Lib Dem Group fully supports Christmas Market in Broad Street

Councillors received details this week of an application to hold Oxford's Christmas Market in Broad Street from 13-22 December 2013.  It has been held at Castle site in Oxford's West end for a few years but has always struggled with the lower footfall there.  Last year there was an application to hold it in Broad Street but the council rejected it.  It was extremely disappointed about that as the market is great fun and really adds to Oxford at Christmas time.   One correspondent said

"To hear that the Council had turned-down your application to relocate to Broad Street just seems absolute madness. Not only was your event something rare, that many other Cities would be proud to host, but one that was particularly festive that brought joy and cheer and attracted people to visit Oxford itself. I simply cannot comprehend the Council's decision, particularly in this time of economic hardship when such an event could only boost visitor numbers and trade to the City of Oxford."

And I do rather agree! As far as I could tell there were several objections, some of which I'll try to address:

1.  Colleges on Broad Street don't like the disturbance and traffic disruption.  I reply that the Market is out of Term Time so although prospective students are being interviewed in the proposed weeks of the market they hardly are going to bring removal vans and I suspect the market will not make any more noise than the normal traffic on Broad Street during the day.

2.  Local traders will lose business to the Christmas Market.  This is I think is just nonsense.  Looking at the Broad Street traders, they are things like bookshops, a newsagent, Boswells, Bravissimo and the tourist information centre - the Christmas Market would hardly compete with them and I think the increased footfall it would bring would actually boost their businesses.

3.  The Covered Market would suffer.  Again I think more people in the area will be a good thing for the Covered Market traders, not a detriment.

I think the area would be more vibrant in December with a Christmas Market and more profitable for everyone.

I am pleased to say that my colleagues on the LibDem Group on the City Council have agreed with this position this week so, Christmas Market, I am delighted to tell you that you have the full support of the Oxford City Council LibDem Group.  You heard it here first!

You can read more about the Oxford Christmas Market at http://www.oxfordchristmasmarket.co.uk/ and don't worry about the message on the front page - it refers to 2012, not this year!  If you want to make comments on the application you can contact info@oxfordchristmasmarket.co.uk and I ask you please to copy in events@oxford.gov.uk

One message I have sent is that if the Colleges are concerned about noise then one thing they could do it arrange electrical power supplied between then for the market.  That would avoid the need for a smelly and polluting generator and would presumably provide some income for the colleges during the period.

I would be great to see lots of messages of support so please do get emailing and tweet and facebook this blog post!

Car number plate thefts - please be vigilant and secure yours

A set of car number plates were stolen on Wednesday 27th February in Marsh Road, Oxford. That's just by my local pub, the Marsh Harrier! Stolen number plates are used in a variety of crimes often replacing plates on stolen cars, or fitted to cars which are driven recklessly followed by non-payment of parking and speeding fines, also filling up with fuel and driving off without paying. All of these crimes will in the first instance lead the police back to you and can be very distressing.

This type of theft continues to happen weekly in Oxford, so I encourage you to consider fitting anti-tamper screws to your number plates. You can seek advice from your local garage or car dealer. I've just spoken to Motorists Discount Centre (two branches in Oxford). They stock kits of four of these security screws for £3.99 and I think they are really worth fitting if you can. Too many newer cars these days just have the plates stuck on with sticky pads leaving them too easy to remove intact then and use on another vehicle to commit crime that will be traced back to you!

Please check that your number plates are intact on a regular basis, if you do discover that they are missing report to the police immediately via the non-emergency number, 101. You are in a much better position if a crime is reported by someone with a vehicle displaying your plates if you have already reported them stolen! But it's even better to have taken steps to avoid having them stolen in the first place.

Central South and West Area Forum - student volunteering and community engagement

This meeting was held in the town hall and was quite well attended given the horrible wet and cold weather.  It was good to have people from OUSU and from the Oxford Hub student volunteering centre.

