Another Blue Plaque for Headington
The Kilns in Risinghurst, C.S. Lewis's former home, is to get a Blue Plaque. It will be unveiled on Saturday 26 July.
The only other Blue Plaque in Headington is on the site of the Red House at 72 Old Road, once the home of Professor Gathorne Robert Girdlestone.
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Pub News
Black Boy This pub closed on 15 July, when the lease of the Mustard Group from the brewery ran out and was not renewed. Greene King reopened the pub within two days with an interim manager for four weeks. The pub will then close for some alterations, and reopen with a new permanent manager. The brewery want its new style (with an emphasis on good food) to continue.
Butcher's Arms Fuller's took out an advertisement in the Oxford Times of 4 July offering an opportunity to run the Butcher's Arms in Wilberforce Street on a tenancy agreement (investment required; training and support offered). There was an Open Day at the pub for potential landlords on Tuesday 8 July.
The Somerset pub on the Marston Road is likely to become a Chinese restaurant, while Tesco's has bought The Friar. |
Parking in Headington
Enterprising householders living near the hospitals are seeking to rent out their driveways via the Parkopedia website. The going rate appears to be £5 or £6 a day.
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London Road scheme
The start of work on the first stage of the £3m scheme (from Pullen's
Lane to Osler Road) will start on Monday 21 July, following three weeks of work on the road by Southern Gas. The estimated completion date is 27 February 2009.
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Estate agent prosecuted
Oxford City Council's Environmental Health service has successfully prosecuted rogue landlord Mohammed Ali Rana, who runs Chandlers Estate Agents at 18 Cherwell Drive.
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Ramsay Road arson case
The two teenage boys convicted at Oxford Crown Court of arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered were sentenced at Reading Crown Court on 11 July 2008. They have avoided a prison sentence, but have to pay £5,000 each in compensation, undertake 540 unpaid hours of work between them, and observe a night-time curfew for six months.
The severe fire in a house in Ramsay Road was caused by a firework being set off through the
letterbox at about 1am last Halloween night (31 October 2007).
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Barton Village Road plan rejected
An application to demolish a stone cottage and replace it with 2×two-bed semi-detached dwellings was rejected on 4 July 2008.
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Bus shelter move
Permission is being sought for "Relocation of existing bus shelter from outside 192 Headington Road and display of 2 illuminated sheet advertisement panels on the relocated bus shelter".
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Slade Barracks
Berkeley Homes was granted permission in June 2008 to
build 362 student study bedrooms and 72 houses and flats on
the site of Slade Park Territorial Army
Barracks, which they bought for £11 million (of which £8 million went to Oxford City Council and £3 million to the Ministry of Defence).
The Territorial Army's 7 Rifles will move from the Slade to Dalton Barracks in Abingdon later in 2008. The South African War
Memorial will also be moved there and will be the centrepiece of the new TA centre.
The Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry Collection housed in Headington has been packed up, and it is hoped that it will eventually be rehoused in a building next to the museum in Woodstock.
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Stephen Road plans dismissed
A second appeal relating to a planning application for the site of the present 10 Stephen Road (currently two flats, garages and lock up storage) was dismissed on 8 July 2008.
The first application for 5×three-bed terraced houses and 2×one- bed flats was turned down in April 2007.
The second application for 4×one-bed houses and 5 x one-bed flats, with the retention of the existing single-storey unit at the rear for commercial use and provision of on-site car parking, was turned down in March 2008.
An earlier application made in 2006 was withdrawn in February 2007.
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C.S. Lewis Holyoake Road house sold
According to the "Our Property" website, 14 Holyoake Road ("Hillsboro"), where C.S. Lewis lived with Mrs Moore before moving to The Kilns, sold for £1,600,000 on 2 May 2008.
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Flat for sale on eBay
A flat in Upper Meadow is being sold on eBay for £264,000. This is probably the first Headington home ever to be put up for sale in this way.
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Oxford Heart Centre
The topping-out ceremony of the £29m Oxford Heart Centre at the John Radcliffe Hospital took place on 1 July 2008). The Centre is due to open in January 2009.
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Two primary schools to be rebuilt
The county council is planning to rebuild Bayards Hill and Wood Farm Primary Schools.
