Archive
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Cheltenham fever
It is the best week of the year. I find it hard to imagine how a real sporting fan cannot just love the Cheltenham Festival. If you're going, it's a chance to don the finest clothes, sup the finest drink and throw away bundles of money. And if like
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Wine shop fire
Firefighters were called this morning to tackle a fire in a wine shop. At 7.13am firefighters went to the Threshers Wine shop, in Burford Road, to tackle the blaze which is believed to have started accidentally in the bottom floor of the two storey building
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Second medal for bomb hero
AN Oxfordshire-based bomb disposal expert killed in Afghanistan is to be awarded a second George Medal. Warrant Officer Class 2 Gary O’Donnell, of Didcot-based 11 Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Regiment, will be the first serviceman in 28 years to
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Minister quizzed over eco-towns
HOUSING Minister Margaret Beckett tonight said there was “no done deal” over two controversial eco-towns in Oxfordshire. She was in Bicester on a fact-finding mission after Cherwell District Council floated a proposal to create an eco-town in north west
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FOOTBALL: City host football lessons
The Oxfordshire FA are holding a grassroots football opening evening at Oxford City’s Court Place Farm ground on Monday, March 23. The session, which lasts from 7-8.30pm, will focus on adult 11-a-side football and includes a number of specialist workshops
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FOOTBALL: Barrett set for Witney debut
Witney United have signed keeper Richard Barrett on loan from Old Woodstock Town ahead of tomorrow’s Premier Division home clash with Bicester Town. With Jon Beames leaving to join Kidlington, Lyne said: “It was good of Simon Lenagan and Woodstock to
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Delighted Wilder knows U's face tough test
“Wow” – that was the first word Chris Wilder uttered when he emerged from the dressing room to meet the press after Oxford United’s brilliant 3-0 win at Eastbourne. He was referring not just to the unbelievable conditions in the game, but also to the
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FOOTBALL: Merritt calls for last push
Oxford City player-manager Justin Merritt has urged his players to make one last push for the BGB Southern League Premier Division play-offs, beginning with the visit of Evesham to Court Place Farm on Saturday. Although City are six points
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We're a force away from home, says Farrell
Craig Farrell said Tuesday’s win at Priory Lane showed Oxford United are now a force to be reckoned with away from home as well as at the Kassam Stadium. The striker said after the game: “I think the lads showed tonight that they’re not just a home team
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Police link thefts at cash machines
POLICE have linked four thefts at cash machines. At about 10am yesterday, a man tried to withdraw money from Lloyds TSB in Cornmarket Street, Oxford. Two men told him the cashpoint was not working and that he should report it. They took his card and
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Nelly feels red card was harsh
Craig Nelthorpe said he thought his red card last Saturday was "harsh". The former Doncaster winger cut a rather forlorn figure in the tunnel after the game as he kept trying to catch a view of the TV replays of his 34th-minute challenge on Mustapha
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Funding crisis stalls Witney college redevelopment
THE multi-million-pound redevelopment of Witney College has been put on hold because of a funding crisis, leaving people in the dark about its future. The £30m campus renaissance was one of 79 Government projects shelved this week. And
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Pupils help launch Oxford author's new book
HUNDREDS of Oxford schoolchildren got to meet a top children’s author at a special event for World Book Day. About 400 children from St Gregory the Great School, in Cricket Road, and local primary schools met Summertown author Maria Guadalupe
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£2.5m playground revamp starts at Botley Road Rec
DIGGERS have rolled in to a West Oxford park to start the £2.5m programme of investment in the city’s run-down play areas. Machines started breaking the earth at the Botley Road Recreation Ground this week as part of the city council’s two-year scheme
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Today's local share prices (PM)
AEA Technology 15.5 BMW 1782 Electrocomponents 127.5 Nationwide Accident Repair 102.5 Oxford Biomedica 6.75 Oxford Catalysts 56.5 Oxford Instruments 135 Reed Elsevier 493 RM 166.75 RPS Group 156.25 Courtesy of Redmayne Bentley, Abingdon
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Clist frustrated to miss return to New Lawn
