Northway Haboakus public meeting

TonyOX3

To see all my articles on this development click here.

There was a public meeting held in Marston Community Centre on Monday 4 March to discuss these developments. I couldn’t be there but I’ve had some feedback from someone who was. The proposals were presented by the City’s Chief Planning Officer Michael Crofton Briggs with support from other officers.

I’m told the meeting was quite lively, with many local residents unconvinced about the merits of the development. A major cause for concern was the problem with local drainage and flooding, with people worried about the effects of the increased load on the already inadequate systems. Some felt that the residential blocks would overlook and dominate existing properties. Mr Crofton Briggs assured those present that their views, as far as they fell within the permissible grounds for objection, would be recorded and fed into the evaluation process.

A quick look today (Wednesday) at the planning applications on the Council website finds that there are so far about a dozen objections, all of which focus on one or other of the issues above.

Headington Headlines #101

TonyOX3

Here’s my weekly round-up of local news for 25 February – 3 March.

From this morning (4 March) Beaumont Road will be closed from Quarry Hollow to Green Road while the County Council instals a new surface water rising main. The closure is scheduled to run until 16 April.

Headington Action (@HeadingtonA) organised a well attended and enthusiastic meeting when it was agreed to go ahead with producing a Neighbourhood Plan for Headington. Cllrs @RuthWilk and @DavidRundle have published a report of the meeting. This is the start of a long process on which I and others will try to keep you up to date.

Two days later a group aiming to help develop an integrated transport strategy for Headington met for the first time. The inaugural meeting was also organised by @HeadingtonA.

The Post Office letterbox in All Saints Road was the object of a possible arson attack last Sunday (24 Feb) although the cause of the small fire is unclear.

Also last Sunday there was a robbery at Threshers off-licence in Cherwell Drive, Marston.

Headington’s Blockbuster store is going to close and will become a Morrison’s supermarket. There are reports too that the owner of the closed Crown and Thistle pub in Old Road may be looking at alternative uses for the building.

Our very own Dee Sinclair, City Councillor for Quarry & Risinghust and candidate for the new Headington and Quarry Division in the County Council elections in May, is to be the next Lord Mayor of Oxford from May this year. Come on Dee! With such a high profile you’ll just have to get that @delia_sinclair twitter account going!

@ThriveBarton‘s work in Barton is the subject of an article in the Newsletter of the Volunteering & International Psychiatry Special Interest Group of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. It’s on page 5.

A man from Aldbarton Drive, Barton was sentenced to four months jail for dangerous dogs offences. Three people had been attacked and needed hospital treatment.

The two men who were in court on charges of rape in Bury Knowle Park (see original press report) were acquitted.

The City Council’s Sites and Housing Plan was formally adopted on 18 February – the end of a long process. The definitive version is here.

So far only Oxford Civic Society @oxcivicsox has commented on the latest planning applcation for 29 Old High Street. They are broadly supportive. Application ref: 13/00311/FUL.

Lime Walk was closed between London Road and All Saints’ Road for a short time on Friday for emergency water main repairs.

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

  • A Neighbourhood Plan for Headington?
  • A Lord Mayor on this forum again from May 2013!
  • New Lime Walk and All Saints junction “improvements”
  • Crown and Thistle
  • Spate of burglaries in Headington
  • Blockbusters in Headington is closing after all
  • Zhen Shan Ren (Truth Compassion Tolerance) Art Exhibition
  • Redevelopment of Northway
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 Transport Forum

TonyOX3

Riding the wave of enthusiasm for local action groups Headington Action @HeadingtonA organised an open meeting last night (Thursday) to discuss forming a group which would bring together a number of interested individuals and organisations to develop an integrated transport strategy for Headington.

About 18 people attended with representatives from @cyclox, @HeadingtonA, the local Car Club (car-sharing), Headington Cycling Group, Friends of Old Headington and other residents’ groups as well as individuals with particular concerns and interests. Patrick Coulter (Headington Action) chaired the meeting. He explained how he thought a Transport group could fit in with the Neighbourhood Plan process started earlier in the week. Everyone agreed that a joined-up approach to Headington’s transport problems was urgently needed, and equally there was little sign that either the County or the City Councils were likely to deliver an integrated plan without strong input from local residents, businesses, employers and transport operators.

There was some discussion about terms of reference for the group and it was agreed to meet again on Friday 22 March when it was hoped to make progress on formalising the group and its objectives.

I will link to the notes of the meeting when they’re available.