Archive

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WRG tries new waste plant plan

A NEW waste plant planned for Oxfordshire could take thousands of tonnes of waste every year from London. Waste Recycling Group (WRG) is to submit plans for a £20m biological treatment plant on the Sutton Courtenay landfill site to Oxfordshire County

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IN A WARZONE: Life with the helicopter crews

THEY risk their lives every day supporting the nation’s finest on the front line. And behind the scenes are specially trained engineers keeping them in the air. They are airmen and women from RAF Benson, home of the Merlin helicopters, performing

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Tribute to two fallen soldiers

Two soldiers who died in the Afghanistan conflict will be repatriated to the UK tomorrow. Cpl Taniela Tolevu Rogoiruwai, and Kingsman Ponipate Tagitaginimoce, from 1st Battalion The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, were killed in separate incidents in southern

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UPDATE: Rail disruption likely to continue until 10pm

TRAIN operator First Great Western is warning passengers that disruption to services between Oxfordshire and London is likely to last until at least 10pm tonight. Vandalism to signal equipment at West Drayton, between Slough and London Paddington

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Cricket club fears loss of its ground

A CRICKET club is campaigning to save its 50-year-old ground amid fears a proposed 1,500-home development would force it to move. Almost 300 people have signed a petition and are urging people to fight council plans to earmark land surrounding the ground

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Brief moment of stage glory

Agatha Christie’s Witness for the Prosecution, which I review today, is a play I first saw when I acted in it. Let me explain more clearly: I knew nothing of its script, or its outcome, until I made a first-night appearance in a professional touring

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Sentence of death for two handsome rowans

There are two extremely handsome rowan trees at either end of a small block of Oxford City Council flats in South Street, Osney. They help to distract the eye from what is, in truth, a very ugly building. Guess what? The city council is going to chop

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Mamma Mia Jericho: Walton Street, Oxford

We taxied to the new Mamma Mia in Walton Street hot-foot from a performance of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the New Theatre, with the catchy Any Dream Will Do continuing to hit the repeat button in my brain (as the blasted thing still

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My first sight of the full-size Lizzie

Until last week I had seen Sir William Stanier’s superb 1933 Pacific locomotive Princess Elizabeth only in the form of an OO-gauge Tri-ang model from the 1950s. It was a great pleasure, then, to admire the real thing as she took water at Challow Road

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Bun-throwing and other traditions in Abingdon

The past is big business at present and is likely to become even bigger in the future — at least in Abingdon, where the lovely County Hall, described by the architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner as England’s grandest free-standing town hall with an

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Useful lessons in feeding the family

Four young women smiled for the camera while proudly clutching certificates they earned after attending a seven-week cookery course funded by Oxfordshire Learning Network. The aim of the course, which took place at a smart refurbished kitchen in the Kidlington

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Joy Webb's shepherd's pie, serves four

Joy Webb, who helped teach during the women’s practical cookery lessons, was confident that her family’s shepherd’s pie recipe would prove a great dish for them to cook as it calls for baked beans to be mixed into the meat. She says the addition of baked

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Get Him to the Greek and Whatever Works

Supporting characters can make a film. James Bond wouldn’t have his licence to thrill without diabolical villains Jaws and Oddjob or alluring sex kittens Honey Ryder and Pussy Galore. Darth Vader’s heavy breathing booms across the Star Wars universe and

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Thank you for handing in handbag

I would like to thank the kind person who handed in my handbag following the 5pm performance of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the New Theatre on Friday. It is nice to know that there are honest people about these days. Sue Goodwin,

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Twelfth Night: Tomahawk Theatre Company, Oxford Castle

There is much to be said for open air theatre, and few better locations for it in Oxford than the Castle. To view Tomahawk Theatre Company’s Twelfth Night as the sunset casts a warm glow on to the castle walls is to view it in near perfect surroundings

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Mitch Benn: Glee Club

Although the UK has a fine tradition in producing top- notch musical comedians, we have recently been left in the dust by the arrival of acts like Tim Minchin and Tenacious D, two acts who have found international stardom holding a tune as well as splitting

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Richard James: O2 Academy

In a former life, Richard James was the frontman of Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci, a band every bit as wacky as their name suggests. Initially recording only in Welsh, the band released nine albums of messy psychedelia which were adored by a tiny minority

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Pirelli confirmed as F1 tyre supplier

The Italian tyre firm Pirelli will supply all the Formula One teams from 2011- 2013 with six types of tyre: four for dry weather, one for rain and one intermediate tyre. Pirelli – which has supplied tyres exclusively for the GP3 championship