Simon Clist is desperately disappointed to be missing Saturday's game against his old club Forest Green Rovers – especially after opening his account for Oxford United with a fine goal in the 3-0 win at Eastbourne in midweek. The 27-year-old midfielder
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Thieves snatch cash at city cashpoints
Police are appealing for information after people had money stolen after being distracted while withdrawing cash out from cashpoint machines in Oxford and Headington. On three occasions yesterday, people were deliberately distracted and had their cash
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Waste incinerator plan on agenda
Residents who want to hear about plans for a waste incinerator in Sutton Courtenay are being invited to a meeting on Tuesday. Action group Sutton Courtenay Against Incineration is hosting the event at 7.30pm at Didcot Town Football Club, in Bowmont Water
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Flasher stalked bus passenger
Police are appealing for witnesses after a man exposed himself to a woman in Kidlington. At about 7.30pm on Tuesday, as the woman waited to get on a number 2A bus from Oxford city centre towards Kidlington she noticed a man standing close behind her
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Man hit over head in robbery
Police are appealing for witnesses after a 19-year-old man was robbed at about 2.15am today. The man was walking with a friend along Rickyard Close when two men came up to them and demanded they hand over their mobile phones and money. They hit
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Man robbed of wallet in East Oxford
Police are appealing for witnesses to a robbery in Princes Street, Oxford. At around 7.10pm last night, a man was in an alley off Princes Street. He bent down to see how much money was in his wallet and two men on bicycles came up behind him, pushed
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Shout may have scared off muggers
A resident may have scared off two muggers holding up a man in Oxford yesterday. The victim and a friend were walking along Rickyard Close in the city centre at 2.15am when two men stopped them and demanded they hand over their mobile telephones
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Thief flees after house raid
A burglar broke into a house and stole car keys — but left the vehicle behind. The thief broke into the home in Sandringham Road, Didcot, between 1.10am and 1.40am by reaching through the letterbox to open the door. A laptop, briefcase, wallet and the
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Diesel siphoned from lorries
Police have appealed for witnesses after 2,200 litres of diesel was stolen in two incidents. Thieves entered a compound near the Dix Pit in Stanton Harcourt on the night of Saturday, February 28, into Sunday, March 1, and siphoned off in excess of 1,200
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Firms warned after diesel thefts
Police have appealed for witnesses after 2,200 litres of diesel were stolen in two incidents. Thieves entered a compound near Dix Pit in Stanton Harcourt overnight on Saturday, February 28, into Sunday, March 1, and siphoned off more than 1,200 litres
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Boy robbed of phone in Oxford
A 16-year-old boy was robbed of a mobile phone by two men. The boy was walking past Oxford & Cherwell Valley College on Oxpens Road at 7.20pm yesterday when the men approached him and demanded his Samsung G600 mobile phone. He handed it over and the
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Inspector Lewis really is from Oxford
Inspector Lewis has cracked his toughest case yet — discovering who he is. Actor Kevin Whately, who plays the title character in the ITV drama, is the latest star to appear on BBC One’s Who Do You Think You Are? — a documentary series which features
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Honda saved as F1 teams reveal budget cuts
Nick Fry has confirmed the Brackley team formerly known as Honda will be on the grid for the start of the new Formula One season at the end of the month in Australia. As a raft of new proposals were announced by the Formula One Teams' Association (
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Masked robbers strike in Jericho
Police have appealed for witnesses after a 26-year-old man was robbed and assaulted in Oxford as he walked home today. The victim was approached by three men wearing masks as he walked along Walton Street, Jericho, at 2.30am. He was
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Witness plea after robbery assault
Police have appealed for witnesses after a 26-year-old man was robbed and assaulted as he walked home in Oxford this morning. The victim was approached by three men wearing masks as he walked along Walton Street, Jericho, at 2.30am. He was assaulted
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Oxfam gigs bring healing music
Villagers in Uganda are helping to spread the message about a music festival that has raised more than £1m for the Oxford-based charity Oxfam. Throughout this month, musicians in Oxfordshire will be taking part in Oxjam, the biggest music festival
