Lib Dem Achievements in Government

I don’t often post about the party rather than what I’m up to or what I think so I thought I would today.

Mark Pack, a well known Lib Dem has produced a wonderful poster to remind us of all the great things that the Lib Dems have achieved in government and I wanted to share it here.

Lib Dem achievements in government.

There is also an A3 PDF available for printing.  For those of you with screen readers I’ll list the achievements here too:

  1. Income tax cuts with 2.7m lower earners being freed of income tax burden completely.
  2. Tax hikes for the rich – a £1m/year earner will pay £381k tax more over the five years of this government than they did under the last 5 years of the Labour government
  3. Created the world’s first National Green Development Bank
  4. Started move than 502,600 apprenticeships in 20011/12 – more than Britain has ever had before.
  5. The pupil premium – in 2013 their school is given £900 for each eligible child (generally those that get free school meals or have done so in the last six years)
  6. Pensions and earnings are linked better again so we won’t see repeats of some of the awful derisory rises that we have seen in the past.
  7. Bank reform means that High Street banks will be better protected from some of the excesses of casino banking that really hit the UK in the banking crisis
  8. Civil Liberties:  scrapping ID cards, banning storing DNA of innocent people, stopping detention of children during immigration cases, cutting the maximum period of detention without charge, and much more.
  9. Protecting post offices
  10. Building more homes.  190,000 affordable units over the next four years.  The first net increase in social housing for over 30 years.
  11. Equal Marriage – very nearly there!
  12. Shared parental leave and 15 hours of free childcare for all 3 and 4 year olds.

All pretty amazing stuff!

How to check for an Oxford HMO licence or application

A few people have asked me how to check a property before signing a rental contact to occupy it as sharers.  You can check quite easily via the City Council website but clicking this link:

http://www.oxford.gov.uk/PageRender/decB/Licensing_applications_search_occw.htm

You will arrive at the search start page where you need to click the blue “I accept” button which you find by scrolling down a bit through the text.  You can read the guidance notes there if you wish.  Once you’ve clicked the accept button you get taken to the search page where you can just type in the start of a street address.  If you are searching for an existing licence rather than application it’s important to click the radio button to choose licences (circled in red) rather than applications otherwise you won’t find what you want.

hmo1

I’ve chosen 15 Regent Street just as a random address that I know is an HMO.  Once you’ve hit the search button you should get a results screen that looks like this (without the red circle):

hmo2

If you click on “HMO Details” (circled in red) you’ll get another screen that shows you other things like how many rooms there are and how many occupants the license allows.  These are important things to check.  It is also very important to check that the license has not expired as this system will show those too.  If it will expire during the period of your proposed tenancy then ask the letting agent or landlord what they are going to do about that.

hmo3

If you cannot find a license for a property you are considering renting then I would advise you to contact the City Council for advice before signing a contract or paying any sort of deposit or holding fee.  Don’t let an agency or a landlord bully you into rushing into anything as if there is no HMO license you will not be protected by the City Council and could be signing a lease for a dangerous or otherwise defective property.  The landlord and letting agent will also be acting illegally if they let a property that does not have a license.  I should say that if you don’t find a property on this search it may be because the application or license is still in processing. It doesn’t automatically mean the landlord or letting agent is doing anything wrong but it does mean you should check.

Phone: 01865 249811
Email: hmos@oxford.gov.uk
109 St Aldate’s Chambers,
St Aldate’s,
Oxford,
OX1 1DS

I hope people find this useful – it’s applicable to all those looking to share houses, not just students.  Remember though that being included on the public access HMO register no more makes a landlord or letting agent good than not being included on it makes a landlord or letting agent bad.

 

Oxford University Living Wage event

I attended this event today at the invitation of the Oxford University Living Wage Campaign.  I must admit Living Wage is not really something I’d thought about before but the speeches from the panel I heard this evening were incredibly compelling.  There are aspects of the living wage that I’m slightly ashamed to say I had never really considered before.  The session felt a little bit like diversity training in that it completely moved me on from seeing a living wage as a burden on an employer to seeing it as a positive advantage, just as is paying proper attention to diversity by doing all you can to include as many people as possible.  It never really occurred to me that paying more money to poorer people is actually much better for the economy than paying it to richer people as the former will spend it locally whereas the latter may well squirrel it away in offshore tax avoidance schemes where it does nothing to benefit our economy .  There are the obvious morale, attendance, commitment and retention advantages of a living wage also.  If nothing else then to me paying a Living Wage is simply a matter of common decency and justice that all should be able to expect.

