Clarion Weekly, 25 July 2025

This was supposed to be a huge news week, with planning officers’ recommendation on OUFC’s proposed stadium. Yet we find ourself reporting on delays, closures, strikes and the climate emergency, while it has rained almost all week. But it's not all doom and gloom in here: read on for good news on local hospice funding, some cracking upcoming events and yet more reasons to believe in local buses, plus the worst Abbey Road re-enactment ever.

This week’s top stories

A bid to derail Thames Water’s planned Abingdon Reservoir has been rejected by the High Court. CPRE Oxfordshire and campaign group Safer Waters had argued that Secretary of State for the Environment, Steve Reed, acted unlawfully in not calling a public inquiry.

Mr Justice Waksman said the Secretary of State’s view that an inquiry would delay the reservoir by a year in the face of “the urgent need to improve the resilience of water supplies in the South-East” was justifiable, saying “the SoS was entitled to concentrate on the context with which he was dealing”.

“We are deeply disappointed, and our concern is with the communities, landscapes, and ecosystems that stand to be profoundly affected,” said Lisa Warne of CPRE. “While we are not opposed to large infrastructure projects in principle, this ruling paves the way for one of the UK’s most environmentally and economically questionable schemes to proceed without the rigorous public scrutiny it rightly deserves.’’

Local MP Olly Glover added: “On Tuesday 22 July, I had a much-delayed meeting with Water and Flooding Minister Emma Hardy. At this meeting, I put to the minister concerns about Thames Water's competence and finances and the potential liability to government of this project in the case of Thames Water going into special administration, as well as local concerns about the impact of flooding and the safety of the proposed design. The minister confirmed her support for the reservoir, but agreed to share information on how flood and safety risks will be assessed and mitigated.”

The full judgment can be read online. For those interested in the reservoir, a series of articles on the topic is on our website.

The on-off saga of Oxford United’s new stadium descended into farce this week, as a claimed finding of “ancient woodland” caused the decision to be postponed – but was then retracted.

Cherwell District Council told OUFC that “a last-minute submission from a statutory consultee” (spoiler: it's Natural England) meant the application could not be heard on 31 July as expected. But then, on Thursday, Natural England retracted its claim of ancient woodland, saying the evidence did not meet its threshold after all.

A new decision date has been set for 15 August. OUFC says the delay is “disappointing” and “frustrating”. Meanwhile, OUFC fans are making good use of the enforced hiatus by organising a fundraiser for Kidlington dementia charity Daybreak.

Resident doctors at Oxford University Hospitals will be taking industrial action from 7am on Friday 25 July to 7am on Wednesday 30 July. This is part of an ongoing dispute between resident doctors and the government.

Disruption is expected to patient appointments and waiting times at Emergency Departments during this period, as well as the days before and after the industrial action. Some scheduled appointments may be changed and patients will be contacted.

Around the city

• Bar chain Brewdog is to shutter its Cowley Road location, one of ten to close nationally. The self-styled punk company says it is “evolving its bar strategy” to become an “experience-led brand”. Unite, the hospitality union, claims that workers were given three days’ warning of the closure.
• Independent news website London Centric has delved further into a group of the capital’s gift shops (aka “Harry Potter shops”) and their Oxford connections. They suggest VAT, business rates and corporation tax are not being paid. (London Centric is an inspiration for all of us at the Clarion; if you spend much time in the capital, we’d strongly recommend subscribing.)
• Extinction Rebellion Oxford staged a ‘crime scene’ at Barclays Bank on Cornmarket on Saturday to protest against its investment in fossil fuels. Activist Steve Dawe said: “Barclays choose not to recognise the importance of stopping the flow of funds to climate-wrecking fossil fuel industries. But Barclays is not alone: HSBC, Lloyds and insurance company Howden – all present in central Oxford – are all involved in continuing the Climate Emergency by propping up fossil fuels.”
• An Oxford landlord will have to pay over £11,000 after poor conditions were uncovered in one of his rental properties. Faults included an inadequate fire alarm, lacking ventilation, missing stair guards, and badly maintained fire doors. Aslam Dogar, of Lime Walk, was fined £5,500 at Oxford Magistrates’ Court. He also has to pay a £2,000 victim surcharge and costs of £3,678. Linda Smith, City Council cabinet member for housing, said: “Some landlords are taking advantage of the city’s housing shortage to rent out badly maintained properties to multiple occupants. I am pleased by the substantial fine charged in this case as it serves as a deterrent to other landlords.”
• A series of pop-up play events jointly run by Oxford City and Oxfordshire County Councils has ended. Campaigners for a city centre play space Oxplay have hailed them both as a success and an indication of a need for a more permanent play space, commenting “we know it's not easy, but nothing good ever is”. For those who missed them, or have older kids, the SOAP playdays have just started for the summer: more information here.
• The Bishop of Oxford joined a vigil in Oxford on Thursday in remembrance of both Israeli and Palestinian children killed in the last two years. UK Friends of Standing Together support a progressive social movement in Israel which brings together Arabs and Jews.
  

