Clarion Weekly, 25 October 2024

This week’s top stories

The ‘white elephant’ park and ride in Eynsham is to be connected to the A40 by early 2027. After a year’s delay, the Government finally approved the funding for the A40 improvements between Eynsham and Oxford – including the connecting road to the pre-existing car park that had become a cause célèbre for politicians and media alike. Bus lanes will be added at key points on the road, and sections of the cycleway upgraded. But why has it taken so long? We took a look at the saga in all its twists and turns. Featuring Jeremy Clarkson's dog.

Network Rail will today complete their investigations into a new connection for the water main that runs under the Botley Road rail bridge. Reconnecting the water main has been one of the main causes of delay in reopening the road; two previously proposed locations were rejected by Thames Water.

After these site investigations have concluded, Network Rail and Thames Water will draw up detailed plans, a process that will take several weeks in itself. The expectation is that these plans will exceed the original project budget, which means Network Rail will then need to apply to the Department for Transport for further funding. Only when this funding has been agreed can a final timetable for reopening the Botley Road be announced. We’re working on a longer report on this, but in short, don’t expect the road to open any time soon.

Oxford’s Lord Mayor this week carried out the annual inspection of the city wall through New College. The tradition began in 1379 when King Richard II granted land to the college on condition that it maintained the defensive walls. Oxford’s city wall dates from the 13th century and encloses only a small portion of the modern-day city centre, including Carfax and much of the High. A full history of the wall is here. We reported on the route that the Lord Mayor takes as part of this 650-year old tradition last week.

Around the city

• Saturday was the feast day of St Frideswide, Oxford’s patron saint. She was a 7th century Anglo-Saxon princess who founded a monastery that was later incorporated into Christ Church; the cathedral has a much-visited shrine with her remains. Her name is remembered in St Frideswide’s Church on Botley Road, in the Primary School on Cricket Road, in Frideswide Square by the station, and in the Frideswide’s Voices girls’ choir. A celebratory service was held in Christ Church Cathedral on Saturday at 6pm Oxford Time.
• An Oxfordshire Blue Plaque for the Revd W. A. Spooner, the former Warden of New College whose surname gave a new word to the English language, was unveiled at 11 Keble Road on Saturday by the Oxfordshire Blue Plaque Society. Spooner’s fame derives from eponymous distinctive verbal slips 'spoonerisms' . These involve the transposition of initial letters or syllables of adjacent words, with comic effect. “You have tasted two worms” to a student who wasted two terms, sadly, is believed to be made up.
• Hinksey Park and Redbridge Park & Ride could get a coffee bike. Oxford City Council's licensing committee this week considered an application from Lucy Hedges to run ‘Full of Beans’ along a regular Saturday morning route. In the application, she explained: “I would like to start from 6.30am due to the park being used early in the morning by dog walkers, lake swimmers, and visitors to Hinksey Pool which opens at 7am but the cafe not until 9. I am also keen to cater for football matches.” Several companies offer coffee bikes either for outright purchase or as franchise opportunities. Jericho Coffee Traders, based in Osney Mead, have a coffee bike as part of their fleet “for smaller events or private parties”.
• The new Northgate/Cheng Yu Tung Building on Cornmarket, opened by Jesus College in 2022, has added another tenant in the shape of Seoul Plaza, a Korean food store. The company already has a branch on Cowley Road. We reported previously that Barclays and HSBC are seeking to move into smaller units in the development to replace their current large outlets on Cornmarket.
• However, Barclays’ plans to move into the building have been refused by Oxford City Council due to concerns about over-prominent signs. Planners called them “obtrusive and incongruous additions to the high quality, prominent building”. Officers noted that “Signage for units was intended to be located in the small alcove space above the windows and this has been successfully achieved in Cosy Club and HSBC.” They say Barclays’ plans would “disrupt the uniformity of the windows and proportions of the building”.
• St Mary Magdalen Church is celebrating its 950th anniversary with a Dedication Festival this weekend. The Grade I listed ‘Mary Mags’ was built in 1074 and restored in 1841 by George Gilbert Scott. It is a centre of the Anglo-Catholic tradition in Oxford. The churchyard, visible from the northbound bus stops on Magdalen Street, is being restored as a green space in the city centre, including a new public entrance facing Cornmarket Street. An appeal for funds has so far raised £4,000. The name of the church is pronounced ‘Magdalen’ as spelt, unlike the college famously pronounced ‘Maudlin’. For this reason, Magdalen Street, which runs either side of the church, is also pronounced with a G.
• The ‘Worth Travelling For’ campaign launched by Magdalen Road residents this week highlights award winning family-owned restaurant Taste Tibet. With fewer than 1,000 Tibetans in the UK, owners Yeshi Jampa and Julie Kleeman say their cuisine is “not well represented in Britain”. Julie explained: “The restaurant’s sharing tables encourage individuals, couples and groups to enjoy the night together – we get very excited when diners make friends over a plate of momos and a Lucky Buddha Beer. We feel incredibly lucky to call this corner of Oxford home.”

