Headington Headlines #13

TonyOX3

Here is my weekly round-up of news for the week 16 – 22 May.

It’s not surprising that the West Barton development contiues to make the news. Under the headline “Oxford ring road junction plan ‘recipe for disaster'” The Oxford Times website on Tuesday quoted “some motorists” opposing the idea of reduced speed limits and a traffic light controlled crossing on the Ring Road north of the Headington roundabout. “Some motorists” were in fact the Secretary of the City of Oxford Licensed Taxi Association and a driving instructor.

Oxford City Council released the results of its consultation exercise on future building development in the City. The document is 414 pages long. The preferred option for Headington car park is to build over, retaining (some) parking beneath. The H&M e-democracy forum has more.

The OXSRAD sports centre closure was averted after an outstanding debt was settled.

A firefighter was injured when the service was called out to a suspected arson fire at West Hill Farm, The Ridings, Shotover, at about 5.45pm on Sunday. The house was boarded up which meant access was difficult. Four fire engines and the water carrier from Wheatley attended the scene.

The campaigners who wanted to preserve the pedestrian subway in Headington made the news this week, one year on from its closure. Despite there having been no accidents at the light-controlled, 20mph-restricted, surface-level crossing with a traffic island halfway across protected by bollards they still regret the loss of the smelly, poorly-lit and potentially dangerous subway.

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

  • Londis corner shop in receivership
  • Unemptied bins: complain!
  • Headley Way public conveniences
  • Bricklayers Arms, Marston
  • Development in All Saints Road and around 73 Lime Walk
  • A long shot..
  • Headington Car Park site
  • minibus for sale

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.

Help find this car

TonyOX3

This is an appeal for help in connection with a serious accident to a cyclist a couple of weeks ago. Let’s show the power of social networking and track down the car involved! Here’s the story (there’s more on the H&M e-dem forum link).

On the Headington & Marston e-democracy forum Nigel Magnay writes:

Two weeks ago whilst cycling to work, I was knocked off by a hit & run driver in a dark blue Mk4 VW Golf. This occurred at about 8:30AM at the bottom of Headington Hill, after the traffic lights for Morrell Avenue; he pulled in from the right-hand lane all the way in front of me to turn into Rectory Road – I had no time to stop, bounced off the rear quarterlight and am now recovering from a hip fracture being held together with 3 screws. Sadly I only saw the first part of the registration as LV51 (and even that is questionable).

Jock Coates adds:

On Sunday I think I was probably victim of the same car. Turning out of Grays Rd to turn right and onto Headington Rd the lights in favour of Gipsy Lane traffic had been green long enough for three cars to go through and as I pulled out of Grays Rd this similar sounding blue Golf turned at high speed into Gipsy Lane from Headington direction. He must have been ten seconds after the red light on the London Rd.

Nigel adds:

The Police are just as keen to catch the guy as I am, they’ve already pulled video records (even going so far as to get ANPR data to try to find a match) but without a numberplate it’s obviously difficult. And dark blue VW golfs aren’t exactly rare.

Please look out for a car that matches the description – a dark blue VW Golf with a registration possibly beginning LV51. It sounds like it might be seen in the Marston Road/Headington Hill/St Clements/Cowley Road area, possibly being driven aggressively. If you can get the full registration number we can pass it on to the police.

Cowley Road meets Headington

TonyOX3

A few days ago it was confirmed that the Cowley Road Carnival wouldn’t be a street procession this year but would take place in South Park instead. @headingtonnews tweeted that the Carnival was almost in Headington.

Now it’s not easy to find definitive postcode maps (it should be, because it’s public domain material, but that’s another story) but my Geographers’ A-Z map of Oxford shows the OX3/OX4 postcode boundary bisecting South Park from the Warneford Lane/Morrell Avenue junction down to the Marston Road junction at the bottom of Headington Hill. That puts the southern part of the park in OX4 along with with the Cowley Road, but the northern part in good ol’ OX3.

So is a renaming of the Carnival in order? I think so.