Access to Headington – Cabinet Member to decide

TonyOX3

On 9 June the County’s Cabinet Member for Environment (which includes Transport) will decide the final form of the Access to Headington scheme. The Agenda papers for the meeting are here and the main paper with the officers’ recommendations is here.

The officers’ recommendation is that the latest proposals should be accepted, which means that some parking will be kept on Headley Way and Windmill Road. If you’ve read my earlier posts you’ll know that I am against keeping this parking, but it now seems very unlikely that the decision will go against the recommendation.

There’s a very telling sentence tucked away in the Cabinet Member’s paper. In para. 24 it says

Officers believe that this approach is the best compromise between the safety of cyclists, keeping some on-street parking provision, working with limited available carriageway widths and a desire to reduce the potential for any further loss of trees and grass verges.

In other words the County is prepared to compromise cyclists’ safety for the sake of car parking. This won’t help achieve the long-term objective of cutting congestion and pollution by getting more people to cycle, as one of the main reasons non-cyclists give for not cycling is that they don’t feel safe. Let’s remember this when the first cyclist gets knocked off their bike by someone opening a car door without looking.

I can’t go to the meeting but members of the public can attend and address the meeting for a strictly limited time. If you want to do so you have to inform Committee Services by 9am on the day of the meeting (9 June). This page tells you what to do and what to expect. You can apply online from there too.

Bus route cuts and bus stop changes

TonyOX3

Bus company @Stagecoach_Ox has announced changes to its services following the County Council’s cuts to bus subsidies. Here are the changes that will affect routes serving Headington and Marston. They take effect on 21 July 2016.

The 17A and 17C services will stop running. These currently connect the main railway station via Jericho and Marston to the JR Hospital.

There will also be changes to the 14 and 14A services between the station, Marston and the JR. Stagecoach say “There will be additional evening journeys on service 14 from JR Hospital with a last departure at 2105 and from the City Centre with a last departure at 2130 hours, Mondays to Saturdays. There will also be some changes to daytime journeys on the 14/14A.” The new timetable for these routes is here.

For more information see Stagecoach’s full announcement covering all of its affected routes. Oxford Bus Company routes aren’t changing

In other bus news, some routes serving Headington from the city centre will be affected by the closure of Queen Street to all vehicles from Monday 6 June until November. This means you might have to get on or off your bus at a different or new stop.

The 8 and 9 services will not go to or from Castle Street. From Headington you will still be able to get off at the top of the High Street or on Speedwell Street, but leaving the city you will need to use Speedwell Street or a new stop (labelled G0) on St Aldates.

Headington-bound U1 and 280 services will continue to stop on Park End Street and at new stops on Castle Street before going on to the top end of the High Street as now. Westbound the U1 will stop on St Aldate’s and the 280 at the top of the High Street. Both will stop on Norfolk Street (before Castle Street) before continuing towards the station.

As well as stopping on New Road as now, the Headington-bound 400 will stop on Castle Street before stopping again on St Aldates, but it will no longer stop at the top of the High Street. In the other direction the stops will be at the top of the High Street, Speedwell Street and Castle Street.

There’s a rather messy but comprehensive map showing the stops for all services here.

Headington Headlines #268

TonyOX3

It’s been a remarkably quiet week for news in Headington but here’s your weekly round-up for 23 – 29 May.

@HeadingtonNews spotted this City Council work schedule of tree work that will be done in Bury Knowle Park over the summer. There’s a lot!

The Stansfeld Centre held a well-attended open day on Wednesday.

There will be a debate in Parliament about Southern Health Trust’s failings on 8 June.

The Common People Festival came to South Park over the weekend and my twitter timeline seems to rate it a success. I couldn’t hear it at home in OX3 Towers.

There were no active posts on the Headington & Marston e-democracy forum this week: