Clarion Weekly, 2 May 2025

Are you, like us, hanging out waiting for election results? At a count? How about a bit of light news while you wait? We've packed this edition with (mainly) happy, uplifting content from around city and county to bring a smile to everyone's face, no matter what the results at the end of the day.

Election update

The votes for Oxfordshire County Council’s 2025 elections are about to be counted.

• We’ll send a second newsletter later today with results and initial reactions.
• Follow us on Bluesky for the results as they happen. (We’ll also post on Twitter/X as our resources allow.)
• Get up to speed with our three election previews: a look at the issues, an area-by-area roundup, and a deep dive into Reform UK’s chances.

Counting took place overnight for city/district council by-elections:

• Headington Hill & Northway (Oxford City Council) has been won by Labour’s James Taylor with 461 votes. The Independent Oxford Alliance’s Nasreen Majeed was second with 446. The seat was formerly held by socialist independent Barbara Coyne.
• Banbury Cross & Neithrop (Cherwell District Council) is a Conservative gain from Labour. Fiaz Ahmed wins with 729 votes over Labour’s Andrew Eaton with 690.
• Banbury Grimsbury & Hightown (Cherwell District Council) is retained by Labour with 639 votes for Henry Elugwu vs 600 for the Conservatives’ Paul Austin. This was previously held by Sean Woodcock, now Banbury MP.
• Standlake Aston & Stanton Harcourt (West Oxfordshire District Council) is a LibDem hold with Sandra Cosier at 729 votes over Conservative Lysette Nicholls with 592. This was formerly the seat of Charlie Maynard, now Witney MP.
• Wheatley (South Oxfordshire District Council) stayed LibDem, with Peter Ramsdale winning 573 votes vs the Conservatives’ Daniel Masters on 428.
• Watlington (South Oxfordshire District Council) was also a LibDem hold after Freddie van Mierlo, now MP for Henley & Thame, stepped down. Benjamin Higgins won with 679; the Conservatives’ Richard Riley was second with 585. Former Labour MP for Broxtowe, Nick Palmer, was fourth with 34 votes.

This week’s top stories

An estimated 16,500 people packed the streets of Oxford on Thursday morning to hear Magdalen Choir welcome the spring from the college’s Great Tower – up from 14,000 last year. The festivities continued with Morris dancing around the city in glorious weather. Paula Redway from Oxford City Council said “Today was another wonderful morning celebrating the arrival of spring together. The tradition may date back over 500 years, but May Morning celebrations never get old!”

Around 1,000 people gathered in Bonn Square on Sunday to demonstrate support for trans rights. The rally was organised by Oxford for Trans Rights. A march then processed through Oxford with chants asking to “stop the stupid culture war” and “trans rights are human rights”.

Oxford United’s 2-0 win over Sunderland on Saturday ensures the team will be staying in the Championship for a second season. With just one game to come – Swansea away on Saturday – OUFC are four points clear of the drop zone, and currently sit in 17th position.

(We have unconfirmed reports that the entire Sunderland team were drinking coffee in Magdalen Road’s Missing Bean as pre-match prep and who can blame them?)

A technical site visit for a £6.6m walking and cycling project in East Oxford last week was abandoned after an councillor from the pro-motoring Independent Oxford Alliance party arranged a “welcome party”—including a candidate for this week’s elections who followed and filmed highway engineers.

In a post on the Littlemore Live page, IOA city councillor Anne Stares said:

Trouble is there is no representation for the ordinary resident so when we heard that this group were going to have a walk round Littlemore this afternoon we thought we would arrange a welcome party so’s to speak. We managed about 20 strong-had you have all known we could have been hundreds-a point that we made!

The Clarion understands this was an early site visit, principally for highway engineers, architects and officers, and that a community engagement process is also planned. The County Council, not the City Council, is the highway authority for Oxford. A council spokesperson said:

The east Oxford active neighbourhoods project is a county council project to improve conditions for walking and cycling across the east Oxford area. A walking site visit was scheduled on Thursday 24 April to gather information about the current condition of streets. A number of people gathered at the start point and wanted to join the group walkabout. Officers were unable to ensure the safety of such a large group of people on the highway and so the meeting couldn't continue.

