Headington Headlines #105

TonyOX3

Here’s my weekly round-up of local news for 25 – 31 March.

A man from Headington who was tackled by members of the public in the course of an attempted robbery at the Covered Market has died. He was named by @TheOxfordMail as Clinton Townsend, later corrected to Clint Townsend by Thames Valley Police.

Author Brian Aldiss did himself no favours with a strange contribution to Headington Monthly. In a one-page piece rather reminiscent of a personalised story-book he shoe-horned in mentions of the JR, Headington Homewares, Ruskin, Waitrose, Bury Knowle Park and Chancellors. I wonder if a similar version has appeared in other local magazines around the country.

William Hill are appealing against the refusal of a change of use on the old Cartridge World shop which is stopping them opening another betting shop.

The planning application (Ref 13/00570/FUL) for a change of use for the Marston Plumbing business on Marston Road (now closed) to become a taxi business with waiting room has been called in by the East Area Planning Committee.

The Oxford Mail picked up a story which first surfaced in February (see Headington Headlines #98) about the not-so-public proposed piece of public art that @EFOxford want to install inside their gates to comply with their planning permission conditions. To say “A row has broken out” is perhaps a bit strong when there’s only been one comment on the proposal.

@HeadingtonPlan joined twitter. If you didn’t know that Headington has embarked on drawing up a Neighbourhood Plan you haven’t been paying attention! A Steering Group has been set up consisting of Stuart Cooper, Mark Lygo, Ruth Wilkinson, Christopher Taylor, Veronica Hurst and John Nealon: further members are being sought. The Steering Group’s first meeting will be on 3 April.

The Oxford Furniture Warehouse is moving from their Abingdon Road store into the shop that was the short-lived Today’s drink shop at 85 London Road, next to Lloyds TSB. Their website says they sell “new, antique and good clean second-hand furniture”. They expect to move in next weekend.

The cycle lane markings on Windmill Road have been repainted.

There are reports that possibly 40 ancillary jobs could go at Oxford Brookes University as student numbers have fallen. Some 250 student rooms in halls of residence (out of about 5000) are unoccupied.

@Oxford_Labour declared their candidate for the Churchill Ward by-election – Susan Brown. She’s not on twitter; a retrograde step in my view after @joemcmanners. The by-election is on 2 May, the same day as the County elections.

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

  • Headington has 2 of the country’s most congested roads
  • Redevelopment of Northway
  • Bedroom Tax Demonstration – Saturday 16th 1pm – Bonn Square Oxford
  • Headington shop news 2013
  • E-Forum Protocols
  • Bus Users’ Forum | Thu 4th Apr | Town Hall | 18:30
  • Barton Road Cricket Ground
  • A Neighbourhood Plan for Headington
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.

Headington Headlines #104

TonyOX3

Here’s my weekly round-up of local news for 18 – 24 March.

Several crime stories this week.

A £500 reward has been offered for information leading to the return of a stolen laptop. The burglary happened on Wednesday the week before last (13 March) in Trinity Road, Quarry.

Later in the week police issued a general warning about a spate of burglaries and thefts from cars in and around Headington.

They also released a CCTV picture of a man they want to talk to about the early-morning robbery at Greggs on 7 March.

Another robbery, this one at BetFred bookmakers in The Slade on Sunday 17 March. One of the culprits had what may have been a handgun. Police are asking for any information.

In other news, the County Council approved plans to expand Windmill Primary School (@WindmillOxford) to three-form entry.

Blockbusters finally closed its doors. Roll on Morrisons!

The Department of Health has put plans to sell Warneford Meadow on hold while Oxford Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust decides whether or not to buy the land itself. The Trust has pledged that if the purchase goes ahead it would honour a deal that allows the Friends of Warneford Meadow to maintain the 18-acre meadow.

West Barton developers @BartonOxford took to twitter to clarify that the planned Community Hub in the new development will not have a doctors’ surgery so shouldn’t mean the closure of the existing surgery at Underhill Circus. Provision of services for West Barton is not yet decided.

The Headington Neighbourhood Forum met formally for the first time on Tuesday. See my note and the draft notes of the meeting.

The local news media were lured into reporting a marketing puff by commercial vehicle tracking company @RAMtracking who claimed that The Slade and the London Road in Headington were among the top 20 (not top 10 as some reported) “most congested non-motorway roads in the UK”. The calculations behind this claim can’t be found on their website, but seem to be based on a comparison of either average or lowest speeds of an unkown number of commercial vehicles using their equipment between 8 and 9 am, compared in some unexplained way to speeds between 11 and 12 am. A good example of nonsense dressed up as statistical analysis. @Cyclox got in on the act with a filmed interview on @BBCOxford.

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

  • Bedroom Tax Demonstration – Saturday 16th 1pm – Bonn Square Oxford
  • Thornhill Park and Ride Expansion Plans.
  • Should Windmill School grow to over 600 pupils?
  • Headington has 2 of the country’s most congested roads
  • Is pollution in Headington increasing?
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.

Meeting 19 March

TonyOX3

To see all my articles on the Headington Neighbourhood Plan click here.

Useful links: Headington Action Neighbourhood Plan page

The first meeting of the Neighbourhood Forum, the core group which will draw up the Neighbourhood Plan, was held on Tuesday 19 March. 25 people attended; there were 10 apologies sent from among the other 21 people who had said they would like to be involved. I will put a link to the notes of the meeting here when they are published. [Update: the draft notes of the meeting are available on the Headington Action website.]

An embryonic Steering Group was set up from among those present. Mike Ratcliffe @Mike_rat agreed to chair the meeting from that point onwards although he declined to be declared Chairman for the Steering Group. The Steering Group will determine what needs to be done next, who will do it, and which other interested parties need to be contacted.

Some of the Headington twitterati were present. I recognised two Councillors, @RuthWilk and @MarkLygo, as well as @Mike_rat. Headington estate agents @ScottfraserUK were represented by their Managing Director (Sales), and of course @HeadingtonA was there. Were there any more? If you were one, please let me know.