Liberal Democrat Transport Minister Norman Baker MP has announced measures to make it easier for councils to introduce 20 mph speed limits. The changes mean that councils will now be permitted to use 20 mph signs painted on the road as an alternative to street signs.
We have already investigated the option of painted signs on the roads in Highfield, and are bidding to get four such 20 MPH roundels painted in the area this year in conjunction with Highfield Residents’ Association
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
If you have a reliable and presentable car, that you only use a few hours each week, then you might be able to make great savings by putting it into the Car Club. Then your neighbours get to use it too! The cost of insuring, taxing and maintaining it are covered for you!
If you are interested in leasing your car, please email info@oxcar.co.uk or see their website for more details
I don’t know about you, but I’m finding it tricky to keep up with all the consultations that are happening at the moment, especially as many are online and can be easily overlooked!
A pre-application briefing has been sent to residents groups by the University of Oxford relating to a prospective redevelopment of land at their Old Road Campus. A meeting will be held on 20/1/11 by the University with residents’ group reps. There is no application submitted to date, but if you want more details please contact your local residents’ group or get in touch with David or me
The City Council has a number of consultations happening right now. These include:
Parks and open spaces (ends 31 Dec)
Housing strategy (ends 17 Jan)
The budget 2011-2015 (ends 31 Dec)
Implementation of dog control orders (ends 31Jan)
These can all be accessed via the City Council’s consultation page here.
There will be an open meeting for Highfield residents to discuss the revised Highfield scheme on 6 JanuaryThe consultation on whether funding should be discontinued by the County Council for Bury Knowle Library will be held between March and May 2011.
We have called in the decision on increased car parking charges in the Headington District Centre (by double in one case!) for further scrutiny on 10 January. The paper showing these prospective increases can be accessedhere – please click on the link from item 8 to view it. If you have any comments on this document please email either David or me as soon as possible
There is a new travel line called Oxtail (the Oxfordshire Travel Advice Line) which provides free impartial journey planning and advice for people over 65 and those with a high level of support needs. Please call them to see where they can help in planning your journey.
If so, there’s a useful website you can look at here.
The team at the County can help with:
writing the plan
how to carry out “before & after” travel surveys
how best to implement what the plan recommends.
They have practical experience of preparing travel plans for a number of the County’s own offices, as well as working with over 300 schools in the county to do so.
If you need further advice then contact the Travel Plans team at travelplans@oxfordshire.gov.uk or tel. 01865 814596.
Successful lobbying by Highfield Residents Association for measures to make Highfield streets less congested with through traffic and to reduce the speed of vehicles using its streets has heightened the awareness of county planners of the problems experienced by residents in their area
The county planners have now produced proposals for a traffic management scheme for Highfield that is currently out for consultation. We asked the county officer responsible for these proposals to convene a meeting with residents’ groups, and she kindly agreed.
The meeting took place on 10 June. Here are some of the notes I took away with me from it. The closing date for comments and objections to the scheme is 1 July
Notes from the meeting about the traffic scheme held on Thursday 10 June
Present:
Cllr Altaf-Khan (County Councillor and Chair of the meeting)
Joy White (County planning officer)
2 representatives from Highfield Residents’ Association Traffic Group
3 representatives from New Headington Residents’ Association Traffic Group
2 representatives from Friends of Old Headington Traffic Group
1 representative from Friends of Old Headington (the Chair)
1 representative from Central and North Headington Residents’ Association
Cllr Ruth Wilkinson (Headington ward)
What we agreed about:
·There should be a master plan for traffic management across the whole of Headington
·The strategic health authority and the hospitals trust should be required to manage transport issues more effectively, particularly in respect of hospital staff
·Everyone wants safer, less congested traffic routes in their area
·Traffic calming in residential streets is a good idea
Things people were worried about included:
·Traffic is like water: if you stop it in one area, it will spread into another and this will result in more rat runs. Some feel this scheme is piecemeal
·No right turns would mean longer journeys and restricted access to homes and businesses for some affected residents – more fuel, more time and less freedom
·Possible loss of parking spaces
·Confusion for visitors and delivery drivers (won’t show up on sat navs)
·The disadvantages of the scheme outweigh the benefits for some residents
·The bollards in All Saints Road
·We need some traffic flow modelling to be done so we have more evidence to go on
·The timing: some people felt we should wait until after the London Road redevelopment as this may affect the way traffic flows through Headington
·The London Road junctions with Windmill Road and Headley Way will come under much more pressure, and some people are worried about safety at the Windmill Road junction already. Can the existing infrastructure accommodate the dispersed traffic?
