buses

Headington Headlines #363

TonyOX3

Your weekly round-up of local news for 26 March – 1 April.

Southern Health NHS Trust has been fined £2m for its failings over the deaths of Connor Sparrowhawk and Teresa Colvin.

Buses on routes 13/X13 and U5 had to be diverted to avoid overnight roadworks on Marston Road. The road closure seemed to take people by surprise, although yellow warning signs had been on show for some time.

The planning application for 95 student bedrooms at Ruskin College (see HH337) and the separate application for a further 12 beds at Stoke House go to east Area Planning Committee on Wednesday with recommendations for approval.

@clumpytree reported another failure by Oxfordshire CC to have cyclists in mind when they work on the roads. The subsequent thread got picked up and reported quite widely, prompting a promise from the county that it would be fixed ‘soon’. Original tweet here.

In other roadworks news, the London Road crossing that is being built at the end of Osler Road has been criticised for not having lights or any kind of pedestrian priority. @RuthWilk reports the explanation given at the last Headington Ward focus meeting. Without knowing a lot more about the technical work behind the decision it’s not possible to know whether ‘Health & Safety’ and the interests of the bus companies have been given priority over pedestrian safety and convenience. In a local shopping and commercial centre movement on foot ought to be safe, quick and simple; road traffic should be controlled accordingly.

A court has ruled that the charges Oxford City planned to levy on residents of the city’s five tower blocks woud be ‘excessive’, and has reduced the amounts drastically. For Plowman Tower in Northway the council was going to charge each property £48,766.75; the reduced figure is £2,640.85. In Foresters Tower in Wood Farm the charge has dropped from £49,116.62 to £2,642.77.

Marston Saints Football Club has had to abandon one of their pitches because of damage by moles, dog fouling and dogs digging in the soil. The pitch is off Horseman Close, Old Marston.

St Andrew’s School @sasastandrews1 has been awarded £2000 from the Tesco ‘Bags of Help’ scheme. The money will go on new curtains for the hall.

No local news is complete without a toilet story (who remembers “Clochemerle”)? The e-democracy forum has a thread which started as a complaint about closed facilities at the Bury Knowle Park toilets and then morphed into a series of exchanges on the Labour-controlled city council’s record in providing sport and leisure facilities. The good news is that the toilets are being repaired.

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

  • Bury knowle park, stealth closure/reduction of facilities

Headington Headlines #362

TonyOX3

Your weekly round-up of local news for 19 – 25 March.

In a rather bizarre fashion the Oxfordshire Growth Board revealed the projects to be carried out in the first year of the Growth and Housing Deal recently signed by the Oxford/shire councils. The Oxford Mail had the story before there was anything on the Growth Board’s website, and before Councillors or County officers were informed. The Board has not actually met to approve the spending – they do that this week. It all seems a bit topsy-turvy.

However, the good news (OK, some people may disagree) is that the Headley Way Access to Headington money has been more than covered, and work will start on the full scheme soon after Easter. It will run until about Christmas. The additional funding means that the crossing on the London Road by the bus gate at the end of Osler Road has been reinstated to the programme, although as plans stand at the moment it will amount to little more than a central refuge – no zebra or light controls for pedestrians. The County’s Access to Headington web page has a little more information.

Elsewhere, the County has opened a consultation on its proposal to introduce double yellow lines for the entire length of The Slade on both sides of the road, with exemptions for loading and access to properties. Cyclists will hope this will help stop people parking on the nice new segregated cycle paths. The consultation page tells you how you can comment.

Another theft of an upmarket car; this time a Mercedes stolen in Burchester Avenue, Barton, by a thief or thieves hooking the keys through a catflap.

The two bus companies are having to adjust their services and reduce some frequencies to cope with traffic congestion in the city. The 8 and 9 services are among those affected. The changes come into effect from Sunday 8 April.

A ‘fit trail’ was opened in Barton on Wednesday. Has anyone tried it yet?

Once again Headington features in the shortlist for RIBA’s South Region Awards. This year the Big Data Institute on the Old Road Campus is among five Oxford buildings shortlisted. It was designed by @MakeArchitects Make Architects.

The Big Data Institute
The Big Data Institute
Picture © Make Architects

Builders Hill, they of @Mosaics_Oxford at Barton Park, have been awarded 5-star status in the ‘coveted’ Home Builders Federation annual customer satisfaction survey.

The flats on the site of the old snooker club at the top of Windmill Road are being marketed by Keble Homes. It looks like they are only interested in selling to people who work at, or aspire for their children to go to, private schools in the area.

The eagerly anticipated new magazine Headington Occasional (see last week’s HH) has launched a crowdfunder.

There were no new posts on the Headington & Marston e-democracy forum this week.

Headington Headlines #339

TonyOX3

Your weekly round-up of local news for 9 – 15 October.

A consultation on the proposal by the City and County for a city-centre zero emission zone starts today (16 October). Details here.

Oxford building firm Kingerlee has won a contract for an expansion of Sobell House Hospice (on the Churchill Hospital site).

Here are the parking controls introduced at The Manor Surgery (see HH338). Fifteen minutes free or register at Reception for the duration of your appointment. Control and enforcement is by automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras and £100 fines.

Manor Surgery parking notice
Manor Surgery parking notice
Number plate camera
Number plate camera

There’s a chance to find out more about the Swan School, the free school that is going to be built in Marston. It will be run by The River Learning Trust on the Harlow Centre site in Raymund Road. There are three ‘community consultation events’ – the first is today (16 October) at New Marston Primary School from 6 – 8pm. The other dates are 1 November and 7 November, same time and place. The Oxford Mail has the story, and a search of Headington Headlines for “Swan School” will find you my earlier reports about the school.

With the County Council being over-ruled by the Government, buses will return to Queen Street from Sunday 22 October – two days before the new Westgate opens. Referring to this map, we can see that @Stagecoach_Ox buses 8 & 9 bound for Headington, Barton and Risinghurst will start from stop E2 in Norfolk Street behind the new development. They will get to the High Street via Queen Street, stop at stop T2 where the pavement has just been widened, and again at Queen’s Lane.  Inbound they will stop at Queen’s Lane and (I assume) Carfax before Speedwell Street as now, terminating in Norfolk Street stop E2. I guess @OxfordBusCo buses will do the same. I haven’t yet seen what if any changes there may be to the U1, 400 and 280/X8 services.

Local boutique distillery @TheSpiritofToad plans to launch a crowdfunding to raise investment funds. Their own website is silent on the details so we can’t tell yet what benefits subscribers might enjoy.

There have been no posts on the Headington & Marston e-democracy forum this week.