Wood Farm

Headington Headlines #309

TonyOX3

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

The heatpipe work on Sandfield Road has finished and the diversions have been lifted.

The death of Van Coulter, Labour City Councillor for Barton & Sandhills, has attracted tributes from all over the city. His funeral will be on 30 March at the Bayswater Road crematorium.

New play equipment has been installed in the Margaret Road recreation ground.

A new mosaic celebrating the history of Wood Farm was unveiled in Atkyns Road on Tuesday.

The next phase of Access to Headington will be on the Slade from Old Road to the Corner House roundabout. The latest version of the plans and timing will be on display at the Bullingdon Community Centre (Peat Moors/Bulan Road) on Thursday 23rd March between 2pm and 6pm. The work “will focus on providing of off-road cycle lanes, side road entry treatments and improved crossing facilities on both sides of the road”.

Thanks to John Clarke for pointing out I showed the wrong building in my note last week about Old Marston Vicarage. I showed the Hall. This is the Vicarage.

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

  • London Road cycle path
  • Hospital Parking
  • Cost of petrol and diesel in Oxford
  • Putting up posters

Headington Headlines #254

TonyOX3

Your weekly round-up of local news for 15 – 21 February.

I haven’t written an Energy Project update for last week, but  one will follow soon. 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.

I’ve also brought “Access to Headington” out of its hiding place under “Transport Plans” and given it its own link on the menu. The County’s official notice of the next round of consultations is there, and I expect there will be more posts to follow!

Headington Post Office moved to its new home in the Co-op on Monday. There were some teething problems: it was closed for a while on Tuesday.

The new Post Office inn the Co-op (closed at the time)
The new Post Office inn the Co-op (closed at the time)

Team Yellow, covering Wood Farm, won the Council’s Blue Bin Recycling League last month. They’ll need to choose a local good cause to receive the prize of £400. Two households also win a prize worth £30 each.

Headington Car Club – the car-sharing scheme – is to get two new parking places, one in Sandfield Road and one in All Saints’ Road. This is after the original proposal was rejected: the County wanted to find off-street sites but none have come available. See also HH 248.

It’s been reported that tower block leaseholders are considering legal action over the City Council’s intention to charge substantial amounts for refurbishment of the blocks.

New width-restriction bollards have been installed at the entrance and exit to Horspath Driftway Homebase car park. The gap is 7ft 6″, or 2.29 metres. It seemed a tight squeeze in my smallish car.

The north side of the A40 between Marston turn and Headington roundabout will be closed overnight from 8pm to 6am on Monday 7 – Wednesday 9 March. The Traffic Order says ‘three overnight closures’ so I assume that means until Thursday morning. The official diversion is enormous, clearly designed to discourage traffic from Marsh Road, Headley Way and the London Road, or trying to work its way through Elsfield and Forest Hill. It takes traffic back up the A40 to Pear Tree, round the ring road to Hinksey Hill, Heyford Hill and Cowley up to the Headington roundabout. Good luck with that. The same diversion will operate in the other direction on the next three nights when they close the other carriageway on the A40.

A40 closure diversion details
A40 closure diversion details

The group hoping to save The Ampleforth Arms in Risinghurst @TheAmpRevival is making a last-ditch appeal for funds to allow them to bid to buy the pub. Their window of opportunity runs out in March.

Jaya’s deli, on the London Road near Headington roundabout, earned a write-up in the Oxford Mail.

Sky broadband customers suffered a long loss of service which began around 10pm on Friday and lasted more than a day.

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

  • Tower Block Refurbishment
  • Disruption
  • Guardian story the danger posed by the Northway link road
  • Disruption
  • Possible Extension to Car Spaces in Bury Knowle Park

Headington Headlines #249

TonyOX3

Your weekly round-up of local news for 11 – 17 January.

It was a quiet week on the heatpipe front, at least in public. My round-up is 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.

The City Council is running a consultation with the people who own the leasehold of their properties in the Northway and Wood Farm tower blocks (and Cowley too) over the costs of the improvements the Council has announced (see HH 244 for original story). Cllr Mike Rowley has explained the Council’s position here.

Meanwhile, Oxford East Tories, led by aspiring council candidate Mark Bhagwandin @markb_gt, have sponsored the formation of an Oxford Towers Leaseholders’ Association to fight the Council over the charges.

Police raided a flat on Underhill Circus, Barton on Friday in a search for illegal drugs. They found cannabis and crack cocaine, and two people, both from Barton, were arrested.

The Ronald McDonald House Charity which provides accommodation for families of children in hospital has announced plans to build a 62 bedroom ‘hotel’ in the grounds of the JR. The charity currently has a 17-room unit on the top floor of the children’s hospital. The new building will be on the site of the tennis courts opposite Sandfield Nursery, currently being used for storage by Vital Energi. A planning application is expected in March.

An Extraordinary Board Meeting of Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust was held on Monday, but despite the serious criticisms of the Trust’s record none of the board members resigned. The following day Monitor (the national health regulator) announced they will appoint an expert to improve the way deaths are investigated, particularly those involving people with learning difficulties or with mental illnesses.

Back in August 2014 (see HH 175) a planning application to build a care home for dementia patients at 1 Pullens Lane was turned down by the East Area Planning Committee. Now another developer – Frontier Estates (they of the Latimer Road student accommodation proposals) – has put in a new application (ref: 15/03611/FUL) for a 55 bedroom care home on the same site. The Oxford Mail report is here.

East & South elevations
East & South elevations (East faces Pullens Lane)

 


Location map

I noted in HH 245 that Purple Zone, which includes Barton, had won the Blue Bin Recycling League prize in December. As a result, the Thrive project @thriveteams has received an award of £400 to support their work with young people on the estate.

Friends of Stansfeld @FofStansfeld joined twitter.

My favourite Headington-related tweet of the week:

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

  • Headington Post Office
  • Radio story Foxwell drive green space
  • Pothole – Marston flyover slip
  • City Council agrees energy pipe needs planning permission