elections

Elections May 2013

TonyOX3

On 2 May there are elections for the County Council. The electoral areas (‘divisions’) within Oxford City are new and all the seats are being contested.

The four divisions within my loose definition of Headington/OX3 are

  • Barton, Sandhills & Risinghurst
  • Churchill & Lye Valley
  • Headington & Quarry
  • Marston & Northway
On the same day there is also a by-election for the City Council’s Churchill Ward, caused by the resignation of @joemcmanners.
Here are the candidates, with their twitter names where they have them.

COUNTY COUNCIL

BARTON, SANDHILLS & RISINGHURST

Jennie Howard  Lib Dem
Thomas Kelley Con
Ian Macdonald UKIP
Glynis Phillips                      Lab
Mary-Jane Sareva               Green          @MarySareva
CHURCHILL & LYE VALLEY
Liz Brighouse                       Lab
Nick Dewey                          LibDem
Gary Dixon                          Con
Julian Faultless                   Green
HEADINGTON & QUARRY
Alex Ashmore UKIP
Duncan Hatfield                  Con            @Old_Marston
Raymond Hitchins              Green
Dee Sinclair                         Lab            @delia_sinclair
Roz Smith  LibDem @RoziRogers
MARSTON & NORTHWAY
Simon Bearder                 LibDem
Mark Bhagwandin              Con @markb_gt
Nicholas Fell UKIP
Charlie Haynes                 Ind
Mark Lygo                         Lab @MarkLygo
Alistair Morris                   Green

CITY COUNCIL

CHURCHILL
Susan Brown                     Lab
Nick Dewey                        Lib Dem
Gary Dixon                        Con
Julian Faultless                 Green

The complete list of candidates for all Oxford City divisions is here;  for the other City by-election (Rose Hill & Iffley) here; and the County’s lists of all County candidates are linked on this page.

Headington Headlines #105

TonyOX3

Here’s my weekly round-up of local news for 25 – 31 March.

A man from Headington who was tackled by members of the public in the course of an attempted robbery at the Covered Market has died. He was named by @TheOxfordMail as Clinton Townsend, later corrected to Clint Townsend by Thames Valley Police.

Author Brian Aldiss did himself no favours with a strange contribution to Headington Monthly. In a one-page piece rather reminiscent of a personalised story-book he shoe-horned in mentions of the JR, Headington Homewares, Ruskin, Waitrose, Bury Knowle Park and Chancellors. I wonder if a similar version has appeared in other local magazines around the country.

William Hill are appealing against the refusal of a change of use on the old Cartridge World shop which is stopping them opening another betting shop.

The planning application (Ref 13/00570/FUL) for a change of use for the Marston Plumbing business on Marston Road (now closed) to become a taxi business with waiting room has been called in by the East Area Planning Committee.

The Oxford Mail picked up a story which first surfaced in February (see Headington Headlines #98) about the not-so-public proposed piece of public art that @EFOxford want to install inside their gates to comply with their planning permission conditions. To say “A row has broken out” is perhaps a bit strong when there’s only been one comment on the proposal.

@HeadingtonPlan joined twitter. If you didn’t know that Headington has embarked on drawing up a Neighbourhood Plan you haven’t been paying attention! A Steering Group has been set up consisting of Stuart Cooper, Mark Lygo, Ruth Wilkinson, Christopher Taylor, Veronica Hurst and John Nealon: further members are being sought. The Steering Group’s first meeting will be on 3 April.

The Oxford Furniture Warehouse is moving from their Abingdon Road store into the shop that was the short-lived Today’s drink shop at 85 London Road, next to Lloyds TSB. Their website says they sell “new, antique and good clean second-hand furniture”. They expect to move in next weekend.

The cycle lane markings on Windmill Road have been repainted.

There are reports that possibly 40 ancillary jobs could go at Oxford Brookes University as student numbers have fallen. Some 250 student rooms in halls of residence (out of about 5000) are unoccupied.

@Oxford_Labour declared their candidate for the Churchill Ward by-election – Susan Brown. She’s not on twitter; a retrograde step in my view after @joemcmanners. The by-election is on 2 May, the same day as the County elections.

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

  • Headington has 2 of the country’s most congested roads
  • Redevelopment of Northway
  • Bedroom Tax Demonstration – Saturday 16th 1pm – Bonn Square Oxford
  • Headington shop news 2013
  • E-Forum Protocols
  • Bus Users’ Forum | Thu 4th Apr | Town Hall | 18:30
  • Barton Road Cricket Ground
  • A Neighbourhood Plan for Headington
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 #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.