Headington Headlines #250

Your weekly round-up of local news for 18 – 24 January.

My weekly energy project round-up is here. 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.

Lloyds Bank was the scene of an armed robbery on Saturday morning. Police say two masked men, one with a firearm, escaped in a white BMW. The same bank was robbed almost exactly three years ago (thanks to @HeadingtonNews for that link).

The Latimer Road student accommodation planning appplication goes to the City’s Planning Scrutiny Committee on Wednesday. It has been ‘called in’ after being rejected by the East Area Planning Committee, despite officers’ recommendation to accept. The papers for the Committee are here, with the details in the Agenda Reports Pack and a set of slides in the Presentation.

Still on planning, there’s an application (ref: 16/00082/FUL) to build three 5-bedroom houses on the site of the Quarry Gate pub.

A search of the Food Standard Agency’s “Scores on the Doors” food hygiene ratings for OX3 finds 204 rated premises. Of those, 10 are rated “2 – Improvement Necessary” or lower. The unhygienic wooden spoon goes to the Londis on Marston Road, rated “0 – Urgent Improvement Necessary” in March last year. Here are the 0 – 2 results with a map. Above a score of 2, the next is “3 – Generally Satisfactory”.

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

  • City Council agrees energy pipe needs planning permission
  • Saxon Way bus gate
  • Disruption
  • The Headington Plan – whats next? (August 2015)
  • The Danger on the A40 Headington to cutteslow.
  • Cold callers selling goods

Headington Headlines #244

The weekly round-up of local news for 6 – 12 December.

Welcome to my new-look blog! I hope it’s easier to find what you’re looking for. You can comment on the most recent posts – see the About page if you can’t see how to do that.

The first meeting for the general public to hear about the Hospital Energy Project happened on Wednesday. My report is here. There’s more discussion on the e-democracy forum under the thread ‘Disruption‘.

I’ve also posted the latest schedule of road closures. It doesn’t include the work on London Road and Old Road.

Oxford City Council has approved a £2m flood alleviation scheme for Marston and Northway.

The Latimer Road planning application for student accommodation, which was rejected by the East Area Planning Committee last week, is being referred to the Council’s Planning Review Committee. Although I haven’t yet seen official confirmation I understand it will go to the meeting on 27 January 2016, at 6:00pm in the Town Hall.

There was a collision between a car and an ambulance on the Headington roundabout on Wednesday morning.

Private residents in Northway & Wood Farm tower blocks will have to pay £40,000–£60,000 each towards refurbishments.

A devastating report into Southern Health NHS Trust, who ran the centre in Slade Park where Connor Sparrowhawk died while having a bath, says the Trust “failed to investigate the unexpected deaths of more than 1,000 people since 2011”. The ‘Southern Health’ tag on the right links to earlier mentions in the development of this sad story.

Here’s one of the weirdest Headington mentions I’ve ever come across. Look at the web page but PLEASE DON’T CLICK on any link there – I can’t believe it’s safe!

Mick Haines, campaigning independent local councillor for Marston, seen here without his trademark leather jacket, has joined the fight to stop the demolition of the Jack Russell pub and the site being used for new flats.

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

  • Disruption
  • Free water, energy and money-saving offer
  • Housing
  • Tower block refurbishment
  • BARTON LINK ROAD PROTEST

Headington Headlines #240

Here’s my weekly round-up of local news for 9 – 15 November.

Supporters of Headington Car Club, a car-sharing scheme, are frustrated at @OxfordshireCC and @DNimmoSmit1‘s unexplained delay in permitting two new car-share spaces, one in All Saints Road and one in Sandfield Road.

There’s a planning application (ref 15/03091/FUL) to open a shisa (hookah) bar behind the Post Office where there is currently a garage.

@OxMailSophieM is the new reporter for @The OxfordMail covering Headington and Marston. @OxMailMichaelR covers Barton, Sandhills, Risinghurst and Wood Farm.

A woman was knocked off her bike at the corner of Stapleton Road and Old Road on Friday. Reports say she was not badly hurt.

Local residents staged a protest in Latimer Road against the proposal by developers Frontier Estates to build student accommodation on the corner with London Road.

Headington Amateurs beat Old Woodstock Town 8-0 on Saturday.

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

  • Loss of trees in Headington Quarry
  • Shisha (Hookah) Bar for Headington?
I 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.