Clarion Weekend, 2 October 2026

Murals reMastered at the Westgate, a collaboration with National Gallery and Global Street Art.

There’s nothing the Clarion likes more than new cycling routes, and this week Oxfordshire delivered. Plus new houses, political goings-on, brilliant Bicester kids, and the latest in the OUFC stadium saga.

This week’s long reads

The Oxford Preservation Trust has announced the shortlist for its 2026 awards – from the oldest continually inhabited building in England, via iconic college gates, to modern sculpture and fabulous new eco-homes. We take a look in a long read. See how many you recognise!

This week’s top stories

Plans have been unveiled for a network of cycle routes linking nearby towns and villages to Oxford, backed by county and city councils – and, unusually, the University of Oxford. The Oxford Greenways would connect 200,000 residents to the city on traffic-free paths.

16 routes link Oxford with towns including Abingdon, Eynsham, Woodstock and Kidlington. In addition, a new route would cross the city on the Thames floodplain, following the existing informal Electric Road path. The Greenways could be funded by developers or by Government.

At a public launch on Wednesday, university Pro-Vice Chancellor Mark E Smith said that the Greenways were crucial to retaining Oxford’s competitiveness as a research institution. In a long read, we look at the thinking behind the network – and the challenges it faces.

Guards on newly nationalised Chiltern Railways have voted to go on strike, in the latest in the long-running row over East West Rail trains from Oxford to Milton Keynes. As first reported by the Clarion over a year ago, the RMT’s objections have halted the start of Oxford–Milton Keynes services since the line was completed in 2024.

RMT members will strike on Saturday 10 and 17 October over “the safety critical role of the second person on board EWR services”. The strike will affect the locomotive-hauled ‘Explorer’ trains from Banbury and Bicester to Marylebone which run with (newly recruited) guards, as well as services north of Banbury. Chiltern services from Oxford already run without guards (aka train managers) and will not be affected.

RMT general secretary Eddie Dempsey said that driver-only operation “represented a significant risk to safety and the current Train Manager roles”. However, Chiltern Railways says it will run a near-normal train service despite the strike. A small number of branch line trains to Stratford-on-Avon will not run, and one return trip from Marylebone will be curtailed at Banbury rather than Birmingham.

The site; a narrow section of the cycle route; a possible alternative via the river bridge.

150 new houses are proposed for Sandford-on-Thames, on the southern edge of Oxford – but getting there by bike will mean waiting at four light-controlled crossings within 400m, dismounting on a narrow section of pavement, and crossing the fast and busy entrance to Heyford Hill Sainsbury’s.

The site sits between the A4074, Heyford Hill Lane and Cowley Branch Line. Developers Rainier position it as “a sensitive and logical extension” to Sandford, close to Oxford Science Park and the new Littlemore railway station. A planning application is with South Oxfordshire District Council.

Although the plans mark Heyford Hill Lane as a cycle route, the road is a dead-end and does not currently continue below the river bridge – which would give access to the ring road cycle track and Rose Hill. No extra cycle connectivity is proposed, leaving the A4074 path as the only option.

At a time of heightened tensions, Women Against The Far Right and Oxfordshire Stand Up To Racism will hold a peaceful vigil tomorrow (Saturday) to counter a planned demonstration by the ‘Oxfordshire Patriots’. They say far-right groups are “trying to build on a racist narrative that Black and Asian men pose a greater threat to women and children”, hijacking the suffering of victims of child sexual exploitation in the name of racism.

OSUTR argue that the 2025 National Audit of Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation & Abuse found that Britain's national data is currently inadequate to establish a definitive ethnic profile of offenders. Ethnicity was unknown, or undeclared, for roughly two-thirds of perpetrators. Carol Wing from OSUTR said:

“Racism does not protect children. Effective safeguarding does. Every child who has been groomed, raped or exploited was failed if authorities failed to arrest and punish offenders. Children are failed again when their suffering is turned into a racial weapon. The evidence tells us that sexual abuse is committed by offenders from different backgrounds; anyone genuinely concerned about protecting women and children should demand properly funded safeguarding services and institutions prepared to listen to victims, whoever the perpetrator is.”

