Clarion Weekly, 19 September 2024

This week’s top stories

This week was Housing Week, where we explored how Oxford and the county can accommodate 100,000 new homes.

• On Monday we looked at why Oxford has a housing crisis, and how it impacts everyone in the county.
• On Tuesday we looked at view cones – why building at height is restricted to protect the views of the dreaming spires.
• On Wednesday we looked at building inside the city and how we might accelerate that.
• On Thursday we looked at the sacred cow of building on the Green Belt. Where there might be cows. Or might once have been.
• On Friday we looked at building across Oxfordshire, and how the county is taking Oxford's overspill.

Any hopes we might have had of a quiet week otherwise were dashed; there’s been plenty going on. Those who follow us on Twitter will find several stories in this newsletter we didn’t have time to post there. Read on…

Around the city

• Planning permission was granted on Tuesday for this new development replacing Beaver House on Hythe Bridge Street, including five floors of office/lab space, a café beside Frideswide Square, and refurbishing the old Boatman’s Chapel (currently Bangkok House).
• Also approved at the same meeting were 24 new houses north of Goose Green Close in Wolvercote, abutting the Oxford North site. Half of them will be affordable and there’ll be an extension of the canalside park. Two new “laboratory-enabled office buildings” were approved for John Smith Drive on the Oxford Business Park.
• Oxfordshire Homeless Movement is organising a CEO Sleepout in October. Business owners will be asked to raise £1,000 sponsorship (or personal donations) and sleep out overnight in the University Parks to raise funds to tackle homelessness. Last year’s event raised £76,500. OHM said previous participants call it “the weirdest but coolest networking event they have ever been to”. Breakfast will be provided by University College.
• The annual Round Table Fireworks event could take place in 2024 without a bonfire, say Oxford City Council. Challenges with the event in 2023 which saw significant damage to South Park due to a combination of rain and heavy vehicles. The application will undergo consultation with stakeholders Friends of South Park and Oxford Preservation Trust. Proposed changes include a clear cancellation period in the event of adverse weather, limiting vehicle movements on a temporary road way, a lighter fair, and no bonfire, to avoid damage to the park. Cllr Alex Hollingsworth, Cabinet Member for Business & Culture, said: “The annual fireworks display in South Park is an Oxford tradition. I very much want to see this year’s event go ahead, but it is essential we don’t see any repeat of the damage done to South Park.”

Around the county

• Watlington’s new relief road has been placed on hold after costs rose on other road projects. Oxfordshire County Council took the decision this week to divert funds to road schemes in Bicester and Banbury. OCC say “cost pressures” of £5.4m on the Tramway Road scheme in Banbury, and £1.3m on Banbury Road roundabout in Bicester, have coincided with running out of time to build the Watlington Relief Road which they say “cannot be delivered by the funding deadline of 31 March 2025”. Steve Bolingbroke, vice-chair of the Parish Council, said: “We’ve accepted a massive increase in housing in return for getting the traffic out of the historic centre of the town.” Gill Bindoff, from the town’s Neighbourhood Plan group, said: “I feel I’ve had the most almighty kick in the teeth. We had guaranteed funding for this. This council has had six years to deliver.” Liz Leffman, council leader, said OCC was still determined to build the road. “Inflation has had a massive impact on what was a scheme without any kind of contingency. We can’t deliver this within the timeframe we’ve been told we have to deliver it in by Homes England [funders]. But that does not mean we won’t be going ahead with the Watlington Relief Road. It is absolutely a priority for this council. We need that road.” (We looked at opposition to this road, and others in the area, in a long read last week.)
• Meanwhile in Banbury, the Tramway Road access scheme is going ahead with these funds. OCC’s cabinet member for infrastructure, Judy Roberts, says it will provide cyclists and pedestrians with “a safe and segregated route to the railway station, and make a direct bus route to the station a possibility”.
• A 50% reduction in NO2 pollution in Witney and Chipping Norton has been attributed to more people working from home and the popularity of electric cars. The two town centres were declared Air Quality Management Areas in 2005 in an effort to tackle pollution above national limits. The status could be revoked by 2026 if levels continue to drop. Lidia Arciszewska, West Oxfordshire District Council’s executive councillor for Environment, said the council was now looking at installing sensors to monitor other damaging particles.

