Clarion Weekend, 6 February 2026

Will this rain ever stop? Here is a boatload (geddit?) of news, including buskers, bridges and beer, dukes and dogs, pubs and phone boxes. And cheese. Put the kettle on.

This week’s top stories

The new Botley Road rail bridge is in. The concrete walkways have been manoeuvred into place, and the new bridge spans installed – the main deck carrying the existing railway line, the new span for the future platform 5, and the new footbridge. Tracks have been welded in place, and the main span is being waterproofed.

In a sentence it gives us literal joy to type, Network Rail says that the work is running to schedule. This should enable the new walkways to open this weekend. Southbound trains are due to resume in the small hours of Monday morning.

Planning inspectors have finally given the thumbs-up for the 2,200-home Salt Cross Garden Village, near Eynsham, to go ahead as a net zero development – five years after West Oxfordshire District Council first submitted the plans.

The net zero requirement faced a series of legal challenges and Government policy reversals. Planning inspector Helen Hockenhull has now concluded: “I see no reason why a net zero development would not be viable and deliverable… There would be no adverse impact on housing supply or affordability.”

WODC leader Cllr Andy Graham said: “Salt Cross has always aimed high, and the Inspector’s report shows that we were right to do so. We’ve held the line and delivered an ambitious plan that responds directly to challenges from the climate emergency to the need for well-planned, sustainable growth.”

The next three years will be taken up by design, planning and funding agreements; construction is not likely to start until 2029. The settlement could be complete by 2043, over 20 years after it was first proposed.

“You know it’s wrong, so please move along!” Children and parents at Windmill Primary School and Headington Nursery School staged a protest this morning against inconsiderate and dangerous driving outside school.

Windmill parents say the issue isn’t just car-driving parents and their parking, but also the volume of cars coming off the ring road and cutting through these streets. One parent, Beth, told us:

“The fines from the Headington school streets scheme have raised lots of money for the council but we’re not seeing any of it being invested in the streets around these schools. The danger is very real for children. We need to see that money being invested in the area to make the roads safer for children, with road improvement measures to prevent corner parking and pavement mounting. We also need to see money spent on effective traffic reduction measures for areas around the school, given the ring road connects to Headington via Quarry Hollow, and improved signage for the school streets zone.”

While the protest was underway, Thames Valley Police issued several tickets to offenders – including one motorist who, when seeing the children wave their signs at him while he was parking on double yellows, mounted the pavement and drove towards them.

Oxfordshire County Council highways lead Cllr Andrew Gant and local LibDem councillors Roz Smith and Chris Smowton attended the protest. Headington Liveable Streets continues to campaign for Low Traffic Neighbourhoods in the area, originally proposed in 2021 but now on indefinite hold.

The last hurdle in the way of Oxford United’s new stadium at the Triangle has been cleared, with agreement on the Section 106 community contributions required as part of the development.

As expected, the 123-page document includes biodiversity and woodland management obligations, skills and training. Up to £1.3m is to be spent on new shelters, toilets and ticket gates at Oxford Parkway. Almost £600,000 will go to improving pedestrian and cyclist safety at the Parkway entrance junction. £930,000 will go towards the Cowley Branch Line, £690,000 for a new ‘mobility hub’ (Park & Ride) on the A44, £260,000 to install average speed cameras nearby, £260,000 for electronic road information signs, and £750,000 to support bus services in the area.

Finally, OUFC will be required to draw up a public art strategy with special reference to “Rosie and Friends”. Rosie is the much-loved elephant sculpture at Kidlington Roundabout, commemmorating an elephant at the short-lived 1930s zoo in Kidlington.

The final version of the document will now be subject to final checks and circulated for signature before being completed by the council in due course. At that point, planning permission can be formally signed off.

