This was a sad evening.  I have had six years of working with Central South and West Area Committee and we’ve had some great times and hopefully served the people of Central, South and West Oxford well over that time.  Today’s meeting was at the Deaf Direct Centre, on Littlegate Street (St Ebbe’s) and I thought it worked rather well as a venue.  One of the few times we’ve had the area committee in Carfax ward so I hope we’ll be able to hold some of the new Area Forum meetings there.

The agenda is available online and I was about 15 minutes late as I had been at a meeting at Oxford Spires Academy where I am a governor.

I think the most notable item was a rather large dormer window planning application for a property on the south corner of Abingdon Road and Kineton Road.  The planning officers were recommending us to approve as this was an improvement on an even more obtrusive previous application that they had declined under delegated powers but their steer was that we could probably decide either way quite legitimately.  The dormer windows were to be on the rear elevation of the property and would probably not be allowed on the front.  Stephen Brown’s argument that the side of the house is also the front on a corner plot is what convinced me to vote against the application.  Most of the rest of the committee agreed and the application was turned down.

The meeting finished around 6.45pm giving just enough time for a quick dinner and a pint at the Swan and Castle in time to get to the Annual Lib Dem Group meeting at the town hall at 7.30pm.  A busy day for a councillor!