Around the county

• An Oxfordshire space tech company is set to transform global communication with a pioneering 6G satellite precursor. Harwell's Open Cosmos will deliver an in-orbit lab to research end-to-end connectivity between terrestrial and non terrestrial networks. Open Cosmos is in charge of designing and building the platform, integrating the payloads, launch procurement and satellite operation. The activity is funded by the European Space Agency's 5G/6G & Sustainable Connectivity programme. (This one appears to have passed barely without comment, but we reckon an Oxfordshire business transforming the future of global communications is a pretty big deal…)
• Candidates have been announced for the Chipping Norton by-election after Rizvana Poole (Labour) stepped down. They are Mike Baggaley (LibDem), Kate England (Labour), Claire Lasko (Green), and Caspar Morris (Conservative). The election will take place on 14 November.
• Pension funds for council employees will no longer be invested in tobacco, thermal coal and tar sands, say Oxfordshire County Council, following the adoption of a new responsible investment policy. Cllr Donna Ford, Pension Fund Committee Chair, said: “As a fund, we have a commitment to be net zero by 2050. Thermal coal and tar sands are some of the most intense emitters of greenhouse gases, and not compatible with this, so we will be divesting from these highly polluting sectors.”
• Local residents in Berinsfield are launching a new community garden initiative, bringing together residents and local organisations to cultivate vegetables, herbs, and flowers while creating spaces for connection, learning, rest and reflection. The initiative, a community garden for growing produce, and a tranquil reflective garden in the Church of St Mary & St Berin's grounds, is being delivered through a partnership between the church, the Berin Centre, CAG Oxfordshire, Oxfordshire County Council and South Oxfordshire District Council. It will launch in a community gardening day on Saturday 26 October, 10:30am-12:30pm, outside the Berin Centre, Wimblestraw Rd. All ages are welcome and no prior gardening experience is required.
• The organisers of Chipping Norton’s Literary Festival are “calling it a day” after 12 years. Chair Liz Sich said “The current financial climate and funding challenges have sadly made it impossible to continue to stage an annual festival.” Since 2012, the festival has hosted authors including Ian Rankin, Jo Brand, Robert Peston, Lionel Shriver, Lee Child and more. It was founded by Clare Mackintosh, formerly a police officer in the town and now a million-selling author. An article in the Guardian this week asked whether the demise of ChipLitFest suggested book festivals were “on their last legs”. It noted that “publishers were beginning to question the wisdom of even sending their authors to such small festivals”.
• A scaled-down application for 114 new houses in Banbury has been lodged after two previous plans were refused. The plans are an extension to the existing Hanwell Fields estate, on the northern edge of the town. Unusually, they include a number of 2- and 3-bed bungalows. The previous application was refused for “the impact of the proposed built form on the surrounding context”. Developers Manor Oak say that including bungalows will “reduce buildings’ heights and scale where the site is most exposed to surrounding views”. On the other side of Banbury, a separate development of 150 houses (including 52 affordable) has been submitted for the village of Bloxham by William Davis Homes. The plans are for two-storey brick houses “recognisable as an extension to Bloxham but with its own identity”.
  

