Archive

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Students involved in coach crash

A coach of Oxford University students travelling to France for a skiing trip was involved in a collision with a lorry on the M25 near Croydon at 2am on Saturday morning. Many of the 44 passengers suffered cuts and bruising and were forced to escape from

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Fire at Kraft factory

Coffee residue ignited and started a fire at Kraft Foods in Ruscote Avenue, Banbury, today. Firefighters were called to a silo on the fourth floor of the coffee-processing building at about 8.20am. No-one was hurt but an investigation is under way.

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RIDGWAY MURDER TRIAL: Jury still out

Jurors will tomorrow begin a third day of deliberations in the Blayne Ridgway murder trial. A 17-year-old boy, who cannot be named, denies murdering the 22-year-old father of one outside the Que Pasa bar, in Queen Street, on May 8.

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Salvo trumpets a Christmas appeal

SALVATION Army singers and musicians brought the spirit of Christmas to Oxford at the weekend as part of their annual appeal to provide presents and food for disadvantaged people. The Army’s brass band stood outside Marks & Spencer, Queen Street

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Kidlington traders hit out over parking fee plans

TRADERS have hit out at council plans to introduce charges at Kidlington’s main car park. Cherwell District Council is forecasting it would earn £184,000 a year by charging for the Watts Way car park. Charges would be introduced in about a year and

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More snow forecast

Plummeting temperatures and freezing conditions have caused more misery for motorists as forecasters warned of further snow to come. Hundreds of drivers battled to get home after spending a night stranded in their cars in bitterly cold conditions

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Warning issued after series of car break-ins

Police today issued a warning to motorists in South Oxfordshire to be on their guard when leaving their vehicle unattended, following a number of car crimes in the area. There have been 15 thefts from motor vehicles in rural, outdoor locations in the

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Do you believe in the ‘Big Society’ idea that Oxfordshire’s libraries can be run successfully by voluntary groups?

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Should Oxfordshire County Council hold a public inquiry into poor Key Stage 1 results in Oxford schools?

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Do you think the city council should press ahead with developments on car parks in Summertown, St Clements and Headington?

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Local share prices (PM)

AEA Technology 5.3 BMW 5413 Electrocomps 279.8 Nationwide Accident Repair 96.5 Oxford Biomedica 9.25 Oxford Catalyst 59.5 Oxford Instruments 597.5 Reed Elsevier 518.25 RM 155.75 RPS Group 243.8 Courtesy of Redmayne Bentley, Abingdon

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Santas to run through streets in a good Claus

CHRISTMAS shoppers in Oxford might get a shock on Sunday, as more than a thousands Santas are expected to run through the streets for charity. The two-mile sponsored ‘Santas on the Run’ event has been organised to raise cash for city hospice Helen &

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Oxford Castle’s Creative Christmas

Oxford Castle’s Creative Christmas Saturday 18th December 3.30pm – 9.00pm Sprinkling a little fairy dust across Oxford Castle, professional performance artists will enchant on-lookers in Castle Street Square with interactive light installations

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Ring-road crash causes delays

A crash involving a car and a trailer near the Hinksey Hill Interchange caused delays around Oxford this afternoon. The crash happened on the A423 Southern ByPass Road near the interchange, blocking the outside lane. It led to congestion on the southbound

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Independent agent scraps commission

Vendors could save thousands of pounds through an estate agent’s pledge to sell their properties without charging any commission. Independently owned White Walls in Hollybush Row is making the offer to house owners in the OX3 area. It is part of a promotion

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Are you ready to go dancing in the street?

One of the legendary Motown record label’s most iconic acts, Martha Reeves & The Vandellas are returning to England for a special tour almost 50 years since first hitting the charts with the bluesy, soulful Come and Get These Memories. Now you can relive

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Teenager aims for Page 3 stardom

An 18-year-old’s dream of becoming a glamour model may soon become a reality. Laura-Louise Griffiths, from Witney, has entered The Sun newspaper’s Page 3 Idol competition, and this week she will find out if she has made it to the final.

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Witney beauty dreams of being a Page 3 Idol

An 18-year-old’s dream of becoming a glamour model may soon become a reality. Laura-Louise Griffiths, from Witney, has entered The Sun newspaper’s Page 3 Idol competition, and this week she will find out if she has made it to the final. She has already

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Council bosses will stop sponsoring roundabout

COUNCIL bosses are to stop “sponsoring” a roundabout after the £3,000 cost was branded a waste of cash. South Oxfordshire District Council pays £2,950 a year to display four adverts on the Crowmarsh Gifford roundabout close to its offices in

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New plans to redevelop RAF Bicester

A DEVELOPER has unveiled details of a bid to turn part of the former RAF Bicester into apartments and houses but it will not include affordable homes. City and County Group wants to make 17 grade II listed buildings into 181 apartments and houses, ranging