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Archbishop at All Saints funeral
The Archbishop of Canterbury read a eulogy at the funeral of the wife of the Vicar at All Saints Church on Monday 23 June.
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Lime Walk plans refused
The planning application by MKD Property Developments to demolish 91 Lime Walk and replace it with a block of 4 x 2 bed flats (fronting Cecil Sharpe Place) and a terrace of 3x3 bed dwellings was turned down at the area committee meeting in May 2008.
This house was originally called Summerville, and was built when Lime Walk was first laid out in the 1880s. It then had a nursery to the north and south, and was the home and workplace of the florist John R. Mattock before he built a new house for himself at 90 Windmill Road near his father's house.
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Lead and metal thefts continue
On Wednesday 28 May police were called at 11.36pm following reports that people were trying to steal the gates from the front of Bury Knowle Park. During the three days prior to that, 8 square feet of lead flashing was stolen from the telephone exchange in London Road.
The Clic Sargent charity shop on the London Road had its copper and waste pipes stolen on the night of Tuesday 3 June, and old Victorian lead has even been removed from people's doorsteps.
Lead has also been stolen this year from the roofs of the following buildings in Headington: John Leon House, McDonald's restaurant (twice), Cheney School, St Andrew's Primary School, Windmill Primary School, All Saints Church House, the Chequers pub, Bury Knowle House, Emden House, the dental surgery at 310 London Road, Sharp & Howse, the Legion at Barton, and Barton pool, as well as a number of private houses.
In Marston, lead has been taken from St Michael & All Angels Church, St Michael's School, and two private houses.
Following the theft of 200 bronze plaques from Oxford Crematorium's garden of remembrance in September 2007, the remaining plaques have been covered with "Smartwater" to deter future thieves.
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88 & 90 Windmill Road
Cherwell Housing Trust plans to build student accommodation to replace (1) 90 Windmill Road/
1A Mattock Close and (2) 88 Windmill Road.
The two applications were initially turned down by the city council, but an Inspector appointed by the Secretary of State held a Local Inquiry at the Town Hall on 22 and 23 April 2008, and has allowed the two appeals, but, with conditions.
On 25 July 2007 the Strategic Development Control Committee
rejected these two applications (first submitted in December 2006 and
later revised), voting 9 to 1 against the plans, despite
the recommendations of planning officers that they should
be approved. This followed a similar decision by the North-East
Area Committee on 19 June 2007.
No. 88 was built by John Mattock c.1890, and No. 90 by his
son, John Robert Mattock, c.1899. Their rose gardens were
compulsorily purchased by the city council and Mattock Close
was built on them in the early 1980s.
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Warneford Meadow
The Warneford Meadow Town Green Public Inquiry at the Town Hall (which started in October 2007 with QC Vivian Chapman and resumed in January 2008) concluded on Thursday 22 May 2008. The legal costs of this long drawn-out application are likely to total £44,000 (£37,000 of which has so far been raised by local residents).
Paul de Luce, supported by the Friends
of Warneford Meadow, submitted the Town Green application to Oxfordshire County Council to save the Meadow
from present and future development. His application was opposed by the NHS, who own the meadow, and a Mr Whitmey.
Because of this ongoing inquiry , the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire
Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust (OBMH) decided not to
pursue its appeals with the Planning Inspectorate for the
"non-determination of its outline planning applications"
by the city council's Strategic Development Control Committee
on 25 April 2007.
OBMH (now the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust) will return with fresh proposals, but
these will exclude the meadow and focus on the Warneford playing
field and the land around the Park Hospital.
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Community hospital to close
Oxford Community Hospital on the Churchill site has had a third outbreak of the clostridium difficile superbug and is likely to close.
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Highfield seeks road closures
Two-thirds of the residents in the Highfield area have signed a petition seeking bollards to prevent rat-running.
