Environment Agency neglects the basics

Many factors contributed to the severity of the recent Oxford floods – a lot of rain fell in a short time; the Government reneged on its flood defence funding commitments; Oxford’s developer-friendly planning officers, too idle to think beyond getting their coats on at 5:00, too thick, indeed, to think at all, allowed unlimited building on flood plains, and so on.

One of the chief culprits was the Environment Agency, on two counts: they could have stood more strongly against flood-plain development (they could not bar it, but they could have opposed it) and they could have kept the channels clear.

Pedestrians cross here

A recent post called Rubbish and Graffiti by the Oxford Canal looked at the bridge which carries Frenchay Road across the Oxford Canal. Planners, developers, highways officers, British Waterways and the police have, by their acts or their omissions, turned this little stretch of canal into an urban pit of bad design, graffiti, notices, overflowing bins and general neglect.

I said in that context that it seemed that “a little man from Oxfordshire County Council goes down the pavements with a tape measure and fills every gap of more than a certain length with a pole and a notice”. Only two such notices are visible from the towpath, but this proves to be just a small selection.

You can see that the little man was a bit stuck for a suitable sign to put on the end of the bridge, but desperate to fill the space. “Pedestrians cross here” appears at first sight to be a statement of the obvious – pretty well everyone is cross at the mess made here by the various officious bodies.

Rubbish and Graffiti by the Oxford Canal

The photograph below encapsulates quite a lot of Oxford’s neglect in one go.

We see a hideous bridge across the Oxford Canal. It is covered in graffiti. Next to it is an overflowing bin. On it are two traffic signs. All around are weeds. The bridge we are stuck with, this generation’s blight on the area for a century or more. The others could be fixed tomorrow with no great application of thought or money.

The story of the bridge, which lies at the end of old Frenchay Road and runs across to the Berkeley Homes Waterways estate, is told in a post called A bridge too big on the Oxford Canal. This post deals with the bin, the graffiti and the notices.

A bridge too big on the Oxford Canal

The photographs show the bridge which connects Berkeley Homes’ Waterways site with North Oxford at the western end of Frenchay Road.

There used to be a swing bridge here, Oxford Canal Bridge No 239, which lay a little south of the present bridge – it pre-dated the building of Frenchay Road and abutted the end of the houses in Hayfield Road in what now is a dead piece of weed-filled ground.

Bill Leonard ducked FOXCAN meeting

Mr Hugh Jaeger of FOXCAN, the group campaigning for the reopening of the Oxford Canal Terminal, responds to my post Searching for the source of the Bile of yesterday. In it, I expressed surprise that Bill Leonard, the arch- (and, so far as I am aware, only)  critic of the canal terminal concept, had not met FOXCAN to discuss his pressing concerns and explain his opposition to the plans.

Searching for the source of the Bile

Hugh Jaeger of FOXCAN writes in response to my post Bill Leonard’s canal fixation. As always, he plays Mr Leonard’s erratic balls with a straight bat. Like me, he is curious as to Leonard’s motives in opposing the Oxford Canal Terminal so vehemently.

Bill Leonard’s canal fixation

Even as I was writing of my puzzlement at Bill Leonard’s attacks on FOXCAN’s aspirations for the Oxford Canal Terminus, the mighty presses of the Oxford Times were churning out his next motiveless missive.

It has lots of apparently technical stuff about heights and widths and about what would or would not have been practical for boatmen to achieve. My attempts to understand it all were thrown by Leonard’s sudden switch within the same paragraph from width measured in metres to height measured in feet, which made me wonder if he has confused the two. Perhaps that explains why, despite his yards of letters on the subject, he has not managed to explain his apparent assertion (or, at least, the logical consequence of his apparent assertion) that boats could not have used the terminal over the 150 years or so that it existed. Presumably the photographs which show the contrary were part of a long-running conspiracy passed through the generations.