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Oxford Bach Choir: Sheldonian Theatre

The Oxford Bach Choir chose a programme of popular baroque works for its summer concert. Despite competition from the World Cup there was a good turnout on Saturday. Certainly this was a far more entertaining performance than England managed in its opening

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The Man from Stratford: Being Shakespeare

‘He shows us what it is to be human. But what was it like being Shakespeare? That is the question we ask in our play.” So writes Jonathan Bate, the author of this clever show, in a programme note. It is a question that Simon Callow dealt with brilliantly

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Town: The Royal&Derngate Theatre, Northampton

‘Home’ for up-and-coming playwright DC Moore is — or rather was — Northampton. Town, his gripping, well-acted new contribution to the Royal&Derngate’s Hometown season, casts an appraising eye over the place of his upbringing. The result is hardly a flattering

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Local share prices (PM)

AEA Technology 18 BMW 3449 Electrocomponents 225.5 Nationwide Accident Repair 81.5 Oxford Biomedica 11.1 Oxford Catalysts 79.75 Oxford Instruments 286.5 Reed Elsevier 503.75 RM 168.25 RPS Group 187.9 Courtesy

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Striking the Balance: Mikron Theatre Company: Touring

‘Has the world gone stark, staring, raving mad?” cries bakery owner Mr Winner. It’s 1975, and he’s finally been forced to confront the fact that he must abide by the Equal Pay Act — up until now, he’s got round the law by fiddling the wage scales

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The Love for Three Oranges: Grange Park Opera

The Prince is at death’s door. Lying in bed with a drip feeding into his arm, he’s surrounded by white-coated doctors, whose expressions make it plain that the end is nigh. Then one of the doctors pipes up: “Could festivities save him? He’ll recover if

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Morte d'Arthur: The Royal Shakespeare Company, the Courtyard Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon

During a tour last Thursday of Stratford’s soon-to-open new theatre, the RSC’s artistic director Michael Boyd told us critics of the visual wonders that lay in store for audiences there — and of the “thin gruel” the company was being forced to

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Oxford Philomusica, Verdi's Requiem, Sheldonian Theatre

First performed in 1874 and conducted by the composer himself, Verdi’s Requiem unsurprisingy remains popular more than a century later. Last Thursday, the Sheldonian Theatre saw another reincarnation of the work, this time conducted by Marios Papadopoulos

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Vandalism disrupts Oxford-London trains

DAMAGE caused by vandalism in west London in causing major disruption to Rail services between Oxfordshire and the capital. First Great Western is warning passengers that problems are likely to continue until late this evening after signal

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Don Giovanni: Longborough Opera

‘In this production . . . we are drawing on expressionism, fantasy and dream to explore the unknowable Don,” says director Jenny Miller in her programme notes. “Our set and costumes evoke the memory of some tawdry, itinerant Victorian circus or

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Train operator is first class, say passengers

TRAIN operator Wrexham & Shropshire has again been rated the best in Britain by rail passengers. The firm, which links London with Shropshire and North Wales via Banbury, scored 99 per cent for customer satisfaction in the bi-annual national survey by

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Village gets a taste of the Middle Ages

VILLAGERS were transported back to medieval times to celebrate their church’s 900th birthday. St Peter’s Church, in Mill Lane, Alvescot, West Oxfordshire, hosted the birthday bash on Saturday. Villagers wore period costumes to set the

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Net cast wide in hunt for headteacher

A CATHOLIC primary school which has spent a year searching for a new headteacher is being forced to look at non-religious candidates. St Amand’s Primary School, East Hendred, has placed national adverts for a new head. But it has failed

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Fundraising adventurer recounts aura of Everest

HE may have stood on top of the world, but the sights he saw along the way made James Nettleton realise Mount Everest is not for the faint-hearted. The 28-year-old experienced adventurer, from the village of Newington, in South Oxfordshire, has climbed

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Modern Art Oxford

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Hairy Bikers

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Horrible Science

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Get Him To The Greek

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Howard Hodgkin

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Theodore Boone

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Alejandro Escovedo

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Five men lose High Court battle

Five men lost a High Court battle today to block extradition to Greece where they are accused of a savage attack on a footballer outside a Crete nightclub. Lawyers for the five said they were innocent and potentially faced detention in terrible

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Final countdown in schools competition

