Campaign Update: Report Submission and Recent Publicity
Our report, 'Nuisance Busking in Cornmarket Street', was submitted to Oxford City Council last Tuesday, 22nd January. The report consists of a 24 page report body which covers:

1. The effects of Nuisance Busking
2. Efforts to Solve the Problem and the Results
3. Suggestions on How to Solve the Problem
4. Conclusion/Report Recommendations

followed by 6 appendices which contain transcriptions of interviews, letters to and from Council and Environmental Health officers, the busking policies of Oxford and several other councils in England, media articles and photographic evidence of disruption caused by nuisance busking and street performance on Cornmarket street.

Our request for regulation of the busking on Cornmarket street and the findings in our report will be discussed by the Central, South and West Area Committee in a public meeting on Tuesday 12th february, at 5.30, at the West Oxford Communmity Centre on Botley Road. It would be very helpful to our campaign if this meeting is well attended.

IMPORTANT: BE THERE IF AT ALL POSSIBLE!
Heath Richardson, 'The Bagpipe Man', handed in his own petition at the last Central, South and West Area Committee meeting last month and may well be attending the one on the 12th February. If this is the case, there may well be a public discussion/debate with him and this will be a good opportunity to show our strength.

In a series of articles in the Oxford Mail, during the run up to the festive season and beyond, Heath Richardson launched a 'counter campaign' (see last blog posting). The spin on this publicity was that he was a local folk hero who was being persecuted by intolerant and small-minded shop and business owners. The articles (with comments) are still up on the net and are listed just below.

http://www.oxfordmail.net/search/display.var.1907168.0.bid_to_silence_piper.php

http://www.oxfordmail.net/news/headlines/display.var.1913909.0.bagpiper_refuses_to_go_quietly.php

http://www.oxfordmail.net/search/display.var.1920406.0.piper_targeted_by_online_abuse.php

http://www.oxfordmail.net/search/display.var.1953409.0.lets_hear_more_of_the_bagpipes.php

http://www.oxfordmail.net/search/display.var.1960504.0.bagpiper_hits_back_with_own_petition.php
We would like to draw attention to the coverage we have received from Cherwell, the Oxford Student publication, for its quality of reporting. Especially noteworthy is the video which takes a close look at the Council's busking code of conduct. They rightly point out that, contrary to what has been widely reported, the Bagpipe Man has not been complying with the code. Thanks for that Cherwell. Please log onto Cherwell’s link at the bottom of this post.

Finally, just to show that it is not just shops and businesses who are being tormented by out of control ‘busking’ (as if we needed to!), here is a testimony from a student studying (or at least trying to) at Jesus College:


Oxford student statement:
“Imagine a warm summers day. In a library, tables are piled high with books and notes as students from every year frown down on them – many of them preparing for their final examinations. The air is thick with tension and heat: the room is stuffy and concentration is confounded by dull headaches. Yet the windows of the room remain tightly shut – an attempt to quiet the repetitive sounds of a bag-piping busker. Nevertheless, the students cannot help but be constantly aware of his presence: his sounds infiltrate the library, the IT room and even bedrooms in the depths of college, far removed from Cornmarket Street. This situation will be familiar to all who have spent a summer in Jesus College. At this particular time of year, stress levels are understandably running high, all libraries in the centre of town become crowded, and even more students are agitated by the persistent buskers. This continues even in winter, when a quiet half hour in the library is appreciated simply because of its rarity.

Undeniably, the University is the main attraction of Oxford and the students are an integral part of the town. Yet in this academic environment, a large number of unfortunate students are disturbed by noise from buskers. Last year, I personally found the volume and repetition of the buskers on Cornmarket Street so counter-productive to working that I felt I could no longer use Jesus college library. In addition, extensive building work on the Radcliffe Science Library (RSL) and the Social Sciences Library (SSL) meant that I and a number of other students had limited options in terms of study space and in fact had to endure this intrusion in the college library, or in our rooms in college where it could also be heard. Furthermore, on several occasions when I was in the RSL, I could still hear buskers, who I assume were on Broad Street. Add, on top of this, the sound of protest groups in the centre of Oxford.

I would be surprised if students from Exeter, Lincoln, Balliol and Trinity (in addition to Jesus) had not experienced similar problems. Also affected will be the even larger number of students using centrally located libraries, including the New and Old Bodleian Libraries, the History Faculty, the Islamic Studies Centre, the Taylor Institute, the Indian Institute, the Theology Library and even the RSL (where I have personally hear buskers despite it’s more remote location). Surely the students and academic staff of the University have the right to a suitable environment in which to carry out their studies?

Furthermore, Jesus College (and the others that are affected) is not only a place of study for students, it is our home. This means that we are even more badly affected by the noise of buskers than employees working in the centre of town – we are exposed to the disturbance for as long as it continues. In the case of the newly established saxophonist on Cornmarket Street, this can be until 9 or 10 pm. Even more serious problems will arise if this time becomes later. In my opinion, if residents outside of the town centre were being disturbed by the level of noise that we are, they would complain and their right to peace and quiet would be recognised. It should be no different for the students and the staff living in college.

The solution to these problems is clear: limitations must be placed on the location, number, volume and quality of buskers in the centre of town.”
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http://cherwell.larrytech.com/index.php?news=1943

The full report is available on request (PDF, MS Word [97-2003 compatible] or RTF) by emailing anbo.info@googlemail.com.