General Election June 2017 – Results

TonyOX3

Here are the results for the two Oxford constituencies in the General Election of 8 June 2017.

Oxford East

These results echo the 2015 election. In 2010 the LibDem candidate came a respectable second, but with the LibDem meltdown in 2015 the Tories took second place and held that position on Thursday. Labour’s Anneliese Dodds followed the national trend and increased Labour’s share of the vote. It wouldn’t have been surprising if her majority had  fallen, given she was taking over from the long-established and  popular Andrew Smith, but her background as an MEP helped her deliver a good and convincing campaign. Her strong pro-European stance, although tempered with her decision to accept the Brexit referendum result and not go against it, when coupled with the student vote may have helped in pro-remain Oxford.

Tory newcomer Suzanne Bartington gave a good account of herself despite failing to turn up for the first hustings of the campaign with no explanation. Given more opportunities later she wisely chose not to copy her leader’s tactics and joined in with the general debates.

Like LibDems all over the country* Kirsten Johnson will have been disappointed that the LibDem surge never materialised. She was a strong, committed and passionate pro-European candidate who came over well and who in different times could very likely have made a good MP.

Larry Sanders, standing for the Greens, also ran a  good campaign. His message will have resonated with many if not most of the constituency’s Remainers, but he suffered from the Greens’ perennial problem of not being seen as ever likely to win the seat. If we had proportional representation it might have been a different story.

* apart from in the other Oxford constituency – see below.

Oxford West & Abingdon

It was a surprise loss for the LibDems in 2010 when Evan Harris lost his seat to Tory Nicola Blackwood by only 176 votes. Since then Blackwood has established herself as a hard-working high-flyer for the Tories, becoming a Parliamentary Under-Secretary in the Department of Health. This time round Layla Moran reversed the situation for the LibDems, winning the seat with a majority of 816. Her increased share of the vote, 14.8%, was the second highest of the eight seats the LibDems won in England.

Marie Tidball failed to generate the swing to Labour seen elsewhere and trailed a distant third. UKIP’s Alan Harris followed the national trend as his share of the vote fell to just half of its 2010 level and down 5.6 percentage points from 2015.

Design Guides for Walking and Cycling

TonyOX3

While local attention is focused on the details of Access to Headington, the County has been working on two new design guides – one for walking and one for cycling. These are intended to set the standards for walking and cycling provision in any new developments or redevelopments.

The Guides were approved by the County’s Cabinet Member for the Environment on 27 April this year. They will eventually be produced as good-looking booklets, but until then the final text of each is on the County’s website:

I asked the County Council how well the Access to Headington work conformed to the new guidelines. I was told:

All roads within scope of the Access to Headington project have an annual average daily traffic of over 5,000. Most speed limits are 30mph or less so the minimum provision for cycle infrastructure is stepped access (Table 3 in the Cycling Design Guide).

This is proposed for The Slade (2m hybrid cycle lanes in both directions) where there is sufficient space to accommodate this. On other roads the provision will be a mix of cycle tracks and lanes and reflects what officers think is the best compromise between the safety of cyclists, keeping some on-street parking provision, working with limited available carriageway widths and a desire to reduce the potential for any further loss of trees and grass verges.  Available funding and cost of works to provide alternative cycle infrastructure was also taken into consideration such as on Old Road (removing the double kerb) and Headley Way (retaining structures required on the downhill section).

 

Access to Headington – Headley Way & Cherwell Drive

TonyOX3

The next phase of Access to Headington work covers Headley Way and Cherwell Drive. It includes remodelling the junction at the JR access, where the mini-roundabout will be replaced by traffic lights. At the bottom of the hill the whole junction will be altered with lights replacing the double roundabout. The one-way flow on the service road outside the shops will be reversed.

More-or-less continuous cycle paths will be created on both sides of Headley Way and Cherwell Drive. Although there are significant shortcomings in the design, which is regrettable, cyclists should find their journeys feeling safer and more comfortable.

Site equipment will start appearing on 19 June with construction beginning a week later. This will be at the JR entrance junction and will include the junction of the lower (Jack Straw’s Lane) part of Staunton Road with Headley Way. The work here and elsewhere will continue until about the third week of October, when it will be suspended until restarting at the beginning of January 2018. A detailed schedule of planned dates for the whole project is not yet available.

Paint marks
These marks can only mean one thing – roadworks!
Engineering drawing, JR entrance
Work starts here 19 June.

The Jack Straw’s Lane section of Staunton Road will be closed for about three weeks while the work is happening.

At present, motor vehicles leaving this part of Staunton Road wanting to turn right on Headley Way have to turn left and make a U-turn round the mini roundabout. Once the roundabout has been replaced by traffic lights this won’t be possible; there’s no obvious alternative.

I made a few notes on the plans when I went to the open exhibition in Northway on Monday, concentrating on the cycling aspects. I’ve passed them to the County’s Access to Headington team and you can read them here. I understand Cyclox will be sending some more comprehensive comments.

You can find the engineers’ drawings here. In the sidebar to the right of this post are links to the County’s website for the project and for signing up to their regular newsletter about the scheme.