The Clarion, 4 August 2026

We're doing a rain dance. You? While we wait for some sorely needed water, here is some news, not all of it cheerful. Including less than savoury details about Raise the Colours; celebrating Oxford City's first female councillor; Oxford Brookes’ racing triumph; and Marston residents petitioning for better buses. Keep dancing…

This week’s top stories

The harassment campaign waged by Raise the Colours agitators has been laid bare through evidence given in the High Court case against the group.

Reports given to the court allege that:

• Raise the Colours Oxfordshire organiser Ben Cullen head-butted a highways worker after police were called to McDonalds in Benson where highways staff were attempting to remove flags from lamp posts;
• Highways staff now wear unbranded PPE, work in unbranded vehicles, wear face coverings to hide their identity, and do not travel alone for fear of attacks;
• Highways staff working on streetlight maintenance, not flag removal, have been spat on and abused by RTC supporters;
• Cullen and his partner Trudy Wells posted the office addresses and phone numbers of highways depots online, leading to comments suggesting “hanging council workers from those same lamp posts”;
• RTC Oxfordshire fixed trackers to the vehicles used by highways staff, then used this to find out their home addresses – which have been published online, and repeated to staff with threatening messages;
• Highways depots now have to remain locked at all times;
• A highways contractor’s sponsorship of a children’s football club is being rethought after concerns that children could be targeted.

One highways manager said that ensuring her staff’s safety in the face of RTC intimidation is “often over 50% of her working week… The additional stress impacts her sleep and blood pressure levels for which she is taking prescribed medication. She is fearful of being followed home, tracked and exposed on social media without her consent.”

Intimidation has not been restricted to highways workers. A Wallingford resident reported:

“They saw Ben Cullen parked near the museum and recognised his car. He started to drive slowly in their direction. His hand was on the door, and he made a finger gun, pointed this towards them and tapped the side of his car using this sign moving his hand in an upward jerk to simulate recoil. They were in shock and could not say anything. He then accelerated away. They have reported this to the police and the police have discussed the matter with them. This encounter has shaken them, and they no longer feel safe in their neighbourhood.”

Another resident teamed up with neighbours to remove flags posted in their street:

“A group of ten neighbours started to remove eight flags using a ladder. This was reported on Facebook and Ben Cullen turned up when they had two more flags left to remove. Ben Cullen threatened to push the resident’s partner off the ladder and alluded to being a violent criminal, speaking about serving 15 years in prison. He filmed them and posted them on his Facebook page.”

Susanna Pressel, county councillor for Jericho & Osney, received a series of threatening emails after speaking out in a private briefing for councillors. One read: “Someone should lay in weight [sic] when your old ass is walking around and teach you a lesson.” An audio recording of the meeting, believed to have been taken by a remote attendee, was leaked to nationalist agitators on X.com where it received over 12,000 reposts. Her home address was subsequently posted on the site. Although the meeting was attended only by county councillors (and a small number of senior officers), the identity of the leaker has not been discovered.

Cullen was arrested on suspicion of assault by beating on 15 April, after the head-butting incident. However, “the complainant withdrew his support for a prosecution after he was concerned that his personal details would be released into the public domain”. (Subsequently, Cullen has appeared at Reading Crown Court in connection with offences relating to possession of child pornography. He denies the allegations.)

But although Cullen gave an undertaking to the High Court on 23 June to refrain from affixing flags, just two days later he contacted OCC leader Tim Bearder on Facebook:

“We are going to fight it all the way now as we have been given the financial backing and the best legal team free of charge And we never had enough [time] to get legal help and u will not be happy when you see who is backing us We win this case watch And I think we can get a petition with millions to back it With just are groups we have over a million followers and that's including Tommy [Robinson] and people like that with there [sic] followers.”

In Mr Justice Dexter Dias’s judgment, handed down on Friday, an injunction was granted against “persons unknown” intending to attach flags to highway structures or harass Oxfordshire councillors, employees or contractors. An additional injunction was granted against Kevin Good of Witney, who unlike Cullen, Wells or RTC national organiser Ryan Bridge, had not appeared at the High Court or signed an undertaking.

We looked at the background of Raise the Colours in a long read in March.

The dark side of Raise the Colours

Early on Tuesday evening, amid rush-hour traffic, a ‘Highway Maintenance’-branded van was openly stationed on Abingdon Road affixing St George’s flags to lamp-posts. We ask who is behind it – and why the campaign is so controversial. The group, who call themselves Raise the Colours, worked their way along

Oxford ClarionOxford Clarion

Oxfordshire fire crews have been fighting wildfires in the county and further afield as the hot, dry weather continues. Crews from Carterton, Chipping Norton and Banbury were called out to one such fire at Freeland, near Witney, which was threatening nearby properties and woodland. Even in Port Meadow, Oxford, firefighters from Rewley Road were called out to deal with a fire at the Burgess Field nature reserve. Meanwhile, six Oxfordshire firefighters and two vehicles were sent to Suffolk to help respond to a major wildfire incident.

