Clarion Weekly, 13 September 2024

Next week is Housing Week here at the Oxford Clarion. In a series of five long reads, we'll be looking at the issues around building new houses in Oxford and Oxfordshire - and asking what can be done to help more people get homes in Britain's second least affordable city. Starting Monday.

This week's top stories

We interviewed Andrew Gant, the man behind Oxfordshire's roads, to ask him about the challenges facing transport in city and county. In a wide-ranging discussion, the County Council’s cabinet member for highways management touched on traffic filters, Low Traffic Neighbourhoods, electric buses, the Botley Road closure, and more. Read the full interview.

Can you have new houses without new roads? Over half a billion pounds is being spent on road projects in Oxfordshire. Until now, received wisdom has always been that more houses mean more roads – but campaigners are now calling this into question. We take a look at the arguments. (There was a fascinating debate on Twitter in response: start here and here.)

Did you know Oxford is a superpower in electric vehicles and EV charging? For World EV Day on Monday, we wrote about how Oxford has become the driving force behind electric mobility in the UK and beyond.

(If you didn't see it last week, there's a corner of an airfield in Bicester carving out the future of electric powered transport – including flying electric taxis and vintage electric Rolls Royces. The future of transport is genuinely being built in this county.)

Around the city

• County Hall in Oxford has gone on the market, including both the 1971 office building and the 1841 council chamber. Oxfordshire County Council will be moving to the currently under-utilised Speedwell House on St Aldates, next to the courts. Though Old County Hall (the original chamber) is being marketed as part of the sale, OCC has not made a final decision on whether to sell it: it says it wants to “assess market interest and to make an informed decision about the future of the building”. Proceeds from the sale will pay for Speedwell House to be refitted and upgraded to net-zero standard. Cllr Dan Levy, cabinet member for finance, said the move would “help transform this part of the city and better support those using the area”.
• A numberplate recognition camera is now in operation enforcing the banned turn from Cowley Road onto Iffley Road at the Plain. OCC says “Despite the restriction, many motorists are still turning left, which increases road safety risks to other vehicles and road users.” Motorists making the turn will be fined £70, or £35 if paid within 21 days. The no left turn order was introduced in 2006. The new camera is one of a series of minor safety improvements to the roundabout following the death of cyclist Dr Ling Felce in March 2022, and OCC’s subsequent adoption of the ‘Vision Zero’ policy. Motorists and cyclists using the roundabout pass the ghost bike sited to mark Dr Felce's tragic death. We took an in-depth look at cycle safety in Oxford last year.
• Oxfordshire County Council has awarded £2.9m of contracts related to Oxford’s traffic filters – currently on hold due to the Botley Road bridge closure. The contracts cover the permit system, enforcement, and assessing the success of the filters. Marston Holdings are building the £1.2m “Unattended Moving Traffic Contraventions Enforcement System”, which covers “suitably approved devices at all locations for the capture and transfer of Observations to the Evidence Review System”. Unity Five have the £1.1m contract for “Permit Management Solution for Parking and the Traffic Filters Scheme”, which will also cover the residents’ parking zones in Oxford. Steer Davies Gleave won the £643,899 contract for monitoring & evaluation.

• The fate of the former Blackwells offices on Hythe Bridge Street, and adjacent Chinese supermarket, is to be decided at an Oxford City Council planning meeting next week. Officers have recommended that plans for a new five-storey building are accepted. The new building would provide “life sciences space (laboratory and office spaces), alongside café space at ground floor level”. The former Oxford Canal boatman’s chapel (1868), currently Bangkok House, would be refurbished to become “a flexible community space”. Planning officers say the development would bring “significant economic and regeneration benefits”, despite the loss of a retail unit. The developers would pay a £294,000 community contribution plus a further £95,000 to widen the footway. Oxford Preservation Trust and Oxford Civic Society, however, objected to the application. OPT wrote: “It will inevitably dominate Frideswide Square through sheer size and bulk, rather than contributing to the streetscape… views of the green setting beyond the city will be obscured.”
• Car-sharing operator Zipcar has pulled out of Oxford, as well as Bristol and Cambridge. The company says, with most of its members in London, “it has become increasingly difficult to provide and maintain our Zipcar fleet from these locations in a cost-effective way”. Co-Wheels, said to be the largest car club fleet in Britain, is offering a promotional discount to former Zipcar members in Oxford.
• A plan to provide supported accommodation for 12 young people with mental health needs has been abandoned after difficulties in obtaining a property. The county and city councils had successfully bid for £1.2m from the Government’s Supported Housing Improvement Programme. The first property identified was dropped when the housing provider was unable to obtain planning permission. A second provider then stepped in with a 9-bed property, but was unable to deliver it “within funding thresholds for both the support and rent elements of the service”. Oxfordshire County Council now says it is unable to find a replacement property by the April 2025 and has “unfortunately made the decision to withdraw the application for the scheme”.

