Victoria Road News and Views

Posted for Ted Dewan of the Beechcroft Road Association:

I’m hoping to canvass opinion in Summertown about the proposed design of the replacement lanterns for the council’s impending lamppost replacement program. The existing lights in the neighborhood do a pretty crummy job, and the new lanterns should do a much better job, but unfortunately their design is pretty ugly, and I’m hoping we can do better for our neighbourhood.

BCR Light

So here’s a link to the Beech Croft Residents’ Association (BCRA) site where you’ll find an entry on Street Lighting, photos of the existing and the proposed new lantern, and a design that I think would be far more appropriate for the area.
www.beechcroftroad.org.uk

Soho Light

Street light design might seem like small beer when compared to other issues, but street furniture design matters a great deal (clearly, property developers believe so, too, or they wouldn’t pay the extra to pepper the Waterways/Rutherway developments with what they think pass as stylish ‘period’ lights–still a lot better than the bland utilitarian design of the proposed Iridium lamps). As these things will be in place for nearly half a century, or until the electricity runs down, it is a good time not to be asleep at the wheel.

Philips Iridium

I’m not sure people outside the BCRA can post comments on the BCRA site, so please feel free to comment on this Victoria Road Group blog. The VRG will pass on your comments to me and the BCRA. Finally, if any resident of Victoria Road might have time and energy to really champion this, please speak to the Chair of the Victoria Road Group. If there are more individuals to generally represent a broader Summertown constituency, it would help.

The photos are of the existing Summertown lantern and a similar more attractive lantern recently installed in Soho. The third picture is the Philips Iridium due to appear all over Summertown.

All the best,

Ted Dewan

Six TV Oxford has been cited as a model for Britain of a vital local television station – but it has stopped broadcasting. From an article in the Oxford Mail, it appears to be in part a victim of the digital switchover, as it was a analogue station and could not obtain a guanantee that it would receive a digital channel. In the meantime, it was facing declining resources and audience, as viewers switch to digital. Should Ofcom be backing existing local television services, and not leaving them on an analogue only island? What can Oxford do to provide better local television news and local affairs coverage, particularly in the aftermath of Six TV? Apparently, Milestone Group, which owns Six TV, is in discussions with Ofcom and the Department of Media, Culture and Sport. Don’t hesitate to contact either.

To write Ofcom, go to: http://www.ofcom.org.uk/complain/288203/

See: Oxford Mail 28 April ‘Digital Shake-up Turns Off Six TV’ at: http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/4327259.print/