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Cycling on pavements
Police have undertaken four surveys of pavement cyclists at the London Road/ Windmill Road junction in the last month, and the highest number was 33 on Monday 28 April between 3pm and 5pm. |
New way to have your say
Have you seen the new
online message forum for Headington and Marston? If you register for this forum, the messages will be sent to you automatically. |
Richens submits new plans
A third set of plans submitted by Neil Richens for its former site at the top of Windmill Road (the former Dring's bus garage) has now been submitted. This involves the demolition of the existing building and the erection of a new three-storey building providing 2x B1 units on the ground floor, 2x 2 bedroom flats, 1x1 bedroom flat and 1x 3 bedroom flat with amenity courtyard.
Two earlier sets of plans for the site were rejected: (1) for a four-storey building
providing 8 flats and (2) for a three-storey building comprising 2 x light industrial/office (B1 use) units on the ground floor, 1 x three-bed and 1 x one-bed flats on the first floor and 2 x two-bed flats on the second floor.
Following a fire in their old building on 22 July 2006, Richens Mobility are operating
from 6 The Roundway (Mon–Saturday, 9.30am–1.30pm). Their telephone
number remains unchanged: 01865 769778.
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Bury Knowle Health Centre
Work has started on the expansion of the Bury Knowle Health Centre to include a separate dental surgery and pharmacy.
In August 2004 planning permission was granted for (1) a single-storey extension to existing health centre to provide a pharmacy; (2) a two-storey building to provide dentist surgery and offices; and (3) a new single-storey detached garage for 209 London Road, plus remodelled car-parking.
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Shark uncovered
The refurbished shark was revealed on 11 March, although scaffolding still remains around the house while work continues on the roof.
John Buckley, who sculpted the shark, repainted it ready
for its 21st birthday on 9 August 2007, but subsequent
major work had to be done to the roof.
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Residents' parking charges
Residents' parking charges are starting to take effect in the Headington area. The county council has taken over responsibility for permits from the city council, and the Parking & Payments shop in now at Speedwell House in Speedwell Street.
Because of building delays with the new shop, Central Headington, which was to have been the first zone to have to pay, will now be one of the last.
Costs per household are as follows:
• The first two residents' permits will each cost £40 a year, the third £80 and the
fourth or more £120 each
• The first 25 visitors' permits will be free, with extra ones costing 60p each (except for
people over 70).
Oxfordshire County Council's has published a notice in the Oxford
Times of 15 February listing all the new properties in Headington and elsewhere that
will be excluded from eligibility for residents' and visitors parking
permits under an Order coming into force on Monday 18 February. |
Dorset House plans
Dorset House, which until 2005 was Brookes University's School of Occupation Therapy, is now owned by the property development company Quintain.
In 2006 Quintain submitted plans to demolish Dorset House itself as well as 42 London
Road and 1A Latimer Road, and to erect five blocks of accommodation
for 363 students. It withdrew this application, following a recommendation
from planners that it be turned down.
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Barton Road corner site
A new application for the site of Nos. 249 & 251
London Road has been approved, namely the erection of a detached
two-storey four-bed dwelling and two blocks of flats to provide
7 flats (one block with 2 x two- bed flats and one with 4 x two-bed
and 1 x one- bed flats), plus associated parking and alterations to
existing access.
An earlier application to redevelop this site was submitted
on 18 April 2007, but no decision on that has yet been
made, and the appeal lodged on 25 June ( on the grounds
of non-determination in an appropriate period) was allowed
with conditions. This former application proposed the erection
of 2×two-storey blocks to provide a total of 7 flats (6 x
two-bed, 1 x one-bed), and 1 detached four-bed dwelling
house.
It has been established that prior approval is not required
for the method of demolition and site restoration.
A further plan to erect two semi-detached dwellings to the north of the site is still pending.
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Black Boy to have outdoor seating
The Black Boy in Old Headington has been granted planning permission to alter the wall along its frontage to enclose the front car-parking area to create an outdoor seating area.
The Black Boy reopened on Saturday 21 June 2007 as a Mustard pub, a new group under Greene King with a heavy bias towards food. The former snug on the left is now a restaurant, the central part is mainly for bar food, while the area on the right is for drinks. Tel. 01865 744471.
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Cancer Centre
Oxford Cancer Centre at the Churchill Hospital is due to
be handed over to Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals Trust in June.
The city council gave retrospective planning permission
for a large wall, but this has been built across two footpaths.
