Headington Headlines

Headington Headlines #265

TonyOX3

Your weekly round-up of local news for 2 – 8 May.

OK, they may not play at the Manor Ground in Headington any more but Oxford United are going up into the First Division next season. Well done all of you!

It was local election week. The full results and a brief commentary on the City Council election results for the six wards in OX3 are here, and the result of the Thames Valley PCC election is here. [Spoiler alert! There are no surprises.]

Barton has a new police sergeant. He is David Keith, and apparently was previously wiith the Met.

Frontier Estates, the developers of the student accommodation in Latimer Road, have submitted an appplication to vary one of the conditions for the building to go ahead. They now want permission to “enable the student accomodation to be occupied by cultural and academic visitors and by conference and summer school delegates outside of term time”. It’s worth noting that unless this is called in by Councillors, the decision will be taken as a delegated decsion by the Planning Officer for the case. Given the controversial history of this development we can only hope it gets fully considered.

Beleagured Southern Health Trust has appointed a new Chairman to replace the one who resigned last week (see HH 264). The new man is Tim Smart, who until last year was Chief Executive of King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. According to Wikipedia he has an Economics degree from Birmingham University and had a long career as a businessman before joining Kings in 2008.

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

  • Disruption
  • Northway Estate
  • Energy Pipe
  • Election results

Headington Headlines #264

TonyOX3

Your weekly round-up of local news for 25 April – 1 May.

The planning application for a temporary car park in the JR grounds for local people affected by heatpipe works has been withdrawn. The Hospital Trust says it will be resubmitted as part of the new planning application that is being prepared for the whole route of the pipe.

All my posts about the project are under the ‘Energy Project’ tab in the main menu, and there’s a page of links and contact details here.

Bar Meze has closed with the shop premises being repossessed by the landlord.

NatWest Bank has also been closed this last week, but it will reopen tomorrow (3 May).

In contrast, our newest shop has opened. Card Factory is where Johnson’s dry cleaners used to be.

Card Factory
Card Factory

Revised plans for Windmill Road and Headley Way have been put out for consultation by the County Council as part of the Access to Headington Project. Read the County’s statement and see the revised plans here.

Oxford University will start a “Science Transit Shuttle” bus service between South Parks Road, Old Road Campus and Harwell on 18 July. In earlier discussions the University was willing to consider making the service available to the general public. This will not happen immediately but they say “the long-term intention is to explore options for more flexible routing and to open the service to the public”.

As pressure mounts on Southern Health over multiple failings of care including the death of Connor Sparrowhawk at Slade House, the trust’s chairman and a governor have resigned.

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

  • Cycle path ‘repairs’
  • Tower block refurbishment
  • Access to Headington scheme – decisions deferred

Headington Headlines #263

TonyOX3

Your weekly round-up of local news for 18 – 24 April.

Vital Energi have withdrawn their heatpipe planning application again and will be using planning consultants to help them get the scheme cleared for construction. A route from All Saints Road via Lime Walk is now preferred to the original Stapleton Road line. Read more here.

All my posts about the project are under the ‘Energy Project’ tab in the main menu, and there’s a page of links and contact details here.

It seems that Oxfordshire County Council’s decision last year to end its contract with the heavily-criticised Southern Health Trust for specialist adult learning disability services could take up to two years to wind down.

Headington has its very own drone expert.

Feather & Black has closed.

A cash point next to McDonald’s at Roundway was apparently blown up in a raid early on Saturday morning.

The date for the County’s decision on the latest Access to Headington scheme proposals has been put back to 9 June to allow for more consultations. See here for more details.

The City Council has submitted a revised proposal for the Margaret Road recreation ground pavilion, this time without parking spaces.

Revised proposal without parking
Revised proposal without parking

The website of the Oxford Trust, who are taking over the Stansfeld Outdoor centre site, was a victim of the 123-reg hosting service’s mass deletion of sites in a “clean-up error”. They are still available on twitter @scienceoxford.

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

  • Foxwell Drive
  • Children’s Centres latest news
  • Access to Headington scheme – decisions deferred
  • Disruption
  • Live bus timetables on oxontime app
  • Cars and vans driving and parking on the pavement
  • Cycle path ‘repairs’
  • Tower block refurbishment
  • Margaret Road Pavilion