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 24 – 30 April.
As of last Wednesday (27 April) and until 22 May, heatpipe works mean the 700 buses won’t be able to serve some of the stops on the Churchill Hospital site.
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.
Labour MEP for the South-East @AnnelieseDodds, who lives in Rose Hill, has been selected as Labour candidate for Oxford East after @AndrewSmithMP stood down. Here is her statement to Labour supporters.
Anneliese Dodds
A burst water main at the junction of Marston Road and Crotch Crescent on Monday was “more complex” than Thames Water originally thought. Service had been restored by early evening.
@blackmambatatto have won the right to retain their web domain name blackmambatattoo.co.uk after the original registrant and designer was untraceable. Good luck with the new website.
Leaflets promoting a ‘Yes’ vote for the @HeadingtonPlan on Thursday have been delivered throughout Headington.
The Iris Project, who run the Classics centre at Cheney School, has opened an in-school museum. It’s called the Rumble Museum @Rumblemuseum, named after Jamie Rumble. Their facebook page tells you more about it and there’s more in the Oxford Times.
Andrew’s replacement as Labour’s candidate will be chosen by Labour at national level, not by the local party. Andrew was nice about it in a television interview I saw but I can imagine not everyone in Oxford would say the same. South-East MEP @AnnelieseDodds has said she is very keen to be selected, but we’ll have to wait and see.
Artisan distillers @thespiritoftoad who are converting buildings at the top of South Park into a distillery (see the original story in HH 269, 286 and 287) have submitted a planning application (ref: 17/00913/FUL) for the “Erection of Visitor Centre comprising cafe/restaurant, tasting room and bar for distillery and public conveniences”. Fans of the Oxford comma might snort lightly at this point. The picture is from the planning application. The window for comments closes on 15 May.
Headington resident Ben McFadyean is one of the leading lights behind a multi-cultural football tournament happening at Iffley Road Sports Ground on Sunday 7 May starting at 9.30am. The winning team in the 8-a-side tournament will be presented with a trophy at the Kassam Stadium.
A voluntary smoking ban in the City Council’s children’s play areas, trialled in Sandfield Road and elsewhere, has been rolled out across the whole city. This includes Bury Knowle Park, obviously. Although vouluntary, the council hopes it will encourage people not to smoke in the children’s areas.
Nasher, aka Brian Nash, guitarist from Frankie Goes to Hollywood, performs @TheMasonsArmsHQ on Saturday 6 May.
Your weekly round-up of local news for 27 March – 2 April.
Last week I was premature in announcing the end of the heatpipe works in Headington’s residential streets, but now it is indeed true. Not that all the work is complete – parts of Churchill Drive will be closed until the end of May, and the work to link the heatpipe across the London Road starts today (3 April) and continues until 28 April. Details of what the London Road work involves are here.
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.
Staying with roadworks, here’s the latest from the County on the Access to Headington work on The Slade. It’s due to start in a week’s time, on 10 April.
The by-election in Barton & Sandhills following the death of Van Coulter will be on 4 May, the same day as the County elections & @HeadingtonPlan referendum. Labour have announced their candidate, Mark Ladbrooke. Here he is in the Oxford Mail in 2013 as an NHS union ‘strong man‘, and in February this year as Secretary of a group opposing the changes in the NHS. Nominations close tomorrow (Tuesday) and I’ll give a full list when I have it.
Some people will have three ballot papers that day. Everyone gets to vote in the County Council elections; Barton & Sandhills will vote for a new city councillor; and everyone living in the Headington Plan area will be able to vote in the Plan’s referendum. I understand the referendum will offer a simple ‘YES/NO’ answer to the question “Do you want Oxford City Council to use the Neighbourhood Plan for Headington to help it decide planning applications in the neighbourhood area?”. The results of the referendum and the by-election are expected overnight on 4 – 5 May. Poll cards have already been issued.
This week’s scheduled meeting of the East Area Planning Committee has been cancelled due to ‘lack of business to discuss’. Which means there’s still no decision on the Wychwood Lane development application on the boundary of the C S Lewis Nature Reserve in Risinghurst.
An unexpected story broke with speculation that OUH Hospitals might be offered land at Wick Farm to build staff accommodation, car parking and care facilities. The land is in South Oxfordshire DC and I don’t know whether it is earmarked for development in the new Local Plan they are working on, so for the time being I think any claims should be treated with caution.
More gratuitous vandalism this week. All the windows of the library bus at St Nicholas Primary School in Marston were smashed overnight on Monday, and the school’s CCTV cameras ripped out.
The Garden flower shop turned yellow in support of @OUFCOfficial‘s appearance in the final of the Checkatrade Trophy against Coventry at Wembley on Sunday. Sadly, the match ended 2-1 to Coventry.
#COYY at The Garden, Headington shops
Another takeaway food shop in Headington? Planning application 17/00639/FUL is for a change of use of what used to be Connell’s Estate Agents (before they moved up the road) opposite Skipton Building Society from “Estate Agent (Use Class A2) to Hot Food Takeaway (Use Class A5)”. The applicant, Mr Selahattin Kaya, used to run a restaurant company called KARAZAN Ltd which was voluntarily dissolved in 2011. The consultation on the application closes on 27 April.
While we’re on the subject of food outlets, Dragon Express, who are taking over the old Rose Tree Restaurant, have applied to remove the outdoor seating and reinstate the area as ‘public highway’. I can’t remember ever seeing anyone sitting out there anyway, but perhaps I was never there at the right time.
My favourite Headington-related tweet:
Here’s a rare look inside our Headington New reservoir whilst it’s drained for inspection. pic.twitter.com/xJ2NZJheaE
