Clarion Weekend, 30 January 2026

Congratulations! You’re nearly through January. The weekend is coming. We have news for you to read, and new coffee shops for you to read it in. Plus the latest on the County Hall hotel, a reprieve for Banbury Museum, and more.

This week’s long read

There are 250 vulnerable people in Oxford’s asylum hotels. For 27 years, local charity Refugee Resource has been supporting asylum seekers, refugees and vulnerable migrants. We find out more about their work in a long read.

Holding hands in the dark

Protests outside asylum hotels; calls in the national media to “stop the boats”; a polarisation of national discourse, headlines sometimes more for clickbait than facts. What is the real story of refugees and asylum seekers in our county? We asked Sushila Dhall of local charity Refugee Resource to tell us

Oxford ClarionClarion guest contributor

This week’s top stories

Two men have been arrested in connection with the illegal waste dump near Kidlington. A 69-year old male was arrested in Andover while a 54-year old male was apprehended in Slough; both were arrested for environmental and money laundering offences. A third man was arrested in November. The suspects have been released on conditional bail pending further investigation.

Emma Viner, from the Environment Agency, said “Our teams have been working tirelessly with the South East Organised Crime Unit on this investigation. These joint efforts have resulted in further arrests, which are another vital step in collecting new evidence and progressing our investigation.”

Preparatory works have already started at the site and the cleanup is expected to begin at the end of February.

Long-awaited plans have been unveiled for the hotel and restaurant to be built in Oxford’s County Hall. The plans are being brought forward by developers Reef Origin, who also transformed the former Boswells store into The Store hotel. They say that the restaurants and bar will bring the historic building, “an underused heritage asset”, back into wider public use.

The council chamber will become a “speciality restaurant”; the coroner’s court will also be a restaurant, with the historic cells retained; and the Common Hall, the little used entrance chamber, will become a bar.

The 1970s New County Hall building will be the hotel, with a new roof terrace and penthouse. A “lighter, more refined design” will be achieved by replacing the windows but retaining the precast cladding. Reef Origin say “Using this part of the site for the hotel allows the historic building to be preserved and enhanced while ensuring the hotel operates efficiently.”

Hotel rooms will also be included in a new link building connecting the two halves, replacing the current long corridor and meeting rooms. The car park at the front will be removed to make room for “a stronger emphasis on walking and active travel”. Currently the complex has “high running costs and environmental impact”, and would require major investment even if retained as the council HQ.

Reef Origin are inviting comments via their project website until 12 February, with a planning application to be submitted in late spring. The hotel could then open in 2028–29.

The Botley Road bridge lift happens next week. Oxford–Didcot train services will be suspended for a week from Sunday, though services to Marylebone will still run. The crane is now on site, with all the key sections ready in the Becket Street station car park. Here’s a picture runthrough, courtesy of Network Rail, of how the week will pan out…

The first image depicts the site as it currently is, with the old bridge in place and the southern side of Botley Road excavated. The foundations for the southern walkway have already been installed.

First, the railway tracks, the existing bridge deck, and the existing abutments will be removed. Then, using a special heavy load mover, the new north-side walkway will be moved into position. Abutment sections will be craned in on the east and west sides of this.

The central span of the main bridge can then be installed in sections. This is just a replacement, but the west side and east side spans which will follow are all new, each lifted in by crane. The west side span is for the track to the future platform 5; the east side span is for the new footbridge, but is designed to potentially accommodate another platform in the long term. Finally, the railway will be reinstated across the central span, and trains can start running again.

While all this is underway, pedestrians and dismounted cyclists will be diverted via the station, using platform-level walkways across the tracks – one westbound, one eastbound. If all goes to plan, which we know is a fairly foolhardy phrase given the history of the project, the first passenger train over the new bridge will be the 0520 to Paddington on Monday 9 February. (No, we’re not getting up for it. Our dedication to local news has its limits.)

Around the city

• The semi-derelict St Paul's Church in Jericho, more recently known as Freuds bar, has been acquired by Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government. The ‘Greek revival’ style church, a centre for the Oxford Movement, was closed to worship in 1969, became a bar in 1988, but closed during Covid. The Blavatnik School’s first priority will be stabilising the building fabric, saying: “We are committed to bringing St Paul's back into safe and usable condition to then determine how the building can best further the mission of the School and the wider community.”
• (Content warning: sexual assault.) Activist legal campaign the Good Law Project has named a senior figure at the Saïd Business School “who is said to have raped a junior female academic in a case widely covered in the media”. They add: “The academic subsequently sought help from the dean of the Business School, Professor Soumitra Dutta, who made a sexual pass at her.”
• Grave situation: A new burial ground is planned for Green Belt land between Oxford & Horspath, following a consultation which warned the city could run out of burial space. Oxford Burial Meadow will provide space for 120 of Oxford's 200 annual burials, for 40 years. The City Council has made a planning application to South Oxfordshire District Council, to be decided by 12 February.
• Local coffee chain Love Coffee is to open an outlet in Summertown in addition to its shops on the High and Iffley Road. It will be housed on the site of the former Temptations cafe.
• New café Camelia has opened at 106 High Street, two years after it was first announced. The site next to Jericho Coffee Traders was formerly the official Oxford University shop. Opening hours are 9am-8pm; the owners hope to stay open until 10pm in summer.
• Oxford sandwich and deli company Taylor’s is to add a ninth location to its cafes with the announcement that it will open an 80 seater cafe in the Red Hall in Oxford North, Oxford's new ‘innovation district’. It is due to open on 2 March. Taylor’s also recently took over operation of the cafe in the Oxford University Museum of Natural History.
• Christ Church’s new Graduate Centre, on the former site of the Music Faculty opposite Speedwell Street, has received planning permission. The new complex aims to “allow members of the graduate community to spend more time in College”. (We are still holding out for uncovering the site of St Frideswide’s Priory.)
• An abandoned greenhouse complex in Cutteslowe is to be revived by the Cutteslowe Greenhouse Project, which has taken it over on a 25-year lease from Oxford City Council. They aim to create a space for residents to meet, learn, share skills, and grow food together. The project is now focused on fundraising for essential repairs, to enable the greenhouses to reopen in 2026. Volunteers have already spent over 300 hours clearing the site. The site will undergo phased restoration including community growing beds, rainwater harvesting systems and a wormery. Rachel Botsman, co-chair of the Cutteslowe Greenhouse Project, called it “a commitment to building a thriving, inclusive space that strengthens community ties, makes growing food more accessible, and gives people a meaningful place to connect”.
• Oxford City Council says its services company, ODS, made a £69m contribution to the UK economy in 2024/25. A new independent economic impact assessment shows that the company supports more than 1,170 jobs nationwide, with the greatest benefits felt across Oxfordshire. ODS is part of the council’s ‘Oxford Model’, where services from owned companies are made commercially available to fund council activities.
• A new story space is opening at the Story Museum inspired by Malorie Blackman’s young adult series Noughts & Crosses. The museum will host a special event for the first book’s 25th anniversary on 16 February. Malorie Blackman hesrself, actor and writer Paterson Joseph, and Dr Darren Chetty will be there to explore the book’s lasting impact. The new space, within the Enchanted Library galleries, was created in collaboration with young people and artists from the Black Excellence Project and Kuumba Nia Arts.
• Oxford and Leiden are to celebrate 80 years of twinning – one of the UK’s longest-lasting twin city relationships – with a gala concert on 21 February. Musicians from the Orchestra of St John’s Voices will be joined by musicians from Leiden in the Netherlands for operatic highlights and orchestral works. Oxford is twinned with six other cities: Bonn in Germany, Grenoble in France, Padua in Italy, Wrocław in Poland, León in Nicaragua and Ramallah in Palestine. (A motion was brought to Monday’s city council meeting in support of the ongoing Palestine hunger strikes, but the protracted Local Plan debate meant no time for councillor motions.)

