Local Government Reform
Very unexpectedly, the Government announced a hiatus and review. This was probably driven by the judicial review applications from some councils including Essex and Hampshire, and the almost complete failure to take account of the criteria set out by the Government when it started the process. We don’t know what will happen next. My best guess is a one-year delay. And I hope the Government will change its mind about the wasteful and pointless three unitary option. There will be elections for West Oxfordshire District Council, in the usual thirds, with the new councillors serving for a period yet to be announced. We had been expecting elections instead to the unitary authority.
Budget
Budget pressures will be a continuing theme for the rest of the existence of Oxfordshire County Council (however long that is). A combination of a reduction in Government grant of £27m, high inflation and continued increasing demands means the focus has to be on cuts. Nobody wants that, and we will do our best to make sure that core services are retained. 70% of budget goes on adult social care and children’s services, most of which is for statutory obligations that can’t be trimmed. A lot of the budgetary work to date has been predicated on the basis that the local government re-organisation was going ahead. The shock delay puts extra burden on the finances.
Road and Bus changes
Botley Road is finally due to reopen to motor vehicles on 20 September. Fingers crossed that Network Rail can deliver this time. This has two key consequences. The bus routes from Eynsham will change. The S1 will revert to going via Botley. The S2 will go down the A40 and Woodstock Road. The X52 express from Eynsham and H2 to Summertown and the hospitals stay as they were. And the WOCT service from Stanton Harcourt to Eynsham and Hanborough links to these. You can use a MyBusOxfordshire ticket so there is one fare regardless of which bus company you are using: About.
The temporary congestion charge is being superseded by the filter scheme that was originally planned. This means that you can now drive to anywhere in the city, providing you choose a route that doesn’t pass a filter. So, to get to the Westgate you would choose Botley Road, to Jericho Woodstock Road. Residents get 25 free passes to drive through the filters; if you are registered for the congestion charge, you will be automatically enrolled,
and if not please do.
The objective is to keep the buses moving and encourage more bus use and cycling, to beat Oxford’s car congestion.
Road maintenance
The good weather has meant that the pothole backlog is substantially fixed. Our expectation, though, is that we can expect significant flood danger in the months to come, because of the parched ground and likely heavy downpours. Hence the work on flushing and then fixing culverts and drains – you may recall we put £4m into drain repair to fix the 20 years of neglect. But even a perfect drain can’t cope with the consequences of our changing climate.
As many will have spotted, there is more emergency work on the water supply near the toll bridge. Thames Water managed to limit the road blockage to a single lane, after the chaos of having to shut the whole road for a day.
The vegetation clearance related to the A40 bus lanes and junctions is well underway. It is always distressing to see trees having to be removed, but it is inevitable in the project. There will be an overall gain in the number of trees in the area in the end as well as a biodiversity net gain.
Shores Green
Shores Green junction is open. It is ahead of schedule and on budget, and permits access to the westbound A40 for vehicles from east of Witney without having to go through Witney town centre. It will be interesting to see what the effect is on Lower Road.
And finally, there was a by-election in the countryside close to Bicester on 3 September, following the former councillor joining his family in a move to Switzerland. It saw an increased majority for the Lib Dems, for James Hartley, and the overall Lib Dem majority at County Hall has been restored.