Headington Headlines #245

TonyOX3

Your weekly round-up of local news for 14 – 20 December.

The Hospital Energy Project information machine has still to start functioning. Despite several attempts by a number of people including me, there’s still a discrepancy between the Trust/Vital and County Highways over when the All Saint’s Road work will be finished. The Trust say 27 January, the County’s traffic order says 17 January. They both agree it starts on 4 January.

On the positive side a meeting this coming Tuesday should see a Liaison Group set up, with representatives from the affected roads, Councillors, the Hospital Trust and contractors Vital Energi taking on the task of sorting out the inevitable problems. It’s not a public meeting but does include people who volunteered at the open meeting on 9 December. I will be reporting on the outcome. There is another article, including a mention of the liaison meeting, in the Oxford Mail.

BBC local TV news on Tuesday night featured a report on parking spaces, or the lack of them, for car club cars (see also HH 240). Headington Transport Group’s Charles Young was featured; also Cllr Roz Smith.

Despite widespread cynicism in some quarters, Headington/Barton/Risinghurst “Team Purple” came top of the City Council’s recycling league competition last week.

Skipton Building Society’s first anniversary celebrations went well, as this report tells. It was also covered by @ThatsOxfordTV as part of Headington’s @LiveAdvent2015, with photographer @RossMackenzie talking about his work.

Holy Trinity Church, Windmill School and Headington Quarry School staged an outdoor, travelling nativity play in Quarry on Friday with real sheep and ponies. Their route went from the Coach House in Quarry Road, to the church, and then to the Mason Arms before finishing at Headington Quarry School.

I can’t really make one of my own tweets the favourite of the week, but here it is again.

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

  • Disruption
  • Lost watch
  • X90

A Merry Christmas to you all!

Headington Headlines #244

TonyOX3

The weekly round-up of local news for 6 – 12 December.

Welcome to my new-look blog! I hope it’s easier to find what you’re looking for. You can comment on the most recent posts – see the About page if you can’t see how to do that.

The first meeting for the general public to hear about the Hospital Energy Project happened on Wednesday. My report is here. There’s more discussion on the e-democracy forum under the thread ‘Disruption‘.

I’ve also posted the latest schedule of road closures. It doesn’t include the work on London Road and Old Road.

Oxford City Council has approved a £2m flood alleviation scheme for Marston and Northway.

The Latimer Road planning application for student accommodation, which was rejected by the East Area Planning Committee last week, is being referred to the Council’s Planning Review Committee. Although I haven’t yet seen official confirmation I understand it will go to the meeting on 27 January 2016, at 6:00pm in the Town Hall.

There was a collision between a car and an ambulance on the Headington roundabout on Wednesday morning.

Private residents in Northway & Wood Farm tower blocks will have to pay £40,000–£60,000 each towards refurbishments.

A devastating report into Southern Health NHS Trust, who ran the centre in Slade Park where Connor Sparrowhawk died while having a bath, says the Trust “failed to investigate the unexpected deaths of more than 1,000 people since 2011”. The ‘Southern Health’ tag on the right links to earlier mentions in the development of this sad story.

Here’s one of the weirdest Headington mentions I’ve ever come across. Look at the web page but PLEASE DON’T CLICK on any link there – I can’t believe it’s safe!

Mick Haines, campaigning independent local councillor for Marston, seen here without his trademark leather jacket, has joined the fight to stop the demolition of the Jack Russell pub and the site being used for new flats.

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

  • Disruption
  • Free water, energy and money-saving offer
  • Housing
  • Tower block refurbishment
  • BARTON LINK ROAD PROTEST

Road closures latest

TonyOX3

The Temporary Traffic Order which the County Council intends to bring into force on 4 January sets out more details of the road closures. It does not include the work on London Road and Old Road.

Traffic order

Full details including the diversions to be signposted are in the order (click the image to get the full pdf version), but here’s a summary:

Monday 4 – Sunday 17 January
All Saints Road Between Latimer Road and Stapleton Road
Latimer Road from All Saints Road for approximately 15 metres north-westward
Stapleton Road from All Saints Road for approximately 15 Metres

Monday 11 Jan – Tuesday 15 March
Stapleton Road – Entire length progressively in stages north to south between All Saints Road and Old Road

Monday 1 Feb – Tuesday 22 April
Sandfield Road – North to south in three phases:
Phase 1. Between Woodlands Road and Beech Road
Phase 2. Between Beech Road and the southeast property line of No.1 Sandfield Road
Phase 3. Between the Southeast property line of No 1 Sandfield Road and the junction with A420 London Road

Monday 21 March – Thursday 30 June
Latimer Road – Phase 1: Between A420 London Road and Latimer Grange
Latimer Road – Phase 2. Between Latimer Grange and All Saints Road

The Order also says: “All Resident Permit Parking, Shared Parking, Disabled Parking and other Restricted Time Parking Bays at the following locations on both sides of the road and footway will be suspended when shown by appropriate traffic signs and cones. As the works progress parking bays will be made available.”