Labour’s legacy: Oxford City Council’s record on Blackbird Leys
IWCA activist Lee Cole took a walk around Blackbird Leys last week to highlight some examples of Labour’s record in office since it regained control of the council in May 2002.
Top right: The building of four new flats in Thrift Place was a drop in the ocean in relation to the thousands on Oxford’s housing waiting list, but the new homes were welcome nonetheless. However, to leave them boarded up and unoccupied for months on end is nothing short of a crime.
Middle right: Opposite the new flats is the waste ground where the Butterwort Place maisonettes used to be. This derelict block was demolished so that new homes could be built on the land. So far, however, the council has failed to get anyone to build the new houses so for the last year and a half this unsightly plot of muddy ground has been left vacant.
Bottom right: Labour’s big idea for building new homes in Oxford is to develop garage sites. Unfortunately for existing residents, this means trading facilities for car parking or storage with an increased density of housing. At the moment, however, the housing plan seems like the perfect excuse for doing nothing about the terrible state of repair of many garage areas such as this one on Crowberry Road. These garages have been left like this since the beginning of the year when Cllr Val Smith claimed she had surveyed residents, who told her they wanted the garages ’bulldozed’. When the IWCA knocked on doors in the area not one local resident could recall anyone from the Labour Party coming round to ask them about the garages.
Leys Independent, issue 22, April 2004
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