Quarry

Headington Headlines #373

TonyOX3

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

The advisory cycle tracks at the top end of Headley Way have been removed and the central white line shifted. ‘Cyclists Dismount’ signs appeared but after protests they were removed on Tuesday afternoon. The County highways engineers said they had been mistakenly left after some earlier work for which they were needed.

County Councillor Glynis Phillips (Barton, Sandhills & Risinghurst) is pressing for the right turn from the A40 into Collinwood Road to be re-opened for the duration of the sewer repair works which have closed Green Road. She says temporary traffic lights would prevent the kind of accidents which happened on the A40 before the junction was closed.

The closure of the Six Bells pub in Quarry is confirmed. Greene King are looking for new tenants.

Back in November last year, shortly after the new Westgate opened, I wrote a critical article about the lack of cycle parking spaces at the new development. I was sceptical about whether the promised number of spaces required under Westgate’s planning conditions would ever be provided. Now eight months later it seems the requirement might almost have been met. Exact numbers are still uncertain, but the Oxford Mail reports Cyclox as being fairly happy with the latest situation.

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

  • Chinese Dance and Martial Arts at Oxford Festival of the Arts

Headington Headlines #371

TonyOX3

Your weekly round-up of local news for 4 – 10 June.

Although the news broke in the previous week, Headington Headlines couldn’t ignore the decision by Ruth Wilkinson to stand down as a city councillor due to over-riding family reasons. Since I moved to Headington other Councillors have come and gone but Ruth has always been Councillor for my Ward. She has published a personal statement on her website. Whatever anyone’s political stance, no-one can deny that Ruth has been a hard-working and tireless councillor on behalf of ‘her’ Headington residents. She will be a hard act to follow and I give her my very best wishes as she devotes more time to her family caring responsibilites.

The three main parties have announced their candidates for the by-election triggered by Ruth’s resignation. The LibDem candidate is Stefanie Garden @SGarden13; Stefanie lives in Staunton Road and stood in St Mary’s Ward in May, coming fourth. Simon Ottino @SimonOttinotwit stands for Labour; Simon lives in Margaret Road and came second [edited from earlier incorrect version] in the recent city election for Headington Ward. The Conservatives are fielding Georgina Gibbs @Georgin54979582 (you’ll have to fix that twitter handle, Georgina) who lives in Saxon Way and ran for Headington Hill & Northway in May where she came third. The by-election will be on 19 July.

Old Marston Parish Council voted to oppose the planning application for the Swan School. One of several concerns is that cyclists using the Marston Ferry Road cycle track might lose priority, which of course would affect students heading for the Cherwell School.

The Local Government Boundary Commission has published its draft proposals for Ward boundary changes in Oxford. The proposals look to be close to those in the City Council’s cross-party recommendations published in March which I covered in HH 361. You can have your say; consultation closes on 13 August.

It looks like this is the end of Jacob’s Brasserie.

A decision by the Consistory Court of the Diocese of Oxford has ruled that the locally controversial extension to Holy Trinity Church in Headington Quarry should be allowed to go ahead.

A surface water flood believed to be from a burst water main in the grounds of Headington School caused bad flooding at the Headley Way London Road junction on Saturday.

There were no posts on the Headington & Marston e-democracy forum this week.

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