Around the county

• Images were released of Witney High Street’s long-awaited redesign. Oxfordshire County Council has launched a consultation on proposals informed by feedback from local residents. The designs aim to enhance the High Street, which has been closed to through traffic, while improving walking, cycling and wheeling. The project is funded by a £1.98m grant from Active Travel England. Cllr Judy Roberts, Cabinet Member for Infrastructure and Development, said: “It was wonderful to receive such a wealth of feedback from so many people last year. I am delighted to see how this has been realised in a draft design to support better active travel opportunities and complement an historic and beautiful town centre. I am very much looking forward to hearing how people find the design and seeing how the final plans take shape.”
• The speed limit on the A40 near Witney looks set to be cut from 60mph to 40mph “due to the intensification of use of the newly opened Farmer’s Dog public house”. The pub is owned by Jeremy Clarkson, who came to fame by driving cars around rather faster than 40mph. The lower limit would apply on either side of the Asthall Roundabout, the western end of the Witney bypass. From there to Burford, the limit would drop to 50mph (currently 60mph) as part of the county’s Vision Zero strategy that seeks to eliminate road deaths. The consultation on the changes is open until 11 October. When the pub opened in August, Clarkson posted “This might sound odd but I’d like to thank Oxfordshire County Council for all their help. We couldn’t have done it so fast without you.” [Ok, we broke our “No Jeremy Clarkson” rule again. It’s a roads story. Honest.]
• Police are investigating vandalism to a privately-owned garden railway, the Barn Well Hill Railway, in the north Oxfordshire village of Swalcliffe. “Several thousands of pounds worth of damage” was caused to the railway on the evening of Saturday 10 August. Thames Valley Police say “The suspects were approached by the owner of the railway but they fled the scene. The group of boys (6 white males) were all on push bikes and were seen on nearby doorbell footage entering and leaving the village on the B4035.” Owner Colin Hill describes the line as “an estate railway built to narrow gauge principles which we use to move things around the garden”. Anyone with information is asked to contact TVP via 101 or online, quoting reference 43240383553.
• The former Women’s Institute college in Marcham, near Abingdon, is to be converted back into a house. Denman College was founded in 1948 and offered residential courses on arts and crafts, cookery, and more. The WI announced its closure in 2020. Some of the WI’s 1970s-1990s buildings will be demolished, but the distinctive Education Block (bottom of image) will now be retained: “as proposals have developed, there has been a recognition of its quality as well as the waste of energy that would result from its destruction”. The estate was built as Marcham Park in the 17th century, and has now been acquired by the Duffield family, “descendants of one of the historic owners of the estate”. The application was granted planning permission by Vale of White Horse District Council.

University and research

Some of you wrote in to say you loved our colourised film of Oxford in the 1920's last week. Here is a 1941 explainer of Oxford University. Has much changed? You tell us…

Trains and buses

• Direct Oxford–Bristol trains start this weekend. The Saturday-only service, first reported by the Clarion in January, restores the direct link after 21 years. The journey will take around 1hr10 with stops at Swindon, Chippenham and Bath. GWR says the services are “part of a trial to assess demand”. A trainset has been freed up by the end of the summer-only Newquay service, but GWR is expected to get more regional trains for the South-West, which could make trains available for a permanent Oxford–Bristol service. Services will leave Oxford at 1203 and 1712 on Saturday, and Bristol at 1018 and 1518, which doesn’t leave you long in Bristol, but other journey opportunities are available changing at Didcot.

Oxfordshire politics

After the summer break, local democracy is getting back into gear. This week was Oxfordshire County Council’s first full council meeting since July – and it was noticeable that the dynamic has changed.

