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Clarion Weekly, 10 January 2025

Clarion Weekly, 10 January 2025
Conservative councillors and candidates including Caroline Newton, Eddie Reeves and Liam Walker supporting the farmers' protest in Oxford on Thursday. (Photo: David Nimmo-Smith)

This week’s top stories

Happy New Year! We’re refreshed and recovered after the Christmas break, where (after respective Clarion kids had gone to bed) we started work on researching and writing a clutch of features for the coming months.

In the first long read of 2025, we took a look at the fight to breathe life into the mothballed distillery at Cheney Farm, South Park. Featuring a 400-year old oak tree, a planning battle and some very determined Oxford entrepreneurs. Read more here.

Oxfordshire’s district councils. (Source: Oxfordshire County Council. Contains Ordnance Survey Open Data.)

The map of Oxfordshire’s councils is set to be redrawn – but exactly how is still up for debate. (Warning: deep-dive local authority geekery ahead.)

Oxfordshire County Council has come out in favour of a strategic authority for the Thames Valley (including Buckinghamshire and Berkshire), and merging county and district councils. A strategic authority, with an elected mayor, would have powers similar to ‘metro mayors’ like Andy Burnham in Manchester including co-ordinating and funding public transport, high-level planning for housing and commercial development, apprenticeships, and a Mayoral precept (tax).

OCC’s letter to Government was approved at a special Cabinet meeting on Thursday – we live-tweeted the meeting on Bluesky. The meeting heard that some other English counties have already agreed both how to ‘unitarise’ (merge county/district councils) and which neighbouring counties they’ll join in a strategic authority. But Oxfordshire’s councils haven’t yet come to an agreement on what unitary councils they want; and although a Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire link-up is the favourite for a mayoral authority, that’s not signed off yet either.

As a result, central Government has told Oxfordshire County Council it can’t be in the ‘priority programme’ for a mayoral strategic authority. But it could be in the ‘fast track’ for unitarisation – and that’s what OCC is asking for.

Oxford City Council is not happy with this. It thinks the mayoral area should be sorted first, unitarisation later. You can discern a raw political calculation behind this. A fast track to unitary status would almost certainly lead to one council for the whole of Oxfordshire, which with a population of 750,000 meets the Government’s criterion of “500,000 or more”. That would mean urban Oxford (Labour-controlled) being routinely outvoted by rural Oxfordshire (currently LibDem-dominated). But if the decision can take longer, Oxford City Council would have time to put together an alternative proposal. From City leader Susan Brown’s letter to Government:

“One option we will want to consider is the creation of a city-based unitary on expanded geography that will enable us to meet our unique potential, while enabling viable neighbouring unitaries to our north and south. We have ambitions for growth that go significantly beyond that in any existing or draft local plan in Oxfordshire, and which could give Oxford as a place the ability to meet all its own future housing need. Oxford is one of the country’s fastest growing cities in terms of our economy and was recently recognised as the best city in the country to start a business.”

Oxford growing to include Kennington, Botley, Kidlington and Wheatley – and some new-build suburbs? Stranger things have happened.

The postscript to this is May’s elections to Oxfordshire County Council. If the councils are reshaped, it makes little sense to stage elections, only to have to rerun them a year or two later. In reality, few Oxfordshire politicians actually want to postpone the elections (Oxford’s upcoming traffic filters may be relevant here), but “our opponents want to cancel democracy” is a great line for a leaflet. The Clarion recommends you treat any such claims as no more than that.

(We looked at the background behind local council reorganisation in a December long read, featuring Malcolm Tucker, General de Gaulle, and cheese.)

The ‘mews building’ (left) and Beecher Acoustics (right). Photo: Headington News.

A modern block of flats in Headington may have to be demolished after a planning inspector concluded the original building plans were misleading. The plans mis-stated the height of the music shop next door, such that the final building was built “significantly taller than planned”.

