A WOMAN was detained under the Mental Health Act today after threatening to jump off the roof of the Westgate Centre car park in Oxford. Police cordoned off the car park at about 4.30pm and diverted traffic away from surrounding streets. The woman was
A CAR was stolen in Oxford today when its owner left the vehicle unattended while deicing and warming it up. The grey Vauxhall Astra estate was stolen from outside a home in Lobelia Road, Blackbird Leys, at about 7.30am. Police warned drivers not to
THESE two men are suspected of stealing medicine from a Shrivenham shop by police, who are appealing for information about the pair. They were captured on CCTV at the One Stop shop, in High Street, at 3.35pm on Tuesday, October 12. One of the men is
Police today renewed an appeal for help to trace a man who witnessed an arson in Banbury six months ago. Shortly before 3am on April 11, officers were alerted to a fire in the wheelie bins near to the Banbury Trade and Labour Club in West Bar Street
OXFORDSHIRE’S busiest speed cameras have finally been revealed. Bosses have published the average number of times each camera snapped drivers from 2003 to last year. The fixed and mobile cameras were turned off two months ago after Oxfordshire County
PARENTS and councillors want more equipment at a new £90,000 play area in Blackbird Leys, saying they are not very impressed with it. The new play area, in Cuddesdon Way, was refurbished by Oxford City Council at the end of last year when 20-year-old
A BID to build an incinerator in Arley, near Bicester, was approved today. Oxfordshire County Council's planning and regulation committee passed the plan this afternoon. Protesters gathered outside ahead of the 2pm meeting. Viridor put forward
Her witty prints and original products have made her a household name — now you can win a copy of Cath Kidston’s new book Stitch! and recreate her style in everything from bags and cushions to pictures and patches. Next week, distinctive
Drank too much at the party? Can’t seem to shift the sniffles? Simply follow our guide to surviving seasonal ills, writes Kate Whiting. It has been one Christmas party after another, and all those vodka-tonics have finally caught up with you
Stay as trim as your tree this festive season. Susan Griffin discovers how to whittle down your waist and keep those extra calories at bay. While we all like to sparkle over Christmas, sometimes we can end up looking more like Santa, than the fairy
Christmas can be an expensive drain on the pocket, so Hannah Stephenson asked money expert Andrew Hagger for his top tips for a cheap and cheerful festive season. Presents, food, decoration, entertaining — it all adds up. And while most of
AEA Technology 6.38 BMW 4530 Electrocomponents 242.25 Nationwide Accident Repair 105 Oxford Biomedica 10 Oxford Catalysts 67.75 Oxford Instruments 535 Reed Elsevier 552.75 RM 166.5 RPS Group 215.5 Courtesy of Redmayne Bentley, Abingdon
Dress the tree or set the table with treats your little ones have made. Sarah O’Meara finds five perfect festive recipes . . . CHRISTMAS COOKIES (Makes 35) You will need: 125g butter, softened 50g icing sugar 1 medium egg
The BBC has apologised after Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson described a car as "special needs". Broadcasting watchdog Ofcom investigated after the joke, made by Clarkson, who lives in Chipping Norton, about a Ferrari owned by co-host James May, provoked
A 22-YEAR-OLD man has admitted stabbing a student in Oxford's Cowley Road. Benjamin Hepburn appeared at Oxford Crown Court and admitted a charge of causing grievous bodily harm. Matthew Hope was stabbed outside the Hobgoblin pub shortly
A TEENAGER has been found safe and well six days after he went missing. Elliott Harper,15, was reported missing on Monday, October 11 after he left his home in Bicester. He was found at an address in Oxford on Saturday evening.
Police warned drivers not to leave cars unattended while they are de-icing, after a car was stolen in Oxford today. At about 7.30am, a grey Vauxhall Astra estate was stolen from outside an address in Lobelia Road, Blackbird Leys. Det Sgt Laura
Oxford United's FA Cup first-round tie at Burton Albion has been moved to the Sunday, November 7 (3pm). The match cannot be played on the Saturday because of Derby County's home game against Portsmouth.
