Headington Headlines #288

TonyOX3

Your weekly round-up of local news for 17 – 23 October.

The Access to Headington work started as planned on Monday. Read more in my note here. The contractors have been asked for confirmation that the Grade 2 listed 1667 highway stone on Warneford Lane will be protected from damage.

1667 Highway Stone, Warneford Lane
1667 Highway Stone, Warneford Lane
Photo: @headingtonnews

A knock-on effect of the roadworks is that Oxford University is proposing to reroute its Science Transit Shuttle down Lime Walk and Stapleton Road until Warneford Lane and Old Road are clear again. Highfield Residents’ Association is seeking discussions with the University, who have also been invited to the Headington Ward focus meeting tomorrow (Tuesday 25 October).

The Oxford Trust @scienceoxford has published detailed plans for the future of the Stansfeld site in Quarry. The scheme will provide a purpose-built science education centre for primary schools, and also a café and theatre. At the time of writing the plans hadn’t appeared on the City Council’s planning website.

News emerged of an armed robbery at BetFred on Cherwell Drive the week before last (Friday 14 October). A cashier was threatened with a knife. Police are appealing for information.

Yet more criticism of Southern Health Trust, this time in a Care Quality Commission report following an inspection of Slade House 2 about eight weeks ago.. The report finds that care provision ‘requires improvement’ in three out of five categories – safety, effectiveness and leadership; nor had some improvement measures promised earlier been completed:

The provider had told us that all the corrective actions specified in their action plans would have been implemented by the end of March 2016. During our inspection on 31 August and 1 September 2016 we found that not all of the recommended actions had been completed.

My favourite Headington-related tweet of the week:

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

  • Disruption
  • Plans for 3,000 more homes to west of Barton Park
  • Loss of play equipment at Margaret Road Rec due to building works
  • Fundraising for a new climbing frame at Headington Quarry Foundation Stage School

Work begins on Access to Headington

TonyOX3

The first phase of the first stage of works under the Access to Headington project started as planned on Monday 17 October. This initial work is to remodel the junction at Old Road/Warneford Lane/Roosevelt Drive/Gipsy Lane. Four-way traffic lights have been set up, manually controlled during working hours but inevitably causing significant delays to traffic in the area. I took these photos at a quiet time on Saturday 22 October.

The junction from Roosevelt Drive towards Gipsy Lane
The junction from Roosevelt Drive towards Gipsy Lane

Contractors Skanska have taken over the end of Grays Road as their site management area. The main work at the moment seems to involve excavation on the south side of Old Road to allow the road to be widened and an off-road cycle path created.

Excavations on south side of Old Road
Excavations on south side of Old Road

Apart from predictable delays to traffic and the No. 4 buses another impact of the work involves Oxford University’s Science Transit Shuttle service which runs between the science area in the city and the Old Road Campus. This normally runs via Morrell Avenue and Warneford Lane to Old Road. The university says that “from 31st October 2016 until such time as reliable journey times return” the service will “instead circulate via Lime Walk / Stapleton Road / London Road. The private service uses 16 seater minibuses running every 30 minutes between 7am and 7pm”. Highfield Residents’ Association is querying the use of Stapleton Road, which is narrow and has on-street parking as well as skips and tradesmen’s vans competing for space.

On the north side of Warneford Lane only a short distance from the junction an old highway stone is set against the iron railings of Cheney School grounds. Blue paint marks on the pavement pass less than a meter away. This I believe is the stone described in the Headington website as “a mileway stone near Cheney Lane dating from 1667 marking the point to which the city was responsible for the old road to London”. I hope the contractors will take care not to damage this piece of local history! [I added this picture later the same day.]

Highway stone and blue paint, Warneford Lane
Highway stone and blue paint, Warneford Lane

Headington Headlines #287

TonyOX3

Your weekly round-up of local news for 10 – 16 October.

Police released e-fit pictures of the two men they want to question in connection with the abduction and rape of a schoolgirl.

efits

Access to Headington roadworks start TODAY at the Old Road/Gipsy Lane/Warneford Lane/Roosevelt Drive junction. Expect 4-way traffic lights and inevitable delays. It seems too that all parking in Warneford Lane, on both sides, is suspended for several months.

Headington Live Advent @LiveAdvent2016 organisers are taking a year off and looking for helpers for 2017.

New vape shop @oxfordvapours opened on Monday in the shop that was BBB stores next to the old Post Office.

As predicted, @thespiritoftoad received change-of-use permission for their artisan distillery in the old Council depot in South Park (Cheney Lane).

Barton United FC @Bartonutdfc have joined twitter.

The funeral of the stillborn baby found on a Marston footpath earlier this year will be held at Wolvercote Cemetery tomorrow (Tuesday 18 October). The police have given her the name Raihana.

Parishioners of Holy Trinity Church in Quarry who are unhappy about the recently-approved plans for an extension to the church are planning to take their objections to the Diocese of Oxford in an attempt to get the scheme revoked.

In the ‘It Had To Happen Sometime’ section, the story broke that land belonging to Christ Church College and Wick Farm between Barton Park and the Elsfield road may be developed for housing. This will be hugely controversial as the land is Green Belt and in South Oxfordshire District, whose relations with the City Council over housing needs are lukewarm at best. I hope to write in more detail about this soon.

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

  • Shop Next To Starbucks
  • Pedestrian Safety in Quarry
  • Sick dogs related to Council spraying of organophosphate?
  • Plans for 3,000 more homes to west of Barton Park
  • Abandoned baby burial
  • Barton Park junction