The Planning Inspectorate said that “The drawing shows that the mews building and music shop [Beecher Acoustics] would be perceived to be broadly the same height… [but] the eaves of the constructed mews building are higher than the ridge of the music shop.”

The inspector noted that the mews building was also slightly longer and wider than planned. “In this prominent, low-rise, small-scale ‘village’ context, the height difference is material, as is the extent to which the mews building protrudes into the front boundary wall on Quarry High Street.”

Beecher Acoustics, who were behind the mews development, pleaded that an adverse judgement “will mean financial collapse” and that they have made “a unique contribution to violin making and restoration and to classical music”. But the inspector said no financial evidence on this point was presented. They asked for an 18-month stay of execution to “allow time for the tenants to find somewhere else to live and to enable the owner to find funds to demolish the building”. The inspector agreed only to 11 months. (Thanks to Headington News for spotting this story!)

Around the city

  • Electric points for boaters visiting Oxford are to be installed on the Oxford Canal in Walton Manor. The Canal & River Trust and Oxford City Council hope the ‘eco-mooring bollards’, by Aristotle Lane, will encourage boaters not to use generators, diesel engines or woodburners while moored up. Boats are exempt from Oxford’s Smoke Control Area as many are fitted with only a wood-burning stove and do not have other methods of heating, while generating electricity often relies on running the engine. Work to install the electric bollards begins on January 5.
  • Oxford night-owls could have a new option for a late-night pint. Morgan Pub Co, the new owners of the Angel & Greyhound on St Clements which they are renaming as the Oranges & Lemons, have applied to serve alcohol until 2am. The pub has just closed for a refit under its new name.
  • Four speakers have withdrawn from the 2025 Oxford Literary Festival following its decision to platform “gender critical” speakers Helen Joyce and Julie Bindel. Joyce previously said “Every one of these [trans] people is a huge problem to a sane world.” Noreen Masud was due to talk on her book A Flat Place. She called Joyce “an absolutely chilling character” and continued: “There’s not even an attempt to perform ‘free speech’ and ‘debate’: the event is a one-to-one love-in with Bindel.” AJ West, Harry McCarthy, and Hesse Phillips have since confirmed they are withdrawing. Online comments have focused on the festival’s LGBTQ+ programme, which lists two events by gender critical speakers but no trans people. The event is sponsored by the Telegraph and supported by Oxford University, Blackwells and Jeremy Mogford’s hotel chain.
  • Oxford United have launched a monthly running club, United Run Dept. The club will be “hosting runs in and around the city, starting and ending at some of the best cafes in Oxford for post-run coffee”. Missing Bean Coffee Roasters are the sponsors. OUFC say that the runners will benefit from advice and support from the club’s sports science and medical departments. Each run will be “an easy 5km route”. They plan further co-operation with Missing Bean including “a bespoke Oxford United coffee blend”.
  • Oxford Direct Services, the services company owned by Oxford City Council, is expected to give a £1.9m dividend to the council for 2023-24 – up from £1.4m in 2022-23. ODS is a key part of the ‘Oxford Model’, where operations are insourced to a council-owned company rather than outsourced. ODS previously gave a dividend of £1.2m in 2019-2020, but a COVID-related downturn meant reduced earnings in 21-22 and 23-24. The council says its insourced activities, which include the OX Place housing company and development joint ventures, earn it £20m per year.
59-60 High Street. Image: Google Street View.