County councillors at a planning and regulation committee
have now agreed to fast-track the application to re-route
the paths so that the opening is not held up.
Work began in March 2006 on the Centre, which is being
built at a cost of £125m on the site of Ritchie Russell
House in the grounds of the Churchill Hospital, and the
work involved the relocation of the American Garden. The
new hospital will have 217 beds, ten theatres, a six-bed
intensive-care unit, and new equipment.
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HMOs: consultation
Consultation by Oxford city council on its proposal to introduce
additional licensing for Houses in Multiple Occupation throughout
the city ended on 31 December. This proposal could affect
most of the student lets in Headington.
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Can't find an older news item?
News items dating from before December 2007 that are not
ongoing have been moved to a separate page.
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EF Language School
The EF language school in Pullens Lane has had
three sets of plans approved:
(1) to partially demolish the Isis Building
and erect a new entrance, lecture theatre, student accommodation
building, and central link building (approved).
(2) to erect a two-storey building to provide
28 student study rooms (pending)
(3) to demolish the current JCR and erect a
two-storey building incorporating teaching accommodation and
ancillary facilities (approved)
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St Ebbe's Church in Headington
St Ebbe's Headington opened in November 2007 in the former
Exclusive Brethren building at 30–34 Lime Walk.
St Ebbe's Church in Oxford had previously been renting
accommodation at Headington School for its evening service
(from 2001) and its morning service (from 2004).
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Mill Court sold
Mill Court in Windmill Road, currently leased to Oxford Brookes
and used as an Osteopathy Clinic, was sold as an "investment
property" in 2007.
It was advertised as a Commercial (D1) property when put
up for sale by Thomas Merrifield at a guide price of £500,000;
but in June West Waddy ADP
had to submit a planning application on behalf of Oxford Brookes
for change of use from office use (Class B1) to Osteopathy
Clinic (Class D1) for a temporary period expiring end of December
2008.
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Bakery to become bar
Queen's Bakery at the top of Windmill Road was granted permission
in 2006 for a change of use of the ground floor of the property
to retail (A1), restaurant/café (A3), and bar (A4).
Its proposed new name was the Kami Restaurant, but so far
nothing has changed.
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Collecting post
Since the closure of Lime Walk sorting office, Headington people have had to collect packages that could not be delivered from the East Oxford Delivery Office in Ledgers Close (off Sandy Lane West in Littlemore).
If you cannot collect, you can arrange for parcels to be redelivered to a local post office (50p fee) or to your house (free) by telephoning 01865 747585.
Do not attempt to collect Saturday parcels first thing on Monday morning, as they will not have been sent back to Littlemore from storage in Headington Post Office. |
Play areas to close
The following Headington play areas are set to close:
– Bernwood Park, Barton
– Girdlestone Road
– Sermon Close, Risinghurst
– Chillingworth Crescent, Wood Farm
– Masons Road, Wood Farm
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Geograph Britain
Central Headington is now well represented on the Geograph British
Isles website by seven pictures, including the shark and the
new Baptist Church.
Other parts of Headington mapped with pictures are Barton
(St Mary's Church), Sandhills (Thornhill Park & Ride),
Shotover (egg-rolling), Headington Hill (Cuckoo Lane), Marston
(Vicky Arms), and the west side of Quarry (Rock Edge).
Other parts of Headington and Marston are still waiting for
people to submit pictures; and it is always possible to add
extra pictures to occupied squares.
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Aerial views of Headington
Google Earth has now
covered the whole of Headington and Oxford (special download
required).
You can also see all of Headington on Microsoft's maps site
(no downloads required unless you want to use the 3D effect).
You can use your keyboard arrow keys to move away from the
shark in the link below to visit your part of Headington.
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Farmers' Market on friday
The next Headington Farmers' Market will be held on Friday (25 July) from 8am. It will continue an extra hour until 1.30pm, although some stalls may have packed up by then.
