parking

Headington Headlines #305

TonyOX3

Your weekly round-up of local news for 13 – 19 February.

A man named Domingos Romalho died after a fatal stabbing in Windmill Road on Monday. He was taken to the JR but died in hospital. Windmill Road was closed for some time while police investigated the incident. Egidio Da Silva Alves was arrested the same day and charged on Wednesday with murder. He appeared in court on Thursday, did not enter a plea, and was remanded until April. A Thames Valley Police statement is here.

I wrote last September (see HH 282) about plans to build a new secondary free school, the Swan School, in Marston. Locals are concerned about the extra traffic an 880-pupil school would generate. There are now reports that the school could be delayed by as much as two years. @OldMarstonPC is holding a meeting about it this evening (Monday 21 Feb) at 6.30pm in the Mortimer Hall. Meanwhile at a Cabinet meeting tomorrow (Tuesday 21 February) the County Council will probably decide to sell the site to the Department for Education for £1 (yes, that’s One Pound) and then contribute up to £2m (that’s Two Million Pounds) towards the cost of the school – see item 9 on the Agenda.

The fact that 76 Sandfield Road is up for sale made the local press. Why? Because it used to be the home of J R R Tolkien. Apparently not everyone knows the name. It can be yours for a mere £1.25m.

After last week’s coverage on Radio Oxford the Oxford Mail has an article explaining why the City Council is against expanding parking at the JR Hospital.

A cyclist was taken to hospital with head injuries after a collision with a car in Bayswater Road, Barton on Tuesday. The car didn’t stop. @TVP_oxford have appealed for witnesses (incident number 233).

New Marston Post Office, which is in the Costcutter on Old Marston Road, reopened last week after a refit. It’s open for longer hours than before and offers a wider range of services.

The Nuffield Orthpaedic centre was partially closed for a time on Thursday while emergency services attended a ‘chemical incident’ involving chemicals used in a hydrotherapy pool.

Jacobs Chop House has re-opened after morphing into Jacobs Brasserie.

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

  • Petition to preserve the Somerset House pub on Marston Road
  • Proposed abolition of Oxford City Council
  • Local Government? Cuts to services? Is it time to bite the bullet?
  • Bells tolling in early hours
  • London Road – cycle path
  • This evening’s meeting with Cllr Roz Smith
  • Hospital parking

Headington Headlines #304

TonyOX3

Your weekly round-up of local news for 6 – 12 February.

The @HeadingtonPlan has been through its final inspection and has been approved by the Headington Plan Forum. It’s now up to @OxfordCity to approve a referendum which if all goes well could be held in May at the same time as the County Council elections.

Three men were jailed for carrying out an armed robbery at Lloyd’s Bank in Headington in January last year.

The east Area Planning Committee approved @ScienceOxford‘s plans for the Stansfeld Field Centre site in Quarry.

The Oxford Mail carried a report about the City Council changing its mind over the demolition of a block of flats on Underhill Circus in Barton. The general regeneration programme there is still continuing.

We already knew that the City Council will take over a proportion of the new housing in @BartonPark_. It’s now reported that the City’s wholly-owned housing company which was set up last year will take over 95 units when they become available next year.

@BBCBentham on @BBCOxford radio did an item on Thursday about the suggestion that there should be a multi-storey car park at the JR. You can hear it on catch-up until 10 March. The first slot with Headington Cllr Altaf Khan starts at 39’10” and the second, with a multi-storey car park enthusiast from Birmingham (yes really), at 1h39’20”.

In other car park news, the patients’ car park at the Manor Surgery is open again at last. It looks well laid out with clear paved footways, disabled parking spaces and hopefully no more puddles!

Although Headington & Marston have a lively presence on the e-democracy forum some people have also subscribed to local messaging site Streetlife. This operation has been taken over by another, Nextdoor, which offers a similar platform for local discussion and exchange of information. Anyone thinking of signing up would do well to read the thread on the e-democracy forum, especially Stephanie Jenkins’ experience of being automatically designated “lead member”. And although it’s probably no worse than facebook, twitter or any other social media operation, you might like to read their privacy policy, especially as they require real names and actual street addresses.

There’s an online petition to save The Somerset pub on Marston Road, which closed in 2014. It was the last pub to survive in New Marston. The petition was started by Susannah Wilson and is supported by Councillor @joemcmanners. The Somerset is already listed as an Asset of Community Value, which gives locals first refusal if it is put up for sale provided they can raise the money

My favourite Headington-related tweet of the week:

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

  • Disruption
  • New Recycling promotion
  • Proposed abolition of Oxford City Council
  • Headington Plan – what’s next?
  • I see Streetlife a rival discussion site is merging with another site
  • Events on Oxford
  • Good neighbours in Headington
  • Using stocks as punishment in 19th century Oxford

Headington Headlines #285

TonyOX3

Your weekly round-up of local news for 26 September – 2 October.

A 14 year old girl was abducted and raped at around 8.25 on Wednesday morning. The abduction took place near the junction of Banbury Road and Marston Ferry Road. The victim was found around mid-day in Cavendish Drive, Marston. Police are looking for two white men and a silver car, possibly a VolksWagen, and on Saturday released descriptions of the men. Anyone with information, video footage etc is asked to contact Thames Valley Police on the 101 number quoting incident number 1631, or you can report anonymously at Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or online at crimestoppers-uk.org/

Earlier in the week, early on Sunday morning, a woman was sexually assaulted in Cuckoo Lane between Pullen’s Lane and Marston Road. Police are looking for two male suspects.

News emerged of a stabbing in Barton ten days ago (Thursday 22 September). A man was stabbed in the head by what is thought to be a Stanley knife and then robbed. @TheOxfordMail describe the location as “an alleyway behind the playground on Waynflete Road”.

Headington Farmers’ Market relaunched on Saturday with more – and new – stalls, owls and other animals, and even a pianist.

After sucessful lobbying by local councillors the faded and ‘unenforceable’ parking control lines in Stapleton and Bickerton Roads are going to repainted.

Oxfordshire County Council held a public exhibition of the first work to start under the Access to Headington scheme. Work starts at the Roosevelt Drive/Old Road/Gipsy Lane junction on 17 October – see the detailed drawing here. My summary note and more links are here.

Access to Headington Exhibition panels
Exhibition panels

There was a power cut in central Headington on Thursday. Waitrose had to close all their chilled food displays.

Two fire engines turned out to New High Street on Tuesday evening, to what turned out to be a small fire in a tumble dryer in the Royal Standard. No-one was hurt.

Work should be starting today on the new pavilion at the Margaret Road recreation groun.

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

  • “Access to Headington”: start of work
  • Descending Headington Hill in the cycle lane… beware walkers.
  • Loss of trees in Headington Quarry
  • The X90 and Trafalgar Square COMPLAIN