  • A Japanese restaurant is set to open at 59-60 High Street, the corner with Longwall Street. Ramen Korner has lodged an application with Oxford City Council to open 11am–10pm every day. The building is owned by Magdalen College.
  • Oxford has been named as the third best city in England for wildlife conservation, according to a survey by outdoor retailer Millets. The survey compared tree coverage, range of wildlife species, wildlife rescues, and more. It was beaten by Watford and Sheffield with Port Meadow and Harcourt Arboretum being called out as places to explore.
  • Oxford City Council has been awarded Local Authority of Sanctuary accreditation for helping those fleeing global conflicts & persecution. This follows a 2022 council motion to work to achieve this. A three-year action plan to support the accreditation will be discussed at Cabinet later this month. Since 2020, the council has funded Asylum Welcome’s School Advocacy Programme, which has helped 105 children access schooling, collaborated with Oxfordshire’s other councils on the Homes for Ukraine scheme, helped 24 refugees into work and helped 70 residents access English language tuition. The Action Plan aims to co-ordinate and support community organisations and voluntary groups to provide support for refugees and asylum seekers and ensure council services are accessible.
  • Oxford is the UK's best city to start a business in 2025, says new research from business finance experts, who examined cost of commercial space, high speed internet connections and business closures. Bristol came second and Cambridge 20th. The research called out the talent pool of highly educated staff, thanks to its universities. It also highlighted Oxford's relatively few business closures vs the rest of the country, signifying a strong local economy for businesses to trade in.
Tractors on the High. Photo: Oxford Clarion.
  • A tractor convoy converged on Oxford as the city hosted two rival conferences on agriculture. The Oxford Real Farming Conference was set up in 2010 as an alternative to the Oxford Farming Conference dating back to 1936. The OFC is sponsored by McDonald's and Tesco; the ORFC is sponsored by Riverford and the Soil Association. The protest against the Government's proposed reforms to inheritance tax took place outside Oxford's Examination Schools, the venue for the OFC on Thursday: DEFRA secretary Steve Reed’s address to the conference was soundtracked by the noise of tractor horns. Oxfordshire Conservative councillors joined the protest, after both Oxfordshire County and Cherwell District councils had passed their motions condemning the tax.
  • However, farmers who joined the protest look set to receive a fine for passing the High Street ‘bus gate’, which permits only buses, taxis and emergency vehicles between 7.30am and 6pm. The Penalty Charge is set at £70, reduced to £35 if paid promptly. Oxfordshire County Council confirmed to the Clarion that “Any unauthorised vehicle is liable for a penalty charge notice if it travels through a bus gate during its hours of operation.”
Artists' impression of the “planets” at Oxford North.
  • The Oxford North development is to get a public art installation of eight illuminated glass polyhedrons, representing the planets in our solar system. Designed by Studio Olafur Eliasson, each one will have “its own complex geometry with palettes derived from the dominant tones in telescopic images”. The designers say “The forms may also be read as elements or molecules and are intended more generally to symbolise science and the pursuit of knowledge.” They are inspired by the “orreries”, 3D models of the solar system, in Oxford’s History of Science Museum. Planning permission for the installation has been granted by Oxford City Council. Oxford North is also planning a public art programme for 2025 “ranging from celestial walks and map-making to materials science and metal smelting to workshops”.

