A survey commissioned by Oxford City Council has revealed that a fifth of the 30,500 private rented sectors constitute “a serious housing hazard”.
The private rented sector in Oxford represents close to fifty percent of homes in the city. Every Oxford ward has over 20 percent of housing in the private rented sector, a council press release reckoned. The council has launched a public consultation. Continue reading
EXCLUSIVE Some of our more elderly readers might have seen the film A Bridge too Far (1977), all about the failure of the Brits in the Netherlands during the Second World War – Scottish 90 year old Sean Connery was the star. Some of you might also have seen Continue reading
Readers of Volesoft.com are already aware of the goings on in Mill Street, Oxford – some salacious details were made famous by Chaucer in his Canterbury Tales – the Miller’s Tale. Continue reading
A cadre of councillors in the World Heritage city of Oxford has decided that blind and disabled people will have to suffer a dictat from planners and endure an egregious development that will leave people in the cold.
Two nationwide organisations for the disabled pointed out that “developments” at Gibbs Crescent took no notice of statutory laws, fire access laws, and common humanity, including United Nations, British, and European Commission laws. Continue reading
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Tagged A2Dominion, colin cook, Gibbs Crescent, Oxford City Council, Susanna Pressell
So today we took ourselves to St Frideswide’s Kirk, on the Botley Road, the one that couldn’t afford to build a spire although it tried to crowdfund it back in the daze. We’d never been inside before. (See footnote after the pictures – Ed.)
We only knew there was a public consultation there this evening because we’d seen a flyer in our letterbox in Mill Street from massive housing association A2Dominion last week – there was no notice outside of the kirk, either.
Regular readers of this bog will remember that Mike Magee almost evacuated himself when he heard the explosion on St Valentine’s Day (please excuse picture).
Anyway, here below are pictures of the project that A2Dominion plans to replace and displace the current residents of Gibbs Crescent. A2D officials referred to the residents being “decanted”, which is a new one on us for people.
Once the residents have been “decanted”, which could take as long as six months or longer, A2D will set in motion an application for planning permission, for 140 units on the site, some going as high as six stories, with space for only a few car spaces for wheelchair access.
Some of the properties will be dedicated to social housing – as far as we can gather it’s a portion of the 50 percent of the properties that will be “affordable” housing. The rest of the non-affordable properties will be let. An A2D functionary said any profits will be ploughed back into the housing association. The whole process could take three or more years until completion.
Unfortunately, no plans are available from A2D on the World Wild Web (sic) and there were no handouts, so we took these snaps below. If you have any questions, A2D will be glad to answer them. Email Claire Bartlett – claire.bartlette@a2dominion.co.uk at A2D by Thursday, the 27th of September, the year of our Good Lord! 2018.
The redevelopment of Gibbs Crescent, of course, will further gentrify West Oxford, init?
And due to the redevelopment of the Old Oxford Power Station, there will be much trundling to and fro in the narrow Victorian street called Mill Street over the next few years, and of course the Botley Road too will, as usual, be free of traffic.
We believe that St Frideswide, the patron saintess of Oxford, and her kirk was probably based on a pagan goddess called Freya or Frigga or something. But that’s all lost in the past. Don’t mention Pusey!!!
Here at volesoft.com, we’re talking about the future. The future of Gibbs Crescent, one of the few – if any – social housing communities left in the centre of Oxford, hangs in the balance. One source at A2D whispered – of course off the record – that many of the residents will be glad to leave the centre of the City.
With a little help from their friends, of course.
Blossom in Oxford in Spring
On the 14th of February this year, at 4:45 PM, a huge explosion hit West Oxford.
I was in the wazzeria at the time, but the explosion was so great my windows bowed and I almost evacuated myself. I didn’t. I finished my wee and checked things out.
It seems some crazy greezer had blown up a house in Gibbs Crescent. He killed himself with the explosion – luckily no one else – and we’re waiting for the inquest to give us some rhyme or reason. And have been waiting for some time now. For the inquest.
I have some friends down in Gibbs Crescent, so have been following this closely. Susanna Pressel and Colin Cook, the local Labour councillors, have involved themselves and got their faces in the Oxford Mail.
But, although I am by nature an anarcho-syndicalist – read trade unionist and NUJ member for that, I thought I’d drop a line to our newly elected LibDem MP – that Layla Moran – who seems to have pursued this story in an exemplary way. I draw your attention, for example, to the almost complete lack of social housing she highlights, and to the big big question.
When A2Dominion “rehouses” the Gibb Crescent residents, where are they going to go? ♥
Ms Moran wrote to me on Friday:
“Dear Mike
“Further to our previous correspondence, and particularly focusing on Gibbs Crescent, I have now received responses from Dawn Wightman, Director of Housing for A2Dominion, and Patsy Dell, Head of Planning Services at Oxford City Council.
“Ms Wightman confirms that any plans to redevelop Gibbs Crescent would include 50% affordable housing, consisting mostly of 1 and 2 bed apartments with some 3 bed properties. She has not indicated what proportion of these affordable properties would have social rents. The properties are described as being significantly larger than those currently at Gibbs Crescent, but A2Dominion do not confirm how many of the new homes would be 1 bed.
“A2Dominion have also outlined a number of the benefits that they feel the redevelopment of Gibbs Crescent could bring, though have not indicated what assurances they intend to provide existing tenants.
