schools

Headington Headlines #233

TonyOX3

Here’s my weekly round-up of local news for 21 – 27 September.

The Headington Plan AGM is on Friday 2 October at 7.00pm in the Green Room, Headington Hill Hall, Oxford Brookes Headington Hill campus.

The ex-BBB stores next to the sooon-to-be-ex-Post Office is reportedly going to become a butcher’s shop.

The story of the old Friar pub site on Marston Road moved into a new chapter with a planning appplication (Ref. 15/02543/FUL) to build a three-storey 30-bedroom student acommodation block (no link because the City’s website has been down over the past few days).

It was the annual Barton Bash on Saturday, opened by @AndrewSmithMP. Proceeds from the £1 entry fee will be donated to the British Heart Foundation in memory of former Barton Community vice-president Barry Holden, who passed away from heart failure in August last year. Article in The Oxford Mail.

Headington’s Live Advent Calendar – a series of 24 performances each in a different venue in the run-up to Christmas – is happening again this year. Contact them @LiveAdvent2015 or liveadvent.org.uk if you can offer a venue, a performance, or other help.

To no-one’s surprise, the promised opening of Windmill School’s new classrooms didn’t happen. At the moment it seems anyone’s guess when they will actually be ready.

A scheme offerring financial incentives to encourage more recycling of household waste has been strongly criticised on the e-democracy forum this week.

A second banner saying “Children Crossing. Headington Quarry Foundation Stage School” has disappeared, presumably stolen, from Quarry Hollow. Parents and residents are understandably upset, especially as the County refuses to install any traffic calming measures as the area is ‘low priority’. Until a serious accident, presumably.

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

  • Friar site for sale
  • New development at top of Windmill Road
  • C’mon Ruth cheer up…you’ll be back in Headington soon.
  • Crown and Thistle
  • New Recycling promotion
  • Stolen ‘children crossing’ banners in Quarry
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 #231

TonyOX3

Here’s my weekly round-up of local news for 7 – 13 September.

Oxford City Planning Officers have used delegated powers to allow Jacobs & Field a change of use to an eat-in restaurant (A3). It has been mixed retail/restaurant (A1/A3), with the restaurant element allowed to the current owners on a personal basis, as it otherwise contravened the local plan requiring a certain proportion of retail premises in the shopping area.

Dance Inspires (above the old Trade Exchange shop) is offering free introductory pole dancing lessons during September.

The White Hart @TheWhiteHartH annnounced they’ll be doing a hog roast for every England rugby World Cup game.

The sorry tale of the unfinished new classrooms @WindmillOxford goes on as it turns out that the building won’t be useable until 19 September at the earliest. A County Council spokesperson’s implication that the delay was somehow the school staff’s fault has caused even more anger among staff and parents.

The Farmers’ Market opening times have changed – it’s still every Saturday but from now on it will be from 10:00 to 14:30.

Every now and again I like to bring you news from one of the other Headingtons – this time from the other OU too, Oklahoma University.

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

  • Offering FREE pole dance classes in September to show you how you an keep fit on the vertiical bar!
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 #229

TonyOX3

Here’s my weekly round-up of local news for 24 – 30 August.

Faced with funding cuts, Cheney School will only offer 6th form students 3 A-levels instead of 4. Instead they will increase the availablility of Duke of Edinburgh Gold Awards they support, as this apparently makes students “more marketable”.

Two of the three bidders for the Stansfeld outdoor centre have been disclosed. They are Oxford Co-housing and Science Oxford. The third is an unnamed care provider.

Barton United and Headington Amateurs football clubs will have to find an alternative ground from April 2016 to September 2017 while their current facilities are lost during the Barton Park development. The development will ultimately provide new sports facilities including provision for the clubs.

The campaign to save the Ampleforth pub in Risinghurst now has a website www.theamprevival.co.uk/ as well as a twitter account @TheAmpRevival. The story was covered at some length on BBC South Today’s evening programme on Wednesday.

The threatened 48-hour strike by porters at the JR was called off after members of Unison accepted a deal over shift patterns and jobs.

The Headington 5 five-mile running race was held yesterday (Sunday).

My favourite Headington-related tweet of the week:

Dramatic skies over Headington this evening. pic.twitter.com/Ubed4wLm5d

— Ross Mackenzie (@rossmackenzie) August 29, 2015

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

  • Headington Quarry Village Hall – enjoy painting?
  • Noise Osler Road.
  • Northway Town Green access road
  • Northway/Barton Link Road
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.