The Clarion, 7 July 2026

A bumper crop of Oxford shop and cafe news for you this week, lab space, conservation areas, and politics. Plus we cast a design eye over the postcards sent by Oxfordshire’s contenders to become Town of Culture. (Spoiler: far too much AI.)

This week’s top stories

The debate over homes vs lab space in Oxford looks set to be a flashpoint as Oxford City Council prepares to submit its new Local Plan to Government. The plan sets out how Oxford will develop until 2045, identifying specific sites for commercial use, residential, or both.

It is due to be approved by the council’s Labour cabinet tomorrow, then taken to the full council on Monday 13 – where Labour is a minority, and could potentially be outvoted by Green and Liberal Democrat councillors. When the three parties confirmed “an open and collaborative approach” to governing the city after May’s elections, opposition councillors specifically called out the employment/housing mix as an area of concern.

Oxfordshire thinktank POETS says it wants a rethink. Chris Cousins explained:

“The City Council claims ‘extremely high employment levels’ in the City, so surely the real challenge is to meet the housing needs of existing local residents, not to create more jobs which will add to the number of people seeking housing? There needs to be a more strategic approach that balances housing and jobs, and which also pays attention to the types of jobs provided. Not everyone will be able to work in a seemingly endless supply of new ‘lab space’.”

Although new developments are envisaged across the city, one particular focus is ‘Oxford’s West End’, extending from Worcester Street car park out towards the A34 at Botley. The Local Plan principally envisages employment uses for the Island Site between Hythe Bridge Street and Park End Street, and the vast Osney Mead site west of the river, while suggesting the Botley Road Retail Park is becoming “a modern urban science district”. POETS calls this “a location well suited to new housing”.

Oxfordshire County Council is returning to court in its battle to stop Raise The Colours erecting flags on highway land. A High Court hearing has been scheduled for Thursday in which the court will “consider the operation of the injunction”.

Meanwhile, RTC Oxfordshire leader Ben Cullen, who is facing three counts of making indecent photos of children, posted a statement proclaiming his innocence. “I would like to clarify that everything found on my laptop was only found on the hard drive. This was a replacement hard drive from a 2nd hand computer and was not formatted so to keep costs down. Unfortunately, my case has been delayed until June next year so my name will not be cleared until then.”

A traditional stone wall in Headington Quarry has won a reprieve from plans to replace it with metal railings. The boundary wall of Masons Alley had fallen into significant disrepair over the course of a long dispute about ownership. A report, published in 2010 by Oxford City Council, identified “loss of traditional stone boundary walls” as a particular vulnerability in Headington Quarry Conservation Area, and mentioned this wall in particular.

Oxfordshire County Council had agreed to carry out repairs, but intended to demolish the higher portion, which serves as a boundary to the eponymous pub. A metal replacement is less expensive than sympathetic repair; work of this type within a Conservation Area traditionally requires planning permission which was not applied for.

But on Monday morning, as work was scheduled to begin, Cllr Roz Smith (LibDem, Headington & Quarry) reported that the replacement had been halted. “The planned work to install a metal fence to replace the upper part of the Quarry stone wall in Masons Alley has been stopped following requests from myself and the Friends of Quarry. It is important to rebuild and retain one of the most prominent features of the conservation area using traditional methods – putting in a metal fence to replace the traditional stone feature would be running a coach and horses through the conservation area policy.”

The Friends of Quarry group added: “County Highways have stated they have legal right to do the work without conservation approval. We believe a metal barrier would set an unacceptable precedent and undermine the basis and purpose of the Conservation Area status.”

Around the city

• Bad Girl Books, a shop dedicated to romantasy books (romance / fantasy), opened its doors this weekend with queues stretching down the road. Following a series of successful popups around the country, owner Starlin Marot returned to her university town to open a permanent location at 29 Walton Street. Romantasy, a subgenre of romance, has gained popularity in recent years as social media influencers draw attention to their favourite books and authors. Romance remains one of the largest and financially successful categories within publishing, despite some disparagement.
       Bad Girl Books will be open from 10am-5pm on the weekends and from 12pm-7pm on weekdays, and stocks traditional, indie, and self-published books. The shop will host authors each weekend for the rest of the summer: a list of events can be found on social media and their website. The Guardian reviewed it here.