University and research

• The annual Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race is to be rebranded as the Chanel J12 Boat Race, taking on the name of a high-end timepiece produced by Chanel. They will sponsor the race as part of a multi-year sponsorship deal.
• Four researchers at the University of Oxford have been awarded prestigious Philip Leverhulme prizes, for researchers “at an early stage of their careers whose work has had international impact and whose future research career is exceptionally promising”. Their work spans quantum physics (Associate Professor Natalia Ares), the political economy of climate change (Professor Federica Genovese), computational neuroscience (Associate Professor Miriam Klein-Flugge), and floods & climate impacts (Professor Louise Slater).
• Oxford Brookes University has ranked third in the first-ever Higher Education Honordex report, which measures equality, diversity and inclusion in universities. The university scored just behind Bournemouth and Manchester Metropolitan universities. Adrienne Hopkins, Director of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, at Oxford Brookes said: “The findings of the report are very encouraging and demonstrate the commitment of Oxford Brookes to EDI over a sustained period of time. They are also a reminder that we – and the HE sector as a whole – still have a way to go to achieve a truly diverse and inclusive culture. Oxford Brookes’ EDI Strategy 2024-29, approved earlier this year, provides us with a framework to guide our work and continue to make improvements."
• A renal nurse at Oxford University Hospitals is encouraging Black heritage communities to embrace blood donation, after she discovered that she had a rare Ro blood subtype, most common in people of Black heritage and needed for the treatment of patients with sickle cell disease. 29 year old Amino Ali said: “I didn't realise how valuable my blood was until I saw the importance placed on my blood type by staff at the donor centre. It's fulfilling to know that every donation I make could save up to three lives.”
• Construction has been announced by Somerville College of a new home for the Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development, the Ratan Tata Building. Named after the Chairman Emeritus of the Tata Group, it will sit in the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter. Somerville College’s Principal, Baroness Royall, said: “This is the fruit of many conversations, hopes and dreams over the past decade and our long association with Mr Tata. It will stand as a permanent legacy to the life of a remarkable man and a dear friend of Somerville." Designed using Passivhaus principles, the mass timber-framed building will feature an airtight envelope with all-electric systems, including air source heat pumps and photovoltaic panels. Construction will begin in Spring 2025.
• Actor, author and Cambridge University graduate Stephen Fry has been appointed Visiting Professor of Creative Media at Oxford University Faculty of English. Professor Marion Turner, Chair of the English Faculty Board, commented: “Stephen's versatility, experience, and innovation across so many forms of media fit him perfectly for this role. Our Visiting Professors of Creative Media always inspire and add new perspectives.”
• Never shy to court controversy, Oxford University’s student debating club the Oxford Union this Thursday considered whether ‘This House Believes Islam is Incompatible with Democracy’. The Oxford Union is a private members’ club for students at the University of Oxford. It is not part of the University, nor is it the student union. Life membership costs £333. The Union describes itself as ‘the last bastion of free speech’. Its premises off Cornmarket Street often attract protests against controversial speakers, most recently ‘gender critical’ writer Kathleen Stock last May.

Trains and buses

• The first passenger units ran on Monday on the Oxford–Milton Keynes East West Rail line – although not carrying passengers. With the line formally handed over from its construction phase last weekend, Chiltern Railways and GWR have taken the opportunity to run test trains. Chiltern will be running the half-hourly service when it begins next year, once drivers have been trained on the route. GWR is not expected to run regular trains but could use the line as a diversion route.
• Community bus and car club operators across Oxfordshire have been awarded £106,500 of grants by Oxfordshire County Council. One recipient, OurBus Bartons, says the fund will help it to extend services with their two new electric minibuses.