Relations between the Liberal Democrats and Labour have been tetchy since the latter pulled out of the ‘Oxfordshire Fair Deal Alliance’ coalition. But with Labour now in power nationally, the first two motions from councillors took aim at their decisions: to approve Thames Water’s Abingdon reservoir plan, and to retain the two-child benefit cap. It’s fair to say OCC’s Labour benches responded robustly, led by the ever passionate Liz Brighouse and pugnacious Brad Baines. (The individual debating style of councillors is one of the delights of observing OCC meetings… one day we’ll write up a Spotters’ Guide.)

Here's the summary of the motions...

• The council voted unanimously to give young people greater involvement in Special Educational Needs provision. The motion calls on the Cabinet to “meaningfully involve young people and youth organisations throughout all policy-making processes within SEND”. Proposing the motion, Sally Povolotsky (Ind, Harwell) referred to the parents’ demonstration outside the council chamber: “This morning, we heard three more SEND petitions being presented to this council. I don’t want to have to see families outside again going hoarse getting their point over. Families want to stop campaigning and start co-producing.” Eddie Reeves (Con, Banbury Calthorpe) said it was a year since Ofsted’s damning report. “We may appear to be doing better, but for families, in practice, we are not. 906 people signed those petitions. When are we going to take action? We have had sufficient time.”
• A Liberal Democrat motion calling for the national two-child benefit cap to be abolished has been defeated by Labour and Conservative votes. The motion from Kate Gregory (LibDem, Thame) called the cap “a cruel policy that should be scrapped”. Brad Baines (Lab, Isis) said “I think it’s only right that a Government is given time before people start passing judgment. The Liberal Democrats supported the Conservatives to cut services to the bone as fast as possible on the backs of those vulnerable people.” Sally Povolotsky (Ind, Harwell) countered “This policy isn’t what voters expect from Labour. The cap disproportionately affects those in vulnerable situations. Perpetuating poverty is not something we should stand by in this chamber.” Former Labour councillor Hannah Banfield (Ind, Banbury Grimsbury) said “Make big business and tax avoiders pay their fair share. That was the Labour ethos. But they’re only interested in keeping in with big business now.” Neil Fawcett (LibDem, Abingdon S) alluded to Government finances but asked “Why should it be our children who lose out from these difficult decisions, rather than the wealthiest?” The motion was rejected with 22 votes for, 28 against.
• An emergency motion called on the Secretary of State for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs to rethink his approval of Thames Water’s Abingdon reservoir plan. The motion was brought by independent councillor Sally Povolotsky but opposed by the county Labour group. Council leader Liz Leffman (LibDem, Charlbury) said “This is a big mistake on the part of the new Secretary of State. Thames Water lose 27% of clean water out of their pipes. If they were to actually address that, they would be doing us a far greater service.” Michael O'Connor (Lab, University Parks) said: “Without water, house-building will stall. It’s essential that we have new reservoirs. But I do want to note that Thames Water cannot continue to privatise profits and socialise losses. Its behaviour has been frankly disgusting.” Pete Sudbury (Green, Wallingford) said “The water industry has taken us for a ride for 30 years” while Stefan Gawrysiak (Ind, Henley) called for a public inquiry. The motion against the reservoir was passed with 37 in favour and 14 against.

The next motion to be heard would have been a Conservative motion opposing means-testing of winter fuel payments, but the meeting ran out of time. In fact, just 10 minutes earlier, the House of Commons had voted for means-testing, setting the Oxfordshire MPs against each other for the first time. Nationally, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats opposed the cuts. Oxfordshire Conservatives wasted no time in posting this attack ad, highlighting Oxfordshire Labour MPs’ vote. Commenting after the vote, Liberal Democrat MPs Layla Moran, Olly Glover, Freddie van Mierlo, Charlie Maynard and Calum Miller said: 

“Thousands of pensioners across our communities will be left deeply worried about how they will get by this winter with this cut to the Winter Fuel Payment. So many pensioners are already facing another winter of a cost of living crisis and this will make things worse. The damage left by the Conservatives to our economy is unforgivable, but cutting payments to vulnerable pensioners across Oxfordshire is no way to bring about the change the country deserves. We proudly opposed the Government today and stood up for the many pensioners in Oxfordshire who are now at risk of an even bigger winter cost of living crisis. Liberal Democrats will keep fighting this cut tooth and nail; we’re fighting for the real change people want to see.” 

