Redevelopment plans for Luther Court

I went to an interesting exhibition today about a2dominion‘s plans for redevelopment of Luther Court. This is an area of social housing in a difficult and constrained part of the City Centre and it would be fair to say it has been the victim, and site of, a lot of antisocial behaviour over the years. It comprises of lots of rather small and poky one-bedroomed flats that I’m sure are not ideal for the well-being both mental and physical of their tenants.  Currently the accommodation all faces, and has its access from, the North East side facing onto Luther Street Medical Centre and O’Hanlon House.  I think it would be fair to say that the interaction of some potential clients unable to be accepted by the Medical Centre or O’Hanlon House, and some of the more vulnerable tenants in the current Luther Court has not always produced optimal outcomes.  (click the image below to see a non-squashed version of it!)

The new plan is to demolish the current accommodation and to rebuild it on more levels and facing South West onto Thames Street with access only from that side.  The new accommodation would include more two- and possibly three-bedroomed units suitable for small families and would be to much higher standards of building, light provision and so on.  There is a plan to include lots of secure bike parking and  some student accommodation.  The development would be completely car-free and residents would be excluded from having City Centre residents’ parking permits.

I filled in a comment sheet and made the following points:

  • While I welcome purpose-built student accommodation, particularly in the City Centre, I do think it works better if there is a resident warden to nip any behaviour or noise issues in the bud.  It was indicated that this would probably be done by utilising more mature residents in return for a reduce rent.
  • I hope the development will utilise renewable energy including Solar Thermal and/or PV systems as these work incredibly well even in our climate and can make a real difference to social tenants struggling to pay ever-increasing fuel bills.  Anything that can keep people out a fuel poverty is a good thing in my book!
  • I welcome this consultation event and encourage a2dominion to have lots more making sure local residents are informed and invited widely and that communication with all local stakeholders is maintained
  • I asked also that a2dominion take into account the wishes of their current tenants in Luther Court carefully and sensitively.  I believe they will and offered to help in any way I can as ward councillor.

As these plans are worked up and come to the planning permission stage I will of course have to back away and keep an open mind about any plans that are actually submitted to the planning process in case I have to take part in a determination of the planning application at a committee.  At this stage though I think can honestly, and without prejudicing myself, say things look promising!

I am grateful to a2dominion for keeping me informed as a local councillor at this early stage of planning what could be a really effective and exciting new development.

Battle of Britain day service

I was asked to attend this service today to represent the City Council as The Lord Mayor and Deputy Lord Mayor were unavailable.  It was a real honour to be asked and as well as commemorating all that the military of the time had given in the Battle of Britain in 1940 I was also asked to “inspect” the dozen or so young people present from the 150 (City of Oxford) Squadron of the Royal Air Force Cadets.  I also gave one of the gospel readings

It was great to chat to young people with a real sense of duty and direction and I was impressed at how impeccably turned out they were.  Seeing one of them process with the flag in the service reminded me of my childhood as a cub scout and then a scout as we used to do that in church at parade Sundays.  I think it’s a shame so much of that tradition is fading away – it’s great to remember our heritage and commemorate all our forces have done for us to make us the free country we are today.  I don’t buy arguments about being disrespectful to other cultures.  We have a great country and I think we should celebrate that, welcome all to join in as they wish!

Well done Oxford ATC and well done St. Michael at the Northgate for hosting an excellent service which had just the right balance of reverence and accessibility!

Is Labour neglecting the Covered Market?

This is a piece of casework about which I won’t say too much as I don’t want to identify individuals.  Stephen Brown, my ward colleague has also been involved in it.  The story is that covered market traders can have a store room in the cellars below the market and that another trader has a leak in their floor which is causing damage to equipment and stock belonging to other traders as well as the obvious Health and Safety issues around slipping and mixing water and electricity.

I am very disappointed that the City Council administration appears to have been dragging its feet over forcing the offending trader to fix this problem for an extremely long time now.  This is despite large rises in Covered Market rents that traders are expected to pay.  If they paid their rents as slowly as the City Council is fixing this problem I think there would be trouble.

All I want is for Oxford Labour to play fair and make sure the traders get safe and dry storage in return for the huge rents they pay to the City Council, the owner of the Covered Market.