Around the city

• 16-17 Turl Street, formerly home of the much-missed Turl Street Kitchen, is set to be sold by Oxford City Council on a 125-year leasehold. The council says it received offers from “several interested parties” and that it is now looking to agree terms with a tenant. The council considered a shorter lease, but “structural problems with the property” made this unattractive. It also ruled out selling the property freehold as “the property is situated within a wider Council ownership block”. The decision is due to be ratified at next week’s Cabinet meeting. (The Clarion can sadly confirm that we are not the purchaser, much though we would have loved to open a Clarion Café salon-type venture in the premises.)
• Accordionists and other buskers in Oxford could be told « Arrêtez la musique! » after 90 minutes under a new proposal by the City Council, which is reviewing its Code of Practice for busking and street entertainers. One possible change would “limit busking or street entertainment to a maximum of 1 hour and 30 minutes at any single location”; another would create “designated areas for busking and street entertainment to help manage noise levels and avoid obstruction”; while the questionnaire also asks “Should buskers or street entertainers be allowed to use amplification (e.g. speakers)?” The consultation is open until 17 March.
• The Original Swan in Cowley has been made available to let by Swindon brewery Arkell’s, according to the Oxford Drinker. On the corner of Between Towns Road and Oxford Road in Cowley, the Original Swan may need considerable investment as its lounge bar has been disused for years. Arkell’s describes it as a “favourite ‘haunt’ of Cowley locals for decades” – and literally the favourite haunt of the resident pub ghost for about 50 years. Arkell’s has two other pubs in Oxford, leased to Dodo Pub Co, the Rusty Bicycle and the Rickety Press.
• Anti-congestion charge campaign group Open Roads For Oxford Ltd says it is requesting an oral permission hearing at the High Court, after its initial written request was turned down in January. ORFOL continues to appeal for funds to fight its case. The group, which describes itself as “three private individuals”, argues that “the public were not properly consulted on the principle of imposing a charging scheme of this nature and scale”, and that an equalities assessment relied too much on material prepared for the traffic filters scheme.
• Oxford City Council has awarded over £200,000 in grants to local organisations supporting homeless people and rough sleepers, including The Porch, St Mungo’s and Asylum Welcome. Cllr Linda Smith commented: “Our community partners play a crucial role in preventing homelessness and supporting people away from rough sleeping. We continue to experience significant demand on our temporary accommodation, and these funds will help us address the homelessness crisis in the city.”

• 🏳️‍🌈 The Pride Flag is flying over the Town Hall, marking LGBT+ History Month. Cllr Linda Smith said: “We take pride in supporting the LGBT community, including events like Oxford Pride. We are proud to be flying the Pride Flag." Colleges in Oxford are also marking the month by flying flags and other means, including this starring appearance by LMH cat Issy. (More college cats? Oh, go on then.)
• Deliveroo culture marches on. Wagamama on Market Street has received permission to open a serving hatch in its frontage for delivery riders; Dishoom Permit Room on New Inn Hall Street already has a similar hatch. The arrangement mirrors that at old canalside pubs, where working boatmen could receive a pint through a side-hatch while going through a flight of locks (the Canal & River Trust describes the Navigation Inn at Stoke Bruerne, near Milton Keynes, as “the world’s first drive thru”). Also submitted by a follower: a hatch to buy biscuits from nuns.
• Empty shop windows in Broad Street have been decorated by Year 12 students from Cheney School. Two displays at number 8, empty since 2020, showcase biodiversity and Minoan replicas from the Rumble Museum at Cheney – the only accredited museum in a UK state school. Our friends at the Oxford Sausage wrote about the Rumble Museum last week.
• Phone box row: BT is appealing against Oxford City Council’s decision to refuse ‘Street Hub’ advertising screens across the city. It says Street Hubs provide “an unprecedented suite of essential urban tools, including free ultrafast Wi-Fi, phone calls, wayfinding, […] and a platform for interactive technologies”. Claiming ancestry from public payphones, BT says “the Street Hub is the next phase of rolling replacement that has been ongoing for over 100 years”, explaining that “an omnidirectional outdoor Wi-Fi access point at the top of each Street Hub is connected directly to the fibre broadband network”. Among the City Council’s reasons for refusal were that Street Hubs “introduce a visually incongruous addition and an unacceptable amount of clutter to the street scene and public realm”: BT argues that by replacing payphone kiosks it would achieve “a significant net reduction of clutter”.
• The Story Museum is introducing a ‘digital treasure chest’. 1001 Stories is a free to access digital resource for young people, parents, carers, educators and anyone who loves stories – launched in time for the National Year of Reading, and with support of the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Alongside contemporary stories, users can discover and explore timeless classics like Alice in Wonderland, the Chronicles of Narnia, and other much-loved tales that have sparked imaginations for generations.
• The Punter pub in Osney, which has been vegetarian for five years, is to introduce fish to its menu. It says its hand has been forced by the closure of the Botley Road and "financial pressures imposed on pubs by the Labour government". Their new menu will start on 9 February.

