The Clarion, 16 December 2025

It's nearly Christmas. Are you ready yet? To paraphrase the carol, today we have: seven brand new shops, six bed suites, five new towns, four school visits, three villages getting a new bus service, two MPs angry about Thames Water, and… a really very lovely fluffy cat.

This week’s top stories

Lord Mayor Louise Upton lit a menorah outside the Clarendon building on Sunday in celebration of Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of light. The menorah has been lit annually in Oxford for 25 years. It has been previously lit on St Giles and elsewhere on Broad Street.

Speakers included former Lord Mayor and first Jewish mayor of Oxford Elise Benjamin; Dinah Rose KC, President of Magdalen College; and Mark Simon, President of the Oxford Jewish Congregation. Speakers acknowledged the tragedy in Australia and paid respects to the victims.

The Jewish community in Oxford is one of the oldest in England, having arrived in 1080 and having played a role in the founding of Merton College. The menorah is dedicated each year to Mike Woodin, a former City Councillor who died in 2004 aged 38.

The new Oxpens Bridge is still on track despite the contractor pulling out, says Oxford City Council.

Balfour Beatty had been appointed lead contractors to build the walking and cycling bridge across the Thames, but have unexpectedly pulled out. The project is running to a tight timescale due to the need to install the main span over the river in September, before the flooding season; this means that the steel order must be placed no later than mid-January. Oxford City Council has now been forced to place a ‘direct award’ with Nottingham-based steel suppliers Briton Fabricators to ensure it remains on track.

The Hands Off Grandpont Nature Park campaign, which opposes the bridge, said they were pleased to see Balfour Beatty quit following ethical concerns around the company, but asked: “Has the latest £14m price tag for the bridge been affected by this move? We have said from the start that this bridge, which would simply duplicate the two existing bridges in the area, is an outrageous misuse of housing funds to serve the private commercial interests of Oxford University.”

For the City Council, Cllr Alex Hollingsworth said: “The Council has been out to tender for a contractor to deliver the Oxpens River Bridge, following the decision by Balfour Beatty not to take forward the project. Submitted tender returns are currently being assessed and it remains the intention to deliver the bridge in 2026. The bridge will provide an attractive walking and cycling route enhancing connectivity between the south and west of the city and the city centre.”

Oxfordshire could become a county of 1 million residents, many living in “edge-of-city developments and urban extensions to Oxford”. The forecast is in the interim report of the Government’s Oxford Growth Commission, chaired by one of the figures behind the 2012 Olympics, Neale Coleman. Scroll down for our full summary.