• It’s a bumper retail news week. Oxford could be getting a third Gail’s, at the Westgate Centre, to add to the Little Clarendon Street and Summertown branches. The bakery chain has applied for building permission at the unit formerly occupied by Le Pain Quotidien. All three locations are in the Oxford West & Abingdon constituency held by Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran: in 2024, the LibDems were said to have targeted constituencies with a Gail’s in ‘Operation Cinnamon Bun’. (Political observers will note that Gail’s has also recently opened a branch in Banbury.)
       East Oxford's popular tapas restaurant-cum-cocktail bar Arbequina – one of only two Oxford based restaurants listed in the Michelin Guide – have now announced the opening date for their second location in the Covered Market as Friday 24 July. Arbequina ran a successful crowdfunder last year to help fund their expansion which raised more than £30,000.
       Oxfordshire gelato firm Alfonso Gelateria are expanding into Little Clarendon Street, joining locations in Witney, Woodstock and a food truck in Summertown. They have submitted plans to open a branch at number 20, formerly the Steamhouse bagel bar and next to (yes) Gail’s bakery.
       And finally, Oxford’s new branch of outdoor clothing store Mountain Warehouse opened at the weekend in William Baker House, the former Waterstones. Signs in the windows show that there is already a ‘70% off’ sale.
• OUFC stadium latest: Campaign group Friends of Stratfield Brake has been refused permission to apply for a judicial review of the planning consent for Oxford United’s new stadium, at the Triangle near Kidlington. The High Court’s opinion was that the arguments around ancient woodland were “unsustainable” and that matchday traffic concerns were not an issue.
       FOSB says “this is not unusual at this stage”. Their lawyers have now applied for a “permission hearing” at which they will set out why they believe a judicial review should be granted. A similar process took place with the attempt to secure a judicial review into Oxford’s congestion charge, which was ultimately refused in April. Likewise, OUFC says it is “confident that the claim will ultimately be dismissed”.

Around the county

• Oxfordshire County Council is considering buying a solar farm. Restricted papers for next week’s Cabinet meeting cover a commercially confidential “potential investment in renewable energy infrastructure”. OCC is being forced to consider its investments, its capital (one-off) and revenue (ongoing) spending in the face of Government cuts, spending on children’s social care, and inflation. Cllr Dan Levy said: “Councils like Oxfordshire will see real terms reductions in grant funding as a result and it leaves us more exposed when extra pressures arise.”
• Paint Abingdon Pink was the theme at the weekend for local charity Against Breast Cancer’s popular annual fundraising event. There was music, dancing, food, Star Wars characters (natch), and a marketplace full of stalls. The line-up included everything from Morris dancers to belly dancers. Against Breast Cancer conducts research to detect, prevent and treat breast cancer, a serious disease that affects millions of people in the UK.
• As one bookshop opens, another closes. Christian bookshop St Andrews Bookshop in Witney is closing after 40 years. They wrote: “It has been an absolute privilege to have served the community for so many years.” Faringdon’s Mustard Seed and Grove’s Cornerstone are the last remaining Christian (new) bookshops in Oxfordshire.
• Fourteen fire engines were brought in to battle a wildfire in Aston Tirrold, near Didcot, yesterday. Oxfordshire Fire & Rescue were on the scene for eight hours in the afternoon and evening. They said: “We would like to thank the local community for their patience and support while fire crews worked to bring the fire under control.”
• No charges will be brought as a result of the investigation into the Bicester Motion fire in May 2025, in which 3 people died. Thames Valley Police say: “Following a thorough investigation, we have not made any referrals to the Crown Prosecution Service.”
• A by-election will be held for the Kidlington West seat on Cherwell District Council on Thursday 16 July, following the resignation of incumbent LibDem Dorothy Walker. Candidates are:
  🔵 Conservative: Chuk Okeke
  🔶 Liberal Democrat: Rob Packard
  ➡️ Reform UK: Dave Paintin
  💚 Green: Jenny Tamblyn
       The Conservative candidate, Chuk Okeke, was elected as Labour district councillor for Banbury Cross & Neithrop in 2022, but switched to the Conservatives in 2025 before losing his seat to Reform in this year’s elections.

