Waiting for Waitrose

You may have seen in the press that Waitrose is coming to Headington. With the merger of Somerfield and the Co-op, the Co-op have decided to keep their London Road site and sell the Somerfield shop off Old High Street. Waitrose is buying the building and hoping to open there in May.

There’s been some lively discussion about whether this is good for Headington or not. The way I see it is that it demonstrates business’s confidence in our district centre as a viable location and could have beneficial knock-on effects. I stress ‘could’ – what we’d want to see happen is other, locally-run businesses opening up alongside Waitrose as the centre becomes more attractive to shoppers. But that depends on many factors and we certainly can’t be complacent.

In the first instance, Ruth and I are in contact with Waitrose in order to encourage them, with their John Lewis ethos of partnership, to become involved in the new Headington Business Association and an active player in the community. If that were to happen, it would certainly be something to celebrate.

Water Watch latest

 Following a meeting between the Head of Environmental Development (who also chairs the Oxfordshire Flood Partnership meetings attended by reps from lots of other agencies), David has secured an agreement that a named person at the City Council will be tasked to manage specific complaints regarding flooding and sewage problems. We will let you know the contact details for this named officer as soon as we get them

Normal service to be resumed shortly…

Ruth writes..

Apologies to all for the relative infrequency of new posts on the website lately, I have been unwell and have now returned to a schedule of up to four meetings a day on top of the full time job, so please bear with me while I get back up to speed…  Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible!

People power works (for now)!

A start of a year and a chill has set in, both in the economy and in the weather. But there are some things to celebrate — and one small one comes with 2009 ushering in ‘The End’ of one of last year’s less happy sagas.

You may remember that the Labour City Council proposed to centralise planning decisions away from local communities, without even consulting those communities. It was hardly a surprise: Labour had been saying for some time that centralised is more ‘efficient’, and that local decision-making was poor decision-making that must not be allowed. I’ve picked apart their arguments before; the point is that, whatever the weaknesses of their claims, the way they presented them was, to be frank, woefully handled. The debate at the Town Hall  was no fine display of oratory and, as the Oxford Mail reported, nearly ended in farce — Labour lost a key vote, but a final resolution was not reached, leaving the question simply undecided.

So, it was expected that there would be a re-run of the debate at next Council on 19th January. The item is on the agenda but I heard this week that Labour have decided to accept common sense: the status quo will continue, and local planning decision-making is saved.

This is a victory both for common sense and for local people — for those who bothered to write or to phone their councillors, and especially those who took the effort to come to the Town Hall and express their concerns. To those who did: thank you.

But we should not be naive enough to think this is the definitive end, with no possible sequel. There is an engrained attitude in Labour that is suspicious of decision-making away from the Town Hall, where they fear they can not control it. It may well be that we’ll find that this particular vampire, through whose heart we thought we’d thrust a stake, might walk again. Perhaps, but at least for now local decision-making is safe.

Statement from neighbourhood police

We are aware that there is public concern following the recent spate of
robberies in the Headington area. This is extremely unusual for
Headington which as we know is usually a relatively low crime area. We
would like all the residents to know that we as a Neighbourhood team are
working extremely hard along with CID and other departments to
investigate these crimes and provide reassurance to the public. I would
like to urge anyone who has any information regarding these offences to
contact us on 0845 8 505 505.
PS 1872 CLAIRE GRANT
Neighbourhood Sergeant – Headington North
Cowley Police Station
724-5113
07800702438

Water Watch latest

I have been pleased with the improving response to residents’ problems with sewage and clean water enquiries over the last three months, particularly by Peter Claridge of Thames Water who has worked hard to resolve outstanding difficulties.

There are, however, two big multi-agency problems which remain unresolved and which will require representatives from various agencies like the City, the County, the Environment Agency, and Thames Water, among others to sort them out.  There is a multi-agency committee at which these issues can be raised and this is chaired by John Copley, the Head of Environmental Development.  I have made an appointment with him and my colleague Cllr Altaf Khan for 27 January to discuss progress and/or action  in Brookside and Northway.  If you know of any other problems of continuing flooding or water contamination in your area please contact David or me – just click on Contact us on centre toolbar

Police update on incident at Lloyds TSB

*UPDATE 7/1/09*  Our neighbourhood police inspector will attend the next area committee meeting on 20 January to report on the level of crime in the Headington area

Thames Valley Police Press Release 6/1/09: Armed robbery – Headington

Police are appealing for witnesses following an armed robbery in Headington yesterday (5/1).At around 5.05pm, a man walked into Lloyds bank, London Road, just as it was closing and ran behind the counter and demanded money.

He is white and was wearing camouflage trousers and a jacket with a grey hooded top and had his face covered.

Det Insp Simon Morton, leading the investigation, said: “The offender was carrying what was described as a white Uzi gun, which the staff did not believe was genuine.

“He got away with around £1,000 in cash and made off on a bicycle.

“We are linking this incident to two armed robberies at Betfred in London Road on Monday 29 December and Saturday (3/1) and two others at Threshers in Old High Street on Monday 29 December and Sunday (4/1).

“Do you recognise a man of this description? Were you in Headington yesterday and saw a man acting suspiciously? Do you think you know who is responsible for these robberies? If you do, please contact police immediately.

“I would like to reassure the public that we have got a team of detectives working on this series of armed robberies to identify the person responsible.”

Anyone with information that could assist police enquiries is urged to contact Det Insp Morton via Thames Valley Police Enquiry Centre on 0845 8 505 505. If you don’t want to speak to police and don’t want to leave your name contact the Crimestoppers charity on 0800 555 111.

Community safety issues in Headington

We are aware that residents have concerns about the recent incidents at Threshers, Betfred and Lloyds TSB.

Headington is a friendly, welcoming and safe place for people to live, work and shop and it’s a shame that the activities of certain individuals have given rise to some anxiety in the community and in the press.

We are working closely with the neighbourhood police to ensure that they are giving these incidents high priority, and we hope to release a statement from the neighbourhood inspector on our website soon. We will post up details of progress on this site as we receive them, and are working hard to ensure that the situation gets back to normal as soon as possible.

Tree management in the City

We’re often asked questions about the way in which trees are managed in our ward, and particularly in Bury Knowle Park, so I have asked for a copy of the City’s operational policy on managing trees under City control and posted it onto a page called Tree policy in the centre toolbar for your information.  Hope you find it useful!

Are your ward councillors effective?

An interesting question! And we’d be curious to hear your answers!

Every four months, David and I analyse all the casework we have been doing in the ward, and we check off the work we have done against the roads in our ‘patch’.  This confirms to us whether or not the work we do on your behalf is carried out principally in some areas of Headington, rather than in others.

When we analysed our casework for the months from May to August, we found that few residents from one area of the ward had contacted us for help or advice.  We prioritised that area of the ward for an early street surgery which was very successful and led to a second walkabout in the locality. We are delighted that many of the people we spoke to in the St. Anne’s Road/Margaret Road/Rock Edge/Gathorne Road area have now volunteered to start up a new residents’ group, and we are helping them set this up.

In the last four months we have noticed an upturn in workload from the areas where we held street surgeries, so these events have been successful in raising people’s awareness of who we are and what we do.  We intend to continue with these, and one area we would like to focus on in the forthcoming four months is New Headington.

If you would like a copy of our workload breakdown by roads in the ward, please contact us and we will send you a copy