Headington Headlines #43

TonyOX3

Here is my round-up of local news for two weeks over the Christmas/New Year break, 19 December 2011 – 1 January 2012 —

A new £2.1m community arena opened at the Oxford City ground, Court Place Farm, Marston. It includes a full-size artificial grass pitch, pavilion and six floodlit netball courts.

Frustration over the 8 and 9 bus services surfaced in the press. The bus companies’ response (at least as reported) seemed to be mostly denial of any real problem. Meanwhile it was announced that another spate of road closures around Old Road/Lime Walk/Highfield will take place in the New Year.

LibDem Councillors David Rundle, @RuthWilk and Altaf Khan held another Headington Ward Focus meeting in the Baptist Church, Old High Street on Tuesday 20 December. Main items discussed were the Barton West development, Ruskin Fields, Headington car park and the Housing Sites and Policy book, all of which had been agreed by the City Council the day before.

A home in High Cross Way, Barton, was one of three places hit by thieves on Christmas Day.

Boxing Day saw a large crowd at @TheMasonsArmsHQ for the traditional Morris dancing. The pub sold more than 600 pints of ale in 5 hours!

The Headington Shark was named one of the Daily Telegraph’s “best British follies“. It’s the ninth one on the page.

Rev James Cocke, Vicar of All Saints’ Church, became the longest-serving vicar in the Church of England on the retirement of the previous record-holder.

There was a house fire in Bulan Road on Wednesday 28th December. Fortunately no-one was seriously hurt.

A robbery took place at the BetFred betting shop in Cinnaminta Road on Saturday 31 December. A female employee was forced to hand over several hundred pounds.

Active topics on the Headington & Marston e-democracy forum over Christmas and New Year:

  • Bus stop, London Road Headington
  • West Barton plan likely to go ahead?
  • Decisions made on Headington Car-park and Ruskin Fields
  • North East Area Forum – 11 January 2012
  • Disused Cricket Ground Barton Road
  • Boxing Day 2011 events in Headington
  • Northway Pharmacy
  • Cherwell drive Dentist
  • Destination display inside 400 Park and Ride
  • Londis corner shop in receivership

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.