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Clarion Weekend, 13 November 2026

Clarion Weekend, 13 November 2026
Autumnal views of Oxford, from the Salter’s Steamers fleet. (Photo by Roger Close.)

Happy Friday 13th! Sometimes we have weeks where almost everything is a top story: Botley West, MOD Bicester, and Nathan Cofnas. But we also have Greggs news, restoring a former Boatman's Chapel, and the very best events and indie media across the county. Your essential weekend reading starts here.

This week’s top stories

Plans for a giant solar farm north-west of Oxford, Botley West Solar Farm, have been refused by the Government. The decision had been postponed twice. PhotoVolt Development Partners, working with the Blenheim Estate, planned an 840MW solar farm which they said would power 330,000 homes.

The 118-page Government letter said it was refusing permission due to “substantial harm to the Green Belt and harm to a number of heritage assets, including Blenheim Palace; adverse effects in relation to landscape and visual amenity; and adverse impacts on aviation safety [i.e. Oxford Airport near Kidlington]”.

Botley West’s Mark Owen-Lloyd said he was “extremely disappointed and surprised”.

“We continue to believe that there is a compelling case for Botley West, based on the project’s merits and its potential to deliver significant benefits for Oxfordshire, while contributing to the UK’s energy security and clean energy ambitions. We will now carefully consider the reasons for the decision and assess all available options. The Secretary of State set out in her decision letter what items needed to be fixed: we are looking at those changes and will decide on a course of action in the coming days, as well as seeking the advice of counsel on whether a judicial review application should be made.”

District councils, MPs and councillors have fallen over themselves to issue statements welcoming the decision. Marcus Gilleard, director of countryside charity CPRE Oxfordshire, said:

“We thank the Secretary of State for recognising that climate action need not mean sacrificing our irreplaceable countryside at any cost. There is huge, untapped potential in solar panels on homes, community buildings, warehouses, and car park canopies – and there’s a clear role for small-scale, community-led solar farms. But with two other mega solar farms hot on the heels of Botley West, we are not out of the woods in Oxfordshire. Until the Government can come up with a clear spatial energy plan, setting out the necessary scale and siting of solar farms, we‘re calling for a moratorium on those over 30MW.”

We wrote about Botley West’s proposal back in 2025. (Readers may also be interested in a recent piece by Cllr Nathan Ley arguing that roofs won’t be enough.)

Cecil Rhodes x Led By Donkeys. Photo by Roger Close.

49 academics at the college hosting self-styled “race realist” Nathan Cofnas’s talk say his beliefs are “racist, abhorrent and without scientific foundation”. The university Reform UK society has invited Cofnas to speak on Tuesday, at a room in Oriel College.

In an open letter, Oriel fellows write that “we believe it is essential to challenge ideas that perpetuate racial prejudice and undermine the dignity and belonging of members of our community”. Student representative body, the Conference of Common Rooms, added that “it is the responsibility of all of us to make Oxford inclusive and to speak up against racism”. An organic response across Oxford University has seen academics organise events of their own that oppose Cofnas’ premise, including a talk on “celebrating the Centrality of Black Scholarship” and “Progress and pushback: the contested future of equality”. (Admission is restricted to those with a university email address.)

Then yesterday, media provocateurs Led By Donkeys decorated the statue of Cecil Rhodes on Oriel with a Ku Klux Klan hood and the sign ‘Racists Welcome Here’, arriving in the small hours with a cherry-picker. (The hood and sign were removed later that day.) We recapped the story in a long read earlier this week.

