Headington Headlines #175

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

In a remarkable display of ineptitude, Oxfordshire County Council have still failed to install the disabled access lift at Headington Library, and have ignored planning requirements for the visual appearance of the new construction on what is a Grade 2 listed building. After a site meeting on Wednesday everything is on hold pending a decision on whether to re-render or paint the extension.

It’s always politically risky to trumpet achievements before they happen. Earlier this year local Conservatives praised ‘Conservative-led’ Oxfordshire County Council for ‘prioritising’ the London Road repairs and reconfiguration. Not only has the work – originally said to be happening ‘in the summer’- not yet started, we now learn it won’t be finished until well into 2015. Details here.

The Headington Royal British Legion in Edgecombe Road, Barton has closed due to lack of funds.

The Mount Pleasant Guest House (by the Royal Standard and Britannia pubs)and the Bell House Guest House (corner of Ransay Road) are both for sale (thanks to @headingtonnews for spotting these).

A planning application (ref 14/00983/FUL) to build a 55-bed dementia day- and residential care home at 1 Pullens Lane has been turned down by Oxford City’s East Area Planning Committee. Councillors said it did not fit with the area’s “rural tranquility”. The property is the first on the left after the entrance to the allotments (map, boundaries approximate).

Labour Councillor @laurencepbaxter (Quarry & Risinghurst) has confirmed he is standing down from the City Council. He is taking up a teaching post in Prague. The by-election will be on 18 September.

The main path through The Croft is closed for about another week for work on overhanging trees.

The @ButchersArmsOxf will be closed for refurbishment from 18 to 26 August, opening again at 4.30pm on 27 August. They tell me there’ll be a new, improved bar and “fabulous toilets”.

My favourite Headington-related tweet of the week:

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

  • Headington & Marston in the First World War
  • I see a new local rival discussion site has been set up.
  • Silver Joggers
  • Parking on pavement
  • Post Here to be positive about Headington, Marston, Oxford, Oxfordshire and life in general.
  • Headington makes it to number 24…..
  • Excessively bright light at Tesco ATM
  • London road from Hamburger roundabout to headington
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.