Full Council

Well this was a mammoth of a meeting!  We started with the normal formalities and also observed a minute’s silence to mark the death of Bob Hoyle, who served Oxford City Council as a member for many years.  Bob was also a personal friend so this was a particularly poignant moment.

We heard a few addresses from members of the public including several people objecting to the end of Area Committees and the new planning arrangements coming into force.  We also had addresses from Jane Alexander and Nigel Gibson about the proposed new pool at Blackbird Leys and how nobody seemed really to want it, and concerns of more elderly and infirm users that it would be much colder than the current pool, possibly meaning they couldn’t use it.

We had the usual plethora of questions from members of council, which are really more about making a point in public than actually needing to ask in that forum.  There were then two petitions, one about publicly funded leisure in Oxford and one about the Chinese Advice Centre which has suffered a savage cut to its grant this year at the hands of the Labour-run Council.  We stopped then for council tea and I had to dash home and back on my bike as I’d forgotten my lights and it would be dark at the end of the meeting.

After tea we moved on to the motions on notice and I was quite appalled at how many members of the Labour administration appeared to be deliberately filibustering so that we would run out of time and not get to the motions that might embarrass them.  There was one motion about Bee colonies and I was flabbergasted at home much research and how many long speeches we heard from Labour councillors.

We also had a discussion about the new single-member decision-making that is coming into force and I expressed concerned about how transparent that would be and quite how a single member is going to make any decision other than the one recommended on the report that they will probably have requested and approved!

The final item that caught my attention was a tightening up of taxi licencing policy and making some recommendations on the relevance of offences, cautions and convictions of those applying to be private hire or hackney carriage drivers.  I think it must be right that the decision-making panels have discretion to take these into account even when they might be “spent” for other purposes as taxi drivers are in a huge position of trust and we as councillors cannot risk putting vulnerable members of our society at risk by allowing people with incompatible histories to take on such positions of responsibility.

The meeting finished after 10pm and I was very glad to get home and have a rest before bed!  You can see a video of this meeting (beware it’s 338 minutes long!)

University of Oxford Building work programme briefing

This was a fascinating presentation by Oxford University’s Estates department.  After a sandwich lunch we were shown a fascination presentation by Mike Wigg, the Acting Director of Estates.

It’s great to see that the University has so much going on in this time of economic difficulty.    Mike covered areas including:  the Science Area; Outside Oxford; Bodleian Libraries Projects; the Headington Hospital Sites; International Projects  and the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter.

I was particularly interested to hear about the roof replacement on the University Museum and also enjoyed the tour around the new Earth Sciences building.  We saw a mass spectrometer that had just been delivered and was in the process of being assembled, and had to wear shoe covers to go in that room.  I was also fascinated by the information about the burial ground that had been discovered on the old Radcliffe Infirmary site.

I think it’s great that the University is showing that it has a proper strategic building plan and I am glad that all this work will keep lots of local people employed in these difficult financial times.  It also makes planning decisions easier if councillors can see them as part of a clearly well-thought out strategic plan.

Central South and West Area Committee

We met today at West Oxford Community Centre. Our agenda was fairly short and included the normal items such as the open session, Police and Community Safety, Street Scene and Parks and Planning applications.

We also had a presentation from two Oxford Brookes Students showing their design for a poster for Mount Place in Jericho.  I liked the poster and suggested it have a QR code added for mobile camera phone users to get access to more information about it on the web.  There is an Oxford Mail article about this too.  You can click the picture to see a bigger version.

Brookes Students Design for Mount Place signage

The main planning application was the one for the new Jericho Health Centre on the Radcliffe Infirmary site and was just for comment as it will be determined by the Strategic Development Control Committee.  The application was by Oxford University and as that’s my employer I decided to declare a personal but not prejudicial interest.  The committee supported the officers’ view that planning permission should be granted although there was some disagreement about whether to put the health centre right on the street or to retain an historic stone wall and put it behind that.  As the application was for the latter, that’s what was recommended to the Strategic Development Control Committee.

We also had a planning application about a mobile phone mast near Walton Well Road at the entrance to Port Meadow.  It was to replace a mast that was already there and had only been allowed by a planning inspector on appeal in the first place.  The whole committee bar one member voted not to allow an even bigger and taller mast in this extremely beautiful and sensitive part of Oxford.

The meeting closed around 7pm.

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.

Hearing to determine application for later opening by Branos on Gloucester Green

I attended this licensing hearing today not as a member of the panel but as a ward councillor representing the views of the people who live in the City Centre are are affected by noise from the City-Centre late-night economy.

The application on the table was to allow the Branos burger and kebab bar on Gloucester Green (behind the Odeon) to open for an extra hour on Friday and Saturday nights.

I had emailed the St. John Street residents’ association and put posters up in the flats on Gloucester Green (The Chilterns) letting people know.  I asked people to give me comments both positive and negative.  I had a few comments back and I think the major concerns were noise, litter and violence.  Some thought it was better to have people around to make the area feel safer but was frustrated by people ignoring the signs and sitting on the steps at the entrances to the Chilterns, making noise and leaving litter.

The panel decided to grant the extension from 3am to 4am on Friday and Saturday nights but with conditions that included identification-quality CCTV, extra staff on duty late so queues don’t build up, staff to clear litter in the vicinity of the area and prominent signs in the stall asking patrons to keep quiet and not litter the area.  I hope these measures will reduce the impact on local residents as much as possible.