Oxfordshire Fire & Rescue has published advice on how to prevent wildfires. They have implored people not to use disposable barbecues, never to discard glass bottles, and not to burn garden waste.

Meanwhile, trains between Oxford and Didcot are being disrupted today due to leaves on the line, except in this case the leaves were still attached to the tree. One line is passable, but Network Rail warns disruption will be long-lasting since “the trunk has become entangled in lineside equipment”. The hot weather has caused an upsurge in trees falling, as they are unable to replenish the water they lose from their leaves, creating “water stress”; cracks can develop within branches and trunks, weakening the strength of the tree.

Bus services are due for a shake-up when Botley Road reopens. The Clarion understands that Oxford Bus Company and Stagecoach had both prepared new services to coincide with the bridge opening, now postponed until after the revised 20 September completion date. Changes include:

• 400 (from Thame/Thornhill) extended to Seacourt Park & Ride
• 4A and 14 replaced by a new cross-city 4 service, running Botley (Elms Rise)–city centre–Marston–Risinghurst
• 6 (from Wolvercote) extended to Abingdon on the route of the 35
• 44 (from Abingdon) and 63 (from Southmoor) extended to the city centre
• E1 to run city centre–Botley–Eynsham–Witney

Many other services will see timetable changes. Details are subject to change: we’ll have more when they’re formally announced.

Around the city

• The Government is being asked to contribute £8m to repair Donnington Bridge. Buses and HGVs have been unable to cross the bridge since significant deterioration was found two years ago. Oxfordshire County Council is bidding to the Government’s Structures Fund, and will contribute further funds itself. Cllr Liz Leffman said: “The weight limit that had to be imposed in 2024 has inconvenienced residents, disrupted bus services and HGV movements, increased journey times and decreased efficiency across the road network generally. We have been working hard to put this bid to Government together.”
• Five female councillors unveiled a plaque on Friday commemorating the first woman elected to Oxford City Council. Mary Sophia Merivale served as councillor for North ward from 1907 to 1920. (Some women had been able to vote in local elections since 1869.) The blue plaque to Cllr Merivale is on the house in Park Town where she lived from 1894 until her death in 1928. Plaques in the same street commemorate photographer Sarah Acland, linguist William Morfill, ecologist Charles Elton and poet Edith Scovell.

• A landlord renting out a property on Headley Way has been fined over £23,000 after failing to license a rented property which was also damp, mouldy, electrically faulty, cold, and in disrepair. Cllr Mike Rowley, for Oxford City Council, said: “Some landlords are taking advantage of the city’s housing shortage to rent out badly maintained properties to multiple occupants. If you don't meet your legal obligations to your tenants then the city council will take action against you.”
• A pipe organ dating from 1876 is being installed at St Barnabas’ Church in Jericho. Built originally for Bargeddie Church near Glasgow, it is being combined with pipework from Bow Common in London by Henry Willis & Sons Organ Builders, the firm that built the original instruments. More than £400,000 has been raised towards the new organ, which will replace a 1970s instrument. It is expected to be ready in September. Until then, the church is closed to the public from Mondays to Saturdays.
       St Barnabas’ was consecrated in 1869 at the height of the Anglo-Catholic Oxford Movement, and both its interior and basilica-like exterior have a remarkable Italianate, Catholic appearance. The church has an active musical tradition including young choristers and choral scholarships.
• Thames Valley Police conducted a road safety operation at The Plain and in Headington last week. 38 Traffic Offence Reports were issued including 10 for using a mobile phone while driving, 2 no insurance offences, and 1 number plate offence. Three arrests were made, with two drivers arrested on suspicion of drug driving and one driver arrested for immigration offences, and four vehicles were seized. Officers also stopped one man attempting to steal a bicycle.
• Police have also been tackling bike theft in the city, with seven people arrested and five teenagers charged “as part of an ongoing investigation involving motorbikes, mopeds and pedal cycles”. This brings the investigation to more than 30 charges in total. TVP are seeking to identify the owners of three stolen e-bikes recovered last week.

• A major revamp has been completed at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. ‘Life, as we know it’ has been underway since 2018, with 47 new displays installed across the museum. The final stages include a brand new presentation of Oxfordshire dinosaurs including Megalosaurus, discovered at Stonesfield in the late 18th century and the first ever dinosaur to be scientifically named. Director Gavin Svenson called it “a long-term effort to rethink how we present the natural world to our visitors”.
• The Botley Road rail bridge project is back on track*, with gas company SGN having completed their pipe repair works and left the site yesterday. Three leaks had been unexpectedly discovered in a gas pipe. The reopening date has been confirmed as 20 September 2026.
  *famous last words
• Pubs & Prams Oxford, a weekly meet-up for infants and carers, is approaching its fifth anniversary. The group books a different city pub each week, usually on a Friday, to enable folks on parental leave (or otherwise!) to spend some time down the pub with other grown-ups in a baby-friendly environment. This week, Friday 7 August, it will be at the Rusty Bicycle on Magdalen Road from 3pm.