Around the city

• Seven new store openings in Oxford city centre! In short order:
  • The new Pop Mart store has opened on Cornmarket, with shoppers serenaded by university a cappella group Out Of The Blue at Saturday’s opening. Lord Mayor Louise Upton cut the ribbon with a queue forming down the street for the first chance to buy Labubu-style collectible toys.
  • Italian cafe Amorino opened on the same day, a few doors down. The cafe sells ice creams and sorbets, sundaes and milkshakes, gelato macarons, crepes and waffles, hot drinks, gelato cakes, and Italian pastries.
  • The Vaults & Garden has relocated to King Edward Street from its former site in the University Church. Its tenancy there was the subject of a protracted legal battle but the new site is looking fabulous.
  • On Broad Street, Rin Cha Thai has opened after a traditional Buddhist blessing. An Insta-tastic cafe serving traditional Thai coffee and tea, soft-serve ice cream plus excellent green curry, an oasis of calm, and a very warm welcome.
  • A new city centre pharmacy has opened just off Gloucester Green and is offering walk-in flu vaccinations without appointments. Oxwell Pharmacy is at 6 Gloucester Street and claims to be “Oxford’s freshest pharmacy”.
  • The three-floor Santander Work Cafe, on the site of the historic Swindlestock Tavern at Carfax, has opened to provide food and drink, bookable co-working spaces and six meeting rooms, and Santander banking services. The coffee is from New Zealand roasters Ozone Coffee, with a 30% discount for anyone paying with a Santander card. The meeting rooms are free for up to two hours and can be booked online. (If you want to know more about the Swindlestock Tavern, Oxford History is, as always, your go-to.)
  • At the other end of Cornmarket, the Golden Cup coffee booth has opened outside St Michael’s church. The site was previously occupied by AMT Coffee, the chain which started in Oxford but which collapsed in acrimony after a feud in the founding McCallum-Toppin family.
• The Megan’s chain, which plans to open a Mediterranean deli restaurant in the former Jamie’s Italian site on George Street, has applied to operate six “bed suites” on the upper floors with “high-quality short-term accommodation suitable for city centre visitors”. In a rare example of both ‘Valley girl’ speak and a cedilla being used in a planning application, Megan’s also promise that “there will so be a shabby chic lantern on the façade of the building”.
• The Tumbling Bay bathing place, on the Bulstake Stream just north of the Botley Road in West Oxford, has reopened. The wild swimming spot was closed in 2024 due to concerns over the condition of the old retaining wall, which has now been replaced. Oxford City Council also worked with the Environment Agency to renovate the neighbouring fish pass. Officially the council dissuades people from wild swimming due to water quality concerns, saying “wild swimming in Oxford’s waterways is popular but risky”.
• Oxford Hoops turns 30! The city basketball club hosted its first session in Ferry Leisure Centre in 1995, and now trains 11 squads per week. Their diverse member base of 300 junior and senior players includes a men’s team who were promoted to NBL Division One this April. Training at rented facilities, the club now aims to find fixed premises. Franky Marulanda, Director of Oxford Hoops says: “We need a permanent home which we can call our own, a place the people of Oxford can be proud of by running more teams.”
• The Suffrage flag flew above Oxford Town Hall at the weekend, commemorating the centenary of the first British general election in which women could vote.
• Around 100 people attended a demonstration on Sunday at Carfax in support of Palestine Action. Eight activists are on hunger strike while waiting to go on trial for alleged offences relating to Palestine Action, including Oxford resident Amu Gib. Demonstrators, including activists from Jeremy Corbyn's 'Your Party', demanded a free Palestine “from the river to the sea” while also demanding the Prime Minister be jailed for genocide.

Around the county

• 220 new homes are proposed for the northwestern edge of Banbury, joining 490 houses currently underway at adjoining sites, and another 350 built a decade ago. The land, off Warwick Road, is owned by Trinity College which calls the schemes “a coherent and logical extension of Banbury’s built form”.
• Thames Valley Police is appealing for witnesses and dashcam footage after a pedestrian was struck by a motorcyclist while crossing the Cassington junction of the A40 on Friday at around 4.20pm. The victim, a woman in her seventies, has serious injuries and is still receiving hospital treatment. The motorcyclist stopped at the scene, as did other members of the public, but some left prior to police attendance. No arrests have been made.
• Enterprise Oxfordshire, formerly the Local Enterprise Partnership, is launching 'Helping High Streets', a business support programme for businesses in Oxfordshire High Street locations, including shops, cafés and services. The support includes one-to-one advice, promotion and collaboration groups. There will be countywide support plus one area targeted for extra support in each District. 
• A 540-home development in Yarnton, on the A44 between Oxford and Woodstock, is moving forward with Vistry Homes signing a contract to acquire the site, which already has planning permission. Construction is likely to begin at ‘Yarnton Fields’ on the north side of the village in early 2027.
• Further up the A44 in Chipping Norton, plans have been lodged for 350 new homes on the eastern edge of the town. The site, on land owned by Oxfordshire County Council, will include a ‘mobility hub’ with bus, car sharing, bike and e-scooter options. The Salt Way Park, taking its name from the ancient trackway that borders the site, will include a community garden and full-size sports pitch. The application promises that “active travel routes will overlay the masterplan in a staggered grid”, though where cyclists go after leaving the site is not explained. The application is with West Oxfordshire District Council for consideration. (The earlier consultation site has more details.)
• The finest in waterside living is… not quite the promise of 150 new homes proposed in East Hanney, which would technically be adjacent to the mooted Abingdon Reservoir, but would be bereft of beautiful views of wildfowl by virtue of being several metres below the bunded banks. Still, Bloor Homes say that the development will “retain the village character through sensitive design”, with a new village shop, public greenspace, and new pedestrian routes. Plans are with Vale of White Horse District Council.