ONE of these five schools could soon be celebrating winning £7,500 of Olympic-inspired improvements – with your help. Kingfisher School in Abingdon, New Marston Primary School in Oxford, Launton Primary School, Wheatley Primary School and Edith

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Town readies itself for carnival

WITNEY will come alive with floats, music and stalls for this year’s carnival. The programmes for the carnival have now been printed, this year decorated by drawings by Charlotte Woodage, 10, from Batt Primary School. The event is on Saturday, July

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Aldi aims to open

A SECOND discount supermarket has submitted plans to build a store in Bicester. Aldi wants to build a shop at the empty former British Gas site, off Launton Road, next to building supplier Wickes. The move comes just weeks after Cherwell district councillors

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All-weather sports pitch is on the way

YOUNGSTERS will soon be able to exercise on a new community sports facility allowing them to play football, cricket, bask-etball and hockey in all weathers. North Hinksey Parish Council has won a £66,593 grant to build an all-weather pitch in the upper

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Police target language pupil attacks

POLICE are launching Oxford’s biggest operation to protect foreign students from being robbed. On Monday, officers from Blackbird Leys neighbourhood team unveiled their plan at the Kassam Stadium to crack down on the attacks that peak across Oxford every

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Drive along to Oxford motor show

Fundraisers for Maggie’s Cancer Centre are urging people to drive along to the Oxford Mail Motor Show on Sunday and help speed the charity along to its £1.9m target. The charity has raised £1.4m over the last three years and needs another £500,000

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Drive along to the Mail’s motor show on Sunday

FUNDRAISERS for Maggie’s Cancer Centre are urging people to drive along to the Oxford Mail Motor Show on Sunday and help speed the charity along to its £1.9m target. The charity has raised £1.4m over the last three years and needs another £500,000 to

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Cycle ride will raise awareness

A PLASTERER is planning to cycle almost 1,000 miles to raise cash for research into an incurable disease that killed his father. Mark Green’s dad Christopher, 59, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer about ten weeks ago and died just nine weeks later

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FOOTBALL: Forinton facing betting probe

Former Oxford City and Banbury United striker Howard Forinton will appear before a Football Association disciplinary board in Birmingham next month charged with breaching betting regulations. The charges relate to when Forinton, 36, who now

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Banbury Sound presenter is ‘best newcomer’

RADIO DJ Lucy Jones has been celebrating after winning best newcomer at the Arqiva Commercial Radio Awards. Miss Jones, who presents Let Loose Lunch on Banbury Sound, was one of three in the running, including former Spicegirl Emma Bunton. The 24-year-old

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Steam train celebrates special centenary

Bookings are now open for a special steam train being run next month to celebrate the centenary of the opening of the Bicester cut-off railway line. Chiltern Railways has joined forces with steam operator Vintage Trains to run the Centenary Express

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Cropredy line-up change announced

Organisers of Cropredy Festival have announced a change to the line-up on Friday, August 13. BBC Young Folk Award winner James Findlay has had to pull out and instead up-and-coming alternative country band Ahab will step into his spot. The London-based

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CRICKET: Watling skippers Development XI

Chris Watling captains Oxfordshire Development XI today when they take on Northants Academy in a two-day match at Bicester & North Oxford. The Aston Rowant and Oxfordshire all-rounder, who played for the MCC in their 120-run defeat to Scotland National

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Bells will ring out for Horton

The bells of St Mary’s Church bells will ring out across the town in a special three-hour peal to celebrate securing the future of the Horton Hospital. St Mary’s Church was where bosses of Oxfordshire PCT told residents in a public meeting that services

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Nursery nurse seeks 'gift of life'

A NURSERY nurse is urging people in Banbury to sign up to the Anthony Nolan Trust and give her the gift of life. Lauren Gladden, 23, has Hodgkin Lymphoma, a form of cancer, and desperately needs a bone marrow transplant. Chemotherapy has not worked

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Identical Witney twin sisters join the Army together

LIKE quite a few teenage girls, identical twins Ella and Kitty Gorman have been watching their weight. But the 19-year-olds have not been shedding the pounds. Instead, they have both put on a stone so they can embark on an Army career in the Royal Military

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CRICKET: Hemming hails Shipton potential

Shipton-under-Wychwood captain Paul Hemming says they have plenty of potential as they prepare for another run in the national stages of the npower Village Cup. Hemming led Shipton to a four-wicket victory over Cumnor in Sunday’s Oxfordshire final as

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CRICKET: County women lose out