University and research

• Oxford University has announced a Palestine Crisis Scholarship Scheme, providing full graduate scholarships for students displaced from Gaza and the West Bank. The scholarships include full course fees and a living allowance. The Bodleian is also extending access to students in (or displaced from) Palestinian libraries. Librarian Richard Ovenden said “We wanted to provide support that utilised the libraries’ strengths and resources, to make a significant difference to those facing challenges.”
• Patients with colorectal cancer, the second leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide, are given new hope thanks to pioneering work from University of Oxford researchers. Chemotherapy for colorectal cancer causes DNA lesions to form, but a new process, 'nucleophagy', could repair damaged DNA. Oxford’s Pauline Lascaux said: “This breakthrough opens avenues for a better understanding of how our body protects genetic material and how we can enhance the efficacy of cancer therapies for patients. I believe that modulating autophagy activity is the key to overcoming resistance to therapy in colorectal cancer.”
• Oxford University and the UN will host a global climate summit in 2025 bringing together experts, leaders, policymakers, technologists, academics, universities, celebrities, & more to advance human rights solutions to the climate crisis. The 24-hour global event will be broadcast live across time zones and will be co-created and co-delivered by universities across the world. Following the sun, the baton will pass between different academic institutions, uniting their communities in a historic exchange of ideas. The Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Summit has support from a celebrity coalition including Billie Jean King, Barbra Streisand, Carole King, Annie Lennox, Neil Young, Ziggy Marley, Pierce Brosnan, Jack Black, Laura Pausini, Rachel Platt, Kyra Sedgwick, Margaret Cho and more.
• A fully autonomous robot has been used to inspect the inside of the Joint European Torus fusion energy facility at Culham. The site is being decommissioned after 40 years of experimentation. UKAEA’s Robert Skilton said “This deployment demonstrates that autonomous robots can enhance safety and cut costs. These ‘next generation’ solutions are becoming ready to be used in other industrial facilities such as nuclear decommissioning, environmental clean-up, and disaster relief.”
• A team at the University of Oxford has received a licence for a new drug to treat patients in the early stages of Alzheimer's. The drug slows early progression of the disease by 4-6 months, but NICE states the benefits are too small to justify cost to the NHS. Oxford Health’s R&D Director Prof Raymont said: “It's the first UK drug that could change the course of the disease. But it's clear the NHS isn’t ready to roll out treatments like this. More ground-breaking treatments are coming and this is an opportunity to offer improved care.”

Oxfordshire politics

We loved this picture of Witney’s Labour councillors enjoying themselves at the Witney Feast. Sometimes we report on news and occasionally we just share joy.

Oxfordshire Liberal Democrat MPs spent the weekend at their conference in Brighton. (Labour start theirs on Sunday, the Conservatives the week after.) Clarion correspondents (thank you) report an upbeat mood in Brighton. Are we disappointed there were no stunts involving our Oxfordshire MPs? Perhaps a little.

As the conference ended, LibDem MP for Bicester & Woodstock, Calum Miller was named the party’s spokesperson for Foreign Affairs – quite a promotion for someone who was only elected in May. (We called it, or thereabouts, in this article after the election.)

• As one of the Liberal Democrats’ longer standing MPs it is no surprise to see Oxford West & Abingdon’s Layla Moran centre stage at conference events. She campaigned on youth mobility in Europe and talked about the single market, led a debate on Gaza, and spoke on a liberal response to nationalism, populism and scapegoating, and about modern slavery, and cross party co-operation . She's also settling in to her role as chair of the cross-party Health & Social Care Select Committee.
• Olly Glover from Didcot & Wantage gave a speech in Westminster calling for improved environmental standards such as solar panels in building. Building new homes is something Didcot & Wantage residents know a lot about, with 11,000 new homes built in the area between 2011 and 2021. He also campaigned on the NHS. At conference he was on the main stage speaking about unpaid carers and met with campaigners on pancreatic cancer.
• Freddie van Mierlo from Henley & Thame made his maiden speech, in which he spoke about sewage in the Thames, the village that supplies Downing Street with its annual Christmas tree, home building and the local plan (we hope he is reading our Housing Week series) and the RAF. He also apologised to his wife for forgetting to thank her in his 6am acceptance speech, which seemed to amuse the Deputy Speaker. Outside of the Commons he has met with local swimming organisers to talk about river pollution, and with Blood Cancer UK representatives to talk about improving cancer outcomes. He met a councillor in Chinnor to talk about local issues and visited volunteers at the heritage railway. At conference he met with a variety of organisations from Alzheimers’ Research to the campaign for Women's Pension Equality
• Calum Miller from Bicester & Woodstock, writing as a school governor, took some time to reflect on the return to school. He was busy at conference, including speaking on the main stage. If you want to see what he got up to he posted a handy video.
• Witney’s Charlie Maynard was on the conference main stage speaking about (what else) sewage and clean water. You can see his speech here He also backed the Climate and Nature Bill at conference.
• Over to Labour and Banbury's Sean Woodcock was at the racing at Chipping Norton. He held his first surgery since being elected, and is having another one in Chipping Norton on 27th. He has claimed he's a YIMBY (we hope he's followed our Housing Week series then) and attended Banbury's commemoration of the Battle of Britain.
• Anneliese Dodds from Oxford East has been seen in a police car… for a ride along with police in her constituency. Emergency services are clearly a thing this week: she also visited Rewley Road Fire Station for Oxford Open Doors. She has been campaigning in support of global democracy, particularly the responsible use of AI. She will be hosting a crime drop in-centre in the Leys on Friday 27th - details here.
• Meanwhile the local Conservatives are not letting up on their condemnation of Labour MPs on the Winter Fuel Payment – they posted this attack ad this week.