Around the county

• Cheese news: The public consultation on the new shape of Oxfordshire’s councils has started. Government is inviting residents to make comments on the three proposals for unitary councils, which would see county and city/district councils merged. For each proposal, the consultation asks a series of “do you agree?” questions; the two and three council proposals have additional questions about financial sustainability (due to the inclusion of financially troubled West Berkshire) and their impact on wider public services.
       To coincide, Oxfordshire’s councils have launched glossy websites promoting their competing visions for how to reorganise local government. The three sites are:
  • One Oxfordshire (promoted by Oxfordshire County Council)
  • Two Councils (promoted by the rural districts)
  • 3Councils (promoted by Oxford City Council)
• The Duke of Marlborough, who lives in Blenheim Palace, has been charged with controlling or coercive behaviour as well as strangling his estranged wife on three occasions, according to national reports. Jamie Spencer-Churchill is also a Woodstock town councillor. Although Blenheim is the ancestral home of the Dukes of Marlborough, the palace and grounds are owned by the Blenheim Palace Heritage Foundation – a change made by the current Duke’s father in the light of his son’s well-publicised struggles with drug addiction and criminal behaviour.
• A contractor has been appointed for the Didcot Science Bridge, the bridge that will carry the new £332m Didcot relief road (‘HIF1’) over the Great Western mainline and the existing A4130. Volker Fitzpatrick are expected to start work this spring with completion in autumn 2028.

• Lab space latest! The Blenheim Estate has announced OTP2 (Oxford Technology Park), a “next-generation mid-tech innovation campus” to fill in the gap between Begbroke and Campsfield, near Kidlington. The scheme proposes “1.1 million sq ft of high-quality, flexible workspace”. A new park would be created next to the wooded Begbroke Lane byway; active travel routes would be built, running both north-south to Begbroke and east-west to Kidlington; and public recreational facilities provided, including indoor padel and multi-use games courts. A public exhibition will be held on Wednesday. Perhaps most startling is the map (above) showing the scale of development proposed for the area, including Botley West Solar Farm (green), Begbroke Innovation District (yellow) and several new housing sites.
• Public art news:
  • Cherwell District Council is working with Oxfordshire-based artists Rawz and MES Crew to bring a series of murals to the walkway between Sheep Street and Pioneer Square in Bicester, celebrating Bicester’s local history, culture and everyday community life. Members of the public are invited to contribute ideas and inspiration to help shape the final designs.
  • A new series of artworks has been unveiled at Didcot Parkway Station. The project, funded by Great Western Railway and South Oxfordshire District Council, is designed to create a welcoming and uplifting environment from the station and into the Cow Lane underpass, a key pedestrian and cycling route. The artworks reflect Didcot’s heritage and local landscapes.
• Thames Valley Police's Community Fund, which uses proceeds from items seized from criminals to fund community projects, is open for applications. Community organisations can apply for up to £10,000 for projects around one of TVP's policing priorities; protecting communities, people or property. Previous winners have included East Oxford's Flower Lane mural and the Abingdon Bridge. Applications close on 23 February.
• Standlake could be getting a new pet crematorium. ‘Tails at Peace’ have applied for permission for the crematorium as part of ‘farm diversification’, citing pet ownership increases and a need for compassionate end of life care, including home euthanasia. Local environmental health have asked questions about odour control. The nearest pet crematoriums are in Newbury and Evesham.
• Cherwell District Council has reported cleaner air at Kings End and Queens Avenue in Bicester. Nitrogen dioxide levels lowered sufficiently to remove its status as an Air Quality Management Area; the council say this is due to active travel and traffic re-routing. Hennef Way in Banbury is now the only remaining Air Quality Management Area in Cherwell.
• A further arrest has been made in connection with the illegal waste dump near Kidlington. A 52-year-old male from Ashford in Surrey was arrested on Monday. This brings the total number of arrests to four, following two arrests made last week and one in November.
• The owner of Yew Tree Cottage in Adderbury has been fined £7,200 for chopping down seven (checks notes) yew trees. Graham Evans was seeking to create two new dwellings and three car parking spaces. The trees were on council land, in a conservation area, and large enough for legal protection. Evans failed to attend an interview under caution. Cllr Jean Conway, for Cherwell District Council, said: “The offender not only failed to seek permission but refused to cooperate with our investigation. That’s why we sought a prosecution. I hope this deters others from cutting down trees without permission.”
• Bins news: In peak council press release (but actually quite important) news, residents in South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse will keep a single bin for all recycling, despite new government legislation.
• Hook Norton Brewery has launched its first seasonal cask ale of 2026, Double Stout – “a classic English stout crafted from the brewery’s original 1898 recipe”. It’s available at the bar in Hooky pubs, or in bottles from their online shop. Then on 14 February (yes really), you can take your loved one to the brewery for the reopening of the 1894 Stable Block, following its devastating fire 18 months ago – meet Shire horses and enjoy fresh ales from the horsebox bar. We wrote about Hook Norton as part of our love letter to Oxfordshire via its food.