Around the county

• Looking for a family home just 11 minutes’ commute from Oxford? A newly approved estate in Islip could be just up your street railway line. Cherwell District Council’s planning committee has approved a 150-home development at a former fuel depot adjacent to Islip railway station, the last stop on the Marylebone line before Oxford Parkway. The plans also include a 70-bed care home and 65 assisted living units.
       A 50-paragraph assessment (who’d be a planning officer…?) concluded that the site “constitutes Grey Belt land and is therefore not inappropriate development within the Green Belt”. Planners also described the location next to the station as “sustainable” and cited access to “active travel routes”, though strangely omitting to mention that cycling to Oxford requires wading through a deep ford on the River Cherwell. The developers have been asked to pay £260,000 towards the local GP practice, £390,000 towards public transport services, £3m towards schools and over £800,000 towards sports provision.
• In “we weren’t planning to do that anyway” news, National Highways has published an order preventing stopping, waiting and parking on the A34 between Peartree and the M40 junction. (The A34 Clearway order also prevents the Pope converting to Buddhism and bears using the toilets at Cherwell Valley services.)
• The saga of the Chilterns End care home in Henley rumbles on. Formerly an elderly persons’ home, it was vacated in 2016. Owners Oxfordshire County Council could not identify an alternative use and resolved to sell the property, but a previous planning application for 16 houses was refused. A new application has now been submitted with 14 homes and “a greater emphasis on tree retention”. The replacement care centre, Chilterns Court, was itself the subject of controversy in 2024 over the removal of NHS “step-down” beds.
• A proposed solar farm at Nuneham Courtenay, just south of Oxford, has been turned down by South Oxfordshire District Council’s planning committee. The promoters said it would produce “clean, green electricity for approximately 13,000 houses each year”, and promised 2.7km of new species-rich hedgerow.
       The 49.9MW installation was strongly opposed by conservation groups and Nuneham parish council, with Oxford Preservation Trust arguing it was “grossly inappropriate within the historic setting” close to Nuneham Park & Gardens. Historic England had offered comments but no objection, saying “we assess the known level of harm to be less than substantial”. SODC officers had recommended approval, citing “positive impacts upon the economy and biodiversity net gain”.
       After a 90-minute debate, two Green councillors, Peter Dragonetti and James Norman, proposed and seconded refusing the solar farm – which was carried with five votes to three. Cllr Dragonetti said that although the heritage impact “might not be substantial harm, cumulatively it’s death by a thousand cuts”. Applicants RES have the right to appeal, and one councillor warned that “There is a danger that, at appeal, we could find ourselves in a very difficult position.”
• “Communities must be given the opportunity to have their voices heard,” says Cherwell District Council leader Lesley McLean about the proposed asylum seeker accommodation at MOD Bicester. The council has written to the Home Secretary calling for on-site medical provision, bus services to Oxford and Aylesbury, dedicated local policing, and “a comprehensive on-site orientation programme to support understanding of rural community life”. It says it is “committed to constructive engagement with the Home Office” and has invited the Home Secretary to visit nearby villages.
• Gill & Co, an Oxfordshire ironmongers trading since 1530, closed its doors for the last time on Friday. Gill's was formerly based on Oxford’s High Street but, since 2010, has traded solely from its Chipping Norton branch: now that too has shut. The proprietors said: “What an adventure it has been; we are truly grateful for every person who has shopped with us and for the people that have worked with us.” The name lives on in a locksmiths’ shop in Chipping Norton’s Market Place.
• A plan for 95 new houses on the edge of Bloxham, near Banbury, has been turned down. Cherwell District Council planners said it “would result in an urbanising form of development and the permanent loss of open greenfield land in a prominent location at the entrance to the village”. Developers David Wilson Homes had called the proposal “a logical extension to Bloxham… a nature-led design approach that responds to the lie of the land”. Bloxham has seen numerous applications for housing development in recent years.
• Councillors in southern Oxfordshire say they want to “provide trans and non-binary residents of our district reassurance that they will not be discriminated against in the provision of council services”, with resolutions at July meetings of both South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse councils. For SODC, Cllr Lucy Edwards said the Supreme Court 2025 ruling and new EHRC Code of Practice “created a legal minefield”. The council has called on the Government to fund any costs incurred to change facilities and buildings, e.g. for providing more individually locking toilets. Cllr Sam Casey-Rerhaye, who proposed the SODC motion, said: “The Code of Practice creates a real risk that trans people will be excluded from essential services and public spaces. We want to ensure everything is done to prevent this. It is heartening to see such cross-party support.”