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FOOTBALL: Big freeze hits fixtures

Oxford City's Red Insure Cup second-round home tie against Slough Town and North Leigh's Zamaretto Southern League Division 1 South & West home clash with Bridgwater scheduled for tonight have been called off due to frozen pitches

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Festive offer from retirement complex

Over-60s visiting retirement developer McCarthy & Stone’s complexes Dove Court in Faringdon or Otters Court in Witney between December 29-31 or January 4-9 are offered a tour of the show apartment and a gift. And anyone reserving an apartment

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Local share prices (AM)

AEA Technology 5.45 BMW 5424 Electrocomps 280.5 Nationwide Accident Repair 96.5 Oxford Biomedica 9.25 Oxford Catalyst 59.5 Oxford Instruments 595.5 Reed Elsevier 518.25 RM 154 RPS Group 240.1 Courtesy of Redmayne Bentley, Abingdon

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Judge releases identity of sex trafficker

A SECOND man convicted of people trafficking in Oxford can today be named as Graham Cochrane from Bicester. Reporting restrictions prevented the Oxford Mail from naming the 49-year-old during a two-week trial at Oxford Crown Court, which ended last week

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DARTS: Lockyer's the leader

British Inter-County Youth Darts Dean Lockyer captains Oxfordshire Under 21s in Sunday’s home Southern Section Division 2 clash with Essex at Rileys, Cowley (12). Oxfordshire lie fifth in the table after one win and two defeats from their three matches

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New dean at business school

Professor Peter Tufano has been appointed as the new Peter Moores Dean at Oxford University's Saїd Business School. Prof Tufano, currently based at Harvard Business School in the United States, will succeed the current dean, Prof Colin Mayer, when he

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Robber jailed for attack on teenager

A MAN who robbed a teenager celebrating his 18th birthday has been jailed. Matthew Chalmers, who knew his victim, punched Jamie Smith in the face and stole about £120 and his Samsung mobile phone. Jonathan Stone, prosecuting, told Oxford Crown Court

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Paedophile raid sparked suicide

AMATEUR photographer Michael Curtis gassed himself just hours after child porn police raided his home, even though there was no evidence against him. His widow launched a bitter attack on the police after hearing at an inquest how detectives

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Tuesday, December 7: Help shop this thief

THIS man thought he could get away with shoplifting, but no such luck. He was caught on camera taking items off the shelf, putting them into a bag at a shop at 7pm on Thursday, September 9 – but forgot to pay for them. The thief features

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COMMENT: A tragic suicide

THE suicide of Michael Curtis following the raid of his house by police investigating child pornography is a tragedy. Thames Valley Police had to investigate the intelligence. And officers would not have known the extreme reaction Mr Curtis had to the

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DARTS: Maximum Moss fires up Rileys

Greene King ODDA League Premier side Rileys Social Club A hit top form when they stormed to an 8-1 victory at Section 1’s The Angel. Wins from Ian Moss, who hit two 180s, Peter Eagle, Tony Allday and Simon Tricker (180) gave them a 4-0 lead. The

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Headington miss out on festive lights because of the wrong lampposts

LONDON Road will not be lit up with festive lights this year because of the wrong type of lamp-post! As towns and villages around Oxfordshire switch on their festive lights this week, Headington will not be joining them. And business owners have blamed

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Disappointment over pool closure

I WISH to express my disappointment at the definite closure of the Temple Cowley Pool, despite there being a petition of several thousand people to keep it open. I remember learning to swim there more than 50 years ago. The city council, however, favours

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Lib-Dem hypocrites

At the General Election all Lib Dem candidates signed a pledge to oppose any increase in tuition fees. Their leaders also made a big issue about bringing trust back into politics. To now propose, and vote for (or even not vote against) a three-fold

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Wrong judgement

I see that Mrs Susan Thomas (Oxford Mail, December 3) allowed her “excited” 14-year-old daughter to bunk off from Cheney School to take part in a truanting and trespass campaign as a protest against the Government’s student fees policies. Whether her

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Actions applauded

As a grandmother with a grandchild just starting secondary school, I applaud the actions of the school and university students who are coming out on to the streets to protest at what will be the most devastating changes to their life prospects for 60

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We deserve better from our politicians

I write to complain about Keith Mitchell’s crude and insulting remarks about the young people taking part in the demonstration in Oxford. I would like him to apologise for his remarks to the many young people from local schools who were demonstrating

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DARTS: Shepherd wins on Oxon debut

Rileys British Inter-County Championships Former PDC World Championship runner-up Kirk Shepherd had a winning debut as Oxf-ordshire returned to the top of Division 1. Shepherd helped Oxon’s men’s A team hammer Middlesex 10-2 at Rileys, Cowley and

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On Yer Bike: My mind was only focused on the ‘fold’

