EF

Headington Headlines #61

TonyOX3

Here’s my weekly round-up of local news for 30 April – 6 May —

The elections of half the Councillors to the City Council took place on Thursday. The results nationwide have been extensively covered: locally five out of six wards returned their sitting candidates. The exception was Marston which elected Independent candidate and well-known local campaigner Mick Haines. The local results are summarised here, and my short report is here. The turnout in Headington Ward (41.35%) where @RuthWilk was re-elected was the highest of any ward in the City and Marston’s turnout was third highest.

In the run-up to the election Dr Julia Gasper, the UKIP candidate for Quarry & Risinghurst, said she had received death threats after publicity was given to comments she made in 2010 about homosexuals and linking homosexuality with paedophilia. @TheOxfordMail story summarises; Pink News reported the story on 27 and 30 April.

In other news @sundersandher of Headington Londis stores joined twitter.

Hair stylists Africare in Windmill Road has closed.

Headington residents have formed a cycling lobby group which held its first meeting last week.

@TheOxfordMail reported that the Dept of Health has offered Warneford Meadow for sale to the County and City Councils. The County has declined and the City say it’s too expensive though they are willing to negotiate. The asking price hasn’t been revealed.

The Sikh community has submitted a new planning application (ref 12/00990/FUL) to convert 295-297 London Road into a temple.

Private equity group Terra Firma is buying Four Seasons Health Care, owners of The Albany Nursing Home and the Headington Care Home.

The designs for the new Maggie’s Centre at the Nuffield Hospital have been published. The concept is based on the idea of a tree house.

EF International Academy published the results of their recent public consultation exercise on Cotuit Hall. A full planning application is about to be submitted. Meanwhile the internal re-fit of the existing buildings will start on 14 May and will last about 16 weeks.

My favorite Headington-related tweet this week (no prizes for accuracy):

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

  • Restaurant application for former Tote betting shop in Marston Road
  • Is a wider process needed for consents for Transport Plans?
  • Northway Pharmacy
  • New Lime Walk and All Saints junction “improvements”
  • Flooding along Marston Meadows Cycle Track
  • Sikh temple in Cherwell Drive
  • Policing of bus lanes
  • Lack of bins with recycling sections in Oxford
  • City Council election on Thursday 3 May 2012
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.

Headington Headlines #60

TonyOX3

Here’s my weekly round-up of local news for 23 – 29 April —

Wood Farm residents have formed a ‘Friends of Magdalen Wood West‘ group to look after the eponymous woodland.

The Barton Area Action Plan has been formally submitted to the Secretary of State. I wrote a short blog piece about it, with links to the official documents. The next step is the Examination in Public: the provisional date and venue for this is 16 to 20 July 2012 in Oxford Town Hall, but this may change.

There was a distraction burglary at Headington Conservative Club in Windmill Road last Saturday (21 April) when two men stole charity cash collecting tins.

On the same day there was a major street brawl in the Wood Farm/The Slade area. According to reports, a gang of 30 men armed with hammers and dog chains attacked several Wood Farm residents. Two men and possibly a third were injured. Police suggest the attack might have been in revenge for an earlier burglary.

Costa Express have opened at the Shell petrol station on the London Road, but it’s only a coffee machine.

A question was raised at the full City Council meeting on Monday about the terms of a leasing agreement for the Northway Community Centre. It centres round a dispute over Cllr Roy Darke’s status as Chair of the Association. I suggest you start with the thread on the e-democracy forum if you want to know more. You can also see the question and answer on the video record of the meeting. Ignore the bit where it says "The recording of the meeting is unavailable" and play the Part 1 video. Scroll through to 39’30” to get the start of the question. Two short sections just after the start have been redacted but stick with it and the video continues. Feelings seem to be running high because after Cllr Bance’s statement (at about 46’40”) Cllr Altaf Khan claims he has been personally verbally attacked and leaves the chamber.

A new residents’ group, the Headington Hill Umbrella Group (HHUG), has been formed to represent the interests of local residents concerned about EF’s developments at Cotuit Hall and the former Plater College, both in Pullens Lane. They have issued an opening press release.

Work started on demolishing The Cavalier pub on Copse Lane, Northway. Accommodation for 58 students will be built in its place. Picture by @headingtonnews.

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

  • Controversy over the signing of the new Leasing Agreement in relation to the yet to be constructed Northway Community Centre
  • EF Academy plans for Cotuit Hall
  • The Cavalier pub
  • Restaurant application for former Tote betting shop in Marston Road
  • Is a wider process needed for consents for Transport Plans?
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.

Cotuit Hall development plans (2)

TonyOX3

I went along to the follow-up public consultation event at Cotuit Hall this afternoon. I live far enough away not to be significantly affected by the development but I was interested to see what changes EF and their architect/planners had made since the first open event in March (see my blog about it).

The main changes I found were that there was more detail about the environmental impact of the new buildings, the building design, and the management of construction traffic. In brief, the overall height of the new buildings has been lowered a little by making more use of the sloping site and even more landscaping to screen the buildings. The middle building will be clad in vertical wooden strips with similar features used to screen the external fire stairs; the lower building will be clad in wooden shingles which the architects say is to best blend in with the ‘rustic’ nature of that end of the site. The shingles will age to a natural silver-grey colour. Personally I’m not convinced that the vertical strip cladding wouldn’t be better throughout, but it’s a matter of taste.

Construction traffic will be managed on a ‘just in time’ basis. Deliveries will be held at a holding site away from Pullens Lane and called in only when the builders are ready to receive them. A banksman will control traffic in Pullens Lane (I think this probably means a stop-go man). I noted how bad the road surace is in Pullens Lane, especially the section between the main road and Cuckoo Lane. It’s bound to get worse with heavy lorries but I guess there’s a deal to be done between the residents (it’s a private road) and the school.

There was also information in the display about how the increased number of students would be managed – no student parking, student movement constrained to the central spine of the site and so on. I didn’t look closely at this aspect. To remind you, the school in Cotuit Hall is basically a boarding school for 16-18 year-olds.

The exhibition is open tomorrow (Saturday) between 09:00 and 12:00.