Oxfordshire politics

This week we have an unusual outbreak of consensus – things pretty much everyone, regardless of party or position, agrees on. Everyone is happy that the Kidlington dump is being cleared up. Everyone local to Didcot is angry about the saga of the GP surgery at Great Western Park (we covered the saga last week). And everyone is appalled at the violence on Bondi Beach, reaching out to the Jewish communities in the UK and against antisemitism. Meanwhile…

• Banbury MP Sean Woodcock weighed in on the national debate on fly tipping, agreeing with Labour’s Makerfield MP Josh Simons that it wasn’t right that leafy villages (Kidlington) got faster action on fly tipping than urban areas (Wigan). He's concerned about the budgets for Banbury museum and wants you to complete a consultation. He asked the Minister in Parliament what the Government was doing to speed up solutions to homelessness and building more good quality temporary accommodation (in a question spookily similar to Dodds’, below). The answer: it's all in the Planning Bill. Also in Parliament, he spoke of the contribution Formula One brings to the economy and his constituency. He was out on the doors in Banbury, and he unveiled the winners of his Christmas card competition. Finally, he thinks Home Alone is the best Christmas film (we only bring you the most important insights).
• Bicester & Woodstock MP Calum Miller has called for Hong Kong national Jimmy Lai to be freed. He was not impressed with “standing room as usual” on the Chiltern line to Marylebone, but very happy to see the 800 bus route between Begbroke and Yarnton. He went to the local sorting office for a classic Christmas postie MP visit.
• Witney MP Charlie Maynard has been touring schools for UK Parliament week. The image above is of 'Question Time' at Woodgreen School, but he's also been to Faringdon Community College and Carterton Community College. He's demanded action of Thames Water about what looks like a failure at Leafield Pumping Station, and also action on potholes between Kencot and Filkins (vintage MP pointing at potholes video).
• Oxford East MP Anneliese Dodds appeared on the last show of BBC South's veteran political correspondent Peter Henley. She has views on the BBC's Local Democracy Reporting Service (which appear to differ from our view of “nuke it from orbit”), and AI and copyright in journalism (no arguments from us there). She visited the Central Oxford Sorting Office to cheer the Royal Mail staff. (She's there so often – commendably – that they should give her her own lanyard.) In Parliament she applauded Oxford City Council's approach to tackle homelessness by buying 260 properties to help people out of temporary accommodation, and asked the Government to force developers to provide more social housing.
• Oxford West & Abingdon MP Layla Moran spoke to Radio 4 about weight loss jabs, which the Commons Health Select Committee is investigating. She wants to see that any Thames Water bailout ensures the company tackles sewage pollution and does not pass additional costs on to customers. She urged the Government to invest in maternity services, saying that since 2019, the NHS has spent more on maternity negligence claims than the entire maternity budget. On the railways bill, she raised the issue of Radley Station, where a steep footbridge means disabled people can go northbound but not southbound.
• Didcot & Wantage MP Olly Glover asked the Government for the National Wealth Fund to take a different approach on risk, so it can encourage investment in key areas like clean energy. He shared this update of his week, which included meeting Cycling UK to discuss strengthening the government's Cycling & Walking Investment Strategy, and tackling bike theft. He pressed the Government on support for small breweries and other small businesses following the change to beer duty.
• Henley & Thame MP Freddie van Mierlo has written to the Minister to urge stronger protections for bathers and wild swimmers in rivers like the Thames. He's at odds with Oxfordshire County Council over their proposals to reorganise the Fire Service.
• Thames Valley Police & Crime Commissioner Matthew Barber is rallying people around a Save our Pubs campaign. South Oxfordshire District Council agreed, following a Conservative motion, to provide urgent support for hospitality businesses struggling because of the planned business rates increases. He shared this roundup of his week, and most importantly, this excellent sunrise Labrador.