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Sudan ejects Oxfam staff
Oxfam has been expelled from the Darfur region of Sudan. The Sudanese government has revoked the Oxford-based charity’s licence in the area following the International Criminal Court’s decision to issue an arrest warrant for the country’s president,
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RUGBY UNION: Upbeat Chinnor won't change style
Chinnor coach Jason Bowers says they will not go all defensive for tomorrow’s visit of free-scoring Ealing in National 3 South. Second-placed Ealing have racked up 656 points so far, with wing David Howells scoring an incredible 32 tries. But Chinnor
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BADMINTON: Headington are title favourites
With two rounds to go, long-time leaders Headington A look favourites to regain the Oxfordshire Five Disciplines League Divsion 1 title they last won three seasons ago. They have a lead of 102 points over joint second-placed Abingdon A and Windrush
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University museum kids' show aims to make science fun
THE similarities between humans and kiwi fruits will be among the mind-expanding information explored at a science event for children on Saturday. The annual Wow! How? day takes place at Oxford University’s Museum of Natural History, in Parks
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Stem cell research sparks debate
SCHOOL pupils from across Oxfordshire got the chance to hear leading figures in the world of science discuss the controversial topic of stem cell research and regenerative medicine. Speakers including Martin Birchall, the man who performed the world’
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District share of council tax bill to rise by 2.9 per cent
HOUSEHOLDS in the Cherwell area will pay an extra 2.9 per cent for district council services this year. It means residents in average Band D properties will pay £123.50 to the authority in 2009-10 — up by £3.50 from the current financial year. The council
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FIXTURES March 7
SATURDAY. FOOTBALL. BLUE SQUARE PREMIER. Forest Green v Oxford Utd. PUMA YOUTH ALLIANCE. Under 18 South West Conference: Oxford Utd Youth v Exeter City. BRITISH GAS BUSINESS SOUTHERN LEAGUE. Premier Div: Banbury Utd v Chippenham, Oxford City v
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From Grand to Panned Design
MILLIONS of television viewers saw Chris Ostwald sailing into trouble over building an American-style watermill on a hillside in south Oxfordshire. The home of his dreams went up on Aston Hill, near Watlington – a site he chose 20 years ago
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Cabbages and Kings
THE shopping trolley, at some time in the past liberated from Staples, the office suppliers, was filled to overflowing – but not with anything that appeared to be of value. It seemed to be a load of rubbish destined for the city dump.
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New landlord takes over at problem Kidlington pub
THE new landlord of a pub shut down for serving booze to underage teenagers and allowing late-night drinking is determined to rebuild its reputation. Gerry McGrath, 56, has taken over at the Black Bull pub in Kidlington. The pub’s licence
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City school unveils £3.4m science block
A MULTI-MILLION-POUND life science block has been officially opened at an Oxford school. The £3.4m building at St Edward’s School, Woodstock Road, consists of six biology laboratories and two sports studies classrooms. It was officially opened by Baroness
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Young people show off their talents for hospice
YOUNG people will be using their talent to raise money for Adderbury’s Katharine House hospice in a gala concert on March 27 and 28 at Banbury 20 Cricket Club, Ermont Way. Singing group Impromptu will perform alongside the Joanne Mills School of Dance
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Exhibition explores county's morris dancing traditions
OXFORDSHIRE’S love affair with morris dancing is being celebrated at a special exhibition charting the county’s connections with the popular pastime. The sound of merry melodeons filled the air on Tuesday as morris fans jigged their way to Oxford University
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Top author pays a visit
ABINGDON: An award-winning author visited the town to talk to children about his work. More than 500 pupils from eight Abingdon schools listened as the Carnegie medal-winning author spoke about his book River Boy, which won him the prestigious accolade
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Deadline looms for Mail publisher's charity grants
THE deadline for Oxfordshire charities and community groups to bid for money from the Oxford Mail’s parent company is fast approaching. Groups and organisations have until Wednesday, March 25, to apply for thousands of pounds on offer from the Gannett
