Neighbourhood Plan

Headington Headlines #155

TonyOX3

Here’s my weekly round-up of local news for 17 – 23 March.

Birmingham City Council voted to close the Stansfeld Centre. Friends of Quarry are said to be thinking about trying to register it as an Asset of Community Value. A new twitter account @SaveStansfeld has been set up to support the campaign to find a solution and keep the Centre open, but has yet to get going.

Three buildings in OX3 have been shortlisted in the South Region of the RIBA architectural awards 2014. I blogged about them.

A fallen tree blocked the path from Quarry Road to Holy Trinity church.

The Britannia re-opened after its refurbishment.

Christopher Gray of The Oxford Mail visited @JacobsChopHouse on a busy evening. There were problems with availability, it seems, but overall he liked it.

Headington Neighbourhood Forum @HeadingtonPlan has published 2011 Census profiles of Headington on its website. There’s a wealth of detail for anyone interested in exploring the data.

Two men have been arrested in connection with the robbery at Stan James Bookmakers at The Roundway last week.

@HeadingtonNews explains on the e-democracy forum why the old Trade Exchange shop is very unlikely to become a Southern Fried Chicken.

My favourite Headington-related tweet of the week:

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

  • Meaden Hill
  • Cherwell drive slip road
  • Old Road/Park Hospital campus: Consultation on two proposed new buildings
  • Trade Exchange
  • Consultation on Tesco applications end on Tuesday
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 #152

TonyOX3

Here’s my weekly round-up of local news for 24 February – 2 March.

Headington Art Weeks @HARTWeeks joined twitter but without a bio and without tweeting they’re not likely to make a mark.

@LazyGamerUK closed its doors for the last time.

Elizabeth Whitwick of @windmillshop wrote about the Fair Trade concept in the Oxford Mail.

The organisers of the Headington Neighbourhood Plan @HeadingtonPlan want to recruit a part-time Project Manager for a year.

The attempt by Northway residents to block a key access route to @BartonPark_ by having some land on Foxwell Drive declared a Town Green has been referred to a formal inquiry in July by Oxfordshire CC.

Elsewhere, some Barton residents rather belatedly woke up to the fact that the name Barton Park had been foisted on them without any real chance for them to have a say. I hate to say ‘I told you so‘, but … well ..

The Oxford East LibDems have selected @Mark__Mann from Denbighshire as their prospective parliamentary candidate for the next general election.

Mark bolstered his credentials as PPC by turning out for the Walk of Protest organised by local LibDem councillors on Saturday to protest about the state of the London Road and put pressure on the County Council to rebuild it rather than just resurface it when they do the work later this year.

The County Council announced they have found a new operator for the Thornhill/Headington cycle hire scheme. It will be relaunched in April. The new operator is HourBike, who run similar schemes elsewhere. Their twitter account @HourBike is hardly used but they tell me they’ll be setting up a new one for their operation in Oxford.

My favourite Headington-related tweet of the week:

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

  • Marston number 5 in the country
  • Northway Town Green application and Barton Park
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 #150

TonyOX3

Here’s my weekly round-up of local news for 10 – 16 February.

Developers @BartonPark_ announced a start on site involving the clearing of some trees and hedges.

The home of John Henry Brookes, after whom Oxford Brookes University is named, is on the market for £1m. It is in The Slade.

Sophie, Countess of Wessex, opened The Highfield Unit, “a state-of-the-art NHS facility providing specialist inpatient services for young people aged 11 to 18 with acute mental health needs” at the Warneford Hospital on Thursday.

The next stage has been reached in the preparation of Headington’s Neighbourhood Plan @HeadingtonPlan. The application to the City Council to ‘designate’ – i.e. agree – the area covered by the plan has been put out to public consultation. Details and links on the Council’s website. The consultation closes on 28 March.

A man from Saxon Way was sentenced on Tuesday to five month’s imprisonment for a racist verbal attack on his girlfriend’s neighbour.

Warneford Lane is closed for roadworks for approximately three weeks. Bus route 4 will divert via Gipsy Lane and Headington Hill.

Although it didn’t seem to make the mainstream news, there were reports of a meteor being seen widely across England on Saturday night. @jjhutchings wins the prize for the first report from Headington.

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

  • Headington bike hire scheme
  • Roofer in Headington area
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.