Barton

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.

Headington Headlines #233

TonyOX3

Here’s my weekly round-up of local news for 21 – 27 September.

The Headington Plan AGM is on Friday 2 October at 7.00pm in the Green Room, Headington Hill Hall, Oxford Brookes Headington Hill campus.

The ex-BBB stores next to the sooon-to-be-ex-Post Office is reportedly going to become a butcher’s shop.

The story of the old Friar pub site on Marston Road moved into a new chapter with a planning appplication (Ref. 15/02543/FUL) to build a three-storey 30-bedroom student acommodation block (no link because the City’s website has been down over the past few days).

It was the annual Barton Bash on Saturday, opened by @AndrewSmithMP. Proceeds from the £1 entry fee will be donated to the British Heart Foundation in memory of former Barton Community vice-president Barry Holden, who passed away from heart failure in August last year. Article in The Oxford Mail.

Headington’s Live Advent Calendar – a series of 24 performances each in a different venue in the run-up to Christmas – is happening again this year. Contact them @LiveAdvent2015 or liveadvent.org.uk if you can offer a venue, a performance, or other help.

To no-one’s surprise, the promised opening of Windmill School’s new classrooms didn’t happen. At the moment it seems anyone’s guess when they will actually be ready.

A scheme offerring financial incentives to encourage more recycling of household waste has been strongly criticised on the e-democracy forum this week.

A second banner saying “Children Crossing. Headington Quarry Foundation Stage School” has disappeared, presumably stolen, from Quarry Hollow. Parents and residents are understandably upset, especially as the County refuses to install any traffic calming measures as the area is ‘low priority’. Until a serious accident, presumably.

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

  • Friar site for sale
  • New development at top of Windmill Road
  • C’mon Ruth cheer up…you’ll be back in Headington soon.
  • Crown and Thistle
  • New Recycling promotion
  • Stolen ‘children crossing’ banners in Quarry
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.

Headington Headlines #223

TonyOX3

Here’s my weekly round-up of local news for 13 – 19 July.

A job fair in Barton on Wednesday attracted over 300 people.

The hospital porters’ strike I mentioned last week is going ahead on Tuesday this week (21 July). They are striking against FTSE100 outsourcing company Carillion plc, which proposes to cut their pay and jobs.

Headington’s LibDem councillors have arranged three more chances for people to find out about the Access to Headington scheme being put forward by the County Council. Details here. If you still don’t know what this is about, start here.

If you couldn’t go to the exhibition last week, the artist’s impressions* of the first phase of @BartonPark_ housing have been released. Comments reported in the paper are generally favourable.
* = architects’ computer graphics images

Remember @QuarryVelo‘s Quarry-Roubaix ride a month ago? Here are some photos by @Howard_S.

There’s been a very lively discussion about the @HeadingtonPlan and in particular about long-distance buses on the e-democracy forum this week.

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

  • Headington Plan: TCS5
  • My Comments on the New Headington Plan
  • Oxford Keyworker Housing Policy
  • £12.m transport improvements for Headington: exhibitions and consultation
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.