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Oscar-winning expert launches film degree
AN OSCAR-WINNING special effects expert will help launch a new film studies degree at Oxford Brookes University. Eynsham-born Ben Morris was part of the Oscar-winning special effects team from Framestore CFC, who won an Oscar last year for best visual
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Fans flock to Witney to see band
MUSIC fans were so keen to see rock band Starsailor play in Witney that the venue had to be changed so everyone could fit in. More than 70 people turned out on Tuesday to see the band, including singer James Walsh, play songs from new album All the Plans
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Seed of success
All car makers talk the talk when they try to persuade you to hand over thousands of pounds on a new car. But backing up that initial enthusiasm with action when that sparkling new possession gets a few years old has sometimes been a little slow in coming
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Drains burst closes Oxford park
Florence Park, Oxford, has been closed until further notice after a series of drains burst and raw sewage flowed into the park. The drain has been cleared out by park rangers and Thames Water officers have been called to the scene to inspect the drain
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Oxfam expelled from Darfur
Oxford-based aid agency Oxfam has confirmed it has been expelled from the Darfur region of Sudan. The Sudanese government has revoked Oxfam’s licence in the area following the International Criminal Court’s decision to issue an arrest warrant for the
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Oxfam expelled from Darfur
Oxford-based aid agency Oxfam has confirmed it has been expelled from the Darfur region of Sudan. The Sudanese government has revoked Oxfam’s licence in the area following the International Criminal Court’s decision to issue an arrest warrant for the
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Florence Park closes after drains burst
Oxford's Florence Park has been closed until further notice after a series of drains burst and raw sewage flowed into the park. The drain has been cleared out by park rangers and Thames Water officers have been called to the scene to inspect
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Today's local share prices (AM)
AEA Technology 15.75 BMW 1804 Electrocomponents 126.25 Nationwide Accident Repair 105.5 Oxford Biomedica 6.75 Oxford Catalyst 56.5 Oxford Instruments 131 Reed Elsevier 488.5 RM 166.75 RPS Group 156.25 Courtesy of Redmayne Bentley, Abingdon
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What do some women do in airplane loos?
They are charging £1 for a twopenny bag to carry liquids at Manchester Airport. The odious Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary is proposing the same charge if you want to spend a penny (to use a wholly inappropriate phrase) on one of his company’s flights. Don
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The old vicarage
ONE of the two homes in a former vicarage in South Oxfordshire is on the market for £399,950. Believed to date from 1707, The East Wing of the Old Vicarage,Chalgrove, is a spacious four-bedroomed house with accommodation arranged over three floors.
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Superlative Great Western
I have written quite enough for one week – quite enough for ever, some might say. So I am delighted to hand over the next few paragraphs of this column to a reader, Mr David Wilkinson. He writes: “The mangling of the English language by train operator
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Ancient tithe barn
AN ancient tithe barn which stands in nearly 18 acres of land and has planning consent for adding a new home goes under the hammer later this month. The Barn at Rectory Farm, Church Enstone features traditional Cotswold stone walls and a Stonesfield
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The Black Boy, Headington
Political correctness that I cannot entirely reprehend presumably lies behind the decision to promote the Black Boy in Headington with the image of a horse rather than a human. It was as long ago as 1990 that the sculpted figure of a black servant
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Sex? Frankly we can take it or leave it
For a man reputed to have been an enormous wit, the former Oxford University Vice-Chancellor (and some say vice promoter) Sir Maurice Bowra bequeathed very few of his bons mots to posterity. Look up ‘Bowra, Maurice, wit’ in the index of Leslie Mitchell
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Recipe for slow-roasted belly pork
The aroma coming out of Bruce and Amanda’s Aga when we arrived for lunch promised something exceptional. We were not disappointed. Bruce pointed out that belly pork is often overlooked by those looking for a tasty meal, yet if cooked slowly with
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Glorious lunch and everything local!
