Oxford desperately needs homes. Cllr Hollingsworth has told us:

It’s my view and the view of this Council that we – the current generation fortunate enough to live in this wonderful city – should do our best to make sure that our children both have places to play in their childhood AND the hope of being able to live in Oxford when they grow up and want to have children of their own.

Cllr Alex Hollingsworth

What do the council mean by “places to play”? The sacrifice that they are asking our children to make would mean a recreation ground without a blade of grass and a nature trail that neither police or local parents think is safe for unaccompanied children.

OCC say that they do not intend to provide homes for families within the city centre because the land is too expensive. If they are going to export their housing to this ward, we also need a safe place for our children to run and shout and play.

Bertie Park was mentioned in some Labour leaflets, but it was not on the ballot paper.

Some of our campaign members would never vote anything but Labour. The Labour Party has been in power in Oxford for so long that it can now govern by decree. Oxford City Council members refuse to meet with us, to keep us updated or engage with our arguments. If something is mentioned in a leaflet, candidates are obliged to support it. But it doesn’t mean that it is right. Or that it is legal.

Small, so easy to keep an eye on the kids.

Never floods, so use it all year round.

Good place to meet and chat.

Something for all ages.

Grassy area for anything from rocket-launching and roly polies to badminton and breast feeding.

Clean.

What does this really mean? It means that councillors have finally realised that they can’t just build on the playground and multi-use games area. The local plan says that “the existing Bertie Place recreation ground, including a replacement Multi-use Games Area” should be re-provided.

What does this really mean? It means that Naomi and Marie are committed to building on the buffer zone around the playground and the multi-use games area. The MUGA will be underneath somebody’s bedroom window. There will be no grass.

At one end of the ward, there is open air cinema and SOAP. At this end, Naomi is “working with police and cold harbour residents to tackle local anti-social behaviour”. How will building on Bertie Park affect anti-social behaviour?

We need council housing, but we also need recreation grounds. Naomi is a hard-working councillor, but Bertie Park is the heart of our community. Will we let Bertie Park be a casualty in the city council’s drive for a global Oxford? Or do we need an Oxford for the people of Oxford.

With the warm weather Bertie Park is back in full swing. Our community is using every square inch of park. This is the sound of spring.

This is what we will lose if they build on Bertie Park.

Interesting question: how many young people can you fit into a basket swing?

Oxford city council are carrying out a survey of Parks and Green Spaces. Here is the link. This needs to be completed by March 29th. Completing this for Bertie Park would be really helpful for the campaign, but you can complete this for as many parks as you like. The survey has 9 questions (it has no q 2!):

1 Do you ever visit any parks or open spaces? (Yes/no)

3 The name of the Park, Recreation Ground or Nature Reserve that you would like to comment on.

4 How do you normally travel there in the Summer?

5 How do you normally travel there in the Winter?

6 What do you value most about this park/green space?

7 What is your opinion of the facilities? These are listed (Good/fair/poor/no opinion)

8 We would like to know your top five priorities. The facilities are listed. One is high and five is low.

9 Are there any changes you would like to see in the park/green space?

10 Are there any other comments you would like to make about Oxford City Council parks/green spaces?

We were assured that the Bertie Park consultation was due any day. Now there is yet another delay. Could this be anything to do with the upcoming elections?

Wanting to understand, we sent some questions to the council. They replied we are “not able to go into the detail you are requesting at the moment”. Here are the really tough questions that Oxford City Council do not want to answer:

OCC say that they will share the information with the community “at the appropriate time in the future”. Would that appropriate time be after the election?

We would like the council not to treat us as enemies, or to blame us for the problems that they are having with the Bertie Park development. All we have done is point out what is in the agreed local plan and draw the attention of the council to its own policies.

Oxford City council’s new economic strategy is incoherent by design. It is driven by the Venn diagram below:

Choosing a Venn diagram allows the council to use a pick and mix approach where OCC e.g. can say that inclusion is a priority, but run projects that make Oxford more unequal. For more details of this approach, see the draft economic strategy.

This approach produces many contraditions, but contradictions also appear elsewhere. OCC’s Green Spaces Strategy states: “Play spaces should be located on accessible green space where feasible and include elements of natural and free play” and “A buffer zone should be provided around play areas”. Yet OCC want to build houses on the buffer zone around Bertie Park. The only green space will be on waste-land which is unsuitable for unaccompanied children.

OCC have also been consulting on their City Centre Action Plan. They say that delivering more housing is a priority, but there will be little housing in the city centre, and no family housing. They can build more houses for their money outside of the city centre (e.g. on Bertie Park). While city centre businesses struggle to fill vacancies, the CAP aims to create far more new jobs than homes. Increased demand inflates house prices. The council always use the number of people on the housing list to justify the need to build on Bertie Park, but what if their policies make housing less affordable, driving new people onto the list? The housing list has been the same size for at least 20 years.

The city centre action plan relegates homelessness to the section on “getting the basics right”, just above effective street scene management and cleaning and waste regimes. OCC see homelessness as a symptom to be treated, while their policies drive up the cost of housing, one of its underlying causes.