JR Hospital

Headington Headlines #122

TonyOX3

Here’s my weekly round-up of local news for 22 – 28 July.

New High Street was closed for several days for resurfacing.

Next street along, several residents in Kennett Road have objected to an application to create a disabled parking space. There’s a suggestion the applicant may already have somewhere to park off the street.

@TVP_Oxford raided a number of properties in Barton and Headington on Wednesday morning on suspicion of drug offences. The targets were in Cranley Road and Waynflete Road in Barton and John Snow Place on the London Road. At least one man has been charged.

News broke that @OxfordshireCC are conducting a strategic transport review of Headington’s traffic problems. Headington transport and cycling groups, Neighbourhood Plan team and other interested groups were unaware until about two weeks ago and there seem to be no plans to involve them. Describing the review as ‘major’ is rather exaggerated as the Council has apparently budgeted less than £25,000 for the consultants they have commissioned.

The cricket wicket in Margaret Road park was refurbished. Councillors @delia_sinclair @MarkLygo and @LaurencepBaxter celebrated.

Having acknowledged a while ago that their ban on smoking anywhere on site was unenforceable in practice, the JR Hospital has submitted a planning application to erect five smoking shelters.

There was a snatch robbery on the London Road on Wednesday the week before last. Police appeal for information.

Morrisons was granted an alcohol licence for 6am to midnight at the old Blockbuster shop.

Barton is getting £14,575 from @OxfordCity‘s Social Inclusion Fund for youth work, advice work and the Barton Bash.

The Film under the Stars screening in Bury Knowle Park on Saturday had to be cancelled because of the rain. @FilmOxford say it will be rescheduled for later in the school holidays.

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

  • Plans for the new Barton estate now available
  • New High Street Re-surfacing
  • Supermarkets in 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.

Central North Headington Residents’ Association

TonyOX3

The CNHRA is my local Residents’ Association. I went along to their AGM on Monday evening.

About 30 people attended the meeting. Before the formal business Mark Trumper, Estates Manager for the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust gave a short talk about the Trust’s plans for its properties (which now include the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre). In the immediate future there are three developments they hope to carry out on the JR site:

  • an extension to the Trauma Research facility;
  • an extension to the Neonatal Care Unit (doubling the number of cots);
  • a new (extended) main entrance which will improve the reception area and include 4 retail units: a food outlet (hopefully Waitrose, M&S or similar), a newsagent, a coffee shop, and a chemists’ shop.

Longer term they are considering the future of the old buildings at the Churchill. One idea is to replace them with key worker accommodation, although this and alternative ideas are only at the embryonic stage.

This provoked a slightly tetchy discussion about traffic and parking. Mark explained that the Trust had the most draconian policy of any Oxford employer: with only a few exceptions no employee living within 20 miles of the hospital is allowed to park at the hospital. They are encouraged to use the park & ride, so don’t contribute to Headington’s traffic congestion. By accommodating more key workers close to their workplace the strain on roads and public transport would be reduced. Some in the audience remained sceptical.

Someone asked if the Barton West development would allow the creation of an access road from the Ring Road to the Hospital. Mark ruled this out on cost grounds (£40m): it would be hard to justify such expenditure at the expense of the healthcare budget.

Mark’s session wound up with an inconclusive wrangle about responsibility for the gate into the private road near the bus stops, which has been locked occasionally.

The meeting then went into open forum mode with Cllr. David Rundle and Martin Tudge (NE Area Co-ordinator for the City Council’s Planning Department). Matters raised were:

  • the refurbishment of the Sandfield Road play area. Money has been set aside but nothing has yet happened. David said he’d find out. (Note: the following day Cllr Ruth Wilkinson reported the work would start in January 2012.)
  • repositioning the notice board by the bus-stops on the S side of the London Road. Not worth the cost or the fight, according to David.

Moving on to the formal business, Jean White gave the Chairman’s report and Barbara Parker presented the accounts. Jean raised the main issue of concern at the moment, the Brookes application for an change to their entertainment licence to run from 0900 to 2300 every day of the year. From the floor members were reminded that the Council’s Housing Policy and Preferred Options Document (setting the possible future of the Headington car park, among many other sites) would be back for consultation in a few months’ time.

The Committee was re-elected nem con.

Finally the Committee appealed for help and new members, re-iterating that without more support it was very likely the Association would not be able to continue.

Headington Headlines #24

TonyOX3

As the financial world went into meltdown (again) and people everywhere were dusting off their houmus and taramasalata joke, here in Headington well-wishers were jumping the gun to announce the 25th birthday of the Headington Shark.
In other news for the week 1 – 7 August —

The East Area Planning Committee gave planning permission to Oxford University’s plans for two large new buildings on their land next to Old Road. A couple of days later it was announced that the decision is to be ‘called in’ for review.

It was confirmed that Feltham Construction will shortly start work on building flats on the remaining Manor Hospital land.

McKenna Plant Hire is reported to be intending to submit a planning application to re-open Woodeaton Quarry as a site to dump soil and clay. Barton residents are gearing up to oppose the plan which would mean a significant increase in heavy lorries along Bayswater Road.

The landlords of the Ampleforth Arms in Risinghurst who lost their daughter to meningitis held a charity event on Saturday.

Thrive Barton’s funding was reported to be under threat.

The JR Hospital (@oxfordradcliffe) took delivery of a 7 Tesla MRI scanner, the most powerful in the country. There was a Family Fun Day in the JR grounds on Saturday to raise funds for the JR and Horton A&E departments.

Problems associated with language school students surfaced with coverage on local TV, letters in the papers, posts on the e-democracy forum and moans on twitter. I blogged about it too.

And talking about students in Headington (tenuous link of the week), it emerged that Headington School’s wealthiest alumna will be spending the coming academic year in Oxford. Yes, Emma Watson will be a student at Worcester College for a year before returning to Brown University in the USA to complete her Eng Lit degree. Wonder if she needs digs … ?

My favorite Headington-related tweet this week:

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

  • Joint Bus Ticketing Starts 24 July
  • Good homes for used carpet?
  • Headington Car Park site
  • The Cavalier pub
  • Police patrols to tackle anti social behaviour by language students

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.