Almost a decade ago, Oxfordshire’s award-winning mustard maker Bruce Young and his wife Amanda, of Shaken Oak Farm, at Hailey, near Witney, invited me to dinner. Their aim then was to prove that they could provide a delicious meal using local produce
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Elizabeth I's happy visit to Ditchley
The parks of Blenheim and Ditchley have been closely connected for the past 400 years or so, since long before either of them contained the great mansions now built upon them. What thoughts, for instance, can have run through the mind of Queen Elizabeth
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Watchmen and The Young Victoria
Bloody and violent from the outset – hence the 18 certificate – Zack Snyder’s stylish adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ celebrated graphic novel Watchmen pulls no punches as its transports us back in time to a very different vision of
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Vanishing jobs
Bad springtime for Cowley. Fast on the heels of the 1280 BMW redundancies announced over the past couple of months comes news that the 83,912 sq ft Royal Mail sorting office is for let — which means hundreds more Cowley workers are about to lose their
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Red Priest, Sheldonian Theatre
If you thought baroque music was boring, think again. With Red Priest, it becomes a fun, affair, as shown with their Pirates of the Baroque. From the moment the group appeared in their piratical attire, they captivated and enthralled. Serious musicians
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Chair to end pupils' backache
AN OXFORDSHIRE businessman is launching a chair which promises to end schoolchildren’s backache — and transform classrooms. Former motorsport engineer Nick Topliss, of Marsh Gibbon, who now runs furniture design company Isis Concepts in Tetsworth
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Juliet Kelly, The Spin, Oxford
Juliet Kelly, who has now made three albums, is a prolific song writer as well as one of the most respected younger singers on the jazz scene. Her compositions have a colourful mix of humour and sensuality that gives them an immediacy and attraction that
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Keeping woodland working
The conservation value of woodlands is enhanced by regular maintenance and much value can be lost by neglect. So says David Rees, manager of the Oxfordshire Woodland Project. People with areas of woodland large and small can turn to him for advice about
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Doctor Atomic: The London Coliseum
John Adams’s latest opera to grace the London stage, Doctor Atomic tells the troubled and often troubling story of the Los Alamos research facility and the testing of the first nuclear bomb. Though he still toils under the label, Adams is no longer the
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Preview of Das Rheingold, Town Hall, Oxford
A concert performance of Wagner’s Das Rheingold is being given on Saturday night at Oxford Town Hall by the Orchestra of Oxford. This will be the first time the work has been heard in Oxford. The production will feature an international cast of singers
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Preview: The Sixteen at University Church
Harry Christophers is conducting proceedings with an air of good-humoured, calm efficiency. “Sops, don’t overdo it on page three, second bar. Tenors, much, much more words, really expansive. Let’s hear your alleluias.” This is a rehearsal of top-level
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Brueghel to Rubens: Masters of Flemish Painting: The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace
The first exhibition ever mounted of Flemish paintings in the Royal Collection is currently on in London at the Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace. Unsurprisingly, with more than paintings plucked from the Royal Collection, it is a marvellous show.
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My Grandfather's Great War, touring to The Oxford Playhouse and Newbury
What can a play say about the horrors of the trench warfare of the First World War that we haven't heard a thousand times? Precious little – but Cameron Stewart’s lecture-cum-documentary-play My Grandfather’s Great War resonates on personal and contemporary
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Mouth-watering Hellebores
This mouth-watering display of hellebores appeared on Ashwood Nurseries exhibit at the RHS Vincent Square show last month. More than 9,000 visitors attended the two-day show, and they came from all over Britain and Europe. German and Dutch visitors were
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England People Very Nice, The National Theatre
In the first act of Richard Bean’s new play, a 17th-century Huguenot minister warns his fugitive Froggy flock to become English with all speed. What if a religious war breaks out, he asks, between the country they have abandoned and the one they have
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CLEANING UP
CLEANING UP Tania Glyde (Serpent’s Tail, £7.99) This memoir starts with the author waking up in a bath of cold water, having fallen asleep when it was warmer, following yet another drunken night out. This marks the start of the end of her
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Oxford Chamber Orchestra, Sheldonian Theatre
There was a satisfying symmetry to the OCO’s concert last Friday, in which Elgar’s poignant Cello Concerto was sandwiched in between the cheerful exuberance of Vaughan Williams’s Wasps overture and Schumann’s ‘Rhenish’ symphony, both of which saw the
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A Sentimental Journey, the Mill at Sonning
‘I’ve been around so long I can remember Doris Day before she was a virgin.” The joke is generally attributed to Groucho Marx, but Adam Rolston’s script for his new musical A Sentimental Journey suggests that Doris has never regarded herself like
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Preview: A Sentimental Journey - The Story of Doris Day
A succinct instruction to a professional hitman? No, the request for “two deadly murders” that I overheard at the Mill at Sonning box office was simply a request for two tickets for the forthcoming thriller Deadly Murder. But before those macabre proceedings
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Memories of war
There is a photograph in In the Face of the Enemy (Pen and Sword, £19.99) of the bemedalled author celebrating the 60th anniversary of the D-Day landings. Looking suitably dashing and versatile, Didcot author Ernest Powdrill can provide all the
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Les Ballets Trocadero de Monte Carlo, Milton Keynes and High Wycombe
There are plenty of people who send up classical ballet, but no company like the all male “Trocks”. Every member of this fabulous group of 14 men has been a member of a prestigious dance company, so they can actually do all the steps, dance on pointe
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Brueghel to Rubens: Masters of Flemish Painting
The first exhibition ever mounted of Flemish paintings in the Royal Collection is currently on in London at the Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace. Unsurprisingly, with more than paintings plucked from the Royal Collection, it is a marvellous show.
