Tag: Oxford City Council

Oxford MP weighs in on Botley Road closure

Posted on March 14, 2023 by - News

The MP for West Oxfordshire and Abingdon said she is in close contact with the emergency services about their ability, if needed,  to rescue local people and businesses  when the Botley Road closes.

The closure is slated for the 11th of April.

Layla Moran (pictured)  told a reporter:  “Many thanks for copying me into your email to campaigning organisations about the impact of the road closure on our emergency services’ ability to maintain adequate response times to residents and businesses in West Oxford.  Layla Moran

“I’ve also written to our emergency services and am in conversation with them about plans to mitigate impact on response times.  They are meeting with Network Rail again on Thursday and I hope to have an update from them all soon after.

Meanwhile a spokesperson for Network Rail told the INQ: “We are working closely with our partners in Oxfordshire County Council and Oxford City Council to mitigate any disruption to local people and communities that arises from the closure of Botley Road and are continuing to work with the emergency services to explore any potential ways in which we can assist them with providing their vital support to the local community. “

“In relation to ongoing construction taking place in the city, we’re meeting regularly with the developers of those projects and are coordinating our traffic management plans in tandem with them. 

“Our teams are involved in ongoing discussions with local healthcare providers who are assessing the best way that they can continue to serve the community, with more meetings scheduled with hospital representatives in the coming days. 

“The route from the bus stops on Botley Road to the station is step-free but is further away than the current drop-off arrangements at the station.

“We are working with the bus companies and the city council’s ‘Inclusive Transport & Movement Focus Group’ to discuss accessibility requirements and identify ways to further improve accessibility for all while we are working. We are committed to listening to feedback throughout our works and are open to suggestions for any ways that we can improve accessibility.”

A Facebook page called WestOxfordAccess is also discussing what’s going on. Ψ

Oxfordshire CC screws up on roads. Again

Posted on September 4, 2022 by - News, Opinions

ROADS Some people have argued that Oxfordshire County Council should be merged with Oxford City Council.

Let The INQ explain. Oxfordshire County Council – now a Labour Party thing – controls the roads in Oxford.

And, so far, that has caused a disaster. Little Oxford has few arteries supporting the heart of the city.

HP joins the Internet of Things bandwagon

Posted on February 27, 2015 by - News

HPMajor vendors have convinced themselves that the Internet of Things (IoT) is the next big thing, and the latest to join the band is Hewlett Packard.

HP said its own version of IoT will allow organisations to manage different sets of IoT sensors, analyse data and use vertical applications on machine to machine devices.

It also claimed to have introduced the first vertical application called the HP Energy Management Pack.

The packages are aimed at communications service providers (CSPs) and is essentially remote management to discover devices, configure the devices and control IoT traffic.

The HP Energy Management Pack is intended to allow the CSPs to give secure home automation and energy control to people, to industries and to councils.

For example, Oxford City Council might want to remotely manage public lights based on profiles, emergencies and on weather conditions. And the pack might let “smart cities” manage parking using sensors.

 

Your binmen are watching you

Posted on December 5, 2014 by - News

wheeliesA Freedom of Information (FOI) request made to Oxford City Council has revealed that the folk who pick up your wheelie bins are filming you in secret.

After a wheelie bin in TechEye’s front garden in Oxford wasn’t picked up, we called the council to ask why.

The council said that we didn’t have the bin in the right place for collection and supplied photos showing how we’d offended. We hadn’t, by the way.

Our FOI request asked Oxford City Council which Act of Parliament authorised the filming of people’s houses; how long the footage was kept; whether employees were aware they were being filmed; and whether the information was shared with other authorities internally and externally.

We received the answers to those questions today.

The council said:

1.    There is no specific legislation preventing the CCTV recording of
private property taken from public places (in this case the public
highway). The system is operated in accordance with all the requirements
and the principles of the Human Rights Act 1998, and the Data Protection
Act 1998.

2.    The footage is stored on a hard drive in the vehicle and the image
storage time does fluctuate, but is generally around 8 weeks.

3.    Yes. Staff are fully aware that they are being filmed. A full
consultation with the Unions was undertaken before the cameras were
installed on our vehicles.

4.    No. The system is operated in accordance with all the requirements
and the principles of the Human Rights Act 1998 and the Data Protection
Act 1998 and therefore, has the potential for images to be released, on
request, to the police and/or other agencies.

So there you have it. Your binmen and the council are watching you.

Councils snoop on employees, residents

Posted on October 13, 2014 by - News

fingerprintHard evidence shows that UK councils behave far worse than Google and employ cameras to check whether their own employees and residents follow the made up rules council officials operate.

It has emerged CCTV cameras follow every movement of the binmen as they pick up wheelie bins, and binmen are called to task if they get a tiny iota wrong.

A letter from a man called Robert Brown – waste and recycling operations manager at Oxford City Council, a functionary for the body  – confirms that a corporation operating binmen has cameras watching all the time to see what both their employees and residents are up to.

We have asked for full YouTube footage of the probably daily snooping, by back door cameras watching both employees and residents, in the hope there might be transparency.

Brown said to a resident of back water Mill Street, in Oxford: “We have taken the time to check out our inboard cameras and can confirm that your bin was not presented correctly when our operatives came to service your street.”

The resident told TechEye: “My bin was where it had been for the last four and a half year years. It is a narrow street and I would not care to put a bin on the pavement because people are trying to take their children to school and walk on the narrow street.”

Oxford City Council’s Brown produced one sample of video and four photographs to demonstrate the local resident was in the wrong, but posed the question to TechEye about surveillance of both staff and the people that pay Oxford City Council’s functionary bills.

A local resident told TechEye – on conditions of anonymity – that the binmen had been happy to deliver the blue bin to its inevitable consignment in a Grunwald’s vehicle but that he was puzzled that what she thought was a mistake on the behalf of the binmen, turned out to be an act of mass surveillance.

At press time, Oxford City Council was unable to reply because they only operate between the hours of nine to five, Monday to Friday. We’ll try tomorrow to get a definitive answer from Robert Brown – that is to say his representatives on earth, the press officers at Oxford City Council.

As you can see, from the pictures, below  there is a lack of cohesive advice to both binmen and residents.  We at TechEye are also concerned at the lack of transparency and intrusion from Oxford City Council and its representatives.  More on Tuesday.

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