Archive

  • Check finds 20 per cent of post is late

    One in five first class letters sent to and from Oxfordshire failed to arrive on time in a spot-check by the Oxford Mail. The results have spurred Royal Mail's area general manager to admit it is still failing to meet targets -- six weeks after pledging

  • Sainsbury extension would be a mistake

    Not everyone wants to destroy our town centres. It would be a mistake to welcome the proposals to extend Sainsbury's in Kidlington without realising the consequences (Oxford Mail, August 11). I am delighted that Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has

  • Oil change

    A kit converting diesel cars to run on used oil from chip-fryers has been developed by Oxfordshire electronics experts. Mike Lawton, who runs Futuretec, at Milton Park, near Abingdon, has installed one in his own car. He said: "I have an arrangement with

  • Firefighters warn of strike deadline

    Firefighters could go on strike as early as Tuesday, September 7, brigade union leaders have warned. More than 50,000 union members have started voting on whether to launch a fresh campaign of industrial action, with the result due on Tuesday, August

  • Keep our street special, urge shopkeepers

    Shopkeepers in a "trendy" east Oxford street are calling for help to preserve its alternative character -- as part of plans to develop the area into a cultural quarter. Richard Cotton, of retrozone, with other shop owners from Magdalen Street, Oxford

  • Flats' residents call for recycling action

    Residents living in flats in Oxford have complained they have no recycling services -- despite paying large council tax bills. Stan Taylor, a former city councillor for Cowley Marsh, who lives in Oxford Road, Cowley, has complained that many residents

  • Needles alert at playground

    Staff at an adventure playground are cleaning up after drug addicts who leave needles near the popular amenity. Jill McCleery, who runs the Whitehouse Road playground, in south Oxford, said before the children arrive she and her team often collect discarded

  • Citroen unveils C3

    Later this year Citroen will unveil the "Citron C3 Stop and Start" , a car equipped with a system that cuts the engine when the car is stopped and idling (at red lights, for deliveries, in traffic jams, etc.), then instantly restarts it at the touch of

  • VW come up with new Golf model

    Volkswagen has introduced a new model to the Golf range, slotting in below the GT TDI / GT FSI models. The Golf Sport complements the line-up by combining the 1.6 FSI and 1.9 TDI engines of S and SE Golfs with the more dynamic appearance of the range-topping

  • Anyone know what the IWCA stands for?

    I live in Headington, I used to live in Blackbird Leys and like Ross Clark (Oxford Mail, August 7), I'm involved in East Oxford Community Centre. He's right to point out that Val Smith (and most other Labour councillors) are "out of touch... with the

  • New era at factory site

    Some of the 450 jobs lost with the closure of the Parker Knoll furniture factory may be replaced if new employers take space in a former highways depot. Oxfordshire County Council has agreed to try and attract new employers to the depot on Banbury Road

  • Army beats recruiting drum

    Despite the announcement about a reduction in the size of the armed forces in the recent Defence Review, the Army still needs new recruits and is keen to maintain its ties with Oxfordshire. Although the old Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry

  • Older pupils booted off their school bus

    Pupils in a south Oxfordshire village are to be excluded from their over-subscribed school bus service on the grounds of age. Some of the Wootton parents and children who will be affected by the change to the school bus Families in Wootton, near Abingdon

  • Fast-track production

    Thame Youth Theatre members are planning to produce a play from scratch and stage it before an audience inside a week. The event will be part of Towersey Festival over the August Bank Holiday weekend. Anyone between 13 and 30 is invited to join members

  • Medic puts wartime art on display

    A soldier in the Territorial Army who fought in the Iraq war sketched some of his experiences while serving in a field hospital. Tony Green Lance Corporal Tony Green, 30, from Culham, near Abingdon, made pen and ink drawings of colleagues and patients

  • Older pupils booted off bus

    Pupils in a south Oxfordshire village are to be excluded from their over-subscribed school bus service on the grounds of age. Families in Wootton, near Abingdon, who pay for their children to travel to Fitzharrys, John Mason and Lark Mead schools in Abingdon

  • Development plans in focus

    Anyone wanting to comment of the proposed large scale redevelopment of Bicester town centre should put pen to paper soon. People are being invited to send in their views to Cherwell District Council by September 24. The development will be mostly over

  • Police hunt victim after stone attack

    A woman was hit on the back of the head with a stone thrown by a youth in Banbury. The assault happened in the south car park of the Castle Quay shopping centre, at about 3pm on Tuesday, July 25. A security guard at the shopping centre caught the youth

  • City bucks trend in house prices

    House prices in Oxford fell by 4.9 per cent between April and June, according to the latest figures from the Land Registry. But prices in Oxfordshire as a whole increased by 1.7 per cent, from an average of £233,927 to £238,088. The average price of homes

  • Oil change

    A kit converting diesel cars to run on used oil from chip-fryers has been developed by Oxfordshire electronics experts. Mike Lawton, who runs Futuretec, at Milton Park, near Abingdon, has installed one in his own car. He said: "I have an arrangement with

  • Ecstasy haul lands drug dealer in jail

    A drug dealer will spend his 29th birthday in prison today (August 17) after he admitted possessing more than 400 ecstasy tablets. Bajram Kanani, of Havelock Road, Cowley, Oxford, was sentenced to two-and-a-half years imprisonment at a hearing at Oxford

  • Needles alert at playground

    Staff at an adventure playground are cleaning up after drug addicts who leave needles near the popular amenity. Jill McCleery, who runs the Whitehouse Road playground, in south Oxford, said before the children arrive she and her team often collect discarded

  • 'Conman' builder put ad in Christian paper

    A woman has labelled a builder who stole from his clients "a smarmy little conman" after revealing he advertised in Christian newspapers. Louise Wheadon came across rogue builder Brian Timbrell's advert in a Christian newspaper shortly before Christmas

  • New pictures of Octavia

    Skoda has released the first official photographs of the new Octavia Estate. Based on the same new platform as the Octavia hatch, the Estate is 4572 mm long, 1769 mm wide and 1467 mm high, 5mm higher than the hatch. Front and rear passenger space remains

  • Click on ideas for saving cash

    There are increasing numbers of nearly-new cars appearing on motor dealer forecourts, largely as a consequence of demonstrator vehicles being registered to help carmakers and retailers meet their ambitious year-on-year sales targets. Knowing just what

  • Co-op shop monstrosity

    I am appalled that councillors are going to allow such a monstrosity as the proposed new Co-op to be built in West St Helen's Street, Abingdon (Oxford Mail, August 12). What are they thinking of? I agree with Paul Heast, whose shop, Glendales, will be