Oxfordshire politics

It has been a whole two weeks and no one has mentioned Thames Water. Can someone do a welfare check on our MPs?

• Banbury MP Sean Woodcock was caught up in a spat with Calum Miller, MP for neighbouring Bicester & Woodstock. In a Facebook post he accused Miller and Cherwell District Council leader Lesley McClean of “opting for cheap headlines” over the proposed asylum seeker accommodation at MoD Bicester, saying it was the beginning of a formal process: “Cherwell District Council was engaged in the engagement plan. Efforts were made to engage elected representatives, including relevant councillors.”
       Miller, whose constituency houses the eponymous MOD site, called this a “bizarre intervention”, writing: “Rather than throwing accusations at local representatives from the sidelines, you would be better placed to ask your own Government why residents near to MOD Bicester had to wait until Tuesday for the first written information on these plans."
       Cllr Laura Gordon (LibDem, Kidlington North & Otmoor) added: “Sean, this site is in my division. My phone number is on the OCC website. I am not hard to get hold of. I heard about it about half an hour before the embargo lifted. Please can you describe what efforts were made to contact me as one of the relevant councillors, or apologise for misleading the public.”
       Switching gear entirely, Woodcock marked the two-year anniversary of his election. “It remains the honour of my life. Despite being born and spent most of my life here, I have encountered new things and I have learned so much from the people I have met. I remain focused on continuing to serve the constituency, supporting local communities, and addressing the issues raised by you.”
• Bicester & Woodstock MP Calum Miller held a public cross-party meeting to canvass opinion on the proposed asylum centre at MOD Bicester. Miller's contention is that the site, proposed as home for 1,250 men seeking asylum, is an inappropriate place for the centre given that it is in a rural area with a single small shop, an infrequent bus service, no proper footpaths, and no additional provision for local services or infrastructure. The campaign also took in a question in Parliament and a planned meeting with local councillors. (Looks like it’s shaping up to be his new London Road underpass…)
• Witney MP Charlie Maynard, on Times Radio, made the case for a railway connecting Witney and Oxford. He also shared the LibDem case for being back in the EU to back jobs and investment. Here's a round-up of what he got up to in June.

• Oxford East MP Anneliese Dodds has had a constituency week in the sun. She was out on the doors in Temple Cowley, did a sponsored swim in Hinksey Pool, and attended Sigur Rós' Ára at the new Schwarzman Centre.

• Oxford West & Abingdon MP Layla Moran had her bike stolen from The Plain roundabout at around 11pm on Friday. An electric cargo bike, it is a black Pakyak E+ with baby carrier. A police report has been filed. In other news, she called for a debate on the UK-US pharma deal, which has been estimated as bringing along some £14bn of incremental costs: this video is her take on the background and implications. (Spot another MP apparently asleep…) On an entirely different note, she has tabled an Early Day Motion calling for a knighthood for England striker Harry Kane. (No comment.)

• Didcot & Wantage MP Olly Glover spoke up in Parliament against proposed cuts from the Science Technology Facilities Council, which he says threaten jobs in Harwell. (The Minister responded that no final decision has been made.) His weekly roundup frustratingly sheds absolutely no light on why he wishes to fix politics for cats – we think it is something to do with electoral reform. But it does contain school visits including a Climate Conference, proving yet again, that in Oxfordshire, the kids are all right.
• Henley & Thame MP Freddie van Mierlo spoke in Parliament to challenge the Flood Resilience Grant scheme. He says that since 2,000 homes have to be flooded before payments are triggered, rural areas, like the frequently flooded Wheatley, are unfairly disadvantaged. Celebrating the two year anniversary of his election as the first non-Conservative in Henley in 114 years, he issued a highlights reel which gives an insight into the work of a backbench MP.

• Thames Valley Police & Crime Commissioner Matthew Barber this week welcomed the launch of new Safety Camera Motorcyclists to “provide a more agile and responsive approach to road safety enforcement, supporting the force’s focus on improving road safety”. Keeping with the traffic theme, he is also campaigning for a review of the Orchard Centre junction in Didcot, calling out Oxfordshire County Council for their inaction on a traffic hotspot. Here is his week's recap.

