Access to Headington – Headley Way latest

TonyOX3

At the exhibition of the Headley Way Access to Headington plans on Thursday it was confirmed that work will start at the bottom of the hill on Monday 22 January. This part will last three weeks while they take out the roundabouts. Traffic lights will control the traffic.

Immediately after, on 19 February, work will start at the JR entrance. This will also last three weeks with traffic light control. Once these two jobs are finished, which should be by Sunday 11 March, work will switch to the main parts of the road. Work will be done in a similar way to The Slade with narrow lanes and two-way working most of the time.

During the first six weeks there is bound to be bad congestion. There has already been publicity of the JR advising people to allow two hours to reach the hospital and find a parking space, and the bus companies have issued similar warnings about delays to services using Headley Way. After six weeks things should get easier. The work is scheduled to take nine months, which brings it to some time in October.

Headington Headlines #347

TonyOX3

Your weekly round-up of local news for 4 – 10 December.

There’s a chance to see the latest plans for the Access to Headington work on Headley Way which will start next month. 1430 – 1830 at Headington Prep School, London Road, on Thursday 14 December (this week).

Headington Singers’ seasonal concert ‘Northern Lights’ is at All Saints’ Church, Lime Walk, on Friday 15 December at 7.30pm.

A butcher’s shop is coming to Headington!

The tree planted last week in Headington Hill Park was a monkey puzzle tree (Araucaria araucana).

A man from Foresters Tower, Wood Farm was jailed for threatening a building contractor with a knife. The man was upset about having his shed demolished by the contractors working on the tower’s cladding; the incident happened at another tower block, Windrush Tower in Cowley.

Marston Saints FC celebrated the opening of their new pavilion by Martin Keown. Martin played for the club as a teenager before signing for Arsenal. The pavilion and ground is in Boults Lane, Old Marston.

The new development by @CalaHomes – Bayswater Fields, off Waynflete Road, Barton – joins the ‘Don’t Mention Barton’ club founded by @Mosaics_Oxford. Nor does the marketing mention cycling as a way of getting around Headington and Oxford. Blog post:bayswater-fields-by-cala-homes

Sunday’s snowfall caused widespread power cuts including parts of Barton and Headington. Some properties are still without power this morning.

In other snow news, most local schools and Oxford Brookes campuses are closed today. A large branch fell off a tree and partially blocked the ‘Coffin Path’ by the side of Waitrose.

Someone found a yellow canary in the snow – details here twitter.com/ShiftyShuf/status/939782385947815936. It turns out six birds escaped from an aviary with a faulty latch – @HeadingtonNews has the contact details.

My favourite Headington-related tweet:

Active posts on the Headington & Marston e-democracy forum this week (yes, the first one is genuine!):

  • Yahoo.com Email Users – Please search Spam folder and mark any “forums.e-democracy.org” mail as not spam
  • Beech House

Bayswater Fields by Cala Homes

TonyOX3

I mentioned three weeks ago in HH344 that the new development off Waynflete Road in Barton is being marketed by Cala Homes as Bayswater Fields. Here now is the link I didn’t have then so you can see what they’re offering. Prices range from £305k for a 1-bed apartment to £716k for a 5-bed house.

It’s disappointing to see that like Mosaics Oxford in Barton Park, Cala’s marketing deliberately avoids any mention of Barton. According to Cala, Bayswater Fields is “situated in the warm and welcoming community of Headington”.

 

Equally disappointing given Headington’s – and Oxford’s – congested traffic, poor air quality and the City and County’s stated policies of encouraging people to switch away from using cars to more sustainable ways of travelling, under the ‘Location’ tab on the marketing pages there’s a section headed ‘Superbly Connected’. It lists several local destinations under ‘On Foot’, followed by many more ‘By Car’ and information about stations. There is no suggestion that aspiring Bayswater Fields residents could conceivably want to travel by bike or public transport.

Oxford City policies, reinforced by the Headington Neighbourhood Plan, would require the developers to pay positive attention to non-car travel. Sadly, Bayswater Fields is just over the border in South Oxfordshire District where it would seem such forward thinking doesn’t apply.