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The Truth, OFS Studio, Oxford
After last year’s production of another Terry Pratchett book, Mort, Oxford-based Parabox raid the fantasy costume closet again to bring another Discworld adventure to life. The Truth is equally as ambitious, attempting to have its frivolous, yet thought-provoking
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81 drivers stopped in belt check
Police and Oxfordshire County Council officers caught dozens of drivers in a road safety check in Upper High Street, Thame. Despite wide-reaching road safety campaigns and regular enforcement operations, 81 people were detected not wearing
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Local author
Nick Smith is The Oxford Times’s bridge correspondent. He has linked up with Julian Pottage to create Bridge Behind Bars (Master Point, £12.99). The novel teatures some tense games in a tough prison as bridge player Timothy Newman starts a stretch behind
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Helping teenagers
Youth worker Nick Luxmoore was filled with despair when he first heard the stories of young refugees who had escaped to Oxford from countries where genocide, murder, rape and blood were part of everyday life. At first, he wondered what he could do to
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ROWING: Dark Blues have pedigree to succeed
It has been clear since last autumn that Oxford University looked to have the higher pedigree for this year’s Boat Race. After the announcement of their crew on Tuesday, the odds were were still clearly in the Dark Blues’ favour. They
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Paperback choice
Without Prejudice Andrew Rosenheim (Arrow, £7.99) Anyone wanting to know the roots of Barack Obama’s rise to power could do no better than read this electrifying thriller by Oxfordshire writer Rosenheim, who himself grew up a stone’s throw from Obama
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Death of a Salesman, Bridge House Theatre Company, Chipping Norton Theatre and University of Warwick
The powerful effect of the Great Depression on the dramatist Arthur Miller was evident in his late (1980) play The American Clock, which was brought to Chipping Norton two years ago in a workmanlike production by students of the Oxford School of Drama
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Posthumous award for bomb expert
Army chiefs have awarded a second George Medal to an Oxfordshire bomb disposal expert killed in Afghanistan last year. Warrant Officer Class 2 Gary O'Donnell, 40, was killed in September while trying to make safe a Taliban explosive device
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For King and Country, The Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham, and touring
The posthumous pardons awarded as recently as 2006 to shell-shocked soldiers executed for desertion and other battlefield offences during the First World War have given a new topicality to John Wilson’s fine play on the subject. First seen in 1964 as
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Hero awarded second George Medal
Army chiefs have awarded a second George Medal to an Oxfordshire bomb disposal expert killed in Afghanistan last year. Warrant Officer Class 2 Gary O'Donnell, 40, was killed in September while trying to make safe a Taliban explosive device
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Arsonists target cars
Firefighters were called to tackle two arson attacks on cars overnight in Oxfordshire. The first took place in Sandford Lane, Kennington, shortly before 9pm. The second happened in Ewelme, on the road to Grendon waste disposal quarry. Thames Valley
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Firefighters tackle car blazes
Firefighters were called to tackle two car fires overnight in Oxfordshire. The first arson attack took place in Sandford Lane, Kennington, shortly before 9pm last night. The second happened in Ewelme, near Wallingford, on the road to Grendon
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Have say on rail services
Didcot rail commuters will be able to have their say about First Great Western train services this afternoon. Staff from the firm are holding a Meet the Manager session at Didcot Parkway station from 4.30pm until 7.30pm to hear passengers' comments and
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'Honda' expected at F1 test
The Brackley team formerly known as Honda are scheduled to take part in all four days of the final Formula One group test at Barcelona next week. Team principal Ross Brawn's management-led buy-out of a marque that announced it was withdrawing
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Mixed scores for councils in annual assessment
Oxford City Council's financial reporting is among the worst in the country, according to official statistics released today by the Audit Commission, the public spending watchdog. The Town Hall scored an overall two-star rating in an assessment
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United in talks to keep star men
Oxford United are ready to step up their planning for the future by offering some of their best-performing players new deals. Manager Chris Wilder feels it's important to make offers to some of the players who have helped the U's on a superb winning
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Hospitals defend parking profits
An NHS trust has defended making a £300,000 profit from charging staff, patients and visitors to park at three hospitals in the county. Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Oxford’s John Radcliffe and Churchill hospitals, and the Horton in
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Cross words
