The Clarion, 14 April 2026 (the Morris edition)

Welcome to the Morris edition. With bells on.

This week's long read

Did the recent burst of spring-like weather turn your thoughts to the garden? Or perhaps one eye on the global stage made you gently reconsider future grocery bills? Today we reshare our recent article on growing your own food.

A beginner’s guide to growing your own food

Have you ever thought about growing your own food? To reduce food bills, or for the joy of using a few fresh basil leaves or a tomato that has real tomato flavour? We asked the Clarion’s resident horticulturist, Amandine Lepers-Thornton for her tips on starting out, whether you have a

Oxford ClarionClarion guest contributor

This week’s top stories

Bicester is set to get its much-desired underpass – with a motor traffic lane, segregated cycleway, and pavement. East West Rail today announced the solution is its “preferred option” subject to funding being found.

With up to ten trains an hour on East West services (two to Milton Keynes, two to Cambridge, and one possible extra service, then the same in the Oxford-bound direction) plus the existing Oxford–Marylebone service and freight trains, the existing London Road crossing was forecast to be closed almost constantly. Local campaigners and MP Calum Miller have been lobbying for a replacement underpass to connect the residential areas south of the line with the town centre to the north. Miller said:

“This is a genuine victory for Bicester, and it belongs to the campaigners, residents and businesses who refused to give up on London Road. In 2021, EWR consulted on closing the crossing altogether. Today, an underpass is their preferred solution. That shift has not happened by accident. There is one hurdle left, and that is funding. It needs to be resolved quickly so this preferred option becomes the delivered option.”

A consultation on East West Rail’s new proposals starts today, with in-person and online events from next week. Other changes include:

• Safety improvements for pedestrians and cyclists at the junction outside Oxford Parkway station
• New “active travel hubs” at Oxford Parkway and Bicester Village with cycle parking
• Battery-equipped hybrid trains capable of running on electric power along stretches without overhead wires
• Longer trains, up to five carriages each

EWR anticipate that trains will run from Oxford to Stewartby near Bedford, the station for the new Universal Studios theme park, by the early 2030s; to Bedford by the middle of the decade; and to Cambridge by the late 2030s. There is still no start date, however, for the Oxford–Milton Keynes service for which all the track is already in place.

Oxfordshire Fire & Rescue Service has withdrawn its plans to close Eynsham, Woodstock and Henley fire stations. It will instead focus on recruiting more on-call firefighters for the three locations, which have been dogged by low numbers of recruits.

Plans for a new fire station north of Oxford are also on hold, with Rewley Road to be retained for the time being. Oxford University had voiced concerns about the risk to historic buildings if a city centre fire station was no longer available – one of over a thousand responses to the consultation.

For Oxfordshire County Council, Cllr Neil Fawcett said: “The strength of feeling for retaining community fire stations is crystal clear. If Cabinet approves what is proposed we hope that we’ll receive support from local people as we roll out our recruitment campaign for more on-call firefighters.”

Around the city

• New coffee: The latest branch of Oxfordshire coffee empire the Missing Bean has opened in Oxford Business Park. It will be open weekdays 8am-4pm. It joins other branches on Turl Street, Magdalen Road, Abingdon, Botley, Woodstock and Charlbury.
• New beer: BMAN Brewery at Salters Boatyard, by Donnington Bridge, opened at the weekend. Twelve taps and “some delicious scran, and maybe if we're lucky, some sunshine” according to their Instagram. Have you been? Let us know and send photos. We love a new indie.
• New hotel: Further details have emerged on Oxford’s first capsule hotel, which promises 280 beds in a space-maximising compact arrangement. London capsule chain Zedwell wants to take on Oxenford House at 13-15 Magdalen Street, the floors above the Five Guys burger bar. The main entrance would be from the Friars Entry passageway. Five Guys would remain in situ as would the (currently vacant) basement nightclub. Oxenford House had received planning permission to become student accommodation, but owners Criterion Capital say a capsule hotel would fill a gap in the market for budget-friendly accommodation. They also claim that the hotel will take pressure off Oxford’s housing market by reducing demand for “unregulated short-term accommodation” (Airbnb-style). A planning application is with Oxford City Council.
• Goodbye Seattle, hello Kathmandu: a Gurkha restaurant is set to open in the former Starbucks in Headington. Namaste Gurkha Lounge has applied to open a “family-friendly restaurant and takeaway” at 71 London Road.

