Headington Headlines #126

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

The improvements to the Croft Road cycle path in Marston have been delayed because the company supplying two bridges has gone bust, according to a message on the Marston Cycle Path flood information message board.

The official announcement of the new Headington bus routes finally emerged on Monday. The services are being subsidised with £1.2m from the Department for Transport’s Local Sustainable Transport Fund (LSTF). I assume that’s £0.4m for each of the three years of the initial contracts. Peter Headicar of Oxford Brookes University sent me a considered appraisal.

The people who run Brambles own the business and the premises. They’re selling because they want to retire.

@SunderSandher, who runs the Londis store, has reminded everyone that the shop will soon be open 24hrs a day.

The Wood Farm neighbourhood policing team moved to a new base at the Churchill Hospital on Tuesday.

The planning application to build three houses on the car park next to the Crown & Thistle on Old Road has been approved.

The Prime Minister has a bad back. It is thought he was treated at the Nuffield on Monday.

The campaign by Cllr @laurencepbaxter to persuade Oxfordshire County Council to reinstate the right turn into Risinghurst from the A40 continued. He tells me that if the County Council can’t or won’t fund a crossing with safety improvements – preferably a crossing with lights – it would be difficult to justify re-opening the turn.

Ther are reports that Hill View Farm in Marston may be turned into a conference centre. A twitter account @SaveOxfordFarm has been set up but as yet hasn’t really got going.

My favourite Headington-related tweet of the week:

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

  • Crown and Thistle
  • New Headington Bus Routes
  • Hill View Farm, Marston
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.