Headington Headlines #202

Here’s my weekly round-up of local news for 16 – 22 February.

In a letter published on Streetlife, Tesco confirm they will not be building a store on the site of the old Friar pub in Marston. They say they will be “working with the local planning authority and key stakeholders to find alternative uses” for the site.

There’s a suggestion emerging from the Neighbourhood Plan process @HeadingtonPlan that Headington might benefit from having a Parish Council. For a full account of the workings of Parish Councils see this guest blog about Old Marston PC by @theabingdontaxi from June last year.

There’s a consistent story of problems with internet connections and speeds in the New Headington area. The e-democracy forum has a thread running, and people are suspicious that the problems might be linked to the London Road roadworks.

Parts of Marston suffered a power cut on Wednesday, apparently caused by a kite (on a string, not a red bird) shorting out the power lines.

The City Council has imposed a Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) at Foresters Tower in Wood Farm. The Order prohibits “persons under 21 from entering or remaining in the tower unless they have a legitimate reason for visiting a resident”. It is a criminal offence to breach the order and it can be enforced by the police and delegated council officers.

The Minutes of the Neighbourhood Plan Forum on 10 february are now on the @HeadingtonPlan website.

Barton is “too clean for OxClean”, apparently. A walk-about by OxClean organisers, local councillors and community workers found so little litter they decided it won’t be worth sending in the OxClean volunteers over the Spring Clean weekend (6 – 8 March). Instead the Barton Community group will combine a clean-up with other activities later in the month.

Live music came to @ButchersArmsOxf for the first time when local band @EyeConUK played a gig on Saturday night.

In other pub news the Britannia Inn’s twitter account is now @Britannia_Inn. Their old one, @thebritoxford, is being phased out.

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

  • Headington Post Office
  • Pub on Barton Park?
  • Why is Headington so Dead on a Saturday night?
  • Internet Connection in Headington
  • Marston tesco?
  • pet sitting swap
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.