Up and coming events in Oxford

  • Sunday 9 October, Oxford Half Marathon, Route through the city centre starting at Broad Street, 9am to 2pm. Oxford will welcome thousands of runners over race weekend for what promises to be a very special day! The Race Village will be in University Parks. www.oxfordhalf.co.uk
  • Thursday 13 October 2016, Circus Starr, South Park, 4.45pm to 6.15pm and 7pm to 8.30 pm. Circus Starr is a touring circus boasting world-class, professional artists from across the globe. It provides free seats for disadvantaged, disabled or vulnerable children, whilst helping to raise much needed funds for local charities. www.circus-starr.org.uk
  • Saturday 15 October, The City of Oxford College Open Events Promotion, 9am to 12.30pm. http://www.cityofoxford.ac.uk/
  • Saturday 15 October, Chiltern League Cross Country – Round 1 2016, Horspath Road Rec Ground and Shotover Country Park, 7am to 5pm. Cross country running races organised by the Oxford City Athletic Club. www.oxfordcityathleticclub.com
  • Sunday 16 October, Oxford Food and Drink Festival, City Centre with a trail from Gloucester Green to The Covered Market via St Michael’s and Cornmarket St, 11 am to 4 pm. Celebrating the best of Oxfordshire with stalls for food and drink, retail, samples, food demonstrations, recycling, sustainability, twinning activities and live music.www.oxfoodfest.com
  • Sunday 16 October, Walk for Parkinson’s – Oxford Walk 2016, route across Oxford starting at Cherwell School, 9.30am to 4pm. This is a walk to raise money for Parkinson’s UK with three routes to choose from – 1.3 mile, 4 mile or 8 mile.www.parkinsons.org.uk/walkoxford
  • Monday 17 to Sunday 23 October, Sukkot Celebration – Festival of Booths, Broad Street, 8am to 6pm. A Sukkah will be placed on Broad Street in celebration of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot – Festival of Booths. It will be used as a place for Jewish students and visitors as well as the general public who would be interesting to visit and celebrate the holiday. www.oxfordchabad.org
  • Sunday 23 October, Oxford University Cross Country Cuppers, South Park, 10am to 2pm. Two cross country races with approximately 100 competitors in total as part of the university intercollegiate cross country league. www.ouccc.org.uk
  • Monday 24 October, Oxfordshire Mind Wellbeing Roadshow, Broad Street, 9.45am to 3.15pm. To share simple messages about looking after our mental wellbeing.www.oxfordshiremind.org.uk

Parking bays to be re-painted

Following fierce lobbying by councillors over non-enforceability, the County Council has found the money to re-paint parking bays and double yellow lines in Bickerton Road and Stapleton Road

  • signs for “no parking” will appear next week
  • the work will be done in sections to maintain some parking in each of the roads
  • the work is likely to take 3 days
  • the work is scheduled for 3rd-5th October

It’s good to know that this will be done before the energy pipe works in adjacent roads.

Public exhibitions of Access to Headington Plans

There will be three opportunities for those who live, work and study in Headington to see the plans for the first set of roadworks and discuss them with the transport planner:

  • at the Headington Ward Focus Meeting on Tuesday 27 September from 6:00-7:30 at Headington Prep School Theatre, 26 London Road.
  • at the Cheney School Community Centre  on Friday 30 September between 4pm and 7.30pm
  • at the Cheney School Community Centre on Saturday 1 October between 10am and 1pm

The County Council expects work to begin on the first phase on Monday 17 October 2016 at the Old Road, Roosevelt Drive, Warneford Lane and Gipsy Lane junction. Traffic in this location will be managed under four-way traffic lights and there will be some evening and overnight road closures. Noise disruption will be kept to a minimum after 11pm. It will provide additional information closer to the time.