Walking and cycling

• Thames Valley Police Commissioner Matthew Barber says TVP should “consider easier submission of third-party footage to better deal with issues including close-passing of cyclists”. The force has previously been criticised for its unwillingness to follow up submitted footage. The pledge comes in the PCC’s ‘Safer Roads for All’ plan, released on Tuesday. It also calls for TVP and highways authorities to “encourage segregated cycle infrastructure to better protect cyclists from motor vehicles”. However, the plan continues TVP’s scepticism towards widespread 20mph speed limits – as rolled out to many Oxfordshire towns and villages – saying instead that TVP and councils should “encourage compliance with speed limits through consistent application of Department for Transport guidance”. The plan prioritises driving behaviour and ‘Safe Systems’, rather than reducing journeys made by motor vehicles. PCC Barber said: “We need a focus on our faster, high harm routes if we are to see further reductions in casualties.”

Oxfordshire politics

• Bicester & Woodstock's Calum Miller on International Repair Day (nope, us neither) visited Bicester Green to repair his bike, and encouraged others to find their local repair shop or cafe and repair rather than replace. He was busy in Parliament this week: he spoke in a debate on SEND and asked the government to allocate more funds to councils to ensure SEND children are given the support they deserve. He spoke in a debate on water regulation, on behalf of his constituents who were hit by flooding saying that the proposed Clean Water Authority would ensure that the focus is performance, not profit.
• Oxford West & Abingdon's Layla Moran presented a bill to Parliament on recognising Palestinian statehood, and called, again, for a ceasefire. She highlighted Dementia Clinics available in nationwide branches on local high streets.
• Henley & Thame's Freddie van Mierlo called for an “end [to] this farcical situation of the MHRA & NICE approving and then ruling out new Alzheimer’s medicines for all but who can pay privately”. (Context here.) He met with a campaign group on pensions He spoke in Parliament in a debate on paternity leave, urging the government to 'get on with it' .
• Didcot & Wantage's Olly Glover had an opinion piece published in Rail magazine on what our railways need (reliability, cheaper fares, a comfortable on board experience, good wifi and timetables integrated both within the railway and with buses). He's hiring a campaign organiser too, if that's your bag. In Parliament he signed a letter asking for the Chancellor to provide more support to rural communities in her budget. He also spoke in the debate on paternity leave, sharing the visit of the Europa School to Parliament that we reported on last week. His speech in the water debate on sewage and leaks is frankly terrifying and worth a watch, especially if you are interested in the proposed mega reservoir in this constituency. He called for the Chancellor to reform the business tax system to give local businesses 'certainty, stability and support'. He also spoke in Parliament about the impact of unpaid carers, calling on his experience of being a Motor Neurone Disease Association carer.
• Witney's Charlie Maynard had a sewage-y week. He met with OfWat's CEO, and also spoke in the debate in Westminster on water companies calling his constituency 'ground zero for pollution', and calling out the precarious financial state or 'death spiral' of some of the water companies – another speech worth a listen in full as it adds a different dimension to the usual water debate. He waded in to the debate on the Eynsham Park & Ride, saying his preference was to upgrade it to a rail station with regular services to Oxford. He spoke in Pariliament on Black History Month, calling out the Windrush that flows through the constituency. At the weekend he watched the banger racing at Standlake and had his covid jab, calling on others to do the same.

• Oxford East's Anneliese Dodds had an extremely busy week as a minister; locally, she has been on the doorsteps in Oxford,visited the Laina Imaillah Meena Bazaar at in Littlemore Village Hall, plus attended a Tech Works event at IF Oxford. She has also reignited her ongoing campaign for Royal Mail deliveries in Oxford East, writing a letter to Royal Mail demanding a permanent solution.
• Banbury's Sean Woodcock has visited 10 Downing Street, reiterated his support for Ukraine given North Korea's entry into the conflict, met with Labour Coast & Country to discuss local devolution, voted for the Employment Rights Bill, was out on the doorsteps in Steeple Aston and held a surgery in Charlbury. And he made it to the Michaelmas Fair in Banbury.