Around the county

  • 20 number-plate recognition cameras could be installed across the county to enforce existing bus lanes and motor vehicle restrictions. Oxfordshire County Council says ANPR cameras will “further reduce contraventions by motorists, particularly two-wheeled motor vehicles”. Motorists contravening the restrictions will be given a fixed penalty of £70, discounted to £35 if paid promptly. OCC is currently consulting on the proposed sites and intends to make a decision “early in 2025”.
  • County Council Chief Fire Officer Rob MacDougall has been rewarded for over 25 years of service to public safety, voluntary work and equality and diversity, with a King’s Fire Service Medal in the New Year’s Honours. Commenting on his award, he said: “I am deeply humbled to be acknowledged in this way. I am very grateful to have a career where I get to work with amazing people, where doing a good job means that people are safer.” Cllr Nathan Ley, County Council Cabinet Member for Public Health & Safety, said: “Rob has shown true leadership; from his command in response to crises like the 2016 Didcot Power Station collapse, to support for the LGBT+ community. We’re so grateful for his commitment to Oxfordshire.”
  • Speed data from surveys taken in October 2024 suggests that 20mph limits take time to bed in. Oxfordshire County Council monitored 25 sites where the limit had been reduced. Those installed in 2023 showed a reduction in mean speeds, which was not yet apparent in those installed from February 2024. Sites with initial speeds over 20mph and free-flowing traffic were selected. OCC’s report noted that “speed reductions are more likely at the edges of towns and villages than in the centres”, and that “the speed reduction was noticeably greater in the direction towards the village centre”. The greatest reduction in average speeds observed was 5.3mph. The least effective site saw a 1.9mph mean speed increase in one direction. The data tallies with informal Community Speedwatch surveys which have shown a decrease in the number of cars exceeding 25mph, but many still over 20mph.
  • Oxfordshire County Council is preparing to serve “notices of entry” and “notices to treat” on the land it’s acquiring to build the new Shores Green A40 sliproads near Witney. The Government confirmed the Compulsory Purchase Order last year, with the challenge period expiring in December. The £25m scheme will provide two new west-facing slip roads onto/off the A40, enabling traffic from East Witney to access the west of the town without crossing the congested Bridge Street. It replaces a 2010 OCC scheme for a larger Cogges Link Road, for which the Government refused CPO powers.
Milton Park.
  • A fast-track agreement at Milton Park, the science and technology park near Didcot, will reduce the time for new developments to receive planning permission. The ‘Local Development Order’ is also set to unlock £2m funding for a cycleway to Steventon and improving the existing cycle route to Abingdon. It sets out a series of conditions for development in the park, such as building height and the permitted uses: if a new scheme meets those conditions, Vale of White Horse District Council can confirm planning permission in ten days, rather than months. Vale councillor Neil Fawcett said “Promoting active travel means we can reduce our carbon emissions and reduce congestion while also attracting high quality employers.”
  • Oxfordshire’s last independent print newspaper, the family-owned Henley Standard, has been sold to a charitable trust that owns newspapers in Maidenhead and Slough. The family said new owners Baylis Media are “proven supporters of genuine local journalism”. The Oxford Mail and associated titles are owned by the giant US firm Gannett (via their Newsquest subsidiary) while the Banbury Guardian is owned by the UK/Irish firm National World. Together with Reach, publishers of the Mirror and Express, these make up the vast majority of the UK local press.
  • Paper visitor parking permits are to be retained for those who “genuinely cannot set up digital accounts”, Oxfordshire County Council have announced, saying that they are responding to feedback from residents. OCC recently moved its residents’ parking permit system online. Cllr Andrew Gant, Cabinet Member for Transport, said: “Many types of permits have gone digital in recent years, including tax discs. It is no longer sensible or practical to produce paper visitor permits and trust them to the postal service, which is costly and often involves delays. The reasons for moving to digital visitor permits are right, and the system is working. However, we've listened to the feedback and are continuing to make paper visitor permits available to people who have no other option, assessed on a case by case basis.”
  • A 48-year old has been given a suspended sentence for stealing tractors from Oxfordshire farms and selling them on in Bulgaria. He has been ordered to pay £873,852. Thames Valley Police’s investigator Lucy Flynn said: “The group he conspired with was responsible for the theft of a large number of high value tractors in Oxfordshire. This case shows that if you involve yourself in this sort of criminality you will have to pay back a significant amount of money.”
  • Church attendance across Oxfordshire grew by 1.6% between October 2023 and October 2024, with smaller churches seeing the highest increase. Attendance dropped off during the pandemic but has been slowly increasing once more, partly driven by increasing services.

