With 2022 drawing to a close, we look at the most important stories from our councils.
This is part one of our review of the year in politics in Oxfordshire.
JANUARY
Cashless payments were trialled at Gloucester Green underground car park in the city centre.
It marked the start of the next stage of the city council’s ‘going cashless’ initiative and was the first step towards going cashless at all of the city’s car parks.
READ MORE: Council to trial cashless parking payment at Gloucester Green
An Oxford MP called for rapid action to improve safety on the A34, saying she is ‘very worried’ about the number of accidents on the road – which forms part of the Oxford ring road.
Oxford East MP Annelise Dodds called on Nick Harris, chief of National Highways, the organisation which maintains and improves England’s motorways and major A-roads, to speed up work on a major trunk road.
This concerned the road which links the Midlands with the South Coast ports of Portsmouth and Southampton and runs south through the county from the M40 near Bicester.
A craft beer brewery’s ambitions to open a new bar in Oxford Covered Market was dealt a blow by city councillors.
Oxford City Council’s licensing and gambling committee were due to meet to decide whether Botley microbrewery The Tap Social’s newest venture, ‘The Market Tap’, would be allowed to serve alcohol.
The application sought permission to serve alcohol from 2-10pm from Sunday to Thursday and 2pm to midnight on Friday and Saturdays at a unit previously occupied by Hedges Butchers.
The meeting, however, was cancelled after the council rejected the application on a technicality.
FEBRUARY
Oxfordshire County Council in partnership with Oxford City Council launched Britain’s first Zero Emissions Zone (ZEZ).
This means that all polluting vehicles, such as petrol, diesel, and hybrid cars, will be charged for entering the city centre.
Only zero emission vehicles, such as electric cars, will be able to enter the pilot zone for free.
The pilot scheme – which will cover Cornmarket Street, Queen Street, Bonn Square, New Inn Hall Street, St Michael’s Street, and Ship Street – will work in a similar way to the London congestion zone charge and the ultra-low emission zone.
MP Layla Moran commented on the Sue Gray report by saying Prime Minister Boris Johnson should be “ashamed”. Ms Gray, a senior civil servant, found that some lockdown gatherings represented a “serious failure”, given what was asked of the public during the pandemic.
Ms Moran, MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, said: “For bereaved families, frontline workers, and anyone who gave up so much during the pandemic, this report does not dull their anger.”
MARCH
Oxford City Council announced it would be bowing to public pressure and suspending its twinning link with Perm, in Russia.
This came soon after the Oxford Mail revealed that engines built in Perm were being employed in Il-76 cargo planes used for the invasion of Ukraine.
People in Oxford condemned what was described as an ‘unacceptable’ link while businesses and governments across the world severed ties with Russia.
West Oxfordshire Liberal Democrats said they wanted ‘straight answers’ about donations to Witney MP Robert Courts and West Oxfordshire Conservatives from the wife of a former Russian oligarch.
The Lib Dems launched a petition to ‘try to get some straight answers out of both Robert Courts and Witney Conservative Association as to why they think it’s okay to take money from Ms Lubov Chernukhin”.
The petition states: “Mr Courts must explain where the Russian-linked money they have received comes from, or to give it to groups who support the people of Ukraine.”
APRIL
THE county council planned to provide at least one mixed gender toilet in each of its buildings, to “remove barriers” to transgender people.
The motion on transgender and non-binary inclusion was passed at the county council’s full council.
It was put forward by Lib Dem councillor Sally Povolotsky who said the motion was not about “toilets or pronouns” but a “lived reality of segregation,hatred, singling out, media targeting, crime and even self-suicide for one per cent of our county’s population.”
READ MORE: Oxford's ZEZ raises £120k for the council from fines
Small businesses in Oxford described plans to extend the Zero Emission Zone to most of the city centre as ‘another stress’.
After surviving multiple lockdowns due to Covid, many small businesses across the country were just finding their feet again.
Those in Oxford said they would not only have to contend with a cost of living crisis but also extra charges from a Zero Emission Zone (ZEZ).
If the current trial consultation period is successful, the scheme will extend to the entire city centre in 2023.
MAY
Oxford City Council’s ‘selective licensing’ scheme was given the green light, meaning that all private rented homes in the city will need a licence.
Just under half (49.3 per cent) of all Oxford’s homes are privately rented.
Licensing will require landlords to show they are meeting safety and management standards, and are a ‘fit and proper person’.
Oxfordshire County Council supported a Vision Zero policy, backed by cycling groups and The Oxford Mail, which seeks to prevent deaths and serious injury on the streets.
The deaths of cyclists Jennifer Wong, Ellen Moilanen and Ling Felce, who were killed within just six months of each other, rocked the city and prompted calls for urgent change.
The Tories lost control of West Oxfordshire for the first time in 22 years – with a long-serving deputy leader among the high-profile casualties.
JUNE
Two of Oxfordshire’s Tory MPs publicly showed their support for former Prime Minister Boris Johnson after he survived a vote of no confidence.
West Oxfordshire’s Robert Courts and Banbury’s Victoria Prentis admitted to backing the PM at the time.
The other two, Henley’s John Howell and Wantage’s David Johnston, remained tight-lipped about their vote.
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