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.

Labour killing democratic accountability?

I received a consultation questionnaire in my council mail today about the proposed changes to the Council's decision-making process. I'm afraid I think this is one of those consultations that is basically there to tell people what has already been decided. I don't think public comments will make any difference to what is going to happen.

The changes are essentially:

• Abolish monthly formal Area Committees, and their revenue budgets, and replace them with quarterly informal, largely powerless, Area Forums.


• Remove powers to make planning decisions from the local level and set up two large planning committees that won't really have any neighbourhood link or context understanding.  There will be a "west" and and "east" committee.  Bizarrely the west committee will include east Oxford!  The committees will be politically balanced meaning each will have 4 Labour members, 3 LibDems and 1 Green.  I think this is shocking as it means the administration effectively takes over control of all planning decisions.  In the current scheme North area has a LibDem majority and East has a Green majority.


• Remove planning decisions call-in to full council and replace this with a "planning appeals committee".  This will also be politically balanced, so Labour-controlled.


• Drastically cut the number of Executive Board meetings and let executive councillors make most decisions that were previously Executive Board decisions on their own with no requirement for a public meeting.


• Give each councillor a paltry £1500 to spend as they wish on their ward.

You can read about this in detail and I urge you to fill in the consultation as I think this is an extremely important matter of local democracy and accountability.  You need to register first to do the survey but please do - this is really important!  It's clear Labour doesn't want to hear much from you as the boxes only allow 500 characters and that includes spaces! You can see my response on my website.

My main concern is how the changes will effectively render the councillors of the North Area Committee (entirely LibDem) and those of the East Area Parliament (almost all Green) pretty much voice-less and powerless.  My own area, Central South and West will no longer see political balance of 4 Labour 4 LibDem but instead all its planning decisions will be made by committees with a Labour majority.  I have rarely seen such megalomania in a political party as Oxford Labour!

Antisocial behaviour by pub operators

This was an interesting piece of casework and a good opportunity to serve the people who elected me! My attention was drawn to the issue by an article in the Cherwell student newspaper.  So I contacted the Lincoln JCR president and we've had a very useful meeting. It appears the main problem is that the operators of the Turl Bar, which is part of the same block as lots of Lincoln College student accommodation, are making a lot of noise emptying containers of used bottles into recycling bins late at night and that loud music is becoming more and more of an issue.

As the venue (The Turl Bar) will close forever on 31st May this year there is probably no merit in taking formal action.  I hope the licensing team will, with a conciliatory approach, be able to persuade Whitbread's staff running the Turl Bar to be a bit more considerate.  I hope the staff will remember that many students have their living and studying space in extremely close proximity to the bar and that May is an extremely important month for study and revision, particularly for those facing finals exams. Finals directly dictate their degree result and to a large extend the path and/or success of the rest of their lives.  I am impressed at the amount of records and personal impact statements the students of Lincoln College have been able to provide. I hope this will underline the seriousness of the problem with Whitbread and their staff.

Although this is short-term problem on council time-scales it represents a huge risk to the success of Lincoln students if a solution is not found.  The month of May represents more than half of some students' final term of study and continuous noise and sleep disruption is quite intolerable.

Budget - and council tax-setting full council

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We finished around 9pm.

Brilliant Group Meeting

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

Central South and West Area Committee

We met at St Barnabas School on Hart Street today.  It was freezing cold and sitting on children's chairs is not ideal.  There was not a huge amount on the agenda although we had a useful update on street scene issues and a City Centre Police report from Insp. Matt Bullivant.

There were no planning applications although we did talk about the plans to make Jericho a conservation area and put an article 4 direction area in place (which basically removes permitted development rights from building owners).  Although some buildings in Jericho, notably St. Barnabas Church, are worth preserving I must say that a lot of the housing is very substandard with no cavity walls, poorly insulated windows and incredibly insubstantial foundations.  I'm not quite sure why we are preserving rows and rows of cheap houses that were originally built as mass housing for the poor.  I think the planning restrictions will severely limit people's ability or inclination to make their properties more energy efficient and I think that's a real shame.

There was a presentation from a County Council officer about the cuts to libraries and youth services.  I was very embarrassed at the hard time one member of the committee gave the officer, especially in public!  It's not the officer that decided on the cuts - it was the Tory County Councillors!  Talk about shoot the messenger!

We finished just after 7.30pm all very cold and uncomfortable on the children's chairs.

Wesley Memorial Methodist Church redevelopment project

I was invited to go and have a tour and discussion with Derek Rawson, the chair of the Open Doors Steering group, about the exciting plans that Wesley Memorial Church has for its buildings.  The plans are well-outlined on their website and essentially aim to make the premises more welcoming, flexible and hospitable.  The plans add a glass enclosure between the main church building and the John Wesley Room and also remodel the stage at the back of the main hall.  Wesley Mem. houses the hugely successful Rainbow House Children's Café and the redevelopment will give it more space and a much better kitchen to use.  The plans also add more offices and meeting space to the site and provide access to a piece of the original City Wall that is of archaeological and historical significance.  I hope that some sort of grant from the City Council can be arranged as it is good for other fund-raising for projects such as this to have support from local authorities.

Licensing and Gambling Acts Committee special meeting

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

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

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

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

At home with the Christopher Lewis, Dean of Christ Church

I was invited to this event, I guess because I am a City Centre Councillor.  It was held at the Deanery at Christ Church and all sorts of notable folk from the City and surrounding area were present.  I had the great pleasure of meeting some senior county councillors as well as many of the senior staff of Christ Church itself.  The Dean himself and is wife were both extremely gracious and very good and making sure people were introduced to each other.  It was a fascinating gathering to which I felt extremely privileged to be invited.

Oxford Chinese New Year Gala Evening

What an amazing evening!  I was invited to this event as a ward councillor and I'm really glad I went.  It really was a multi-talented, multi-colour spectacular of entertainment.  The event was organised by the Oxford Chinese Students and Scholars Association.

The large audience included several important figures from the Chinese Embassy, including Minister Counsellor Mr Xiaogang Tian, as well as senior figures from Oxford University including Dr Stephen Goss, one of the Pro-Vice-Chancellors.  Dr Goss gave an excellent speech about how important the Chinese link is to Oxford University with Chinese being the 2nd most common nationality among undergraduates, 3rd-most with graduates and 4th-most in staff.

We heard two choirs, one opera singer, some martial arts, a fashion show, a somewhat manic but very good violin player and much more.  I was grateful to the Chinese embassy official sitting next to me for providing some translations!

The amazing multicultural mix in Oxford is one of the great things about our City and it really humbling and an honour to attend such a wonderful event.