Thanks to Waitrose for taking up a request we forwarded for making spent coffee grounds available for use on gardens and allotments. The manager writes:
After your email I asked the question and we went to visit Wantage to see how they displayed their grounds. We are in the early stages of doing something similar in Headington, we’re not quite at the finished article yet but have begun the process of making the grounds available.
Here is an article that can tell you more…
The licensing application submitted by Waitrose has been approved.
Please click on Licensing applications in the central orange toolbar for details
We have been informed that the developers have allocated an area for
disabled parking and can also confirm that they have cross hatched four
bays, allowing traffic to flow more freely around the car park.
We are waiting for an instruction to confirm that it is possible to remove a
section of the car park wall to allow access onto the footpath.
The disabled parking could then be relocated
over to that area so customers with walking difficulties will have a
shorter distance to walk to gain access to Headington.
Over the last couple of days council officers have indicated that the general
situation does seem to be improving. This seems to be confirmed by a
reduction in complaints. Officers will be visiting the site again next
week to check on the progress made, and update us on developments
David and I are being updated several times a day on the situation with regard to the Old High Street (Waitrose) car park.
Signage is going up over the weekend which will help a great deal as motorists get to grips with the temporary relocation of disabled parking spaces and the recycling bins are moved to a temporary location. Officers have requested that Waitrose creates disabled access at the entrance to the car park, albeit temporarily until the usual disabled car park spaces are back in operation after the refit.
Many of the bulkiest delivery vehicles have now departed, the heaviest of these were delivering materials to construct and fill the compound near the store
A complaint was made by a resident that some of the contractors were parking in the car park spaces but were not displaying permits. This was investigated and it was established that the builders doing this had paid by the Ring Go system, so payment for parking had indeed been made although a paper ticket was not displayed. We have requested that the number of car park spaces is monitored closely over the period of the refit; we are aware that three cars were queuing for places on Friday lunchtime at a busy period when some extra car park spaces were coned off temporarily to allow turning space for the larger lorries.
The City Officer responsible for liaising with Waitrose over the development is Andrew Bradfield-Barnes: he is away for a week’s holiday after Easter but if you have any concerns, please contact either David or myself, or Andrew’s deputy Jason Munro who is working on the Easter bank holiday weekend and all of next week. His office number is 01865 252489 and his email is jmunro@oxford.gov.uk.
Please copy David and myself into any emails you send Jason as we want to ensure that all complaints and concerns are receiving prompt attention, our email addresses are:
It was good to see so many people at the exhibition on Saturday morning! If you haven’t yet seen the County Council’s plans for upgrading the London Road, please click on this link
If you haven’t yet submitted comments/feedback on the new scheme, please do so online here
Please note: you will need to click on Next to complete the feedback form. David and I are very keen that everyone fills this in. Among the concerns that were brought to my attention on Saturday were the lack of attention given to cyclists, the narrowing of Old High Street at its junction with London Road in respect of the advent of Waitrose, safety concerns about the London Road/Windmill Road junction, and the removal of the subway at a cost of tens of thousands of pounds. People were also concerned about the lack of planting in London Road
David and I have had a meeting with the officer in charge of car parks in the City to discuss the future of the Old High Street car park with the advent of Waitrose. Many people have mentioned that they think there will be a pressure on parking places once the new Waitrose store opens in May
We have flagged up a number of issues which include the need for improved lighting, the provision of a shelter over the ticket machines, the location of recycling bins, access and egress from the car park by motorists and by pedestrians, and the provision of cycling racks.
It became clear that some of these issues relate to phase 2 of the London Road redevelopment, and lighting can also be an issue for consideration by the Crime Prevention team. To this end, David is organising a bigger meeting which will include relevant stakeholders e.g. County transport planners
We should like the main entrance to the car park to be re-modelled at some point, but it looks as though this would require capital funding. Capital funding has been cut drastically this financial year so prospects of this are not great.
The car parks officer confirmed that blue badge owners will continue to park free for four hours in any 24 hour period.