The market is held on the fourth Friday of each month (which is not always the last Friday) at the top of Kennett Road in the centre of Headington. For details see www.headingtonmarket.net |
Events
Summerscreen Film Festival
Saturday 2 August at 9.15pm in Bury Knowle Park
The Simpsons Movie
Oxford Film & Video Maker |
4×4s targeted in Headington
Using the "mung bean trick", whereby a mung bean is inserted into the valve of a tyre before the cap is screwed back on, tyres were let down in Grays Road, Jack Straw's Lane, Southfield Road and Staunton Road in Headington and Ferry Road, Nicholson Road and Raymund Road in Marston. Notes were left on the windscreens explaining how Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) emit up to 300% more greenhouse gases than the average car.
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Police night patrol in Headington
Since the beginning of July, police have been patrolling Headington between 6pm and 3am at weekends on foot, in cars,and on bikes.
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Brookes drops Morrells
The history of Oxford Brookes University is entwined with the Morrell family: not only did the Morrells build Headington Hill Hall, but they also owned the land on which the Gipsy Lane campus is now built.
In 1965 the Morrell family released to the city council part of the allotments they owned for the development of residences for the students of the Oxford College of Technology, and for 43 years these residences have been known as Morrell Hall. The University has now decided to extend the Clive Booth Hall name to the adjacent Morrell Hall site, thus obliterating the Morrell name.
Meanwhile work on the site is now underway. Oxford Brookes has been granted planning permission
to demolish the existing blocks A and B and to erect in their
place 178 student study rooms in two blocks on three floors.
This is a net increase of 79 student study rooms, bringing
the total on the site to 634.
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Somerfield group sold to Co-op
The Co-op has agreed to buy the Somerfield company for £1.57bn. As the Co-op will then own two stores in central Headington, it seems very likely they will have to sell one of them.
The Headington shop has already been subject to two takeovers. When it first opened in the late 1970s it was a MacMarket (MacFisheries) and the largest supermarket in Oxford. It was taken over by Solo in the early 1980s, and then by Gateway before 1993 . The Gateway chain (which had launched some stores under the Somerfield name in 1990) was faring badly nationally, and changed the name of all its stores to Somerfield in May 1994.
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Tree-felling in two parks
Seventeen trees in Bury Knowle Park (all marked with a red cross) are due to be felled for safety reasons, and work started on Thursday 24 July.
Twelve trees in Headington Hill Park were felled in early July . The Creation Theatre Company is using the trees as benches for the audience for its two-month run of A Midsummer Night's Dream. The following planning application was also approved: "Temporary use of land from June to September 2008 for the siting of various structures including a catering marquee and logs for seating in connection with a 'promenade' theatre production. Temporary use of the 'Dairy' building for toilets and storage".
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What's on in Headington: July
Maria Mansfield has made a prototype of a What's On Guide for Headington & Marston to cover the month of July, and would welcome comments, as well as material for August..
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Meetings
North-East Area Committee
The next meeting of the North-East Area Committee will be on Tuesday 19 August at 6pm at Corpus Christi Church Hall, Margaret Road. |
OX3 Guide
The new OX3 Guide produced by Headington Action is just off the press, and will be distributed to homes throughout Headington and Marston during July.
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Helicopter lands in park
The police helicopter encircled and eventually landed in Bury Knowle Park at around 7pm on Saturday night. It is understood that a young woman had collapsed in the park, but that her exact location was unknown.
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John Leon House plan goes to appeal
Connell's Estate Agents have launched an appeal against the city council's refusal of the second application for change of use from A1 (retail) to A2 (professional services) for this new shop on the ground floor of John Leon House on the corner of Holyoake Road. Connell's proposal was to move across the road into the new premises and to swap the A1 and A2 usage.
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Another café open
A branch of Subway opened on 19 June in the former Oxford Travel shop at 63 London Road.
The Headington District shopping centre now has 22 separate eating establishments: 12 cafés, 4 restaurants, 3 takeaways, and 2 pubs, as well as a hairdresser serving food and drink at pavement tables.
In addition, a restaurant will be built on the site of Smarts fish & chip shop, and another coffee shop is interested in the new shop at John Leon House on the corner of Holyoake Road.
Of Headington's 12 cafés, seven operate in A1 premises and regard themselves as retail shops and not A3 cafés under the Use Classes Order.