Around the county

• Banbury Museum says it is “delighted” that Cherwell District Council has withdrawn a proposal to cut its funding. Museum funding has been reinstated in a revised budget to be considered by council leaders next week. Meeting documents state: “The council has considered and listened to the feedback in relation to proposed changes to the funding of Banbury Museum. In response, the council proposes to reinstate the majority of its support in 2027/28 and introduce a phased reduction in support over the longer term.” In a statement, Banbury Museum said: “The environment for all those working in the cultural sector remains very challenging, but we have been overwhelmed by the support offered by our community. We are delighted the museum will continue to play a central role in our town’s life.”
• Several new housing developments in rural areas have been signed off by West Oxfordshire District Council. Section 106 (infrastructure) funding has been approved for 60 new homes in Freeland, near Hanborough; 80 homes in Middle Barton; 36 homes in Ducklington, near Witney; and 37 homes in Charlbury, clearing the way for construction to start.
• A new transport plan for Science Vale has been approved by Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet. The Science Vale Movement & Place Plan covers the area around Didcot and Wantage, including the major business sites at Culham, Harwell and Milton Park – home to 73,000 people and growing fast. The plan takes Oxfordshire’s county-wide Local Transport & Connectivity Plan (LTCP) and identifies 22 local objectives, including the HIF1 Didcot relief road and Thames bridge, cycling and walking projects in Didcot and Wantage, and ten new connections in the Strategic Active Travel Network. The second of 13 MAPs to be approved, it will be followed by Bicester and then others until the cycle renews in 2027.
• A community flood group has been created in Wantage, which aims to bring together local residents to help improve flood awareness and resilience across the town. Letcombe Brook flows through the town to East Hanney, and is prone to flooding the developments along its natural floodplain.
• A new academy for military service leavers and veterans will open at the Drayton highways depot in February. The ‘Building Heroes’ Highways Training Academy is sponsored by Oxfordshire County Council’s principal highways contractor M Group and delivered by military charity Building Heroes. The academy aims to support the transition to civilian life while also building the vital skills needed to maintain the region’s road network. Cllr Liz Leffman, leader of Oxfordshire County Council, said: “We are committed to supporting our military forces communities across the county and are delighted to be involved in this excellent initiative.”

Walking and cycling

• A new mirror has been installed at the London Road/Headley Way junction in Headington to improve HGV drivers’ visibility of cyclists. Cyclist Jennifer Wong died at the junction in 2021 in a collision with a crane lorry, whose driver said he did not see her. Oxfordshire County Council says this is the first such installation in the county and its effectiveness will be monitored. Other work at this junction has included an ‘early start’ green light for cyclists, while OCC is also investigating extending the eastbound cycle lane on London Road.
• Everyone’s favourite cycle parking design, the Sheffield stand, will be mandated in Oxford City’s Local Plan. In a peak Liberal Democrat moment, the party’s amendment to require that “Cycle parking design should comply with [guidance document] LTN 1/20” was passed in the council debate on Monday. The amendment also increased the number of cycle parking spaces that would be required in some new developments, such as hotels and schools. The debate heard comments that there’d be “no new secondary schools in Oxford” (…which slightly surprises us given the plans for an expanded Greater Oxford. The new residents will have kids, right?)

This weekend

• Oxford Improv Festival (£), Fri-Sun, The Old Fire Station. Workshops and shows full of “spontaneous art and comedy”.
• Big Hart Weekender, Fri-Sun, The White Hart (Wolvercote). A weekend of soul, shanties, and karaoke to raise funds for the community pub following a burglary.
• Mad Song (£), Fri, Keble College. Exploring repetition in contemporary music including Nico Muhly and Steve Reich.
• Emma Hunter, Fri, Truck Store. Album launch for 'Oxford's gothic flamenco storyteller' (from her Nightshift cover story).
• Filaments (£), Sat, New Road Baptist Church. Oxford Improvisers inspired by dark matter and collective intelligence.
• Sabbat Sessions for Imbolc, Sat, Blackwells. Did you know Blackwells had two resident witches? Amazing what you find in the deeper recesses of the Norrington Room.

