Quarry

Headington Headlines #246

TonyOX3

Your weekly round-up of local news for 21 – 27 December.

A defibrillator has been installed outside Risinghurst Post Office

The first Hospital Energy Project liaison meeting was held on Tuesday evening. My report is here.

A nine year old was treated for smoke inhalation after a candle set fire to a towel in a home in Barton Village Road on Tuesday. Neighbours heard a smoke alarm and warned the family.

Barton Neighbourhood Centre served Christmas dinner to anyone wanting food and company on Christmas Day.

Twin baby girls – Francesca and Poppy – were born on Christmas day in the JR Hospital. “We had been planning to go to my Nan’s for the evening”, said father George Bishop.

Large crowds turned out to see the Quarry Morris men @HeadingtonQMD perform their traditional Boxing Day mummers’ play at the Quarry pubs.

Only one active post on the Headington & Marston e-democracy forum this week:

  • Disruption

Headington Headlines #245

TonyOX3

Your weekly round-up of local news for 14 – 20 December.

The Hospital Energy Project information machine has still to start functioning. Despite several attempts by a number of people including me, there’s still a discrepancy between the Trust/Vital and County Highways over when the All Saint’s Road work will be finished. The Trust say 27 January, the County’s traffic order says 17 January. They both agree it starts on 4 January.

On the positive side a meeting this coming Tuesday should see a Liaison Group set up, with representatives from the affected roads, Councillors, the Hospital Trust and contractors Vital Energi taking on the task of sorting out the inevitable problems. It’s not a public meeting but does include people who volunteered at the open meeting on 9 December. I will be reporting on the outcome. There is another article, including a mention of the liaison meeting, in the Oxford Mail.

BBC local TV news on Tuesday night featured a report on parking spaces, or the lack of them, for car club cars (see also HH 240). Headington Transport Group’s Charles Young was featured; also Cllr Roz Smith.

Despite widespread cynicism in some quarters, Headington/Barton/Risinghurst “Team Purple” came top of the City Council’s recycling league competition last week.

Skipton Building Society’s first anniversary celebrations went well, as this report tells. It was also covered by @ThatsOxfordTV as part of Headington’s @LiveAdvent2015, with photographer @RossMackenzie talking about his work.

Holy Trinity Church, Windmill School and Headington Quarry School staged an outdoor, travelling nativity play in Quarry on Friday with real sheep and ponies. Their route went from the Coach House in Quarry Road, to the church, and then to the Mason Arms before finishing at Headington Quarry School.

I can’t really make one of my own tweets the favourite of the week, but here it is again.

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

  • Disruption
  • Lost watch
  • X90

A Merry Christmas to you all!

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.