Full Council: Core Strategy and New Executive Board Member

We had a full council meeting at 4pm today.  It was primarily to discuss the council’s response to the Core Strategy.  The leading group had tried to get our leader to jointly sign a letter with the leader but our group was of the view that this is far too important an issue to sign off behind closed doors so we asked for a full council meeting.  The main areas of contention were the numbers of new houses in the strategy, whether the Northern Gateway should be included and whether the employment land allocation needs reviewing, in the light of how much land earmarked for employment use has been fallow for such a long time.

The amendments to the response proposed by our group were:

Delete “8,000 new homes” in line 2 and substitute with “9,000 new homes” to read:

(1) Endorse the housing figure in the Core Strategy of at least 9,000 new homes between 2006 and 2026 and confirm that this level of growth is considered appropriate in the absence of the target from the South East Plan

After point (1) insert the following paragraph:

Council urges the Leader and the two Members of Parliament for Oxford to campaign immediately for a recognition that the housing needs of Oxford City over the plan period cannot be met solely by building within the city; and that a mechanism to meet economic, social and environmental needs of the economic unit of which Oxfordshire and the neighbouring Local Planning Authorities (unitaries and District Councils) should be formed as a Local Economic Partnership.

and

After point (1) [and amendment 2] insert the following paragraph:

Council calls for a new employment land study to be undertaken before any targets for quantity and diversity of jobs are enshrined in the Core Strategy
The Labour group outvoted all these amendments and I must say I have never seen them quite so tetchy.   I felt that the meeting was essential so that the Council’s response could be debated and voted on in public but unfortunately some administration members had said they thought it was “silly politics.  The building and development plan for the next 20 years in Oxford doesn’t seem like that to me!

Central, South and West area committee

We met at the town hall this evening.  It was a long meeting, appropriately enough held in the Long Room.

rail.pngThere were lots of members of the public present and we heard about many issues. Some residents who live on Stable Close near the railway line and sidings and staff car park were being disturbed by train diesel engines being left idling for hours (something to do with the braking system) and by shunting and very antisocial small hours of the morning.  We also heard from a resident on Hamel Walk who was having trouble with an access route to his area that some developers were blocking off at times.  It sounded like the City Council had failed to put a proper enforceable legal agreement in place to ensure right of access was preserved for occupiers of the social housing on Hamel Walk.

13072010742-wince.jpgWe considered several planning applications – the most interesting was the one by Oxford University which would make internal changes to the Radcliffe Camera and the Old Bodleian.  It would open up some of the underground store for public access and would alter the level of the (1970s) paving in the schools quadrangle of the old Bodleian to improve level access to the building and remove the need for the unsightly temporary ramps.  I had to declare a personal interest in this application as I am a senior member of The University of Oxford.  As these are very well known buildings I don’t consider that I have any more or less interest in the success or failure of the planning application than any other member of the public so I did remove myself from the meeting and did vote.  I did make the point that if lots of heavy vehicles were to be using the junction of Parks Road, Broad Street, Holywell Street and Catte Street then EXTREME care must be taken and enforced to ensure no nasty accidents with any of the hundreds of cyclists a day that use that junction.  There was a nasty and fatal accident at that junction not long ago and I don’t want a repeat.

New Councillors Info

I just received this from media and communications.  Good to see they are introducing us to council staff.

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I was intrigued to read that the new Green member for St. Mary’s appears to see students as a “danger” to East Oxford.  Personally I see students as a positive benefit that adds greatly to the vibrancy, vitality, and viability of the area.  Sure – there are problems with HMOs and Cars but students themselves are not the problem.  Oxford would be a much poorer place without its two world-class Universities and their students.  In fact without them hardly anybody would have even heard of Oxford!  It certainly would not be the great tourist centre it is.

Licensing Training

Licensing Training SlideThis was a long but useful session.  It was introduced by Tony Payne, Support Development and Licensing Team manager, and we were given lots of useful information about the structure of the licensing committees and subcommittees in the Council.

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.

Julian Allison is the licensing team leader and told us lots about how the 2003 act works and is based around the Council’s licensing policy that it is legally require to have and regularly review.  We learned about personal licences and premises licences.

Finally, two of the City council’s solicitors, Daniel Smith and Jeremy Franklin, explained to us how licensing hearings work.  A very interesting and useful session.  You may be interested to know that you can check current licensing applications online.

City Centre Neighbourhood Action Group

This is somewhat of a gathering of the great and the good but useful nonetheless.  It is a Thames Valley Police initiative and includes councillors, council officers (including Ben Smith, Neighbourhood Policing Coordinator Community Housing & Community Development; Karen Crossan, Nightsafe Manager; Julian Allison from licensing; and Linda Jones, Estate Manager for Tenancy Services for Central Oxford), and several from Thames Valley Police.   Representatives from OUSU also attended.

We discussed the City Cente Situational Report which shows that most crime in the City Centre has reduced rather pleasingly.  Graffit was a bit on the rise and this would be looked at.

The OUSU reps, Eorann Lean and Kat Wall, also presented an excellent report about Student night-time safety which highlighted a few areas of concern that Thames Valley Police agreed to work on.  According to the survey, which was responded to by 148 students, the current challenges are as follows:

  • 41.6% leave clubs and pubs alone more often than not
  • 43.5% walk alone in the city centre at night more often than not
  • 38.9% walk beyond the immediate city centre at night
  • 48.4% never call a friend if they realise they will be walking alone in the dark
  • 33.3% sometimes feel threatened, 7.1% most times feel threatened (although 49.2% say they rarely feel threatened when out at night)
  • 7.9% sometimes have been threatened when out at night/54% never been threatened or harassed when out at night/37.3% rarely

Student night-time safety issues meeting

Just had a useful meeting with two VPs from OUSU (Eorann Lean, and Katherine Wall).  City Council staff including Karen Crossan, Nightsafe Manager, attended as did Thames Valley Police.

We discussed issues around student safety; perceived as well as actual threat; street lighting (particularly on Magdalen Bridge and Norham Gardens); the Safety Bus (which has had some less than ideal press coverage) and various other issues.

Attendance at the City Centre Neighbourhood Action group was important and it is good that there will be more student representation now that the OUSU person for that role has more time dedicated to safety.

Meeting with Oxford Hub folk

oxhub.JPGI met at 9am today with Sara Fernandez and a colleague at G&Ds on Cowley Road.  They explained to me how the Oxford Hub is the focal point for charitable activity at Oxford University. Soon, they’re going to bid for a building, at 16-17 Turl Street, so the can open a multi-purpose venue for community benefit.

This looks like a good use of a building on Turl Street that has had a rather chequered history in the last few years and could do with a more permanent use. I may have to take decisions as a councillor about this so will keep my powder dry on it at the moment other than to say it looks like a good idea and a good use of the building to me.