A walk around Carfax Ward

I spent a couple of hours this morning walking around Carfax Ward with officers from Street Scene, Housing, and Highways.  The map to the right shows the rough route we took.  You can click it to see a bigger verion.

We encountered quite a few issues and I will certainly be following them up in the coming days and weeks.  To list a few:

 



 

Lots of graffiti in the Southern part of the ward, near Rose Place.  I will get this reported and hopefully removed if building owners can be found so they can give permission

 

 

Neglected communal garden at Albert House - I've written to residents about this and housing officers have said they will see if they can get community payback to do some work there.  As the landlord, the City Council should have been maintaining it.

 

 

 

 



Lots of Cigarette Butts on the pavement outside the Castle Pub.  This was dealt with very quickly but I will ask the owners/managers if they can fit some ashtrays to the railings outside the pub.

 

 

 

Flytipping on Woodin's Way near the old Lion Brewery.  I'll get this reported so it is quickly removed.

 

 

 

 

Unsightly gatherings of commercial waste bins around Gloucester Green.  Officers said they would look at installing some fencing to contain these bins so they don't look quite as awful.

 

 

 

Graffiti on the railings around Wellington Square - I'll get this reported so it can be removed and see if some money can be found to repaint the railings as they are looking rather tatty.

 

 

 

Very dangerous road surface on Banbury Road by St Gile's church.  This is just outside the ward boundary but I wanted to mention it because I work so close to there and see it causing cyclists to wobble into the path of (often quite fast) traffic coming north from St. Giles. I'm disappointed with this one that I have previously been told by highways officers that it requires no work.  There seemed no harm in asking again.

 

 

The morning's walkabout was useful as a ward walk and I am grateful to officers for the time they gave to do this.  I hope all the issues I will follow up on are dealt with effectively and I will certainly be keeping an eye out!

 

Rip-off parking charges at the ice rink

I received an email today from someone who lives away from Oxford and normally takes her daughter to Milton Keynes ice rink for regular skating practice.  That rink is currently closed for refurbishment so she brings her to Oxford.  Her email was about the fact that the City Council appears to have changed the parking arrangements such that there is no longer a free hour concession for those who pay the overnight midnight to 8am charge so charges don't stack up and make things unfair on early, regular and dedicated skaters and/or their parents.  It appears the concession was dropped silently and when challenged (point 3 on the sign below clearly says it was there) the sign was also removed silently.  This means that although the normal parking charge during the day is £4.10 for two hours, if someone parks between 7.30am and 8.30am, for example, they have to pay a £2.50 night charge for the first half hour of that slot and then another £2.50 charge for the second half hour as it is in daytime.  This is £5 for one hour as against £4.10 for two hours if they had arrived after 8am.

This hardly seems fair and hardly seems a sensible way for the City Council to be attracting more use of its sports facilities.  I have asked the service manager to look into this but have not had an answer after nearly a week so I am also asking the portfolio holder for City Leisure a question at full council next week.  Watch this space!

Traffic problems from 7th-21st April in Frideswide Square area

I've received notification that there are to be major works on Hollybush Row from 7th April that will probably cause traffic chaos for a couple of weeks.  Thank goodness it's the school holidays!

The issue is that there is a collapsed sewer with a fat-berg in it so the whole road is going to have to be excavated to sort it out.  Please let me know if there are any specific problems that I can help with.  You can click the picture above for a larger version.

50th anniversary of the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre League of Friends

I attended this event today to thank all the League of Friends volunteers, on behalf of the City, for all their work.  Sir Jonathan Michael, the Chief Executive of the OUH/NHS Trust also gave a speech and who will be unveiled a commemorative plaque for this event.

LOF at the NOC started with  a small tea bar and has grown magnificently to the present shop with its excellent range and a trolley service to wards with newspapers and confectionery etc.  I know it is a great comfort to patients and plays a very real role in their positive experience here and their recovery.  Some patients have no other visitors so a friendly LOF visit can have really positive effects on clinical outcomes.  The total of the excellent work this League of Friends has done since 1964 is incredible.  In 50 years its volunteers have:

• Gifted £1,126,200 to the hospital


• Buttered and filled 3 million rolls


• Served over 5 million drinks


• Given 500,000 man-hours of time (worth over £3,000,000 at minimum wage!)

These are great achievements and a real credit to the generosity and kindness of LOF volunteers at the hospital.

