Category Archives: Meetings

Low Carbon West Oxford

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21 May 2014

Simon Collings of OFA spoke about the proposed Oxford Relief River (aka Western Conveyance) at a public meeting organised by Low Carbon West Oxford. The main speaker was Dr Doug Parr, the Chief Scientific Officer of Greenpeace, who gave a presentation about climate change. Simon then spoke about the increased frequency of flooding in Oxford in recent years, the steps which have been taken to reduce flood risk in the city, and about why we need the larger scheme being proposed by the Environment Agency.

Meeting about sewers

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9 May 2014

Simon Collings represented OFA at a meeting of the City Council’s Scrutiny Committee today where the subject of sewer flooding was discussed. Senior representatives of Thames Water were present. Sewer overflow has been a problem in parts of the city for years and is particularly bad when river flooding occurs. The meeting discussed the various issues and possible solutions. The dialogue was constructive and Thames Water and the Council are currently agreeing a communication about the outcomes of the meeting. We hope to be able to say more in the near future. Our sense is that real progress is now being made.

Meeting in South Hinksey

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5 May 2014

Peter Rawcliffe of OFA gave an informal presentation to South Hinksey Parish Council on flooding, outlining the proposed Oxford Relief River (aka Western Conveyance) project and discussing what might be available to protect South Hinksey in the years before that becomes effective, or in the event of it not going ahead.

Flood meeting in West Oxford

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30 April 2014

Susanna Pressel, local City and County Councillor (and OFA Flood Star) convened and chaired a very useful flood meeting in West Oxford Community Primary School. Susanna had mustered a panel of representatives from the EA, Thames Water, the Fire & Rescue Service, Thames Valley Police and local councils. Nick Hills of OFA attended as a local resident, but was called to the front to field questions as appropriate. Members of the panel were invited to outline their respective roles and responsibilities, which they did in turn, several of them acknowledging the contribution and initiatives made by OFA. They then responded to questions from the floor. Barry Russell of the EA handled some long and complex questions with his customary aplomb.

Meeting in Birmingham

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9 April 2014

Nick Hills attended a meeting in Birmingham on behalf of OFA. The meeting was convened by the Flood Hazard Research Centre and chaired by Prof Edmund Penning-Rowsell, who invited us. The purpose of the meeting was to assist FHRC in their development of a new free-of-charge website intended to give flood economic data (damages; disruption; simple appraisal tools, etc) to community flood groups and others. They wanted to understand better the requirements of non-professionals with a particular interest in flood risk, alleviation and management. Other attendees included representatives from two other community flood groups, the Environment Agency, the National Flood Forum, Northants County Council, and Mary Dhonau OBE, of MDA Flood Consultants.

 

Maintenance of rural stretches: riparian responsibilities

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IMG_4149hinksey stream at s hinksey

Hinksey Stream at South Hinksey, 1 Nov 2012

7 June 2013

Peter Rawcliffe of OFA met with a representative of the EA today, to discuss the maintenance of the long rural stretches of waterway in our area. Our joint aim is to bring the riparian owners within Oxford together to develop a practical approach to their doing the maintenance work that is needed. The EA has the skills, experience and authority to advise: OFA will add the community voice, emphasising the importance of proper maintenance and of riparian owners fulfilling their responsibilities. We hope to be able to report progress by our Annual Public Meeting in November.

Meeting on OFA proposals; and encouraging maintenance by riparian owners

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30 May 2013

1. Meeting this afternoon with representatives of the EA, County, RFCC, City and Vale. We heard the results of assessments of ten proposals put forward by OFA last December. Two broad options are worthy of further investigation: we expect to hear more by the autumn. Also awaited is a reconciliation of two different flood models for our area, which will have an indirect bearing on the proposals mentioned and assist in a re-evaluation of the idea of a new ‘western conveyance’ – i.e. bigger waterway (new, or expanded present ones – or a mix of the two). While nothing is yet definite, we remain patiently optimistic, and determined.

 2. We are starting to work with the EA (first meeting next week) to encourage owners of the banks of the long rural stretches of waterway in the area (for which as riparian owners they are responsible) to undertake long-term maintenance of the waterways.

The need for more government funding

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12 December 2012

We spent this morning meeting with representatives of the Environment Agency, the Regional Flood and Coastal Committee, County Council, Oxford City Council and others. We hosted a meeting with these partners in July, to discuss what can be done to help further reduce flood risk in the Oxford area, and today’s meeting was the follow-up.
The meeting was positive and forward-looking. But while all involved want to see progress, and variously have the skills, knowledge and dedication to achieve it, what is sorely lacking is sufficient central government funding.
Parts of the Oxford Flood Strategy, and several works proposed by ourselves, have been implemented already. These helped in the recent flooding. Getting more done is a long slow process.

We’ll do what we can to keeping flooding high on the political agenda.

OFA Annual Public Meeting, 2012

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9 November 2012

We held our fifth Annual Public Meeting last night. Each year we wonder if attendance will drop off as we get further from the last flood. That’s 5 years ago, but again we had an excellent turnout. We work by public consent, so it’s important to us that we have strong public support – we’re ready to go for another year. We were delighted to welcome both our local MPs, Nicola Blackwood and Andrew Smith, and Rodney Rose, Deputy Leader of the County Council, who has responsibility for flooding. The County is now the Lead Local Flood Authority and Rodney Rose represents the County on the important DEFRA Thames Regional Flood and Coastal Committee.
Thank you to everybody who came.