This week we noted van Mierlo and Maynard opposing the (Liberal Democrat-led) county council on the Fire Service and potholes respectively, which might make the LibDem Christmas party a bit awkward. This made us imagine what different Oxfordshire political Christmas parties would look like. We reckon a LibDem party would have both real ale and Aperol, karaoke and people wearing those Christmas jumpers saying “that wasn’t very data-driven of you” advertised on Instagram. Probably at an independent brewery. A Green political Christmas party would have homemade decor, thrifted Christmas jumpers and mulled cider. Everyone arrives by bike, possibly in a mansion in Vale with an owner that thinks Labour isn't socialist enough. A Conservative Christmas party would presumably be in the local Conservative Club, involve port and Stilton, possibly some vol-au-vents, definitely no vegan options, 80s Christmas music and a taxi home later. The Labour Christmas party would have lots of red decor, BYOB for a communal bar, side party for the kids, a former Mayor as Santa, and in a community centre where there's plenty of parking (for Santa's sleigh, obviously). Your Party would be three people and a side of infighting, devolving into “I reaaaallly love youuuu” after a few drinks. (There may or may not be a rival Christmas party for those who boycotted the original Christmas party.) At the Reform UK Christmas party we anticipate jukebox arguments, with ‘Happy Xmas (War Is Over)’, ‘Stop the Cavalry’, and ‘Hark the Herald’ (“peace on earth and mercy mild”) each reaching the 5-second mark before being skipped for being “woke nonsense”. Maybe they might like ‘Wonderful Christmastime’ or those awful sausage roll songs? Merry political Christmas.

Oxford Growth Commission

This week, the Government-appointed Oxford Growth Commission published its interim report. Chaired by Neale Coleman, a former advisor to Ken Livingstone who played a role in organising the 2012 Olympics and the 2022 Commonwealth Games, it sets out plans to “accelerate growth in the city and its surrounding area”. That means, chiefly, building more houses. As the report says:

“The absence of strategic planning in Oxfordshire has allowed a situation to develop in which the local authorities collectively are not planning to meet their minimum housing requirements… Towns and cities, together with the principal employment clusters, are the most sustainable locations for development.”

32,000 new homes could be built adjacent to Oxford (with “modest Green Belt releases”) with 50,000 new jobs, plus a similar figure across the rest of the county. These will be clustered in ‘Opportunity Areas’, mostly towns near railway stations. Recommendations include new development around Oxford Parkway and dense town centre housing in Banbury and Didcot.

The report urges the County and City councils to “work further and harder” on tackling congestion, saying that currently “the public realm in Oxford is not of a standard appropriate to one of the busiest tourist destinations in the UK”. It suggests a tourist tax could be imposed to help fund this.

It particularly calls out the “very poor arrival experience to Oxford” for visitors by train. It identifies the area along Hythe Bridge and Park End streets as a priority, including Worcester Street car park (the former canal basin) – one of several opportunities for college landowners to “take a wide view about the benefits of development”. The station itself should become “the most important mobility hub for the whole county”, including buses.

The report says the policy on building height in the city (aka “view cones”) should be rethought: “We have heard several examples of buildings being delayed or massing reduced to protect historical assets, although they would only have been seen slightly in long distance views.”

“Slow progress” has been made on cycling provision: “The County Council should produce a clear, simple and prioritised plan of required Active Travel routes and work to implement these in a priority order… An active travel route from Botley to Eynsham is critical.”

The County and City councils have both welcomed the report. City leader Susan Brown echoed “the need to release more green belt around Oxford” while county leader Liz Leffman said: “It is gratifying to see the support it offers to our plan to improve rail transport and connectivity.” We don’t think we’re breaking neutrality too much to note that the report highlights a lot of themes we’ve written about over the past years – building near stations, infrastructure, cycle routes, Section 106 developer contributions – and we found ourselves agreeing with much of what’s written. Do read the report.