Trains and buses

• Oxford East MP Anneliese Dodds organised a Cowley Branch Line walk, from Cowley to Oxford Station, along the proposed route of the new.branch line. The walk took 4.5 hours; the train journey along a reopened line would take just 10 minutes.
• The new Oxford–Bristol direct train service got underway on Saturday. GWR are trialling the service until December, but the Clarion understands that an extension to May could happen if loadings are good. GWR is expecting a new fleet of local trains for Cornwall which could free up trains for a regular Oxford–Bristol link.

Walking and cycling

• A cyclist in his 70s is in critical condition following a hit-and-run near Wallingford. The collision happened around 6am on the town’s southern bypass. The vehicle is described as “a white long wheel based van… [it had] no sign writing on it and was clean”. Sgt Chris Liddicott of Thames Valley Police said: “Sadly during the day the injured cyclist’s condition has deteriorated significantly and he is in a critical condition. We would ask anyone who has seen a van with fresh damage to the passenger side to come forward.” (For our long read on Oxfordshire's road safety crisis, go here.)
• Oxfordshire County Council has adopted a “Sustainable School Travel Strategy”. It aims to encourage pupils to walk, cycle, wheel or take the bus to school, cutting the 32.5% of school run journeys made by private car. Every day, over 10,000 kids are transported to school in OCC-funded buses and taxis, at a cost of £32m per year – and cuts to the Spare Seats bus scheme have caused uproar over the last year. The strategy calls for more cycle training (including a balance bike trial in nursery schools), more ‘school streets’ where cars are banned, more ‘walking bus’/‘bike bus’ mass journeys, and a Youth Card bus ticket.

This weekend

• Kidical Mass Oxford family bike ride on Sunday, from 2pm to 4pm (free). Five feeder rides from locations across the city will converge on Broad Street and join together for a mass ride. Expect wobbly three year olds on balance bikes, the occasional dog in a cargo bike, and lots of joyous ringing of bells. If you're new here and want to know why safe roads are needed, see our long reads here (for the city) or here (for the county).
• Oxford Canal Festival on Saturday at Aristotle Lane Recreation Ground – a lovely family-friendly day out with live music, trading boats, and a spoken word/poetry tent featuring Philip Pullman.

Dates for your diary

• History of the Covered Market, November 13. Regular readers of the Clarion will know that we are fans of the Covered Market, and it's a regular spot for our editorial meetings. So we were delighted to spot this talk by the Museum of Oxford on the history of the Covered Market in its 250th year.
• Abingdon Marathon, October 20. Known in the running world as a fast, flat course, its PB-tastic popularity and friendliness is legendary. They're looking for marshals. Or you could just, y'know… run it.

Notes from Clarion HQ

This week we have been enjoying the Oxford Sausage, a blog about Oxford. We loved this most recent episode on Kazem Hakimi, the photographer who runs the fish and chip shop on the Iffley Road. A delve through the archives turns up the tale of a woman literally bricked into the wall of Iffley church in the 12th century, and a walk to Turner's tomb, which may interest you if you enjoyed our Tuesday article on view cones.

What does Oxford have that London doesn’t? A top-five global university? A bridge of sighs? An underground bookshop? All of that. But also, from this week, a daily paper. London’s Evening Standard dropped down from daily to weekly this week, leaving only the finance-focused, four-day-a-week City AM. What’s particularly interesting is the digital competitors springing up in its wake. Jim Waterson (ex-Guardian) has just announced London Centric. The ever energetic Manchester Mill is readying a London launch. Both are centred around email newsletters, much like the one you’re reading here. A change in the wind?

We hope you enjoyed our Housing Week series. If you’d like more like this, sign up below. To our new subscribers – don't worry! We won't be spamming your inbox like this every week. From next week, we return to our regular Friday lunchtime rhythm, with your news update delivered so you can make a cuppa and enjoy it. Unless you have an idea for Housing Week Two – in which case, our inbox is open at news@oxfordclarion.uk…