Archive

Tell us which two teams will qualify out of each World Cup group              

HOLLYWOOD star Harrison Ford has reportedly been taken to Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital after being hit by a hydraulic door while filming the new Star Wars movie. The 71-year-old was filming Star Wars: Episode VII at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire

Luke Ryan believes that three-day matches have little future in Minor Counties cricket. The county captain was speaking after the dust had settled on Oxfordshire’s ten-wicket thashing by Wiltshire in their opening Unicorns Counties Championship

FIREFIGHTERS have been called to Cowley to tackle a blaze in a bedroom. Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service were called to the junction of Oxford Road and Marsh Road at 7.19pm. No one was rescued from the fire and no one was injured. Cowley

AN ELDERLY woman has been taken to hospital after a crash in Littlemore. South Central Ambulance service was called to the scene in Oxford Road at 6.25pm. The woman has been taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital with facial injuries. Updates

A COLLISION between two cars on the A34 near Kidlington has caused delays on the northbound carriageway. It was reported that the cars, at Kidlington Junction, have been cleared from the scene.  The collision took place at about 5.55pm.

BIKES and old furniture taken to the dump will be saved from landfill thanks to a new partnership. Oxfordshire County Council has teamed up with Bicester Green, and Viridor, who operate Ardley Recycling Centre, for the recycling project. Staff

MORE than half of Oxfordshire’s 232 state primary schools require kitchen upgrades to comply with the Government’s new free meals policy and 41 have no kitchen at all. With less than three months before the programme takes effect on September 2

BUSINESS leaders across the county are being invited to reveal how they plan to fund their future growth. Organisers behind the latest Oxfordshire Business Barometer survey want to know whether it is any easier to access finance than it was 12

TRAINS between Reading and Didcot are delayed by up to an hour. Services were delayed because of a broken down freight train. The delays are affecting First Great Western and Crosscountry services and there is no estimate for when normal service

JOHN Makin, a well-known Oxford schoolteacher and athletics official, has died aged 89. He joined the staff at Edmund Campion Roman Catholic School at Iffley Turn when it opened in 1958 and worked there for 25 years until he retired. After

A PROMINENT community volunteer who served his village for years has died aged 54. Mike Hudson was a founding member, director and trustee of the Marcham Community Group, founded in 2010. His work included running a minibus service for the

A MAN who rose from an office boy to director in Oxford’s printing industry across 50 years has died aged 86. Alfred John Blake, of Southby Close, Appleton, spent his whole working life employed by the Nuffield Press, in Cowley, which he joined

THE cast and crew of Banbury Cross Players’ production of Calendar Girls have been shortlisted for a national award. The stars of the show were named in the top three for the Tim Firth Award for best amateur production at an afternoon tea with

CITY councillor Sam Hollick is to become the new leader of the Green group on Oxford City Council. Mr Hollick is a councillor for Holywell who was first elected in 2012. The current leader, Craig Simmons, was elected as deputy Lord Mayor at

The Original rabbit Foot Spasm Band's festival diary continues - with very different dates in Norfolk and back home in Oxfordshire OXFORD jump-blues and vintage-jazz group The Original Rabbit Foot Spasm Band have a ferocious reputation as a hard

COUNTY council leader Ian Hudspeth is planning to travel around Oxfordshire to set out his transport vision. He will visit Witney, Didcot, Wantage, Bicester, Banbury and Henley to outline how transport can be developed to cope with a growing number

PEOPLE usually wear paper poppies as an act of remembrance, but this year they will be able to buy wool ones. A group of women from Bicester have begun knitting poppies to raise cash for the Poppy Appeal and they want more people to join them.

A SISTER has described to a court how her family was harassed with phone calls in the months leading up to an arson attack which killed two of her siblings. Annis Akhtar was giving evidence on the third day of the trial at Oxford crown court in

Hero Brown, Editor of womens' lifestyle blog Muddy Stilettos, enjoys a surprise visit to an Oxford jazz club by the great violinist Nigel Kennedy Nigel Kennedy and John Etheridge Spin Jazz Club, Oxford Those who lament that

When Katie Griffiths left Oxford Brookes University, she knew she wanted to do ‘something creative’, but at first she didn’t think of drawing on the skills she had learned in her holiday job, nor of the joy she had experienced playing in her grandmother

OXFORDSHIRE’S district councils are working together to apply for a share in rural development funding for 2015 to 2020. The bid is for a share of £138m LEADER funding, which is being made available to help projects to boost the rural economy.