Walking and cycling

• Planning permission has been granted for an upgraded foot and cycle path at Donnington Recreation Ground in Oxford, over three years after it was first proposed. The application is for ‘Removal of existing fencing and formation of footpath and cycle path, installation of staggered, timber bollards, timber kissing gate and associated landscaping works and associated signage.’ It was first applied for in October 2022.
• Paw-sitive development: Blenheim Palace is launching a dog friendly walking route, inviting visitors to follow the paw prints between 10 interpretation boards celebrating the connection between dogs and Blenheim Palace. (Please send pictures of your dogs if you go and we’ll publish the best. Or even if you don’t go. We just like dogs.)
• Supporters of a Thame–Haddenham Greenway cycle and pedestrian path have submitted a 3,600-signature petition to 10 Downing Street. Local MP Freddie van Mierlo handed over the petition, accompanied by Oxfordshire councillor Kate Gregory, Thame Mayor Andy Gilbert, and Mid-Bucks MP Greg Smith. The path would link Thame to its nearest railway station at Haddenham. Van Mierlo said: “For decades people have asked for a safe route, and this level of public support shows just how important this issue is locally. A greenway would make everyday journeys safer, healthier and more sustainable.”

This weekend

• Hedgeplanting with Oxford Preservation Trust, Friday/Saturday, Harcourt Hill Field. Join Wild Oxfordshire's Hedgerow Heroes to plant 160m of hedge. Bring a spade if you have one.
• M.H. Ayinde, Friday, Trinity College. The fantasy author speaks to Oxford University Speculative Fiction Group about ancient artefacts and summoning ancestors. All welcome, booking required.
• Control Freak (£), Friday, Pegasus Theatre. Musical comedy/therapy with Anna Hale.
• Katy Rose Bennett (£), Friday, Cornerstone Didcot. The folk singer formerly known as KTB, with support from local acappella group Isca.
• Your Life is Manufactured (£), Saturday, Blackwell's. A Cambridge engineer explains how everything in the world is made.
• Outside of Eden (£), Saturday, Christ Church Cathedral. Poetry and music for “innocence lost, faith tested, and courage found”. Includes Elizabet Dijkstra’s Agnus Dei, written in memory of Sarah Everard.
• Stand-Up Science (£), Sunday, Tap Social (Botley). Presenting the 'Venn diagram of science and comedy'.

