schools

Headington Headlines #137

TonyOX3

Here’s my weekly round-up of local news for 11 – 17 November.

The Oxford Mail finally picked up on a story that broke on twitter a couple of weeks ago (see HH #135), that a kebab shop is planning to open in the Café Noir site. Predictably they found people to say they weren’t happy about it.

Despite no-one liking it apart from the developers @BartonPark_ and (it is claimed) some unnamed people in Barton, the public announcement that Barton West is to be known as Barton Park went ahead. The Oxford Times made much of the name being chosen by children. Local twitter opinion was unimpressed.

À propos of the above, @BartonPark_ is the twitter account previously known as @BartonOxford. The underscore’s needed because it seems Barton Park is the name of a racehorse and @BartonPark is the account of a racing tipster. On the other hand @Barton_Park is an über-posh nursing home in Southport for people who own Bentleys.

The first of two drop-in sessions about the new school for Bayswick Barton West Park took place on Tuesday. The newspaper report doesn’t have much to say other than it happened. The other drop-in is on 2 December – details, and why I think it’s an important issue, here.

The company running the @oxonbike bike hire scheme in Headington and Thornhill (GrandScheme) has gone into liquidation.

Greenpeace staged a demonstration outside the Shell petrol station on London Road on Saturday evening, ptotesting about oil exploration in the Arctic. Peggy Seeger joined them.

Councillor Roz Smith @RosalindRogers planted a memorial tree for Paul Phipps, Risinghurst & Sandhills parish councillor.

Londis owner @sundersandher started a twitter discussion about who sells the cheapest milk in Headington. It seems Iceland have it by 0.5p a litre.

Oxford Brookes celebrated its 50th anniversary this week. For a while it seemed they had mislaid their foundation stone but @RuthWilk asked the Archivist who said it’s “kept along with patterned tiles from the Darcy Building in Estates” and it seems not publicly accessible.

BBC Radio 4 broadcast live from Holy Trinity Church, Quarry, yesterday (Sunday 17 Nov) to mark the C S Lewis jubilee. Listen here.

Back in April 2012 Oxford City Council said they intended to refurbish their five tower blocks. Consultations on what they plan to do have been announced. Those that affect OX3 are the Plowman Tower, Northway in the Tower Play Base on Tuesday 19 November from 12.30pm to 2.30pm and 5.30pm to 8pm and the Foresters Tower, Wood Farm in the Children’s Centre on Wednesday 20 November from 2pm to 8pm.

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

  • Who would like to be a friend of Headington Hill Park?
  • New school for Barton West
  • Hazardous glass in Holley Crescent
  • railings in Barton Lane
  • Kebab shop in Headington – article in the Oxford Mail today
  • New Headington bus routes
  • Survey: Germany & Germans
  • The Local Plan: What is it? Why do we have it? How can it change?
  • Headington event tomorrow 1-3pm – Silver Star Society Christmas Party, John Radcliffe Hospital
  • Headington bike hire scheme
I try to 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 #136

TonyOX3

Here’s my weekly round-up of local news for 4 – 10 November.

Cllr @RuthWilk posted an update [no longer available] on the timetable for the Barton West development. It seems we’re going to have to start calling it Barton Park. What do you think of the name? An attractive commitment to a pleasant and open living environment, or a developer’s too-cosy attempt to sell to a middle-class market? I blogged what I thought (hint – I don’t like it) and made a storify timeline of what local twitter had to say (hint – twitter doesn’t like it either). There’s also some discussion about who was involved in choosing the name.

New parking charges come into force at Thornhill and Water Eaton today (11 Nov). £2 to stay 1 – 11 hrs. Full details including information about season tickets here.

@OxfordshireCC announced a consultation about the new primary school for Bayswick (aka Barton West or Barton Park). It will be an academy so who runs it is important. Consultation here, my blog about it here.

Both Risinghurst and South Park had their firework displays on Saturday.

People have been puzzled by the unannounced appearance of new City Council benches in the environs of Headley Way. Not even local councillors knew anything about them. The benches have been put in what seem to be very inappropriate places – here is @RuthWilk‘s picture of the one where the higher part of Staunton Road joins Headley Way. Suspicion is mounting that Banksy has turned his talents from street art to installations, in this case benches.

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

  • Hazardous glass in Holley Crescent
  • Volunteers Needed!
  • Risinghurst Fireworks Display 9th November 2013
I try to 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.

New Primary School for Barton West

TonyOX3

There’s going to be a new primary school in Barton West/Barton Park/Bayswick. Because it’s a new school it will be an Academy and not run by the County. There won’t be any choice over this, it seems. However, the County Council has the job of running a public consultation to gather views on the type of academy trust people would prefer to run the new school, and views on any particular focus or services they would like the school to offer.

The County’s consultation website says:

The government has set out a bidding and selection process by which new school providers are chosen. First, the county council will invite bids from academy trusts wanting to run the new school. A selection procedure will follow and the final decision is shared by the county council and central government Department for Education (DfE).

This consultation is to hear what sort of organisation you would like to see run the new school in Barton West. This will help us when we assess the bids that come in. For example, the school might be run by:

  • A faith organisation
  • A national education charity
  • A national academy chain
  • An existing local school
  • A community group

Source: https://myconsultations.oxfordshire.gov.uk/consult.ti/BartonWest2013/view?objectId=2995

If you have views on these choices, and I expect many people do, now is the time to make your thoughts known to the Council. The consultation closes on 18 December. There are two drop-in sessions with County officers in attendance: Tuesday 12 November from 3.30pm to 6.00pm and Monday 2 December also from 3.30pm to 6.30pm, both in the Music Service Hall at Bayards Hill Primary School, Barton.

Link to Consultation web pages: Click here.