The vigil will take place on Saturday 3 October outside Oxford Crown Court from 12 noon.

City councillors have backed a decision to sell 11 New Road, opposite the Westgate Centre, to St Peter’s College – but have asked that the council thinks carefully about how its properties affect the make-up of the city centre.

The city cabinet’s decision to sell the council-owned building was ‘called in’ by Green councillors, after concerns for the future of three current tenants: a newsagents, barbers, and nail bar. (A call-in means that the council’s scrutiny committee is asked to consider the decision, and can send it back for reconsideration.) Cllr Sushila Dhall (Green, Carfax & Jericho) set out her concerns:

“We have lost so many independent businesses. We’ve lost Boswell’s which was much loved and is still regretted. We’ve lost the chemist on St Michael’s Street which was independent and where the pharmacist used to give great advice: that's gone. We're looking to lose Common Ground on Little Clarendon Street should the Wellington Square development go ahead. We've lost the fruit and vegetable stall and the organic butcher in the Covered Market. Blackwells is now owned by a chain. In the city centre, you see the same chains now that you see everywhere in the country.”

She added that these independent businesses served as a “community hub” for locals, and that the tenants had found out about the impending sale through the media. But Cllr Ed Turner (Labour, Rose Hill & Iffley), the cabinet member for finance, said that properties were managed to secure an income for the council.

“Our commercial property portfolio brings in about £13m a year. We could, of course, change the way we manage that: we could say that we want to dial down on the commercial objectives, and bring a savings proposal to our next budget round. We would then work out what community services we're going to reduce, whether we lose some of our advice centres or youth workers – because we'd need to make up the money from somewhere else.

“But if you look at our Covered Market lettings approach, for example, we're really really focused on trying to have small independent businesses there. I am concerned that people have been misinformed by what they’ve read in the papers.”

The committee were told that one of the businesses, currently on an at-will tenancy, had now been offered a five-year lease. After the meeting went into private session to discuss confidential matters, councillors voted to uphold the decision to sell (with one abstention), but asked that another committee should consider how city centre properties are managed. A council officer confirmed that work was already underway on this.

Around the city

Campaign group Friends of Stratfield Brake have announced they intend to lodge another appeal against Oxford United’s new stadium near Kidlington. Their previous application for a judicial review was turned down last week at the High Court; they now intend to appeal against this refusal. FoSB said: “We remain mindful that any legal challenge is an uphill battle. However, we believe the impact of the proposal on the local community, and the potential for damage to the Stratfield Brake woodland, make this a battle worth continuing.”
Plans are being developed for up to 12 new affordable homes on former garages in Blackbird Leys. Funding from the government’s Brownfield Land Release Fund has already enabled the demolition of the garages, and planning permission is being sought. We first reported on this plan in 2024, which gives us an excuse to repost our best article that no one ever read (can you spot the Easter eggs?). #OxfordNeedsHomes
Two local pubs have elbowed their way back into CAMRA’s Good Beer Guide this year. The Chequers on the High returns after dropping out in 2026, while the Red Lion in Northmoor is back after a change of tenancy. 67 Oxfordshire pubs are listed in the guide, of which 24 are in the Oxford branch. The Rose & Crown on North Parade Avenue has scored the most entries, appearing for 34 years on the trot except one (1997).

Christ Church Cathedral Choir (photo by Ian Wallman via Carnegie Hall website); the Carnegie Hall.

