A sneak preview of the new Crisis Centre at the Old Fire Station

Oxford City Council and Crisis, the national charity for single homeless people, have been working together for some time to plan the redevelopment and refurbishment of the Old Fire Station building in central Oxford.

Along with Cllr Stephen Brown, my ward colleague, and Cllr Mark Mills (Holywell ward) I was taken on a tour of the building as it currently is.  It is looking very impressive - very clean and some ingenious use of space to create some very useful art rooms as well as accommodation and a café.   I am particularly impressed with the way the hose tower has been preserved and made visible again.

By autumn 2011 the Old Fire Station will open and be home to a Crisis Skylight Centre and Café and Arts at the Old Fire Station, a brand new arts company. The two organisations are independent but will work alongside each other to achieve the mutual goal of encouraging integration and collaboration between the cultural and homeless communities in Oxford.

Arts at the Old Fire Station will develop partnership projects with Crisis clients, as well as offering professional development for artists, and creative activities for the general public. This “two organisations, one building” model has been developed to offer exciting opportunities for artistic collaborations between the homeless and cultural communities of the city.

The newly developed Old Fire Station will also accommodate a brand new Skylight Café, which will operate as a social enterprise, providing a route into employment for homeless and vulnerably housed adults.

I think the project is a really exciting one and think it will be a real asset to the Gloucester Green area of Oxford, hopefully encouraging some regeneration and re-use of some of the currently vacant retail units in the area.

Some of the text and one picture in this post are taken from a very useful Crisis newsletter.

Oxford Homeless Pathways (OxHOP) 25 years celebration

This was a joyous and extremely well-attended lunchtime event at the Town Hall.  It was celebrating 25 years of amazing work by all those involved in OxHOP.  There was a great speech by Lesley Dewhurst, the Chief Executive, who has been with OxHOP almost all of its life and some really inspiring and moving stories from previous and current users of all that OxHOP provides.

What I like about OxHOP is that it is a holistic service that helps people right from providing emergency shelter at O'Hanlon House (called the Oxford Nigh Shelter before it was rebuilt) to second stage homeless housing via Julian Housing.  The support, encouragement and dignity that OxHOP offers to some of the most vulnerable people in our great city is truly amazing and very humbling.  It was a pleasure to attend the event.

Planning Review Committee: Grove Street Housing

We met today to discuss this one planning application that had been called in.  I was glad the St. Clements car park planning application had not been called in as I considered that the decision had been made properly and thoroughly at the West Area Planning Committee.

The application was to demolish an already half-derelict club, the Grove Street Club, and replace it with four terraced houses (one with four bedrooms and three with three).  The West Area Planning Committee had voted approve the application but I was willing to agree with my North Oxford colleagues that a reconsideration was warranted as there were some serious concerns around sizes of gardens and lack of parking.

There was a presentation from the Planning Officer, two speeches against the application and one in favour from the applicant's agent.  After some discussion the committee voted 4 in favour of the application and 3 against.  I realised that as chair I could either abstain or vote against and use my casting vote to cause a refusal.  I didn't consider that the grounds for refusal were strong enough not to be quashed at appeal so I reluctantly abstained thus allowing the application to be approved.  Losing an appeal against an unreasonable refusal can result in costs being awarded to the applicant against the council and that does nobody any favours.

I had held the meeting in the council chamber as I believe it is better for smaller matters and makes the public feel more included.  Apart from the sound system being not put out at all for the planning officers and then set too loud I thought things proceeded well.  I was sorry the planning officers didn't enjoy presenting in the council chamber.  Personally I think it makes for better democracy for small planning applications.

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.

St Clements Car Park: Call in FAILS

Well the 5pm deadline has passed and only 8 councillors requested a call-in. It needs 12 for a call-in so it fails. This means the council can go ahead and issue the refusal of planning permission but it does of course remain open to the applicant to appeal to the Planning Inspectorate.

I think not calling this in was the right decision as I believe West Area Planning committee last week was run openly and fairly and got to its decision in a correct and proper way.

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!