The event was held in the Exam Schools of Oxford University, and that’s quite ambitious as the rooms are not small.  The panel was of the highest quality and the event was extremely well-attended with over a hundred people there.  This just showed me how important people see this issue to be, particularly in the light of housing and the cost of living being so expensive in Oxford.  A member of Oxford City Council, Van Coulter, made an excellent speech about the need for a living wage and reminded us that Oxford has one of the highest cost of living to average income ratios in the whole country.  He said it’s like paying London prices on a West Midlands wage and I think he’s right!  Van also made the excellent point that if people are forced to live on very low wages then they make compromises like buying cheap, unhealthy food, that ultimately shorten their lifespans and of course make them less efficient employees.

It’s also great to hear about all the excellent work the Living Wage Campaign has been doing with Oxford University and its Colleges.  Some Colleges have already adopted a living wage and apparently discussions with the University are going well.  This pleases me as an employee of the University, although I must say not one who has any issue whatsoever with his own wages!  There were quite a few College bursars present as well as some college employees on lower wages and apparently some useful discussions were had after the main speaker event.

If you are interested in learning more about the Living Wage campaign the I recommend following @oxlivingwage on Twitter, emailing livingwage@ousu.org or if you want to focus on these issues during Lent 2012 from a Christian perspective then the Call to Change website gives more information about the Living Wage in the wider UK.

All said a first-class student-organised event about a massively important issue for Oxford that certainly got me thinking to an extent that not many things do!  What a far cry from the image students some East Oxford people seem to have that says they are “increasing to unbearable amounts already in this area and they do not need any further encouragement or welcoming into our community because they bring nothing positive” (See my previous blog post on this).

Greens trying to trick the public again

img014.jpgWe’ve just had a “Green News” through our door.  It has a story about how Oxford Greens are entirely behind the Save Temple Cowley Pools campaign and how they have tried to save the pool three times in full council.  All true.  Then it says that Liberal Democrat councillors have voted against them.  You get what they are trying to imply…

The fact is that yes, Lib Dems may have voted against ridiculous Green amendments to motions about the pools but we have NEVER voted in favour of losing first-class swimming facilities in Cowley.  We have accepted that maybe Temple Cowley Pools will have to go but have always made it crystal clear that we would only support that if there was a guarantee of an equivalent or better facility (and that includes the gym and sauna) in the immediate locality.  Personally I’d love to see a combined pools and ice-rink facility with a big heat-pump to warm the pool and cool the ice on the site of the now vacant Royal Mail facility on the corner of Garsington Road and Hollow Way.

I think it’s this sort of blatant bending the truth by parties and attempting to deceive the public that puts so many people off politics and means so many have so little faith in local councillors.  I am frankly appalled that the Greens think people might be so stupid as to fall for this.

25 years of the Luther Street Medical Centre

I felt very honoured to be invited to this celebration today.  We had a buffet lunch and it was fascinating to speak to so many people who have helped Luther Street Medical Centre in its support and services for Oxford’s homeless people.  We heard excellent speeches from Pat Goodwin, the founder trustee of the Oxford Homeless Medical Fund; from Dr Sally Reynolds, a GP who has been working for Luther Street since the start and from Lesley Dewhurst, the chief executive of Oxford Homeless Pathways.

lsmc1.jpg

By far the most moving speeches were by two people who had been users of the Luther Street Medical Centre, both explained how they had had so much more help than just medical and how the centre had really helped them to turn their lives around by properly listening to their stories and understanding their needs and situations properly.

There was  an opportunity to look around the impressive facilities of the Centre including the dental surgery and now several consulting rooms and meeting rooms.  It’s an amazing place with lots of amazing people doing amazing work!

Full Council

Not my favourite part of being a councillor but here goes…

The meeting had a big agenda as normal with lots of motions and questions.  I won’t attempt to go through them all here but will pick a few things I thought salient.

