Dorset House is soon to open its doors to its first intake of students, with the first arrivals expected next week. We look forward to welcoming them to Headington. The building was handed over last Friday.  The ‘house in the corner’ is not part of the student accommodation and there are on-going conversations about whether or not it should be incorporated into the site in some form.

We have already met CRM staff on the site and have put them in contact with a number of local residents’ groups and managers of nearby residential accommodation blocks, local businesses and external agencies including police, churches, etc.

There will be 313 students in all, only one will have a car and that is because that student is disabled.  Many of the incoming students are international students which will make for a cosmopolitan environment, and will also mean that many will arrive by public transport.

The postgraduate students and final year students’ accommodation is nearest local residents in Latimer Grange, and the Year 1 and younger students will have rooms at the London Road end of the site.

There is an accommodation manager and her deputy, plus a team of 4 student wardens who are being recruited today.

Anyone with concerns about noise nuisance (and we hope these will be few) should ring the duty warden number. We shall publicise this number when we have it. If there is any problem in getting the noise nuisance dealt with, then the complaint should be escalated to the Accommodation Manager Emily Wright who works on-site full-time during office hours.

Emily is going to attend our next Ward Focus meeting at William Osler House, Osler Road on Tuesday 16 October from 6.00-8.00 pm and will give a short talk to ward residents about how Dorset House is managed. As always we invite you to come along and ask questions!