The saga of St Clements - tweets and many emails

Some readers will know that I like to tweet (Twitter -  @tonybrett) about things going on in the council as I believe it makes for more open and accountable democracy.  As I was just an audience member at West Area Planning  I tweeted about it in some detail.  BBC Radio Oxford picked up on this and rang me at home at 0640 on Thursday morning for comments and an interview about the process.  I was happy to oblige although I must say getting a phone call at 0640 did make me think for a fleeting moment that someone must have died!  Thankfully that was not the case and I was able to explain how call-in works.

Since then there have been a lot of emails to all councillors asking us not to call in the planning application.  I am sending a standard response which I hope is explaining how things progress from here.  The decision was published on Friday morning which means there must be call in requests from 12 City Councillors if the application is to be re-determined at a meeting of the Planning Review Committee, which I chair.  At the moment I have seen five call in requests but there may be more that have not been shared with other councillors. Here's what I've sent (not the picture!) :

Dear <name>,

The application has not been called in.

Some councillors have requested a call in but as far as I am aware only five have done that so far.  The application will only be called in if twelve councillors have requested that by 5pm on Monday 19th September.

It is possible for the Head of City Development to call the application in also, within that same deadline, but there is no indication of that happening at this stage.

It is not my intention to support the call in as I believe West Area committee was run fairly and properly but we must accept that it is the democratic right of other councillors to do so if they feel that's what those they represent want them to do.

I am keeping an open mind about the acceptability or otherwise of the development as I am the chair of Planning Review Committee and will need to be able to chair a discussion openly and fairly if the call-in succeeds.

I hope this explains things at what I of course understand must be a stressful time.

Yours,

Tony Brett

West Area Planning Committee - St Clements

I attended this meeting tonight as I value seeing how others chair meetings and how discussion of planning applications proceeds.  Oscar is a good chair and it's good to learn techniques from him.

Among others, today's West Area Planning considered the controversial application to build student accommodation on the St. Clement's car park. There were some very impassioned speeches from many parties and it was clear that the opposers had really brought the cavalry with some very respected planning consultants, senior folk from local businesses and from the Queen's College.

There seemed to be several areas of discussion. These included access to Angel and Greyhound Meadow, proximity to Queens' College's listed Florey Building, the quality of the buildings proposed and the impact on local traders of the removal of the parking facility (in total during building and then reduced after completion).

Many councillors asked excellent questions and made very good and valid points both against and in favour of the application. Eventually there was motion to refuse planning permission, proposed by Oscar Van Nooijen (the chair) and seconded by Graham Jones (Lib Dem St. Clements' councillor). Five voted in favour of the motion (Cllrs Jones, Benjamin, Van Nooijen, Goddard, Gotch) with four against the motion (Cllrs Price, Cook, Khan and Tanner). The motion thus passed and planning permission was refused.

The council procedures mean that there is a 2 working day period during which the decision can be called in for a second (and fresh) consideration at Planning Review Committee.

Run down and abandoned buildings on George Street

I had a call from someone the other who had noticed some buildings on George Street in a terrible state.  They are all disused shop units and I agree with the caller that they really give a terrible impression of the City Centre so I am trying to find out who owns the building(s) and if there is a way to encourage or force them to do something about the awful eyesores that they have become.   All I have found out so far is that Oxford City Council does not own this building, but planning records indicate that the ownership lays with OXAM, OMCRG, 13-14 Broad St, Oxford OX1 3BP.

Internet searches seem to reveal:

Andre Stern, Karina Sonnenberg
OMCRG Broad Street Oxford,
OX1 3AY
GBR
tel: +44 1865 248 248
fax: +44 1865 249 249

I will continue to investigate...

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!

Planning Review Committee: Old Road Campus

The second  Planning Review Committee that I have chaired.  This was a reconsideration of the East Area Planning Committee's decision to grant planning permission to Oxford University to build a new research building on the Roosevelt Drive site near Old Road.  I am a member and employee of Oxford University so I had to consider carefully whether I could approach the decision with an open mind.  As I work for the central IT department of Oxford University and have nothing to do (in my work, rather than councillor, capacity) with the estates department and have no vested interest in the Medical Sciences Division I decided that although I clearly had a personal interest in the matter it was not enough to prejudice me as there are many thousands of people in our City who have some relationship or another with Oxford University.