Dignity action day with the National Pensioners Conference

I attended this event today as Deputy Lord Mayor and was very pleased to open it with a few words of support and thanks.  It was a joint event of the Oxfordshire Unison Retired Members branch, the National Pensioners Conference and the Oxfordshire Pensioners Action Group.

The most inspirational speaker was Rodney Bickerstaffe (pictured), a former president of the National Pensioners Convention, and I really enjoyed his message and the passion with which he delivered it.

We all know that we are an ageing nation – thanks to improved lifestyles and improved health care people are living longer. Many people who are past working age give a huge amount to our City and beyond in the stunning amount of voluntary work they do and I am hugely grateful for that.



I firmly believe that those of us of working age or younger have a duty to ensure proper dignity for older people all around us. Dignity throughout life is so important to health and well-being and it gets no less important later in life. Any type of age-based discrimination is utterly unacceptable in our society and I think the Dignity Code encompasses that extremely well.  The Dignity Code is an excellent guide for everyone in any interactions they have with older people and I hope will be extremely useful – I will certainly be using it in my future thinking and planning as a councillor.

As I think it's so useful, here's the Dignity Code in full:

The purpose of this Dignity Code is to uphold the rights and maintain the personal dignity of older people, within the context of ensuring the health, safety and well being of those who are increasingly less able to care for themselves or to properly conduct their affairs.

This Code recognises that certain practices and actions are unacceptable to older people, such as:

• Being abusive or disrespectful in any way, ignoring people or assuming they cannot do things for themselves
• Treating older people as objects or speaking about them in their presence as if they were not there
• Not respecting the need for privacy
• Not informing older people of what is happening in a way that they can understand
• Changing the older person’s environment without their permission
• Intervening or performing care without consent
• Using unnecessary medication or restraints
• Failing to take care of an older person’s personal appearance
• Not allowing older people to speak for themselves, either directly or through the use of a friend, relative or advocate
• Refusing treatment on the grounds of age

This Code therefore calls for:

• Respect for individuals to make up their own minds, and for their personal wishes as expressed in ‘living wills’, for implementation when they can no longer express themselves clearly
• Respect for an individual’s habits, values, particular cultural background and any needs, linguistic or otherwise
• The use of formal spoken terms of address, unless invited to do otherwise
• Comfort, consideration, inclusion, participation, stimulation and a sense of purpose in all aspects of care
• Care to be adapted to the needs of the individual
• Support for the individual to maintain their hygiene and personal appearance
• Respect for people’s homes, living space and privacy
• Concerns to be dealt with thoroughly and the right to complain without fear of retribution
• The provision of advocacy services where appropriate

 

Launch of the Old Museum at the Town Hall

I attended this opening as I wanted to see the new space this project has made and to hear about the project.  I was impressed at how much material the museum has and see it as a really useful orientation point for newcomers to Oxford City and to tourists alike.

The launch celebrated the development of The Old Museum – a unique heritage space dedicated to high quality cultural events and fundraising within the Museum of Oxford. This space will play a key role in the long term capital development project to expand the Museum of Oxford and its community engagement programmes. The City Council has plans for The Old Museum space and at the launch visitors were enjoying live performances from Dancin’ Oxford and Oxford Contemporary Music.

I think the space, pictured, will be a very useful and welcome addition to the City Centre's meeting spaces available for use.

Imminent risk of flooding of properties in West Oxford: Bulstake Close, Earl Street, Duke Street, Osney Court

During the night and today water levels have continued to rise. The Environment Agency advises that they are likely to continue to rise for the next 24hours.  At Bulstake Close during the night water started to significantly pass under and around the barrier and in the early hours Oxford City Council staff had to move to the next stage and in a controlled manner allowed water to cross the Botley Road but guided away from the houses in Bulstake Close and Duke and Earl street.

The situation is now becoming serious and staff are not sure that they can cope with the volume of water and continue to protect the properties. Accordingly a joint operation with the Environment Agency, The County Council, The Fire and Rescue Service and Thames Valley Police commenced at 4pm advising householders of the risk of flooding, sensible precautions, evacuation and rest centre arrangements.  This is the advisory note which you should read if you live in that area.