University and research

  • Seven academics at Oxford University have been rewarded in this year's New Year's Honours List across a range of disciplines from Mathematics to Moral Theology. They are Alison Etheridge (Professor of Probability at the Department of Statistics); Nandini Das (Professor of Early Modern English Literature and Culture in the Faculty of English); Paul Chapman (Senior Fellow in Operations Management at the Saïd Business School); Ros Rickaby (Professor of Biogeochemistry at the Department of Earth Sciences); Paul Roberts (Archaeologist and Keeper of the Department of Antiquities at the Ashmolean Museum); Steve Strand (Professor of Education in the Department of Education); and Nigel Biggar (Regius Professor Emeritus of Moral Theology) who has been nominated for a peerage.
Dinosaur footprints discovered at Dewars Farm, near Ardley. Photo: University of Birmingham.
  • Researchers from the Oxford Museum of Natural History have uncovered hundreds of dinosaur footprints on a 'dinosaur highway' in a quarry near Bicester, dating back 166 million years. The footprints were buried under mud but discovered when a quarry worker felt 'unusual bumps' while excavating clay. Four of the trackways were made herbivorous dinosaurs most likely to be Cetiosaurus, a cousin of the well-known Diplodocus. The fifth trackway was made by the carnivorous Megalosaurus. The site shows the carnivore and herbivore tracks crossing, raising questions about the two species interacting. Dr Duncan Murdock said: “The preservation is so detailed that we can see how the mud was deformed as the dinosaur’s feet squelched in and out. Along with other fossils like burrows, shells and plants we can bring to life the muddy lagoon environment the dinosaurs walked through.” The find connects to discoveries made in the area in 1997, where previous limestone quarrying revealed more than 40 sets of footprints.
  • The Oxford English Dictionary has officially welcomed eight Korean words into the English language, including 'dalgona coffee' (a drink made by stirring instant coffee, sugar and hot water) and 'maknae' (the youngest member of a K-pop group).

Trains and buses

  • Bus fares across Oxfordshire have increased to £3 following the Government’s decision to raise the fare cap. On Twitter, Leonardo Loredan noted that this means the return of competition on certain shorter routes. From Headington to Oxford city centre, for example, Oxford Bus Co charges £2.80, Stagecoach £2.50, and Redline’s ‘Cross-County’ buses just £1.70.
  • East West Rail will have 5G mobile service along the route from Bicester to Bletchley after a £2.7m contract was awarded. The installation will be used by the on-train wifi service and will also be available to residents and rural businesses along the route. Liz Leffman, leader of Oxfordshire County Council, said the installation was “a significant leap forward in improving onboard passenger connectivity, and better connecting Oxfordshire’s rural communities… it will become a blueprint for other railway routes both locally and nationally”. Telecoms firm AWTG won the contract, which was awarded by the England’s Connected Heartland project. AWTG also plan to develop “a commercial model that combines revenue from enhanced passenger connectivity via onboard Wi-Fi”. (A Clarion reporter travelled on the Oxford–Bicester line this week and was surprised to get 5G at sleepy little Islip!)

Oxfordshire politics

If you're new here, welcome. In this section we round up what Oxfordshire's MPs have been up to.

We generally stick to constituency matters unless exceptional, and this week we think Layla Moran’s question in Parliament about Northern Gaza qualifies as that. Speaking about the family of the doctor who had treated her for sepsis, who are currently in the Jabalia refugee camp, she said civilians are “trapped in a doom loop of hell”. She told the story of a drone killing the doctor's nephew as he sought aid: “These were obviously not militants, they were sick.They're not legitimate targets of war. He said it feels like they’re in the Hunger Games, dodging drones, scavenging for basics. Even if they wanted to leave, they can't.” Speaking afterwards, Moran said: “We are over 450 days into this conflict and the Palestinian people are still going through hell. I was disappointed that the Minister [Hamish Falconer] had nothing new to say. The situation couldn’t be more urgent. I’ll continue to press for as long as it takes.”

