Headington Headlines #82

TonyOX3

Here’s my weekly round-up of local news for 15 – 21 October —

There was a Headington Ward Focus Group meeting in Osler House (on the JR site) on Tuesday evening. At the same time there was a meeting at Windmill Primary School with County representatives to discuss the proposals for making the school a three-form entry.

@106JackFM broadcast from @WindmillOxford on Friday morning.

Osler House (www.osler.co.uk) is the Oxford University club for clinical medical students. Or as their representative put it, “Somewhere medical students can get away from doctors, nurses and patients”. They have conference/meeting facilities for over 100 people, including a seminar room complete with modern A/V equipment, a lounge and a bar. The facilities are available for private hire and they are keen to attract more of this business.

Oxfordshire County Council’s cabinet meeting on Tuesday approved the introduction of long-term parking charges at Thornhill and Water Eaton park-&-rides. The fee will be £3 for stays longer than 11 hours.

Print and copy shop Oxford Design closed their shop on London Road on Friday. They re-open in Stanton St John on Monday. Londis (run by @sundersandher) has been placed in the UK Top 100 independent retailers by the Independent Achievers Academy. And Robert Stanley Opticians, who have been trading at 137 London Road for 40 years, have just refurbished their store. They are having a grand re-opening on Thursday 25 October from 6pm – everyone invited!

Cerian Townsend of the @ThriveBarton team will receive an award in the Oxfordshire Charity & Volunteer Awards at the Town Hall on Tuesday.

@ Headington’s Oxford Mail reporter Damian Fantato has moved to cover North Oxford instead. Debate continues over whether we think this is a promotion.

Councillor Mick Haines unveiled a plaque on Saturday commemorating the residents of Marston killed in the second world war.

Martin Young has formally withdrawn his candidature for the role of Thames Valley PCC.

@DorsetHouse_Ox has joined twitter.

I came across this Headington Heritage blog. I couldn’t see who’s behind it but the items in the ‘Blogs I Follow’ list are possibly significant.

The quest has started to track down Headington’s very own flag (if it ever existed). It might be somewhere in the city archives.

My favorite Headington-related tweet this week:

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

  • Should Windmill School grow to over 600 pupils?
  • Ruskin College open day on Saturday 27 October 2012
  • New cancer centre for Headington
  • Google StreetView has redone Headington
  • Proposed Changes To Holy Trinity Church
  • Job advertisement
  • Thornhill Park & Ride: proposed charges for 11+ hours
  • New Road being built through Northway
  • News about two Headington shops
  • Best places to eat in 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.

PCC Elections

TonyOX3

Elections for the posts of Police & Crime Commissioner (PCC) take place on Thursday 15 November. Candidates still have until mid-day on 24 October to withdraw if they wish.

Here is the full list of candidates for the Thames Valley:-

  • Patience Tayo Awe, Independent
  • Barry Cooper, UKIP
  • Geoff Howard, Independent
  • John Orrell Howson, LibDem
  • Anthony Stansfeld, Conservative
  • Tim Starkey, Labour Party Candidate

There is a hustings meeting for all the candidates on 5 November at 7.00pm in the Assembly Room, Oxford Town Hall. Barry Cooper and Tim Starkey have both told me they will be there: how many others will show up remains to be seen. [Update: All four of the candidates who are on twitter have confirmed they will be at the Oxford hustings.]

There’s a useful (but unofficial) website where you can find out more about the candidates. Go to www.policeelections.com/candidates/ , scroll down to Thames Valley Police and click on the individual names. As well as personal profiles some candidates have provided answers to a standard set of questions (and some haven’t) – click on the ‘Views’ tab of the candidate’s profile page. Geoff Howard has not yet added a profile but he does have a profile on www.policecrimecommissioner.co.uk . The policeelections.com website still shows Martin Young as a candidate.

I have found four TV PCC candidates on twitter: Barry Cooper is @BarryCooper15, John Howson is @John4PCC, Anthony Stansfeld is @StansfeldPCC and Tim Starkey is @TimLabour.

Headington Headlines #81

TonyOX3

Here’s my weekly round-up of local news for 8 – 14 October —

I came across this report of a reunion of people who were students in Cotuit Hall in the days when it was part of Oxford Polytechnic. It took place in September and celebrated 30 years since they were students together. If the link takes you to a login page you don’t have to log in – just click on the ‘News and Events’ link on the left and scroll through to the article dated 2 Oct 2012.

Bury Knowle barn and stables can be yours – offers in excess of £450,000 invited.

Sheep farmers @CamillaandRoly had a stall at Headington Farmers’ Market for the first time.

Ruskin College responded to the story claiming they had destroyed a large part of their archives.

Windmill School had their Autumn Fair and there was a Barn Dance in All Saints’ on Saturday.

@Stagecoach_Ox announced they will be introducing a fleet of brand new buses on route 10 from Sunday 28th October. A more frequent service will run every 10 minutes during the day Monday – Saturday and every 20 minutes on Sundays.

Marston police/PCSOs are now tweeting as @TVP_OxNorthEast (I think this is their third twitter renaming). Their latest newsletter is here. It includes advice about trick-or-treating and about the PCSOs doing a 38 mile charity bike ride round Oxford to raise money for Oxsrad.

Oxfordshire County Council’s cabinet member for education Melinda Tilley took the opportunity while standing in for the cabinet member for the voluntary sector to award @ThriveBarton a grant of £2500.

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

  • New cancer centre for Headington
  • Illegal Jam-jars
  • 700 Not In Smart Zone
  • Collinwood Road crossing of the A40
  • WARNING : cold calling home security company
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.