Things to do are:

1. Move any valuable belongings off the ground floor and consider what you will do with your car if it is not in use – please bear in mind that emergency services may need access

2. Make arrangements to vacate your home for at least a few days (can you stay with family / friends?)

3. Check with any insurer, whether the cost of temporary accommodation will be covered - if not, then there is a reception centre, Blackbird Leys Leisure Centre, where the council will assess your requirements and assist you in finding accommodation – transport will be provided for those who need it

4. If you can - block airbricks, protect doorways, put down toilet bungs for ground floor lavatories

5. Switch off your electricity/gas

6. Keep yourself up-to-date with the latest information on the radio, website, facebook / twitter etc.

Agencies are continuing to monitor the situation in the other areas of the city which are vulnerable which is serious but not critical. There is a 24/7 operation from the Emergency Control Centre in St Aldate’s Chambers.

Please also keep an eye on these websites:

http://oxford.gov.uk/PageRender/decN/newsarticle.htm?newsarticle_itemid=51158

http://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/cms/news/2013/dec/updates-flooding-situation-oxfordshire

The Oxford Mail has a useful blog with updates too.

Emergency phone numbers are:

Police, Ambulance, Fire 999 (emergencies only)
Thames Valley Police 101 (non-emergency)
Oxford City Council out-of-hours 01865 249811
Thames Water 08459 200 800
Southern Electric 08457 444 555
National Grid (if you smell gas, call from a telephone outside your home) 0800 111 999
Oxford Fire & Rescue (non-emergency) 01865 842999

Carols with the Mayor of Abingdon

I had a great time this evening singing carols with the community in Abingdon.  It was a carol service with a difference in that it was held in the Aroma Coffee shop in the centre of town.  We were treated to some music by the Abingdon Society of Bell Ringers before the service started.  I joined Sam Bowring, the Mayor of Abingdon, and some

of the members of Abingdon Baptist church for a good sing and some traditional readings.  The coffee and cakes were pretty good too!



 

Opening Oxford's Christmas Market

I was  pleased to be able to open the Oxford Christmas Market today at its new location on Broad Street after a long campaign to get it allowed to be there.  It consists of about 40 stalls with all sorts of exciting food and Christmas gifts.  From what I can see it all looks to be really high quality and as far as I can see there is no amplified speech or music so it should happily co-exist with local colleges, businesses and residents.

Christmas Markets are a wonderful tradition and while this one is not new to Oxford, it is new to Broad Street and I wish it a really successful and joyous time here.  It’s great to have it so near to the Covered Market, another jewel in Oxford’s crown, and I sincerely hope both markets will be of mutual benefit to each other at this time of Christmas shopping both for presents and provisions.

I'm very grateful to everyone who has been involved in making this event happen – all the council officers, the Broad Street Stakeholder Group who have been so helpful and constructive in the planning of this event and particularly to Nicole Rahimi, the person whose inspiration and vision has made all this possible. I also want to thank surrounding colleges, residents and businesses for being so tolerant of this event right on their doorsteps. I do hope it will be a success from now until 22 December and that everyone will be able to go about their day to day business without being disturbed – this particularly applies to all the sixth formers up in Oxford for University interviews at this time!

I’m grateful also to all the traders who have taken up stalls in this market and to those who have helped build such a lovely set up. I do hope many people from Oxford and surrounding area will come along and enjoy the magical atmosphere. Local choirs and bands will perform Christmas carols throughout the coming 10 days, adding to the festive feel!

It was really good to have my parents up at the event too.  Here we are eating churros and chocolate!  Photos are courtesy of Dad.

Opening of Oxonia International University Network

This afternoon's engagement was to welcome guests to the launch and name unveiling of a new International University Network.  I felt honoured to be among so many distinguished guests and delegates from Higher Education Institutions from over 10 countries, including Oxford and the UK.  I was impressed to see so many vice-chancellors, masters, provosts, presidents and rectors from across the globe at the launch as  it’s a good sign of international support for and gravitas of the network.

The event launched a brand new university network that will enable members to collaborate and share resources as well as have a UK platform that will help them increase the profile of their institutions internationally. This should be of great benefit not only to those institutions but to the communities and countries that they serve.  I am told that the network was founded as a result of international delegates attending an Oxford Academy for Education and Development (OAED) Leadership in Higher Education Programme in May and their wish to forge stronger links with each other, internationally, both with new organisations and also with OAED as the provider of services to the HE sector overseas. That’s a pretty impressive timescale and it’s great to see the start of something new and exciting like this. I hope that many more institutions will see the benefit of joining the network to partner with like-minded organisations for the development of higher education.  I'm pictured with Dr Clark Brundin (centre), the inaugural honorary Chancellor of the Network and with Dr Moghaddam, the Chair of OAED.