Around the county

• Faringdon’s 1935 Folly Tower is proposed for extensive restoration work by the trust that owns it. The brick tower was built as a birthday present and originally contained a grand piano allowing the owner to “play among the treetops”. It has 154 steps to the top. The main work will be repointing and roof repairs to make the building watertight, replacing the lantern room floor, and a taller flagpole capable of flying several flags at once; plans are now with Vale of White Horse District Council for consideration. In parallel, there is a major community fundraising effort to preserve the tower, which includes funds raised by the 'Tour de Farcycles' cycle ride two weeks ago.
• A 49.9MW solar farm is proposed for either side of the M40 motorway by the South Oxfordshire village of Postcombe, near Thame. An underground cable will connect it to the existing grid connection at a nearby solar farm, Harlesford. If approved, it could be operational by 2028.
• Mobile cameras caught a speeder every 4.5 minutes in March, according to Thames Valley Police’s latest statistics for Oxford. 637 offences were recorded in 48.5 hours of operation. A further 416 were recorded by fixed cameras. The same month saw 13 fixed penalty notices for mobile phone use and 22 for not wearing a seatbelt; 11 arrests for drink-driving; and 10 for drug-driving. Outside the city, Cherwell and West Oxon saw 921 speeding offences captured by mobile cameras in March and 537 by fixed cameras; across South Oxon and Vale of White Horse the figures were 683 and 647.
• West Oxfordshire will still have a shortfall of up to £157m in funding for necessary infrastructure, even after a charge (Community Infrastructure Levy) is introduced on new developments, figures suggest. CIL will raise just £20.5m in the period to 2031. West Oxfordshire District Council has chosen to exempt the large developments which will make up most of the district’s new houses from the levy. A new home elsewhere will be charged at up to £225 per square metre, but the developers of the 2200-home Salt Cross garden village will pay nothing. WODC’s Cllr Hugo Ashton said: “Securing approval for our CIL Charging Schedule is a major step forward in our work to ensure that infrastructure keeps pace with development. It will give us more flexibility to secure funding for strategic infrastructure improvements that our residents rely on.” We looked at CIL and its cousin, Section 106 funding, in a long read last year.
• North Oxfordshire's Katharine House Hospice is to receive a funding boost of over £100,000 as part of the government's newly announced £75m for hospices to transform end-of-life care with upgrades including specially adapted beds, rooms, and technology. Sean Woodcock, MP for Banbury, said: “Katharine House Hospice provide such invaluable support in our community for people with life-limiting conditions and their loved ones and this government funding will make such a real difference.”
• £1.8m funding has been allocated to the Thames Valley by the Police & Crime Commissioner (PCC) to help tackle serious violence. The funding includes £225,000 on a Focused Deterrence behaviour change campaign targeting high harm, habitual knife carriers. PCC Matthew Barber said: “There is no single solution to preventing serious violence. Its impact on individuals and communities can be devastating and we continue to work collaboratively as part of the Violence Prevention Partnership to try to address root causes and support those most at risk."
• Love reservoirs? You could live by one! 150 homes are proposed for East Hanney in a site immediately beside the proposed Abingdon Reservoir (SESRO). Bloor Homes have filed a screening request, the first step in the protracted planning process, with Vale of White Horse District Council.
• And finally in the cutest story of the week, children at Cropredy Primary School will sing to 6,000 people at the Fairport Convention in Cropredy next month, after the school overhauled the curriculum to have the children learn about local history and folk music, plus geography and art via the waterways round Fairport this year. Headteacher Will Reeves, and the county Council's peripatetic folk teacher, Katie Harris, taught the children about local history via Fairport Convention's 'Red and Gold’. The lyrics are about the Battle of Cropredy Bridge in 1644, during the English civil war. Councillor Sean Gaul, Oxfordshire County Council: “For most school children, it’s nerve-racking enough standing up in the school hall, so imagine the jitters performing in front of thousands. I congratulate the school for having turned a vision into reality for the benefit of young people.”
  