The meeting was chaired by Councillor Mark Mills and we fairly quickly broke into two groups - one to discuss student volunteering and one to discuss student community engagement.  It became apparent quite quickly that there are large overlaps between the two.  We talked about how students and more permanent residents can coexist constructively in the community and I was interested to hear about the work student voulunteers have been doing with elderly folk who live in the City Centre and often don't feel able to go out.  Quite a lot of these people are in my ward, Carfax, so this was of particular interest to me.

One thing that was picked up was that students are still having problems with Houses of Multiple Occupation, particularly around landlords and letting agents being slow to do repairs.  I said I would post instructions about how to check if a property is registered as an HMO and see who is the licence holder so have done so in a separate blog post.

The meeting finished about 9pm and was a useful exchange of contacts, ideas and views and hopefully will enable more student engagement and volunteering.

 

Provision for homeless and rough sleepers in cold snap

I've had a few emails about homeless people and rough sleepers in this cold snap. The City Council does have things in place and here is some information:

Oxford City Council has a "Severe Weather Emergency Protocol and extended cold weather provision" (SWEP) which is a protocol for provision of additional bed spaces in hostels in Oxford City.

The protocol sets out a joint effort between Oxford City Council and single homelessness service providers in Oxford City to take all possible steps to avoid deaths on the streets due to people sleeping rough during severe winter weather conditions. The protocol ensures that Oxford City Council and local agencies provide appropriate responses for homeless people during cold and severe weather periods.

This is based on national guidance and follows the principles mentioned below that if temperatures are forecast to be sub-zero for 3 nights then emergency bed provision kicks in.

Currently, the city has 19 people accessing provision over this period which is forecasted to stay open for at least the rest of the week.

This is the third time this winter that the City Council has opened SWEP provision.

Any rough sleepers should - during this period only - be directed to O'Hanlon House (Tel: 304600). After this cold period, the situation will revert to normal, with any rough sleepers needing to be assessed under the No Second Night Out (NSNO) arrangements (Tel: Broadway, Oxford City Outreach Team on 304611).

If you want to do something to help then please DON'T give people money on the street but please DO consider making financial donations to OxHop, offering warm clothing to be distributed (dropped off at O'Hanlon House) and raising awareness via social media accounts.

Consultation on changes to Woodstock Road near Radcliffe Observatory Quarter

I've just received an incredibly helpful email from a highways engineer in the County Council.  It is a pre-consultation on the proposals for making Woodstock Road safer and more attractive in the area of the development that Oxford University is undertaking on the site of the old Radcliffe Infirmary.  It starts:

"The University of Oxford is currently redeveloping the former Radcliffe Infirmary Hospital site adjacent to Woodstock Road and has provided funding to Oxfordshire County Council for improvements to the highway adjacent to the site. The new development will have two pedestrian through routes linking Woodstock Road and Walton Street on the northern and southern side of the site which will increase the number of pedestrians within the area.

The existing carriageway is of variable width with mandatory cycle lanes in both directions, bus stops and pay & display parking along the north western side. The buildings adjacent to Somerville College create a natural pinch-point and narrow the carriageway to approximately 8.5m which tends to help in reducing vehicle speeds.

Further north the road then widens to over 13.5m in the vicinity of the Royal Oak Public House making it difficult for pedestrians to cross, even during periods of low traffic flow.

The northbound bus stop has a modern glass and stainless steel shelter with Real Time journey Information (RTI) located within a 2.5m wide section of footway. The southbound stop has an old brick shelter poorly located at the back of a 2.1m wide footway and adjacent to a vehicle access. This shelter has no RTI and provides no forward visibility of approaching buses so passengers are forced to leave the shelter and stand outside where they reduce the usable width of footway."

There is then a list of proposals and a useful PDF that shows them in a more graphical form if, like me, you respond better to pictures than words!  Here are the proposals:

Widening the footways where possible to improve pedestrian movements within the area.

