Headington Headlines #363

Your weekly round-up of local news for 26 March – 1 April.

Southern Health NHS Trust has been fined £2m for its failings over the deaths of Connor Sparrowhawk and Teresa Colvin.

Buses on routes 13/X13 and U5 had to be diverted to avoid overnight roadworks on Marston Road. The road closure seemed to take people by surprise, although yellow warning signs had been on show for some time.

The planning application for 95 student bedrooms at Ruskin College (see HH337) and the separate application for a further 12 beds at Stoke House go to east Area Planning Committee on Wednesday with recommendations for approval.

@clumpytree reported another failure by Oxfordshire CC to have cyclists in mind when they work on the roads. The subsequent thread got picked up and reported quite widely, prompting a promise from the county that it would be fixed ‘soon’. Original tweet here.

In other roadworks news, the London Road crossing that is being built at the end of Osler Road has been criticised for not having lights or any kind of pedestrian priority. @RuthWilk reports the explanation given at the last Headington Ward focus meeting. Without knowing a lot more about the technical work behind the decision it’s not possible to know whether ‘Health & Safety’ and the interests of the bus companies have been given priority over pedestrian safety and convenience. In a local shopping and commercial centre movement on foot ought to be safe, quick and simple; road traffic should be controlled accordingly.

A court has ruled that the charges Oxford City planned to levy on residents of the city’s five tower blocks woud be ‘excessive’, and has reduced the amounts drastically. For Plowman Tower in Northway the council was going to charge each property £48,766.75; the reduced figure is £2,640.85. In Foresters Tower in Wood Farm the charge has dropped from £49,116.62 to £2,642.77.

Marston Saints Football Club has had to abandon one of their pitches because of damage by moles, dog fouling and dogs digging in the soil. The pitch is off Horseman Close, Old Marston.

St Andrew’s School @sasastandrews1 has been awarded £2000 from the Tesco ‘Bags of Help’ scheme. The money will go on new curtains for the hall.

No local news is complete without a toilet story (who remembers “Clochemerle”)? The e-democracy forum has a thread which started as a complaint about closed facilities at the Bury Knowle Park toilets and then morphed into a series of exchanges on the Labour-controlled city council’s record in providing sport and leisure facilities. The good news is that the toilets are being repaired.

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

  • Bury knowle park, stealth closure/reduction of facilities

Headington Headlines #358

Your weekly round-up of local news for 19 – 25 February.

The doctor whose fitness to practice was found to be impaired following the death of Connor Sparrowhawk at Southern Health’s Slade House has been suspended for a year.

Increased car park charges for Headington were approved by the City Council on Monday. They come into force in a few weeks’ time. Here again are the new charges for the car park behind Waitrose.

Table of Proposed charges for 2018
Proposed charges for 2018

It doesn’t say much for local democracy that these new charges are directly opposed to a Community Policy in the Headington Neighbouhood Plan, which says

“BRC1: CHANGES TO CAR PARKING CHARGES At off-peak times only, the car parks on St Leonard’s Road and Old High Street should provide free parking for 30 minutes followed by stepped parking charges”.

These Commmunity Policies are not statutory, but express how we want to see Headington change for the better over the coming years. The City has chosen to ignore it.

Oxford City Council is asking itself to give itself planning permission to build four retirement homes on a playground in Wood Farm.

Headington’s latest public artwork is a new piece by Saad Qureshi. His sculpture “Assembly” is in the courtyard of Oxford Brookes’ new Clerici Building, accessed from Gipsy Lane. Qureshi is an alumnus of the university.

"Assembly" by Saad Qureshi
“Assembly” by Saad Qureshi
Photo: Oxford Brookes University

For a full list of all Headington’s public art see headington.org.uk

My favourite Headington-related tweet:

There were no new posts on the Headington & Marston e-democracy forum this week:

Headington Headlines #344

Your weekly round-up of local news for 13 – 19 November.

A medical tribunal has found that the ‘fitness to practise’ of the doctor responsible for Connor Sparrowhawk’s care when he died at Slade House in 2013 has been impaired. A decision on appropriate disciplinary action will be taken in December.

Thames Water did a CCTV survey of the Kennett Road sinkhole and declared it was not their problem. The hole was finally filled in permanently* on Thursday.
* Allegedly.

As predicted, the EF planning application for Cotuit Hall has been called in to the Planning Review Committee. The next meeting is on 13 December.

The houses being built behind Waynflete Road in Barton (see original report in HH 262) are being marketed by Cala Homes. Although they are in Barton the site is in South Oxford District Council.

They haven’t said why, but Oxford Bus Company announced that as from yesterday (Sunday), the 400 P&R service will once again be stopping at both the Headington School and Brookes/Headington Hill stops in both directions.

My favourite Headington-related tweet:

There were no new posts on the Headington & Marston e-democracy forum this week: