The planning application for the Swan School (ref: 18/01173/FUL), refused by East Area Planning Committee on 5 September, has been called in by city councillors. This means the application – and the refusal – will be reconsidered by the Planning Review Committee. The minutes of the EAPC meeting show that the reasons for refusing the application were its impact on the Green Belt and a failure to ensure that access to the site gives priority to pedestrians and cyclists. The earliest date for the PRC to consider the matter is 10 October, though as yet this date is not definite.

At the EAPC meeting there were two votes on the application, the first to approve the application and the second to refuse it on the grounds mentioned above. Thanks to the report by Sophie Grubb (@OxMailSophieG) in the Oxford Mail we know that Councillors Nigel Chapman (Lab, Headington Hill & Northway), David Henwood (Lab, Cowley) and John Tanner (Lab, Littlemore) voted to approve the application; Shaista Aziz (Lab, Rose Hill & Iffley), Mary Clarkson (Lab, Marston), Alex Hollingsworth (Lab, Carfax), Mark Lygo (Lab, Churchill) and Roz Smith (LibDem, Quarry & Risinghurst) voted against. Stef Garden (LibDem, Headington) abstained, so the vote was 5-3 against the application with one abstention.

On the second vote, to refuse the application, the voting was the same (or more accurately, reversed) except that Shaista Aziz abstained instead of supporting the motion so the result was 4-3 in favour of refusal with two abstentions.

Your weekly round-up of local news for 14 – 20 May. As I’m not going to be around much for the next couple of weeks the next Headlines won’t be until 11 June. See you then!

Another strange thing came to light in the rather weird story of the Wychwood Lane planning application – that’s the one to build next to the C S Lewis Nature Reserve. Read “Latest News from Narnia” here.

There’s a move afoot to get the “Shark House” in New High Street onto the City’s Heritage Asset Register.

One of the items on the East Area Planning Committee agenda on Wednesday this week is a recommendation to refuse planning permission to build flats on the site at 4 Lime Walk. The committee papers say “The application has failed to demonstrate that development of the site would not be viable if a contribution towards affordable housing were made.” In other words there needs to be an element of affordable housing if this site is to be developed for housing.

Wingfield House in Gathorne Road was built under a planning condition that it should be car-free. Residents do not qualify for parking permits in the local controlled parking zone (CPZ). At the County Council’s Cabinet meeting tomorrow (22 May) a request for the condition to be set aside so that residents can get parking permits has an officers’ recommendation that this should be turned down.

@oxcivicsoc recommends that Frontier Estates’ planning application for a care home at 1 Pullen’s Lane should be refused. To summarise their comments; “It was refused before and nothing’s changed”.

My favourite Headington-related tweet:

The parking on the pavement at the NW end of Windmill Road gets worse all the time. This was yesterday afternoon (Fri 18 May 2018) pic.twitter.com/hm5vfUUiJ7

— Headington News (@HeadingtonNews) May 19, 2018

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

• Beech House

The Friends of St Nicholas Primary School in Marston are raising money to pay for the children of the school to repaint the mural in the underpass at the Old Marston end of Marston Ferry Road. Oxfordshire CC has agreed to pay for preparation of the wall surfaces and an anti-graffiti coating after the new mural is finished. At least one local Councillor (Mary Clarkson) has put some of her discretionary CIL money towards the project.

I support this project because I use the underpass when I’m cycling back from the Banbury Road and it’s become rather tatty and dingy. A bright new mural would add a little bit of pleasure to the journey of anyone using it!

An application to Awards for All was turned down partly because some of the school activity was planned for classroom time and they will only fund things for schools that are extra-curricular. The Friends are submitting an application to the Co-op Community Fund but they won’t know for a while if this will be successful. Meanwhile the Mural doesn’t yet have its own donations page, but you can donate here on the Friends’ BigGive page. Don’t forget to Gift Aid a donation if you qualify!