University and research

• With another heatwave on the horizon, research from Oxford Brookes demonstrates that the UK’s built environment is dangerously incapable of handling the heat. Up to 10,000 excess deaths from heat could be avoided with timely action, two recent reports show. Research and actionable data from Rajat Gupta will allow policymakers and developers to retrofit current buildings to comfortably withstand extreme heat. Along with other measures, and policies for new builds, homes and public sites could be adapted for climate resilience. “Adaptation can no longer be treated as optional,” Professor Gupta says. (And if you’re interested in how this could pan out for Oxfordshire, we wrote about council progress in addressing the climate emergency last week.)
• Oxford University has published its latest annual report on undergraduate admissions. Of UK students accepted for undergraduate courses at Oxford in 2025, 70% are white (compared to 64% across all UK universities) and one in three was educated at an independent school.
• Zooniverse, the science crowdsourcing platform launched at Oxford University in 2007, has recorded its billionth contribution. Astronomer Chris Lintott set up Galaxy Zoo to classify images of galaxies. It has expanded to cover multiple fields, including zoology.
• James Maynard has been appointed as the second ever Regius Professor of Mathematics at Oxford University. He is best known for his work on the theory of prime numbers. He succeeds Andrew Wiles, the first holder of the post (since 2018), who is best known for proving Fermat’s Last Theorem.
• The Oxford University research unit famous for Cecil the Lion is to take part in a new project linking environmental conservation and war studies. The Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU) and the Strategy, Statecraft & Technology (Changing Character of War) Centre will work together in the world’s first-ever interdisciplinary research centre on the two subjects, hosted at Pembroke College. WildCRU sprang to fame when Cecil the Lion, whom it was tracking, was shot by a trophy hunter. The Recanati-Kaplan Minerva Institute is established thanks to a £4m donation by Pembroke alumnus and philanthropist Thomas S Kaplan. Ernest Ryder, the Master of Pembroke College, said: “We are honoured to host this important collaboration, strategically placed not only to tackle global challenges of geopolitical uncertainty and biodiversity conservation, but also to examine the interplay between stability and conservation.” (We wrote about the philanthropists fuelling Oxford's growth in a long read last winter.)
• And another new interdisciplinary initiative will look at achieving healthy, sustainable diets at population level. A £5m gift from shipping magnate Lal Chellaram will fund the new programme, which will focus on “high income countries where current consumption patterns place significant pressure on health and environmental systems”.
• “Enshittification” has made it into the Oxford English Dictionary. Coined by author Cory Doctorow, it is defined as “the process by which an online platform degrades over time, typically resulting from business decisions prioritizing profit”. It is one of 900 new entries this quarter. Other new entries include “incel”, “floordrobe”, “oganesson”, “heritage brand”, “yeah nah” and “lutefisk”. New pronunciation guides include audio from Merseyside speakers, “particularly suitable for entries to which OED applies a ‘Liverpool’ label, such as ‘jerry-built’”.
• A Thame-based startup which rates businesses on their environmental performance has launched a new online directory where anyone can look up a company’s score, from 0 to 5. Earthmark uses publicly available data to generate environmental and governance scores. Earthmark says it chose Thame because “Oxfordshire is front and centre of advances in climate tech and AI”. Perhaps surprisingly, it rates Tesco as the most environmentally-friendly UK supermarket, while Adobe has the highest score of any major IT company.
• Oxford University has signed a new charter committing it to at least 52 weeks of maternity leave for female DPhil researchers, including two weeks’ paid leave for partners. There is currently no paid maternity leave for PhD researchers. Men are three times more likely to have R&D careers: although 53% of science undergraduates are women, just 31% of professorships are held by women. The charter also commits signatories to adjusting timelines, applications and assessments to support those working flexibly.