• Narrow the carriageway running lanes to 3.0m, this will help in encouraging lower vehicle speeds and reduce the crossing distance for pedestrians. To reduce the speed of approaching traffic this principle will be extended north to Observatory Street by applying a road surface treatment along the centreline.


• Maintain the existing 1.5m mandatory cycle lanes in both directions but replace the standard carriageway marking with a double row of cleft (rough) engineered granite setts 20mm high with tapered edges to discourage motorists from inadvertently entering the cycle lane.


• Use low height kerbs (50mm) within the general area to assist pedestrians when crossing especially for people with mobility problems with the exception of the bus stops which will have 120mm high kerbs to facilitate boarding and alighting.


• Relocate the southbound bus stop slightly further north to a wider area of footway and provide a new style shelter with improved visibility of approaching buses, capable of being fitted with RTI.


• Provide a flush central feature to act as a pedestrian refuge, similar to that used on Oxford High Street. This will allow pedestrians to cross an individual lane of traffic approaching from one direction at a time then wait in the central area before completing the crossing movement.


• Provide courtesy style crossings at the northern and southern limits to coincide with the link routes to Walton Street. This style of crossing has already been successfully used within Oxford Railway Station, Corn Street in Witney and Thame High Street. These flat topped humps will highlight pedestrian priority and will also be inlayed with engineered granite setts to give the appearance of a zebra crossing but without the need to provide unsightly zig-zag markings and flashing belisha beacons.


• The inclusion of enhanced crossing points will result in the loss of some on-street parking; all but four spaces will be re-located to the northern end of the scheme.


• The scheme will be sympathetic to the historical context of the adjacent buildings with improved paving, granite chippings in the road surface and reduced street clutter.

I'm very interested to hear people's view on this so please do let me know what you think.  Once the consultation is officially open I'll add the official consultation response details.  I should also remind you that under the Local Government (Access to Information) Act 1985 the Council is obliged to make any representations received in formal response open to public inspection.  Please do go ahead and comment on this post - those comments will be public anyway but do not form part of the official consultation responses.

Labour spreading misinformation about benefits reform

I was horrified to read the column from the Labour Leader of the City Council in my copy of "Your Oxford" (the City Council's twice-yearly public information newspaper) as it makes some very basic errors about benefit reform and was nowhere near being balanced or even handed.

The two claims were that child benefit is going to be rolled into Universal Credit and that all claims for benefits will have to be made online under the new system. Both claims are just plain wrong and therefore in direct breach of the Code of Practice about such communications from the Department for Communities and Local Government. Paragraph 15 of that says:

"Local authorities should ensure that publicity relating to policies and proposals from
central government is balanced and factually accurate. Such publicity may set out the
local authority’s views and reasons for holding those views, but should avoid anything
likely to be perceived by readers as constituting a political statement, or being a
commentary on contentious areas of public policy."

I am pleased to say that the Council very quickly saw the error of its ways when I raised this matter and immediately stopped distributing the "Your Oxford" newspaper. It's an outrage that over 27,000 had already been delivered and that 60,000 had been printed.  This is going to be an awful lot of reprinting and I dread to think what it will cost the council.

I think it's terrible that Labour continually tries to use "Your Oxford" as a party political leaflet when it should confine itself to public information given in a balanced and informative way.  Scaremongering at public expense by distributing misinformation is just outrageous.  I will continue to pursue the council to find out how much the monumental cock-up will cost the public purse!

Since the date this happened there have been a few news stories about it - The Oxford Mail, and The Oxford Times ran it and I got to appear on BBC South Today about it as well as doing piece on BBC Radio Oxford's drive time.  My colleague Cllr Jean Fooks also had a letter in the Oxford Times about the issue.