What the folk?

The Oxford Folk Festival returned to the city for the third year with music and Morris dancing throughout the city centre, from the Weston to the Westgate. Lord Mayor of Oxford, Louise Upton, was treated to an impromptu concert in the Lord Mayor’s Parlour while hosting ‘Aisling’ – an Irish folk group who, confusingly, come from Oxford's twin city of Leiden in the Netherlands. Folk dancers from around the country danced in the streets of Oxford, while the volunteer-run festival also laid on gigs and ceilidhs. We salute the team for this epic achievement.

The festivities continued throughout the city on Sunday, joined by crowds seeking a different sort of music who flocked to Broad Street to join DJ Dom Whiting leading a drum & bass bike ride through Oxford. Even hail couldn't stop it – although it did miss the turning for Divinity Road and end up in Florence Park, where, we are assured, it was met with a rainbow. The event was live-streamed.

Around the county

• Jawaid Malik has been appointed High Sheriff of Oxfordshire. This recognises decades of public service and commitment to supporting people across the county, from running Oxford's Asian Cultural Centre to opening his home as a Shared Lives carer. The High Sheriff is the monarch's representative in Oxfordshire, a mainly ceremonial role, but supporting judges, the police, and emergency services, and helping local community projects. The position is unpaid, and lasts a year.  The Sheriff was officially declared at a ceremony held at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, a setting chosen to reflect his commitment to dialogue, learning, and unity across faiths and communities. He replaces John May, the outgoing Sheriff. Jawaid has been a Justice of the Peace for over 20 years, and is actively involved in initiatives such as the Oxford Council of Faiths and the Oxford Asian Literary Society. As a Shared Lives carer, Jawaid and his family care for people in their community who need a long term home. In his address accepting the position, he quoted the poet Rumi: “Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself”. He pledged to serve with dedication and a willingness to listen, learn, and lead collaboratively.
• A small solar farm could be built on a strip of land between the A40 and M40 at junction 8. Holloway Farm is proposed as the site of a 1.5MW installation in an application lodged with South Oxfordshire District Council.
• Banbury Pride is set to return to the town on 30 May, bringing a day of celebration, community and inclusivity to the town. Following the success of the 2024 event, organisers promise a vibrant, family friendly programme of live entertainment, local community stalls and activities for all ages. The Banbury Pride volunteer committee said: “Banbury Pride is about bringing people together. It’s a moment to celebrate who we are as a community – open, welcoming and supportive – while also recognising that for some, feeling accepted isn’t always a given. Coming together as a community also means advocating for those who need our support. Unfortunately, trans rights are under threat here in the UK. It is a scary time to be trans and we will do all we can to push back against the anti-trans trend from the far right.” (Excellent candidate for the hashtag #BeMoreBanbury.)
• Kirtlington is set to get a brand new village shop and cafe next to the village hall, following five years of community effort to bring services back to the community. Since the local shop closed in 2020, the community has raised over £200,000 in donations and community shares. A ground-breaking event was organised for villagers and project supporters. The first spade was dug into the ground by Sally Nicholson from Kirtlington Park Estate, which has donated the land on which the new shop will be built, and Celia Hawkesworth, chair of the committee which has led the project. “We are passionate about introducing the community shop model here in Kirtlington,” said Celia. “We’re incredibly proud of how the community has come together over the past five years to fundraise. It’s a symbol of everyone’s commitment to our village’s future.”
• Flags latest: The United Reformed Church’s Wessex Synod has welcomed the formal legal notice issued by Oxfordshire County Council addressing the repeated installation of flags on or near highways without consent. In a statement, the Revd Dr Michael Hopkins, Moderator of the URC Wessex Synod, expressed praise for the council’s action and commitment to social cohesion, saying: “Churches are called to be people of hope, not fear. We welcome any step that helps ensure our streets and public spaces are places of safety, dignity, and neighbourliness for all. We want to affirm all that brings communities together, and to bear witness to the God who calls us away from division into compassion, justice, and a shared common life.”

