Headington Headlines #136

Here’s my weekly round-up of local news for 4 – 10 November.

Cllr @RuthWilk posted an update [no longer available] on the timetable for the Barton West development. It seems we’re going to have to start calling it Barton Park. What do you think of the name? An attractive commitment to a pleasant and open living environment, or a developer’s too-cosy attempt to sell to a middle-class market? I blogged what I thought (hint – I don’t like it) and made a storify timeline of what local twitter had to say (hint – twitter doesn’t like it either). There’s also some discussion about who was involved in choosing the name.

New parking charges come into force at Thornhill and Water Eaton today (11 Nov). £2 to stay 1 – 11 hrs. Full details including information about season tickets here.

@OxfordshireCC announced a consultation about the new primary school for Bayswick (aka Barton West or Barton Park). It will be an academy so who runs it is important. Consultation here, my blog about it here.

Both Risinghurst and South Park had their firework displays on Saturday.

People have been puzzled by the unannounced appearance of new City Council benches in the environs of Headley Way. Not even local councillors knew anything about them. The benches have been put in what seem to be very inappropriate places – here is @RuthWilk‘s picture of the one where the higher part of Staunton Road joins Headley Way. Suspicion is mounting that Banksy has turned his talents from street art to installations, in this case benches.

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

  • Hazardous glass in Holley Crescent
  • Volunteers Needed!
  • Risinghurst Fireworks Display 9th November 2013
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.