cycling

Headington Headlines #40

TonyOX3

Headington’s Christmas lights have been funded entirely by local businesses and voluntary organistations. The Council turned down an application for support, but local Councillors have chipped in from their discretionary ward budget.

In an event organised by Churches Together in Headington on Friday children and a donkey walked from St Andrew’s Primary School through Headington to All Saints Church knocking on inn doors. The donkey was later spotted being led down the main road.

Pickets were out at @Oxford_Brookes on Wednesday morning as part of the public sector workers’ strike over pensions, and protestors later joined the parade through the city centre.

Road works and diversion signs obstructing cycle paths and causing cyclists to ‘swerve’ into the road or onto pavements got surprisingly wide coverage and attention. Well, I was surprised anyway.

A taxi driver was robbed in Osler Road early on Monday morning, having been threatened by a group of men who got into the taxi at the Shell garage on the London Road. @TVP_Oxford appealed for witnesses and on Friday announced that six men had been arrested and bailed.

Bad feeling between Lord Mayor Elise Benjamin (@EliseDB)and John Kelly (ex Oxfordshire CC emergency planner) broke out again over the Mayor’s attendances at the repatration tributes near the entrance to the JR Hospital. Mr Kelly’s complaint has been rejected.

There was a complaint about deliveries in the middle of the night to the Keraleeyam Stores (London Road).

A planning application 11/02584/FUL to convert two retail units at 293 London Road (near Northfield Road) to hot-food takeaways was refused.

News broke that another pub is to close – The Crown & Thistle in Old Road.

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

  • Thornhill Park and Ride….again

  • Northway Pharmacy

  • Headington Car Park

  • Renaming places

  • Keraleeyam Stores

  • Crown and Thistle

  • Church Bells in Ferry Rd, Marston

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.

Help find this car

TonyOX3

This is an appeal for help in connection with a serious accident to a cyclist a couple of weeks ago. Let’s show the power of social networking and track down the car involved! Here’s the story (there’s more on the H&M e-dem forum link).

On the Headington & Marston e-democracy forum Nigel Magnay writes:

Two weeks ago whilst cycling to work, I was knocked off by a hit & run driver in a dark blue Mk4 VW Golf. This occurred at about 8:30AM at the bottom of Headington Hill, after the traffic lights for Morrell Avenue; he pulled in from the right-hand lane all the way in front of me to turn into Rectory Road – I had no time to stop, bounced off the rear quarterlight and am now recovering from a hip fracture being held together with 3 screws. Sadly I only saw the first part of the registration as LV51 (and even that is questionable).

Jock Coates adds:

On Sunday I think I was probably victim of the same car. Turning out of Grays Rd to turn right and onto Headington Rd the lights in favour of Gipsy Lane traffic had been green long enough for three cars to go through and as I pulled out of Grays Rd this similar sounding blue Golf turned at high speed into Gipsy Lane from Headington direction. He must have been ten seconds after the red light on the London Rd.

Nigel adds:

The Police are just as keen to catch the guy as I am, they’ve already pulled video records (even going so far as to get ANPR data to try to find a match) but without a numberplate it’s obviously difficult. And dark blue VW golfs aren’t exactly rare.

Please look out for a car that matches the description – a dark blue VW Golf with a registration possibly beginning LV51. It sounds like it might be seen in the Marston Road/Headington Hill/St Clements/Cowley Road area, possibly being driven aggressively. If you can get the full registration number we can pass it on to the police.