SO MANY stories in today’s edition of the Oxford Mail remind us that, in this city, we don’t wait around for other people to come to our rescue: if we see a problem – we tackle it.

On page 7 we have a report on Oxford’s first-of-its-kind youth climate summit – an initiative by our city council to allow the young people of our county – the ones whose lives stand to be most affected by climate change – to ask questions of the experts and also have their say about what we should to do locally.

This follows the city’s citizens’ assembly on climate change last year (the first of its kind in the UK), and the much-lauded plans for a zero-emissions zone in the city centre to cut pollution – both of them also city council initiatives.

On pages 2 and 3 of today’s paper we have a special report by our local democracy reporter looking at whether businesses and private citizens are prepared for a no-deal Brexit.

The short answer is ‘yes’: many people are simply assuming that the UK will crash out of the European Union without a deal in January, leaving our country high and dry, and businesses and citizens to fend for themselves.

One man tells us how he is quietly stockpiling tinned goods because he simply assumes that there will be economic turmoil when the time comes.

On pages 8 and 9 today we have a special feature looking at a report commissioned by Oxford City Council into the deaths of nine homeless people in the city: who these people were, in what circumstances they died and in what ways, if any, they were let down by the agencies that should have been supporting them.

In all these issues – climate change, pollution, Brexit and homelessness – our citizens and our local councils might well expect the Government to have some kind of control of the matter, but we don't wait around to see if they will help: if we see a problem, we tackle it. This is what we do in our extraordinary city.

But then, you knew that already.