A co-design group is in place at the very earliest stage of the project to include views from a wide section of Oxford's community. Wider local engagement on the project is currently planned to take place this summer, to help develop proposals.

Around the city

• Oxford’s listings news-sheet Daily Information, now a website with a printed edition five times a year, celebrated its 60th birthday belatedly on what would have been the 100th birthday of its founder John Rose.
• Plans to convert a car dealership on the Abingdon Road into nine flats have been rejected by Oxford City Council. The council turned the plans down on the grounds of both inappropriate development in a flood risk zone, and failing to deliver optimal housing density for the site, including affordable housing. (We wrote about the challenges of building in the city in our Housing Week series.)
• EE reception in central Oxford looks unlikely to get any better after the mobile operator lost a planning appeal for a new mast. EE reception in the city centre has been poor since the mast on the roof of the Clarendon Centre was removed as part of the site’s redevelopment. The firm had hoped to site a mast on St Aldate’s Chambers (the former City Council offices), but Oxford City Council initially refused permission due to visual impact. The The Planning Inspector hearing the appeal agreed, saying:

“The proposed equipment would be very noticeable within the St Aldate’s streetscape… there would be significant visibility from Carfax looking south where it would be viewed in conjunction with the surrounding cluster of listed buildings. […] It is stated that without a new installation, coverage and capacity levels will not be acceptable… [but] the great weight I attach to the identified harm to the designated heritage assets would not be outweighed by the moderate weight I ascribe to the public benefits.”

• Oli’s Thai is returning! Magdalen Road favourite Elle’s Deli is to close in July and re-open as Oli’s Thai in September. Between 2013 and 2021, Oli’s Thai was a destination restaurant in East Oxford with waiting lists of up to six months that earned rave reviews from locals and national press alike. The owners announced the news on their Instagram page, saying news on bookings would be announced soon. Another favourite from the same stable, Cowley Road tapas bar Arbequina, recently launched a crowdfunder for a second outlet in the Covered Market.
• Children at St John Fisher Primary School in Littlemore have welcomed a flock of chickens to their school. Aurnia McCarthy, deputy head, said: “Along with our allotment, this brings children closer to the environment. They will learn to care for the animals and share the produce with our community.” Nye, a pupil at the school, said: “We have wanted school pets for a long time, and this felt like a way to bring animals into the school, but also provide eggs which we can give away. We have chosen eight different chickens so that each class can have their own and choose a name for them.” The school also plans to use the chickens to help SEND pupils reduce anxiety and foster self-regulation. SENDCO Sarah Woodhams added: “We believe strongly in the benefit of these animals for all the children. The space will allow us to work with children to encourage nurture and build empathy."
• Philip Pullman will conclude his Oxford-based fantasy trilogy with The Rose Field, due from local publisher David Fickling Books in October – 30 years since the author introduced heroine Lyra Belacqua in Northern Lights. The Rose Field is the third in the Book of Dust series. The teaser begins: “When we left Lyra in The Secret Commonwealth she was alone, in the ruins of a deserted city. Pantalaimon had run from her – part of himself – in search of her imagination, which he believed she had lost. Lyra travelled across the world from her Oxford home in search of her dæmon.” Advance orders are open now from Waterstones and other booksellers.