Oxford says no to Nathan Cofnas
One late-30s academic addressing a small gathering in a college wouldn’t usually provoke acres of coverage. But Nathan Cofnas – controversialist, researcher and advocate of ‘scientific racism’ – is someone who courts the spotlight. Nathan Cofnas first came to Oxford as an DPhil student in philosophy at Balliol College, submitting his
Oxford ClarionOxford Clarion

The Government has given permission for its own plans to open an asylum centre at MOD Bicester. The plans, which were fast-tracked through the rarely used Urgent Crown Development Application process, have been strongly opposed by residents. Calum Miller, MP for Bicester & Woodstock, said:

“I am deeply disappointed. The Government's own assessment accepts that problems with transport, community cohesion and pressure on local services will remain. The NHS has warned that nearby GP practices have no spare capacity, while crucial details of site access and sewage disposal have been left for later approval. The Government acknowledges there is asbestos and unexploded ordnance on the site but, amazingly, thinks it can manage this safely. It is the wrong plan and the wrong site.”

Contractor Reds10 has been awarded a £1.2m design contract to draw up plans for the centre. Miller estimates that the total cost could top £250m, while Police & Crime Commissioner Matthew Barber says the policing bill alone will be £1.7m each year.

Meanwhile, the presence of a far-right group at a ‘Bicester Says No’ march on the eve of Remembrance Sunday has been condemned by Cherwell councillors. A cross-party letter from the Labour, LibDem and Green groups called out local Reform UK councillor, Cllr Michael Wilson, for marching alongside Patriotic Alternative: they said his explanation was “trivialising and dismissive”.

Patriotic Alternative members have been linked to the 2024 Southport riots and advocating racial hatred. Cllr Rebecca Biegel (Lab) said “A councillor may not reasonably be expected to anticipate which groups may join a protest, but once they are aware, they have a duty to act.” Campaigner Claire Brenner (Green) added: “The vast majority of Bicester residents who did attend the march will be horrified to learn what these awful people stand for and will want reassuring that organisers will not let groups like this march in Bicester again.”

20mph limits are saving lives in Oxfordshire, new figures suggest. Oxfordshire County Council’s highways director, Paul Fermer, appeared before MPs on the Transport Select Committee this week as part of their inquiry into the Government’s Road Safety Strategy.

He spoke of how Oxfordshire’s 20mph speed limit programme had reduced casualties, aspirations to reduce casualties further, and how these needed both funding for council road safety teams and police enforcement: “Initial council findings suggest that there has been a 30.3% decrease in casualties, and a 43.8% decrease in people being killed or seriously injured from before implementation in monitored 20mph zones.”

Cllr Gareth Epps (LibDem) said: “We are proud of the progress being made in Oxfordshire. With the right national support, we can go further and help more communities benefit from safer roads.”