Blessing Service for St. Giles’ Fair

I was invited to represent the City Council as Ward Councillor at the traditional service of blessing of St. Giles’ Fair this year as the Lord Mayor, Deputy Lord Mayor and Sheriff were all unavailable.  It was an honour to do this, accompanying Bob Wilkes, the City Rector and Vicar of St. Michael at the Northgate; and Andrew Bunch, Vicar of St. Giles’ Church on one of the rides in leading messages of welcome and a bible reading.  It was great fun to sing some hymns to the pipe organ that you can see in the picture, as well as singing some to the rather better-paced Salvation Army musicians!

West Area Planning Committee

I attended this meeting today as I wanted to see the outcome of the planning application to change the use of three shop units in Gloucester Green to A3 food use.  The meeting was ably chaired by Oscar Van Nooijen and there was some good discussion on all the applications considered.  The biggest item on the agenda was the St. Clements’ Car park application but that was deferred.

Much discussion ensued on the Gloucester Green application and the voting was a dead heat.  I am pleased that Oscar used his casting vote as chair to decline the permission as I think three extra late-night food outlets in that area would have caused intolerable problems for the residents of the flats on Gloucester Green (the Chilterns).

The meeting papers are available online.

Licensing and Gambling Acts Committee and General Purposes Licensing Committee

I attended both of these committees today although was last for the first as I had a work meeting that was longer than expected. I had attended the pre-meeting on Monday so I knew there was nothing too contentious.  I’m always impressed at how much hard work the licensing team does and how much they seem to get done.  You can read their update report on the council web site.

The General Purposes Licensing Committee was a bit more interesting and a few things a worthy of mention:

Firstly, my fellow LibDem councillor Gwynneth Royce made some excellent comments about having women represented on the taxi-licensing sub-committee (a panel of three councillors – two labour and one libdem).  It would be fair to say that the panel consists of three white, older males so is not very diverse.  I think diversity is always good on decision-making bodies and Jim Campbell pointed this out saying it’s good to have to work with people who don’t agree with you.  We resolved to invite both Labour and the LibDem group to consider if they might like to change their nominated councillors for this panel so as to make sure both sexes are represented.

Secondly, we discussed the issue of designation of streets for trading purposes.  We agreed to make all streets in the City “consent streets” which means that street trading has to have a licence from the City Council.  This is good because it will simply things and make issues such as on-street car selling on Cowley Road easier to deal with but the legislation has a very broad definition of “Street” so it may affect some food outlets in private car parks such as the one near Wickes on Botley Road and the one in the John Allen Centre at Cowley Centre.  We asked Officers to look carefully at this to see what could be done to mitigate the problem.

Finally we had a discussion about pavement trading stall as there is apparently a problem that the City’s standard 1Mx2M is difficult for traders as the “standard” size you can buy is 1.3Mx2.4M (4ftx8ft).  I’m a bit worried that this represents over 50% increase in area but was assured that this will only be a discretionary increase when officers believe that the larger area is necessary for the type of items being sold (i.e. a flower stall may well need to be bigger than a jewellery stall).  Personally I don’t like the stalls with large objects attached to the side of them either.  They clog up the street and impede pedestrian flow as well as being grossly outside the size limit.  Officers agreed to consider these carefully when doing enforcement.

The meeting finished soon after 7pm.

Turning Gloucester Green into a food court?

I have received much correspondence this week from concerned residents of The Chilterns, the apartments that are along two sides of Gloucester Green.  The applications are 11/01135, 11/01140 and 11/01142. The first appears to be on the West side and the second two on the North side.  All applications are for a change of use from use class A1 (retail) to A3 (hot food restaurant and/or takeaway).

Concerns are around the much larger amount of rubbish A3 units tend to produce and its storage as these are quite constrained sites.  There is also concern that food waste not stored properly will cause bad smells and attract vermin.  I certainly share those concerns and also those about late night running of noisy ventilation fans and of course all the people-noise that more food outlets will inevitably bring.  Some objections are based on the impact more A3 will have on the viability of existing A3 premises but unfortunately this is not a planning reason that can be taken into account when determining a planning application.

What can be taken into account is the actual noise, smell, refuse problems that more A3 units will inevitably cause.  I think this would be a step too far in reducing amenity and increasing nuisance for residents of The Chilterns so I hope these applications are turned down.  There is already another hour added to the opening time (making it 4am) of a food outlet that backs onto the cinema (subject of an earlier blog post) and I really do think that enough is enough this time.

The applicants seem to make the argument that the retail units are not financially viable and that the only way to make these units viable is to let them be food outlets.  I think the applicants (who are the landlords) are rather forgetting that the financial equation also includes the rent payable to the landlord. These applications therefore do rather strike me as yet another landlord being greedy and trying to maximise profit without showing any regard for the amenity of the area, balance of uses of premises or the rights of quiet enjoyment of their properties that those living in the area have.

