Author: SENDRA

SENDRA

Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Party – Sunday 5th June 2022

Preparations started early for this year’s Summer Party. The Committee was keen to make this milestone a special celebration. We especially wanted to encourage as many new members as possible to attend. With Jonathan’s help, the Chair designed a lovely invitation, which was delivered to all households.  60 people responded to the RSVP. Apologies to one member, who unfortunately missed out.

Sally explored the legal aspects of road closure, health & safety and insurance.  She put up appropriate notices and obtained the licence from the Council. Hopefully no one was inconvenienced.

The Parks Dept. (OCC) eventually cut the grass in Sadler Walk but quite a bit of work was required to prepare the garden for the party.  Our thanks to Gregg Brisk, & Chris & Roger for trimming the bushes and raking up the grass.

Keeping an eye on the weather forecast, we decided to erect 3 gazebos on Friday evening. We are grateful to Roger, Michael & Carol Wills, Philip Wootton, Jonathan & Gregg who helped to erect the tents and to John Shelvey, Jussi, Maria & the girls who assisted with the dismantling.

On Friday we were very sad to hear that Sally & Robin had both caught Covid.  It was especially disappointing for the Chair after all her hard work.  They wished us well and Chris & Michael stepped in.

Despite light drizzle on Sunday morning, we erected the trestle tables and benches on Trinity Street, as pre-arranged.  Caroline added a nice touch with her colourful flower arrangements.  Bunting was hung up. BBQs were in place and drinks laid out.  We were ready to go.

On arrival members were treated to a glass of Elizabeth Moynagh’s delicious fruit punch.  We thank her and her team of little helpers.  Chris gave a short speech of introduction and Roger had written a rhyming Grace and Toast for the occasion. See here for a recording of this. We toasted the Queen and sang God Save The Queen, accompanied by Ruth on her flute.

As usual people brought a delicious array of food to share. Thanks to the 3 BBQ chefs, Roger, Mike Moynagh & Ian who kept a close eye on individual’s food as it was being cooked, there were no complaints.

The pudding competition generated a lot of interest and the table was brimming with an array of creative entries.  We are most grateful to Celine Wills for agreeing to be our judge, ably assisted by her daughter, Beatrice.  The winner was Anna Turnbull, certainly our youngest entrant, for her superb hazelnut meringue layered pudding.  The prize, kindly donated by Michael & Carol Wills, was a meal at the Handle Bar Café.

Next to the puddings on a separate table was one of the biggest cakes we have ever seen. Caroline created a masterpiece, ably assisted by her son, Adam.  Thank you so much.  A slice of cake and a cup of tea rounded off the proceedings, kindly provided by the tea ladies, Cristina, Carol, Caroline and Liz.

As you can see this was a real team effort and it was lovely to see quite a few new faces. Our final thanks go to you all for supporting this event. Everyone joined in and hopefully, had fun.

You will see photos of the event here – please note these photos are only available to SENDRA members. Please contact the Chair if you need a password.

Chris Knight Secretary

SENDRA

Oxford Civic Society (OCS) letter to City and County Councils

Dear Councillors,

Oxford Civic Society is supportive of the ambitions represented by the core package of the Connecting Oxford scheme.   However, we are disappointed by the absence of detail surrounding the traffic filter component in particular and the estimated effects of their displaced vehicle journeys which recent meetings between officers and residents’ groups have been unable to rectify. 

Bearing in mind the fate of the experimental ‘bus gate’ proposals in the city centre in 2020 we are concerned that in an information vacuum, public opposition could build which might threaten political acceptability of the whole project.

An unremarked feature of the current proposals is the degree of overlap between the full ZEZ and the central filters in their impact on traffic volumes.  We believe that this feature could be exploited constructively to overcome potential difficulties in the coming months.   Two factors are key:

  1. In the early years when EVs are relatively few the full ZEZ will operate in practice as a congestion charge, reducing traffic into the central area whilst also promoting lower emissions
  2. All three proposed central filters are located within the ZEZ.  Hence the restraining effect of the ZEZ on traffic volumes will apply also to vehicles travelling around or across the centre, independently of the presence of filters.  Without the filters ZEZ revenues would be greater since they would include a proportion of vehicles otherwise forcibly displaced.

In this situation we believe that, together with the proposed WPL, a large proportion of the benefits of the full Connecting Oxford package could be obtained whilst deferring implementation of the central filters.  

The planned doubling of ZEZ charges in 2025 will mean that the restraining effect of the scheme will be maintained despite an increasing proportion of exempted zero emission vehicles.

Later in the decade as the proportion of vehicles liable to a ZEZ charge lessens further, so too will its traffic restraint effects.  To maintain lower traffic volumes thereafter options would then include either

  1. Introducing the central filters as initially conceived, or
  2. Revising the ZEZ tariff to replace the previous zero emission vehicle exemption by a low minimum charge

Option (b) has the advantage that a restraining effect would be applied to all vehicles travelling to the city centre.

Either way initial deferral of the filters would allow a less complex package to be introduced and for the situation to be reviewed in the light of conditions as they materialise following implementation of the full ZEZ and the planned increase in charges in 2025.

We believe that this phased approach would prove more likely to win public support and would urge you to consider it as an option in your forthcoming deliberations.

Yours sincerely,

Ian Green

(Chair, Oxford Civic Society)

Peter Headicar

(Transport Adviser to the Oxford Civic Society)

SENDRA

Transport Plans for Oxford

County and City council officers held 3 virtual briefings and invited three people from each resident’s association to attend. They wanted to give residents associations the chance to ask questions about the proposals and comment on aspects of the scheme that they thought would be likely to affect those living in their area of the city ahead of a full public consultation starting in the summer. They were of the view that the feedback received would help them as they further develop the proposals and better prepare material about them for the summer consultation.

John Stobbs, Margaret Madden and Sally Cooper attended the first one of these sessions representing SENDRA and Ian Green attended a session as a representative of the Civic Society. Notes made at these meetings are available here:

SENDRA

Ravenna Talk

On Friday 6th May a small (but distinguished!) group of SENDRA members gathered for coffee and cake at 45, Trinity Street to hear Rosemary Fennell talk about her recent trip to Ravenna.

She gave us a fascinating, illustrated description of the vibrant mosaics and beautiful marble interiors within the many beautiful buildings in that ancient city. And she skilfully placed these priceless art treasures within a geographical, historical, political, and even a theological context! Her keen eye for detail, and her penetrating observations made the people and events depicted in these mosaics really come alive in surprising, and often humorous ways, notwithstanding that they mostly date from before the eighth century AD.

We so grateful to Rosemary for a most entertaining and informative morning. If other SENDRA members would like to share their holiday experiences we would be only too delighted to organise further little gatherings of this sort.