The meeting proceeded smoothly with some very well-considered and well-presented evidence and opinions both from objectors and applicants.  The Planning Officer, Felicity Byrne presented very well and brought along a County Council Highways Officer (Martin Kraftl) to talk about the possibilities with regard to controlled parking zones.  The professional advice was extremely useful, as always.

After quite a bit of debate and careful questioning of all parties there was eventually a motion to approve the planning application with some additional conditions and that passed so the permission is granted.   The additional conditions are:

• That the landscaping to the tree belt on Old Road includes new hedge and tree planting to the western edge, and mixed evergreens to the eastern end;


• That the hours for deliveries during the construction of the development be controlled to avoid peak hours and the beginning of the school day;


• That the external lighting to the campus be designed to avoid Light spillage, in order to prevent nuisance being caused to nearby residential properties;


• That details of the maintenance regime for the attenuation tanks to be used in the drainage systems be submitted for approval by officers.

I hope these will go as far as possible in alleviating some of the concerns of the objectors.

Old Road Campus Site Visit

This is another planning application called in to Planning Review committee.  This time from East Area Planning Committee.

Quite a few councillors visited the site and we also took time to view the scene from Bickerton Road and from the garden and some rooms of a local resident's house that she very kindly gave us access to.

This was again an extremely informative visit that I think will make sure planning review committee next week makes as informed a decision as it can.

Planning Review Committee is turning out to be quite a lot of work but I do think it is important to consider applications properly as they have a big and lasting effect on many people in our City.  The work is also enjoyable and interested and it's an honour to be the chair of such an important committee.  I am grateful to my Labour colleagues for allowing me to have it.

Planning Review Committee: Mill Street Student Block

And so we get to the Planning Review Commitee meeting that will reconsider the planning decision made at the last West Area Committee.  This is the first Planning Review Committee meeting I've chaired as the first meeting happened while I was in Bonn on the twinning trip.  I was very keen to get things right so ran the meeting as carefully and inclusively as I could.

I should point out that "review" is a slightly confusing name for this committee as its job is not to review the previous decision and the process followed to reach it, but rather to take a fresh look at the planning application and make a new decision based on all the evidence presented.

All objectors had time to speak as did the applicant's agent.  The planning officer (Murray Hancock) gave a very informative and useful report and though he was recommending approval, that is just one of the opinions we as a committee were to consider.  We had some debate among councillors and then a motion was put  seconded to refuse the application and this received almost unanimous assent.  The application was thus refused.

.

Mill Street Site Visit

One of the planning applications that was approved on 13 July at West Area Planning Committee was for some accommodation for students of a local college to fit in a strip of land between the back of houses on Mill Street and the railway, just south of Oxford Station.  At West Area Planning Committee councillors and officers had largely spoken highly of it and it was given planning permission (although not unanimously).

The council has a procedure after such decisions where if 12 councillors request it the decision is "called in" and get re-determined at Planning Review Committee.  That happened in this case.  I am chair of the Planning Review Committee so decided that we should actually visit the site to see how things would look from the neighbouring properties and well as from other angles.  Quite a few members of the committee attended the visit and we were accompanied by Murray Hancock, one of the City Council's senior planners, as well as some local residents and the agent for the applicant so he could let us onto the site.

I found the visit extremely informative and instructive and I think councillors much better equipped to made informed decisions in the actual committee meeting.

There was some controversy over the accuracy of pictures submitted and I was slightly amused at this one (although the whole issue is of course a serious one) as I think it looks like the mockup of the propsed building is floating in the air!

Electronic Committee Management

I attended a brief training session today about the new software the City Council is adopting to better manage information about committees and councillors.  I have to say I was quite impressed with it.  It should make finding things much easier for the public and it will hold us councillors better to account as it records meeting attendance too!