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Sainsbury's to close
It is understood that the small Sainsbury's in front of the Shell petrol station on the London Road will close on 6 October, as one of 26 other similar shops across the country. It is likely to remain as an independent basic shop. |
New book and article about Headington
Book 3 in The Changing Faces of Headington series is now on sale at "Pen to Paper" in Headington and at Blackwell's in Oxford.
Rhona Walker's article "Bury Knowle House in context: its history, design, and architecture" appears in Oxoniensia 72 (2007, but just published).
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Conservative Club
Headington Conservative Club on the corner of Windmill Road and Bateman Street is being refurbished.
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Kitten Club robbed
On Saturday 7 June at 10.30pm a gang armed with knives robbed the Kitten Club massage parlour in Cherwell Drive. Four months earlier on Saturday 2 February it suffered a similar attack.
Two other brothels in the Headington and Marston area were closed down this year. The "Venus massage parlour" which operated near St Michael's Primary School at 230 Marston Road was raided by police at noon on Tuesday 8 April; and another brothel in All Saints Road was raided by 17 officers at 2pm on Friday 1 February.
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Domino's apply to extend licence
Domino's Pizza at 126 London Road have applied to vary a premises licence under Section 34 of the Licensing Act 2003 to extend its store hours from midnight to 0300 on Friday and Saturday nights. Representations about this application must be made to the Licensing Authority, Oxford City Council, Ramsay House by 26 June.
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Headington Festival
The 2008 Headington Festival was held on Sunday 1 June in Bury Knowle Park
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"Low-carbon Headington"
Groups were formed at the second meeting on 2 June to take forward ideas for Carbon reduction, Events, Growing things, Homes, Public Bodies, Recycling & reusing, and Transport.
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Quarry church open to visitors
Holy Trinity Church in Headington Quarry (where C. S. Lewis worshipped) is open to visitors every Saturday and Sunday afternoon between 2pm and 5pm this summer until Sunday 31 August 2008. |
New pedestrian footway
An application for the formation of (1) A cycle/ pedestrian path from Old Road to car park and (2) a 240m pedestrian footway along the north side of Roosevelt Drive was decided at the North-East Area Committee meeting in May.
The first part of the application was refused, but the footpath along Roosevelt Drive was approved.
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Telecoms masts
Vodafone have submitted an application for a "certificate of lawfulness for proposed development comprising the installation of a telecoms mast with antennas (11.5m overall height), and associated equipment cabinet" on the corner of Windmill Road and Rock Edge.
O2 Limited have been granted permission for "Installation of telecommunications equipment comprising 3 × panel antennae, radio equipment housing and associated cabling" at Headington Telephone Exchange at 43 London Road (behind Sainsbury's) has been approved.
This is partly to replace a mast at Brookes University that is likely to be lost through redevelopment.
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Late postal collection abolished
Since Monday 21 April, the last collection of post from Headington Post Office has been 6pm rather than 7pm. |
Headington in Wikipedia
Many parts of Headington now have their own entry in Wikipedia.
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Changes to Shops in 2008
The London Boutique Co. is about to open a Nail and Beauty Bar in the Special Days card shop in Simon House in Windmill Road (vacant since Christmas 2006).
The Oxford Optical Centre has opened in the former Olan Mills Photographic Studio at 104 London Road.
Betfred is planning to move into Ladbroke's former premises under Holyoake Hall.
The former La Plaza café has been renamed the Copacabana Café
The former Adkin estate agent is to let.
The Squash Café fresh food and juice bar opened in February 2008 in the former West of Java shop near Starbucks. Former Brookes business student James Whitman (23) has started up this new business, which offers Fair Trade and organic options.
Café On-Line, Headington's first internet café, opened in the former G. H. Williams bike shop at 115 London Road.
Subway has opened at 63 London Road, following Oxonian Travel's moved to Wantage on 7 November 2007.
The Sun of a Beach tanning salon opened in the former Sun-Kissed Tanning Salon in June 2008. The premises at 65 London Road were repossessed on 6 May by their landlord, RMA Investments Ltd of Bicester.
Balfour News at 14 Windmill Road failed to get permission to become a restaurant in 2006 and is still to let.
Smart's Fish & Chips at 81A London Road is closed, and will be demolished and rebuilt as a restaurant. |
Chequers now open again
The Chequers pub in Headington Quarry reopened on Saturday 12 April.
