How can anyone make an informed decision if OCC are not willing to be honest?

When we talked to OCC cabinet on 9th August, OCC struggled to reply:

The play area will be “relatively similar”. This is dishonest. All the current and the new play area have in common is a basket swing. Ours is the best in Oxford. The proposed basket swing is just sad.

“We could have up to 8 or 9 items of play equipment, pending safety requirements.” How is this possible? Earlier this year, we were told that the area of safety surface would be 173 m² (68% smaller) … enough for 4 items of equipment, a set of stepping logs and a bit of space in between.

The proposed play area will cater for all ages. Since April 2020 all plans have shown a Local Area for Play (LAP). An LAP is for children 0 – 6 within a 1 minute’s walk. The architect said Fields in Trust guidance allows them to put the LAP 5m away from the block of flats. Bertie Park is a Neighbourhood Equipped Area (NEAP) for Play. It caters for children of all ages. Fields in Trust recommend 30m between the play area of an NEAP and housing.

According to Cllr Brown, we got the wrong end of the stick because we took our information from the artist’s drawings …. I have spent hours trying to find out the truth from council officials and documents. Anyway. Who told the artist what to draw?

The plans have already been submitted. How can anyone make an informed decision if everything is still “indicative”, and no-one is willing to be honest?

See here for unedited video of the whole cabinet meeting.