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.

Full Council

Today was Elise Benjamin's first full council as Lord Mayor and thus chair of the meeting.  It was not too long a meeting and had the normal political gesturing and grandstanding.  Following some actual and anecdotal evidence about a worrying trend of landlords pulling out of the HMO market, I made the following statement on notice:

"Lord Mayor, I want to make a brief statement about the implementation of new additional HMO licensing scheme. While I recognise and fully support the vital work of holding landlords to account and ensuring adequate and safe conditions for tenants I do want to sound a note of caution about discouraging landlords to stay in the HMO market.



Oxford is a lively and vibrant City and has a large population of young people trying to make their way after School, College or University.  Housing is scarce and expensive and living in HMOs is the only way many such people can afford to stay in Oxford.  I have seen one example (next to my own home) and heard of others where I wonder if perhaps this council is requiring more work than is strictly necessary on properties that are being used as-built (i. e. with no extra bedrooms or partitions, or rooms being used as bedrooms that were intended for other use), and to modern building regulations standards. While I of course understand the duty of care the council has to HMO-residents I hope that will be kept in balance with the need to maintain a supply of HMOs for those who are not able to afford to live in our wonderful City of Oxford any other way. Our City's economy is strong and healthy and this is due in no small part to the number of skilled professionals that live here.  I would hate to get into a position where they can no longer afford to live in Oxford because too many landlords have chosen to leave the HMO market.



It is a delicate balance and I certainly have no sympathy for landlords that don't look after their properties ensuring they are safe for their tenants, nor for tenants who engage in antisocial behaviour.   On the other hand I don't want to see tenants who are responsible members of the community who do not keep neighbours awake, do not have loud parties, do not abuse parking and properly manage their refuse and recycling to be the unintentional victims of a licensing regime that is meant to protect them, not drive their landlords out of the rental market and therefore them out of their homes.



I am grateful to officers for taking the time to discuss this issue with me in the last week or so and grateful for all the excellent work they are doing in bringing Oxford HMO stock up to a good and safe standard.  I also welcome the fact that the council has taken my comments on board and I'm sure officers will bear them in mind when making future assessments of works required to recently-built and/or non-overcrowded residential dwellings.  I will be asking the portfolio member for housing for an update in a question to council later in the year on progress in this important and delicately-balanced area.



Thank you"

Cllr Ed Turner gave me a constructive reply on behalf of the administration and I do hope the administration will make sure the HMO policy is applied in a sensible way in future - Oxford cannot afford to lose all its HMO stock.

Licensing Training

This was an all-day event for which I and lots of others took a day's leave.  It was led by Barrister Leo Charalambides of Ely Place Chambers Licensing Group.  We covered lots of ground and it was pleasing to hear a case that we had covered in the past referred to by Leo as an example of good practice that he often quotes when training others.

It was all quite technical, but also very practical stuff.  I entirely approve of the advice to know your own authority's statement of licensing policy well, and this particularly applies to me as my name is on it!

There was also some good advice about how to lay decisions out clearly, with their evidential basis, as this would hopefully make them more robust to appeal.

It was extremely useful having a day to reflect on licensing while not actually having a licensing decision to make and it was also fascinating hearing what a Barrister had to say when he wasn't representing an applicant in a license hearing.  I am grateful to Leo for being so frank, honest and helpful.

Planning briefing

This was an interesting session, put on for councillors about some new planning law that is currently being discussed in parliament.  It felt a bit odd to be having a theoretical discussion about something that's not even law yet but I guess it was useful nonetheless.

Code of Conduct Training

A 90 minute training session today reminding us about the need to declare interests and the need to be consistent in doing so.

We also learned about pre-disposition and pre-determination and the difference between the two.

City Centre Neighbourhood Action Group

A useful meeting of the City Centre NAG today.  Nothing particularly exciting but it was good to meet the new OUSU VP for Charities and Community - conveniently also called Daniel like his successor!  Daniel Stone this time.

It's good to be keeping this link with Thames Valley Police open and it was good to meet the new City Centre Inspector, Katy Barrow-Grint.  You can see the current City Centre team on their web page.

