Your weekly round-up of local news for 11 – 17 March.
The main local story of the week was the stabbing of a young woman outside Headington Co-op on Tuesday afternoon. A major police operation followed; Stile Road was closed for 24 hours. A man was arrested the following day. He has appeared in court charged with attempted murder and other offences and has been remanded. He is likely to stand trial in August.
Work is expected to start today (Monday 18 March) on laying a 3-metre wide hard surface along Cuckoo Lane from Franklin Road to Pullen’s Lane. Initially a footpath, the County Council has plans to designate it as a combined cycle- and footpath at some time in the future. The project has been known to Councillors and some local residents for many months, but calls for a public consultation have fallen on deaf ears. You can read more about it in this thread on the e-democracy forum.
Less controversially, Oxford University and Oxford Health showed the results of a feasibility study they have commissioned from Sustrans on making a surfaced cycle- and footpath through Warneford Meadow, connecting Hill Top Road with Roosevelt Drive. There’s still the matter of funding to be settled, and details about how the path will link to the public road at the Churchill end, but representatives of several local interest groups and residents’ associations were generally supportive of the concept.
Nazi graffiti were drawn on a wall of Cheney School after the terror attack on a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand. I won’t give the perpetrators publicity by linking to the pictures. Police are asking anyone with information about this to call them on 101. The offensive daubings have now been removed.
The Post Office in Costcutter, Old Marston Road has closed and there’s no information on when, where or if a replacement will open.
Builders who had been working on building new flats on the site of the old Jack Russell pub in Marston have abandoned the job, leaving the site in what locals have described as a dangerous state.
Months of uncertainty over the future of the police office serving Marston and Northway have ended with confirmation that the office will be kept open.
The River Learning Trust who will run the new Swan School in Marston has announced that the Deputy Head is to be James MacNaughton. Mr MacNaughton is currently a maths teacher and assistant head at Cardinal Pole Catholic School in Hackney, and has a master’s degree in leadership. He read philosophy, politics and economics at St Catherine’s College, Oxford between 2007 and 2010.
A piece of cladding came off Plowman Tower in Northway in last Monday’s high winds.
The White Horse pub has reopened after a brief refurbishment.
The Oxford Trust @TheOxfordTrust unveiled their new Ohm sculpture at Stansfeld Park on Tuesday. The keys to the buildings were ceremonially handed over to the Trust by builders Beard Oxford.
Georg Simon Ohm, the German physicist and mathematician who gave his name to the unit for electrical resistance, was born #onthisday in 1789.
On Tuesday we unveiled @davidharber sculpture of the ‘Ohm’ at #stansfeldpark with #superconductor pioneers Martin& Audrey Wood. pic.twitter.com/bfi6JvoNqJ— The Oxford Trust (@TheOxfordTrust) March 16, 2019
Oxford Brookes is holding a free and open Fraud and Cyber Prevention Fair in association with Thames Valley Police on 20th March, 11am to 3pm. Everyone welcome.
Police found a rusty machete in Bury Knowle Park while they were carrying out a search as part of a campaign against knife crime.
Machete found in park near supermarket stabbing.https://t.co/2yNatMFoz0 pic.twitter.com/OLx3QdChZN
— Oxford Mail (@TheOxfordMail) March 15, 2019
Active posts on the Headington & Marston e-democracy forum this week:
- CARMEN AT THE OXFORD PLAYHOUSE
- Cuckoo lane: Six weeks of tarmac-laying starts on Monday