Oxfordshire slipped to a 56-run defeat against Norfolk in the ECB Women’s County Championship at Hethersett and Tas Valley CC. Norfolk openers Peggy Tirimanna and Lois Nethersell put on 88 for the first wicket in the Division 5 East clash before leg-spinner

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CRICKET: Wootton tribute

Wootton & Boars Hill CC will name their pavilion after a founder member at a special memorial match on Sunday. Mick Williams was one of the ‘founding fathers’ who negotiated with the parish council to have cricket played on the parish field opposite

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Bungee leap raises £1k for home residents

A STUDENT took a deep breath, smiled and then jumped head first from 300ft to raise cash for her grandmother’s nursing home. Despite being scared of heights Rebekah McGeough, 18, completed a bungee jump at Windsor Bray Lake and raised £1,100 to pay for

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New commissioner role for MP Baldry

North Oxfordshire MP Tony Baldry has been appointed Second Church Estates Commissioner. The Second Commissioner represents the Church of England in the House of Commons and his appointment had to be approved by the Queen. Mr Baldry’s role will be to

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Men (in drag) on a mission

A COUNCILLOR and former logistics manager from Oxfordshire are spreading awareness of prostate cancer by dressing in drag. Mike Breakell and Malcolm Potter are two of ten men picked to take part in the first Great Drag Race. They were followed by a

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Cherwell 'scores on the doors'

A total of 149 pubs, restaurants and cafes have scored top marks in hygiene ratings. Cherwell District Council’s Scores on the Doors scheme rates premises across the district and gives each a score from none, viewed as very poor, to five stars, being

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New £3m hangar planned for Oxford Airport

Construction work is expected to begin on a new £3m three-bay hangar at Oxford Airport next week. The new 47,000sq ft hangar – due to be completed in December – will be big enough to house 15 medium-sized business jets, and the largest single

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Heart radio staff face redundancy

HEART radio staff face redundancy because of a national restructuring initiative by the station. Its Cowley office is to close, with Heart programmes set to be broadcast from another office in Reading. The radio station refused to disclose how many

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WORLD CUP: United don't plan to ban vuvuzelas

THE relentless rasp of the vuvuzela has become synonymous with this year’s World Cup, but football fans here in Oxford could soon have to deal with a similar earbashing. Oxford United has confirmed the horns will not be banned from the Kassam

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Pegasus Theatre to honour city author

THE auditorium at the revamped Pegasus Theatre in Magdalen Road is to be named after author Philip Pullman. It will be called the Pullman Stage, in recognition of Mr Pullman’s support for the theatre, including a £100,000 donation from him

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Oxford Airport to get another hangar

CONSTRUCTION work is expected to begin on a new £3m three-bay hangar at Oxford Airport next week. The new 47,000sq ft hangar – due to be completed in December – will be big enough to house 15 medium-sized business jets, and the largest single

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WORLD CUP: Slovenian seeks safety in numbers

SLOVENIAN scientist Viktorija Hozjan is hoping her football team finds the perfect formula for beating England this afternoon. Ms Hozjan, a research assistant in an Oxford University biology laboratory, is meeting fellow countrymen in London

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CRICKET: Crossley backs Oxon's batsmen

Oxfordshire's chairman of selectors, Alan Crossley, has ruled out wholesale changes after their ten-wicket humiliation against Cornwall. Crossley said their Minor Counties Championship Western Division defeat, which came inside two days at Falmouth,

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FOOTBALL: City in swoop to sign up Wanless

Oxford City boss Mike Ford has brought in former Oxford United midfielder Paul Wanless as player-coach. The Banbury-born 36-year-old made 390 Football League appearances for Oxford – where he played 97 games in two spells – Lincoln City and

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Botley interchange traffic lights are waste of money

WHO are the idiots who have decided the Botley interchange roundabout needs traffic lights? Who are the idiots who have spent a huge fortune of our money on unnecessary road works, traffic lights and pedestrian crossings for people who do not

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Different memory of Thatcher years

THE recollections of the Thatcher years from Andrew Coles (Oxford Mail ViewPoints, June 14) are somewhat different from mine. Far from being the disaster Mr Coles would like us to believe, I believe the Thatcher administration delivered strong foreign

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Other options for Manzil Way Gardens

IT IS clear to us that there are alternatives to turning Manzil Way Gardens into a builder’s compound for two years (Oxford Mail, June 19). Access could be provided via the road which encircles the health centre and part of their car park used for the

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Puzzle of TV football pundits

IT SEEMS like the TV people choose the pundits for the World Cup by who they like and not who the public fancy. I am sure Gary Lineker is not very popular, the way he treated his wife. Also Kevin Keegan is a failed manager of Newcastle. Then ‘missed

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SASSY & SINGLE: Guys, get a grip on giving gifts

A BIG claim I know. But trust me guys, I’m about to break one of the unwritten female rules of life, and you, yes you, will benefit because of it. The other day I had the pleasure of discussing the impending birthday of my friend’s wife.