Disgusting treatment of the Covered Market and Labour's contemptuous remarks

The Covered Market is one of the nicest things in Carfax Ward, the part of the Oxford I represent. I blogged last year about the terrible neglect of the place by the City Council and I'm getting increasingly worried that the appalling treatment it is getting by the Labour administration is going to kill it off once and for all.  I use the Market Barber in the covered market and works to that unit seem to have been going on for ages too.  I hear of stories of bodged roof repairs meaning units get flooded when it rains and there is a leak into the cellar and someone's storage space that the City Council should have addressed months ago.

There's an article about this in the Oxford Mail today about this and I have to say I am disgusted by the remarks Labour's Colin Cook makes about some of the long serving and hard working traders.  He says,

“This situation is not just down to high rents. It’s partly as a result of the age of some traders, who are looking to retire and cash in their chips.

“When rents are assessed for market traders we look at close comparators on the high street.”

I don't know about you but I think that is pretty outrageous, not to mention ageist and totally lacking in gratitude for the wonderful service to our City and tourist attraction the Market represents.  I do rather agree with the Oxford Mail editorial comment about this.  "while the council has a duty to maximise its income from its asset, it has to be big enough to realise that and make the necessary adjustments to make this an attractive business opportunity."

My colleague Cllr Jim Campbell put the rent issue rather well in a letter to the Oxford Mail earlier this year.  He says "Although the rate of inflation over the past five years is less than 18 per cent, they have proposed rent increases of between 40 and 60 per cent."

I think it is an utter disgrace that Oxford Labour claims to be the champion of fighting bad landlords and at the same time has so badly neglected the Covered Market and is pushing such clearly ridiculous and unsustainable rent rises.

Labour:  You are killing the HMO sector already with onerous costs on landlords - please don't now kill the Covered Market by pricing the tenants out of the retail units.

A note on the system of political parties

I've been asked to comment about why I think the party system is a good thing for the electorate. This is an extract from a sermon I preached at Mansfield College back in 2002 entitled "Politics and Faith – Complementary or Mutually exclusive".  The URC is the United Reformed Church - the denomination in which I am a member, elder and lay preacher.

"I should explain a little about political parties and how they fit into government both local and national.  The dictionary definition of the word political is "affecting the state or government, engaged in civil administration, having an organised form of society or government".  The political parties exist as groups of people who have similar political views.  People form these groups so that they might work together to govern in the way that best fits their collective view.  Just as in the URC nobody is expected to agree 100% with everything their party stands for however most will agree with a large proportion of their own party's policy.  Sometimes a particular issue will cause great problems in a party and this can be the most interesting but most testing time of one’s own integrity.  Compare the issue of Europe and the single currency for some political parties to the issue of human sexuality for the URC.  The similarities are striking.  What makes politics so interesting (and frustrating sometimes) to me is trying to work out how closely (or not!) our principles match those of fellow party members and how we might come to a compromise agreeable to all.  Indeed the sort of meeting as a councillor that I find the most difficult but yet the most interesting are the regular meetings of my own political party's group – for my sins I am its chair this year.

You could say that in an ideal world, all councillors would be independent of political parties and that they would all truly represent those that elected them.  I have nothing at all against independent politicians, indeed being independent and having one's own mind is crucial to being a good politician.  The problem is that if you had 48 people in the council chamber with 48 different views and agenda you'd never decide anything and never get anything done.  It is also difficult, if not impossible, to get elected without the support of a larger body such as a political party in campaigning and in being effective as a councillor.  Most parties will provide support not only in getting elected in the first place but also in how to be an effective councillor, and how to balance working life with being a councillor and perhaps having family responsibilities.  The political parties help to ensure that government is effective but still accountable to the electorate and also help the electorate to know a little about what values and principles a candidate has.  With the best will in the world, no candidate can possibly know all 4000 or so electors in a ward!"