Want to give your opinion? Email letters@oxfordmail.co.uk

telecommunications security firm Voip.co.uk has made five new appointments and is set for an office move. The Bicester business, which specialises in combating phone hacking, has taken on Matthew Hutton, Leigh Punter, Adam Millington and Simon

A NEW awards scheme designed to recognise the achievements of businesswomen has been launched in Oxfordshire. Nominations are flooding in for the NatWest Venus Awards after an opening event staged at the Malmaison Hotel in Oxford. Awards founder

HI-TECH engineering firm Oxford Instru-ments has failed to meet a key growth target in its four-year plan, following a protracted takeover deal. In 2011, the business based in Tubney Woods, near Abingdon, unveiled its 14 Cubed plan, which set a

OXFORDSHIRE is suffering from a “chronic shortage” of carpenters and bricklayers, a training expert has warned. Adam Marsh, managing director of Kidlington-based ACE Training, said: “There will be 30,000 jobs in construction during the next two

A POTENTIAL nursery place crisis in Blackbird Leys has been averted after a childcare centre improved enough to take on new two-year-olds. The Co-Operative Childcare Blackbird Leys Nursery was deemed inadequate last year by Ofsted after an inspection

A NEW sports pavilion will help an amateur Oxford football club meet rising demand for women’s teams, its secretary has said. Hinksey Park Football Club wants to attract female players to play at the new facilities at Grandpont Nature Park.

MARTHA FERNBACK, the schoolgirl who collapsed in Hinksey Park, died after taking MDMA, a coroner has said this afternoon as he recorded a verdict of accidental death. The 15-year-old Cherwell School pupil died on July 20 last summer. An inquest

London Welsh have made it 14 signings in four days after announcing that James Sandford, Cameron Goodhue, Paul Rowley and Jesse Liston will join. The quartet join on the same day as the club’s 2014/15 season tickets went on sale on the back of

Watch our other World Cup videos

Made In Chelsea star and former Oxford schoolboy Andy Jordan is all about the music. Tim Hughes reports With successful careers as a musician and a broker, not to mention a starring role in a top reality TV show, you might think Andy Jordan has

Watch our other World Cup videos

Cooking pizza, or other flat breads, is the easy bit; keeping them hot enough to make the last slice as enjoyable as the first is more of a challenge. An economic and simple solution, which will also give a lovely crisp finish to the base of the pizza

What was it like? It was just too fancy for me and the food wasn’t very nice in my opinion. It didn’t hit the mark for me and the portions weren’t big enough. What did you have? I had the Jamie’s Italian Burger (prime British chuck &

THE inquest into the death of Oxford teenager Martha Fernback has started this morning.  Martha, 15, a Cherwell School pupil from Summertown, died after collapsing at Hinksey Park, off Lake Street, south Oxford, on July 20, last year. The inquest

Here are our top three foodie World Cup recommendations: * St Aldates Tavern in Oxford is going all out between June 12 and July 13 by showing every fixture with the big games being shown in the Blue Room with crazy competitions, a World Cup menu

A delightful riverside hostelry served up a right royal treat for Katherine MacAlister on a sunny Bank Holiday weekend It’s not easy being all things to all people and many restaurants and pubs make the mistake of over-compensating by offering

A MAN who defrauded a terminally ill woman out of more than £70,000 has been jailed for two-and-a-half years. Wassim Al Ashkar, 32, of Oxford Road, Kidlington, was sentenced at Oxford Crown Court yesterday after pleading guilty to three counts

Woo Hoo! We’re award winning! Yes, that’s AWARD WINNING. Oh I do like the sound of that. Our amazing customers recently voted The Milk Shed the Best Cafe in Oxfordshire in the Muddy Stiletto’s Urban Guide, rubbing shoulders with the likes of fellow

Chris Bentham reveals his recipe for pan-fried sea bream fillets with crab crushed Jersey Royal potatoes, fresh asparagus and beurre noisette Ingredients * 2 fillets of sea bream 100g per fillet * 3/4 cooked Jersey Royal potatoes * 100g

