Barton

Woodeaton Quarry

TonyOX3

When I read the Oxford Mail report about Woodeaton Quarry possibly being re-opened by its owners so they can use it to dump clay and soil I realised that even though I’ve cycled through the village any number of times I didn’t know where the quarry was (is?). So I looked it up. It’s behind the school.

I can understand Barton folk not being wild about the idea of plenty of heavy trucks going up and down Bayswater Road. As a cyclist it would be irresponsible of me to say that the lorries might flatten out those speed bumps though. No, sorry, Barton, I don’t really mean it.

Bayswater Farm housing development

TonyOX3

News broke yesterday that South Oxfordshire District Council (SODC) is considering land at Bayswater Farm on the edge of Barton for housing development. The story seems to originate here, a news release from SODC in mid-June. It explains that their plans to meet new housing requirements partially from ‘windfall’ sites were thrown out by a planning inspector so they have had to look again at where 800 new homes that they had allocated to unspecified windfall sites could go. Under the broad heading ‘larger villages’ the phrase ‘land at Bayswater Farm’ is included. The changed strategy went before a full Council meeting on 30 June – the minutes don’t seem to be online yet, but I believe the Council did approve the revised strategy.

Local people are very aware of Oxford City’s proposed expansion of Barton, but probably not many realised that SODC’s boundary came so close. The maps confirm that the City/SODC boundary runs along the backs of the gardens on the edge of Barton and Sandhills.

What is not clear is whether SODC owns any of the land around Bayswater Farm, nor is there any indication of how many houses they might hope to build there. To put it in perspective, Oxford City’s Barton West development is said to be of the order of 1000 homes. There does not seem to be a map among the documents that went to the Council meeting.

Whatever the merits or otherwise of SODC’s proposals, it is obvious that any development adjoining existing or new housing in Barton should be integrated with the City’s plans.

Headington Headlines #16

TonyOX3

Here slightly earlier than usual is my weekly round-up of news for the week 6 – 12 June.
Starting with commercial news, the Quarry Gate pub on Wharton Road was put on the market at an asking price of £899,000. Cartridge World on the London Road closed down (first reported by @nikkiloymusic). Local agents @scottfraseruk won Gold in the Best UK Small Agency category at The Sunday Times Letting Agency of the Year Awards, and Tesco won its appeal and will open a shop on the former Friar pub site in Marston.

The first of the drop-in sessions running as part of the consultation process for the proposed Barton West development took place on Thursday. @TheOxfordMail reported. The next session is on Monday 13 June at 4:30-7pm in the Northway Community Centre.

The Barton development was discussed on Radio Oxford on Sunday morning. Also in the programme presenter Bill Heine interviewed the Vice-Chancellor of Brookes about relations between the University and the local community.

The City Council announced that land at Hill View Farm, Old Marston, was one of four sites being considered for a new cemetery. Embarrassingly for them it was the wrong farm. The correct site is at the adjacent Almonds Farm, where the Council owns land. Discussion(s) on the e-dem forum (see below).

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

  • London-Paris Bike Ride; Training and Fundraising Update (and a Big Thank You)
  • Burial Grounds
  • New burial ground in Old Marston?
  • Tesco appeal on The Friar Site
  • The Chequers
  • Headington on local radio this morning

I try to 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.