Neighbourhood Plan

Headington Headlines #216

TonyOX3

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

Police, the local and national media were out in force at the Marston end of the Marston Ferry Road cycle track on Monday as the search for the man suspected of murdering three members of his family in Didcot focused on the area. A body later identified as the wanted man was found in land alongside the track.

Oxfordshire County Council has told parents and residents campaigning for traffic calming measures near Headington Quarry School that there’s no money to do anything there.

The Headington Festival happened over the weekend. The weather on Sunday wasn’t kind but plenty of people came along to enjoy the action in Bury Knowle Park.

One of the bids to buy the Stansfeld Outdoor Centre is from a group called Oxford Cohousing. @TheOxfordMail explains “Cohousing is a set of purpose-built houses where residents work together as a co-operative to share childcare, cooking and gardening, and socialise as a collective”. You can read more about the organisation on its website.

The process of making Headington’s Neighbourhood Plan reached a significant milestone this week with the publication of the formal Draft Plan.

The Annual Meeting of @OldMarstonPC was attended by just 12 members of the public.

in other Old #Marston Parish Council news, only 12 parishioners attended the annual parish meeting this year #Oxford pic.twitter.com/mwtkObSowG

— Colin (@theabingdontaxi) May 26, 2015

A small herd of cows taking a stroll along the Marston Ferry Road cycle track on Wednesday prompted this exchange on twitter:

.@oxfordtimes The cattle are all over the *cycle track*, and it's the *drivers* you're warning?

— Rob Haynes (@RobOnABike) May 27, 2015

The Oxford Designer Blinds shop on London Road has closed after being open less than six months.

The refurbishment of Forester’s and Plowman tower blocks (see HH137) has been delayed until next year at the earliest, and will probably cost more that originally planned.

My favourite Headington-related tweet of the week:

Gonna miss working at churchy 😞 might just work my way through all the headington hospitals 😂

— Sophia (@SophiaFrost) May 28, 2015

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

  • Stansfeld Centre now up for sale
  • Petitioning Oxfordshire County Council for Quarry Hollow Traffic Calming and pedestrian safety
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.

Headington Headlines #212

TonyOX3

Here’s my weekly round-up of local news for 27 April – 3 May.

The male nurse who raped and assaulted 27 female patients at the JR Hospital was sentenced to 18 years.

Taylors Esate Agents closed their Headington office and moved operatons to their St Clement’s branch.

There was a significant power cut on Thursday affecting around 700 – 900 homes, shops and offices in the central area. There were also reports of a smell of burning. SSE said the fault “was at a link box and that fed back up the line to a substation. That caused the substation to overheat and produce smoke but it’s not a fire.” Some premises didn’t have power restored until the evening. Another cut affecting about 20 homes in Headington happened on Saturday.

@HeadingtonPlan has published a series of ‘character assessments’ of different areas of Headington. An interesting collection of thumbnail sketches.

Some people in Marston are hoping they can rescue the closed Jack Russell pub and run it as a community pub.

Remember the @ButchersArmsOxf sign blowing down in the storm? They’ve got a smart new one now.


Photo: @RosalindRogers

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

  • Looking for a painter
  • Jack Russell Pub
  • Access road from Barton to Northway Estate
  • Are trams the big bang solution Oxford needs?
  • London Road “Improvement” Scheme
  • Revised Proposals for the Development of Holy Trinity, Headington Quarry
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.

Headington Headlines #202

TonyOX3

Here’s my weekly round-up of local news for 16 – 22 February.

In a letter published on Streetlife, Tesco confirm they will not be building a store on the site of the old Friar pub in Marston. They say they will be “working with the local planning authority and key stakeholders to find alternative uses” for the site.

There’s a suggestion emerging from the Neighbourhood Plan process @HeadingtonPlan that Headington might benefit from having a Parish Council. For a full account of the workings of Parish Councils see this guest blog about Old Marston PC by @theabingdontaxi from June last year.

There’s a consistent story of problems with internet connections and speeds in the New Headington area. The e-democracy forum has a thread running, and people are suspicious that the problems might be linked to the London Road roadworks.

Parts of Marston suffered a power cut on Wednesday, apparently caused by a kite (on a string, not a red bird) shorting out the power lines.

The City Council has imposed a Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) at Foresters Tower in Wood Farm. The Order prohibits “persons under 21 from entering or remaining in the tower unless they have a legitimate reason for visiting a resident”. It is a criminal offence to breach the order and it can be enforced by the police and delegated council officers.

The Minutes of the Neighbourhood Plan Forum on 10 february are now on the @HeadingtonPlan website.

Barton is “too clean for OxClean”, apparently. A walk-about by OxClean organisers, local councillors and community workers found so little litter they decided it won’t be worth sending in the OxClean volunteers over the Spring Clean weekend (6 – 8 March). Instead the Barton Community group will combine a clean-up with other activities later in the month.

Live music came to @ButchersArmsOxf for the first time when local band @EyeConUK played a gig on Saturday night.

In other pub news the Britannia Inn’s twitter account is now @Britannia_Inn. Their old one, @thebritoxford, is being phased out.

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

  • Headington Post Office
  • Pub on Barton Park?
  • Why is Headington so Dead on a Saturday night?
  • Internet Connection in Headington
  • Marston tesco?
  • pet sitting swap
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.