Profile: John Mair talks about his career and the tricky issue of the Walton Street road closure

People living in the area have found themselves divided by the contentious issue of whether the county council should have erected a barrier at the Walton Street junction with Worcester Street, closing it to through traffic.

While one group, Don’t Choke Jericho, has campaigned for the barrier to remain, another, Jericho Connections, wants the street to be reopened, and its viewpoint is backed by Jericho Traders’ Association, which claimed a significant drop in trade before the coronavirus lockdown started in March.

One resident said the divisions in the community over the issue were so entrenched it ‘felt like a civil war’.

She added: “People are nice when they are speaking to you but then they step back into the shadows.”

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Mr Mair, a semi-retired father-of-two, knows only too well what can happen when feelings run high over such an issue.

Soon after the closure, he confirmed he was in favour of it and has spoken out regularly in its defence ever since.

This has led to more brickbats than bouquets - two months ago the 70-year-old, who lives with his partner in north Oxford, received an email suggesting he should ‘get coronavirus or die’.

After reporting the death threat to police, Mr Mair put the matter behind him, determined not to be intimidated by the anonymous threat and he continues to send out a weekly stream of newsletter updates explaining why the road closure should remain in place.

Born in Guyana, South America in 1950, Mr Mair and his family moved to the UK in the early sixties and he got an early introduction to protests when he was studying for a BSc (Econ) Honours in Sociology from 1968-72 at the London School of Economics.

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Students at the school were among those taking part in anti-Vietnam War demonstrations in 1968 and Mr Mair witnessed some of the action.

After working as a teacher he joined the BBC as a producer and director at the end of the 1970s until 1985 when he worked as a producer and director for the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 on a freelance basis until 2008.

He has also been a senior lecturer in Media and Communications at Coventry University from 2005 to 2012 and held other posts.

Mr Mair has always tried to maintain contact with his birthplace and he has been a Visiting Professor at The University of Guyana and has also worked as an adviser to various Presidents on broadcasting policy and as a columnist on The Stabroek News.

He added: “I used to travel back to Guyana quite a lot.

I did work for the BBC off and on for a number of years and I was way down the food chain when Question Time was invented in about 1979.

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“I’m not a firefighter as such but I did spend some time exposing people, including chasing those who beat up kids in an orphanage - I worked on Watchdog in the early days."

Mr Mair, whose two sons Matthew and Josh are both in their early 30s, had a home in Weston-on-the-Green for about 20 years before moving to north Oxford in about 2003.

As well as working as a TV producer and university lecturer, Mr Mair has found time to edit a number of books of the years, the latest being a collection of essays about the coronavirus and the media.

“Putting a book together in six weeks is not easy,” said Mr Mair.

“My wife says I’m a workaholic obsessive but it’s better than gazing at the four walls.

“I used to go back to my land of birth once or twice a year but I’m not going quite so often now - I would say I’m semi-retired.”

Despite all the commitments in his working life, Mr Mair has still found the time to make a contribution to society by establishing a committee to boost trade in Little Clarendon Street and running a number of street fairs, which have attracted thousands of shoppers.

The street fairs, combining street food stalls and musical performances, have succeeded in promoting what was once known as Jericho’s trendiest street and many traders have welcomed the opportunity to get more exposure.

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The coronavirus lockdown has placed the street fairs on hold for the time being but it is hoped an event could be staged at the end of August if the lockdown has eased significantly by that time.

Mr Mair added: “I’m hoping we will be able to run another event in time for the August Bank Holiday, this time with the help of the company that manages the city council markets.”

The chairman of the Little Clarendon Street Association estimated that four street festivals throughout 2019 in total attracted more than 20,000 people in total.

Those numbers will be difficult to achieve while social distancing restrictions are in place but Mr Mair is hopeful they can return, albeit in a slightly different format.

He is also hopeful that the closure of Walton Street to traffic, combined with the coronavirus lockdown, will lead to more pavement cafes and ‘trading on pavements’.

Mr Mair is convinced the closure is the right decision and expects the county council will eventually decide that it should be made permanent.

He added: “Do people really need the car as much as they did?

“What do we want for our kids? This experiment will be looked at very carefully by the city and county councils.

“The changes may be modified but I think the closure will stay in place and will eventually be made permanent.”

Before the coronavirus lockdown, Mr Mair worked with staff at Oxford Baptist Chapel to provide a free shopping bus for pensioners in the area because there was no longer a commercial service running there.

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The service launched in March with a view to picking up passengers every Monday from outside the community centre to take them to the city centre or Sainsbury’s.

The service had only been running a short time when the lockdown called a halt but Mr Mair is hopeful it can be relaunched at some point.

Talks with a series of well-known speakers, organised by Mr Mair at the community centre, have proved so popular that they are continuing online during the coronavirus crisis.

While he objects to the term community organiser it’s clear the former TV producer will continue to maintain a high profile and will step up to volunteer his services when they are required.

“I’m not a community organiser,” said Mr Mair. “Don’t call me that - I like to think of myself as a community facilitator.

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“I set up the My Jericho talks three years ago and they have been very successful with a series of high-profile speakers getting involved.

“They are working well online and we are looking forward to the talk from Professor Danny Dorling.”

That takes place on YouTube on June 3 at 5pm with the talk entitled Jericho: from Victorian slum to home of the Oxford Liberal elite.

Mr Mair added: “Jericho has been described as the natural home of Oxford’s Liberal elite and there are certainly some interesting people living here. We have had some renowned speakers taking part including the epidemiologist Sir Richard Peto.

"There are heads of Oxford colleges and lots of well-known people living in the area - you get to meet some interesting people.”

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When Mr Mair gets a chance to take a break, he watches ‘lots of TV’ including Gogglebox, as it reflects the nation’s hot topics.

He has no plans to stop talking about Walton Street any time soon, with the likely location for the conversation a pavement cafe.