A little bit of Oxford is coming to New York on Sunday. The Christ Church Cathedral Choir, who sing in Oxford’s cathedral six times a week, are performing at the Carnegie Hall as the culmination of their US tour. The choir includes choristers as young as nine, as well as professional ‘lay clerks’; the young trebles are educated at Christ Church Cathedral School, across the street from the cathedral, which also provides choristers for Worcester and Pembroke chapel choirs.
2026 is the 500th anniversary of the cathedral choir, founded by Cardinal Wolsey. The New York programme includes two pieces written for the choir: the Westron Wynde Mass by John Taverner, the first Christ Church organist in 1526, and the newly commissioned ‘The Shadow of the Sun’ by contemporary composer Nico Muhly, which takes inspiration from the cathedral windows and ends with a quote from Alice in Wonderland.
The Westgate is to host a recruitment fair on Tuesday, including retail and hospitality jobs alongside technical and operational roles with the centre’s service partners Mitie and CBRE. The Westgate operators say it supported 1,527 jobs and helped 110 people move closer to employment in 2025. The fair will take place from 12pm-3pm on 6th October in the Lower Ground Bar at the Curzon cinema.
High Street games shop Hoyle’s reopened on Thursday after a brief refurbishment timed to take advantage of Oxford's new traffic filters. Countywide bus services stop 100 metres away, while Hoyle's sustainability commitments include bike courier deliveries. (At 9am today, one of our contributors cycled past a queue outside waiting for a 10am Pokemon drop.)
And finally… wondering about our header image? As part of Murals reMastered, a collaboration between the National Gallery and Global Street Art, the side of the Westgate has been adorned with a version of Van Gogh's Sunflowers. It pays homage to Oxford’s botanical history as home to the oldest botanic garden in the UK, the University of Oxford Botanic Garden and Arboretum, founded in 1621. Sunflower-themed activities will take place in the Westgate throughout the weekend.
The mural is the first of the Murals reMastered works to be installed outside of London. Paul Gray, deputy director of the National Gallery, commented: “The National Gallery’s collection truly belongs to the nation, and Murals reMastered allows us to find new and imaginative ways to share it with the country. We hope to spark curiosity, conversation, and connection among audiences who may never have encountered these works before.”

Around the county

42 new homes are proposed for the village of Chilton, just over the A34 from the Harwell Campus. Two previous applications on the same site have been turned down at appeal. Developers Southern Strategic Land call it “a well-considered and comprehensive extension to the existing village”; they argue that, since the previous refusals, a clear shortfall in housing provision has emerged in the Vale of White Horse, and that the recent expansion of Chilton would make the development less out-of-place. The site is within the North Wessex Downs National Landscape (formerly AONB). An application is with Vale of White Horse District Council and has already attracted 15 letters of objection from existing Chilton residents.
Independent and Conservative councillors have formed an alliance on Vale of White Horse District Council – echoing the Conservative-Independent alliance on Oxfordshire County Council. The group’s leader, Cllr Sally Whiteman (Ind, Steventon) said: “With such a massive Liberal Democrat majority, it is vital that residents have an independent-minded team ready to challenge decisions, ask the difficult questions, and speak out whenever the council loses sight of local priorities.”
The four-member group overtakes the three-member Green opposition. Cllr Kat Foxhall (Green, Shrivenham) said: “The Green group at Vale will continue to speak up for our residents, holding the council to account through effective scrutiny that gets real results, and challenge that achieves genuine change rather than point-scoring. We wish the new Con/ex-LibDem group well.”
Meanwhile, two Cherwell district councillors have left the council’s Liberal Democrat group. Jean Conway and Grace Conway-Murray, both councillors for Fringford & Heyfords, now sit as independents.

The Cooper School’s Little Feminist Bookclub review their coverage in the *Times*.

A campaign by a group of Bicester students to ban school uniform in pornographic content has reached the national press and attracted almost 7,000 signatures. The Cooper School’s Little Feminist Bookclub believe children “are being sexualised by the depiction of school-aged identities”. The school says: “We could not be prouder of our inspiring students! These driven young women are calling out the sexualisation of young people, highlighting how the use of school outfits in adult media directly affects how girls are treated in their everyday lives.”
The Oxfordshire Museum in Woodstock has won a Sandford Award for its heritage learning programme. The independently assessed award recognises sites with engaging, inspiring and inclusive learning experiences. Councillor Neil Fawcett, deputy leader of Oxfordshire County Council (who run the museum), said: “This is fantastic recognition for the Oxfordshire Museum and the team who work so hard to make heritage learning engaging, accessible and meaningful for children, young people and families.”
Edward Dowler from Friends of the Oxfordshire Museum said: “We are delighted that the award application was successful, further strengthening the museum’s deserved reputation for high-quality heritage education for children.” Last year, the Museum also won the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom’s Quality Badge. (The Clarion team also like its café.)