TV stars Kevin Clifton and Karen Hauer tell Katherine MacAlister how their passion for dance and each other is a winning, and all-consuming, combination Kevin Clifton and Karen Hauer are at home when we catch up, taking a rare day off from their

Inspirational Carpets guitarist Graham Lambert tells Marc Evans about the band's visit to Oxford and on being in a group that's been there, done that... and sold the T-shirt The Inspiral Carpets have truly come full circle, in more ways than one

Margaret MacMillan, Warden of St Antony’s College, Oxford, has been immersed in conflict over the past few months — ironically, since she is the multi award-winning author of two books with the word ‘peace’ in the title. As a historian of the First

Glastonbury, Meltdown, Latitude, sell-out shows and a debut album release are all part of a crazy week for this Oxford band, as Tim Hughes finds out With everything that has happened to him lately, Dave Bayley could be excused a little overexcitement

Congratulations Seamus Perry, this piece has an 'alpha buoyancy' I am keeping my head down at the moment. Since I became head of faculty, my colleagues, who are nice people, have taken to stopping me in the street and asking solicitously, ‘you

MEP Catherine Bearder on why UKIP 'failed' here in Oxfordshire I love living in Oxford and feel privileged to do so. Oxford is a truly cosmopolitan city, with students and workers coming to study, train and work here from all over the world.

The ‘whose city is Oxford?’ question has been aired entertainingly in recent weeks in The Oxford Times’s Quad Talk column across the page from my weekly musings. It started when student contributor Nick Hilton argued that he and his ilk were the

My restaurant column on La Cucina was done and dusted when Rosemarie and I returned on Saturday for another feast at this favourite trattoria. With us were two pals, who managed to polish off between them the huge trayful of rib of beef you can see

Richard Littlejohn seems likely to have hummed and hawed over whether to include me in his memoirs of childhood before deciding that they would, on the whole, be better Gray-free. This seems a curious omission given how closely parallel our early lives

THANK goodness for the good sense of Oxford people in the elections. We voted for a stronger Labour council, beat the Green Party in the Euro elections and sent Labour’s Anneliese Dodds, who lives in Rose Hill, to represent us in Brussels. The

WOLVERCOTE’s neighbourhood plan could take more than two years to produce if more volunteers do not come forward, it has been warned. Neighbourhood Forum chairman John Bleach said the group currently lacks the manpower to study both the Northern

CONGRATULATIONS to Harris Manchester College, in Mansfield Road, Oxford, for having built an architectural delight as a part of their new build. Their new clock tower is so in-keeping with the rest of the architectural splendour many of our fine

Oxford magistrates: Marcin Buczak, 37, of Ashhurst Way, Oxford, admitted destroying a mirror worth £10 in Ashhurst Way, Oxford, on May 16. Given an absolute discharge. Told to pay £85 costs. Peter Johnson, 56, of Dirac Place, Didcot, convicted

A DRUG dealer has been jailed for more than two years after he was found with almost 7g of Class A drugs. Martin McDonagh admitted posessing 4.46g of cocaine and 2.28g of heroin with intent to supply when he was arrested on February 24 this year

I have just returned from a memorable and inspirational few days in Normandy – during the 70th D-Day commemorations. Travelling with our party was a D-Day veteran, an 88-year-old ex-Royal Marine – who as an 18-year-old on D-Day had helped ferry

FOR all I care, World Cups could be held in Antarctica or on the moon but should not a big, fat rat have been smelt even when tiny, boiling, rather repressive Qatar, with no particular association with football, put in a bid to host the 2022 one, let

WE have become accustomed to the hypocrisy and double-standards of most politicians but the recent condemnation by the G7 nations of Russia for its ‘interference’ in Ukraine and its ‘land-grab’ of the Crimea must surely take the biscuit. Apparently

Reg Little talks to councillor Colin Cook, who is leaving his post after a decade that has seen him embroiled in a series of highly controversial issues If anyone were to ask years from now about the significance of Colin Cook’s time as the councillor

Philippa Logan enjoys two novels exploring civilian life during the First World War It’s not really surprising that fictional stories set in the First World War have many common themes. In reality, many couples who were ‘stepping out’ before the

Christopher Gray enjoys classic Italian dishes at one of La Cucina's themed nights Friends and readers — by no means mutually inclusive groups — will know of my long-standing admiration for La Cucina, the impeccably managed Italian restaurant just