You can see the plans here at www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/accessheadington

Visitor permits link for those affected by energy pipe works

The link is now live on the County’s website for those people wishing to request visitors permits in advance of energy pipe work outside their houses. You can find it here

You will be prompted to choose which CPZ area you would prefer.

HE covers Central Headington from Lime Walk  – New High Street and all points east

HB covers Highfield – Latimer Road and Stapleton Road and all points west

HA covers the area north of London Road around the Sandfield Road area

Your application will go straight to the County Parking Team in Kidlington where a dedicated member of staff will be able to help you and fast track your visitor permits back to you. Information to this effect will be included in a leaflet posted through your letterbox two weeks ahead of the works.

We have made sure that the change of pipe route has been taken into account.

We expect details of timings of each phase of the works to be published next week – this has had to be revised following publication of the Access to Headington works phase 1 in Roosevelt Drive

Queen Street consultation

The County Council’s consultation on the traffic regulation orders and new zebra crossings in Queen Street can be found here

Oxfordshire County Council proposes to improve the Queen Street area in central Oxford by:

  • Prohibiting buses from accessing and driving through it. This would in effect make the street – similar to Cornmarket,
  • Permitting cyclists to travel along Queen Street in both directions at all times of day, for a trial period of 18 months. Currently cycling is banned between 10am and 6pm,
  • No changes are proposed to access for delivery vehicles, which would continue to be permitted between 6pm and 10am,
  • Taxis would continue to utilise the existing rank at Carfax, but with slightly different access arrangements and with changes to the operational hours of the rank. Proposals are for access to be from High Street/St Aldates end only and turning at a point adjacent to the Clarendon Centre. Permitted hours for this arrangement are proposed as 9pm to 6am and again this will be on a trial period of 18 months.
  • A new junction arrangement (replacing the traffic signals with a mini roundabout) at Worcester Street/Park End Street to facilitate the proposed changes by allowing buses to easily turn.

More consultation documents are available on the above web page which address the provision of alternative arrangements for pedal-cycles, buses, taxis, and private hire vehicles

As detailed on the notice, any objections or other representations on the proposal should be submitted by Friday 14th October 2016.

Access to Headington

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We have asked the County Council to update its Access to Headington website to show plans that were displayed at the Old Road Campus today. These show phase 1: works to the Roosevelt Drive Campus which are likely to take place from 17th October 2016 – the end of February 2017.

We have also requested that the County Council updates a special web page devoted to roadworks and road closures in Headington associated with both Access to Headington and the energy pipe works so that people can see at a glance which routes are useable.

We were not notified of the Old Road meeting until a resident brought it to our attention. We have asked when the public will be notified of future exhibitions and it seems that two are being arranged currently:

  • Headington Ward Focus meeting at Headington Prep School, 26 London Road on Tuesday 27 September from 6:00-7:30
  • another  venue possibly around the Cheney School area within the next two weeks, venue to be confirmed

The display boards were for the Roosevelt Drive and Old Road area works only.

We have given details of residents’ groups to Skanska so that communication can be enhanced.

It appears that minor tweaks may still be made following resident comment at these events, and we are hopeful that two parking spaces proposed immediately before the junction of York Road with Margaret Road will be dropped because of on-going safety concerns

Roz, Altaf and Ruth will attend a councillors’  meeting at County Hall on 28th September for a briefing on the Access to Headington scheme.

 

 

Christmas closures published for City Council

Christmas closures: Oxford City Council services 

Day Date Open Close
Friday 23/12/2017 Normal 16:00
Saturday 24/12/2017 Closed
Sunday 25/12/2017 Closed
Monday 26/12/2017 Bank Holiday – Closed
Tuesday 27/12/2017 Bank Holiday – Closed
Wednesday 28/12/2017 Normal Normal
Thursday 29/12/2017 Normal Normal
Friday 30/12/2017 Normal 16:00
Saturday 31/12/2017 Closed
Sunday 01/01/2018 Closed
Monday 02/01/2018 Bank Holiday – Closed