Northway

Headington Headlines #243

TonyOX3

Here’s my weekly round-up of local news for 30 November – 6 December.

There’s a public meeting about the Hospital Energy Project on Wednesday 9 December (this week), at 7.00pm at All Saints’ Church House, New High Street. It’s organised by our local councillors and Headington Action, and they hope someone from the project team will be there to hear concerns and answer questions.

Public meeting notice

 

The Estates Department of OUH NHS Foundation Trust has started a twitter account to tell people about the Energy Project (it’s so much more than a heatpipe!). You can find them @OUH_Estates.

The long-delayed work to renovate Oxford’s tower blocks, including Northway & Wood Farm, will start in January.

Finders Keepers letting agency @FKLetting opened on London Road.

The @BartonPark_ housebuilders Hill won the Housebuilder of the Year award.

Here’s a nice little snippet of local news from @friendlyevalley

Firefighters were called to the (unstaffed) telephone exchange behind the Shell petrol station on London Road on Thursday. The fire was caused by a battery overheating. My favourite Headington-related tweet of the week:  

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

  • Disruption
  • How will new Oxford to London train service affect your trips to London?
  • Is it an Intelligence Test?
  • Join us today – on #GivingTuesday!
  • BARTON LINK ROAD PROTEST
  • Car sharing
  • Link Road Protest
  • Jack Russell Pub
  • Housing
  • Jaya’s Deli – new shop on London Road where Turkish grocery used to be

Headington Headlines #236

TonyOX3

Here’s my weekly round-up of local news for 12 – 18 October.

@OxfordCity announced a £2.2m scheme to protect properties in Marston and Northway from flooding. The scheme still has to be appproved at the City’s Executive Board next month.

Urban designers, planners and architects @WestWaddyADP have won an award for ‘Excellence in Masterplanning and Design’ at RTPI South East Planning Awards for their long-term work with @Oxford_Brookes.

Here’s ex-Councillor for Headington @StephenTall honouring an election bet in Whitehall last Tuesday. On the good side, he’s raising money from Médecins Sans Frontières.

The contract managers for @BartonPark_ are holding a “Meet the Buyer” event for materials suppliers for the development. It’s on Wednesday 21 October from 10.00 to 16.00 at the Community Centre on Underhill Circus, and will be opened by Council Leader Bob Price.

In other Barton Park news, reports that Barton residents are unhappy with the intention to call the main street through the development Barton Park Road, and further that they don’t think much of the name Barton Park anyway will come as no surprise to dedicated readers of this blog. You may remember that two years ago I challenged the developers’ original claim to have consulted the community over the name and never got any satisfactory answers to my questions.

The planning application (Ref: 15/02543/FUL) for the erection of 3-storey building to provide 30 ensuite student rooms on the site of the old Friar pub on Marston Road is on the City Council’s website. The front elevation looks like this.

After persistent campaigning by residents, official speed warning signs have appeared in Quarry (via @danlevs).

Oxfordshire County Council has published a “Summary of Feedback” to the Access to Headington proposals earlier this year. I collected a number of responses from people and organisations at the time – see this link.

The jury at the inquest into the death of Connor Sparrowhawk at Slade House in July 2013 found that neglect contributed to his death. Slade House, run by Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust, is now closed. The Trust has “unresevedly apologised” for its failings. As I reported last year, the Trust has been criticised for failings at other units it operates.

Leys News @LeysnewsEditor, a free monthly community newspaper for Blackbird Leys and Greater Leys, is planning a new paper covering Sandhills, Risinghurst and Quarry. They offer free training for volunteers.

Jessica Bruce of Risinghurst is claiming a World Record for running a marathon pushing a baby buggy. She and her 7 month old son Daniel finished the Abingdon marathon on Sunday in 3 hours 17 mins 51 seconds.

My favourite Headington-related tweet of the week (for all the wrong reasons!):

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

  • Headington bike hire scheme
  • Magdalen Wood Tree Felling
  • £12.m transport improvements for Headington: exhibitions and consultation
  • Caravans along Marston Ferry cycle path
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 #200

TonyOX3

Another milestone reached – the 200th edition of Headington Headlines! There’s nothing particularly exciting to mark the occasion, but here anyway is my 200th weekly round-up of local news. It covers the week 2 – 8 February.

The persistent rumour that the Post Office might move into the Co-op was given some weight when local Councillor @RuthWilk confirmed that the Co-op “had expressed strong interest” in the idea.

As I reported in HH197, work on the Dora Carr Close development in Northway is starting. Architecture students at @Oxford_Brookes are designing and making a hoarding for the site “where people can share their view about the new development”. I think they mean ‘view’ as in ‘opinion’: it will be interesting to see how this plays out, and whether the local graffiti artists will allow others to join in. You can follow the students on twitter at @NewNorthway.

As mentioned last week, Johnsons Cleaners closed on Thursday. They have moved to Summertown.

Construction has started at the JR of a new ‘Welcome Centre’ which will include an M&S Simply Food shop and an M&S café. However, the site works mean that all the disabled parking spaces right next to the main hospital entrance have been lost. Although the disabled spaces in the nearby car park are rarely all taken, it does mean that disabled access will now be more difficult for some.

The Quarry Hollow street sign by the Chequers was hit by a car and broken on Saturday. Councillor @RosalindRogers is looking concerned and is on the case. She has the car’s registration, so if it was you I’d come clean now!

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

  • Funding for eDemocracy.org
  • Pub on Barton Park?
  • Review of Housing Policy
  • Loss of trees in Headington Quarry
  • Does anyone know
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.