This weekend

• Oktoberfest in South Park, Friday evening and Saturday. Features live oompah band and axe throwing. Stagecoach are running special shuttle buses.

Dates for your diary

• Former Verve frontman Richard Ashcroft is to star in Nocturne Live at Blenheim Palace next summer, along with The Lightning Seeds and the Zutons. Pre-sales for subscribers went live on Tuesday.
• Aloha Late Night at the Pitt Rivers. Join esteemed Hawaiian artist Solomon Enos in creating a community artwork celebrating Hawaiian quilting and storytelling traditions – plus enjoy Hula dance, poetry, films, music, a bar & more. Fri 8 November, 7-10pm. Free tickets here. (We bring you the most eclectic events, do we not?)

Across Oxford’s independent media

We thought we’d take the opportunity to highlight some of the other independent publications in Oxford, which give a colourful, wide-ranging, and optimistic view of the city. Here are a few pieces that have caught our attention this week:

• Morris Oxford joins the annual inspection of the city walls.
• The Oxford Sausage talks to Trevor Joseph about his childhood in Headington.
• Ox In A Box speaks to Clinton Pugh about buying back Kazbar on Cowley Road. (Check out the great picture of the Dawson Street LTN.)
• Cherwell has been interviewing candidates for the University of Oxford’s Chancellor role, including Elish Angiolini and “anti-woke” Matthew Firth.
• Daily Info finds out how Fusion Arts are turning empty buildings into art spaces.
• Nightshift’s November issue is now out.
• (And the junior members of Team Clarion insisted we include the Oxford-made Phoenix comic in here.)

Notes from Clarion HQ

This week’s story on the Eynsham Park & Ride is a fascinating example of how local news develops, who influences it, and the different angle chosen by each outlet.

National papers had written about the P&R over the summer, with the Telegraph writing a particularly outrage-fuelled piece about “The pointless £51m car park that symbolises Oxford’s war on motorists”. The Oxford Mail had run a story on the missing access road back in April. We had occasionally reported progress since December 2022, and had a long read 75% ready to go, waiting on the outcome of an FOI request to Homes England for the last 25%.

On Monday came the long-awaited announcement that a set of A40 upgrades would indeed take place, but scaled down from the original plans. Oxfordshire County Council put out a press release which focused on what would be delivered, not what was being dropped from the programme. How did this land?

We hastily set to rewriting our long read on the Eynsham Park & Ride, majoring (as you’d expect for the Clarion) on the bus and cycling aspects of the scheme, its importance to housing, and where the money was coming from. At the same time, we put in an enquiry to OCC’s press office asking about the A40 Witney–Eynsham dualling, notably missing from the release. OCC swiftly confirmed that this was no longer “part of this next proposed phase of construction” and we ran with this, while not elevating it to the lead.

BBC Oxford’s story was little more than a rewording of the press release, as was the Oxford Mail’s (AI-assisted) story. But we weren’t the only ones to spot the dualling had been dropped. Conservative councillor Liam Walker, one of Oxfordshire’s most savvy campaigners, had done so and swiftly put out his own press release, replete with eye-catching AI illustration and a mention of “this anti-motorist coalition”. This became the basis for another Oxford Mail story, duly highlighting what had been “scrapped” rather than what would still be built.

Meanwhile, Witney’s new LibDem MP Charlie Maynard picked up on our story and highlighted the potential for “a rail station with half-hourly train services to Oxford”. And showing that community media can often unearth information missed by the professionals, Eynsham Online had a comment from OCC’s Dan Levy explaining exactly how the funding had worked out.

Are we saying that one approach is better than another? Not at all. We wrote about it in the way that we thought would be most relevant and interesting to our readers, within the time we had; other outlets did likewise. But we thought you might be interested to see how one story can land very differently.

Finally, we’ve had a raft of new contributors this week: fact checkers, error spotters, picture providers, general value-adders, and a new writer. We thank each and every one of you – you make it what it is. We really are all the Clarion.