It was bought by the landlord of the Red Lion in Old Marston, Steve Jenkins.
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Another application for St Ebba's
A new planning application has been submitted to demolish St Ebba's and its outbuildings in Old Road and to replace it with 9 dwellings comprising 4 four-bed houses, 3 three-bed houses and 2 two-bed apartments.
The North-East Area Committee deferred its decision on an earlier application to build 4 four-bedroomed houses and 5 two-bedroomed flats on the site, on which council officers recommended refusal. An appeal by Thomas Homes on the grounds of non-determination in an appropriate period was dismissed.
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Latin in South Park
Two groups are meeting in South Park to learn Latin: one on Thursdays at 12 noon, the other on Sundays at 2pm.
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North East Area Plan
The city council is in the process of refreshing the North East Area Plan – but this time to a neighbourhood level. This involves pulling together lists of neighbourhood issues and challenges (which the council is calling "storybooks") and then meeting with various community organizations to see that all the right issues are included.
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Another Headington cannabis farm
Police raided a cannabis factory at the top of Headington Hill on Thursday 7 February 2008. It has now been revealed that the cannabis was the more dangerous "skunk" variety.
Cocaine raids
A house in Margaret Road discovered to be a "cannabis farm" at the end of 2006 was among a group of houses raided at dawn on 5 March 2008 because they were believed to be linked to an Albanian drugs ring wanted for supplying cocaine across the south of England. A man from Margaret Road was arrested.
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Ruskin College's move to Headington
On Wednesday 27 February students protested outside Ruskin Hall in Old Headington against Ruskin College's plan to move its headquarters from Walton Street to Ruskin
Hall from 2009.
Ruskin has submitted a Masterplan (for consultation only) for its Headington site, and this was welcomed at the North-East Area Committee meeting on 22 January. Councillors felt, however, that Dunstan Road should remain the main access point to the site, rather than Stoke Place.
The Masterplan includes a new library (to be named after former Prime Minister Jim Callaghan) and
a new teaching area next to the Rookery. Some buildings (including Bowen House and the Bowerman Building) will be demolished and replaced by new accommodation.
Ruskin was granted planning permission (with conditions) at the Area Committee meeting on 17 June to remove the temporary building housing the nursery plus other structures within the walled gardens, and to erect a free-standing dining hall, together with hard and soft landscaping works and an ornamental pond.
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“Charity” clothes collections
Despite having six genuine charity shops, central Headington has since 2006 been targeted by commercial firms asking people to give all the spare clothes they have for them to sell to the poor.
There were 15 collections in 2007, and six so far in 2008: two by Third World Clothing Appeal aka Polotex (delivered on 18 January and 21 February); two by Polotex (delivered 1 April and 6 May) and two by Helping Arms (delivered on 28 February and 6 June.
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Trade in Headington
Local businesses say that they are losing trade because of the diminishing number of retail shops in Headington, which now has ten cafés (in addition to restaurants, pubs, and take-aways).
But traders notice an increase on the fourth Friday of each month when the farmers' market is held.
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Hairdressers in Headington
The former Filipino grocery on the London Road has reopened as the Fusion hairdressing salon, bringing the number of hairdressers
in the Headington district shopping centre to nine (with another
two just a stone's throw away in New High Street). Fusion is also an internet café, serving coffee and food supplied by the Squash Café.
Accent at 111 London Road has changed its name to Angels.
The number of estate agents occupying ground-floor premises
is eight, and there are seven charity shops and six banks/building
societies. But top of the list is restaurants/ cafes/ takeaways
with 14 (or 16 if the two pubs are included), and another
restaurant about to be built.
At the east end of London Road a permitted development check has established that planning permission would be required to turn the former Smith's Security shop (Nos. 255–257) from B1 (office) to A1 (retail) use as yet another hairdresser.
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Neighbourhood Action Groups
Four NAGs have been set up in the North-East area:
(1) Barton, Risinghurst, & Sandhills
(2) Headington South
(3) Headington North
(4) Marston.
