Another area committee meeting tonight. I can’t believe it has been a month since the last one! We met at St. Barnabas’ School in Jericho at 5.30pm. As the committee is 4 Labour and 4 Lib Dems we voted Oscar and Mark as co-chairs and Susanna and Nathan as co-vice chairs. So now half the committee is either chair or vice chair 🙂
We had an address from John Power about antisocial behaviour at Tumbling Bay, particularly in the light of last week’s fatality there.
Then we had an update from Thames Valley Police’s Oxford City Centre Inspector. Matthew Bullivant. Crime statistics have dropped markedly although there are still a worrying number of thefts from the person. Matthew was also asked why TVP had not objected to Tescos’ application to sell alcohol from 6am at the site of the the old lighting shop on St. Aldates. He reassured us that he has a robust approach to licencing.
We moved on to planning applications and the one we discussed was an outline application from the Jericho Community Association for a community centre. There were some difficult issues raised and building the centre will not be without cost to some local trees and the amenity of immediate neighbours, but the permission was unanimously granted nonetheless. I must say I entered the meeting thinking I may well vote against this but the discussion convinced me that the benefits outweighed the losses and that the chance to provide an important community facility should not be lost.
We agreed to the planning application at the ice rink for a small enclosure for a new chiller without discussion. This only had to go to committee because it is the City Council applying to itself for planning permission and to do it in a closed office under delegated powers would not be very transparent!
Dave Huddle from Parks then gave us a street scene update. He promised to look at the litter problems in Jericho and to make sure the bins along the river in Hinksey Park ward were emptied regularly enough during the summer months.
Our final discussion was about the proposed scheme for the licensing of Houses of Multiple Occupation, which is something I am very interested in, living in a very HMO-dense street. It will be interesting to see how it operates but I’m afraid I can’t see the council inspecting an licensing the estimated 5,000 HMOs in the City in much less than a year! I would encourage you to comment during the consultation period (until 21 June) if you have a view.
I was a bit alarmed to discover that HMO licensing appears to be an executive function rather than a council function. That in my view makes it too political but we’ll see how it pans out.
We finished just after 8pm.
I met with PC Paul Phillips today and we had a walk around Carfax Ward. Paul’s been policing this area for 8 years now and clearly knows lots of people and is generally accepted and liked in the neighbourhood.
We talked about issues which include homelessness, drug dealing and binge drinking. It was good to see Paul being firm but fair and polite with people being antisocial in the streets and we came across a couple of worries. These were the £2 per pint of Stella all day at one pub and the complete blocking of the fire exit of another by a parked car – despite the sign!
We learned about the Council’s internal process for dealing with 
There are two main committees: The Licensing and Gambling Acts Committee deals with alcohol, entertainment and late food licensing as well as gambling establishments.
The General Purposes Licensing Committee deals with street trading; hackney carriage and private hire and sex establishment licensing (table dancing, pole dancing, lap dancing etc.). There are also several subcommittees.