Police are appealing for witnesses to an armed robbery in Summertown. Shortly after 4pm yesterday, an Asian man knocked on the rear door of Pen to Paper, asking a member of staff to come outside to move a car. The man then entered the store, threatened
A teenager who went missing from Bicester has been found safe and well. Elliott Harper, 15, left his home in Bicester on Monday, October 11. Police said he was found at an address in Oxford on Saturday evening.
A BID to create a £300,000 community centre for Wantage has taken a major step forward. Council bosses have given Wantage Silver Band a ‘peppercorn’ rent for land at Tugwell Field, meaning it only has to raise the cash for the building. The band, which
FELLOW ex-Prisoners of War and friends of the late Arthur Titherington say that their fight for a specific form of apology from the Japanese will go one. Mr Titherington, who died last month, was imprisoned by the Japanese at the fall of Singapore during
OXFORD Thakar Singh, 32, of Smethwick, admitted obstructing a Pc and driving without insurance and without a licence in Henley on September 5. Fined £300, £50 costs and a £15 victims’ surcharge. Banned from driving for two months. Malcolm Pipkin, 34
Members of the Rotary Club of Witney planted 4,000 purple crocus bulbs in the town to highlight the fight to eliminate polio in the Third World. A team of eight rotarians planted the flowers on a grass bank alongside Thorney Leys. When they bloom in
COUNCILLORS have vowed to fight plans to give Bicester’s new hospital no overnight beds. Cherwell District Council members unanimously backed a motion to press NHS Oxfordshire for beds. The primary care trust said it is unlikely to replace the town’
PASSENGERS are calling on double deckers to be introduced on a popular city route to stop passengers being left stranded at bus stops. Bus users living in Marston conducted a survey which showed eight number 13 buses, running from the John Radliffe Hospital
AN RAF corporal has been convicted of dragging a teenage girl from a disco and raping her. Scott Atkins attacked the girl at RAF Benson on January 28 after he had earlier been drinking in the Dolphin pub in Wallingford. The 28-year-old
Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo has demanded his team pay attention "to every little detail" if Fernando Alonso is to be crowned Formula One world champion this season. Di Montezemolo's words came following Alonso's Korean Grand Prix triumph
Travie McCoy’s road to this sold-out show at the O2 Academy is a fairly unusual one for a hip hop superstar in waiting. As frontman of the Gym Class Heroes, he wasn’t discovered by P Diddy or Jay-Z, but by Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz as one of the
Marina Diamandis has had quite the year. Under the moniker Marina & the Diamonds, 2010 has seen her become one of the most critically acclaimed pop stars in the country and her whip smart debut album The Family Jewels has gone gold. Diamandis is
AEA Technology 6.25 BMW 4511 Electrocomponents 243.8 Nationwide Accident Repair 105 Oxford Biomedica 10.5 Oxford Catalysts 67.75 Oxford Instruments 536 Reed Elsevier 553.75 RM 168.75 RPS Group 214.75 Courtesy of Redmayne
Wantage Tn 7 (Butler 53, 89, Claydon 66, pen 68, McCullough 87, Jones 90, Keen 90) Finchampstead 1 (Cattell og 30) Wantage scored all seven goals in the second half, and four in the last three minutes, as they romped to victory in the first round
Lydney Tn 2 (Timmings 26, Price 36) Letcombe 2 (Horswell 50, 55) Letcombe staged a fine second-half fightback to take a point at unbeaten Lydney in Division 1 West. The home side tore Letcombe apart in the early stages, and were rewarded when Matt
Witney Utd 5 (Wright 11, 55, Colwell 19, Lewis 48, Allmond 78) Thame Utd 2 (Rogers 10, Braun 65) Sam Wright bagged a brace as Witney United bounced back from last week’s heavy defeat in the Premier Division on Saturday. And they
FIRE crews were called out to three suspected arson attacks in the county over the weekend. Firefighters were called to a car fire in South Oxford in the early hours of Satuday. The car and 10 metres of hedge were set on fire in Fox
WHEN Miriam Chung handed over £1,200 to a man who claimed he would replace her windows she never expected him to vanish with her money. Two years later, and with no sign of the rogue trader ever returning to fit the double glazing, she had
SURGERY to remove tumours from the brains of Oxfordshire cancer sufferers is not a high priority for health chiefs. At the moment, if cancer spreads to the brain, patients are treated by neurosurgery, where the head is opened up and tumour removed.
