Road Closures latest

Further to our post of 26th April, we have been in contact with the County Council about the re-surfacing of London Rd from Headley Way to Osler Rd and the related closures. There are two main issues. First, the simultaneous closures of Lime Walk, Latimer Road and Sandfield Road. We are now told that the hope is not to have them all closed at the same time, and that it does not take a full five days. I’m not sure how reassuring that is: it might be better to know all the roads are closed that having to leave it to guess work!

Second, and at least as important, is the impact of the night-time working on residents on or near London Road. This has already been a problem further up for the dormitories at Headington School. Our main concern now is for the residents of the sheltered accommodation that lines London Road. We have been assured that a letter has gone to each building but we are urging the County to try to make contact with individual residents in those blocks. If you know any residents in London Court, Victoria Court, McMaster House or any of the other residences around there, do help us make sure they are aware of the unfortunate (but necessary) disruption that’s going to occur.

Oxford PCT advice on swine flu

2.0 Summary of Advice to public

If a member of the public has recently visited one of the countries or areas where human cases of influenza have been identified, and are well, there is no need for them to isolate themselves from other people as long as they remain well.If during the first 7 days of return from aboard, they develop a feverish illness accompanied by one or more of cough, sore throat, headache and muscle aches, they should follow the advice below:

·         stay at home and

·         contact their GP by phone or

·         seek advice from NHS Direct (0845 4647) or

·         Ring the Influenza Information Line: 0800 151 3513 (pre-recorded information and advice – this line is not manned by staff)Those with symptoms should avoid attending their local GP practice or hospital emergency department, where possible. The individual should make sure that they tell those from whom they are seeking advice about their recent travel to an area affected. Depending on their symptoms they may be advised that further investigations may be necessary.

General infection control practices and good respiratory hand hygiene can help to reduce transmission of all viruses, including the human swine influenza.  This includes:

  • Covering your nose and mouth when coughing or sneezing, using a tissue when possible (Catch it!)
  • Disposing of dirty tissues promptly and carefully (Bin it!)
  • Maintaining good basic hygiene, for example washing hands frequently with soap and water to reduce the spread of the virus from your hands to face or to other people (Kill it!)
  • Cleaning hard surfaces (e.g. door handles) frequently using a normal cleaning product
  • Making sure your children follow this advice

It is important to stress that swine influenza virus is not transmitted by food. There is no risk of catching the illness from eating properly handled and cooked pork or pork products.

Warning: road closure coming to a road near you

Many residents have commented to us despairingly about the London Rd roadworks. They have taken much longer than was anticipated and have been far from well-managed. And I’m afraid, from what we’ve just learnt, things are going to get worse before they get any better.

You will have noticed that the road is going to be re-surfaced (at long last). The works to do that are to occur at the beginning of May with a night-time speed restriction of 10mph. At the same time, a letter sent from the County announces that there is going to be a temporary road closure ‘to the junctions of London Road with Sandfield Road, Latimer Road and Lime Walk. This will operate for 24 hours from 5 May 2009 and the estimated duration of the works is 5 days.’

This sounds to us as a potential recipe for chaos. We have contacted the County questioning whether a week with no exit from either side of London Road between Headley Way and Osler Road is really essential. We have also asked for reassurance that all residents will be fully informed about what is happening. I would hope that that would happen as a matter of course, but as the County has not handled this at all well, I wouldn’t want to put any faith in that.

We will keep you informed as the situation develops.  It certainly seems to me that some hard questions need to be asked of the County Council about their handling of this whole scheme.

Queen Street changes – Lib Dems force review

A pedestrianised Queen Street

Lib Dems believe removing bus stops from Queen Street without reducing buses makes no sense

Liberal Democrats have “called in” a decision by the county council cabinet member for transport to initiate an expensive short-term programme of changes to Queen Street in central Oxford. Said Lib Dem shadow cabinet member for transport Cllr Roz Smith: “Moving the bus stops out of Queen Street, without reducing the number of buses, will increase congestion on St Aldates and the High Street. It will also severely worsen the air quality in St Aldates, High Street and surrounding streets where there are many residents and even more full-time workers.”

Cllr Smith added: “Pedestrians in Queen Street will still have all the disadvantages of having buses in the street, but without the advantage of being able to actually get on them. An interim surfacing scheme, to be replaced with a new surface when Queen Street is fully pedestrianised, is a waste of taxpayers’ money.”

The matter will now be considered by the Environment & Economy Scrutiny committee of the county council at a meeting on Tuesday 5th May, starting at 2.00 p.m. in county hall. This meeting is open to the public, and members of the public may ask to address the committee.

In theory, members of scrutiny committees exercise their analytical skills impartially, in the interests of all the citizens of Oxfordshire, including those living in and visiting Oxford City. As with Select Committees in the Houses of Parliament, Party considerations are not supposed to determine the recommendations of scrutiny committees. It will be interesting to see whether any Conservative members of the committee break ranks and respond to the outcry among many groups, and vote to alter the decision of their cabinet member.

