Latimer Road

Headington Headlines #355

TonyOX3

Your weekly round-up of local news for 29 January – 4 February.

Redrow has been selected as the builder for the next phase of @BartonPark_. The company is on twitter as @RedrowHomes.

Winvic contractors are still flouting their permitted working procedures and causing problems in Latimer Road. This is just one of several tweets about it from @LeonardoLoredan.

I’m not going to rant about the disgraceful lack of transparency of the Oxfordshire Growth Board, but it apparently met in closed session on Thursday to discuss the delayed Access to Headington work under a disguised agenda item. @RuthWilk reports “individual projects are not likely to be announced till the 7th February. So the planned and published Staunton Road closure may still go ahead”.

The rather decrepit old bridge over the Cherwell at the Parks end of the path through Mesopotamia has been replaced with a smart new one.

The temporary surgical theatre outside the JR Women’s Centre has been removed. It was originally put there to provide more capacity after the downgrading of maternity services at Banbury Horton. Hopefully something more permanent has been provided in the main building.

The driver of a Land Rover Discovery tried to ram-raid the Aldi on Horspath Driftway on Saturday night. Apparently the cash machine was the target. Police are appealing for information.

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

    • Concerns re parking prices in Headington
    • Reply re Barton Park
    • Police crime statistics for Oxford and personal theft: a question
    • Politics on the forum
    • Beech House

Headington Headlines #331

TonyOX3

Your weekly round-up of local news for 14 – 20 August.

It’s been a long saga, but the Headington Heatpipe has been turned on.

However, the whole system is not yet fully operational; the CHP (combined heat and power) engine isn’t yet commissioned.

There’s work going on at the ex-pet shop on the corner of Stile Road (opposite the Co-op), but as yet no information about what will be there. On the other side of the road the promised “Grill House Opening Soon” seems to have been on hold for the past month or more.

The shop that was last Morrison’s is to be a branch of franchise operation Heavenly Desserts.

@LeonardoLoredan has been mounting a one-man twitter campaign pointing out continuous breaches of agreed working conditions by Frontier Estates and their contractors Winvic on the Beech House site, Latimer Road.

The Oxford Mail reports that Independent Councillor for Marston, Mick Haines, is raising concerns about sewage flooding from the Barton Park development once people start moving in to the new properties. Provision of foul drainage capacity is a matter for Thames Water, and was a ‘reserved matter’ in the original outline planning permission for what was then West Barton. A Foul Water Strategy was prepared and the East Area Planning Committee approved the corresponding Condition 26 on 11 February 2015. Whether Cllr Haines is crying wolf remains to be seen, but I think I can hear a bandwagon approaching.

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

  • Local Plan 2036
  • Barton Park Prices

Headington Headlines #300

TonyOX3

Headington Headlines has made it to 300 editions! Here is your weekly round-up of local news for 9 – 15 January. First – roadworks …..

The work installing the heatpipe has slipped behind schedule. Work in Latimer Road has been delayed by two weeks, and in Lime Walk one week. Work in Sandfield Road is still expected to start today (16 January). This blog post has more details.

All my posts about the project are under the ‘Energy Project’ tab in the main menu, and there’s a page of links and contact details here.

The County Council has published plans under the Access to Headington scheme to make an eastbound bus lane in Roosevelt Drive between the Old Road Campus and Churchill Drive. The lane would operate between 3pm and 6pm, Monday to Friday, and during those times only buses and emergency vehicles will be able to leave the Churchill site by that route. All other traffic will have to leave via Roosevelt Drive westbound to the Old Road junction. Consultation on this plan is open – the county says “objections to the proposals and other representations, specifying the grounds on which they are made, may be sent in writing (quoting ref: AK/12.6.320) by 3 February”.

Churchill bus lane - Roosevelt Drive to Churchill Drive
Churchill bus lane – Roosevelt Drive to Churchill Drive

In February the sections of Warneford Lane/Gipsy Lane/Old Road/ Roosevelt Drive which are being remodelled as part of Access to Headington will be closed overnight for about six nights for resurfacing.

In other news ….

A VW Polo was stolen in Burchester Avenue, Barton a weeks ago (Sunday 8 January) after its owner left it with the engine running while it defrosted.

The saga of the Jack Russell pub in Salford Road, Marston goes on. After the empty building was burnt down in an arson attack in November the owners have submitted a new planning application (ref: 16/03108/RES) to build a three-storey block of 16 flats on the site. Some locals including independent councillor Mick Haines are still campaigning for the site to be used for community facilities. According to the Oxford Mail others think the need for more housing is more important.

The planning application to build next to the C S Lewis nature reserve in Risinghurst has still not come before councillors. It was not on the agenda for the East Area Planning Committee on 11 January, although it is listed for consideration at a future, but unspecified, date. Searching the Charities Commission website for the “Wychwood Foundation” still returns a blank. Earlier posts on this story here and here.

As pressure on the NHS builds, all non-urgent operations and related procedures at the JR were cancelled on Friday and again today (Monday).

Bar Meze scored only 2 out of 5 in a hygiene inspection last November. The manager is confident he’ll do much better when it’s reinspected.

Not a tweet but a favourite Instagram this week from the Sandhills A 40 underpass:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BPNZSZ5gaTC/

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

  • Internet Connection in Headington