Oxfordshire politics

• Green councillors in South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse have called for developers of renewable energy schemes to share benefits with the local communities that host them in motions carried in the two councils last week. “New renewable energy infrastructure has the opportunity to contribute positively to local residents in the communities hosting projects,” said Cllr Ali Gordon-Creed (South Oxon). Cllr Katherine Foxhall (Vale) added: “I see every day the huge contributions that the community-owned Westmill wind and solar farms make locally: open access approach to land, events and guided visits, educational resources and a local funding programme.”
• A second Liberal Democrat councillor on West Oxfordshire District Council is now sitting as an independent. Natalie King is councillor for Carterton North-West, the town being a LibDem/Con battleground. #straightouttacarterton
• Oxfordshire's Liberal Democrat MPs have demanded action from the Government on behalf of constituents struggling to access driving tests. In December 2024 the DVSA announced a plan to improve the situation, but Didcot & Wantage MP Olly Glover said: “I continue to hear from constituents who are waiting months for a driving test. Many are having to travel huge distances, and others are paying hundreds of pounds to buy driving test slots from middlemen that are exploiting young people.”

In our weekly roundup of our elected representatives’ doings:

• Matthew Barber, Thames Valley Police and Crime Commissioner is asking people to “report crime: don't assume someone else will do it”. Reporting can be done either online or via 101; he said average waiting times for 101 calls had reduced. (Extra Clarion points for posting pictures of his dog on social media)
• Anneliese Dodds, Oxford East MP, expressed her disappointment over the delay to the OUFC decision, and in Parliament called for an end to the war in Sudan. She was out on the doors in the rain in Barton.
• Sean Woodcock, Banbury MP, signed a letter to Richard Tice of Reform who promised to rip up green energy contracts if his party wins power (fair to say Woodcock is not impressed), and was out on the doors in High Furlong. He has a coffee morning for constituents in Charlbury on 2nd August if you want to talk to him.
• Didcot & Wantage MP Olly Glover chaired an event to discuss improving support for young carers across Oxfordshire.
• Henley & Thame MP Freddie van Mierlo was at Garsington Fete, and visited Shedquarters, a community project founded to help tackle loneliness and isolation among older people.
• Bicester & Woodstock MP Calum Miller celebrated the scrapping of Ofwat but said there was more to be done, starting with ending sewage dumping into bathing waters. As Foreign Affairs Spokesperson he took a nuanced position on the beginning of the conflict in Gaza but called for the UK government to 'do the right thing and make sure we're not part of this carnage'. He'll be at Bicester Library on Monday if you want to chat to him. Details here.