This week

• Why Q Needs U (£), Tue 10 Feb, Blackwell's. Linguist Danny Bate runs through the alphabet with Susie Dent.
• Tribal Politics, Tue 10 Feb, Jesus College. First of three public talks on 'how Brexit divided Britain' and created new political identities. Free, booking required.
• Charlie Hutchison (£), Wed 11 Feb, Museum of Oxford. Lunchtime talk on Eynsham-born anti-fascist Charlie Hutchison, the only Black British man to fight in the Spanish Civil War.
• Lazarus: The Second Coming of David Bowie (£), Wed 11 Feb, Blackwell's. Marking the 10th anniversary of Bowie's death with a new biography.
• Canalside: An Open Forum (£), Wed 11 Feb, St Barnabas Church. Six ideas for the future of Jericho boatyard, the day after planning permission expires.
• Shall We Sing? (£), Wed 11 Feb, Coach House (Headington). Songs for winter, taught by ear, sung together.

Dates for your diary

• Oxfordshire Artweeks’ 2026 dates have been announced. More than a thousand artists, makers and designers will host pop-up exhibitions across the county. South Oxfordshire is 2–10 May; North and West Oxfordshire, 9–17 May; Oxford City, 16–25 May.
• 1758: The Secret History of a Papal Election, Thu 19 Feb, Campion Hall or online. New evidence of intrigue in the real Conclave. Free, booking required.
• Messiah (£), Sat 28 Feb, Town Hall. Come and sing Goossens' version of Handel's Messiah as the grand finale for the Oxford Orpheus choir.
• Phoenix Fest (£), 25/26 Apr, Oxford city centre & online. Madcap illustration with Jamie Smart, Neill Cameron, and more Phoenix favourites. Tickets on sale 10 Feb and the Mini Clarions are very excited.

Oxfordshire’s independent media

• The Oxford Sausage visits the Rumble Museum in Cheney School (yet more evidence that the kids are all right).
• Bitten Oxford has a Valentine's Guide which has food, dates and gifts. (Yes, it’s eight days away! Don’t say we didn’t warn you. This is not a drill.)
• Little Oxplorers has shared a list of places where kids eat free for February half-term…
• …and Daily Info has a long list of half-term ideas.
• Independent Oxford meets pop-up curry chef Roshni Ray at Tikka & Tadka.
• Cherwell explores “Oxford's eating disorder culture”.
• Oxford Student charts the insignificance of the undergraduate essay. (Now you tell us.)
• Student newspaper The Oxford Blue argues that pubs must be protected. Next week, a bear argues in favour of organic fertilisation in woodland areas.

Books

• Oxford writer Penny Kiley’s new memoir of her life as a music journalist, Atypical Girl, will be launched at Gulp Fiction in the Covered Market on 19 March: “how do you navigate normal life when punk is dead and you don't know you're autistic?”
• It’s almost Lent, and Wardrobes and Rings is a set of reflections based on the works of C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and the other ‘Inklings’. Hugh Wybrew, former vicar of St Mary Mags, calls it “a refreshingly distinctive way through Lent” in a review for the Church Times.
• And four reading recommendations from Xander at Magdalen Road’s Caper bookshop:
  • Departure(s): Julian Barnes’ last (or so he says) novel. Life, happiness, and the meaning of it all from a master of fiction.
  • Holy Boy, Lee Heejoo: Korean novel in translation. Four K-pop fans kidnap their idol. Exhilarating tale of a descent into the dark side of devotion.
  • Wellwater, Karen Solie (poetry): Recent winner of the TS Eliot and the Forward Prizes. Powerful, philosophical, intelligent.
  • Domination, Alice Roberts: the inestimable Prof tells the tale of the fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of Christianity.

Notes from Clarion HQ

We got put on a Bluesky list this week for “news outlets that don't use AI slop”. Which we think is a compliment. It netted us a few hundred new followers, mainly Americans, who will no doubt be most confused by our diet of planning applications in Carterton, the Botley Road, obscure music references and occasional cat. But hey – everyone is welcome!

This week there were no trains south of Oxford. Did you miss them? The Clarion has got very familiar with buses instead of giving in and driving. It was wet and rainy for most of the week, yet the buses ran on time. We biked in full waterproofs but stayed dry. Small things to help, we guess. But we can't help feeling this is the longest and wettest winter ever. Last year we asked why Oxfordshire floods so much, and what we as individuals can do (spoiler: it’s a gardening article). See you in the garden centre?

At any rate, have a good weekend, and see you on Tuesday.