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.

Town Twinning trip to Bonn

I’m just on the way home from a brilliant trip to Bonn, one of the towns with which Oxford is twinned.  The flight is delayed so I'm writing this.  There was a delegation of seven City Councillors and a few others from Oxford and I should say at this point that we all travelled at our own expense. I took Gordon, my partner too.  We flew into Cologne on Wednesday 1st June and visited the wonderful cathedral there before having a good lunch and getting the train South to Bonn.

The visit programme started at 5.30pm with a reception in the Stadhaus in Bonn and then had a welcome dinner at the old Rathaus, that is in the middle of a re-furb.

Day two consisted of a wonderful boat trip down the Rhine to Remargen, where there is the remains of a bridge that was very important towards the end of World War II and a museum about it.  We hopped across the river while we were there to a little village called Erpel and had a needed ice-cream.  We got the boat back to Bonn a bit later and spent the evening having a nice meal in a Turkish restaurant with our hosts, Elmar Konrads-Hassel and his wife Ursula Hassel.

Day three started at the Stadhaus with an interesting seminar about all the fair trade activity that Bonn and its council takes part in.  We share Oxford experiences and were all presented with some fair trade coffee.  Lunch followed and then we had a free afternoon.  Gordon and I used that time to visit the cathedral in Bonn and the Beethoven memorial as well as the protestant church.  We went on after that to the Scholsskirche (the University Church) for an excumenical service that was held in both English and German.  I was pleased to be able to take part in the prayers of intercession, fortunately in English!  We then processed in our robes to the Bonn Oxford Club where we were treated to a barbecue supper and entertainment by the Oxford Fiddle Group, another part of the English delegation visiting Bonn.

Day four was an incredibly hot day so worked well for the Bürgerfest where lots of groups both from Bonn and Oxford gave performances.  The Bonn Irish dancers were among them as were the group from the Pegasus Theatre and the Oxford Fiddle Group.  Gordon and I visited the Beethoven Haus in the afternoon where an really excellent audio guide (thankfully in English) gave me a real sense of a tour through the great composer’s life from start to finish.  There was also a very modern 3D rendition of some scenes from Fidelio where the singers were 3D shapes and we could move them around to hear the change in musical effect.  We briefly visited the Arithmeum, a fascinating collection of mathematical and arithmetical instruments.  We didn’t have long there as it shut at 6pm.  The final evening’s entertainment was as the Haus den Karnevals where we were fed again and then took part in a sort of gig called Losst mer Singe – where we had to join in with a band singing carnival songs in a local dialect called Bönnsch.

Our last day started with another wonderful breakfast from our hosts and then a trip to a fairly new museum of  the history of Germany.  It covered the period from 1945 right up to the current day and gave a fascinating insight in the German Democratic Republic (from 1949-1989) and the Federal Republic of Germany and how reunification had come about.  I was interested to hear about the struggles of the former GDR to adapt to the economic freedoms enjoyed by the Federal Republic.  We finished off our trip by taking our hosts to lunch at Restaurant am Rheinaue (basically a lea on the Rhine).

I was extremely pleased to be able to attend this twinning trip and I feel I know some of my fellow councillors in Oxford much better now, as well as having made some wonderful new friends in Germany.  I do think that twinning is great for Cities and brings about an international dimension to their civic lives.  It’s also great to be able to take young people along such as those from the Pegasus Theatre as I think such things hugely broaden their horizons.

I look forward both to welcoming new friends from Bonn back to Oxford and to visiting Bonn and other twins of Oxford and strongly encourage other councillors and members of community groups to do the same.  It’s definitely well worth the effort and expense of the travel.  The youngest member of our group was still at primary school and the oldest over 90 so there are no excuses!

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.

Annual Council, Licensing, Mayor-making

Today at 4pm saw the formal annual meeting of council which does things such as approving the scheme of delegation and appointing councillors to committees. I have ended up on the Licensing and Gambling Acts committee again and also the Planning Review Committee.