Thames Valley Police: "Have your say" meetings

I've just received notification of some further "Have your say" meetings that our local police are organising. I can recommend you attend one of these if you have a few minutes. They are at:

Date: Saturday, 27 October 2012
Time: 12:00 - 15:00
Venue: Ice rink, Oxpens Road

Date: Saturday, 17 November 2012
Time: 12:00 - 15:00
Venue: Ice rink, Oxpens Road

Date: Saturday, 08 December 2012
Time: 12:00 - 15:00
Venue: Ice rink, Oxpens Road

Oxford University Liberal Democrats resurgent!

( a guest post by Layla Morgan)

Last week marked the end of the Freshers Fair at Oxford University. Held in the Examination School on the High Street, this three day event marked a resurgence for the OULD as hundreds of students signed up to receive emails and join the oldest political society in Oxford.

The brightly coloured stall, adorned with a brand new banner attracted a steady stream of students asking for more information or to ask about their latest campaigns. Beers mats with 'I Love Me' were given away to promote the Body Confidence Campaign started by Jo Swinson MP, now a minister for Equality. The Bears for Belarus campaign which fights for greater Democracy in Belarus also received a lot of attention. OULD are also firmly behind the OU for Obama campaign and will be supporting Obama's re-election into November. With strong links already between the Liberal Democrats and the Democrats in the USA, this is a natural extension to a flourishing partnership between the parties.

This is the first year that Lib Dem HQ has employed a full time Liberal Youth officer, Katherine Pugh (katherine.Pugh@libdems.org.uk) who was able to send out subsidised freshers packs across the country. She was been working hard to connect the Liberal Youth wing of the party (see www.liberalyouth.org for more info) to local parties and central campaigns to enhance our campaigning capabilities for the 2013 local elections.

Co-Chair of OULD Rio Jones commented,  "I am really pleased to see so many people sign up this year. It is the best it has been since entering coalition. We plan to add an extra dimension to the club this year by doing more campaigning and offering training for our members. It is going to be a great year"

If you would like more information about the OULD, contact Rio or his counterpart Mairi Robertson. You can visit their facebook page or email them at co-chairs@oxfordlibdems.org.uk.

Stop Press: Mill Street planning appeal dismissed!

I am delighted to report that I received an email today letting me know that the appeal against the refusal of the 3-storey accommodation block very close to Mill Street and Abbey Walk has been dismissed.  That means there is no planning permission in place so the scheme can't currently be built.

This is great news for me, having represented the council and the residents at the appeal, and great news for residents who objected.

A weekend test-drive of an i-MiEV electric car

I was asked by a friend, Barrie, to test drive a Mitsubishi i-MiEV for the weekend sometime and I had a few trips to make this weekend I agreed to give it a go. It came from Humphris on Rose Hill where he works - apparently they wanted the view of a councillor!  I picked the car up on Saturday morning and was quite pleasantly surprised at how similar to any other small automatic it was in driving style and appearance. You even have a key to put in the "ignition" to turn it on and "start" the electric motor.

Once home I had a good look around the car inside and out. As it has no internal combustion engine it has electric power steering and there is a dedicated electric vacuum pump to provide the brake servo assistance. The brakes feel very normal, just like on any car of that size. Under the bonnet there is a 12v battery just like in a petrol or diesel car - it's used for lights, wipers internal fans, indicators and so on. It also controls the electrics that manage the main traction motor and the big traction battery. The traction battery is huge and sits at the rear of the car under the back seat. It produces around 300v DC which is converted to 3-phase AC current to drive the traction motor. For those interested it produces about 66PS which is about the same a 1.1 litre small petrol car. The torque curve is very different though, with the electric motor having good torque right from a standstill, unlike a petrol engine which won't do much at all below 1000rpm. The flexibility of the electric motor means that the car only has one gear as the motor can cope right through the speed range and reverse is just achieved by running the motor backwards. There is no clutch either as a motor doesn't need it.  There is no spare wheel but instead a tyre repair kit and a small compressor for re-inflation.  A tiny gripe with the interior is that there is no clock so you can't see what time it is very easily.

