Cuts to crucial social sevices have been halted after councillors voted to raise council tax bills by 7.2 per cent. Oxfordshire's Liberal Democrats agreed the increase with Labour backing at yesterday's county council meeting. Finance bosses had advised
BCS Bardwell are through to the semi-finals of the Jersey Cup after coming from behind to beat Souldern 3-2. Robert Honour fired Bardwell into an early lead before Brett Moggridge netted twice to give the Division 4 side a 2-1 interval lead. But a second-half
Oxford City Stars are to put in a protest about an official after their 7-2 cup defeat with a weakened side away to Telford Royals on Sunday. Following City's complaints about local official Blaine Evans after the last game at Telford, he was again allocated
Tyrone McGill's late strike gave East Hendred a hard-fought 1-0 win over Division 1 leaders Long Wittenham in the North Berks League. Harwell International boosted their challenge with a 4-1 win over Blewbury. Martin Parsons grabbed a brace with Darren
Two Hanborough A players suffered broken legs in their Supplementary Cup second-round tie against Freeland forcing the match to be abandoned. The two incidents happened in a 20-minute spell in the second half. Firstly, Peter Willis fractured his leg and
Oxford RFC, who have plummeted down rugby's ladder in recent years, are in good shape to make a revival. That was the prediction of flong-serving committee man Ron Martin at a special club lunch on Saturday. Speaking before Oxford's 11-5 victory over
Fans of banger racing can now log on to find the latest news about a top Oxfordshire venue. Standlake Arena, situated on the A415 Standlake/Witney Road, holds 24 meetings a year on Sundays and Bank Holiday Mondays on its 300-yard track. Most meetings
Jewellery worth thousands of pounds was stolen in a raid on a pensioner's home, despite the elderly woman confronting the burglars. Three white men broke into a house in the Brook Street area of Watlington, but fled when the victim confronted them. One
A former police officer faces jail after he admitted molesting two teenage girls at a party. Trevor Reeves, 55, wept as he pleaded guilty to two charges of indecently assaulting a 13-year-old girl and a 15-year-old girl at his home in Childrey, near Wantage
Regular eyesight tests could cut hundreds of road deaths each year, according to HSA Healthcare and the Institute of Advanced Motorists. Millions of drivers could be unaware their eyesight is below the safe minimum standard. Research shows that if those
Mondeo man appears to have had the final laugh as the new Ford Mondeo was named Car of the Year 2001 by a leading car magazine. As well as receiving the most prestigious award at the motor industry's Oscars, the model also scooped the award for Best Family
The MG Rover Group is playing a strong sporting hand with its latest line of X-rated sports saloon cars. During a glitzy presentation three MG model ranges codenamed X10, X20 and X30, along with an MG special edition were unveiled at the firm's Longbridge
The lights go up, though only dimly, on the gothic interior of an abandoned farmhouse. Long unused furniture draped in glistening white shrouds stands like a gathering of ghosts, while outside the moors rise so steeply that there is no horizon to be seen
A priest arrested during an anti-nuclear demonstration at the Faslane Trident submarine base on the Clyde says he will carry on demonstrating, writes Michael Hambleton. The Rev David Platt says he is ready to be arrested again and adds: "It will only
Reigning four-stroke motocross champion Craig Pratley, from Chipping Norton, led the way home to win the Top Expert class at Sunday's Oxford Ixion MCC-organised meeting at Culham, near Abingdon - the first outing of the 2001 season. James Painton, from
A public exhibition on proposed changes for a shopping area will begin on Monday. The exhibition, at Bicester Town Council's offices at The Garth, Launton Road, will show how part of Market Square could be pedestrian- ised. The exhibition ends on February
Drug company Powderject has dropped out of the bidding for rival firm Cantab Pharmaceuticals. The Oxford company had been regarded as favourite to buy Cantab, based in Cambridge, which is up for sale following the failure of one of its vaccines in October
Residents campaigning to turn grass verges in their road into car parking spaces handed a 197-signature petition to Oxford City Council. The residents want the wide strips of grass on either side of Croft Road in New Marston to be surfaced to create extra
A planning row has erupted over the future of a disused garage site. Liz Harris and 18 of her neighbours are desperate to ensure the former Wallingford Auto & Tyre Centre site is used for new housing rather than another service trade. Concern: Resident
Schoolgirl Ann Tivey landed a major part in a video - aimed at raising the profile of older people. The seven-year-old, from Fulbrook, near Burford, was chosen because of her confidence in front of the camera and her good reading and speaking skills.