Oxfordshire politics

Election season has officially started and candidate lists have been published.

In Oxford City, Labour, Greens, LibDems and Conservatives are standing in every ward, and Reform everywhere except Holywell. The Independent Oxford Alliance are only fielding five candidates.

In West Oxfordshire all five parties are standing in every ward being contested this year. In Cherwell most wards are a contest between Labour, Conservative, LibDem, Greens, and Reform, but Labour are absent in five contests. There are no elections this year in Vale of White Horse and South Oxfordshire, or on Oxfordshire County Council.

The Green Party has launched its manifesto for the Oxford City Council elections, pledging to build a “fairer, greener and more equal city”. They say that the manifesto was written following thousands of doorstep conversations with voters, and responds to the big issues that residents have raised. The manifesto is built around four key themes: tackling the housing crisis; standing up for Oxford’s diverse communities; taking action on the cost of living; and addressing the climate and ecological emergency.

Key pledges include: introducing an ‘Oxford Living Rent’ to help private renters secure more affordable homes; increasing the amount of bike parking; utilising council investments to put money directly into renewable energy generation; and doing more to welcome refugees in this City of Sanctuary. Green Group leader Chris Jarvis said: “If you want a city council that takes real action on the housing crisis, that stands up for Oxford’s diverse communities, that addresses the cost of living and that tackles the climate and ecological emergency, you can get it by voting Green on May 7.”

Labour launched their manifesto two weeks ago. We have yet to see manifestos from other parties or out in the districts: if you have them, please do send them our way so we can share them. Election content will continue right through until 7 May. As always, if you find our coverage helpful, do share it with a friend!

On then, to the highlights from our elected officials. Parliament has been in recess, so our representatives have been out and about in their constituencies. Or, we hope, taking a well-earned break.

• Banbury MP Sean Woodcock visited, among others, Banbury Larder, Morrisons, and Banbury Chamber of Commerce. It is easy for opposition MPs to put out statements saying “something must be done” but much harder for MPs in power to point to constituency achievements: this week we hold up Woodcock pointing to the cost of living help available from April as an example of Labour impact. Finally, for National Pet Day, he posted these excellent pictures of his cats, Midnight, Luna and Bella.
• Bicester & Woodstock MP Calum Miller is his party's foreign affairs spokesperson. He called for the UK to limit US access to UK airbases, and appealed for a fuel duty cut – something other leading local LibDems called “unprincipled populist nonsense”. (Trouble at t'mill?)
• Witney MP Charlie Maynard seems to have been doing a lot of listening this recess. This is an extraordinary account of an accidental chat with some mums to newborns, and their birth experiences. Then here’s a chat with a pub landlord, at the Red Lion in Northmoor, laying out the challenges being faced by the licensed trade.
• Oxford East MP Anneliese Dodds, just before we took a break for Easter, shared this video of her speaking in Parliament on outside influences on UK politics – from Elon Musk to Vladimir Putin. She is calling for swift action to keep British democracy free and fair (side eye to Hungary right now...).
• Oxford West & Abingdon MP Layla Moran met with the Consumer Council for Water, where she learned about consumer panels, which create a dialogue between residents and the water companies, and hope to restore trust. She raised recent constituent concerns, particularly the lowering of water pressure in north and west Oxford. She wants people to fill out a Government survey on social media use among teens.
• Didcot & Wantage MP Olly Glover had a science-y Easter recess, visiting Moderna vaccines in Harwell (remember Covid-19?) and Kyoto Fusioneering in Culham. (We're workshopping a new hashtag, to go with #BeMoreBanbury and #MakeAbingdonGreatAgain. #DidcotLeadsTheWay? Let us know what you think...)
• Henley & Thame MP Freddie van Mierlo is king of the photo-op, but even by his standards, this week is a shocker (see above). He visited Langtree School to see serious roof damage from crumbling concrete: parts are closed and classrooms moved to keep pupils and staff safe. He's backing their bid for funding for repairs. He also visited the Berin Centre in Berinsfield. It wouldn't be a politics update without someone writing a letter on water companies; this time it's van Mierlo, who wrote to the PM to oppose delayed fine payment plans for water companies.
• Thames Valley Police & Crime Commissioner Matthew Barber has been working on the Crime & Policing Bill. He's written to all MPs asking then them to back an amendment that would give the police, local councils and the courts more powers to permanently shut down criminal businesses on high streets. In his long running campaign to save pubs, he's calling for South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse district councils to act faster to support hospitality businesses. Here's his campaign. And here is the rest of his weekly recap.

