General

Headington Headlines #63

TonyOX3

Here’s my weekly round-up of local news for 14 – 20 May —

There was a collision between two cars on the A40 Northern by-pass early on Monday morning. Later the same day an accident at the Green Road roundabout closed the road for a while and stopped buses serving Barton.

The gap in the central reservation on the A40 opposite Collinwood Road, Risinghurst, will be closed this Monday (21st) for an 18 month ‘trial period’. Traffic will be affected.

The Headington Ward Focus meeting organised by LibDem councillors @RuthWilk and @DavidRundle was held on Tuesday.

The new Sue Ryder charity shop on Windmill Road opened on Thursday where Clover’s used to be.

The Oxford Mail’s reporter for Headington & Marston, Damian Fantato,(@dlafantato) got through the first stage of auditions for Mastermind.

Police reported four burglaries in Headington between 12 and 15 May. Properties in London Road, Margaret Road, Northfield Road and Coniston Avenue were hit.

Weapons including a loaded crossbow, a stun gun and four knives were seized in a drugs raid in Stowood Close, Headington on Wednesday.

A residential block for the elderly, Broadlands House in Mill Lane, Old Marston could be demolished and replaced with a new building.

The Headington Sharks Football Club Under 13 Team is looking for shirt/kit sponsors for the 2012/13 season.

EF International Academy’s applications to demolish (12/01107/CAC) and rebuild (12/01106/FUL) the blocks behind Cotuit Hall, Pullens Lane have been submitted to the Council.

The City Council will take no further action over the derelict 29 Old High Street until Martin Young’s planning appeal has been heard. He is appealing against the Council’s refusal of permission to demolish the house and replace it with 5 three-storey houses.

There will be no Headington Headlines next week and possibly not the following week either as I will have little or no internet access for a while. Normal service will resume after the bank holiday.

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

  • Savills Invite to Public Exhibition re propsoed new scheme for the student housing development on St Clements car park
  • North East Area Forum
  • Garden waste brown bin subscription renewal
  • Terrible state of London Road between Headington Roundabout and Bury Knowle Park
  • Headington Sharks Football Club – Looking for Sponsors
  • Experimental closure of gap in A40 near Risinghurst
  • Halfords Cycling Tour Series, Oxford – 22 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 Wards election results

TonyOX3

In the six wards that I consider make up the Headington/OX3 area, five re-elected their sitting candidate. That’s four Labour councillors – Mike Rowley (@redmikerowley), Mark Lygo (@Marklygo), Roy Darke and Laurence Baxter – and one LibDem (@RuthWilk). Marston was the exception, where Labour councillor Mary Clarkson (@maryoxford) did not stand for re-election and the Labour candidate Louise Upton was relegated to second place behind Independent Mick Haines.

The results for the six wards are here.

Mick Haines, a 71 year old retired scaffolder, is a well-known campaigner on local issues, most recently on the new Tesco store to be built on the site of the old Friar pub and for lights to be installed in the Croft Road recreation ground. He has stood unsuccessfully for election 5 times before.

It will be interesting to see what he makes of his new opportunity: for the rest of Headington/OX3 it looks like business as before.

Headington Headlines #58

TonyOX3

Here’s my weekly round-up of local news for 9 – 15 April —

Headington’s ACE Centre which supports children and adults with communication difficulties is to close at the end of June, another victim of Government cuts. If you don’t know about them look at their website to see what will be missed. The Centre is located in the grounds of the Nuffield Hospital in Windmill Road. You can follow them on twitter as @ACECentre and @moore_ace.

A 25-year old man appeared in court accused of a burglary in Weyland Road.

A man was rescued from a flat fire in Bayswater Road, Barton on Tuesday. The same day a man was attacked with a baseball bat in the subway between Barton and North Way.

Northway and Wood Farm are two of five Oxford tower blocks listed for refurbishment in an £8m project announced by the City Council.

A Community Dog Day was held in Headington on Saturday.


The rebuilt wall – picture by Stephanie Jenkins. Click for larger version.

The saga of 29 Old High Street took another twist this week when the owner, Martin Young, had the wall on the street rebuilt in concrete blocks. It’s hard to believe these are permitted materials in the Old Headington Conservation Area so it means more ratepayers’ money will have to be spent by the Council to get it put right. The story has been widely covered – here’s the latest from the Oxford Mail.

My favorite Headington-related tweet this week:

This map shows the location of some of the places mentioned in this report.

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

  • Headington Community Dog Day
  • 29 Old High Street (again)
  • Older people’s bus passes
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.