After last week’s burst of activity and then non-activity, this week has been quieter as action shifted away from the streets and into the offices.

On Monday 11 January the planning application was received by the City’s planning department. It will be checked and then put on the Council’s website, at which point it will be open for public consultation over a three week period. As I write, the application is not yet available.

On Wednesday 13th the Hospital Trust’s Board met and their Chair, Dame Fiona Caldicott, gave an apology on behalf of the Trust for the Trust’s failure to communicate with local people. Oxford Mail reporter Joe Gammie was at the meeting and wrote

OUH chairman Dame Fiona Caldicott admitted the trust should have listened and spoken to neighbours earlier about the Hospital Energy Project. She told a meeting of the board of directors yesterday that it had not been handled well.

Dame Fiona added: “We are aware of the huge difficulty and consternation experienced by residents about our energy project. This has not been handled as well as we could have done given we didn’t start to address the concerns of the residents early enough. I want to make an apology to the residents from the board and to assure them we will liaise as much as we can.”

The full article is here. Dame Fiona’s words don’t seem to have been added to the Trust’s website yet.

On Thursday 14th Vital Energi’s Project Development Director issued a statement. The full text is on the LibDem Councillors’ website. He says at one point

“District heating is an emerging technology and has differing requirements from utilities and statutory undertakers which is not well understood in relation to these applications to Heat Networks; planning permission requirements are not always evident.”

Meanwhile the work goes on within the JR grounds.