Sir – Are we alone in finding it incredible that you received no entries at all for the February 19 crosswords? Are you blaming Royal Mail or your own internal distribution network? We posted two solutions, first class, on the evening of Sunday
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Angelic addition
Sir – Obviously, . . . the Angel of the Broad. Richard Wilson, Oxford
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Sunday post plea
Sir – Going to post a birthday card, I find Royal Mail has cancelled Sunday collections at the Walton Street Post Office letter box. And there’s no Sunday collection in Oxpens either. Any other service would have to consult before making cuts. Royal
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Grave omission
Sir – I received The Oxford Times this morning and turned with interest to the Weekend section to read with some surprise, Christopher Gray’s review of Othello which opened at The Playhouse on Tuesday. My surprise is because he never once mentions
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Tower welcome for May
Sir – Councillor Young (Report, February 26) asserts that St Clement’s church used to be the venue for the singing of the Hymnus Eucharisticus on May Morning. I do not know what her evidence for this claim is, but there is no record in the college
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Outdated decision
Sir – Dr Darling is quite right to ask that Oxfordshire County Council take a lead in relation to considering incineration as the means of using Oxfordshire’s waste productively (Letters, February 12). To give the council some credit, when they first
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Red Nose's straight man
As Oxford and Cambridge contests go, it is unlikely to be bettered — well, at least when it comes to the serious business of making people laugh. Peter Bennett-Jones well remembers being able to field an impressive line-up of talent from the
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Escaped snake bites mother
Alison Brogden’s workmates enjoyed teasing her that a pet snake missing in her house for ten months was just waiting to bite her. The 56-year-old feared Coils, a 3ft long Californian King Snake, had died after escaping from her tank last April
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Mum finds snake hidden in her trousers
Alison Brogden’s workmates enjoyed teasing her that a pet snake missing in her Didcot home for 10 months was just waiting to bite her. The 56-year-old mum feared Coils, a 3ft long Californian King Snake, had died after escaping from her tank
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'My stillborn son was not laid to rest properly'
A mother has called for cemetery officials to show more respect after discovering her pre-term baby was buried in an open mass grave left covered by a wooden board. Kelly Williams, 22, from Littlemore, Oxford, was four-and-a-half months pregnant
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Blenheim pass offer proves major hit
Almost 8,000 people have signed up for our credit crunch deal offering readers a year-long pass into Blenheim Palace. The Blenheim deal has already proved one of the biggest reader offers that we have ever published, with the palace reporting
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More convenient
Sir – While North Oxford is to gain a new parkway station, affording an alternative rail path to London (via High Wycombe), Kidlington is actually better served by Islip station, which lies just one mile away, and is to be fully rebuilt. There is already
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More parking needed
Sir – On behalf of Witney’s Bicycle User Group I would like to express our gratitude to the district and county councils for providing a new cycling link into the town centre from the Hailey Road. Partially traffic-free, this route over the Windrush
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Privatised path
Sir – Barbara Raw’s shrill instruction to Cyclox was surprising (Letters, January 29). Your report of a new street on the Radcliffe Infirmary site, shared between cyclist and pedestrian was pleasing. TRRL research in Oxford, 1993, found that cyclists
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Intense feeling
Sir – There are so many unsatisfactory aspects about the attitudes of Oxfordshire county councillors to the need for health assessment risks associated with the incinerator proposals, as pointed out by Dr Pauline Amos-Williams (Letters, February
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Emotional support
Sir – There’s been talk recently of nursing and care homes which do not come up to expected standards. My aunt died recently in the Meadows care home in Didcot and I cannot imagine more attentive care assistants and nursing staff doing difficult and
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Woman for every season
Sir – Your obituary of Lady “Nibby” Bullock (February 26) makes brief mention of her involvement in the ‘Tin Hat’ (North Oxford) bypass campaign, but this was just the tip of Lady Bullock’s envrionmental activism, within and without the Oxfordshire
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Bank closes account over 'joke'
A bank has cancelled a customer’s account to “protect its staff” after he made an inappropriate quip to a woman cashier. Alan Jackson-Smyth, 56, spotted a sticker saying £200 on the breast of the cashier’s shirt at the Didcot branch of the
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Opportunities
It is never good to see a company go into administration and so it is with Spring Residential. Some of the Jericho boatyard campaigners may be inclined to celebrate the company’s demise as it was behind the controversial redevelopment of the area.