The public inquiry into Campsfield Immigration Removal Centre expansion, due to begin on Tuesday, has been postponed. The Coalition to Close Campsfield say this follows a letter from lawyers acting on their behalf, requesting that the Home Office publish more information: large parts of the Government material supporting the application had been withheld or redacted.
CCC argue that this public inquiry will be a landmark moment in detention policy, with more decisions being made by the relatively untested Crown Development process. The inquiry into the Campsfield expansion is therefore, they say, the first occasion where the Home Office’s argument for many more detention spaces will be publicly scrutinised and tested.
People who smoke in Oxfordshire are being encouraged to take part in Stoptober and make use of free local support, as the county prepares for a national change designed to help protect future generations from the harms caused by smoking. From 1 January 2027, it will be illegal to sell tobacco products to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009. The age of sale will then rise by one year, every year, creating the UK’s first smoke-free generation. Around 7.5% of adults in Oxfordshire smoked in 2024, and evidence shows that smokers who get the right support are three times as likely to quit successfully.
Cllr Kate Gregory, for Oxfordshire County Council, said: “While Oxfordshire’s smoking rates remain below the national average, around 50,000 adults smoke. We would like to support them to quit, just as 2,000 people did last year in the county. Quitting is not always easy, and no one should feel they have to do it alone. Stoptober is a positive opportunity to try stopping, with free, confidential and practical support.”

Walking and cycling

Opening the new bike shelter at Earth Trust.

Earth Trust, the environmental charity based at Wittenham Clumps, has installed three new cycle shelters with green roofs – and one with e-bike charging. The facilities are part of a wider push to improve sustainable transport to and around the site: the Trust’s Gateway to Nature project will see new waymarked walking routes, a visitor café, nature play, and improved access and visitor facilities.
Oxfordshire Fire & Rescue Service are collecting children's bikes, to support local school bike libraries, on 10 October from 10am-12pm at the Slade Park Fire Station. Donated bikes will go to bike libraries at St Francis, St Ebbe's and St Frideswide primary schools.

A new circular bench has been installed in East Oxford at the junction of St Mary’s Road and Leopold Street, following a similar bench near the Co-op in Donnington. Cllr Emily Kerr (Green, St Mary’s) said: “I was delighted to be able to fund this bench from my ward fund. I'm passionate about active travel and that includes making our streets better for pedestrians. Now people can have a nice sit down on their way from the Cowley Road to Magdalen Road – and hopefully it will benefit those in the nearby care home and children's hospice. Many thanks to Oxford City officers and to ODS for their work on this.”
Cradle Bridge, a wooden footbridge over a Thames backwater at Radcot, has been closed after coming to the end of its serviceable life. There is a (very) short diversion for walkers on the Thames Path. Oxfordshire County Council is actively seeking funding to repair or replace the bridge.

This weekend

Klub Kakofanney 35th Anniversary (£), Fri, Florence Park Community Centre. The Balkan Wanderers! The Mighty Redox! The HorMones! ... Gulag Walrus?
The Jericho Repair Shop (free/donation), Sat, St Barnabas School. Clothes mending, knife sharpening, bike fixing, and more.
Wallingford Literary Festival (free/booking), Sat. Oxford Independent Authors move to Wallingford for the first time, following festivals in Headington and Wolvercote.
Oxford Downs Cricket Club Beer Festival (£), Sat, Standlake. Catch the rather circuitous X15 bus from Oxford, Abingdon, or Witney.
Banbury Canal Festival (free), Sat/Sun. Live music, food and drink, and at 1pm on Sunday, a walk around Banbury’s lost canal pubs.
Autumn Festivals (free/£). Choose from Oxford City Farm (Sat) for apple pressing, animal feeding, and a firepit; or Waterperry Gardens (Sat/Sun) for horse & cart rides with Morris dancing from Towersey Horseshoes.
Orchard Day (free), Sun, Wolvercote Community Orchard. Apple Day without the apples, thanks to the drought – but there will be apple juice as well as conkers, cakes, and honey.
These Old Shades (free), Sun, Weston Library. Regency society the Georgettes of Oxford celebrate Georgette Heyer, followed by a ball (£) in the Divinity School.
Across the Square (£), Sun, Thame Players Theatre. Ottoline Morrell meets Millicent Fawcett in a (fictitious) one-act play.
Light at Eventide (£), Sun, St Michael & All Angels (Summertown). Short reflective concert followed by modern choral compline.