University and research

• A spectacular new fossil site in southwest China has shown that key groups of animals evolved earlier than previously thought. Previously, most animal groups were thought to have evolved during the 'Cambrian Explosion', a rapid diversification phase at the start of the Cambrian Period, 535 myr ago. But these fossils, according to research from Oxford and China published in Science, push back the origins of key groups including deuterostomes (which today includes vertebrates, starfish, and their relatives), comb jellies, and wormlike animals into the Ediacaran period, four million years earlier. Co-author Ross Anderson from the Oxford University Museum of Natural History said: “Our results indicate that the apparent absence of these complex animal groups from other Ediacaran sites may reflect differences in preservation rather than true biological absence.”
• The newly opened Schwarzman Centre for Humanities hosts a free festival on Saturday 25 April: watch pop-up circus, poetry, music and dance performances, meet academics and artists who work at the centre, and see the Bate Collection's musical instruments.
• Birds are flocking to the Bodleian for its next show. The Wonder of Birds will explore ‘awe and loss’ through the seven wonders of Egg, Nest, Beak, Song, Feather, Flight, and Migration. The free exhibition opens on Saturday 2 May in the Weston Library. The complementary show Pets & Their People continues to Sunday 27 September. Both are part of the Bodleian’s Season of the Natural World, questioning humans' connection with, and disconnection from, nature.
• Tom Quad at Christ Church is changing colour. For the first time in 500 years, the college is planting flowers (lavender and germander) around the lawn to increase biodiversity. A lawn in King's College, Cambridge, has been planted as a wildflower meadow since 2020. (Readers told us that Lady Margaret Hall and Lincoln College in Oxford have similarly seeded their lawns. #WeAreAllTheClarion)
• New cat news: The incoming Principal of Hertford College has brought with her two cats, Myshkin and Koshka, say the college, although resident Simpkin “remains in possession of the main site”. We clearly need to update the cat article yet again.

Trains and buses

• The Oxford Tube express coach is reinstating its White City stop, dropped in March’s timetable change in favour of a new Acton stop for the Elizabeth Line, after passenger feedback. White City will be a request stop, requiring passengers to ring the bell to alight.
• Residents of Winslow, the town on the Oxford-Milton Keynes railway with a new station, have launched a petition demanding that services finally start. They say “The Government needs to break the deadlock between Chiltern Railways and unions.” The Clarion broke the story last September that the start of service had been delayed by a dispute over whether the trains would have guards. The RMT union wants guards on board to dispatch trains at Winslow, Bletchley, and Milton Keynes; driver-only operation is already standard at Oxford and Bicester.

Charity begins at home

• The Scoliosis Support and Research charity is hosting a ‘Walk Together’ event in the University Parks on Sunday 14th June, bringing together people affected by scoliosis, their families, and supporters from the local community.

Notes from Clarion HQ

We were delighted to receive this video of Morris dancing in the hail at the Oxford Folk Festival at the weekend, and we salute the dancers and their fortitude.

As recently as 2022, Broad Street was a car park…

When councillors took this bold decision, their vision for Broad Street probably wasn't precisely what this video shows. But it is an illustration as to what bold thinking, and sticking to your guns can deliver. City/District election season is upon us; you'll know if you're in a target seat by the amount of leaflets through your door. These councils cover housing, licensing, community facilities and more. Your vote will matter. Use it well.