At the consultation on the Headington North NAG (which includes the shopping centre), the key issues mentioned by residents were speeding cars, antisocial behaviour, and cycling on pavements.
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Shops to be extended
Bellamy's of Oxford Ltd have been granted planning permission for their second application relating to the Sobell House and Jem-i-ni shops at 119/121 London Road. The existing single- and two-storey extensions will be demolished and replaced with a two-storey rear extensions to provide enlarged ground floor retail space, and the subdivision of the extended first floor along with the second floor to provide 4 flats.
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End of Smart's fish & chips
Planning permission has been granted for the replacement
of the former Smart's Fish & Chip takeaway at 81 London
Road with a four-storey building comprising a Class A3 (café)
unit on the ground floor, and three flats over the first,
second, and third floors.
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City Council election results 2008
One seat on each of the six wards in the North-East area committee was contested at the local election on 1 May.
Four out of six councillors stood for re-election, but three of them lost their seats to Labour (which will form a minority administration in Oxford as there is no overall control):
- Churchill: Claire Kent (IWCA) lost to Mark Lygo (Labour)
- Marston: Caroline Van Zyl (LibDem) lost to Beverley Hazell (Labour)
- Quarry & Risinghurst: Tia MacGregor (Conservative, formerly LibDem) lost to Laurence Baxter (Labour)
- Barton & Sandhills: Patrick Murray held seat for LibDems, winning by four votes
In the following two wards, the party remained the same but the councillor changed following the resignation of Stephen Tall and Tony Gray:
John Goddard resigned as leader of the LibDem group on the city council, and was succeeded by Headington city councillor David Rundle.
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Brookes and its masterplan
The masterplan submitted by Brookes to Oxford City Council
in March was discussed by the Strategic Development Committee
on 26 September. Planning officers welcomed the plan,
but raised concerns about the scale of the new buildings and
their relation to listed structures. The masterplan is only
a consultation document: Brookes hopes to submit full planning
applications later this year.
The demolition of the Darcy building on 13 August marked
the first stage of the proposed multi-million pound redevelopment
of Brookes's Headington campus.
A public consultation on various proposals was held in February,
to which 66 Headington residents (not including Brookes staff
and students) responded. They preferred the option that included
(1) replacing the large Darcy building with a new public square
facing on to the Headington Road, where buses could to pull
off the main road, leading on to a courtyard with shared student/community
facilities (such as shops, cafés, library); and (2)
replacing the Helena Kennedy building with a series of buildings
with spaces for graduations, large conferences, and live concert
performances.
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Café applies for outdoor tables
The Café Bonjour in Holyoake Hall has applied for
planning permission to use the pavement as an outdoor seating
area.
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New cycle track to NOC
Work on a new cycle route to the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre
through the former children's playground at the south end
of Gardiner Street is now underway.
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Plan for house
A planning application d to demolish the existing warehouse/store
behind 72A Windmill Road (the former Richard Ford secondhand
shop) and to erect a detached 3/4 bed dwelling fronting Norton
Close has been approved.
A former application to erect a two- and single-storey building
comprising 3 x one-bed flats was rejected.
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Cuckoo Lane
Contractors widened Cuckoo Lane westwards from Woodlands
Road on 9 July 2007. The new road is a temporary one to aid current
building works at Rye St Antony School.
The school was granted planning permission in February 2007
for a new sports hall.
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Former sorting office
Work is well under way on the site of the former sorting office
in Lime Walk. The frontage building has been demolished, and
a three-storey building to accommodate 7×one-bedroom flats
will be erected.
The remaining two-storey building will be converted into
2×one-bedroom flats, while the existing single-storey building
at the rear will be altered to form three floors of commercial
workspace.
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Residents' parking
The Parking & Payments shop is now at Speedwell House in Speedwell Street and is
run by the county rather than the city council.
The county council agreed to start charging residents for
parking permits in Controlled Parking Zones when permits came
up for renewal in 2007/8, but much of Headington escaped paying
for a year as the Parking & Payments shop was not ready
in time. Costs per household are now as follows:
• The first two residents' permits will each cost £40 a year, the third £80 and the
fourth or more £120 each
• The first 25 visitors' permits will be free, with extra ones costing 60p each (except for
people over 70).
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