I was delighted the next day to to be forwarded a lovely email from the PR manager to the Lord Mayor's PA saying "Please pass on our sincere thanks to Deputy Lord Mayor, Councillor Tony Brett for officially opening the Oxonia University Network yesterday. The delegates and guests were very pleased to meet him and we were very re grateful for his kind words. The event was a great success and we have received applications to join the network already. OAED would very much like to thank Tony and your team for your support for our event and we would like to wish you all a very happy Christmas and a prosperous new year."

That sort of thing make such a difference!

Hidden Spire: How lucky are you?

I have the great privelege of attending the first night of the show at Crisis Skylight Oxford in partnership with Arts at the OFS tonight and I must say I really enjoyed it.  It was a moving performance with about half the cast being fmo Oxford's homeless community.  There were some really thought provoking moments, some good acting and some good music.  Highly recommended.  Rather than take it from me, I take the liberty of adding an extract from a much better review by Helen Ward of Daily Information.

"Despite a running time of just over an hour, How Lucky Are You? is a surprisingly thought-provoking and ultimately positive exploration of the theme of change and upheaval. Drawing strongly on their own experiences, the homeless members of the company have spent last four months working with a professional creative team to create a unique piece of theatre – an experience director Liz McBain described as “inspiring”.  Another member of the company told Daily Info, that the piece reflects the way in which homeless people often come together to form intensely caring and supportive families."

Intercultural Mass

I attended inter-cultural Mass today as a sign of how much Oxford as a City values its cultural diversity.  It was good to be welcomed by the Catholic Caribbean Association and I was impressed to see that these inter-cultural masses have been held in Blackbird Leys for over 20 years.

Faith plays a very important part in any society so I was very happy to see everyone together  to share their faith journeys, faith experiences and to celebrate mass. Our City is one of many faiths and one of the things I have really enjoyed so far in my year of being Deputy Lord Mayor is the diversity of events and the fine traditions of all the faiths in our City.

I am grateful to to Olive Smith and members of the Catholic Caribbean Community for all their hard work over the years in making these important events happen.

It’s a real joy that through shared faith we can bring our many different cultures together in events like this - it was a wonderful celebration to the glory of God and to our continued faith journeys together across our different cultures and in peace and harmony and with respect for each other.

Needless to say, as with many faith-based events, there was wonderful food afterwards and a chance for lots more good fellowship and good conversations about all the good works done by the Catholic Community of Blackbird Leys and beyond.

Carols at Crisis

I went to a good event this evening at Oxford's Crisis Skylight Centre.  I was pleased to be invited as this centre is in my ward and it has has support from my ward money allocation for the last two years.  We were treated to some nice mince pies and mulled punch and eleven separate carols, all well-known and all well-sung by the choir of Wesley Memorial Church, just round the corner.



We in the audience also sang, slightly less well!  The evening was rounded off by a prayer and blessing frrom Rev Martin Wellings, minister of Wesley Memorial Church.

On the way home along Cornmarket it struck me that Oxford City Council has done a good job on the Christmas lights this year - they look very good!

100 years of buses in Oxford

This morning I had the privilege of riding on a very old bus on a journey to commemorate 100 years of bus services in Oxford.  We started at the BMW museum in Cowley and travelled all the way to Oxford Station then back along Queen Street.  The old buses are looked after by the amazing volunteers of the Oxford Bus Museum Trust.  I was made to feel very welcome and learned some amazing facts about Oxford's long bus history including how they were preceded by horse-drawn trams but that Oxford never had electric trams because colleges wouldn't allow the hooks in their walls for the necessary cable suspension.

The bus we were in had no power steering and a "crash" gearbox, meaning no synchromesh.  Despite this it was dirven very expertly and smoothly by one of the museum trust volunteers and a long-time bus driver.

 

The Spirit of Christmas

I went as Deputy Lord Mayor this evening to an amazing concert at Christ Church Cathedral. It was entitled "Spirit of Christmas" and arranged by the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign. I was honoured to be sitting at the front and had a really good conversation with Bill Ronald, the Chairman of the Trustees.  The event was a mixture of audience carols, lovely music from the choir of the Dragon School and some wonderful light-hearted Christmas-themed readings from well-known celebrities including Michael Elwyn, Robert Glenister, Jemma Redgrave, Honeysuckle Weeks and Alison Steadman OBE.  The whole evening was an utter delight, set off beautifully by everyone lighting candles to hold, starting from Lily, a seven year old child who has benefited from a lot of support from the MDC.  I gather concerts like this regularly raise around £15k - pretty impressive but so important for the lives of so many young people diagnosed with Muscular Dystrophy.

