Labour-run Oxford city council has introduced a “vexatious behaviour policy” outlining how staff and councillors should deal with people who make “persistent” complaints or inquiries in a way that is “manifestly unjustified” or “inappropriate” (Oxford Mail, Telegraph).
The new strategy, which was approved by council leader Susan Brown on April 17th sets out a formalised policy for “managing vexatious behaviour by members of the public”, including how often they can contact the council.
In “exceptional circumstances” where “the citizen continues to behave in a way which is deemed unacceptable”, the policy states that staff and councillors “may decide to refuse all contact with the citizen”.
The potential blanket ban has prompted concerns that the council could ignore the valid concerns of some tax-paying residents.
Anne Stares, an independent councillor for the district of Littlemore, said people already felt ignored and that the new policy could exacerbate the issue.
“They’re dealing with the problem, but not looking at the cause. The cause is that people don’t feel they are listened to,” she said, adding: “People feel they are not being heard and that their needs are not being addressed.”
Ms Stares, who was elected for the Littlemore ward at the election, also said it was “hypocritical” to suggest that the council was listening to residents while introducing a new policy that could limit its communication with them.
Earlier this year, Oxford city council announced it had dropped references to “15-minute cities” from a key planning document, after “conspiracy theorists” allegedly latched on to the concept, framing it as a plan to control people’s movements and making it too “toxic and incendiary”.
The council’s Local Plan 2040, in which “the environment will be central to everything we do”, aims to “tackle the climate emergency” by among other things, creating neighbourhoods where essential services are accessible by walking no more than 15 minutes.
Councillors in Oxford have reportedly been “fielding thousands of calls, emails, letters and social-media messages” from concerned residents, particularly urban car-owners and families who regularly travel across town to visit relatives or friends, as well as those wanting to know what the scheme will mean for older citizens who may need “essential services” that are located much further afield.
Louise Upton, the cabinet minister for planning at Oxford city council, previously complained that dealing with freedom of information requests about the scheme had “sucked up huge amounts of time” – although in a flash of activist zeal, she did also admit that the backlash “has stiffened our sinews”.
It’s unclear whether local residents are concerned exclusively about Oxford city council’s commitment to its local neighbourhood scheme, or a separate Oxfordshire county council eco-conscious plan for 15-minute neighbourhoods, in which anyone who drives outside of their designated district more than 100 days a year could be fined £70.
Happily for staff and councillors at Oxford city council, however, there may no longer always be a need to get into nuance and complexity of this kind – thanks to the statutory body’s new vexatious behaviour policy, any residents who persistently ask what they regard as “manifestly unjust” or “inappropriate” questions about this, or any other topic of local concern can now simply be ignored. Carbon credits all round!