After that brief meeting we had meetings of the two licensing committees, again very briefly. Mary Clarkson will carry on as chair of licensing and gambling acts committee and I will continue as the vice-chair of that committee. I was pleased to see that Lib Dem Clark Brundin will chair the General Purposes Licensing Committee, with Labour's Colin Cook being vice-chair.

At 5pm we gathered in our robes in the assembly room for the annual ceremonial mayor-making event.  This is a formal occasion but also ceremonial.  The tradition is that the councillor of the longest standing, who has not fulfilled the role before, gets to serve as Lord Mayor for the council year.  This year that honour falls to Elise Benjamin.  Lots of speeches of proposal and seconding are made for Lord Mayor, Deputy Lord Mayor and Sheriff of Oxford.  I was really pleased that Lib Dems Alan Armitage and Jean Fooks will serve as Deputy Lord Mayor and Sheriff respectively for this council year.

The evening was rounded off with a reception for civil dignitaries and guests in the main hall of the town hall.

City Centre Neighbourhood Action Group

This was a good meeting although our numbers were quite low.  It was ably chaired by Sgt Stuart Hudson, a City Centre Sergeant with Thames Valley Police. PCs Rob Parker and Paul Phillips were also present.

The issue of drug dealing in the Oxpens/Friars Wharf/Speedwell Street area seems to have gone quiet so this is a good thing.  There are still problems with drinking in the street and general disorder around the St. Michael Street and Luther Street areas.  This always becomes more of a problem as the weather gets warmer and the lighter evenings come along but I was a bit alarmed to hear that some residents are feeling St. Michael's Street is a becoming a no-go area after 4pm.  I am pleased that TVP is doing a lot of close work with residents to help ensure that this problem and their fear of it is tackled effectively.  The Luther Street issues are ongoing and TVP continue to work with O Hanlon House, A2 Dominion Housing Association and the Luther Street Medical Centre.  Some more signs about street drinking are also being investigated although I have my reservations about how effective these will be!

Big Issue selling still seems to be problematic with sellers actually begging (which is illegal) rather than selling and ignoring the 10pm curfew on such sales.

We talked about how many students want to help people on the streets but don't know how.  Giving cash was not recommended as most estimates think that over 75% of that goes on drugs and alcohol, which does not necessarily help.  A voucher scheme for O'Hanlon house (the "night shelter") has been tried but there was too much black-market selling and counterfeiting so it was stopped.  I don't believe this is an insurmountable problem and would like to see a scheme where people can buy vouchers online and print them themselves with a unique barcode on them (a bit like a boarding pass or a Groupon).

Finally, having complained about speeding on St Giles, I was horrified to find that 90% of drivers were speeding when TVP did a check recently.  I hope something can be done about this and suggested a firm letter to the Oxford Bus companies as buses are some of the worst offenders in my experience.

The last ever Central South and West Area Committee

This was a sad evening.  I have had six years of working with Central South and West Area Committee and we've had some great times and hopefully served the people of Central, South and West Oxford well over that time.  Today's meeting was at the Deaf Direct Centre, on Littlegate Street (St Ebbe’s) and I thought it worked rather well as a venue.  One of the few times we've had the area committee in Carfax ward so I hope we'll be able to hold some of the new Area Forum meetings there.

The agenda is available online and I was about 15 minutes late as I had been at a meeting at Oxford Spires Academy where I am a governor.

I think the most notable item was a rather large dormer window planning application for a property on the south corner of Abingdon Road and Kineton Road.  The planning officers were recommending us to approve as this was an improvement on an even more obtrusive previous application that they had declined under delegated powers but their steer was that we could probably decide either way quite legitimately.  The dormer windows were to be on the rear elevation of the property and would probably not be allowed on the front.  Stephen Brown's argument that the side of the house is also the front on a corner plot is what convinced me to vote against the application.  Most of the rest of the committee agreed and the application was turned down.

The meeting finished around 6.45pm giving just enough time for a quick dinner and a pint at the Swan and Castle in time to get to the Annual Lib Dem Group meeting at the town hall at 7.30pm.  A busy day for a councillor!