Trains and buses

• Experts on rail, bus and urban design gathered to discuss designs for a new transport hub at Oxford railway station last week in an event organised by campaign group Oxon4Buses and chaired by Neale Coleman, Chair of the Oxford Growth Commission. The event identified priorities for the station architects, who are due to be appointed soon, and was described by Coleman as the start of a process that will include further engagement. It identified the importance of the station both as a gateway to the city and as a multi-modal transport hub, where the railway connects to walking, cycling, micromobility and bus links, with cycle parking and information needing dramatic improvement. There is a shared desire to improve public space in the wider area of the station, ‘extending the red line’ as one delegate put it.
       Passenger numbers at Oxford are expected to more than double by 2040, with new services to Bristol, East West Rail, the Cowley Branch Line, and more journeys from existing Oxfordshire stations. The meeting worked through the needs of four transport ‘personas’: a commuter/business traveller, a disabled person, an elderly person and a young person.
• The notoriously uncomfortable seats on GWR’s intercity trains are to be upgraded. Padding on many of the seats, which were specified by the Department for Transport, has worn out since introduction in 2017. From late summer, new seat bases are to be fitted with an improved ‘pocket-sprung’ construction. GWR’s Luke Farley said: “We've worked closely with Hitachi Rail to design an upgrade that will transform comfort and make the seats better than new.” They will also fit new carpets and clearer signs for the quiet carriage.
• 173 electric buses are now in service across the roads of Oxfordshire, following another delivery of single-deckers to Oxford Bus Company, to be used in semi-rural routes from Oxford and Bicester. The buses have air conditioning (with a zero-emission heat pump) and can move up to 45 passengers.
• Rail minister Peter Hendy says that the Government “continues to work closely with Chiltern Railways and other partners to confirm a start date for the first East-West Rail services between Oxford and Milton Keynes”. The services have been slotted into the December timetable but are not yet flagged as carrying passengers.
• Work to improve bus journey times on Cherwell Street in Banbury is taking place this month, with a new road layout and traffic signals. The road will be closed at night with diversions in place.
• A report by ‘people-powered alliance’ Citizens Oxford (nope, us neither) argues that bus fares for young people in Oxford should be reduced. “One student explained that they had taken on additional work shifts simply to afford travel to school – cutting into their study time… Many specifically questioned why young people are expected to pay full adult fares despite continuing in education.”

Postcards from Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire’s entrants for the ‘UK Town of Culture 2028’ title have submitted postcards for the latest stage in the competition, viewable (together with 200 others towns across the UK) on an interactive map. Our first thought? If you’re trying to convince judges about your arty little town, maybe lay off the ChatGPT a bit. A short tour…

Carterton: Co-opting “Greetings from California” is a bold look. We have been to Carterton and we have been to Santa Cruz and they are quite different. (There is not a lot of surfing in Carterton.)

Banbury: We have just had the longest run of sunny days in years and yet these photos are unremittingly grey. Full marks for honesty for capturing the quintessential Banbury experience (a traffic jam) in the Banbury Cross photo. But it’s not AI, so well done Banbury.

Watlington: We are guessing this is some kind of subversive Dadaist take on the Town of Culture competition, because we genuinely don’t see how an aerial shot of Watlington Industrial Estate, home of injection moulding specialists D&E Plastics, screams “culture”. Anyone?

Thame: A lovely real heritage shot ruined by the accompanying AI text, which says “From Music in the Park, Pride in the Square, Duck Race on the River, and stories of local legends in the Museum, culture here isn’t an add-on — it’s everyday life.” They even left the em-dash in.

Kidlington: The graphic design is a bit old-school, but the postcard text is so heartwarmingly lovely we’ve snapshotted it here. Well done, Kidlington. We’re rooting for you.

Abingdon: Oh come on. One of the most creative, independent-minded towns in Oxfordshire and they submit this travesty of an AI image. We are actually quite cross about this.

Burford: We have a winner! Burford’s postcard is the only one by an actual artist: ‘An Impression of Burford High Street’ by Helen Byrne Bryce (1891-1971), from the town’s Tolsey Museum. Ok, a living artist would be better for the ‘Town of Culture’ title, but still. Top marks to Burford.

(Henley and Wallingford have also entered the competition but hadn’t submitted postcards at the time of writing. Possibly wise.)

Notes from Clarion HQ

Rumours are swirling that a decision could be announced on the future shape of Oxfordshire’s councils this week… but that might just be a cheese-induced fever dream. We’ll keep you posted. From politics to postcards, we hope we brightened up your week a little. See you on Friday.