Barton Park

Headington Headlines #292

TonyOX3

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

With heatpipe work starting in Sandfield Road early in the New Year, local councillors held a street surgery on Sunday (20 November) in Sandfield Road for residents to ask any questions about how they will be affected. The full schedule of works and timings as they stand at the moment are on the project’s website.

Heatpipe Street Surgery in Sandfield Road
Heatpipe Street Surgery in Sandfield Road

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.

The civil engineering contractors @C_A_Blackwell preparing the @BartonPark_ site for the housebuilders reported that the major earthworks are completed and that their work on the A40 junction is complete apart from some minor work to be done in the new year. This coincided with the removal of the 30mph speed limit around the new junction.

There were reports of ‘vandalism’ – or just plain stupid behaviour – at the Access to Headington roadworks at the Gipsy Lane/Old Road junction. Lights, barriers and signs were turned round or moved.

Headington library re-opened on Wednesday after being closed while the boiler was repaired.

I wrote another instalment of the story of the planning application to build next to the C S Lewis nature reserve in Risinghurst.

This video from @Oxford_Brookes about the Northway and Marston flood alleviation scheme is on the City Council website, where the scheme has its own dedicated page.

@ThatsOxon TV also covered the official launch of the scheme – here’s their video.

@ThamesVP report a burglary and an attempted burglary, both in Marsh Lane, Marston last Thursday.

The thread “Lime Walk Planning Permission for THREE storey block of flats” in the H&M e-democracy forum is about 91 Lime Walk. The application is to demolish the existing bulding and to build in its place a 3-storey block of 9 flats. This is the house in question.

91 Lime Walk
91 Lime Walk (pic: Google maps)

My favourite Headington-related tweet of the week:

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

  • Oxford Winter Cycle Safety
  • Lime Walk Planning Permission for THREE storey block of flats [also ‘Reply’ and ‘Reply – 91 Lime walk’]

Headington Headlines #256

TonyOX3

Your weekly round-up of local news for 29 Feb – 6 March.

The body of a dead baby girl was found by the Marston cycle path on Monday morning. Police are continuing to appeal to the mother to come forward.

There’s a campaign to oppose the City Council’s plan to make a car park next to the new Margaret Road sports field pavilion. There are two videos on youtube (one long, one short). The planning application is open for comments, but I can’t give the link because the City’s system is down while they do a major upgrade. [Update: the system’s back up, and the reference is 16/00002/CT3. This drawing shows the proposed parking arrangements, including two disabled spaces.]

No less than three Barton stories this week:

The first phase of housebuilding in @BartonPark_, 237 homes, was given plannning permission by East Area Planning Committee. Here is an artist’s impression of what it will look like.

Barton Park phase 1 - artist's impression
Barton Park phase 1 – artist’s impression

Barton Park has been chosen as one of ten ‘healthy living towns’ by NHS England. More on this in a separate blog post.

The existing Barton estate is getting £4m funding for regeneration projects. The bulk of the money, £1.72m, will be spent on Underhill Circus; the health centre will receive £200,000 for its planned expansion, with a further £150,000 available for the rest of the centre and £40,000 allocated to transform its entrance and outside seating area. There will also be improvements to all the blocks of flats, starting with Stowford Road and Bayswater Road, then rolling out similar works to the other blocks in the estate. Where and how the rest of the money will be spent is still being discussed with the community.

The CRUK (Cancer Research UK) shop in Headington joined twitter @CRUKHeadington1.

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

  • Access to Headington – gloves off for round 2!
  • New School for Headington
  • Possible Extension to Car Spaces in Margaret Road Park
  • Empty ground-floor premises in Headington centre
  • Disruption
  • Latimer Road

Headington Headlines #239

TonyOX3

Here’s my weekly round-up of local news for 2 – 8 November.

Catalin Horhota, of no fixed abode, was sentenced to life imprisonment for a series of rapes, sexual assaults and burglary. The rape and sexual assaults happened in Roosevelt Drive in September last year.

The application to build student housing on the site of the old Friar pub in Marston (see HH236) was agreed in principle by the East Area Planning Committee on Wednesday. Final permission will be granted after a legal agreement on conditions has been reached.

A resident of Derwent Avenue had to call the Fire & Rescue services when his electric shower caught fire while he was using it.

There’s only one of the new houses at The Willows (the old Barton Road cricket ground) still unsold. Carpe diem!

The heat transfer scheme between the JR and the Churchill was discussed at the Ward Focus meeting two weeks ago. I wasn’t at the meeting but have gathered some information about it. There will be more in the public domain for local discussion soon, I’m told.

The Head of @WindmillOxford criticised the government’s proposals for more stringent tests for 7-yr olds.

Streets in the @BartonPark_ development will be named after people with strong connections with Barton, as well as plants and animals (“flora and fauna”), says @OxfordCity. One of the people mentioned, Vashti de Montfort Wellborne, appears in a stained glass window in St Andrew’s church, Old Headington. Read about her here on Headington News’ website.

My favourite Headington-related tweet of the week:

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

  • Builders’ vans
  • Car sharing
  • Gearing up to support your cherished Oxford Headington and Marston forum
I cover news from the OX3 postcode in Headington and out as far as Barton, Sandhills and Risinghurst (see map). To feed into next week’s summary you can comment on this article, or tweet either with the hashtag #ox3 or @mentioning @TonyOX3.