Headington Headlines

Headington Headlines #288

TonyOX3

Your weekly round-up of local news for 17 – 23 October.

The Access to Headington work started as planned on Monday. Read more in my note here. The contractors have been asked for confirmation that the Grade 2 listed 1667 highway stone on Warneford Lane will be protected from damage.

1667 Highway Stone, Warneford Lane
1667 Highway Stone, Warneford Lane
Photo: @headingtonnews

A knock-on effect of the roadworks is that Oxford University is proposing to reroute its Science Transit Shuttle down Lime Walk and Stapleton Road until Warneford Lane and Old Road are clear again. Highfield Residents’ Association is seeking discussions with the University, who have also been invited to the Headington Ward focus meeting tomorrow (Tuesday 25 October).

The Oxford Trust @scienceoxford has published detailed plans for the future of the Stansfeld site in Quarry. The scheme will provide a purpose-built science education centre for primary schools, and also a café and theatre. At the time of writing the plans hadn’t appeared on the City Council’s planning website.

News emerged of an armed robbery at BetFred on Cherwell Drive the week before last (Friday 14 October). A cashier was threatened with a knife. Police are appealing for information.

Yet more criticism of Southern Health Trust, this time in a Care Quality Commission report following an inspection of Slade House 2 about eight weeks ago.. The report finds that care provision ‘requires improvement’ in three out of five categories – safety, effectiveness and leadership; nor had some improvement measures promised earlier been completed:

The provider had told us that all the corrective actions specified in their action plans would have been implemented by the end of March 2016. During our inspection on 31 August and 1 September 2016 we found that not all of the recommended actions had been completed.

My favourite Headington-related tweet of the week:

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

  • Disruption
  • Plans for 3,000 more homes to west of Barton Park
  • Loss of play equipment at Margaret Road Rec due to building works
  • Fundraising for a new climbing frame at Headington Quarry Foundation Stage School

Headington Headlines #287

TonyOX3

Your weekly round-up of local news for 10 – 16 October.

Police released e-fit pictures of the two men they want to question in connection with the abduction and rape of a schoolgirl.

efits

Access to Headington roadworks start TODAY at the Old Road/Gipsy Lane/Warneford Lane/Roosevelt Drive junction. Expect 4-way traffic lights and inevitable delays. It seems too that all parking in Warneford Lane, on both sides, is suspended for several months.

Headington Live Advent @LiveAdvent2016 organisers are taking a year off and looking for helpers for 2017.

New vape shop @oxfordvapours opened on Monday in the shop that was BBB stores next to the old Post Office.

As predicted, @thespiritoftoad received change-of-use permission for their artisan distillery in the old Council depot in South Park (Cheney Lane).

Barton United FC @Bartonutdfc have joined twitter.

The funeral of the stillborn baby found on a Marston footpath earlier this year will be held at Wolvercote Cemetery tomorrow (Tuesday 18 October). The police have given her the name Raihana.

Parishioners of Holy Trinity Church in Quarry who are unhappy about the recently-approved plans for an extension to the church are planning to take their objections to the Diocese of Oxford in an attempt to get the scheme revoked.

In the ‘It Had To Happen Sometime’ section, the story broke that land belonging to Christ Church College and Wick Farm between Barton Park and the Elsfield road may be developed for housing. This will be hugely controversial as the land is Green Belt and in South Oxfordshire District, whose relations with the City Council over housing needs are lukewarm at best. I hope to write in more detail about this soon.

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

  • Shop Next To Starbucks
  • Pedestrian Safety in Quarry
  • Sick dogs related to Council spraying of organophosphate?
  • Plans for 3,000 more homes to west of Barton Park
  • Abandoned baby burial
  • Barton Park junction

Headington Headlines #286

TonyOX3

Your weekly round-up of local news for 3 – 9 October.

@OUHospitals has installed a mobile operating theatre outside the Women’s Centre at the JR. It’s a temporary gynaecology theatre providing more space for births in the Women’s Centre.

mobile theatre at the JR

At last Katrina Percy has had to acknowledge that continuing to work at Southern Health isn’t a viable option for her. Here’s the Trust’s statement. The BBC reported she would get a payoff of “about £190,000”.

@CRAFTBurgerOx, opening where Dong Dong Noodle Bar was in Windmill Road, are on twitter. They open their doors at mid-day on Tuesday 11 October – that’s TOMORROW!

Costa coffee has submitted a planning application for a drive-through coffee shop at Headington Retail Park (as no-one calls it, or ‘next to Homebase’ to give it its proper name).

Aldi are recruiting for their new store on the same site.

Aldi recruitment poster

The Oxford Trust has submitted a planning application for the new science education centre it wants to build at the Stansfeld Centre in Quarry.

The route of the Oxford half marathon on Sunday passed through Old Marston, meaning several roads were closed for a few hours on the day. Parish and City councillors are upset at the organisation’s lack of consultation and its unwillingness to listen to residents’ concerns, which is a shame because it sours what is otherwise a worthwhile and fun event. Here’s a picture of runners not passing through Marston.

Oxford half marathon

The West Area Planning Committee is expected to give planning permission for a change of use which would allow @thespiritoftoad to set up an ‘artisan distillery’ on the site of the old Council depot at the top of South Park (see original story from June this year in HH 269). There is a restrictive covenant on the site which prevents the production and consumption of alcohol: the Council’s officers dismiss this as “not material” to the planning application but say that it will “need to be resolved separately with OPT” (Oxford Preservation Trust). See the Committee agenda paper here (para 26 on p. 8).

 

My favourite Headington-related tweet of the week:

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

  • Local Upholstery Cleaner recommendations
  • Disruption
  • Burning plastic Beaumont Rd/Green Rd