Lib Dem group annual meeting

This was our annual meeting where we choose group officers for the coming council year.

There's not much to be happy about nationally as a Lib Dem at the moment but this was a good and positive meeting and I remain convinced that LibDem councillors are good for the people of Oxford that we are doing our best to get Lib Dem policies put into effect at local level.  Remember policy is formed by the party, not just by those in government.

Our nominations to council committees for the next council year are:

Value and Performance Scrutiny: Cllrs Brown, Royce, Gotch and McCready
Communities and Partnerships Scrutiny: Cllrs Khan, Campbell, Jones and Wilkinson
East Area Planning: Cllrs Rundle, Brown and Fooks
West Area Planning: Cllrs Jones, Gotch and Goddard
Planning Review: Cllrs Altaf-Khan, Brett and Armitage
Audit & Governance: Cllrs Brundin and Mills
General Purposes Licensing: Cllrs Gotch, Royce, Brundin and Goddard
Licensing and Gambling Acts: Cllrs Brett, Gotch, Royce, Brundin and Goddard
Disciplinary Committee: Cllrs Brown and Mills
Appointments Committee: Cllrs Brown and Mills
Standards Committee: Cllrs Brundin and Gotch

I'm pleased that we have managed to spread what is quite a heavy workload between us and look forward to working with these colleagues and those from the other parties represented on the City Council.

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.

[caption id="attachment_233" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Brookes Students Design for Mount Place signage"][/caption]

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.

LibDem Group Meeting

I don't get to a lot of these as they are on Mondays and that clashes with Rehearsals for the City of Oxford Choir of which I am a member and the chair.

It was a good meeting with many issues discussed and a lot of consensus formed. We are now ready for the Executive Board meeting on 13th April and Full Council on 18th April!

New Library and Teaching Building Celebratory Event

I attend this exciting event today that was held at Oxford Brookes University. It was to mark the progress of the work on the New Library and Teaching Building that Brookes is building.

[caption id="attachment_226" align="alignleft" width="211" caption="Lucie Acraman, Janet Beer, Lorna Fround"][/caption]

I was impressed by the speech from Janet Beer, the Vice-Chancellor of Brookes and her vision for making Brookes even better than it already is. We also had a talk from Lucie Acraman, the President of the Students Union (theSU), and I was pleased to hear that its focus has moved from trading and basically being a big nightclub to much more student welfare, advocacy and support. The new building will enable that to happen much more effectively than currently and will be very close other important services that students will use. One of those services is the Brookes Careers Centre and that took us to the next speaker Lorna Froud, the Head of the Careers Service, who told us about all the good work that it does and how the unemployment rate of Brookes graduates in their first year after graduating is much lower than for other comparable post-92 Universities.

The evening was a good event and it reminded me how luck Oxford is to have not only one of the world's best "old" Universities but also one of the UK's best post-92 Universities.

Brontë by Polly Teale

[caption id="attachment_219" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Michelle, Nancy and Polly"][/caption]

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.

Special Full Council: Core Strategy

We had a short full council meeting today to vote on the finalised Core Strategy document that puts a strategic framework around development of our City for the next fifteen years.

The meeting started with a few words from the Lord Mayor about the terrible disaster unfolding in Japan. We had a minutes' silence to reflect on all the suffering and loss of life.

The core strategy was then presented by the deputy leader of the Council. Two speeches of five minutes were allowed by each of the Labour (administration), LibDem, and Green Groups. We had decided to abstain on the vote - not because we didn't approve of the core strategy as presented but because we didn't think it went far enough on things like the need to build housing and being more energy-efficient. The Green voted against and for some reason demanded a named vote whereby every councillor present has their name read out and has to declare their vote for the record.

There were lots of people in the public gallery who seemed in the most part opposed to the Northern Gateway proposals for housing.

I must say arguing over housing in Oxford, while a serious matter, did feel rather insignificant compared to the troubles some Japanese Cities will be facing for years to come after this weekend's earthquake.

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.