The first journey was a little drive up to the ring road then back down Brasenose Driftway and Crescent Road to see how it coped with the downhill run. As well as "Drive" mode the car also has "Braking" and "Comfort" modes - they are really just variations on a theme. Regenerative braking is used in all modes, an average amount in D, more in B and less in C. The car slows down quite rapidly to about 10mph in B mode with your foot off the accelerator, giving the battery a little charge while it's doing it.

I got braver then and went with some friends up to Watlington Hill for a walk. We took the A40 and the M40 up to the Lewknor turn and while the car felt perfectly safe and stable at 70mph on the M40 (top speed is rated at around 80mph) it was eating the charge in the battery at an alarming rate so we slowed to 60mph. The car is definitely happier at City Speeds.  Up to about 50mph it is pretty efficient. There is a power gauge on the dashboard and the trick is to keep the needle in the "eco" area as the economy is far better then.

Later on Saturday we did the supermarket run in the i-MiEV. Again fine but the boot is rather little - we filled it with what I'd call a smaller than average weekly shop.

On Sunday I drove into Oxford and then out to Cumnor to lead worship at the United Reformed Church there. The car ran beautifully.  For lunch I took Gordon to the Bat and Ball at Cuddesdon then in the early evening I visited Wolvercote to babysit my nephew Oliver for a few hours.  I was glad of the small size of the i-MiEV in Wolvercote as my sister and her family live on a small side road with extremely tight parking!



Charging the car is achieved with a mains cable that is 5 metres long so quite easy to use if you have a driveway.  It takes 7 hours in total to charge the car from flat and does so at a rate of 3kW so uses about 21kWh of electricity to do it.  At today's prices that costs about £2.50 - £3.  A full charge claims to do 90 miles and I reckon I'll get pretty close to that if I stay off motorways.  In comparison, an efficient similarly-sized petrol car would probably use about 9 litres of petrol to do that, costing £12.60 at today's £1.40/litre fuel price.  That's quite a significant difference!  For someone with a daily commute up to about 20 or 30 miles away it would save a fortune in petrol or diesel costs!  You can also get a fast charge cable to use in dedicated charging points - this charges at 50kW and takes about half an hour to get the battery to 80%.

All in all I am impressed with the i-MiEV.  I could easily cope with it as my main car as almost all journeys I make are shorter than 20 miles and it's rare to need to go over 50mph in and around Oxford.  For the odd weekend away and the summer camping trip it would not be outrageous to hire a car as that can be done pretty cheaply and conveniently these days.  As electric plug-in cars get cheaper and their range gets longer it may well become a serious proposition for the masses in a few years' time. It makes particular sense if, like us, you have a Solar PV installation so you can charge the vehicle with electricity you've generated yourself.  At the moment the prices are too high and battery life (i.e. number of charges) is still uncertain but I'm sure this will all change in time.

I must say I was surprised at how drivable and comfortable the i-MiEV is.  It feels very much like a small auto with continuously variable transmission and I got used to it very quickly.  It will never win any speed trials but around town it's perfect - it has good acceleration from a standstill and has the great advantage over a petrol or diesel car that when it is stationary, even just in traffic, it is using no energy at all.  It emits zero Carbon Dioxide (although of course the electricity has to be generated somewhere and that might produce CO2) and is virtually silent in running. Its small size, with very little outside the visible area at the front or back makes it an absolute breeze to park.

I shall be sorry to return it on Monday morning!

Annual mayor-making

Alan Armitage became the 52nd Lord Mayor of Oxford today.  It was the the normal line-up of speeches and appointments.  I had to leave a bit early to get to a meeting at the school where I am a governor.

Cllr Abbasi was appointed deputy Lord Mayor and Cllr Sinclair the Sheriff of Oxford.

A full slate!

I am delighted to be able to report that Oxford Lib Dems have once again nominated a full slate of candidates for all 24 wards of our City for the upcoming local elections in May.

There are some really excellent candidates there - new enthusiastic people who are a real credit to their communities, current serving councillors and several who are hoping to return to serving as City Councillors after a break.

