New Community Warden service in Headington!

The Street Warden service changes today and becomes the Community Response Team, with Community Wardens having a greater focus on tackling anti-social behaviour including environmental crime and enforcement.

The new contact number is 01865 252080.

The service will provide a rapid response investigative service for the whole of the city, focused on deterring, tackling and reducing anti-social behaviour.  Their main areas of work will be working with other Council teams and partners to reduce:

  • Interpersonal, malicious behaviour directed against an individual or group
  • Environmental damage
  • Behaviour that restricts use of public spaces

David and I can now bid for extra resource from us in any area of particular need or with specific tasking and operations, so please let us know directly if you have any concerns as well as phoning the above number.

Conservation area appraisal out for comment

The Consultation Draft of the Old Headington Conservation Area Appraisal is now available online for inspection at the following link

The public consultation will last until 11th May and the Council hopes to run a Saturday surgery event for anyone interested in commenting on the appraisal during this period.

Written comments are invited on the appraisal, rather than using an online questionnaire at this time.  Please don’t hesitate to copy us in on your responses as we will be sending in comments too!

Save our Libraries outside the Sheldonian

Selling Save our Libraries ribbons outside the Sheldonian!

Save Headington Library supporters were out in force this morning at the start of the Oxford Literary Festival. Almost everyone we talked to bought a purple ribbon and expressed their support for the Save Oxfordshire Libraries campaign. Many were shocked that libraries in a city with such a celebrated literary history are facing cuts and possible closure.

Decision time on Highfield Traffic Scheme

Last week’s Transport Planning Decisions meeting at County Hall was re-scheduled for the afternoon of Thursday 31 March, sadly at a  time when some key players cannot attend.

The funding allocated to the current Highfield Traffic scheme proposals is much less than has been discussed with Highfield Residents Association in the recent past. Residents are very concerned that the new proposals are ‘watered down’ and do not address the fundamental need for traffic speed reduction in residential streets

The proposal for an extra zebra crossing across Old Road near the junction with Stapleton Road has produced little in the way of positive resident feedback during the consultation, and we believe that a case can be made that the money earmarked for it would be better spent on putting in pinch points to reduce speeding traffic in Lime Walk and to introduce staggered parking which would effectively slow down traffic in neighbouring streets

Ruth and David are unable to attend the TD meeting at such short notice but have tabled a paper for consideration by the Cabinet Member for Transport.

We know that Windmill Road residents and Osler Road residents experience severe problems in terms of traffic congestion, volume, and speed. We are currently organising a public meeting for Osler Road residents in April with representatives from bus companies, the NHS trust and the county to establish how these issues can be addressed

The future of Headington Library

As you will all have seen, a statement was issued by the Leader of the County Council last week to this effect

I want to reassure people that the County Council is looking at all options and has an open mind about the outcome of the consultation

I want the Council to work hand-in-hand with local communities to find a way to keep libraries open in Oxfordshire and to forge ahead with creating a modern library service that is comprehensive and efficient.

I want to see libraries remain open but this can only happen if, in some places, volunteers step forward to help to run them. We have seen how effective a Friends Group can be and believe they should form an essential component of every library service provided by the Council. In the coming year I want to work with every community that does not yet have one to establish a Library Friends Group to work with our staff to agree the best way forward for that library.

In those places where the Council cannot afford to provide a full library service, I want the Council to give ongoing access to important local library facilities. More specifically, I believe we should continue to provide free access to a suitable library building, to our book stock; to the library stock management system and the expertise of qualified librarians. 

 
I have already announced that an additional late government grant has enabled us to put a little more money back into the service, giving the opportunity to rethink our strategy and to take longer over consultation.  As part of the consultation, I want the County Council to have a dialogue with local people library-by-library.  The consultation into the future of the library service will begin in mid-May. The consultation will run until the end of September to give plenty of time to hear people’s views and to consider options.  However, we still need to make some savings.

No decisions have been taken. Officers are working hard to rethink the process, complete the needs assessment and put together a consultation document. 

The tone of the statement is different to what we have become accustomed to, but there is little to cheer the patrons of Bury Knowle Library here, other than to delay the start of the consultation period. It is still a question of “Wait and See!” while the county officers re-assess their data and consider other options.

Meanwhile credit is due to the Save Oxfordshire Libraries campaign, of which Save Headington Library Group is a member; by sticking together, we have accomplished much in persuading the county to have a re-think on a much loved and well-used service.

Free 6 a side football tournament!

The OX Cup is a free six-a-side football tournament and community event taking place on Saturday 14th May and Sunday 15th May 2011 at Cowley Marsh Park, Oxford.

Your community policing team is looking for people aged 12 to 25 to play in the tournament.

If you are interested in taking part in the event, or would like more details, please call PC Godden on 07813040780, or email communityfootballevent@thamesvalley.pnn.police.uk

NAG news – neighbourhood priorities

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