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Quick money
We are pleased to see that the Government and Oxfordshire County Council are to bring forward spending on school improvements that could total £20m over the next 12 months. This is very good news for schools. We have reported in the past on the large
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Poet's view of city preserved
An historic site on Boars Hill, overlooking Oxford’s dreaming spires, has been secured for the public by Oxford Preservation Trust. The trust has bought the ten-acre site from All Souls College, Oxford. And as well as offering spectacular views of the
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Simple bureaucracy
Sir – It is disappointing that Dr Lucas MEP (Letters, February 26) has failed to see the dangers that the current revisions to EU Directive 86/609 have to the future of medical research. The restrictions on the use of non-human primates neglects to
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Dereliction of duty
Sir – The concept of doughnut cities is in common usage, in particular in America, to describe cites where development has moved to the outskirts. I would suggest that something of the same is now developing in Oxford, except that the exodus is of
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Lethal legacy
Sir – As you say in last week's editorial, we do need to address the question of more nuclear power stations as proposed by the government. Mark Lynas's statements would appear to back the Government’s argument but not necessarily the ‘mainstream’ argument
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'We listen to all women'
Following a career in the health service as a clinical psychologist, Marguerite Holliday became Thames Valley Regional Care Co-ordinator for the charity LIFE last year. Her role entails supporting and supervising volunteers throughout the region
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Do not let your choice of wine stress you out
Do you remember the story of Eeyore’s birthday in Winnie the Pooh? Pooh decides to take him a pot of honey, whilst Piglet takes a balloon. By the time they reach Eeyore, Pooh has finished off the honey and Piglet’s balloon has burst. It’
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Nasty agenda
Sir – I object to Michael Tyce’s assumptions and excuse for a bit of teacher bashing in his letter about school closures (Letters, February 26). The snide comment ‘what now passes for education’ shows a nasty, cynical agenda. Mr Tyce needs to check
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Oasis of calm
Sir – Your story More than half of play areas to be revamped (February 26) is ill-informed, as it describes the natural green area adjacent to Rutherway in Jericho as a soon-to-be-revamped play area. May I point out that this oasis of calm on the edge
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Gearing up for spring clean
Hundreds of volunteers are gearing up for the great Oxford spring clean. About 100 groups will be taking to the streets for the second OxClean event on Friday and Saturday. Oxford Civic Society, which runs the event with Oxford City
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Blight on county
The announcement that Thames Water is going to delay its planned new reservoir by at least five years and reduce it in size by a third will be seen as good news by most. It does, however, leave a hugely unsatisfactory situation. Thames Water appears
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PC world gone mad
THERE is a fine between banter and harrasment, as Alan Jackson-Smyth will testify. He has fallen foul of bank bosses at Halifax, in Didcot, for making a quick-witted remark at a female cashier. He spotted a sticker saying ‘£200’ on the
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Grand design delayed
MILLIONS of television viewers saw Chris Ostwald sailing into trouble over his plans to build an American-style watermill on a hillside in Oxfordshire. The home of his dreams has been built on a site at Aston Hill, near Watlington, that he