On Tuesday 16 February, at Full Council, Oxfordshire County Council will vote for a
balanced budget.
The Enough is Enough Alliance speaks for over 100 voluntary sector and registered care providers, is sending four key messages directly to our Elected Members:

1

We urge you to vote against the cuts, which are inhuman, damaging to our
County’s vulnerable people and short-sighted.

2

 In agreeing this budget, you are turning your back on Oxfordshire people in need
of all ages and in all parts of the County.

3

If you pass the budget, you are voting to socially isolate thousands of our
County’s vulnerable and elderly people.

4

 Oxfordshire’s leaders must urgently work together better to protect vulnerable
people. This includes District and City Council leaders who have been noticeably
quiet, despite holding substantial fiscal reserves.
The imminent decision by Oxfordshire County Council, to agree wide-ranging and
damaging cuts to social care and voluntary sector budgets, will tear a hole in our
democracy. Local government is bending to national government whip and is meekly
colluding to completely demolish valuable voluntary sector resources, a decision
which will also deepen the crisis in social care, the NHS and our prison services.

The long-term cost to the public purse will be immense; the short-term damage to
lives will be horrendous.

Local government is hiding behind the legal requirement to agree a balanced budget.
We are told that the implications of not agreeing a budget are that the Council may
be removed and local government controlled from Westminster.

We ask, what is the difference?

Oxfordshire County Council is already controlled by national government.
Never has this been truer than the recent pay-off of £9m to stave off closure of a
handful of children’s centres, whilst ignoring the rest of the local pain and misery.
We believe that by making a stand and forcing a rejection of the proposed budget,
Oxfordshire’s position as a high-profile local Council will force national government to
re-think its public services policy.

We ask Councillors to take a stand on Tuesday, for the people they represent.
We urge them to vote to reject the cuts and work with social care and voluntary
sector services to reshape the financial package, in time to set the balanced budget
required in law.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH STOP THE CUTS NOW

“My heart, which is so full to overflowing, has often been solaced and refreshed by music when sick and weary”    

Martin Luther

This year marks the 10th Anniversary of an event that has very quickly become a cornerstone of the musical year in Oxford.

The Oxford Orpheus is an inspiring celebration of the power of music and the sheer soulful joy of communal singing.

Every year it draws singers and musicians from far and wide to Oxford to rehearse and perform a choral concert all in one day. The aim has always being the same to raise money for a local charity through the participants shared passion for beautiful music.

To this end all the singers in the choir pay for the privilege to sing with the Orchestra and professional soloists.

We where delighted when Leo Pitt the wonderfully enthusiastic Artistic Administrator approached us to be the chosen Charity for the 10th Anniversary concert.

We are especially excited to be involved with the Oxford Orpheus. Singing and music workshops form a large part of our activities. Serious head injuries can often have hugely detrimental effects on things we all take for granted, our ability to speak and string sentences together or the loss of cherished memories. The primal joy of communal song and music can often be an incredibly useful tool in our member’s rehabilitation. It is not uncommon for a person affected by speech issues to regain the ability to sing before that of speech, such is the power of music.

“Where Words Fail, Music Speaks”  Hans Christian Anderson

This years concert took place on Saturday 6th February in the stunning setting of the main hall of Oxford Town Hall. The massed choir and orchestra performed the profoundly moving Messa da Requiem by Giuseppe Verdi.

“I adore art…when I am alone with my notes, my heart pounds and the tears stream from my eyes, and my emotion and my joys are too much to bear.”    

Giuseppe Verdi

Accompanying the Orchestra where the soloists Soprano Hye-Youn Lee, Mezzo-Soprano Olivia Ray, Tenor Lawrence Thackery and Bass David Ireland.

The highly acclaimed former Artistic Director of the Scottish Opera and the Philharmonia Chorus in London Robert Dean was the evening’s Conductor.  Robert Dean is a Oxford Orpheus regular and his skills as both a Conductor and Teacher are widely seen as a huge factor in the events enduring appeal.

Our CEO Jamie Miller spoke to the audience before the concert commenced about the work of Oxford Head Injury Services to thanks all those all involved in producing the evening.

We would once again like to give our great thanks to all those who took part, Conductor Robert Dean, the singers, soloists, musicians and the fantastic volunteers who gave up their time.

And of course the sponsors Blenheim Wealth Management and Boswells.

In particular we would like to say a massive thank-you to Leo Pitt the Artistic Administrator to whom the Oxford Orpheus is very obviously a labour of Love and the success of which is down to her in no small part.

“Music… will help dissolve your perplexities and purify your character and sensibilities, and in time of care and sorrow, will keep a fountain of joy alive in you.”    

Dietrich Bonhoeffer