If you can possibly afford to make a donation to this excellent cause, please do so now via this web link to the MDC donation page.

The utter hypocrisy!

I took this screen shot just now, 2320hrs. It shows a Labour Oxford City Councillor saying how much he enjoys the Gym and Swimming Facilities at Temple Cowley Pools. And Mike Rowley, the Labour executive member with responsibility for leisure facilities, has "liked" the status.  The Labour Councillor would have been at the pool and gym first thing this morning by my reckoning.

This is just a few hours after the Labour ruling group on the City Council was laughing at and interrupting Jane Alexander of the Save Temple Cowley Pools campaign when she gave a public address to the full City Council meeting yesterday evening about how much the pools, gym, sauna and steam are used and loved by the local community.  Flabbergasted only starts to describe how I feel about this Labour contempt for the people of Oxford.

That is truly shocking hypocrisy!

Note the post I have reproduced here has a little icon of the world just beside the words "17 hours ago via Mobile".  That icon means the post is public and visible to anyone in the world with a facebook account, so I haven't breached any privacy.

Full Council: Labour denying any errors with Covered Market

I'm going to do two blog posts about today's full council meeting as there were two important issues I want to mention. The first is a motion from Cllr Jim Campbell, and Cllr Elise Benjamin about the findings of the Covered Market Scrutiny Review. The motion was fully supported by Cllr Mary Clarkson, a member of the Labour administration of the Council.  Jim, Elise and Mary have all spent many hours working on a big review of the Covered Market, working with The Retail Group who have produced an excellent and comprehensive report.
Jim's motion read:

"Council:

noting that the latest edition of Your Oxford has a full page  advertising “Oxford's Amazing Christmas Markets”, which highlights new arrangements at Gloucester Green but makes no mention whatsoever of the Covered Market;

noting further no provision has been made during the Three Day Winter Light Festival to include the Covered Market in its programme;

regretting the lack of trust that has developed between the Council, as  Landlord, and the Traders, as tenants;  

welcoming the excellent report of the Retail Group, its analysis of the reasons behind the current under-performance of the Covered Market, and its proposals for how it can once again be a key part of Oxford's Retail Offer;

hoping that the residents of Oxford will respond, in numbers and in depth, to the four week public consultation on the report;

supporting the Council's already stated intention to appoint an interim Market Manager,

therefore calls on The City Executive Board:

• to recognise that, in recent years, there has been a lack of effective  management by the Council and that this has been a significant contributory factor to the poor performance of the market;

• to consider thoroughly the findings of the Public Consultation on the future of the market;

• to ensure that the Covered Market has a key role in future City Centre events;

• to respond positively to the short term proposals put forward by the Retail Group;

• to examine in detail the long term proposals made by the Retail Group, and to draw up, by November 2014, a full report of how it will respond to these proposals."

I was highly dismayed to see and hear Bob Price, the Labour Leader of the Council propose what can only be called a wrecking amendment to the motion that completely removes any suggestion that the council might have done anything wrong or been at all remiss in how it manages the market  Colin Cook, Executive councillor with responsibility for the Covered Market also entirely supported the amendment despite objection to it from fellow Labour Councillor Mary Clarkson who has a huge amount of experience of the Covered Market and has spent many hours as part of the scrutiny review of it.  Colin Cook said he must be a Market Supporter and must be right because he had recently bought some cheese there.  I was quite disgusted that the whole of the rest of the Labour Group, even my Carfax ward colleague Cllr Canning, supported the Labour amendment that essentially takes all the blame off Labour and puts it all on the traders.  This is absolutely not the way the political group leading a local authority should behave.  I am quite ashamed.  This is not the first time I have commented about Labour neglect and arrogance towards the Jewel in Oxford's Crown that is the Covered Market either.

See my previous posts about Labour Contempt (Oct 12) and Neglect (Sep 11) of the Covered Market.