  • Banbury MP Sean Woodcock was clearly watching Gavin and Stacey over Christmas. He congratulated his constituents on awards in the New Year’s Honours list; recorded a New Year's message; recommended breakfast in Banbury (we've looked at the menu and it's going on our list); and celebrated the announcement of a disabled facilities grant enabling disabled people to stay in their homes.
  • Oxford East MP Anneliese Dodds posted figures showing that in 2024, her team opened over 9,100 casework issues and sent almost 25,000 emails. This week in the constituency she met with OXA, a firm on the Oxford Business Park developing self-driving technology.
  • Oxford West & Abingdon MP Layla Moran secured a meeting with the Health Secretary to discuss the need for new premises for Summertown GP surgery. She asked a question in Parliament on building homes resistant to flooding and supporting those which are flooded, particularly given Abingdon's propensity to flood.
  • Calum Miller in Bicester & Woodstock, in a speech in Parliament, appealed to the Health Secretary for urgent grass-roots healthcare funding after the roof collapsed in Woodstock’s GP surgery – leading to nurses seeing patients in a broom cupboard. The minister agreed his department would meet Miller to discuss a solution for Woodstock. (We reported on a crisis meeting at the town’s surgery in November.) In Bicester, the row over London Road level crossing rumbles on; after attending a meeting with over 120 residents, Miller said that “The message was loud and clear: we need a short, safe underpass for pedestrians and cyclists, alongside a suitable crossing for light vehicles.”
  • Henley & Thame’s Freddie van Mierlo celebrated a local kebab van getting to the semi-final of the British Kebab Awards (here's the menu) and offered his opinion on the Gavin and Stacey finale. (That isn’t van Mierlo in the video, in case you were wondering.)
  • Olly Glover, MP for Didcot and Wantage, pledged to vote for the Climate and Nature bill at the end of the month; spoke in Parliament asking the government to consider using frozen Russian assets to buy arms for Ukraine; and congratulated those in his constituency with awards in the New Years Honours list. As a keen cyclist, he spoke out on Bikeability learn-to-cycle training in Parliament, and secured a meeting for the minister to join him at an Oxfordshire school to see the training in action.
  • Witney’s Charlie Maynard popped up in this video from Politics Joe, questioning fast fashion manufacturer Shein about use of Chinese cotton (Guardian report). In this video, posted after a meeting of the Water Bill Committee, he railed against the government's lack of progress on regulating water companies.

Oxford’s independent media

  • The Oxford Sausage writes about Frank Cooper's Oxford marmalade.
  • Morris Oxford recapped 2024 with the blog’s trademark beautiful photography.
  • Muddy Stilettos picks the best of what's on in the county for January.
  • Ox in a Box has the 'ultimate guide to what to book now' for Oxfordshire in 2025.
  • Oxford Drinker celebrates cider and perry with this plea: “Americans. Stop calling it Hard Cider like it’s going to duff up English Wimpy Cider or something.”

Dates for your diary

This weekend

  • New year, new habits? Why not visit one of your local markets and support local producers and traders. Yes, even if it's raining.
  • Wychwood School’s free activities for Year 5/6 start again on Saturday…
  • …and if you’re quick, Year 2–4 boys can still sign up for Christ Church Cathedral’s ‘Be a Chorister for an Afternoon’ event, also on Saturday.
  • Jack and the Beanstalk, Chipping Norton Theatre. Last call for panto. Oh no it isn't/Oh yes it is, etc etc.

Notes from Clarion HQ

At the end of 2024, the Guardian ran an interview with former professional cyclist and head of Active Travel England Chris Boardman. He is openly angry about what he sees as misleading media coverage of “reckless cyclists” when more Britons are killed by cows every year than by bikes.

“At the moment we have a very consistent, non-evidence-based, negative narrative to stop any change. It is stopping people wanting to put their heads up and do difficult things. It needs people with courage to stand up and say: ‘This is not in the public interest. I want my kids to be able to get to school under their own steam.’ Just 211 miles from here [in the Netherlands], 66% of kids do get around under their own steam, and our children are being denied that.”

This plays out in the local media as well as on the national stage, and we would like to think some of those writing on Oxfordshire might read this and take stock. See you next week.