29 Old High Street

Headington Headlines #314

TonyOX3

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

Oxford East MP Andrew Smith has announced he will not be standing for re-election on 8 June.

Andrew’s replacement as Labour’s candidate will be chosen by Labour at national level, not by the local party. Andrew was nice about it in a television interview I saw but I can imagine not everyone in Oxford would say the same. South-East MEP @AnnelieseDodds has said she is very keen to be selected, but we’ll have to wait and see.

Artisan distillers @thespiritoftoad who are converting buildings at the top of South Park into a distillery (see the original story in HH 269, 286 and 287) have submitted a planning application (ref: 17/00913/FUL) for the “Erection of Visitor Centre comprising cafe/restaurant, tasting room and bar for distillery and public conveniences”. Fans of the Oxford comma might snort lightly at this point. The picture is from the planning application. The window for comments closes on 15 May.

Back in February last year I reported that an organisation called Chapel Street Community Schools Trust was hoping to open a new Free School in Headington. There were some reasons to be dubious about the proposal, and now it seems it’s not going to happen.

Headington resident Ben McFadyean is one of the leading lights behind a multi-cultural football tournament happening at Iffley Road Sports Ground on Sunday 7 May starting at 9.30am. The winning team in the 8-a-side tournament will be presented with a trophy at the Kassam Stadium.

A voluntary smoking ban in the City Council’s children’s play areas, trialled in Sandfield Road and elsewhere, has been rolled out across the whole city. This includes Bury Knowle Park, obviously. Although vouluntary, the council hopes it will encourage people not to smoke in the children’s areas.

Nasher, aka Brian Nash, guitarist from Frankie Goes to Hollywood, performs @TheMasonsArmsHQ on Saturday 6 May.

My favourite Headington-related tweet:

This is surely a record! For the second week in a row there have been no posts on the Headington & Marston e-democracy forum.

Headington Headlines #313

TonyOX3

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

As the heatpipe works on the London Road continue, we learn that the finishing touches to the road surfaces in Highfield will mean more road closures – albeit brief – in early May. The work is to re-lay sections of tactile paving and to reinstate the road surface on a section of All Saints Road which Vital Energi say they are “not happy” with. For full details follow this link.

All my posts about the project are under the ‘Energy Project’ tab in the main menu, and there’s a page of links and contact details here.

After a long absence from the news 29 Old High Street is back!

SSE say they have found the fault that was causing intermittent power failures in and around Old Headington.

The recently-enlarged Manor Surgery in Osler Road [*whispers* which has already been open for about six weeks] will have a Grand Opening on Saturday 13 May. @AndrewSmithMP will do the honours and there will be tours of the building, meet-the-doctors sessions and refreshemnts. It all happens between 11.30 and 13.30.

The Desi Lounge restaurant, ex-Bar Meze, seems to have been short-lived. There’s a landlord’s Possession Notice in the window.

The Headington & Marston e-democracy forum has been silent this week.

Headington Headlines #291

TonyOX3

Your weekly round-up of local news for 7 – 13 November.

There are some changes to the shops in Headington. The Rose Tree restaurant has closed “until further notice”, a Helen & Douglas House charity shop is opening where Oxford Furniture used to be and shopfitters are working in the old Morrison’s shop near Starbucks.

Headington Library is closed until further notice while the boiler and heating system is repaired.

After a long time out of the news (the last time was March 2015) there was some activity at 29 Old High Street this week. For new readers, number 29 is the near-derelict property between Waitrose and the car park. The Council has access to carry out a structural survey. I’m guessing, but perhaps there’s a chance it might be declared unsafe, in which case the Council could force action to be taken.

Headington Baptist Church celebrated its tenth anniversary the Sunday before last (6 November) with celebrations including the unveiling of a new artwork.

After last week’s news of the Fairview pub, another old-established but closed pub has reached the end of the line. Marston’s Jack Russell pub in Salford Road was “half-destroyed in an arson attack” on Saturday night. Locals have been campaigning for it to become a community centre.

The Friends of Stansfeld @FofStansfled are having an open meeting in @TheMasonsArmsHQ Arms tomorrow (Tues 15 November) to discuss the development proposals for the site. Everyone welcome.

Thames Valley Police @ThamesVP issued a statement on Friday in connection with the alleged abduction and rape of a 14 year old schoolgirl. They say that there is no evidence of an abduction but they are still investigating a case of rape.

A woman, her son and a pet dog were rescued unharmed after a fire broke out in the living room of their home in Weyland Road on Saturday night.

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

  • Friends of Quarry Meeeting
  • Oxford Winter Cycle Safety
  • road repairs in headington – hats off to the Labour Party
  • Glossy yellow leaflets and spuriously claiming credit