This week

• Bridging Generations, Mon, central Oxford. Holocaust survivor Robert Slager in conversation with his granddaughter, Oxford student Grace Steinberg. Free, booking required.
• The Power of Activism, Wed, Sheldonian Theatre. Has activism failed? Panel discussion in the Sheldonian Series on free speech.
• Nun the Wiser (£), Thu/Fri, Old Fire Station. Oxford's Triona Adams tells all about her year in a convent.
• Wild Colour, to 15 Mar, Oxfordshire Museum, Woodstock. The pigments of animals explored in vivid photography.

Oxfordshire’s independent media

• Abingdon councillor Nathan Ley explains why you hate your council and where all the money has gone. If you only read one article, read this one.
• The Oxford Sausage tells the fascinating tale of mutiny in Cromwell's New Model Army, memorialised at Gloucester Green, no less. This is vintage Sausage on Oxford's hidden history.
• Daily Info reviews a play about the England football team at the New Theatre.
• The Oxford Student charts Oxford’s Emotional Underground. (We swear we saw them play at the Jericho Tavern in 1998.)
• Cherwell navigates Oxford’s social media landscape.
• The Oxford Blue asserts that new graduates should forsake London.
• Ox in a Box has been trying a healthy brunch at the Handlebar.
• Quad, Oxford alumni newsletter has a very lovely article about Wytham Woods. (We are still in mourning for the demise of the White Hart.)

Independent retailers

We asked for reader recommendations for your favourite independent retailers! Plenty have come in but we’d love more – email us at news@oxfordclarion.uk or @ us on Bluesky. Here are just a few:

• Mystic Games in the Woolgate in Witney. “A fantastic ‘third space’ as well as a shop that offers community events, casual bookings for tabletop games of all sorts, plus food and drink to go with them.”
• The Market Garden and Cherry Tree Cafe in Eynsham – on the same site, under the same ownership, and apparently building an extension they're so popular. “Good food and other organic and vaguely green stuff, local artists' output and various bits and bobs. Spend a while in the shop then enjoy lunch in the cafe. Time well spent. And a dog.”
• Oxford Wine Cellar on the High in Oxford. One of four bars under the wing of the Oxford Wine Company. Fantastic friendly staff, really interesting wines by the glass, and the food to go with them, bike parking right outside. We may have written a chunk of this newsletter in their cosy basement.

Ozymandias update

It's been a while since we had an update from Magdalen's furriest fellow. Here he is in all his floofy glory. And a deer, from Magdalen's deer park, of course. Happy Friday!

Notes from Clarion HQ

The Clarion WhatsApp, where our 11-strong team throws stories back and forth, is lively, perhaps a little geeky, and eclectic. The planning application about a burial ground in the ‘city’ section above gave rise to some discussion that crematoria and zoos are the last car-dependent places – at least here in the UK. Other countries’ zoos seem to manage fine (we could tell you about the lovely walking route to Pairi Daiza…), as do capital cities like London and Edinburgh. Oxfordshire? We have Crocodiles of the World, which is just about bus-able via Carterton, but Beale Park is a long, dreary trudge along a narrow, child-hostile pavement, and good luck getting to Burford’s Cotswold Wildlife Park without a car.

However, our research turned up this fascinating article about the long defunct Oxford Zoo in Kidlington – and some escaped wolves. (Oxford's first zoo was arguably the Chequers pub, which in the 1760s was home to a menagerie including a camel and a shark.) Perhaps campaigners should stop asking for a playground and instead demand wolves and giraffes in Magdalen deer park? Ozymandias might not agree…