I hope you'll enjoy reading about them - you can find them all at:

http://youroxford.org or
http://oxfordlibdems.org.uk/elections-2012

Amazing work from City Works again!

Some of you will be aware that I worship at St. Columba's United Reformed Church on Sundays. This morning, those that arrived a bit early (around 10am) found most of the recycling bins (that I think belong to All Bar One) emptied all over Alfred Street so there was masses of rubbish and broken glass everywhere. Too much certainly to drive over. This was a big problem as we were due a visit from the Churches together in Central Oxford ecumenical donkey at 10.45am.  What you see in the picture is almost the end of the clean-up.  It was FAR worse than that.

One of our elders phones City Works and I was hugely impressed at how quickly they got there and what a great job they did of clearing up.  These guys really are  a credit to our City.  Thank you!

I do wonder why it is places like All Bar One are allowed to leave so many recycling containers all over the street on Saturday night into Sunday though.  They are incredibly ugly and I don't think commercial collections happen on Sundays anyway.

Three licensing hearings

There were three hearings today: A variation for Thirst Lodge on Park End Street, a new license for The Oxford Kebab House on Manzil Way and a license review for the Hi-Lo Jamaican Eating House on Cowley Road.

I couldn't hear the first as the Council has a policy that ward councillors cannot decide licensing applications in their own wards. I am not alone in thinking this is silly as we are perfectly allowed to make planning decisions (which are much more final if they are approvals) and we have good training and strict rules about declaring conflicts of interest in any case.

The first hearing was basically an application for an extra half hour of opening at Thirst Lodge. Everyone acknowledged that this is a well-run venue but Thames Valley Police were objecting on the basis of the City Centre Special Saturation Policy (SSP). I have to say I think the Police were right to object. The decision was to grant the variation and personally I think that was the wrong decision as it undermines the validity of the  SSP. While Thirst is very well run so probably won't be a problem with an extra half hour, I'd not like to commit to that position for all venues in the City Centre SSP area.

The second hearing was the license review for the Hi-Lo Jamaican eating house.  This was quite difficult as there was clearly some misunderstanding on the part of the license holder about what was permitted and what was not, as well as when it was permitted.  Part of the problem is that this was a license "grandfathered" from the pre-2003 Act licensing arrangements so some of the terminology in it was obsolete.  We had a good discussion with the licensee and with City Council Environmental Protection (EP) and eventually decided that a short suspension of the ability to play licensable live or recorded music was in order.  We were told that lots of measures had been put in place to mitigate the problems that had been the basis of lots of complaints (with lots of evidence from Environmental Protection Officers) but as the problems had been severe and ongoing we felt it necessary for another visit from EP to happen so this could be officially checked.  If all was in order we were happy then for the licensing team to re-instate the licensable music on the premises license.  We also clarified that after the terminal hour for licensable music then background (non-licensable) music should be just that - barely audible in the premises itself, let alone in adjoining premises or outside.  I hope that things will be resolved soon and that the license can be re-instated once EP is happy that the premises can operate without damaging the rights of it neighbours to quiet enjoyment of their own premises.  It should be noted that we did nothing to the hours during which the venue is allowed to serve food or alcohol as neither of these had been the cause of any complaints.

The final hearing was by the Oxford Kebab House which is on Manzil Way in the medical centre.  The application was for live and recorded music and again, I think there was some confusion about what type and level of music actually required a license.  The applicant explained that the lice music would be acoustic, Persian music played in the upstairs restaurant area up to only around 11pm.  There were concerns from some residents about noise in and around the venue but we felt that these could be managed as the premises operator is experienced in such things and has a good record.  We encouraged all neighbours to keep in touch and reminded all that the license could be reviewed if it transpired there were problems at an unacceptable level.

As always, please note that this post does not form an official record of proceedings and should not be treated as such. The decision notice from the City Council is always the definitive document.

