Headington Headlines #108

Here’s my weekly round-up of local news for 15 – 21 April.

A man was arrested in Bury Knowle Park at around 2.15pm on Friday after a shooting incident in Bristol earlier in which the same man is thought to have been involved. The arrested man was taken to the JR Hospital as a medical emergency “after taking medication”.

St Mary’s Church hall in Bayswater Road, Barton has been declared to be becoming unsafe and will have to close by July next year.

The County Council cabinet approved the expansion of St Joseph’s School (Headley Way) to a full 2-form entry from its current 1.5-form.

Martin Young got planning permission for 29 Old High Street but says he won’t be starting work as he would prefer to go ahead with the plans in his newest planning application, ref 13/00880/FUL. The change of use application for 255 Marston Road from a plumbers’ merchant to a taxi office was refused.

A couple from Waynflete Road, Barton were given suspended 12 month sentences and 250 hours of community service for attempting to smuggle a baby into the country from Nigeria.

Work has started on the access to Thornhill Park & Ride. Disruption is expected until August. The lower part of Staunton Road at the junction with Headley Way is also closed from today (Monday 22 April) for about two weeks for work on a raised surface, and Jack Straws Lane is closed too.

My favorite Headington-related tweet this week:

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

  • Bus Users’ Forum | Thu 4th Apr | Town Hall | 18:30
  • St Joseph’s school expansion
  • Road defect reporting in Oxfordshire now using FixMyStreet.com
  • Thornhill Park and Ride Expansion Plans.
  • Planning application for 255 Marston Road
  • Headington Pollution
  • Public Democracy
I try to 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.