A popular traffic warden has earned a Thames Valley Police award for dedication to her job. Peggy Long, 55, who has been working in Thame and Watlington since 1987, will be presented with a Shrievalty Merit Award in a special ceremony on March 6. The
A man has been jailed for 18 months following a "brutal, drunken and unprovoked attack" on his then girlfriend. Adrian Asquith admitted causing actual bodily harm to Jane Martin on May 1 last year at the home they shared in Chillingworth Crescent, east
A man is being questioned by police over the theft of 93-year-old Lily Currill's teddy bear. On Monday, the Oxford Mail told how a burglar had stolen the widow's treasured teddy bear after distracting her at her home. A man, aged 56, who has not been
A teenager who hit a man with a brick and another man with a metal bar during robberies is being hunted by Oxford police. In the first incident, a man was hit with a brick after he refused to hand over money to a youth who approached him in Cowley Road
The long haul is nearly over for a restored steam locomotive which was a rusting hulk in a scrapyard in South Wales until 16 years ago. Freight engine No 4247, built to haul coal trains from the Welsh mines to the docks, last saw regular service 36 years
Controversial plans for two-way cycling in two one-way streets in Oxford have been given the go-ahead. And officers are investigating whether to impose a 20mph speed limit on the routes to improve safety. Contraflow cycle lanes are to be created in one-way
A government adjudicator has refused to make a decision on the future of six church schools because the plans were not advertised properly, writes Madeleine Pennell. The schools adjudicator had been due to decide on five proposals for the Oxford schools
First division Aston upset Premier outfit Old Headington in a dramatic penalty shoot-out in the RT Harris Oxford City FA Couling Cup quarter-finals. The tie finished 1-1 after extra time with Julian Richardson netting for Headington. They were still locked
Horspath recorded an important victory in their quest for the Oxfordshire Senior League Division 1 title when they beat leaders Kennington United 2-0. Horspath took the lead on the half hour when Tim Cruttenden squared the ball to Andy Kirtland to shoot
The Boyz were crowned champions of the DC Wright Headington Ltd Invitation League played at Cowley Conservative Club despite losing their last game 4-2 to Cowley Conners. Garry Smith was Boyz's star man with 141 dolls this season. The Bird caused a major
Kelly Caffel and under15 runners Jo Rhodes and Hannah England provided the main highlights of a highly satisfactory day for Oxfordshire at the Reebok Inter-Counties Cross Country Championship in Nottingham. Caffel, from Oxford City, was more than delighted
Hi-tech bug busters in Oxfordshire are warning computer users to beware of a fast-spreading e-mail virus which promises a photograph of tennis star Anna Kournikova. Experts said the new virus was spreading at twice the rate of Love Bug, which hit more
A script which threatens the privacy and computers of e-mail recipients can be embedded in certain messages, it emerged last week. E-mail messages are written either in plain text (so the message content will be sent in ASCII format) or HTML (the basic
A man was jailed after shouting abuse and wrongly accusing a father of being a paedophile. Kevin Maule, 27, of Sandy Lane, Cholsey, near Wallingford, pleaded guilty to using threatening words or behaviour on October 21 last year. Paul Mitchell, prosecuting
Peter Pan and Wendy tiptoe on to the stage as final rehearsals take place for an annual pantomime. As well as the traditional pantomime, the Drayton Players stage a play once a year and in July will be holding a medieval madness day with mock jousting
Cult musical Little Shop of Horrors returns to the Oxford Playhouse this week, brought to us this time by The Basement Theatre Company, writes Chris Gray. Unlikely hero Seymour, a downtrodden flower shop assistant, is hopelessly in love with shop-girl
The 2001 British Superbike Championship will be launched at the London Motorcycle and Scooter Show and you can join the party as the biggest teams in British bike racing are unveiled for the first time. The most competitive racing series in the UK which
On Tuesday of last week, the one-millionth BMW motorcycle rolled off the assembly line in Berlin the only BMW production site for motorcycles worldwide. The R 1150 RT, with the chassis number ZE 72399, documents the success story of BMW motorcycles and
Staff and customers at the Studio nightclub in Oxford's Westgate Centre are taking part in a nationwide initiative on February 21 to try and raise 150,000 for the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.
Students stood in a cage and collected 500 to raise money for Amnesty International. The collection was part of Cage Week, an event held every term by Oxford University's branch of the charity. Louise Clarke, co-ordinator of Cage Week, for the group said
Bookseller Blackwell is to close three branches in June, including one of its oldest branches, on West Street in Sheffield, which has been trading as Blackwell's for 35 years. Alan Leitch, Blackwell Retail managing director, confirmed that there was a
Shares in Oxford GlycoSciences rose after it announced a successful trial of Vevesca, its treatment for the rare enzyme disorder Gaucher disease. Preliminary analysis of its six-month study showed that patients who had previously been forced to undergo
British Biotech is a step closer to dropping marimastat, the drug once hailed as a blockbuster treatment for cancer, after it failed in a key clinical trial. Marimastat has now failed six trials. The latest one, on patients with small cell lung cancer
Controversial plans for two-way cycling in two one-way streets in Oxford have been given the go-ahead. And officers are investigating whether to impose a 20mph speed limit on the routes to improve safety. Contraflow cycle lanes are to be created in one-way
Thieves netted more than £50,000 in an international credit card fraud operating from an Oxfordshire petrol station, detectives revealed today. Thirty-two customers of the Save Service Station, in Bicester Road, Kidlington, called police when sums ranging
A lecturer became a Jekyll and Hyde character when he used the Internet to lure a 14-year-old boy to a hotel, a court heard. Oxford University graduate Anthony Gray, 31, of Tamarisk Gardens, Bicester, allegedly met the boy on a gay chatline over the Internet
Oxford United boss David Kemp has snapped up Northern Ireland international defender Darren Patterson on a free transfer. New signing: Darren Patterson Patterson joins United on a one-and-a-half year deal, having been on a short-term contract at York