University and research

• Eight Oxford University researchers have been made Fellows of the British Academy, a sizeable chunk of the total 58 appointed this year. The British Academy is the country’s national academy for the humanities and social sciences. We posted about each new academician’s area of research on our Bluesky feed – worth browsing as a real tour de force of current humanities study.
• Oxford Brookes University’s Formula Student teams enjoyed success at Silverstone this weekend in a flagship motorsport competition for student engineers, Formula Student UK. Oxford Brookes entered two teams: its Electric Vehicle team and Oxford Brookes Racing Autonomous, which develops and races fully self-driving cars. Both won first place in the acceleration challenge, while the EV team came third overall and OBRA came second. Dr Andrew Bradley from Brookes' Autonomous Driving and Intelligent Transport group, said: “I am immensely proud of them. There's a lot of cutting-edge technology in the vehicle – they are learning skills that set them up to be the vehicle engineers and businesspeople of tomorrow.”
• Oxford University Press, the University-owned publisher has published its Annual Report for 2024/25. OUP reported Turnover of £796 million, and Profit of £61 million, both down on the previous year. In her introduction, Professor Irene Tracey emphasises the publishers role ‘in today’s increasingly polarized world’ with the launch of Oxford Intersections, a new series of online interdisciplinary research, and its first two topics: AI in Society and Racism by Context. It highlights a new Oxford Test for English (Advanced), and donations of 261,000 books worldwide. OUP has adopted a science-based target to be Net Zero Greenhouse Gas emissions by 2050 – 74% of its emissions are from paper and book production.
  

Trains and buses

• Oxford Bus Company and Thames Travel have been shortlisted for UK Large Bus Operator of the year in the Route One Awards, in recognition of achievements including the electrification of the Oxford city fleets, continued network growth, and successful partnership working with local authorities, plus community initiatives including the Christmas Lights Bus. Winners are announced in November.
• Great Western Railway (GWR) has unveiled a plaque at Goring & Streatley station to honour the work of community volunteers in improving the environment and accessibility at the station.
• A raft of bus service changes will take place from 31 August. In Oxford, the 400 (for Seacourt Park & Ride) will no longer run west of the station, being replaced by services 4A and 4B. Around the county, new Sunday services will serve Heyford Park–Bicester (25), parts of Banbury (B3/B4), and Chipping Norton–Moreton (801). There will be more fast services on the X4 (Banbury–Oxford) and S5A (Bicester–Oxford). The X32 from Didcot to Oxford will be increased to every 20 minutes. The S7 (Oxford–Woodstock–Witney) evening and Sunday frequency will be reduced following the cessation of funding from Estelle Manor. Some other routes will see service reductions due to low patronage. A full list of changes is here.

Walking, cycling and boating

• The £3.2m Woodstock Road improvements for walking, cycling & wheeling are now complete, say Oxfordshire County Council. Changes include new side road crossings, ‘at level’ shorter crossing distances for people walking and wheeling, and a new parallel crossing. Cllr Judy Roberts said: “I am delighted to see the improvements completed. Not only is it a visual improvement, it’s safer for pedestrians and cyclists.” We wrote about the scaling down of ambitions for Woodstock Road in a long read last year.
• The future of boating on the River Thames has been thrown up in the air by this week’s Government announcement on abolishing water regulator Ofwat. Currently navigation on the Thames is run by the Environment Agency, but this could change with the establishment of a new water quango. The announcement promises “one powerful regulator responsible for the entire water sector” and says the EA will “retain their non-water remits and responsibilities”, but is silent on the future of the EA’s non-regulatory functions, such as navigation and flood defence. Transferring the Thames to the care of the Canal & River Trust charity (which runs the Oxford Canal and rivers including the Severn) has previously been considered, but negotiations foundered on funding and responsibility for weirs, which are joint navigation and flood defence structures.

Congestion charge

A reminder that the consultation on Oxford’s proposed congestion charge closes on 3 August, with a cabinet decision in September. We looked at consultations, and why filling it out is important – whatever your views – in a short article last week.

Dates for your diary

Submitted by readers and our roving Clarion scribes. Thanks for all of your emails.

