We will be looking at the proposal from the Oxford City Council first.
Local Plan Preferred Options 15 Minute neighbourhoods background paper 1.
Introduction The vision in 2040 is that Oxford will be a healthy and inclusive city, with strong communities that benefit from equal opportunities for everyone, not only in housing, but also to nature, to employment, social and leisure opportunities and to healthcare. This paper focuses on the 15-minute neighbourhood/city concept.
It builds on the ‘Community and Cultural Facilities’, ‘Grey and Digital Infrastructure’ and ‘Retail’ topic papers prepared and published for the Issues consultation in Summer 2021. These papers set out the relevant national, regional and local policy context; as well as highlighting some potential approaches that could be pursued in developing new policies for the Local Plan 2040.
This paper should be considered as a continuation of these earlier Issues papers, so material will not be repeated here. 2. Context including feedback from Issues consultation 2.1 Summary of 2021 Issues Consultation Feedback from the Issues consultation came from a variety of organisations, local groups and individuals. Responses were varied with a broad range of topics covered including community / indoor sports, digital infrastructure, transport and retail.
Experience of neighbourhood and travel The County Council identified the Plan should include reference to the following:
15/20 minute neighbourhoods, reducing air pollution, consider integration at the edge of the city and prioritise sustainable travel. LP allocations and policies should seek that new development and redevelopment be located along key public transport and active travel corridors and around prominent multimodal interchanges. Revision of OTS must be taken into account (now to be Central Oxfordshire Travel Plan (COTP)). Individuals provided feedback on the following key issues: congestion/pollution issues, Local Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs), safer & more walking cycling routes, easy of movement for people with reduced mobility, improve public transport and reducing reliance on the private car. People were asked how they generally travel to a range of facilities. A majority of people walked or cycled to all facilities (if those who don’t access those facilities were excluded).
The facility with greatest proportion of people walking and cycling was parks/green spaces, to which 84% of people usually walked or cycled. 52% of people walked or cycled to cultural and entertainment venues, which was the lowest proportion for any type of facility if excluding those who don’t access the types of facility. This had the highest proportion who used the bus (23%). Cultural and entertainment facilities are not generally accessed daily and having them in easy walking and cycling distance is not as important as for workplaces, convenience shops and parks. They are clearly located in places considered easily accessible by bus for many, which is important. The facility accessed by highest proportion of people driving was basic high street shopping, which 20% drove to.
The next piece of information comes from Lightnet.
Oxfordshire County Council yesterday approved plans to lock residents into one of six zones to “save the planet” from global warming. The latest stage in the “15-Minute City” agenda is to place electronic gates on key roads in and out of the city, confining residents to their own neighbourhoods.
Under the new scheme, if residents want to leave their zone, they will need permission from the Council which gets to decide who is worthy of freedom and who isn’t. Under the new scheme, residents will be allowed to leave their zone a maximum of 100 days per year, but in order to even gain this every resident will have to register their car details with the council, which will then track their movements via smart cameras around the city.
Oxfordshire County Council Pass Climate Lockdown ‘trial’ to Begin in 2024, Vision News, 30 November 2022
What is the Definition of a Scheme?
Let us continue to read what Lightnet has to say about low traffic neighborhoods.
Low Traffic Neighbourhoods
15-Minute Neighbourhoods are not the only dystopian control scheme Oxford is trialling. Between March and June 2021, Oxfordshire County Council held a series of workshops, engagement activities and then a public consultation in June 2021 regarding low-traffic neighbourhoods (“LTNs”).
An LTN is an area where motorised traffic is prevented from taking shortcuts through a residential area by means of traffic filters. This creates quieter and safer streets where residents may feel safer and more comfortable when making local journeys by bus, by cycle or on foot. All roads remain accessible, but drivers may have to find alternative routes. East Oxford low traffic neighbourhoods, Oxfordshire County Council
Following the initial consultation, in May 2022, the Council opened a survey to the public regarding LTNs. The survey closed on 30 November. “We are trialling three low traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) in … east Oxford under an experimental traffic regulation order (ETRO). These LTNs are collectively known as the east Oxford LTNs,” Oxfordshire County Council’s website now states.
In July 2020, the C40 Knowledge Hub advised how to “build back better” with a 15-Minute City:
Establish a citywide 15-Minute City vision.
Realise your 15-Minute City vision through an inclusive engagement process.
