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.

Budget - and council tax-setting full council

A long meeting tonight ably chaired as ever by Cllr John Goddard, the Lord Mayor of Oxford.

We started with addresses from the public and heard a moving speech about the plight of the Oxfordshire Chinese Community and Advice Centre as well as some exciting information about a community-based film called NoBalls that is directed by my friend Martyn Chalk, owner and founder of Chalkstar films, and produced by Rubia Braun, of Metro Brava, who spoke at the meeting. That's her in the picture.  We heard more about Temple Cowley Pools from Nigel Gibson and Jane Alexander and a speech about Democratic openness as well as an address from a Unison representative urging the Council to save jobs and services with extra money now available in the budget.

We moved on next to the budget proper.  We had a lot of gesturing from the Labour Administration about how this was a budget nobody wanted and how it was all the coalition government's fault.  Funny how they seem to think the UK economy has got into the state it is in just since May 2010 and that everything Labour when in government did was right until then.  Next the Lib Dem budget was able presented by Alan Armitage and Stephen Brown.  We were the only party to suggests cuts to councillor allowances and we also put in provision to save administrative support for Area Committees and to keep Temple Cowley Pools open for a few more years while finances improved and better solution than losing a pool within the ring road in East Oxford could be found.  The Green budget was also presented and had some bizzare extra additions like saving St. Clement's car park even though the Greens are meant to be so anti-car.

After supper, of course with a majority administration the Labour Budget got through unamended.

We then set the council tax for 2012 and agreed a zero change in the City Council part of your bill.  Next was questions from members of council.  Jean Fooks asked a useful question about compelling business to be less wasteful with energy and John Tanner replied that there was no legal power to do that but that the administration was working with local businesses through low carbon Oxford to try to reduce the City's carbon footprint.  I asked questions about the possibility of having a separate dog training area in Cowley Marsh Park but was told the council has no money or policy for this and that it couldn't be done on the disused tennis courts.   The portfolio holder, Cllr Lygo, did agree to have a meeting with the founders of the Fellowship of Responsible Oxford Dog Owners to talk about possibilities so that's at least encouraging.  Interestingly he also said the tennis courts were to be refurbished and provided with new nets.  I know that will please Temple Cowley residents and am just sorry it's taken so long to get agreement to get that done.

We moved on to motions on notice and I tried to amend the one by the Deputy Leader of the Council as it started well, praising the constructive work of the Unions in minimising impact on staff and council services in these difficult times but then moved on to political gesturing and trying to get council staff to engage in political action.  I don't think it's appropriate for councillors formally to encourage staff to take part in any political action as many of them will be politically restricted.  The proposer refused to accept my amendment removing the problematic parts of the motion so our group was unable to support the motion at all which was a shame.

The council then agreed the statement of licensing policy very quickly as it had already been past all area committees and the licensing and gambling acts committee.

The final item was discussion of members allowances.  I believe very firmly that if we councillors are having to cut staff and services then we should also take a cut in our own allowances.  We LibDems proposed a 10% cut and also a cut in some special responsibility allowances for City Executive Board members but were voted against by the Greens and Labour who wanted to keep their personal allowances as they are.  Typical do as we do, not what we say attitude from Labour and Green.  One Labour member shouted at us that we should give our allowances to the Big Society - actually several of us in the LibDem group already do substantial charitable giving...

We finished around 9pm.

Brilliant Group Meeting

We had a really good Lib Dem group meeting today. Lots of really good ideas and good discussion forming into consensus on many things. I thought the meeting was very ably chaired by Alan Armitage and it was clear that he and Stephen Brown have done a huge amount of work on our budget proposals. I think things will work really well in terms of our holding the administration to account on Monday evening at full council. Watch this space!

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.

There 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

I 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.

Licensing and Gambling Acts Committee special meeting

We met today for the sole purpose of signing off the revised statement of licensing policy.  It had been to all of the Area Committees but we still had quite a lot of discussion from two councillors who represent areas to the East of the City Centre about how they would like off-licences included in the special saturation policy (area pictured) for East Oxford.  Unfortunately councils can't change the law on when SSPs are applicable!

A picture was painted of chaos and bedlam on Cowley Road with people drinking in the streets and then getting even more drunk in pubs there.  I must say, as someone who cycles or walks home along Cowley Road practically every day and at all hours of the day and night I don't recognise that picture at all.  I don't deny there are problems in East Oxford but I hardly think closing off licences is going to help.  The two councillors that reported all this trouble live in Headington and Iffley Village and I can't help wondering how much they actually see Cowley Road late at night.  I of course don't doubt their integrity and I know there have been a few nasty incidents recently but I do think the issues we see in Cowley Road are sometimes rather exaggerated.

What worried me most was that one member of the committee thought that good work had been done by a panel that refused a recent off-licence application for a new premises in Oxford only to have it granted on appeal by the Oxford Magistrates.  I'm afraid that if panels refuse things with absolutely no evidence directly attributable to the site in question, and no objection from the Police, then that's not really good work in my book.  The licence will almost certainly get granted on appeal and runs the real risk of Magistrates (quite rightly) awarding costs against the City Council for behaving unreasonably in its decision.  Councillors sitting on licensing panels MUST make decisions based on evidence and evidence alone.  Licensing panel member do nobody any good at all if we don't base decisions on evidence, especially the council-tax paying residents of Oxford, as decisions will not stand up to appeal and costs awarded against the Council will just come from council tax-payers money meaning other services have to suffer.

After all that discussion we did eventually agree to the licensing policy.