Around the county

• 250 new homes could be built next to Islip railway station. The site, on the north edge of the village, was an RAF fuelling depot subsequently taken over by Esso but derelict since the 1990s. Barwood Land is proposing 250 houses with a community orchard, play spaces, and new pedestrian and cycle links. On the Oxford–Bicester–Marylebone line, Islip currently has a train every half-hour at commuter times and roughly every two hours the rest of the day; it’s also close to the A34 and has a direct traffic-free bridleway to Oxford, as long as you don’t mind getting very wet at the ford through the Cherwell.
• Meanwhile at Graven Hill, on the edge of Bicester, 64 more homes are proposed as part of the slowly evolving 2,100-home development, of which around one-third has been built so far. The site was formerly a Ministry of Defence ordnance depot.
• The World Pooh Sticks Championships will take place on Sunday 25 May, at Sandford Lock. The event attracts over 200 contestants from more than 15 countries each year. 2024 champion, pensioner Bradley Mee, claimed the title from 2023's winner, 7-year old Bertie. Richard Kirby from organisers Abingdon Rotary Club said: “This is a piece of Oxfordshire’s history and a great day out for families and competitors of all ages. This special tradition brings joy to both young and old, and, most importantly, every penny raised goes to Rotary charities.” The organisers expressed gratitude to sponsors, specialist SME bank Allica Bank, who said: “Like many of the businesses we support, it is one-of-a-kind and has been part of this community for decades. We can’t wait to see the sticks hit the water!”

University and research

• Magdalen College, famous for its deer park in the grounds, foxes in the snow, and otters in the stream, has a new animal member: Ozymandias the kitten. Ozymandias is the title of a sonnet by Percy Shelley, husband of the science fiction author Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. He was expelled from University College, Oxford, in 1811.
• Christ Church plans to redevelop a 1936 building between St Aldate’s and the Meadow as accommodation for 62 graduate students. The existing Music Faculty will move to the Schwarzman Centre on Woodstock Road this autumn. Plans will be on show this Thursday or online.
• Māori representatives will visit the Sheldonian Theatre later this year for the posthumous award of an MPhil degree in anthropology to Mākereti Papakura, the first indigenous woman to study at Oxford. She enrolled in 1922 at what is now St Anne's College and is buried in Oddington near Otmoor.
• An international expert in sustainable energy has been appointed to lead the energy programme at Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute. Jan Rosenow will also become a fellow of Oriel College. He said that “Leading the ECI’s energy programme is a huge honour for me.”
• Oxford researchers have published a new dictionary of an endangered language spoken by 1,500 people on an Indonesian island. The international team has donated copies to the Enggano community together with teaching materials written for schools.
• Over on Facebook, check out this beautiful reel of the University.

Trains and buses

• Chiltern Railways is understood to have signed a deal for 10 intercity trains, chiefly to be used on their main line through Banbury and Bicester. The Mk5A trains were built for Transpennine Express in 2019. They will replace four existing locomotive-hauled trains and give extra capacity. The first will be in service by next March to replace the existing trains, which are some of the oldest trains in regular use, with the remainder by December. The Mk5As have been unused since 2023, and Chiltern, whose services are among the most overcrowded on the network, recently confirmed they were negotiating for trains that were “sitting unused”. The operator says “Current seating capacity is being outgrown by rising levels of demand, and there is a clear need to modernise and improve this railway for future generations.”
• Community bus operation First & Last Mile says it is likely to cease operation in September. It currently runs services in the Eynsham area, but passenger numbers have outgrown its fleet size and Oxfordshire County Council will be obliged to put the service out to tender. Director David Miles wrote: “First and Last Mile was established to fill the gap in local services and to demonstrate it was possible to reestablish rural bus services. We never expected the school service would become so popular – it has outgrown what FLM is capable of sustaining in the long term.”

Walking and cycling

• Banbury-based electric cargo bike manufacturer, EAV, is said to be “under offer” after entering administration. CEO Chris Temple said “the unexpected withdrawal of a key financial commitment from our major shareholder due to investor fatigue” sent the company into trouble “almost overnight”. The company supplies electric quadricycles to delivery firms including DPD, Evri, Royal Mail and FedEx. Temple added: “At this moment an offer has been accepted on the business, and it’s looking like the company will move over to new owners. I’m hopeful for the future of the brand.” Another North Oxfordshire light electric transport company, Arrival, announced a series of cuts through 2023 before becoming insolvent in 2024. It was acquired by a US company, Canoo, which itself filed for bankruptcy this year.