• Two stellar audiences with authors caught our eye in Blackwell's. Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, on his book This is for everyone: Wednesday 10 September, Sheldonian, 6pm. Details and booking (essential). Then Ian McEwan, award-winning author discussing his new novel with Richard Ovenden (Bodley’s Librarian): Saturday 13 September, 6pm. Details and booking (also essential).
• Three fabulous talks with critically acclaimed crime authors, at Dean Court Community Centre, Pinnocks Way, Botley: Olivia Kiernan (12 September), Eve Smith (3 October) and Cara Hunter (5 December). All events support Against Breast Cancer Abingdon.
• Bring-and-buy charity fair in support of Ukrainian paramedics. 9 August, 10am-12pm, Summertown Arts Centre, 294a Banbury Road. Food, plants, crafts, souvenirs.
• Apple pressing service opens for the summer at the Oxford Farmhouse, Bayswater Road, on 9 August. Get the apples from that tree in your garden pressed and pasteurised into juice, or donate them and receive a share of the juice.
• Oxford Storytelling Festival, 5-7 September, Waterperry House and Gardens. Voice, music, and performance workshops on the theme ’Earth, Connection, Mycelium’.
• Ancient Adventures at the Earth Trust, 6 August 10am-2pm, ages 7-12. A chance for young explorers to take on the role of a time-travelling tribe from Prehistoric Britain who suddenly find themselves in the 21st century! (The Earth Trust has some fantastic events this summer - full list here.)

This weekend

• Stop Starving Gaza, protest, today (Friday) at Carfax Tower, 6pm. Bring a pot or pan.
• Summer Cake Salon, Hamblin, Covered Market. Sunday, 10am “until sold out”. This requires no further explanation except to say we recommend showing up at 10.01. Or possibly earlier.
• Chipping Norton Pride, Saturday 11.30-4.30, Town Hall. DJs, Pride Market, and afterparty.
• Bluey comes to Templars Square, Saturday, 11-3. Take your child to meet everyone’s favourite Aussie dog!

(We are very proud of the variety of events this week. Please keep sending them in!)

Oxfordshire’s independent media

• Cherwell reckons Encaenia is PR without the public - or anyone else.
• Oxfordshire Uncorked: We went down a rabbit hole on Oxfordshire wine and found this website, rounding up Oxfordshire vineyards. We didn't know this was a thing either. Cheers!
• Bitten Oxford has scone (geddit?) to the Monkey Puzzle in Thame.
• Ox in a Box reviews Creation Theatre's A Midsummer Night's Dream: you can catch it until August 16.

Notes from Clarion HQ

What are you lot like?! Last week we said we had a general ‘no Clarkson’ rule but dropped in a link to our long read on the subject. The most clicked link in our newsletter last week? You guessed it. Perhaps the Oxford Mail know something we don't…

It’s been a case of the good, the bad and the ugly for our planning spies this week. Good – very good, even: the car-free development at Iffley Mead. 90 much-needed new houses on a derelict site in Oxford city, with greater density achieved by recognising many city dwellers simply don’t want or need a car. Kudos to Oxfordshire County Council for having the courage of its convictions to propose this for the land it owns, and Oxford City Council for its Local Plan that makes car-free developments possible – not all do!

Bad? West Oxfordshire District Council’s decision to let massive housing developments off contributions to community infrastructure. We reckon a £1,000 community contribution from each house sold would only amount to £4.75 per month over the course of a 25-year mortgage, assuming a 90% mortgage on a £450,000 property. Worth it for a liveable town, surely. And ugly: the farrago over the sudden discovery of ancient woodland at Oxford United’s proposed new stadium. We’re no dendrochronologists at the Clarion, but we are puzzled how ancient woodland – which is, by definition, “ancient” – can somehow magically appear overnight. In the week before a planning meeting. Seriously?

Our Thursday evening subbing this week has been squeezed between one editor finishing their holiday and another sailing off for theirs, so apologies in advance for any unexpected typos. We’ve had an unprecedented number of sign-ups in the last fortnight – thank you for being here, whether you’re a newcomer or a long-standing Clarionette (as the 1890s Clarion supporters rather delightfully called themselves).

We love hearing feedback on both the news itself and our reporting, so do keep the emails coming to news@oxfordclarion.uk. And if you know someone who might make a Clarionette, do share this email with them. Have a great weekend.