A 21-YEAR-old beat a pizza delivery man in a racist attack within 48 hours of being released from a young offenders’ institution. Craig Pitts, 21, attacked Hakkani Nergiz, 30, in Abingdon with Luke Jarvis, Daniel Rumley and Alistair Aitken during
LIKE many fellow servicemen, Bill King saw plenty of action during the Second World War. As a member of an anti-aircraft gun crew, he defended London, Bristol, Manchester and Liverpool from raids by German bombers. He was prompted to write in after
WHEN it came to making cakes, pupils at Bartholomew School, Eynsham, had plenty of creative ideas. The school held an annual cake competition and there was no lack of enthusiasm when this picture was taken in 1968. The chief prizewinners are, seated
THE memory of Lizzie Saunders’ long service as a sub-postmistress lives on. We recalled (Memory Lane, August 16) that she ran the post office at Over Norton, near Chipping Norton, for 53 years. When she retired in 1960, aged 87, she received a letter
Banbury Utd 0 Oxford City 2 (Lyon 40, McIlwain 78) Oxford City picked up their first win in 19 matches after winning their derby clash at Banbury in the Premier Division on Saturday. City were good value for their win, although Banbury must have been
Paulton Rovers 0 Abingdon Utd 2 (Franklin 35, Mills 49) Abingdon United turned the form book upside down as they picked up their first win in seven matches in Division 1 South & West. High-flying Paulton had the edge early on Josh Jeffries going close
AFC Totton 3 (Davies 38, 45, Gosney 89) North Leigh 1 (Taylor 5) Matt Taylor’s early strike was in vain as North Leigh fell to defeat at Totton in Division 1 South & West. With five minutes gone, a defence-splitting pass from Kieran Sanders sent
I AM indebted to Jennifer Carter (Oxford Mail ViewPoints, October 13) calling time on the attempt of X Factor hopeful Gamu Nhengu to prevent her deportation from this country back to Zimbabwe. This was on the basis that she would face a firing
I SAW Keith Mitchell has announced that, regrettably, the county council is going to make cuts of up to 30 per cent and put thousands out of work. I would like to ask why, if Mr Mitchell and other leaders of the council feel these cuts are so urgent
IT WAS party time at this Morrell’s pub. But where and when did it take place, and what was the occasion? These pictures were found in the belongings of the late Kathleen Mabel Bennett, who was known by a variety of names – Kath, Kathleen, Mabs or Mabel
AN ALL-WEATHER play area opened at Little Oak playgroup at Queen’s Dyke School in 1990 – and as the first picture shows, children lost no time in using it. The playgroup committee raised £2,000 to pay for the work. Philippa Gee and Ros Bennett, in the
WITH balloons, hats and plenty of laughter, this was a happy occasion for the young people above. Terry Feary, who sent in the picture, believes it was taken during an Oxford YMCA outing. The dance and jazz group visited Hammersmith Palais in about
Halesowen Tn 1 (Osborne 7) Didcot Tn 0 Didcot Town crashed to defeat at struggling Halesowen, who picked up their first win in 11 matches in the Premier Division. They were undone by the hosts’ attack as Lee Osborne ghosted in from the right to place
THE sickening story of Timothy O’Keefe shows how a simple click of the mouse can have devastating consequences for the most vulnerable in society. He downloaded almost 10,000 pictures of child pornography, including some of the most severe
IT WAS full steam ahead in Witney as these miniature engines took to the streets over the weekend. Scale model steam and traction engines, some of them more than 100 years old, puffed their way around Church Green on Saturday to launch the annual Witney
A JUDGE told a paedophile his horrific collection of 10,000 illegal images made him complicit in the ‘gross abuse’ of children. Timothy O’Keefe , 44, had 9,988 images and videos on his computer and an external hard drive. A total of
HAVE I spotted Oxford’s stupidest cyclists? Walking along Howard Street at night, I saw a number of cyclists coming the wrong way up this narrow one-way street in the face of oncoming cars – without lights and wearing dark clothes. Have they a death
OVER the past 15 years, the Oxford Mail has responsibly publicised dozens of letters of mine highlighting the shortcomings of Thames Valley Police. As it is less newsworthy, perhaps, we have however, tended to neglect the not inconsiderable exceptions
IT IS desperately sad that just days after the new Equality Act came into force on October 1, there was a violent attack on a young gay man in the centre of Oxford. This was just months after a stabbing in North Oxford, which Police described as a homophobic
DOES Oxfordshire County Council have no scruples? It has to make cuts and yet again they target the most vulnerable, pensioners and the disabled (Oxford Mail, October 13). Is this because the council knows that they cannot fight back?