You can see the briefing note for the meeting, that includes the motions at http://mycouncil.oxford.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?MId=3120

Proud to be part of a City Supporting LGBT rights in Russia

This is my second post about full council today and concerns a motion that I was extremely pleased to put to Oxford City Council.  I (think) I am the first openly LGBT (G in my case) Civic Office Holder in Oxford CIty, as Deputy Lord Mayor, and this made me even more proud to be able to put this motion and have it (almost) unanimously supported.  I chose to target Perm because it is a city that is twinned with Oxford.  My motion was seconded by Cllr Mary Clarkson and reads thus:

"Oxford City Council notes with horror the appalling human rights abuses happening in Russia that are denying LGBT people their basic rights to be themselves, to express themselves freely and to live in relationships with whoever they choose, free from government and police persecution.

This Council notes that Oxford enjoys a twinning arrangement with the City of Perm and, while a strong supporter of all human rights the world over, is concerned particularly about the plight of LGBT people in that city. This Council, further notes that some cities have chosen to sever twinning relationships with Russian cities because of Russian's LGBT human rights actions but considers this may be a disproportionate response in the case of Oxford and Perm as the abuses come from Russian central government, not from Perm local government.

As a more appropriate action for this situation, this Council therefore resolves to ask the Leader of the Council and the other Group Leaders to write a letter to their opposite number in Perm expressing Oxford's concern for Perm's LGBT people and their human rights situation, offering our solidarity and friendship to them in any way they feel able to request."

I gave a short speech supporting the motion and Mary Clarkson was also very supportive, telling the council of her experiences in a recent trip to Perm.  I was grateful too, to David Williams, leader of the Green Group, for speaking also strongly in favour of the motion.  On voting, virtually everyone in the room voted in favour with no objection.  There were two abstentions, one from Cllr Shah Khan (Lab) and one from Cllr Mohammed Altaf-Khan (LibDem).  The Sheriff, Cllr Mohammed Abbasi, left the chamber just before the vote and returned shortly afterwards.

The three abstentions aside, I am very pleased that the City Council is such a progressive place.  It's easy and safe to live as an openly gay man in Oxford and I think it good for all of us to remember that doing the same in Russia is now a completely different proposition.

100 years of Oxford Cinema Memories - book launch at the Phoenix

This was a fabulous afternoon spent at the Phoenix Picture House on Walton Street in Jericho.  I wasn't quite sure what to expect with this Mayoral engagement but was keen to find out.  I was welcomed by Kenny Gold, the general manager of the Phoenix Picture House and then we were taken into screen 1 where we were treated to a fascination presentation on the History of what is now called the Phoenix Picture House by Dborah Allison, one of the authors of the book that was being launched.

I was fascinated to hear how many different owners and proprietors the Phoenix has had in its 100 year life and how much it has served the local community in its time.  I'm amused that students used to be charged the top rates for tickets because they were considered to be the most well-off people in Oxford.  I hadn't realised either that the cinema had a rather seedy period in the 1970s where it was owned by a company called Star, and became a bit of a notorious sex cinema.  We saw an amusing press cutting from the era that said "students were accused of kinds of atrocities ranging from shouting, urinating and slamming car doors, to consuming Chinese take-away meals while sitting on walls and discussing films in an obscene manner."

The talk was finished off with some wonderful memories from Martin Selwood who had been a projectionist in the 1930s and is now 97 years old.  He has some amazing memories to share and was a major source of historical information for the book.

After the presentation we were taken to the Phoenix's bar for tea and cakes and I very much enjoyed more conversation with the other authors, Hiu M. Chan and Daniela Treveri Gennari.  What an absolutely fascinating afternoon learning about the secrets of one of Oxford's most lovely cinemas.  I hope it will go on serving the people of Jericho and beyond for many years to come!

Pretty impressive work by City Council streetscene team

[caption id="attachment_1088" align="alignleft" width="225"] Before[/caption]

On Monday, I reported that the bike markings going into Wellington Square from Little Clarendon Street were very badly faded and that this was sometimes causing conflict between cyclists and pedestrians. I reported this to streetscene@oxford.gov.uk

[caption id="attachment_1089" align="alignright" width="300"] After[/caption]

I am very impressed that by yesterday evening the lines were re-painted. A big thank you and well done to the council staff that did this. I'm very grateful as I'm sure are all those that use that route regularly, live or work near it.

I know this seems like a small thing but things like this are quite important to lots of people and it's great to see the Council being so helpful and responsive.