We thought about new ideas which would not restrict access so much including:
·The replacement of some pinch points with a pedestrian crossing in Lime Walk
·The possibility of making Bickerton Rd and Stapleton Rd one way
·Ways to makeLime Walk look more like a residential road than a main road to calm speeds, for example planting (non-sticky) lime trees on alternate sides of the road
·Putting bollards in New High Street at the junction with All Saints Road
Actions
·Residents’ associations will hold open meetings to discuss their response to these plans
ØNew Headington: Fri 25 June All Saints Church Hall at 6.15
ØHighfield: Mon 21 June (tbc)
·Ruth and Altaf will continue to hold street surgeries in New Headington, McMaster House and in Windmill Road: next surgery Wed 16 June at 6.00-8.00 pm, 24 Wilberforce St.
·It’s important that people have more time to make a considered response after they have attended open meetings. Many people are still angry and upset. Joy has now made 1 July the closing date for responses
PLEASE RESPOND TO THIS VERY IMPORTANT CONSULTATION
– the feedback form is on the link above.
Please contact David and Ruth if you have particular concerns
There will be a public exhibition of proposals for a scheme of traffic management in the Highfield area on 27 May, in the Methodist Church Hall in New High Street. It will be open from 2pm until 8:30 pm. This will be an opportunity for people to view the proposals, talk to County Officers about them, and make comments. The period of informal consultation will last for four weeks. The objective of the scheme is to to mitigate the impact of through traffic on the area, so it’s really important residents attend, not only from Highfield, but also from the Windmill Road/Old Road and Gipsy Lane areas of Headington.
Following on from the presentation by county officers at area committee, David and I have submitted proposals for local schemes to be included within the county’s LTP3 “long list” (or should this be “wishlist”?) both directly to the County and also as part of the City Council response
These include:
1. Develop a transport strategy for Headington District Centre and beyond
2. Traffic calming/reduce congestion in Highfield area
3. Traffic calming/reduce congestion in Old Headington
4. Osler Rd cycle safety measures
5. Sandfield Rd/London Rd junction improvement
6. 20 mph soft enforcement measures in Headington residential streets
7. Improve safety at Windmill Rd/London Rd junction
8. Develop cycle routes parallel to London Rd, Headington
9. Improve cycle routes between Brookes Headington and Brookes Wheatley
10. Facilitate closer working of bus companies to rationalise services
through Headington
11. Improve bus access to/from Risinghurst
12. Upgrade bus service 10 to premium route
13. Review re-instatement of box markings on London Road
The long list will be collated from responses from members of the public and consultees in January. It will be whittled down to a shorter list at a later stage. It has been made clear to us that there will be little money available for LTP3 schemes in the next couple of years because of restrictions by the Tory administration on infrastructure spending, but we hope that one or two of the above schemes can be included in the final plan for relatively little cost.
The Tory cabinet has set down priority objectives for city schemes – if any scheme on the long list satisfies one or more of the following high priority objectives, it stands a better chance of being included within the final action plan:
reduce congestion
develop and increase the use of high quality, welcoming public transport
develop and increase cycling and walking for local journeys, recreation and health
Personally speaking, I would like to have seen “measures to reduce casualties and dangers associated with travel” given high priority along with “reducing carbon emissions, improving air quality and reducing environmental impact” from traffic. These latter objectives are considered to be ‘medium’ priority and no more by the County Cabinet, which makes decisions on transport in the city despite possessing not one single democratically elected councillor in the whole of Oxford City.
The draft plan is due to be completed in October 2010 and will come into effect from 2011-2030
A number of residents have asked us when the new 20 mph speed limits will come into operation. Our latest news from the County is as follows:
We’re anticipating the speed limit will come into effect in late August / early September but have yet to confirm the exact date (as you can appreciate, there is a lot of signing work) – the contractor is making very good progress with installing the poles, and we expect the signs themselves to be installed in the latter half of August.