ON October 5 you criticised the Oxford railway station expansion plan for not including improvements to Botley Road railway bridge. On October 18 you appeared to have done a U-turn, and called for the station to expand without improving the bridge, and
Let’s not mince our words – it’s been a creepy week... And that’s appropriate since it’s Halloween on Sunday. But like all good tales of mystery and imagination, it started innocently enough. For instance, last Monday, I was travelling down from London
A FORMER convent school girl from Abingdon is returning to Oxfordshire to perform steamy stripteases on stage. Ex-Our Lady’s pupil Hannah McCarthy, 29, now calls herself Miss Fan-Teasy, and teaches raunchy burlesque routines to women of all ages.
COUNCILLORS who commissioned a doomed play pirate ship are now looking for an “off-the-shelf” piece of equipment to replace it. The ship, dubbed the Folly Roger by pranksters, was the centrepiece of a £70,000 revamp at Meadow Lane play area, East Oxford
Josh Payne admitted his free-kick in Oxford United’s 3-1 win over Northampton Town on Saturday was one of the best goals of his career. “It’s up there definitely,” he said. “I ran up to the ball because I knew it was on. And I was only ever going to
OXFORDSHIRE County Council is being swamped with more than 60 Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checks every day as part of statutory vetting for teachers, care workers, youth football coaches and foster parents. And councillors on both sides of the chamber
STORE wars has broken out in an Oxfordshire market town after a second major supermarket announced plans to move in. Waitrose claims its supermarket in Faringdon would create up to 120 new jobs and boost existing shops in the town centre.
Oxford United’s hopes of being handed a good – preferably home tie – in the FA Cup first round went for a Burton yesterday. They were drawn away to fellow League Two club Burton Albion, with the tie scheduled for the Pirelli Stadium on Saturday
TODAY is D-Day for a controversial incinerator plan for Bicester. The £650m proposal for Ardley Fields, near Bicester, will be debated by Oxfordshire County Council’s planning and regulation committee. It comes 12 months after a similar application
A DIDCOT primary school decorated the sky with its colours as it released 200 yellow and blue balloons to mark its 40th birthday. About 250 pupils, staff and guests also shared a giant cake at the birthday of the Stephen Freeman Primary School, in Freeman
FOR YEARS, teenagers tearing around streets and fields on motorbikes near an Oxford estate have caused headaches for householders. But thanks to a scheme involving a £70 trailer bought from eBay, police think they may have finally solved the
A £70 trailer and a lot of community spirit can go a long way. Just ask residents in Barton. They were suffering teenagers riding mini-motorbikes on their streets. Residents and police came up with a solution, to transport the bikes to a legal site
MORE than half of drivers in Oxford use disabled driving spaces despite being perfectly healthy, claims a new report. They are also among the most inconsiderate road users in Britain – waiting in box junctions, not stopping at zebra crossings and refusing
