Liaison with Oxford Brookes University
Police Community Support Officers: Brookes are going to fund the cost of two new PCSOs to patrol the DRARA, Headington and Gipsy Lane areas. The working hours of the officers are still under discussion. It is expected that they will start work by April 2010.
Community Relations: Andrea Siret, customer relationship manager for Brookes, has been visiting HMOs in parts of Divinity and Southfield roads with a Council officer, to discuss waste disposal and recycling with students. The Brookes student union is planning a campaign in this second semester about citizenship “to encourage our members to have a greater understanding of their role within their local community.”
David Whittingham, general manager of the student union, works with Andrea Siret and attends Neighbourhood Action Groups in Headington and East Oxford. Both Andrea and David are happy to handle issues of concern to residents, and can be contacted at: asiret@brookes.ac.uk; dwhittingham@brookes.ac.uk.
Anne Gwinnett, Director of Corporate Affairs at Brookes, and Andrea Siret have recently had meetings with representatives from DRARA to discuss planning and community relations issues. A meeting between Brookes and representatives from several residents’ associations took place on 18 November; the next meeting will probably take place in February, rather than the usual six months time.
Transport:
Cars: since May the DVLA has refused to supply Brookes with identification of the owners of cars, which makes it difficult to discover which students are using cars against the rules. Brookes has written to Andrew Smith MP about this issue, and hopes the RAs will do so too.
Buses: there are now eleven new Brookes buses, run by the Oxford Bus Company, all manufactured in the UK and producing 80% fewer emissions than previous buses.
Location of Students: our impression that there is a massive concentration of students in the DRARA area has been confirmed by Brookes. They have done an analysis by postcode of the location of their full time students who are not living in accommodation provided by the university. They estimate that there are 3,431 such students and the heaviest concentration is in DRARA. One of the attractions to students of living in privately rented accommodation is that they are able to bring cars. About 25% of Brookes students come from public (i.e.private) schools. Brookes say that they are building about 900 new bedrooms for students next year but they do not know if there will be a corresponding reduction in the number of students living in the private rented sector. Brookes has over 12,000 full time students. About 3,600 live in accommodation provided by Brookes; about 3,430 are estimated by Brookes to live in the private rented sector. Where are the other 5,000 students?
Studentification: a public meeting was held on 23 September 2009 on the impact of studentification on local communities. The problems of noise, litter, parking, squalid houses, anti-social behaviour, lack of neighbours etc. are shared by many university towns throughout the country. The lead speaker was Professor Danny Dorling from Sheffield University. It was agreed that the local RAs would work on submissions to the N.E.Area Committee and the East Area Parliament on action plans which will address the issues associated with the high concentration of HMOs (Houses in multiple occupation).
This meeting was reinforced at DRARA’s AGM in October, when our guest speaker was Dr. Richard Tyler, Cordinator of the National HMO Lobby. (www.hmolobby.org.uk). This excellent website illustrates forcefully how the high concentration of HMOs in university and some seaside towns is a widespread national problem.
Street Cleaning: Brookes have purchased a machine for cleaning the streets near the Headington campus.(Unfortunately it cannot be operated by students for insurance reasons.)
Landlord Accreditation Scheme: the City Council has completed a consultation on this scheme. Brookes strongly supports it and thinks it should be mandatory (not voluntary as at present), and should include agents as well as landlords.
Ivon Asquith has taken over from Barbara Crossley as the DRARA committee member responsible for liaison with Brookes, and would be glad to receive any comments and suggestions from DRARA members (ivon.asquith@btinternet.com; tel: 01865 249389).