Around the city

  • Speeding vehicles and bad parking are the two top problems identified by Oxford residents, in a survey carried out by the City Council. 61% of respondents said speeding was an issue in their local area, and 57% cited cars parked inconveniently, dangerously or illegally.
         Conversely, public transport was named as the number one reason Oxford was a “good place to live”, followed by parks and open spaces, the level of crime, clean streets, and cycling/walking infrastructure. 48% of respondents thought that Oxford’s economy was “really thriving“ or ”on the way up”.
         Overall, 77% said their area was a good place to live, and 61% were satisfied with the City Council. Leader Cllr Susan Brown said: “I am pleased that, overall, residents are satisfied. But we need more homes that people can afford, the infrastructure to support them and more secure, well-paid jobs.”
  • The former piano shop on Botley Road could become a charity shop and cafe. A planning application lodged with Oxford City Council applies to convert the former Courtney Pianos shop and workshop into a charity shop, cafe and community hub.
  • The reincarnation of the Covered Market cake shop opens tomorrow. The shop will be at 3 Golden Cross, the Cornmarket entrance to the Market. The Heritage Bakery of Wantage, who own the shop, have meanwhile announced the closure of their wholesale bakery operations, saying “rising ingredient and operating costs, together with ongoing challenges in recruiting and retaining experienced bakery staff, have made it increasingly difficult to operate sustainably”.
  • The Greggs giveth and the Greggs taketh away. We reported last week on the opening of a new Greggs on the Cowley Road (try the Festive Bake); this week a sign in the window of Greggs Cornmarket proclaims its closure, making your nearest Greggs the station, Cowley Road, or Headington.
  • Holy Trinity at Headington Quarry, the former church of author CS Lewis, is hosting a weekend of events celebrating the life and work of the late author, on 21 and 22 November. Events include crafts, workshops, and concerts. Malcolm Guite, a poet, will give a keynote exploring Lewis’ relationship to the mythos of King Arthur, and a special Holy Communion service will take place on the Sunday.
  • OUFC manager Aaron Ramsey was nominated as October’s Manager of the Month for the club’s unbeaten run. The winner, announced today, was Huddersfield Town’s Martin Drury. OUFC are currently third in the league, with a game in hand over their top-six rivals.
  • Oxford hotel magnate Jeremy Mogford, owner of the Old Bank, the Old Parsonage, Gee’s and Quod, is standing trial at Oxford Crown Court for the murder of his 100-year old mother. We don’t do court reporting, but you can follow the case over at BBC Oxford. Jurors were told, according to the BBC, that Mogford messaged his sister on the day of Queen Elizabeth II’s death: “Do you think they will morphine Queenie up like we did?” Mogford denies the charge.
  • The University Church has lodged plans for a new café, after the Vaults & Garden moved out following a long-running dispute. The church says “the size of the kitchen and the contrived layout of the WCs require substantial improvements… there is a need to upgrade working conditions for staff”. The cafe earns income towards the upkeep of the church. The Vaults & Garden is now over the road on King Edward Street.
  • Pioneering pilot from OUH: Oxford University Hospitals has launched a new NHS Blood & Transplant pilot that could increase the number of donated kidneys available for transplantation, by undertaking further evaluation while the kidneys are connected to a machine which circulates oxygenated blood through them. This helps preserve the organ while clinicians carry out additional testing, allowing transplant specialists to make a more informed decision about whether a kidney can be safely transplanted.
The Boatman’s Chapel on Hythe Bridge Street. (Jaggery at geograph.org.uk, CC-BY-SA.)
  • New lab space! Construction has begun at the former Beaver House site and neighbouring properties on Hythe Bridge Street. The scheme will provide approximately 140,000sq ft of flexible laboratory and office accommodation. Alongside the new research facilities, plans include a café, community garden and improved riverside connections, as well as the restoration of the historic Boatman’s Chapel. Built in 1868 to serve the canal community, this Victorian Gothic building acted as a chapel, day school, and night school for local boatmen and their families. Until recently it was occupied by Bangkok House, now relocated over the road.
  • Plans for a digital screen on the St Ebbe’s side of the Westgate have been turned down by city planners. They said its “motion, brightness and changing imagery would draw attention away from the surrounding historic townscape”.
  • A proposed glazed canopy at the White Rabbit, meanwhile, has got planning approval. The new roof for the pizza pub’s outdoor area will have have retractable blinds for windy and rainy days.
  • Has the war in Ukraine has come a step closer to Oxford? Industry sources report that the Mini plant's recent shift cancellations are due to a parts shortage from German supplier Kromberg & Schubert, which has factories in Ukraine attacked by Russia in October. The manufacturer confirmed supply chain challenges, but declined to comment on the scale of the impact on production or which parts that are in short supply.
  • Oxford City Council has activated SWEP, the Severe Weather Emergency Protocol, until Monday morning. Local homelessness agencies will provide extra beds to people experiencing rough sleeping during this weekend's severe winter weather.
Staff at the Porch holding the new coffee.
  • Independent Oxford coffee roasters Missing Bean have launched a limited-edition Christmas coffee in support of homelessness charity The Porch, bringing together two Magdalen Road neighbours. Appropriately named The Torch, the coffee has been created with a simple message: providing light & warmth this winter. The Torch features a carefully selected coffee from Finca Himalaya in El Salvador, produced by Mauricio Salaverria, with festive tasting notes of chocolate orange and cranberry. Each bag also comes with a unique Torch Christmas card, and £1 goes to the Porch. The initiative is Missing Bean's third charity coffee collaboration, following previous partnerships with the UPP and Can We Talk?.
         The Porch provides hot meals, showers, laundry, clothing, IT access and individual support to those experiencing homelessness, recording a 19% increase in meals supplied in 2025.
Credit: Botticelli. Of course.
  • An Old Master painting has returned to the Ashmolean Museum for the first time in 90 years. Botticelli's ‘The Virgin and Child Enthroned’ has been lent by the private Klesch Collection, which bought the painting after the government imposed an export bar. ‘The Virgin and Child Enthroned’ was painted around 1470, early in Botticelli's career, and has been valued at more than £10m. It was bought in Florence in 1904 by Lady Wantage, whose collection also included JMW Turner's 'High Street', now in the Ashmolean.
  • Happy as a pig in… Oxford City Farm are looking for volunteers to join their pig raising programme. Volunteers will do at least one shift a week at 8am or 6pm. Full training is given. The new volunteers and visitors will not see the sheep and goats for a while, though: they're off on their winter holiday, grazing a wildflower meadow in Garsington, and giving the grazing land at Oxford City Farm a chance to recover over the winter. If you're super keen, they're also hiring for paid roles – a fundraising officer, and activity facilitators.