University and research

• Oxford Nanopore, headquartered in Oxford Science Park, has won the 2026 Royal Academy of Engineering’s MacRobert Award, in recognition of its pioneering nanopore sequencing technology, which makes DNA sequencing faster, more accessible and deployable beyond traditional laboratory settings. Last year's winner was also an Oxford based company – OrganOx – which makes a machine for preserving organs before transplantation, the world's first transportable normothermic (body temperature) preservation technology.
• Oxford Brookes Racing has won five awards at the annual Formula Student competition at Silverstone, including first place in the Design category. Their brand new car is lighter & more efficient, and the team say they're looking forward to the next competition in Germany. We've previously written about what Oxford Brookes is doing to attract more women and girls into motorsports, an otherwise still very male-dominated industry.
• Saturday was Swiss National Day and Lincoln College flew the flag in honour of its late alumnus the Marquis de Amodio, who endowed scholarships for Swiss students. Applications close at the end of the month.
• A long-running scholarship programme for students from Asia is being wound up. The Jardine Foundation, funded by Hong Kong conglomerate Jardine Matheson, has supported Oxbridge undergraduates for 44 years but will make no further awards after this year. It says it is instead “increasing its focus and investment in Asia, expanding opportunities for local students to study at leading universities in the region”.
• Industrial chicken farming is causing thousands of cases of diarrhoea every year, Oxford University researchers have found. They say the huge global expansion of chicken farming has created ideal conditions for the Campylobacter bacterium to spread, mix and evolve. “As chicken populations have grown, bacteria once largely confined to wild birds have gained far more opportunities to enter poultry flocks, spread and become established,” says author Sam Sheppard. A previous study found 80% of Campylobacter infections in Oxfordshire are associated with poultry.
• England's children's social care system has reached crisis point, but poverty, not asylum seekers, is to blame, says a University of Oxford study that has interrogated 50 years of data. Analysis of long term trends found that the relationship between child poverty and care entry reflected entrenched structural disadvantage across England rather than recent fluctuations in child poverty, with the north of England having both higher care entry and child poverty. Dr Michelle Degli Esposti said: "If we are serious about protecting the next generation of children, we need to stop looking for scapegoats in asylum-seeking children and start asking why so many children are only coming to the attention of services once they require state protection.”

Trains and buses

• Banbury railway station has had a (belated) spring clean. Operator Chiltern Railways is trumpeting new seating, a replacement ceiling, and “extensive painting and cleaning”. Chiltern is due to be nationalised on 20 September.
• The Witney to Chipping Norton bus is going hourly, seven days a week. The X9 service currently has two-hour gaps in the afternoons and on Sundays. Thames Travel will take over the route from sister company Pulhams on 30 August, with financial support from Oxfordshire County Council. Pulhams routes 19, 64, 67 and 68 are also transferring to Thames Travel, with timetable changes to improve punctuality.
• Residents in Marston, Oxford, are petitioning Oxfordshire County Council and the bus companies for better bus services: there is currently no public transport from Marston to the train station, Headington or Summertown, with long delays and disruptions on the two existing bus services. A resident said: ”I want to use my local bus. I can't always bike or walk when I have injuries, or am in pain. So, it is really frustrating when the X3 is so poor, and I have to get 2 different buses to get to Summertown or Headington… the same with the train station when I am carrying luggage.”
       Cllr Kate Robinson said that improvements have been promised when Botley Road reopens and new electric buses arrive, but patience was wearing thin. She said: "If we are going to encourage residents to reduce their car use, we must have decent public transport links in place."

• Heyford station is moving to Didcot. Not the current one, but the original Brunel-era GWR station building, which is being re-erected at Didcot Railway Centre “using mainly original material that was recovered some years ago”. The walls will be stone as originally, but with a new (concealed) steel frame to support the heavy canopy. Eynsham’s original platform is also preserved at Didcot Railway Centre, while the old Oxford Rewley Road station was moved to Buckinghamshire Railway Centre c. 2000.

Notes from Clarion HQ

It’s the ‘silly season’ when newspapers would traditionally print inconsequential froth to fill pages. We’re not going to do that – correction, we’re not going to do that any more than we usually do – but our politics section is taking a break for the summer.

We do recognise that other journalists have exacting article targets laid down by their corporate masters (blame the game, not the player). We are a little amused/frustrated when they make their quota by lifting our stories and rearranging the words a little, as happened with our East West Rail exclusive from Friday’s newsletter.

Still, all’s fair in love, war and Oxfordshire news. Help your friends get the news first by telling them about the Clarion! See you on Friday.