18102010979.jpgThe Save Temple Cowley Pools group were at the meeting and two of its leading members, Nigel Gibson and Jane Alexander (pictured) addressed full council.  The Lord Mayor, who chairs full council, then tried to get agreement to take the two motions about Temple Cowley Pools immediately after that so the 20 or so members of the public in the viewing gallery wouldn’t have to wait hours for those motions that were near the end of the meeting.  The Labour group refused to allow this, despite my saying I thought councillors were there to serve the public.  As it turned out, Labour made lots of long and repetitive speeches in the earlier motions and I know I’m not the only person who wondered if they were trying to exhaust the 90 minutes available for motions so they could avoid discussing the Temple Cowley Pools issue again.  I thought that was pretty poor given that most members of the public who had come to the meeting were mainly interested in just that issue.

We did  finally get to discuss one of the two motions but it of course fell as Labour have decided that Temple Cowley Pools are closing come hell or high water.

Other notable items for me where the question to the Leader of the Council about how the Council would try to get a more accurate register electors in areas with lots of students.  To my surprise the Labour Leader said  “the number of students in Oxford is a problem”.  An unfortunate comment given that he himself is a senior member of staff at Oxford Brookes University.

We had a motion put by Alan Armitage that essentially asked the City Council to record all FOI requests, and their answers, on a website so that the public could consult them more easily and we could be a bit more transparent.  Even though Freedom of Information is a Labour initative, the Labour ruling group on Oxford City Council saw fit to vote this motion down.  I’m not sure why.

Finally, I was also surprised that the Labour group voted down a motion from our own Jean Fooks that essentially would have strengthened the planning controls the city could use to reduce the carbon footprint of all new buildings.  The argument was that it’s more important to focus on existing buildings.  Which strikes me as not very forward-thinking!

The meeting finished around 10pm and we had a rather needed pint at The Old Tom afterwards.

Licensing and Gambling Acts Committee

I chaired this meeting today as the chair, Mary Clarkson was unavailable.  I’d had lunch with her on Monday to talk through the issues so I felt well briefed.  The agenda today consisted of three main items:

The review of the City Council’s statement of licensing policy.  This policy has to be regularly reviewed and there were no major changes.  The most significant is that it now allows members of the City Council to have representations heard as an interested party for any licensable premises in the City – they not longer have to be resident locally to it.

The second item was the Committee’s response to the Home Office Consultation entitled Rebalancing the Licensing Act.  A balanced and proportionate response had been prepared by our licensing team leader and the committee was happy to re-endorse it (as it had had to be sent last month after approval by me as vice chair and Mary as chair).  An interesting proposal is to give local authorities discretion to set license fee levels.  I think this might be useful firstly as a levy for very late opening so that the Police can be better resourced to cope with the consequences of later opening, and secondly as a levy on off-licences to fund test purchasing to make sure sales are not being made to those under the age of 18.

The third item was the update on licensing activities by The Council.  I was impressed at the can-do, proactive approach taken by our licensing team that had produced so much better control of licensable activities without stifling well-run operations.  We talked about the Tesco (St Aldates) appeal that had been allowed by magistrates and there was a feeling that the appeal had been allowed because the original panel had refused the application on grounds of crime and disorder even though there had been no objection from the Police.  We talked about a couple of other cases and about the need for panels to make proportionate decisions that actually address real problems for which there is evidence rather than second-guessing what might or might not happen.  We also talked about the special saturation policies in place for the City Centre and East Oxford and discussed how applicable they are to off-licenses selling alcohol outside of the troublesome times that the SSP is in place to address.

Finally, I couldn’t resist linking to this image from a story in the Daily Mail from March 2008.  Thankfully things are not like that in Oxford, largely thanks to the excellent work of our licensing team headed by Julian Alison and its partnership working with Thames ValleyPolice, Nightsafe and other organisations.

We completed the meeting in a little under an hour.

O’Hanlon House Service Users Meeting

I attended the weekly service users’ meeting this morning at O’Hanlon House (which you might know as the night shelter but it is SO much more than that).