IT WAS a cold and frosty 7am start as I set off for Oxford station. This is a rare occurrence as I am not a commuter and I am generally not an early riser either, but this day was different. I had been invited to the Brompton factory in Brentford

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Cameron's gimmick

AFTER Mr Cameron’s well-publicised gimmick of going on holiday to Cornwall, like we the common people do, in order to cut down on expenditure, will his next gimmick see him having ‘pigeon pie’ for Christmas dinner? TONY O’GORMAN, Main Street,

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A shame over jets

WHAT a shame that the Harrier jump jets have been taken out of service and also Ark Royal will be taken out of service by Christmas. We have lost an awful lot of air protection in this country, it would have been better to have kept it all until 2020

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Here's a thought

I read the article It’ll be a Monster (Oxford Mail, November 30) about a rare Mary Shelley manuscript going on show which is normally stored away from public gaze in an air-conditioned vault. It set me thinking. There are problems for us all

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Champagne reception launches annual business awards

FORMER winners, finalists and sponsors gathered at Blenheim Palace for a Champagne reception to mark the launch of the Oxfordshire Business Awards 2011. The event, held in the prestigious surroundings of the Palace’s Orangery on Friday, was

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Steven Lee quits Summit

(file pics of Lee)MILTON PARK: Steven Lee has quit as chief executive of drug discovery company Summit "to pursue other business opportunities", with Barry Price becoming executive chairman. Dr Lee has been with the company since 2004, when

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Mini sales buck UK trend

UK sales of the Cowley-built Mini rose slightly in November, bucking the national trend. Figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) show a total of 3,117 Minis were registered during the month, compared to 3,097 for the same month

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Troops set for a heroes' welcome

The streets of Abingdon will be lined with hundreds of townsfolk tomorrow as soldiers march through the town in a homecoming parade. About 320 soldiers from the Dalton Barracks-based 12 Logistic Support Regiment will march through the town before speeches

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Jury out in Ridgway murder trial

A jury will continue deliberating today whether a 17-year-old murdered Blayne Ridgway. The jury at Oxford Crown spent an hour on their deliberations yesterday before being sent home for the evening to resume this morning. The defendant denies murdering

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HOCKEY: Abingdon beat the freeze

Abingdon took advantage of being one of the few teams to play at the weekend with a thumping 6-1 win at Newbury. Their South League MBB&O Division 2 match away to Newbury & Thatcham 2nd got the go-ahead, on a day when most of the rest of the programme

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Four treated in hospital after fight outside pub

FOUR people needed hospital treatment after a fight involving 20 people outside an Abingdon pub. Police said the fight started at about midnight on Friday after a drum and bass night at the Ox pub in Oxford Road. Officers said there was no fighting

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RUGBY: Witney knocked off top spot

Witney were knocked off top spot in South West 1 East after Maidenhead won the only game in the region to survive the big freeze. While Witney saw their top-of-the-table clash at Olney postponed, Maidenhead were able to leap from third to first with

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Time no healer says family of honour killing victim

PEOPLE have told Raheem Ghorbani-Zarin, the father of a man stabbed 46 times in a so-called honour killing, that time would be a healer. “That is total rubbish... the devastation is unreal and total,” the 55-year-old told the Oxford Mail yesterday as

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Hundreds stranded in travel chaos

Hundreds of drivers stranded overnight in freezing temperatures are still battling to get home as police launched a huge operation to free up miles of gridlock. Some motorists were stuck in their vehicles for more than 15 hours as Scotland

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Mums plan county's first 'free school'

A GROUP of parents who educate their children at home are planning to use a new law to set up the county’s first new ‘free school’. The three mums behind the plan have withdrawn their children from state schools, but said their planned 60-pupil school

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COMMENT: Intriguing plans

T HE idea of a group of parents who want to set up their own school is an intriguing one. Louisa Nutt and others who currently home-school their children are hoping to set up their own school under new proposals from the Government. There is a strong

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FOOTBALL: Oxford City hope to blood youngsters

Oxford City boss Mike Ford says youngsters Felipe Barcelos and Adam Morris have the chance to force themselves into his thoughts with a decent display against Slough Town in the second round of the Red Insure Cup tonight(Tuesday). But with

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Oxford United chairman praises his frost-beaters

The Oxford United staff and groundstaff whose hard work enabled Saturday’s match to beat the freeze have been given a pat on the back by their chairman. Kelvin Thomas also thanked Oxford Marquees for donating the heaters that were used in the week leading

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Blackbird Leys choir gearing up for fifth birthday

A BLACKBIRD Leys choir formed for a TV programme about council estate music groups is to celebrate its fifth birthday. The Blackbird Leys choir will perform at the Jacqueline du Pre Music Building, Oxford, on Saturday, January 22 to mark the