (but NOT including) Lime Walk. It also includes, outside Headington Ward, Highfield Avenue, Little Oxford and the Valentia Road estate.
The County are sending out today a consultation questionnaire on what you would like to see in the Zone. Obviously, the big issue is the timing — the times at present still reflect football match times, long after the United ground has become the Manor Hospital. But there will also be local issues in your own street that you will want to mention — introducing or removing a disabled bay, say, or changing the balance of parking between residents and visitor. Ruth and I do know some of those but the real experts are you, the residents yourselves. So, please do respond to the consultation — the County have set a deadline of 8th January.
What the County is not including in this consultation is the issue of enforcement. I realise that this is a problem for many residents and is needed, for instance, to combat dangerous parking around school drop-off and pick-up times. We will be interested to hear any issues you have about this so that we can encourage the powers that be to deal with them. Please do drop us a line.
Objections to the proposal to exclude two properties in Lime Walk should be made to the County Council no later than 10 December – the address is given below
THE OXFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL (HEADINGTON CENTRAL)
(CONTROLLED PARKING ZONE AND VARIOUS RESTRICTIONS) (VARIATION No.10) ORDER 20**
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that Oxfordshire County Council proposes to make the above mentioned Orders under Sections 32, 35, 45, and 46 of and Parts III & IV of Schedule 9 to the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 and all other enabling powers.
The effect of the proposed Orders will be to amend
1. The City of Oxford (Headington West) (Controlled Parking Zone) Order 2000 (as amended) and revoke the Oxfordshire County Council (Headington West) (Controlled Parking Zone) (Variation No. 6) Order 2009, effectively replacing Schedule 7 Part A; and;
2. The Oxfordshire County Council (Headington Central) (Controlled Parking Zone and Various Restrictions) Order 2005 (as amended) revoking the Oxfordshire County Council (Headington Central) (Controlled Parking Zone and Various Restrictions) (Variation No.8) Order 2009, effectively revoking and replacing Schedule 4 Part A.
The effect of the proposals is to:
1exclude the following properties from eligibility for residents and visitors permits in Headington West : Acorn Cottage (2A Finch Close), 50 Grays Road (Flats A, B, & C) and 1A and 1B Old Road.
2.exclude the following properties from eligibility for residents and visitors permits in Headington Central: 50A and 50B Lime Walk, 119A, 119B, 121A, and 121B London Road.
Documents giving more detailed particulars of the proposed Order are available for public inspection at County Hall, New Road, OxfordOX1 1ND from 9.00 am to 4.30 pm Monday to Friday during normal opening hours.
Objections to the proposal, specifying the grounds on which they are made, and any other representations, should be sent in writing to the Director for Environment and Economy (ref. MJR/TRO) at the address given below, no later than the 10th December 2009. The County Council will consider objections and representations received in response to this Notice. They may be disseminated widely for these purposes and made available to the public.
Dated:15th August 2008
Huw Jones, Director for Environment and Economy, Oxfordshire County Council, Speedwell House