Sex by the Oxford Canal

I cycled past a couple having sex by the Oxford Canal yesterday on my way back from the station. At least, I assume there was a man under there somewhere in the mud. What caught my eye was a very fine pair of dangling breasts glinting in the evening light, barely restrained by a white shirt, and the happy pleasure of the woman’s face – not just physical pleasure, but an “I am happy to be here with you” look about her.

That was all I glimpsed before discretion and the fear of cycling into the canal suggested that I averted my gaze.

Why oppose the Oxford Canal Basin?

The comment by Hugh Jaeger of FOXCAN on my post about the Oxford Canal Basin refers to the “bitter attacks” made by one Bill Leonard on the idea of reinstating the former terminal of the Oxford Canal.

I have to say that these attacks have mystified me. I know nothing of Mr Leonard beyond the fact that he is a certified Blue Badge guide in Oxford, but I have sometimes wondered if “certifiable” might be a more appropriate term as he writes letter after letter to the Oxford Times opposing the proposal.

FOXCAN on Oxford Canal Basin

My post on the Oxford Canal Basin, with its commentary on the 1955 photographs from the Thomas Collection, elicits a reaction from Hugh Jaeger of FOXCAN which I give below. It appears that Mr Jaeger was not aware of the Thomas photographs, so I am glad to have pointed him towards them. They were acquired by Oxfordshire County Council relatively recently and had not perhaps been catalogued when he asked about such sources.

Oxford Canal Basin

A quick guide to the plans for the old terminal of the Oxford Canal and a pointer to some 1955 photographs.

Beyond expressing support for the idea, I have kept out of the debate on the hopes to reinstate the former canal basin lying between Hythe Bridge Street and Nuffield College at the Oxford end of the Oxford Canal. FOXCAN, the group leading the campaign, have put Mr Hugh Jaeger in charge of their PR, and there is a tone of political and commercial sensitiveness about it all which is rare in local pressure groups, as well as plenty of existing information about it.

The idea impinges on a host of other things – the over-blown”West End” plans, the ongoing farce which passes for a County transport strategy, and Nuffield’s legitimate commercial interests to name but a few. More of that anon. I will content myself with drawing attention to existing material on the project itself.

The Oxford Canal – a metaphor for Oxford’s neglect

My post Oxford Canal – an alternative view – ends thus:

“This stretch of the Oxford Canal remains a peaceful and beautiful place to walk. Its slow ruin – a combination of deliberate decisions by ignorant people and gradual neglect – is a metaphor for Oxford as a whole.”

But, you might say (if you knew me) you love this city; you photograph it daily and are creating a web site extolling its virtues. Furthermore, the two councils have plans to develop the Westgate and the whole “West End”, to rebuild Bonn Square and endless other schemes to remake Oxford for the 21st Century. How can you talk of “gradual neglect”?

Not yet the end of the Oxford Canal

Lots of attention today for my post Oxford Canal – the alternative view from readers sent my way by a kind reference from Granny Buttons.

I look to see what Granny Buttons says. Ah yes – a post headed “the end of the Oxford Canal” is bound to attract concern. I hope the readers were relieved to discover that the subject-matter is merely the southern end of the Oxford Canal, not the demise of the whole thing.

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Oxford Canal – the alternative view

I am doing elsewhere an illustrated essay on the southern end of the Oxford Canal. I love it dearly, and the purpose of the main work will be to encourage visitors to walk it. This is the alternative view.

It looks very sad at the moment. Some of that is beyond mending – the visual illiterates in the Oxford Planning Department have seen to that, abetted by supine councillors too weak to argue with them. Some things involve established rights or other things beyond the power of anyone to fix, at least in the short term. It would not take much, however, to restore some of its charm.

Be clear that I am not urging major works here. The last thing we want is the dead hand of local bureaucracy making a major project out of this, with twee “features”, daffodils in straight lines and a boastful entry on someone’s CV. It just needs a little tidying up.