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Tesco reveals plans for Fox and Hounds pub site

SUPERMARKET giant Tesco has finally revealed plans to develop a new store on the site of a derelict pub in Oxford. The company has submitted two applications to replace the Fox and Hounds pub in Abingdon Road with an Express store. Neighbours

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Bad timing at Botley interchange traffic lights

WHILE fuming for 15 minutes in the queue on the A420 to enter the new traffic light system at the Botley interchange roundabout, I had plenty of time to reflect on the possible reasons for the delay. It appeared to me that the timings of the lights were

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City council leader 'in denial'

IF I were councillor Bob Price and it was my party that had brought this country to its knees by consistently spending more than it earned and racked up an unsustainable level of debt in the process, I think I would have found a dark corner in which to

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About time too

FINALLY Tesco has submitted plans to Oxford City Council to build on the Fox and Hounds pub site in South Oxford. It’s about time. The pub shut down almost three years ago and is in such a condition that you couldn’t even call it derelict. It’s a disgrace

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BUDGET: Mixed reaction to changes

SHERRYL and Spencer Blowfield live in Didcot with their three children, Peter, 13, Georgia, 11, and Daniel, eight. Mrs Blowfield, 35, is a self-employed childminder and Mr Blowfield, 36, works at BMW’s Mini car plant in Oxford. Mrs Blowfield

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BUDGET: Tough times for world of work and business

PATRICIA Marquis is the regional director for the Royal College of Nursing responsible for Oxfordshire. She said: “The public sector pay freeze, over £21,000, will affect most of our members and is massively disappointing for them. “

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Financial woes hit home at last

YESTERDAY was the day you personally felt the pain of the dire state of the country’s economics. Everyone knew Britain was in a bad way and that cuts were coming. Yet, as the figures were so huge and the public sector touted as the main

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BUDGET: Families will feel pain in pocket

OXFORDSHIRE families will feel budget pain every time they hear shopping tills ring after the Government decided to hike VAT to record levels. Chancellor George Osborne announced the rise, from 17.5 per cent to 20 per cent, as part of the Government

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Oxford United chief shoots down Posh claims

Chairman Kelvin Thomas says claims that Oxford United paid Peterborough £50,000 to land winger Alfie Potter are “wide of the mark”. Potter, 21, joined the U’s permanently last month for an undisclosed fee, after initially coming to the Kassam Stadium

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No excuses for England, says Oxford United's veteran coach

Oxford United’s former England goalkeeper Alan Hodgkinson is not impressed by the current England team saying they are bored in South Africa. Some players have complained that it has been difficult whiling away the hours between World Cup games, apparently

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Charity demonstrates communication equipment

A CHARITY which helps severely disabled children communicate has demonstrated some of its technology at an open afternoon. The ACE Centre, in Windmill Road, Oxford, works with about 90 children each year with a range of communication problems

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Residents seek parking zone consensus

A COMMUNITY split by long-standing plans for new parking scheme is drawing up its own plans for the project in an attempt to settle differences. Plans for a controlled parking zone (CPZ) in the Magdalen Road area sparked a strong reaction from

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Get on the move to enter contest

TOTS posed happily for the camera yesterday as the Oxford Mail Baby of the Year competition moved to Cowley. Our photographer has switched from Debenhams – where hundreds of babies put on their best smiles – to Matalan, at the John Allen Centre

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Evicted man leaves behind tarantulas

JARS of tarantulas were abandoned in a Witney home, after the tenant was evicted. Roger Sutton and his 38 dogs had to leave Colwell Drive on June 9, after more than 30 years. He had been evicted by housing association A2Dominion, after

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Vandals’ bill hits £40,000

VANDALISM has cost Witney Town Council almost £40,000 in the past five years. The town council is warning that the soaring costs affect every council taxpayer in the town. Witney mayor, James Mills, said: “Witney Town Council is continuing

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‘Better than Cogges Link Road’

WITNEY landowners have spent £20,000 on a report to prove that an alternative to the controversial Cogges Link Road is viable. This week, a report into the Shores Green alternative has been published. A year ago, the East Witney Land