Your weekly round-up of local news for 8 – 14 October .

The city council is expected to award a contract next week for a total of seven bungalows to be built at two sites – Mortimer Drive in Marston and Bracegirdle Road in Wood Farm. They will be owned by the council and let at social rents. The new homes will be built off-site (I think we used to call these ‘prefabs’ a long time ago) by a specialist contractor. The Council’s report says they “will be the first delivered in Oxford under the recently signed housing deal attracting £55,000 per home, greatly reducing the cost of their provision to the Council”.

The BP petrol station at the Headley Way/Cherwell Drive junction was out of petrol for several days. Delivery trucks couldn’t get onto the site because of Access to Headington works. Ironic, some might say.

There was a distraction burglary, or attempted burglary, on Friday last week (5 October) in Mattock Close. Three men got entry after one said he was from ‘the water board’.

A memorial bench to ‘one of the best-known Irishmen in Oxford’, Billy Munnelly, has been installed in the Croft Road recreation ground in Marston.

The planning application to build two houses fronting onto Woodlands Road (see HH364) has been refused. The Notice of Refusal sets out the reasons – basically trying to squeeze too much into an unsuitable site.

There were no new posts on the Headington & Marston e-democracy forum this week.