Around the county

  • Alfred the Grit will soon be protecting Oxfordshire again – in the form of a 26-tonne road gritting lorry. Alfred is one of 30 gritters operated by M Group for Oxfordshire County Council to keep roads free from ice when temperatures fall below zero. The 30 gritters are based at Deddington, Drayton and Woodcote, with 55 drivers and 10,000 tonnes of road salt ready. With a full night’s gritting using up to 240 tonnes, that’s enough for most winters (last year used 6,184 tonnes).
         The new fleet of gritters were given Oxfordshire-inspired names last year, including Agatha Gritstie, Sir Roger Ban-ice-ster and Snowdo Baggins. (Spready Mercury and Snow-bi Wan Kenobi are less Oxon, but we’ll let them off.) M Group's Richard Lovewell said: “Our gritter drivers also carry out highway maintenance work during the day. We're proud of the role they play in helping people travel safely in winter.” You can track them here.
  • The Oxford Mail will be helping itself to taxpayers’ money again after Oxfordshire County Council awarded a £1m contract for “public notices”, the antiquated system where council administrivia must be published in the small ads, which nobody reads, of print newspapers, which nobody buys. The three-year contract was given to a London agency which will in turn purchase the advertisements. District councils and individual planning applicants are also required to take out public notices.
  • Pub news: The riverside Broad Face pub in Abingdon reopens today. The pub has had a chequered history in recent years, but the new tenants say they are “here to stay”. The kitchen uses locally sourced ingredients, with meat supplied by Brown’s Traditional Butchers from the town. Meanwhile, in ‘what’s it called this week?’ news, the former Harrow in Enstone, West Oxfordshire, has reopened as the Bull & Buffalo promising “a little taste of America”.
  • Clean air efforts in West Oxfordshire are being widened to the whole district, after the success of efforts to reduce high levels of nitrogen dioxide at two hotspots – Bridge Street in Witney and Horsefair in Chipping Norton. Both towns have now achieved reduced pollution levels, due in part to more people choosing electric and lower-emission vehicles.
  • Five new LLMs (yes, we had the same thought) have been licensed at Christ Church in Oxford. The Licensed Lay Ministers will serve in parishes across the Diocese of Oxford.
  • All I want for Christmas… is tickets to the Blenheim Palace Festival? Mariah Carey, the best selling female artist of all time, joins headliners Shania Twain and David Gray for the series in July. Tickets went on sale at 9am today.

