Agenda and minutes

Venue: A virtual meeting

Contact: Paul Bateman  Democratic Services Officer

Items
No. Item

6.

Election of Chair

To receive nominations for a Chair of the Committee’s Panel.

Minutes:

A motion, moved and seconded, to elect Councillor Peter Dragonetti as Chair of the panel was declared carried on being put to the vote.

 

RESOLVED: that Councillor Peter Dragonetti be appointed Chair of the panel.

 

7.

Apologies for absence

To record apologies for absence. 

Minutes:

Apologies for absence was recevied from Councillor Lorraine Hillier who was substituted for Councillor Leigh Rawlins.

8.

Declarations of interest

To receive any declarations of disclosable pecuniary interests in respect of items on the agenda for this meeting.  

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

9.

Urgent business and Chair's announcements

To receive notification of any matters which the chairman determines should be considered as urgent business and the special circumstances which have made the matters urgent, and to receive any announcements from the chairman. 

Minutes:

There was no urgent business. The chair outlined the procedure to be followed in a virtual meeting. He also advised the meeting of how the officers’ report would be introduced and the point at which the objector could speak and make a statement.  

10.

Public participation

To receive any questions or statements from members of the public that have registered to speak. 

Minutes:

There was one public speaker, Mr. MB, at the meeting (named in the report) who had originally complained to officers regarding the street naming proposal.

11.

Street Name Change, Didcot pdf icon PDF 2 MB

To consider the report of the Head of Corporate Services in respect of a street name change proposal in Didcot.

Minutes:

The IT Applications Manager presented the report by the Head of Corporate Services to the Panel. The report and appendices had been shared with the panel and complainant in paper and electronic form.

 

The purpose of the report was to consider the relevant representations received in respect of a proposal to change the street name and number of 4 properties in Larch Drive to Birch Close, Didcot.

 

The panel noted the technical problem which had arisen, requiring a street name change; the district council was responsible for creating the first 2 lines of all addresses and Royal Mail were responsible for adding the locality, post town and post code.  Each street could have one or many post codes associated with it.  A post code could only apply to one street.  Post codes were used in satellite navigation devices, which guided drivers to their destination following a route that took account of, inter alia, one way streets, laden vehicle weights and non-passable obstructions, such as bus gates.

 

The proposal recommended to the panel was to change the addresses of the 4 remaining properties addressed into Larch Drive, on the north side of the bus gate, to Birch Close. The proposal sought to rectify direct vehicle access to the 4 addresses, for the convenience of the households and safety of households south of the bus gate, whose drives had been blocked by delivery vehicles whilst deliveries were completed on foot to addresses on the north side of the bus gate.

 

Having reviewed all the evidence provided to the panel and taking into account the duties of the street naming and numbering authority under Section 13 of the Oxfordshire Act 1985 and the General Licensing Committee procedure rules (3) of the Constitution of South Oxfordshire District Council, officers considered that the panel should be requested to consider the road naming and number change.

 

Historically, the problem had arisen when two separate housing developments were completed. In the report they were referred to as phase SN03A and the Bloor Homes site. Both postal address schemes were agreed by the respective developers, with no mention of a proposed bus gate that would terminate the traffic flow from both directions.

 

The panel noted that in January 2020 the council’s street naming and numbering service learned of a concrete boulder (placed in the position of the proposed bus gate) that was blocking off vehicular access to the last 9 properties in Larch Drive. A complaint had been received regarding abandoned delivery vehicles obstructing a driveway, whilst the drivers completed their journey on foot. It was immediately apparent that the established vehicular routing for the post code associated with the whole of Larch Drive was via Park Road, which now excluded the last 9 properties. The addresses of the 9 properties would need a new post code, or a different street name and post code where the post code was associated with routing via Diamond Drive.

 

Investigations into the bus gate proposal had led to the understanding that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.

 

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