Life in and around Headington & OX3 (mostly), and Oxford (occasionally)
"To every complex problem there is a simple solution, startling in its simplicity, piercing in its clarity, and hopelessly and completely wrong" - Gore Vidal.
Your weekly round-up of local news for 29 October – 4 November.
Police are appealing for information after two burglaries and an attempted third in Merewood Avenus, Sandhills, the weekend before last (27/28 October).
@ProperEllipsis reports that The Somerset in Marston is going to re-open.
The East Area Planning Committee, which meets on Wednesday this week, is being recommended to give planning permission to the expansion of the A&E facilities at the JR Hospital.
The same meeting is being recommended to refuse an application by developers Frontier (they of Beech House notoriety) for permission to build a 55-bed care home at 1 Pullens Lane. The relevant report is 36 pages long, but I’ve extracted the ‘Reasons for Refusal’ section which you can read here.
Construction of the new Ronald McDonald House at the JR will start in December. It will provide free accommodation for families whose children are undergoing treatment at Oxford Children’s Hospital. It is expected to open in summer 2020.
Brookes Restaurant @OBRestaurant was awarded a five-star rating in its latest ‘Scores on the Doors’ food hygiene inspection.
The Oxford Mail published a gallery of old black-and-white photographs of life in Headington.
Headington Headlines has made it to 300 editions! Here is your weekly round-up of local news for 9 – 15 January. First – roadworks …..
The work installing the heatpipe has slipped behind schedule. Work in Latimer Road has been delayed by two weeks, and in Lime Walk one week. Work in Sandfield Road is still expected to start today (16 January). This blog post has more details.
All my posts about the project are under the ‘Energy Project’ tab in the main menu, and there’s a page of links and contact details here.
The County Council has published plans under the Access to Headington scheme to make an eastbound bus lane in Roosevelt Drive between the Old Road Campus and Churchill Drive. The lane would operate between 3pm and 6pm, Monday to Friday, and during those times only buses and emergency vehicles will be able to leave the Churchill site by that route. All other traffic will have to leave via Roosevelt Drive westbound to the Old Road junction. Consultation on this plan is open – the county says “objections to the proposals and other representations, specifying the grounds on which they are made, may be sent in writing (quoting ref: AK/12.6.320) by 3 February”.
Churchill bus lane – Roosevelt Drive to Churchill Drive
In February the sections of Warneford Lane/Gipsy Lane/Old Road/ Roosevelt Drive which are being remodelled as part of Access to Headington will be closed overnight for about six nights for resurfacing.
In other news ….
A VW Polo was stolen in Burchester Avenue, Barton a weeks ago (Sunday 8 January) after its owner left it with the engine running while it defrosted.
The saga of the Jack Russell pub in Salford Road, Marston goes on. After the empty building was burnt down in an arson attack in November the owners have submitted a new planning application (ref: 16/03108/RES) to build a three-storey block of 16 flats on the site. Some locals including independent councillor Mick Haines are still campaigning for the site to be used for community facilities. According to the Oxford Mail others think the need for more housing is more important.
The planning application to build next to the C S Lewis nature reserve in Risinghurst has still not come before councillors. It was not on the agenda for the East Area Planning Committee on 11 January, although it is listed for consideration at a future, but unspecified, date. Searching the Charities Commission website for the “Wychwood Foundation” still returns a blank. Earlier posts on this story here and here.
As pressure on the NHS builds, all non-urgent operations and related procedures at the JR were cancelled on Friday and again today (Monday).
Bar Meze scored only 2 out of 5 in a hygiene inspection last November. The manager is confident he’ll do much better when it’s reinspected.
Not a tweet but a favourite Instagram this week from the Sandhills A 40 underpass:
Here’s my weekly round-up of local news for 20 – 26 January.
BT removed the unused phone box on the corner of Rock edge and Windmill Road.
Three armed men robbed Stan James bookmakers on Roundway on Monday evening.
A woman’s body was found hanging from a tree in Shotover Country Park last Sunday (19 January).
Homes in Sandhills and Barton suffered a power cut on Thursday afternoon, part of a much wider area including Stanton St John, Forest Hill and Wheatley. The power failure continued through the evening. It was caused by a tree falling on overhead power lines. Local power was restored in the early hours of Friday morning after a generator was shipped in from Bournemouth. And no, I don’t know why Bournemouth.
@RyeStAntony School’s play this year is Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” on 11, 12 and 13 February.
The dugout by the football pitches in Margaret Road Park will be removed at the end of the football season. Complaints of antisocial behaviour have been made, it seems. Elsewhere, Cllr @LaurencePBaxter announced that the City budget for 2014/5 includes a commitment to build a new sports pavilion and community facility there.
What did you see last week at the theatre or cinema?
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.