Franklin Road bus stops/shelters

Residents in Franklin Road have contacted David and me about the unexpected appearance of bus shelters in their road, despite the fact that they no longer have access to public transport themselves since the no.10 bus route was pulled from Headley Way

I made a site visit this morning, and David and I will investigate this today with Rye St Antony School and the county council. We shall keep residents informed of developments

UPDATE 23 April

David is arranging to meet the Bursar of Rye St Antony School to discuss this and other issues early next week

Latest on the Waitrose development and Old High St. Car Park

We have been informed that the developers have allocated an area for
disabled parking and can also confirm that they have cross hatched four
bays, allowing traffic to flow more freely around the car park.

We are waiting for an instruction to confirm that it is possible to remove a
section of the car park wall to allow access onto the footpath.  

The disabled parking could then be relocated
over to that area so customers with walking difficulties will have a
shorter distance to walk to gain access to Headington.

Over the last couple of days council officers have indicated that the general
situation does seem to be improving. This seems to be confirmed by a
reduction in complaints. Officers will be visiting the site again next
week to check on the progress made, and update us on developments

Water Watch: Boundary Brook

tap1_thumbnail.jpgAfter a considerable period of time, and a great deal of inconvenience to those who live alongside Boundary Brook, we have received this promising message from Thames Water:

In terms of progress, the whole house misconnection in New High Street
consisting of 13 separate misconnected appliances has now been dye tested
to confirm correct rectification to foul.  More significantly, further
investigations have taken place at Manor Hospital and the flow monitoring
has confirmed that the surface water discharges from their storage tank do
correspond to the high flows experienced in the open culvert in Brookside.
However, whilst the connection of this tank to the surface water system is
in accordance with normal practice, our further investigative survey work
has lead us to believe that some of the flats behind the hospital are
misconnected into this tank rather than the foul sewer. A meeting with the
Hospital has taken place to explain our findings and appraise them of their
responsibilities for the private drainage on their site.  As the flats
drain to the sites private sewer it is the Hospital’s responsibility to
ensure the appropriate Housing Association rectify the misconnections. This
is now being pursued by the Hospital who are thus far cooperating fully. I
would just add that whilst our investigations to date have found evidence
of domestic sewage misconnection from the flats, we have not found any
evidence of misconnection at the hospital itself .

We are delighted that the hospital is giving full co-operation in trying to ensure the housing association sorts out the problems in the flats.  We shall keep you posted of further developments and continue to press hard for as speedy a resolution as possible

Latest on Old High Street Car-Park

The situation is still not wholly satisfactory but some progress is being made. Some signage is up and more is promised. The contractors also accept the need to improve disabled facilities, in terms of both spaces and access.

Another issue has been raised and that is pedestrian access to the car-park now that the entrance from Dead Man’s Walk (next to the Park) is now blocked off by the contractors’ compound. The suggestion has been made that part of the breeze-block wall at the top end of the car-park is knocked down for the duration of the works and replaced by the builders at its end. So far, I’ve only heard support for doing this. Can anyone see any objection?

We’ll keep you posted!

Old High Street car park latest

David and I are being updated several times a day on the situation with regard to the Old High Street (Waitrose) car park.

Signage is going up over the weekend which will help a great deal as motorists get to grips with the temporary relocation of disabled parking spaces and the recycling bins are moved to a temporary location. Officers have requested that Waitrose creates disabled access at the entrance to the car park, albeit temporarily until the usual disabled car park spaces are back in operation after the refit.

Many of the bulkiest delivery vehicles have now departed, the heaviest of these were delivering materials to construct and fill the compound near the store

A complaint was made by a resident that some of the contractors were parking in the car park spaces but were not displaying permits.  This was investigated and it was established that the builders doing this had paid by the Ring Go system, so payment for parking had indeed been made although a paper ticket was not displayed. We have requested that the number of car park spaces is monitored closely over the period of the refit; we are aware that three cars were queuing for places on Friday lunchtime at a busy period when some extra car park spaces were coned off temporarily to allow turning space for the larger lorries.

The City Officer responsible for liaising with Waitrose over the development is Andrew Bradfield-Barnes: he is away for a week’s holiday after Easter but if you have any concerns, please contact either David or myself, or Andrew’s deputy Jason Munro who is working on the Easter bank holiday weekend and all of next week. His office number is 01865 252489 and his email is jmunro@oxford.gov.uk.

Please copy David and myself into any emails you send Jason as we want to ensure that all complaints and concerns are receiving prompt attention, our email addresses are:

david.rundle@oxfordlibdems.org.uk

ruth.wilkinson@oxfordlibdems.org.uk