Headington Headlines

Headington Headlines #199

TonyOX3

Here’s my weekly round-up of local news for 26 January – 1 February.

Traffic woes on the westbound approach to the Headington roundabout were exacerbated on Monday when a manhole collapsed and a lane had to be closed.

The Headington Tesco is not one of the 43 stores the company announced it will be closing (list at bottom of linked page).

Derelict property owner Martin Young, owner of 29 Old High Street, also owns a property on the Cowley Road which the City Council is considering for compulsory purchase because of its dilapidated condition. The house has been empty for over twenty years.

Last year the County Council decided to expand Windmill Primary School @WindmillOxford. Building work to cope with the expansion has still not started and the frustration felt by the Head and others involved with the school broke into the public arena this week.

A large pine tree in Bury Knowle Park was badly damaged by the winds overnight on Wednesday/Thursday. Picture c/o @GeoffMPowell.

Two people were arrested at an address in Bassett Road, Barton on Wednesday. They are suspected of handling stolen goods and possession of class A drugs.

On Tuesday Frontier Estates exhibited their revised proposals for student accommodation on the corner of Latimer Road and London Road.

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

  • Bookshop?
  • Oxfordshire Transport Strategy
  • Marston Tesco?
I cover news from the OX3 postcode in Headington and out as far as Barton, Sandhills and Risinghurst (see map). To feed into next week’s summary you can comment on this article, or tweet either with the hashtag #ox3 or @mentioning @TonyOX3.

Headington Headlines #198

TonyOX3

Here’s my weekly round-up of local news for 19 – 25 January.

Clerkenwell Properties Ltd, presumably the owners of Kennett House, the block of shops and offices including Iceland, have applied to the City Council to decide whether or not they need planning permission to convert the offices over the shops to 12 flats. See Planning Application reference 15/00189/B56.

Birmingham City Council has told @RosalindRogers that the woodland area of the Stansfeld Outdoor Centre will not be redeveloped.

@Oxford_Brookes announced that their new Vice-Chncellor is to be Professor Alistair Fitt. He is currently the university’s Pro Vice Chancellor for Research and Knowledge Exchange.

Developers Frontier are mounting a new public exhibition of their proposals for the corner of Latimer Road. It’s on Tuesday 27 January from 4 – 8pm in the St Clement’s Family Centre in Cross Street. See their invitation for more details. No planning application has yet been submitted.

Marsh Lane, Marston was closed for a time on Saturday afternoon following a collision between a car and an ambulance. Three people suffered minor injuries.

Johnson Cleaners is closing on 5 February and moving to 61 Woodstock Road.

My favourite Headington-related tweet of the week:

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

  • Silver Joggers starting up again
  • The Economist on Oxford/Cambridge
  • Revised Proposals for the Development of Holy Trinity, Headington Quarry
  • Marston Shops
  • London Road “Improvement” Scheme
  • Community Matters
  • Kennett House (block that includes Iceland)
  • Margaret Road zebra crossing work
  • Oxfordshire Transport Strategy
  • Old Marston parish council website
I cover news from the OX3 postcode in Headington and out as far as Barton, Sandhills and Risinghurst (see map). To feed into next week’s summary you can comment on this article, or tweet either with the hashtag #ox3 or @mentioning @TonyOX3.

Headington Headlines #197

TonyOX3

Here’s my weekly round-up of local news for 12 – 18 January.

Temple Bookbinders of Stephen Road have been awarded a Royal Warrant. This means they can now describe themselves as “By appointment to HM The Queen”. The Oxford Mail report cites Bentley cars as another warrant holder, which is fine, but I’m not so sure about the comparison with baked beans (Heinz) and Creme Eggs (Cadbury).

@HeadingtonA, who organise the Farmers’ Market, say they are working on bringing more stall-holders in after the number of traders dropped earlier this month.

Fire crews attended a ‘small engine fire‘ on an @OxfordBusCo bus in Wood Farm on Tuesday. No passengers were affected.

Headington Hill Park car park (the one at the bottom of the Park) will be closed from today (19 Jan) while a new access road to the properties inside the Park is built.

A man was sentenced to three years imprisonment for two burglaries last October, one in Northway and one in Tilehouse Close.

In a well-signalled move, @Oxford_Brookes announced their long-term plan to move all teaching, research and supporting activity from Wheatley over the next ten years. This will obviously have a major effect on the Headington Campus and Headington generally, and the university has promised thorough consultation. Their official announcement has much more detail and is worth reading. I will write more on this story as it unfolds.

It was almost exactly two years ago I first reported that developers Haboakus had submitted two planning applications for sites in Northway (see this map). The ‘Hab’ part of their name is celebrity architect Kevin McCloud’s company, although in what way if any he may be personally involved is not clear. Now at last work has started on the Dora Carr Close site which will provide 47 new homes: 15 three-bedroom houses, 4 four-bedroom houses and 28 one and two bedroom flats, and a state-of-the-art community centre. The buildings have been designed by architects Allford Hall Monaghan Morris of Camberwell, London. A search on this blog for Haboakus will give you the past hisory of this development.

In Headington Headlines 195 I reported that the Bury Knowle Club was on the market for £300k. Now Oxford-based Keble Homes has submitted a planning application (Ref 15/00062/FUL) to convert the Club, which is on the first floor of the shops on the west side of Windmill Road, into flats.

Starting today (Monday) diversions will be in place as work on the St Clements/Plain junction begins. City-bound traffic will be diverted down Dawson Street onto the Cowley Road to reach The Plain. Headington-bound traffic will use the Cowley Road, then Jeune Street to get back onto St Clements. Details and maps here.

Bill Simpson, of BBB Stores on London Road next to the Post Office, had a sarcastic letter published in the Oxford Mail under the title "Reasons to come to Headington".

My favourite Headington-related tweet of the week:

Wikipedia knows about ‘manicule‘ but oxforddictionaries doesn’t.

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

  • Brookes moving teaching facilities from Wheatley to Headington
  • New Headington bus routes
  • Bury Knowle Club in Windmill Road
  • Brookes Estates Strategy
  • The Economist on Oxford/Cambridge
I cover news from the OX3 postcode in Headington and out as far as Barton, Sandhills and Risinghurst (see map). To feed into next week’s summary you can comment on this article, or tweet either with the hashtag #ox3 or @mentioning @TonyOX3.