Public access to Christ Church Meadow to Addison's Walk etc
Dear Magdalen College, Oxford,
I'm trying to understand the rationale for Magdalen College not providing Oxford residents and visitors with daytime foot access around the Water Meadow, via existing access routes onto Marston Road / King's Mill along Addison's Walk /and past the squash courts onto St Cross Road. I'm also curious about the same in relation to the current prohibition of commuter cycling along this route.
Opening up commuter access through the paths around the Water Meadow would appear to help aid "active travel" in the city, by allowing commuters (walkers and cyclists alike) who travel from Marston Road / Headington to St Cross Street to have the option of entirely bypassing St Clements, the Plain and / or Magdalen Bridge.
With that in mind, I would like to discover whether Magdalen College has had any discussions about opening up the paths and access routes leading past the the Water Meadow to commuting walkers and cyclists recently - both internal discussions and also discussions with Oxford City / Oxfordshire County Council.
Please therefore provide me with any minute of any meetings (internal or external), attended by representatives of Magdalen College, where this issue was discussed. I have no particular time frame for scoping my query, but I am particularly interested in "recent" discussions, held within the last 2 years.
If you cannot find any such meeting minutes within this time frame, (or are able to do so very quickly) I would also like to receive any recent email correspondence between Magdalen College representatives and city / council council politicians / officers on this topic (via official CCC/ county / city email addresses only), that were not as formal as minuted meetings. The timeframe for this query is "as much recent email correspondence as you can process / redact / prepare " within the reasonable time limits for dealing with this FOI. That is, keep going, and provide me with all email correspondence you can find (most recent correspondence first), until you hit your time limits for processing my request.
Yours faithfully,
Richard Parnham
Dear Magdalen College, Oxford,
I appreciate the heading of my request inadvertently related to Christ Church Meadow, in addition to Addison's Walk. However, the substance of my request related to Magdalen College, as presumably you would have realised if you had read the message itself. You have not responded to my request within the legally designated time. Please do so, promptly.
Yours faithfully,
Richard Parnham
Dear Magdalen College, Oxford,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.
I am writing to request an internal review of Magdalen College, Oxford's handling of my FOI request 'Public access to Christ Church Meadow to Addison's Walk etc'.
I appreciate the heading of my request inadvertently related to Christ Church Meadow, in addition to Addison's Walk. However, the substance of my request related to Magdalen College, as presumably you would have realised if you had read the message itself.
You have not responded to my request within the legally designated time. You have also ignored my follow-up request. It is for these reasons that I am now formally requesting an internal review.
Yours faithfully,
Richard Parnham
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/p...
Dear Richard,
Many thanks for your emails. Please accept my apologies for the delay in
responding to your request. This is receiving attention as a matter of
priority.
Best wishes,
Mark Pobjoy
Dear Magdalen College Senior Tutor,
When might I expect a reply. I now probably have the right to refer the matter to the ICO, so I would appreciate a swift response.
Yours sincerely,
Richard Parnham
Dear Richard,
Many thanks again for your emails. Please accept my apologies for the
lack of an earlier response, which was due to lack of availability of
staff time.
We have not been able to locate any meeting minutes from the last two
years pertaining to discussions about opening up access to the College's
grounds via Marston Road or King's Mill Lane, nor any recent official
correspondence on this. Our bursarial team is relatively new, and it is
possible that there may have been discussions further back than the past
two years, but we are not aware of any records of any such discussions.
I might be able to enquire further about records of past discussions via
former members of staff. Please let me know if that would be helpful.
Best wishes,
Mark Pobjoy
Dear Magdalen College Senior Tutor,
That's fine, thank you. I am mainly looking for evidence of recent discussions (or lack of).
Yours sincerely,
Richard Parnham
We work to defend the right to FOI for everyone
Help us protect your right to hold public authorities to account. Donate and support our work.
Donate Now