Stansfeld

Headington Headlines #169

TonyOX3

Here’s my weekly round-up of local news for 23 – 29 June.

@TheOxfordMail ran an article about the designation of Stansfeld Outdoor Centre as an Asset of Community Value. The move is led by Friends of Quarry. Nothing more will happen until Birmingham City Council put the site on the market. [Read my previous article on the subject.]

The Old Marston Parish Council elections took place on Thursday. 13 candidates for 12 places, turnout 12.7%. Full results here.

It was the annual Barton Bash on Saturday, and Barton’s oldest resident Dorothy Pearce celebrated her 100th birthday the same day.

Credit to Steve Barrie, the manager of the new Tesco store opening in a few weeks’ time, for putting his head above the parapet on the e-democracy forum. He’s also on twitter, you’ll be glad to know @sbarriepilgrim. If you’re interested, recruitment for jobs in this branch open today – see Steve’s posts on the e-democracy forum for more information.

You can add Ian MacDonald (UKIP) @IanMacdonald91 to the tally of unsuccesful OX3 candidates from the May 2014 elections who are standing in the Cowley Ward by-election next month. Ian stood in Barton and Sandhills Ward.

A 57-year old woman from Peat Moors was sentenced to 2 years imprisonment for cannabis smuggling.

Building work at Headington Library, including disabled access, is over-running and the official re-opening has been put back to Monday 14 July.

Just one active post on the Headington & Marston e-democracy forum this week:

  • Introduction
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 #168

TonyOX3

Here’s my weekly round-up of local news for 16 – 22 June.

Headington’s bike hire scheme was relaunched under the management of a new company. They are still using the name Oxonbike and all the details are on their website (confusingly using the domain name in the plural – Oxonbikes). The deal seems to be the same as before and the locations are also the same, though the actual bike racks have a different design and technology. Their twitter account is @oxonbike.

It seems the London Road road works have been put back to late Summer and will run through into 2015 with a break over Christmas.

The Stansfeld outdoor centre off Quarry Road has been registered as an Asset of Community Value.

Headington Quarry School celebrated its 150th anniversary this weekend.

Two aspiring politicians who stood in OX3 wards in the city elections in May are trying their luck again in the Cowley Ward by-election on 17 July. @KatHarborne (Con) stood for Quarry & Risinghurst and @DavidHenwood2 stood for Headington Ward.

And talking of elections, there’s an election to choose the 12 people who make up Old Marston Parish Council next Thursday, 26 June. @theabingdontaxi, who lives in the village, has written a guest blog about the role and powers of the Parish Council and asking for information about the candidates. Apparently it’s the first time in 16 years an election has been needed because there are more candidates than places to fill.

@Oxford_Brookes‘ John Henry Brookes Building by architects @DEArchitects, which I reported in May had won a RIBA regional award is one of six buildings in the “Campus” category to win a RIBA National award. The national award winners go forward for consideration in the Stirling Prize.

The first artist’s impressions of Oxford University’s Big Data Institute, which will be the next addition to the Old Road Campus, have been released. It’s being described as having a “ship’s prow”.

There was a break-in at The Six Bells on Beaumont Road, Quarry in the early hours of Sunday morning last week (15 June). The intruder forced a window, broke into a fruit machine and stole cash and spirits. Police are appealing for information.

My favourite Headington-related tweet of the week:

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

  • Headington bike hire scheme
  • Shell garage closure?
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 #157

TonyOX3

Here’s my weekly round-up of local news for 31 March – 6 April.

A barrier has been installed on the bridge carrying Old Road over the ring road and up to Shotover. Apparently one side of the bridge is in a bad way and the County engineers have decided they need to restrict the traffic to one side. There’s a discussion on the e-democracy website including a letter from the engineers.

The relaunch of the bike hire scheme at Thornhill P&R and Headington has been put back by at least two months as the operators say they need more time to install their technology.

Keith Ponsford, Head Teacher at Bayards Hill primary school in Barton, retired this week. Over a forty year career he has taught in Marston and Cutteslowe as well as Barton.

Friends of Quarry are hoping to get the Stansfeld Outdoor Centre listed as an Asset of Community Value. I blogged about it, thinking it may be destined for housing.

Istanbul Barbers opened in the old Lazy Gamer shop.

Power was out on Saturday afternoon in an area from Bickerton Road to Wharton Road and extending out to near the NOC, with a reported brief ‘blip’ in a wider area from Wood Farm to Quarry. The power cut lasted about an hour.

The police helicopter @NPAS_Benson hovering over Headington on Friday afternoon was helping in the search for a person reported missing, who was eventually located by police on the ground.

Smart new blue bus shelters have been installed in the JR grounds.

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

  • Multi-storey car park at Old Road campus
  • Activities for under 5s on Fridays
  • Tree-felling on Oxford Bypass adjacent to Northway
  • Barrier on bridge on Old Road
  • Quarry Gate pub
  • Trade Exchange
  • Student accomodation where Cavalier pub was
  • New Headington Residents’ Association
  • Bar Meze
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.