The meeting was run by Lucy Flanagan, one of the centre managers and there were several service users present.  We talked about what a councillor is and what councillors can do for their residents/electors.  I was also asked about who can become a councillor and what the process is.  I explained how nominations and elections worked, and the critera for being eligible to stand (resident in area, work in area, own property in area or registered to vote in area – all for the last 12 months).  I also explained a bit about what political parties are and how they work with and as part of local authorities.

I also explained how the electoral roll is no updated monthly and how O’Hanlon house could make sure its residents are registered to vote as soon as possible.  This is important not only for voting but as evidence of identity these days.

Service users had a few queries about when facilities could be used and a few issues which I thought were very well dealt with by the staff present.  Concerns were raised about the much-feared cuts to be announced on 20th October but there is not much anyone can say yet.  I hope the City Council continues to fund the wonderful place as it is hugely deserving of it, and if it is forced to reduce service or even close this will only result in the City Council having to spend much more money on its statutory homeless duties.  I don’t believe that’s any way to be treating its citizens.

It’s wonderful how much is done for any by the residents of O’Hanlon house and I really do hope that national and local funding won’t be reduced too much in the cuts that are going to have to be made because this is a really worthwhile service.

Every time I visit O’Hanlon house I am more and more impressed by its staff and users’ work and the friendly welcome I receive.

Lib Dem Group Meeting

Another group meeting tonight with lots on the agenda.  We discussed the outcomes from a recent Group away day and our response to the Core Strategy that will direct planning and development control until 2026.

As usual we worked through the paper’s for next week’s City Executive Board.  That promises to be a busy and controversial meeting as it will consider the future of Temple Cowley Pools.

I am really enjoying getting to know the new LibDem councillors since I was last on the Council in group meetings and I’m pleased to see good consensus building in the group on most issues and the very definite support for and confidence in our leader, Stephen Brown.

Back from Hols and a Temple Cowley Pools Meeting

Well I’m back and refreshed after a lovely three weeks’ camping in France where the weather was fantastic.  poolmeeting.jpgMy first council meeting was another public “consultation” about Temple Cowley Pools.  It was held in the Town Hall on 17 August and ran from about 7pm to 9.30pm.  There was a big panel of presenters including City Council officers and folk from MACE, the consultants the City is using to advise it about pool provision in the City.  I reckon around 100 members of the public attended.

Cllr John Tanner chaired the meeting which started with 30 minutes of so of presentation from Richard Smith of MACE and several others.  MACE did seem to spend a long time trying to convince the audience why they were the best for the job.

I put “consultation” in quotes because it is abundantly clear that the council officers have already decided what they will recommend to executive board (CEB) that makes the decision on 1st September.  One of the executive directors, Tim Sadler, even said as much! The chair said that the 1st Sept CEB would be a “public meeting”.  That will be interesting.

Here is the financial “argument” the consultants were trying to put. capture.PNG

After the presentations many questions were asked and raised and it was quite a useful information gathering evening, even if it felt like the answer had already been decided.  A big flaw I think in the argument is that I believe the number of people living in close proximity to Temple Cowley Pools has been vastly understated.  I asked MACE to check the figure.  It also omits all the people who work near it on Cowley Business Park.

We had several excellent speeches and I was particularly impressed by the work Jane Alexander had done to work up a plan that would cost about £3million.  MACE did at least agree to discuss that with her but I doubt it will happen before 1st September. Here’s Jane’s proposal.

Jane's vision for Temple Cowley Pools

The comments from the Cowley Marsh councillors was interesting. One of them just wanted everyone to know how good he had been to arrange the consultation meeting and the other one suggested a vote of all present about whether they wanted Temple Cowley Pools to be closed and replaced with a new facility at Blackbird Leys.  The chair did that vote by show of hands at the end of the meeting and the result was about 5 in favour and almost everyone else there against.    An overwhelming disagreement with what the City Council officers were recommending.

You can read much more about this at http://www.savetemplecowleypools.webs.com/

and join the Facebook Group.

Labour may have a majority administration at the moment but if they close Temple Cowley Pools I can’t see that lasting.  There was talk of it not happening for another two years so I have a nasty feeling they’ll wait until just after the next local elections in 2012 to do it. We’ll see.