An unexpected dinner at Exeter College and a great presentation by the Chief Constable

I was invited at short notice to dinner at Exeter College today by a friend.  I had the great pleasure of sitting next to the Rector, Dr Frances Cairncross and we had a good discussion about Labour's housing policies in the City including the apparent contradiction of making development difficult by insisting on huge financial contributions to other housing and the push to get more and more students out of family housing so it can be released to the rest of the market.

The dinner was extremely enjoyable and it was good to talk a bit about local politics (at their instigation) with some academic members of Exeter's staff.  One College member was celebrating her fifth birthday as she had been born on February 29th, 20 years ago.  Actually I'd say it was her fourth as there was no leap year in 2000!

After the meal we were treated to an excellent presentation by the Thames Valley Police Chief Constable, Sara Thornton CBE QPM.  Sara had been the guest of The Rector of the College and was giving a talk to some students studying criminology.  The title of the talk was "Does it Matter if there are Fewer Police Officers in the Future?".  I was hugely impressed at Sara's strong sense of justice both for victim as well as the accused.  I thought her insights into what makes good Policing and how communities work were really fascinating and resonated very much with my thinking about Policing being about helping people to get it right as well as just catching and criminalising them when they get it wrong.  Sara also had great insight into targeting Policing where it will have the best effect.

Oxford University Living Wage event

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

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

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

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

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

Neighbourhood Forum: Student housing and the Vision for the City Centre

This was a rather informal meeting but useful nonetheless.  It was good to see quite a few students present as well as someone from Oxford University's Accommodation office, a member of staff from Christ Church and Gordon Reid from City Centre management.

We had a good discussion about student hopes for the City Centre and the Wayfinding project that has been going on.  The signs have been tendered for and there is now a project to provide QR codes for them to give people more contextual information.  I reminded people that the excellent Mobile Oxford service from Oxford University also provides a lot of this information and that the Wayfinding project really ought to work in partnership with it.  QR codes are fine but there is so much more that mobile Oxford can do!

We then moved onto the issue of student housing.  We had a presentation about the HMO licensing scheme which was interesting and while there are many good things about it I do have concerns that it will have a drastic effect on an already short supply of essential housing for students and many other people in Oxford.  For example we heard how the council is using web sites that advertise house shares to track down and penalise landlords.  Wouldn't it be so much better to use council resources putting adverts on those websites to educate tenants and prospective tenants about the need to check for a license.  Wouldn't it be so much more positive to spend effort helping tenants get appropriate housing than assuming landlords are somehow bad and evil?

I've posted a lot about this so won't go on about it here but I do hope that the Council will sometime soon accept that Landlords are generally good people who are genuinely trying to do the right thing, and thus focus on education and support rather than pursuit and penalisation.

Licensing and Gambling Acts Committee

We met today as part of the regular meeting cycle.  We had a useful and impressive update on licensing activities from Julian Alison, our licensing manager and it was good to have a presentation from Inspector Katy Barrow-Grint of Thames Valley Police.  Katy is the new City Centre and North Oxford inspector and I was impressed at her commitment to partnership working with the City Council as the licensing authority.  I had raised an issue with her by email this morning and she had researched it thoroughly and had an excellent answer ready for the meeting.  I was grateful for that.

Another items on the agenda was the relaxation of licensing hours for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee in July this year. It means that on Fri 1st Jun and Sat 2nd Jun premises that are already licensed will be able to carry on those licensable activities until 1am the next morning if they currently have an earlier termination of licensable activities.

We also looked at some proposals to address some of the problems of late-night drinking.  The Government is currently consulting on a Late Night Levy (on clubs etc. to fund more policing) and Early Morning Restriction Orders (EMROs) that local authorities can use to to restrict the sale of alcohol in the whole or a part of their areas between 3am and 6am on all or some days, to address specific problems caused by the late night supply of alcohol in their areas.

The meeting took about an hour.