Walking and cycling

  • You shall not pass: Oxford Pedestrians Association, together with National Pensioners Campaign, were on Oxford's Cornmarket and Queen Street on Friday, pointing out to cyclists that cycling is prohibited between 10am and 6pm. The NPC asked people to sign their petition to the County Council "to protect older pedestrians from the dangers of cyclists and e-scooter riders using pavements and pedestrian spaces".
  • Bike shop news: Oxfordshire’s second-hand bike shop, Rick’s Cycles, has moved to a new site in the village of North Leigh, near Witney (on the S7 bus). Rick’s specialises in children’s bikes, and we’re already planning a visit because how do they grow that quickly…

This weekend

  • Christmas Light Festival (free), Fri-Sun, across Oxford. Yes, it's Friday the 13th, which means it's time to turn on the Christmas lights (subs please check) – and see below for our Christmas theatre guide.
  • The Cake Shop Grand Opening (free), Sat, Golden Cross. Back in Oxford!
  • Spirit (£), Sat, Painted Room. Dickens' women in a solo show from the performer of Unversed... and From Chawton.
  • Indie Oxford Christmas Market (free), Sat, Tap Social, Botley. Local independent makers with crafts, food and drink, and more, segueing into Tap Social’s 10th birthday celebrations.
  • Abingdon Funfair & Fireworks (£), Sat, Abingdon Airfield. Missed last weekend's displays, or eager for more? This is apparently the biggest in the UK.
  • Before the Dawn (£), Sat, University Church. Rachmaninoff's All-Night Vigil and a programme of Ukrainian song.
  • Amref Health Africa concert (free/donation), Sun, Wolfson College. Charity piano recital of Schubert, Brahms, and Dvořák.
  • Girlband! (£), Sun 15 Nov, Truck Store. Guitar pop – not to be confused with Girl Group, who played Oxford last month.

This week

  • A People's History of Music (£), Mon, Ultimate Picture Palace. 'All you fascists bound to lose': music and authoritarianism across the world.
  • Bach at New College (£), Mon, The New Space (Mansfield Road). A programme for 'lovers of the keyboard' (harpsichordists, not our Bluesky commenters).
  • Holocaust Poems and Echoes (free), Mon, Trinity College. Holocaust survivor and international law judge Theodor Meron launches two collections.
  • An Evening with Nathan Cofnas (free), Tue, Oriel Square.
  • Goblin Band (£), Tue, Fusion Arts. Alternative/trad folk quartet with solo support from Spitzer Space Telescope.
  • Culture Vultures (£), Tue, Blackwell's. Reclaiming the arts from activism.
  • Where the Sweet Birds Sang (free), Tue, Jacqueline du Pré Music Building. Personal documentary on paraquat and Parkinson's.
  • Our Place in Space (free), Tue, St John's College. Professor of astrophysics Katherine Blundell explores the cosmos.
  • A Hundred Strings (£), Wed, Holywell Music Room. Sitar, santoor, and tabla.
  • The New Gospel (£), Thu, Schwarzman Centre. Docudrama reimagining the Passion as the story of migrant workers in southern Italy.
  • Fuse (free), Thu, St John's College. Electroacoustic performance from cyborg musician Kari Watson.

Alice and Clara.

Christmas shows

Coming soon

  • Next weekend: Trans Day of Remembrance, Victorian Plays on Renters’ Rights at the Old Fire Station, Welsh National Opera at the New Theatre, Instruments of Time & Truth at the University Church.

Oxfordshire’s independent media

Notes from Clarion HQ

Sometimes our volunteers are asked how we find the time to put the Clarion together. Truth is we’re not quite sure, and this week the editors, such as we are (we’re kind of an autonomous collective…), would like to thank the entire volunteer team for the hell of a team effort it's taken to report the news on top of day jobs. This week brought you the usual writing while the kids are asleep, but also writing from sick beds, emergency requests to “just nip and take a picture of a statue, something has happened” and posts from the floor of trains.

Thank you for being here and sticking with us through the whirlwind. If you're one of the many new subscribers that found us this week, you're very welcome. Tell your friends. And because we could all do with something calming, do have a picture of (we're not allowed to have favourites but…) our favourite feline, Magdalen’s enormokitten, Ozymandias.

Photo via Magdalen President, Dinah Rose.