Wednesday was Back British Farming day, and here in the south-east’s most rural county, those MPs with rural constituencies were keen to show their support for farms in their area.

Individually, some of the MPs have been busy too - here's what we spotted.

• Layla Moran in Oxford West & Abingdon has been elected Chair of the Health and Social Care Select Committee. She said: “From GPs to dentists, maternity services to mental health there is much to do. The committee has a vital role to play scrutinising govt as it tackles these challenges.” She was congratulated by Wes Streeting, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. She's also been campaigning on increasing support to kinship carers.
• Sean Woodcock in Banbury has been supporting Emergency Services Day in Banbury, held a street surgery in Deddington and met with Liz Leffman, leader of Oxfordshire County Council. He met an Amazon worker to talk about unions (Amazon has a depot in Banbury). Regular readers of our election diaries will know that the Horton Hospital was a hot campaigning topic: in Parliament this week, Sean Woodcock asked the Conservative party to apologise for the damage done to the Horton Hospital which was downgraded in 2016, and to the NHS as a whole. Minister for Health Wes Streeting commented that for the Conservatives “sorry seemed to be the hardest word”.
• Freddie van Mierlo in Henley & Thame has been testing water for e-coli and talking to residents at the Horspath Hub about Winter Fuel Payments. He has also secured a meeting with the Environment Agency and the government minister to discuss the closure of Marsh Lock Bridge in Henley.
• Olly Glover in Didcot & Wantage has been speaking in Westminster about waste and recycling issues. He had a raft of constituency events including meeting with Cancer Research represenatives, opening a nursery, attending council meetings and a garden party for volunteers. He also spoke in Parliament at PMQs about a new railway station in Grove, to support the growing population in that area and secured a ministerial meeting to discuss it. If you look closely, you can see Calum Miller from Bicester and Woodstock at about 6 seconds in: the Oxfordshire MPs are clearly supporting each other.
• Calum Miller himself spoke in Parliament about the winter fuel cut. He had a busy weekend in the constituency, at Woodstock Market, then the Otmoor Garden Society, then Bicester Pride. He met with the UK manufacturers association and committed to support them by improving trading conditions with the EU.
• Charlie Maynard in Witney gave his maiden speech thanking previous MP David Cameron for the decisions he made to put him on the path to politics. He paid tribute to the network of volunteers that makes his community tick, and in a wide ranging speech spoke about housing pressure in Oxfordshire, traffic pressure on the A40, healthcare challenges, sewage, the Armed Forces, refugees, Syria and Brexit. He met with campaign group WASPI to discuss state pension inequality.
• Anneliese Dodds in Oxford East is of course now a government minister. This week we note she met with the head of the Palestinian mission to the UK, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, a surge in aid, and immediate release of all the hostages.

This weekend

• The Medley: one of the Clarion's favourite weekend spots has its last weekend of the season. Head over the river from Port Meadow for the last weekend of wood fired pizza and excellent booze by the river. Access by bike, foot and boat. Dogs and children welcome, communal parenting and dog petting very much part of the vibe.
• Oxford Open Doors is this weekend. Visit places usually closed to the public for one weekend a year – there are some real gems in the list.

Notes from Clarion HQ

Our subscriber count has ticked sharply upwards this week, so to all our new followers and subscribers, welcome! We are an independent news outlet for Oxfordshire. We try and shine a light on the interesting, important, and under-reported (ideally all three). Each Friday we round up the best of the news stories we've posted through the week, plus some bonus extras; this week was a bumper week for news and for our own long reads.

We have been musing, over the summer, on housing. (We're so rock and roll.) Specifically Oxfordshire housing: why it is so scarce, so expensive, and why no one is talking about it compared to, purely for example, Low Traffic Neighbourhoods.

So next week is Housing Week at the Clarion, with one long read a day examining an aspect of Oxfordshire’s housing challenge. Each article will be flagged on Twitter as usual, but exceptionally this week, we’ll also send out links to the long reads each day via email. If you want to be the first to see the content, hit subscribe. See you next week!