Improve walking and cycling infrastructure, including by reallocating street space to pedestrians and cyclists.
Create complete neighbourhoods by decentralising core services and developing a social and functional mix.
Implement planning measures to help complete neighbourhoods to thrive.
Encourage teleworking and service digitalisation to limit the need for travel.
Does it seem like Oxford’s Councils are following the “build back better” plan?
And the plan fits into the Smart City agenda. In January 2021, a paper was published in Smart Cities to introduce the “15-Minute City”:
While cities endure lockdowns in order to ensure decent levels of health, the challenges linked to the unfolding of the pandemic have led to the need for a radical re-think of the city, leading to the re-emergence of a concept, initially proposed in 2016 by Carlos Moreno: the “15-Minute City”. The concept, offering a novel perspective of “chrono-urbanism,” adds to existing thematic of Smart Cities … The success of this concept, as it has been shown in the city of Paris under the leadership of Mayor Anne Hidalgo (ER: Paris is now a mess as a result of her globalist nonsense), has been hailed as a potent urban planning concept that will lead to an economic boost, while bringing about social cohesion and interaction and help create sustainable ecosystems in cities, more so after the experiences of Covid-19 and associated containment measures. While some of the features of the “15-Minute City” concept had been temporarily adopted in different cities after the impacts of Covid-19, its adoption in long-term planning would result in a higher quality of life as proximity to basic services would help in saving time wasted in traffic, thus promoting sustainable mobility. This will aid in efforts to reduce emissions as envisioned in the Paris agreement and promote higher cultural outputs, amongst others. For instance, by re-thinking the transportation system to create more biking and walkable streets, the challenges of private car ownership will be somehow addressed as they will be reduced as more people embrace biking culture. In addition, as expressed by Reimer, the adoption of the “15-Minute City” concept will also open gateways for more novel digital innovations such as bike-sharing technologies that would increase the high livability experiences of urban residents. For instance, as is expressed by Gehl, the re-thinking of cities to facilitate walkability and cycling would, in turn, inspire the creation of parks, squares and public places within neighbourhoods, and by doing so, it would help to bridge the social inequality in accessing such facilities, which are not always available for everyone in a car-dependent city. Introducing the “15-Minute City”: Sustainability, Resilience and Place Identity in Future Post-Pandemic Cities, 2. A Perspective on the 15-Minute City as an Urban Planning Pandemic Response, Smart Cities, 8 January 2021
And of course, the World Economic Forum (“WEF”) likes the idea of 15-Minute Cities. A WEF article in November 2021 stated: “One of the biggest urban ideas to emerge from the pandemic is the idea of the 15-minute city or 15-minute neighbourhood … Various cities around the world have begun to embrace the 15-minute city approach … Such experiments are unprecedented and exciting.”
What is the main plot of Divergent?
What is the main plot of divergent? The story takes place in a dystopian and post-apocalyptic Chicago where people are divided into distinct factions based on human virtues. Beatrice Prior is warned that she is Divergent and thus will never fit into any one of the factions.
What is the plot of The Hunger Games?
Set in a future North America known as "Panem", the Capitol selects a boy and a girl between the ages of 12 and 18 from each of the twelve outlying districts to compete in the annual "Hunger Games", a televised fight-to-the-death. The film is centered around Katniss Everdeen - a 16-year-old girl from District 12, who volunteers for her 12-year-old sister, Prim, when Prim's name is chosen - and Katniss's fellow District 12 tribute, Peeta Mellark, with whom she has some rather dramatic history. Katniss is then rushed to the Capitol, where she undergoes intense training before being thrust into the arena to fight to become the victor of the seventy-fourth annual Hunger Games.
In order to control future rebellions by remembering the past rebellion, the Powers That Be of the dystopian society of Panem force two youngsters from each of the twelve districts to participate in The Hunger Games. The rules are very simple: the twenty-four players must kill each other and survive in the wilderness until only one remains. The games are broadcast through the Capital and the twelve districts to entertain and intimidate the population. In District 12, teenager Katniss Everdeen is a great hunter and archer. When her younger sister, Primrose Everdeen, is selected as one of the "tributes" of their district, Katniss volunteers to take her place in the games. Together with Peeta Mellark, they head by train to the Capital to be prepared for the brutal game.
Found OnLine: I do not own copywrites to the Hunger Games.
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