Headington Headlines

Headington Headlines #256

TonyOX3

Your weekly round-up of local news for 29 Feb – 6 March.

The body of a dead baby girl was found by the Marston cycle path on Monday morning. Police are continuing to appeal to the mother to come forward.

There’s a campaign to oppose the City Council’s plan to make a car park next to the new Margaret Road sports field pavilion. There are two videos on youtube (one long, one short). The planning application is open for comments, but I can’t give the link because the City’s system is down while they do a major upgrade. [Update: the system’s back up, and the reference is 16/00002/CT3. This drawing shows the proposed parking arrangements, including two disabled spaces.]

No less than three Barton stories this week:

The first phase of housebuilding in @BartonPark_, 237 homes, was given plannning permission by East Area Planning Committee. Here is an artist’s impression of what it will look like.

Barton Park phase 1 - artist's impression
Barton Park phase 1 – artist’s impression

Barton Park has been chosen as one of ten ‘healthy living towns’ by NHS England. More on this in a separate blog post.

The existing Barton estate is getting £4m funding for regeneration projects. The bulk of the money, £1.72m, will be spent on Underhill Circus; the health centre will receive £200,000 for its planned expansion, with a further £150,000 available for the rest of the centre and £40,000 allocated to transform its entrance and outside seating area. There will also be improvements to all the blocks of flats, starting with Stowford Road and Bayswater Road, then rolling out similar works to the other blocks in the estate. Where and how the rest of the money will be spent is still being discussed with the community.

The CRUK (Cancer Research UK) shop in Headington joined twitter @CRUKHeadington1.

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

  • Access to Headington – gloves off for round 2!
  • New School for Headington
  • Possible Extension to Car Spaces in Margaret Road Park
  • Empty ground-floor premises in Headington centre
  • Disruption
  • Latimer Road

Headington Headlines #255

TonyOX3

Your weekly round-up of local news for 22 – 28 February.

The first exhibition of the latest plans for Access to Headington was held on Saturday, and was well-attended. The plans have been modified since the initial proposals, but there are still bound to be some problems with the details. I will post more under the Access2H tab when I’ve got something ready.

The function room refurbishment @TheMasonsArmsHQ is complete.

Headington Quarry Nursery School is looking for a new Head Teacher to replace Lesley Carrington, who retires at the end of the academic year.

Oxford University’s Big Data Institute on the Old Road campus was topped out on Friday. It is Make Architects’ @MakeArchitects fifth building on the campus. Here is their description of the building.

Not strictly Headington, but if you saw the announcement a few days ago that Oxfordshire’s District Councils and MPs are backing the idea of abolishing the County Council and creating four Unitary Authorites you might like to know that there is now a websiite under the name Oxfordshire Vision and a twitter @oxonvision.

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

  • Empty ground-floor premises in Headington centre
  • Possible Extension to Car Spaces in Bury Knowle Park
  • Access to Headington – gloves off for round 2!
  • New School for Headington

Headington Headlines #254

TonyOX3

Your weekly round-up of local news for 15 – 21 February.

I haven’t written an Energy Project update for last week, but  one will follow soon. 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.

I’ve also brought “Access to Headington” out of its hiding place under “Transport Plans” and given it its own link on the menu. The County’s official notice of the next round of consultations is there, and I expect there will be more posts to follow!

Headington Post Office moved to its new home in the Co-op on Monday. There were some teething problems: it was closed for a while on Tuesday.

The new Post Office inn the Co-op (closed at the time)
The new Post Office inn the Co-op (closed at the time)

Team Yellow, covering Wood Farm, won the Council’s Blue Bin Recycling League last month. They’ll need to choose a local good cause to receive the prize of £400. Two households also win a prize worth £30 each.

Headington Car Club – the car-sharing scheme – is to get two new parking places, one in Sandfield Road and one in All Saints’ Road. This is after the original proposal was rejected: the County wanted to find off-street sites but none have come available. See also HH 248.

It’s been reported that tower block leaseholders are considering legal action over the City Council’s intention to charge substantial amounts for refurbishment of the blocks.

New width-restriction bollards have been installed at the entrance and exit to Horspath Driftway Homebase car park. The gap is 7ft 6″, or 2.29 metres. It seemed a tight squeeze in my smallish car.

The north side of the A40 between Marston turn and Headington roundabout will be closed overnight from 8pm to 6am on Monday 7 – Wednesday 9 March. The Traffic Order says ‘three overnight closures’ so I assume that means until Thursday morning. The official diversion is enormous, clearly designed to discourage traffic from Marsh Road, Headley Way and the London Road, or trying to work its way through Elsfield and Forest Hill. It takes traffic back up the A40 to Pear Tree, round the ring road to Hinksey Hill, Heyford Hill and Cowley up to the Headington roundabout. Good luck with that. The same diversion will operate in the other direction on the next three nights when they close the other carriageway on the A40.

A40 closure diversion details
A40 closure diversion details

The group hoping to save The Ampleforth Arms in Risinghurst @TheAmpRevival is making a last-ditch appeal for funds to allow them to bid to buy the pub. Their window of opportunity runs out in March.

Jaya’s deli, on the London Road near Headington roundabout, earned a write-up in the Oxford Mail.

Sky broadband customers suffered a long loss of service which began around 10pm on Friday and lasted more than a day.

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

  • Tower Block Refurbishment
  • Disruption
  • Guardian story the danger posed by the Northway link road
  • Disruption
  • Possible Extension to Car Spaces in Bury Knowle Park