I am pleased that these applications have been called into the West Area Planning Committee by my Lib Dem colleagues Stephen Brown, Alan Armitage, David Rundle and Jim Campbell and I do hope that when it comes to determine the applications  the new West Area Planning Committee will turn them down.

In the event that the planning use changes are granted then I hope the provisions of the Licensing Act 2003 can be used to prevent any new A3 units from operating late at night and into the small hours that further disturbing the residents of The Chilterns.

Brontë by Polly Teale

Michelle, Nancy and Polly

I was invited to see this production on Tuesday by the Shared Experience Company at the Oxford Playhouse so gladly accepted.  The performance was preceded by a reception where we had talks by Michelle Dickson (Director and Chief Executive of Oxford Playhouse), Nancy Meckler and Polly Teale (co-directors of Shared Experience).

I greatly enjoyed the play. It gave a really vivid and realistic depiction of how life must have been for the Brontë sisters living in that poor vicarage and putting up with their wayward brother.  I found the second half of the production really quite moving but won’t spoil the plot for you here.  I highly recommend going to see it if you haven’t already though! You don’t have much time left but booking is available.

It was good to hear the news that the Shared Experience Theatre Company is now resident at the Oxford Playhouse.  Shared Experience says: “After many years of touring to the Playhouse we have come to enjoy a thriving relationship with both the theatre and it’s audiences. For the first time in it’s 35 year history Shared Experience will have a theatre for a home allowing us to evolve a special relationship with the city. We will premiere many of our plays in Oxford and create events that allow access to our rehearsal process and opportunities to see “behind the scenes” and get involved.  At our rehearsal space in London we will create productions for the Playhouse that will tour nationally and internationally bringing thrilling evenings of vivid theatricality to the widest possible audiences.”

I am however horrified to see that the Arts Council has cut the national portfolio funding for Shared Experience at this exciting and fruitful time of its life.  Shared Experience say “We are shocked and disappointed to hear that we will receive no National Portfolio Funding from 2012. We feel strongly our work delivers the Arts Council’s goals and we are devastated by their decision. We will now take time to consider fully where we stand and explore how we will continue beyond 2012. We very much hope to find a way to continue our new partnership with Oxford Playhouse as their resident company.”

I too hope that the partnership between the Playhouse and Shared Experience can be exploited as best as possible to ensure the continued viability of Shared Experience and the opportunity for the people of Oxfordshire and beyond to enjoy their creative expertise.

Central South and West Area Committee

We met at St Barnabas School on Hart Street today.  It was freezing cold and sitting on children’s chairs is not ideal.  There was not a huge amount on the agenda although we had a useful update on street scene issues and a City Centre Police report from Insp. Matt Bullivant.

barnabas.jpgThere were no planning applications although we did talk about the plans to make Jericho a conservation area and put an article 4 direction area in place (which basically removes permitted development rights from building owners).  Although some buildings in Jericho, notably St. Barnabas Church, are worth preserving I must say that a lot of the housing is very substandard with no cavity walls, poorly insulated windows and incredibly insubstantial foundations.  I’m not quite sure why we are preserving rows and rows of cheap houses that were originally built as mass housing for the poor.  I think the planning restrictions will severely limit people’s ability or inclination to make their properties more energy efficient and I think that’s a real shame.

There was a presentation from a County Council officer about the cuts to libraries and youth services.  I was very embarrassed at the hard time one member of the committee gave the officer, especially in public!  It’s not the officer that decided on the cuts – it was the Tory County Councillors!  Talk about shoot the messenger!

We finished just after 7.30pm all very cold and uncomfortable on the children’s chairs.

Wesley Memorial Methodist Church redevelopment project

wesley.jpgI was invited to go and have a tour and discussion with Derek Rawson, the chair of the Open Doors Steering group, about the exciting plans that Wesley Memorial Church has for its buildings.  The plans are well-outlined on their website and essentially aim to make the premises more welcoming, flexible and hospitable.  The plans add a glass enclosure between the main church building and the John Wesley Room and also remodel the stage at the back of the main hall.  Wesley Mem. houses the hugely successful Rainbow House Children’s Café and the redevelopment will give it more space and a much better kitchen to use.  The plans also add more offices and meeting space to the site and provide access to a piece of the original City Wall that is of archaeological and historical significance.  I hope that some sort of grant from the City Council can be arranged as it is good for other fund-raising for projects such as this to have support from local authorities.