Aphrodite at the Ashmolean: a gold pendant in the shape of Eros riding a dolphin (Hellenistic, 323–31 BCE; © Ashmolean Museum)

This week

Beginners' Ukulele Course (£), from Mon, Florence Park Community Centre. Taught by Oxford Ukuleles.
Vesterveg (£), Tue, Isis Farmhouse. Learn Norwegian folk dancing to the accompaniment of melodeon, fiddle, and pipes.
Everest: South West Face 50 Years On (£), Tue, University Museum. The story of the British Everest expedition in 1975. Proceeds to Community Action Nepal and the Nepal Flood Appeal.
Cancer B*tch! (£), Tue/Wed, Burton Taylor Studio. 'Molly has cancer, but she’s like, totally fine.' The one-woman play returns to Oxford.
King Lear (£), Tue-Sat, Pegasus Theatre. Oxford Theatre Guild set Shakespeare in today's world of influence and inheritance.
UN Older People's Day (free), Wed, Oxford Town Hall. Networking event with digital support, scam awareness, and seated exercise.
After Love (free), from Wed, OVADA. The art of heartbreak, including a visit from the Poetry Pharmacy.
Wyrd Weeds Library Launch (£cheap), Thu, Curio. Growing a collection of plant knowledge in the downstairs bookshop (recently reopened).
Aphrodite (£), from Thu, Ashmolean Museum. From Cyprus to Venus via Woodeaton.

Coming soon

Booking opens on Wednesday for two events we think will be popular:

Ghost Stories (£), Thu 29 Oct, Daunt Books. Extra night added for Hallowe'en performances of Charles Dickens, E. Nesbit, and E.F. Benson.
The Women Are Here (£), Sat 7 Nov, Ultimate Picture Palace. The story of The HorMones with Q&A and live show.

And Sarah J. Maas' A Court of Splintered Harmony (ACOTAR 6) is coming: stay up late at Waterstone's (£, Mon 26 Oct) or get up early at Mostly Books (£, Tue 27 Oct).

Oxfordshire’s independent media

Abingdon councillor Nathan Ley (LibDem) continues his Substack explainers, this one looking at solar power and explaining why putting solar panels on roofs won't be enough.
Jonn Elledge tells the wonderful story of Henry Symeonis and a 500-year grudge.
The Oxford Sausage looks below in Magdalen College chapel.
Malala Yousafzai reflects on her time as Oxford undergraduate ‘Jane Lewis’ at Lady Margaret Hall.
Ox in a Box enjoyed Oxford International Opera's inaugural production of Tosca, but Bachtrack and Planet Hugill both found it a disappointment.
Great British Life is not really independent, but you might find this article an amusing distraction: a self-guided tour of all the Alice in Wonderland sites in Oxford.
Tim Harford, Jericho resident and the FT's ‘Undercover Economist’, admits he was wrong about Bad Girl Books.

Notes from Clarion HQ

Last year, breaking the news of the East West Rail dispute, we wrote “Chiltern Railways will not want its existing guards to walk out on the suspicion that their days may be numbered”. This week, guess what Chiltern’s guards voted for? Sometimes we’d rather not be prescient…

…or prurient. We promised our Bluesky followers a couple of risqué stories, but then yet more news happened and we’ve had to hold them over to Tuesday. See you then!