Oxford Clarion

This week’s top stories Oxfordshire County Council elections will take place as planned in May. This week Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner announced a number of counties where unitary authorities would be set up, requiring postponement of elections, and also named the first overarching ‘strategic authorities’ grouping several counties.

Rail industry documents passed to the Oxford Clarion show that the Government will need to overrule Network Rail if the Botley Road work is to finish before June 2026. The road was originally closed in April 2023, and was set to reopen in October 2024. But the discovery of a

Charles de Gaulle famously asked “How can you govern a country which has 246 varieties of cheese?” Keir Starmer is asking how you can govern a country with 246 varieties of local council. France has 18 régions, which in turn are divided into départements, 101 in all. Add a few

This week's top stories Will the Government’s announcement of more special needs funding fix Oxfordshire’s SEND crisis? We took a detailed look this week. Spoiler: it’s rather more complex than the headlines might imply – pointing up the difference between revenue (ongoing) funding for support staff

In a city where every scrap of land is sought for much-needed housing, it scarcely seems believable that a 2,000m² site just outside the centre has been sitting derelict for 18 years. Even more so when that site has a history stretching back 180 years and is located in