University and research

• The University of Oxford and banking giant UBS have joined forces to launch a centre for applied artificial intelligence (AI). It will focus on AI for governance, business and the future of AI, and be led by the Saïd Business School together with the Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences division. Professor Irene Tracey, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford, said: “This strategic partnership will be unique in its research power as it draws on intellectual capital from the University of Oxford’s business school and our division for scientific research, and is generously supported by UBS.”
• In other AI news, Microsoft and Oxford University have collaborated on an AI assistant programme for Multidisciplinary Tumour Board meetings, to be deployed at Oxford’s hospitals. Three AI agents will analyse records, apply standards, and draft recommendations. Andrew Soltan, from the Department of Oncology, said “standard chatbots struggle with the high-stakes complexity of oncology”.
• And in a seasonal cost of living special, Tonya Lander at the Oxford Martin School Programme on the Future of Food asks “why has the price of chocolate become so volatile?”. (Spoiler: climate change and US trade tariffs.)

Trains and buses

• Chipping Norton, Hook Norton and Bloxham are getting a direct bus link to Banbury station. Following works at Tramway Road to provide better station access for buses, cyclists and pedestrians, Stagecoach is re-routing the 488 bus to run directly to the station, together with the B3 town service. The new timetables start on 4 January. Oxfordshire County Council expects to finish works this month; the proposals have been criticised by local councillor Kieron Mallon (Con, Banbury Easington) and Banbury MP Sean Woodcock for not significantly increasing private car drop-off space at the station.
• Missing that 1970s train experience? Chiltern Railways is (finally) retiring its Mark III train carriages, used on the Banbury/Bicester–London route, and has announced a charity farewell event on 22 February. Tickets cost £68 for a journey which will cover lots of rare track, for those of you who just have to tick off the Fenny Compton Up Goods Loop.

Charity begins at home

• Oxfam GB has parted ways with chief executive Halima Begum after 70 members of staff wrote to trustees saying a restructuring had created an “intense climate of fear” at the organisation, according to national reports. An external review by a legal firm was commissioned by trustees. In a statement, Oxfam said: “Oxfam GB’s trustees have a duty to review serious concerns raised about leadership or governance. A fair and confidential process took place in line with employment law and Charity Commission guidance. It would not be appropriate to comment on individuals at this time. We have great respect for colleagues who have raised concerns about culture. Their perspectives informed the independent review that took place. Oxfam’s commitment to openness and learning will strengthen our organisation and the work we do across the world.”

Ozymandias update

Regular readers will know we occasionally post updates from Magdalen College's favourite furry fellow. We couldn’t resist this one. It is Hanukkah. It seems appropriate that the menorah is being lit at Magdalen, for this venerable college is built over the site of an early Jewish burial ground, established in 1190. The cemetery only remained at the site for just over 40 years; in 1231 Henry III gave the land to the Hospital of St John, and the Jewish community was forced to use an area across the road where the Lasker Rose Garden, just outside where the Botanic Garden stands today. Chag Sameach to all those who celebrate.

Notes from Clarion HQ

We peeked into the angrier parts of social media this week (aka Nextdoor). So much noise about Oxford being a ghost town. We couldn't help thinking: have they been to Oxford? We were Christmas shopping at the weekend. The city was bustling and friendly. So far, so subjective. But with seven new shops opening in a week, plus big brands like Lego and Sephora coming to Oxford, we don’t see the city that way. Nor, evidently, does the Oxford Growth Commission. Christmas is a time for optimism and there is much to be optimistic about.

On Friday we wrote about the Abertillery Dynamic, a newspaper founded by a former Oxford landlord which featured a ‘Sheep of the Week’ column. Thank you to Cycling UK’s Wantage group who sent us this photo from their annual Mince Pie Ride of sheep safely grazing on White Horse Hill. Have a great week.