City Centre Neighbourhood Action Group

A useful meeting with lots of Thames Valley Police officers present as well as councillors, residents’ association people and Nightsafe.

We talked about drugs issues in nightclubs, speeding on St. Giles and Magdalen Bridge and fake Big Issue sellers.

These meetings are good at keeping City Centre stakeholders in touch. I was pleased to be able to explain that the Union Society (with which the Police say they have had a few behaviour problems) is nothing to do with Oxford University Students’ Union.

Sainsburys Heyford Hill and the roundabout there

I received a useful letter in the post today that is basically information from Sainsburys Heyford Hill that you may or may not find useful. It is essentially outlining the plans for an extension and refit of the shop and reconfiguration of the Heyford Hill Roundabout to which the shop is directly linked.   Sainsburys has worked constructively with Oxfordshire County Council to develop a roundabout improvement scheme. The current outline of works is:

  • Sun 6 Mar to mid-April 2011: Reconfigure and resurface car park
  • Early April to mid-October: Highway works to upgrade Heyford Hill Roundabout
  • Early May to Mid-June: Demolition and ground works for shop extension
  • Mid-June to Mid-July: Shop extension construction
  • Mid-July to Mid-October: Internal re-fit
  • Mid-late October: Re-opening

Sainsburys anticipate a short closure of up to a week in the run up to the re-opening in October.

I suppose my main concern with this is that it will involve even MORE traffic lights.  The ones on the Tesco Roundabout at Cowley, while of course extremely useful in the rush hour, are just an utter pain at other times and cause huge delays to everyone trying to navigate the roundabout.  I just hope the traffic lights here will be a bit better thought-out.

Licensing and Gambling Acts Committee

A fairly quick and painless meeting at which we reviewed the licensing activities of the City Council for the last quarter, considered the impacts of the extension of licensing hours nationally until 1am on the day of the forthcoming Royal Wedding and agree to recommend the new charges for the 2011-12 financial year.  We were done in 3o minutes!

I was pleased to hear the the licensing team is planning to get accredited so it can offer training for new personal licence holders.   I think this is a good move for the people of Oxford and the City Council as nobody understands the local context better than the people who’s job it is to manage and regulate it.

Labour killing democratic accountability?

I received a consultation questionnaire in my council mail today about the proposed changes to the Council’s decision-making process. I’m afraid I think this is one of those consultations that is basically there to tell people what has already been decided. I don’t think public comments will make any difference to what is going to happen.

The changes are essentially:

  • Abolish monthly formal Area Committees, and their revenue budgets, and replace them with quarterly informal, largely powerless, Area Forums.
  • Remove powers to make planning decisions from the local level and set up two large planning committees that won’t really have any neighbourhood link or context understanding.  There will be a “west” and and “east” committee.  Bizarrely the west committee will include east Oxford!  The committees will be politically balanced meaning each will have 4 Labour members, 3 LibDems and 1 Green.  I think this is shocking as it means the administration effectively takes over control of all planning decisions.  In the current scheme North area has a LibDem majority and East has a Green majority.
  • Remove planning decisions call-in to full council and replace this with a “planning appeals committee”.  This will also be politically balanced, so Labour-controlled.
  • Drastically cut the number of Executive Board meetings and let executive councillors make most decisions that were previously Executive Board decisions on their own with no requirement for a public meeting.
  • Give each councillor a paltry £1500 to spend as they wish on their ward.

You can read about this in detail and I urge you to fill in the consultation as I think this is an extremely important matter of local democracy and accountability.  You need to register first to do the survey but please do – this is really important!  It’s clear Labour doesn’t want to hear much from you as the boxes only allow 500 characters and that includes spaces! You can see my response on my website.

My main concern is how the changes will effectively render the councillors of the North Area Committee (entirely LibDem) and those of the East Area Parliament (almost all Green) pretty much voice-less and powerless.  My own area, Central South and West will no longer see political balance of 4 Labour 4 LibDem but instead all its planning decisions will be made by committees with a Labour majority.  I have rarely seen such megalomania in a political party as Oxford Labour!

Antisocial behaviour by pub operators

This was an interesting piece of casework and a good opportunity to serve the people who elected me! My attention was drawn to the issue by an article in the Cherwell student newspaper.  So I contacted the Lincoln JCR president and we’ve had a very useful meeting. It appears the main problem is that the operators of the Turl Bar, which is part of the same block as lots of Lincoln College student accommodation, are making a lot of noise emptying containers of used bottles into recycling bins late at night and that loud music is becoming more and more of an issue.

As the venue (The Turl Bar) will close forever on 31st May this year there is probably no merit in taking formal action.  I hope the licensing team will, with a conciliatory approach, be able to persuade Whitbread’s staff running the Turl Bar to be a bit more considerate.  I hope the staff will remember that many students have their living and studying space in extremely close proximity to the bar and that May is an extremely important month for study and revision, particularly for those facing finals exams. Finals directly dictate their degree result and to a large extend the path and/or success of the rest of their lives.  I am impressed at the amount of records and personal impact statements the students of Lincoln College have been able to provide. I hope this will underline the seriousness of the problem with Whitbread and their staff.

Although this is short-term problem on council time-scales it represents a huge risk to the success of Lincoln students if a solution is not found.  The month of May represents more than half of some students’ final term of study and continuous noise and sleep disruption is quite intolerable.