Highfield/Old Road roadworks start 26 September

The County Council is carrying out carriageway and pedestrian footway upgrades from 26 September – 4 December in the following locations:

Old Road, The Slade, Windmill Road, Lime Walk, Latimer Road, All Saints Road, Highfield Avenue, Finch Close, Valentia Road, Stapleton Road, Bickerton Road, Horspath Driftway, Girdlestone Road, Dene Road and Cinnaminta Road

Traffic Management during the road works

In order to carry out the works safely and efficiently, a number of road closures are required.

These will be individually noticed on site and county officers will write to those more locally and directly affected by them prior to these closures.

The closures will be in operation on a full-time basis whilst those local works are being completed and diversion routes will be signed.

At other locations, works will be undertaken within temporary traffic signals in place.

David and I have received a couple of complaints that some affected residents have not been notified, please let us know if this is not the case

Business Headington wins well-deserved award!

Congratulations to Business Headington and partners for winning a bronze award  in the Best Small Commercial Display section of Oxford in Bloom.

This is a great achievement, and we’re grateful to those who have contributed and also to Headington Action for being prepared to underwrite any shortfall of funding (not required in the end!) Many Headington residents have told David and me how much they enjoy the wonderful hanging basket displays. Thanks everyone!

Barton Area Action Plan

Officers have sent us an update on the Barton Area Action Plan.

The key thing to note is that the next stage of public consultation (on the AAP Proposed Submission – the document that sets out the Council’s draft planning policies) will take place early in 2012, rather than between early November and mid-December 2011. The reason for this is that there is still some important technical work on transport and drainage to complete.

A meeting of the Barton and Northway Working Group will be arranged soon when council officers can feed back the results from the latest public consultation.

Your views count! PCSO patrol patterns

A resident asked why PCSOs patrol in pairs at our last Headington Ward Focus meeting, and Ruth agreed to find out from our Neighbourhood Sergeant.

Sergeant Claire Grant has discussed this with Neighbourhood Inspector Marc Tarbit and they have made the decision that until 2100hrs the PCSOs should be single crewed (unless an operational reason necessitates them working together) as it makes sense to increase the visibility on the area as much as they can.

It’s good to know that our Neighbourhood team is responsive to the questions you ask. Don’t forget that you are always welcome to make suggestions for service improvements at our ward meetings; we promise to listen to what you tell us, and we do our best to take forward and resolve the issues you raise.

Bring back our humps!

Several residents have told us how disappointed they are that the carriageway repairs in Dunstan Road have resulted in smaller road humps which will have a much lessened impact on traffic calming. It’s really important that traffic isn’t going too fast before it tackles the bends near the parish hall and the church.

David and Ruth are asking the highways engineers to take another look at these ‘improvements’ to see if the newly resurfaced road humps can be built up and made more effective

What do YOU think about the new road humps? Drop us a line if you have a view or press the comment link and post us your feedback

Manor Ground development has the all clear!

Planning permission for the 27 affordable housing units at the Manor Ground has now finally been issued today. This means that all necessary paperwork has been completed, and construction can now go ahead

Construction traffic will enter the site from London Road and exit the site via Osler Road, As soon as we have the start date confirmed by Green Square, we’ll let you know

Outcome of hearing on 29 Old High Street

The appeal hearing requested by the owner of property at 29 Old High Street took place last Friday. An earlier ruling by the Magistrates Court upheld the Council’s decision to serve a section 215 notice on the owner to ‘tidy up’ the property.

The owner appealed against the decision of the Magistrates Court but the Judge upheld the ruling that the notice should be served. She also ordered the owner to pay £2,000 costs in addition to the £1,600 awarded to the Council in the earlier case. The owner now has  6 months to tidy up the property in the way the Notice sets out.

This comes as a great relief to those living in the neighbourhood of what must have been at one time a most attractive house in the Old Headington conservation area. We hope that the necessary repairs will be effected as soon as possible now that the court case has been resolved.


Date for official opening of Bury Knowle Park play area

The formal opening ceremony for the play area is going to be on Friday 23rd September from 3.30- 4pm.  This was delayed until the children were back at school so that they can be involved, and there are a couple of extra items about to be added!

Jamie Murray and the Groundwork Team are to be congratulated on their imaginative planning, and have made the grant money stretch as far as possible!

Venue announced for next Ward Focus meeting!

The next Headington Ward Focus meeting will take place in Lecture Theatre 1 at the John Radcliffe Hospital on Tuesday 18 October from 6.00 – 8.00 pm.

We shall be talking about planning in Headington, a timely issue following the decision made by the Planning Review Committee on the Oxford University development in Old Road on 31st August

There will be more announcements soon, but put the date in your diary now and come early to get a good seat!