In our special UK column News Extra we feature Chaka Artwell (known to his friends as Artwell), a passionate activist from Oxford. Highly knowledgeable about his local council and its activities, Artwell has recently been challenging the implementation of the Oxford Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN), which he describes as a roadblock and anti-car policy in East Oxford, highlighting that the council is causing havoc for both drivers and local residents by cutting off side road connections to major arterial routes through the city.
Artwell is also deeply concerned about the loss of wider freedoms in our constitutional monarchy and sees the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda often at the heart of Oxford and other Parliaments' policies – supposedly designed to improve the lives of local people, but which in practice quickly seem to be having the opposite effect.
Artwell's proactive, pro-active approach to controversial issues in the city has led to him receiving recent of Oxford Mail articleWritten by political journalist Albert Tait, the article should have acknowledged the importance of Artwell's questioning and challenging the unwelcome policies of the Oxford Council, but Tait (or perhaps the editor) used the headline to disparage Artwell as a “former Parliamentary aspirant” and denigrate his previous efforts as a Parliamentary candidate.
Indeed, Artwell found that Oxford City Council was so sensitive to his challenges that his emails containing questions he wanted to ask at formal City Council meetings “disappeared” in an unmonitored inbox. Because the City Council did not acknowledge the address accompanying his questions, Artwell was subsequently denied legitimate participation as a citizen in what was supposed to be a democratic meeting.
Join us for a relaxed conversation in UK Column News Extra with Brian Gerrish, Alex Thomson, Mark Anderson and Chaka Artwell. Find out more about Artwell and the importance of simple local action in a one-party world.
