Headington Headlines #412

With regret, this will be the last Headington Headlines for the time being. A rather sudden change in family circumstances means I won’t be able to spend as much time at the computer as before, and this is one of the things that will have to go. I still plan to keep @TonyOX3 going on twitter, and I may post occasional articles of interest here too. So for now, thanks for reading and don’t forget to follow @HeadingtonNews, the Headington website, and the local e-democracy forum for all things Headington and OX3.

And for the last time for now, here is your weekly round-up of local news for 1 – 7 April.

Bill Heine, the sometimes controversial, always entertaining, and much loved broadcaster, journalist and installer of the Headington shark, died on Wednesday. I am glad to have known him, albeit slightly, and send condolences to his family and many friends.

The planning application for Frontier Estates’ speculative development of student accommodation and offices off Jack Straw’s Lane and Marston Road has appeared on the Council’s website. The reference is 19/00779/FUL and it consists of 107 documents. The application is open for comments unrtil 2 May. The story of Frontier Estates’ involvement in OX3 is here.

Pavement parking is a significant problem in Headinton so many people will be interested in the Commons Select Committee on Transport’s enquiry into it. The official web page with details of how to contribute is here.

It’s been confirmed that the new Swan School will open in September, though it will be in temporary buildings at the Cherwell School in Summertown.

27 April is the confirmed opening date for the renascent Somerset pub, which we must now call the Up In Arms.

Work officially started on the extension of the A&E Department at the JR Hospital.

Active posts on the Headington & Marston e-democracy forum this week:

    • Exhibition of Student housing proposals at 1-7 Jack Straws Lane and Marston road Frontier ESTates

Headington Headlines #411

Your weekly round-up of local news for 25 – 31 March.

The City’s Local Plan 2036 has been submitted to the Planning Inspectorate. Modifications following the consultation at the end of last year include recognition that water and sewerage networks are operating at or close to capacity in many places. There’s more information in this earlier post.

The OU Hospitals Trust is once again talking about using Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology to help with parking problems at the JR and Churchill. This has been on and off for several years so we must wait and see if anything comes of it this time.

The work which we have been expecting for the last couple of weeks to make a surfaced path on Cuckoo Lane finally started on Friday. It’s started at the Pullen’s Lane end.

Is any publicity good publicity? A man who drove away from the Ampleforth Arms @TheAmpleforth in Risinghurst after drinking four pints of lager, crashed into a parked car and ran off home was picked up by police later. He couldn’t be prosecuted for drink driving because he’d drunk another four pints and more before police arrived at his house. He was found guilty of other related offences and has been remanded on bail for reports before sentencing.

There were no new posts on the Headington & Marston e-democracy forum this week.

Oxford City Local Plan update

Local Plan amendments recognise water and sewerage constraints

In December last year I posted this article about Oxford City’s Local Plan 2036, listing the possible development sites (“Sites”) in the OX3 area. The formal consultation on the Plan was then in progress; things have now reached the stage when the Plan has been formally submitted to the Planning Inspectorate for consideration.

Following the consultation the City Council has made some changes to the Plan documents which it hopes will remove some possible problems which the Inspector might otherwise have picked on. For many of the Sites Thames Water has warned there could be problems with water and sewerage capacity. Typically, the Plan has been amended to include something like this in the descriptive part of the site policy:

[Both the] Water supply network capacity [and the sewerage network capacity] in this area is unlikely to be able to support the demand anticipated from this development. Investigations by Thames Water, funded by the applicant, will be necessary to determine whether upgrades to the water supply capacity [ or sewerage network] are required. Up to three years lead in time could be required to undertake any such works.

… and this in the Policy itself:

Development must not lead to water supply [and sewerage network] problems for existing or new users. Applicants will be required to demonstrate that there is adequate water supply capacity both on and off the site to serve the development and that it would not lead to problems for existing or new users.

Not all these changes mention water and sewerage. I think the changes will generally be welcomed by people living in areas already known to have problems with either or both these services.

These and all the other main changes are set out in the document “CSD10 Schedule of Proposed Main Modifications” which is available on the Council’s website.