“Ms Dell confirms that Oxford City Council has not yet had any detailed preapplication discussions with A2Dominion regarding proposals to redevelop Gibbs Crescent. I understand that officers at the Council held a meeting with A2Dominion, in which they discussed the need for public consultation on any proposals, but that by early December the Council had not had any follow up to this meeting.
“One of the issues Gibbs Crescent residents have raised with me is the serious shortage of social housing available in Oxford. In light of this, I asked Ms Dell to confirm how many social properties are currently available for let. She has replied that out of 7746 Oxford City Council properties and 3753 housing association properties, there are only 14 currently advertised as being available to let, with 2858 households currently on the housing register.
“I share the concern expressed by many Gibbs Crescent residents that these proposals would reduce the stock of social housing available in Oxford, rather than increasing it as is needed, and appreciate the impact that redeveloping Gibbs Crescent could have on existing tenants, including those who have lived there for many years.
“I hope that this information is useful. I will continue to pursue these issues with the Council and A2Dominion, and will share any updates I receive with you.
“Kind regards,
Layla”
Layla Moran MP
Member of Parliament for Oxford West and AbingdonLayla Moran
Member of Parliament for Oxford West and Abingdon
YOU KNOW you’ve got to give credit to Oxford City Council. It takes the freedom of information act (FOI) seriously.
We asked, a month ago, about the cost of its rather infamous “Blue Bin Initiative”.
It sent out a very expensive leaflet to us very long suffering residents of Oxford.
Here’s what it came up with on its FOI request. We have asked for an internal review from the Vale of the White Horse on how it lost votes. Unfortunately, the Vale of the White Horse seems to have lost everything. We asked for an internal review. We are still waiting, us Oxford residents.
Hello Mike,
…………………………>
1. Please break down the costs of this initiative – I and other residents of this street received a colour brochure yesterday – oxford.gov/uk/recycling league – see sub questions:
Oxford City Council received 350k after they were successful in applying for a DCLG grant.
As this is a three year project officially launching on October 5th, a full breakdown is not yet available.
1a How much did the smartphone app cost to develop?
The Smart App is not part of the project, it was already developed. It cost £750 to include the Blue Bin Recycling League pledge form.
1b To how many households were the full colour brochures delivered in Oxford?
All Oxford households, approximately 60,000. 61,000 packs were ordered.
1c Please name the areas represented by the colours at the back of the leaflet.
Oxford has been split into 8 areas which have been given a colour. These areas mirror our collection days and geographically incorporate several different well known Oxford area names
2. Who was responsible for the initiative? Was it council members?
The Recycling Team submitted a bid to the DCLG grant fund to run the incentive scheme. It has had full Councillor support and consultation and is overseen by John Tanner, board member for Cleaner Greener Oxford
I hope this helps,
Best wishes
Merilyn
WE’RE HELPING Francis Delaney on his way to a charity bike ride from Oxford to Paris – you can see details of that ride on tourdeframbo.com
Francis set off on his 221 mile journey last Saturday – but needed a postal vote for the general election which happens this Thursday, the 7th of May.
The postal vote hadn’t arrived by Thursday last week but with the help of local Lib Dem candidate Layla Moran, we managed to get one to him in the nick of time. His constituency is a key marginal – West Oxford and Abingdon. Only 176 votes separated the winner, Tory Nicola Blackwood, and the Lib Dem runner up in 2010.
Layla turned up to wave Francis and the other four cyclists off last Saturday, and chatting to her it became obvious that this wasn’t just a problem confined to him.
She said that a number of postal votes couldn’t be delivered on time.
Today we made a request to Oxford City Council – below. We’ll keep you updated on what we hear. ♦
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Tagged Oxford, Oxford City Council, Oxford University, port meadow, West Oxford Planning Committee
In a heady cocktail of sheer stupidity and egregious incompetence, Oxford City Council and Oxford University managed to blot the Oxford landscape by building six five storey blocks on the edge of Port Meadow.
Unfortunately for functionaries at both organisations, people at The Save Port Meadow Campaign and the CPRE managed to raise enough cash to force a retrospective environmental impact assessment – that was released in October 2014 and includes the following:
“It is considered that the high adverse impact on the high veritage value sites can only be reduced to medium adverse by the reduction in height of all the buildings under the option three mitigation measures.”
The four landscapes in question are Port Meadow itself, St Barnabas Church, the view of the famous “screaming spires” of the university and the River Thames and towpath.
The three options for mitigation are (1) use brick cladding and trees – cost £6 million; (2) flatten the roofs with cladding and trees – £11 million; and (3) remove a floor off each of the buildings – cost £12 million.
The campaign says that both the university and the council are being skinflints and want the cheapest option. As the campaigners say: “They want to minimise the embarrassment of their negligence in building the Port Meadow blocks, and also the cost and incnvenience.”
In 2011 the University said: “It has been concluded that the development will not be visible from the majority of Port Meadow.” A Mr Murray Hancock, a planning functionary at the Council, said: “It gives rise to some impacts but these are not significant.”
The campaign says there are various things people can do:
(1) Write to your city councillor.
(2) Email the City Council consultation at planning@oxford.gov.uk by the 19th December using the ref 11/02881/FUL telling them why option 3 is acceptable.
(3) Go to the meeting held at 7:30PM on the 4th of December 2014 at St Barnabas Church, Cardigan Street, Jericho
You can also donate by going to www.justgiving.com/portmeadow ♣
Dūrgā Devī