Oxfordshire politics

Our usual coverage of MP activities will return next week. In the meantime, please enjoy these pictures of MPs out grafting on the doorsteps to get colleagues elected to the County Council. Aren't they a cheerful lot?

Meanwhile we would be negligent if we didn’t show you a few dogs and bikes at polling stations:

This weekend

• Oxfordshire Artweeks. The UK’s longest-running ‘open studios’ event and one of the many reasons we love our county. From 3–26 May, over a thousand artists, makers and designers will exhibit and demonstrate in studios, pop-up galleries, gardens, churches, colleges and other interesting venues. Far too many for us to list, so head over to their website for a list; take a look at the art adorning Oxford railway station footbridge; or just look out for the flags outside venues.
• The Perch Beer & Cider Festival. All weekend, by the Thames in Binsey. It’ll be 21°C on Saturday. You know you want to.
• Oxford May Music Festival. Is this SJE Arts going out with a bang? A fabulous programme of music from the Baroque to the 20th century (Mel Bonis! Peteris Vasks!) interspersed with science lectures. Fri 2–Mon 5.
• Oxford Festival of the Arts kicks off this weekend, a three-month programme of art and music organised by Magdalen College School.
• Choral Evensong at Bartlemas Chapel. Celebrate the first days of the new Bartlemas county council division in East Oxford by attending evensong at this remarkable former leper chapel, plague refuge, college chapel and cowshed. 5.15pm on Sunday, off Cowley Road opposite Magdalen Road.

Dates for your diary

• Immers-eXpo 2025. Free hands-on demos of VR, AR, XR, and AI from the Oxford X-Reality Hub. Jesus College, Thu 5 June.
• VE Day celebrations in Henley. Fri 9–Sat 10 May.
• Magdalen Monday Movies. A series of free 1980s film screenings (not all on Mondays), plus speaker events including Stewart Lee, all in Magdalen College's air-conditioned auditorium.
• Nine Lives and a Murder. St Cross College, Sat 10–Sun 11 May. ‘An elegant Oxford dinner takes a deadly turn...’ Oxford is already known for the Greek Play performed in ancient Greek, but this murder mystery will be in modern Greek with English surtitles.
• The start of Trinity Term means the first of the college garden shows, offering outdoor theatre in intimate settings. Three to start with:
  • As You Like It at Mansfield College (Tue 6–Fri 9 May)
  • The Princess Bride at Wadham (Wed 7–Sat 10 May).
  • And Then There Were None at Michael Pilch Studio (Wed 7–Sat 10 May). Agatha Christie's locked-island mystery, famous under a variety of titles, is the first Oxford University Dramatic Society production for BAME creatives since 2018.

Oxfordshire’s independent media

• Hybrid at Oxford Brookes looks at dreaming in the age of AI, and how technology is shaping the future of our nighttime adventures.
• The Oxford Sausage meets Richard Lawrence, a letterpress printer in his studio on Hurst Street.
• Morris Oxford writes about May Morn and its cast of “ignorants, atheists, papists, drunkards, swearers, swash-bucklers, maid marions, morris dancers, maskers, mummers, maypole stealers, health drinkers, gamesters, lewd men and light women”. (Sounds a bit like the Clarion editorial team.)
• Cherwell looks at Oxford’s climate conundrum, the university’s investments in fossil fuel businesses.
• The Banburian extols staycations in Oxfordshire and nearby.

Notes from Clarion HQ

A six-vote margin in the Runcorn by-election this morning shows the importance of canvassers, candidates and all the behind-the-scenes wonks at every election. We won’t be at all surprised if some of today’s County Council divisions also go to a recount. So, as ever, thank you to everyone who puts themselves up for election in the service of democracy, and those who have spent shoe leather delivering and canvassing for what seems like the longest campaign ever. Have a good Bank Holiday and recover well.

Meanwhile, we’ll be back later today with a second newsletter summarising the county results. See you then!