Helen Peacocke on the history and the variety of the humble sausage At last we have reached that glorious time in the year when the sound of sizzling sausages and the smoky aroma of barbecued meat wafts through the air. It’s the time we often

NOMINATIONS for the West Oxfordshire Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) trustee board elections must be made by Wednesday, June 25. Members will vote on candidates at the annual general meeting on Wednesday, July 9. It will take place in the Bosworth

Val Bourne is hoping precious plants can be saved by the sun after pests ravage her garden Flaming June has not delivered for me so far. However, with the vagaries of the British climate it may be that, as you read this, we are basking in strong

Hawthorn, that unassuming countryside star, has a fascinating story and needs your help to survive says Liam Creedon It is at this time of the year one of the most unassuming stars of the British countryside briefly emerges from the shadows to

Damon Smith on the period drama about a mixed race woman overcoming prejudice Beauty is in the eye of the beholder but when that beauty defies the social mores of a prejudiced era, it must be cherished in secret. Belle is the enchanting dramatisation

Giles Woodforde talks to Theatre Guild director Janet Bolam It’s 1387, and on their journey from London to Canterbury a band of pilgrims will tell tales of love, chivalry, and villainy. There will be “farce most lewd, and stories plain rude

CELEBRITY chef Raymond Blanc officially opened the new Haddenham and Thame Parkway station. The revamp, which cost £500,000, means the station building has been rebuilt with a larger ticket office and coffee shop area as well as new toilets.

James Cawood’s Stone Cold Murder, as directed by Sue Wilson, is that unusual theatrical phenomenon, a thriller that actually thrills. Until the interval, I thought it one of the best I had seen, rivalling Ira Levin’s Death Trap or Frederick Knott’s

Christopher Gray feels the stage version of Heller's classic is endless in the heat Punishment or promotion? Whichever is chosen by his superiors for the rebellious US airman Yossarian at the start of Catch-22 becomes his lot again as the play

AS IS now traditional, today marks the beginning of English football’s quadrennial disappointment. But, perhaps more interesting for The Insider, a number of bodies are jumping on the bandwagon. Perhaps the most tenuous one of these was Cherwell

RESEARCHERS have launched a new study to see what effect live music has on dementia sufferers. Residents from Longlands Care Home in Blackbird Leys were given tambourines and instruments in the first session of a 10-week study run by the University

WITH high business rates and rents, the retail environment for Oxford’s independent businesses is often painted as bleak. But James Fry, Oxford City Council’s small business champion, says many of the city’s shopping areas are vibrant and just

THREE friends are set to take an unlikely vehicle on the trip of a lifetime. They are driving a modified Volvo to Lake Como in Italy to raise money for forces’ charity Help for Heroes. Bought in February for only £205, the car has been turned

QUESTION: Social services have removed my children and I am in court proceedings, but I am only allowed to have supervised contact. Why? ANSWER: Being in court proceedings, particularly care proceedings, can be a stressful and difficult and lengthy

Vert-Vert is a parrot who gets a right royal funeral. A shoal of lively young ladies, students at the posh finishing school where Vert-Vert resided, reverently lay him to rest in a luxurious miniature coffin. Admiring eulogies are delivered — they

Nicola Lisle talks to the founders of the much-loved Opera Anywhere Waterperry Gardens is about to get the Opera Anywhere treatment. After filling Blackwell’s Norrington Room with pirates, policemen and gentlemen of Japan last year, now the Sunningwell-based

Gill Sutherland watches a full-on rock racket from Drenge Drenge O2 Academy Oxford A band consisting solely of one drummer and one guitarist may have been done before (hello,White Stripes!) but tonight is a whole different

Tim Hughes chats with Alexis Taylor, the leader of indie-electronic band Hot Chip - about going it alone with a stripped-back solo album and tour Alexis Taylor is an artist who can’t sit still. Since breaking through with his Grammy and Mercury-nominated

TRAINS between London Paddington and Oxford are delayed for up to 20 minutes due to a signalling issue at Southall. The First Great Western 8.27am service will no longer call at Tilehurst, Pangbourne, Goring and Streatley and Cholsey. The service

Theresa Thompson admires the sculpture exhibition at Asthall Manor One of the best things about the biennial on form sculpture exhibition at Asthall Manor near Burford is their invitation to visitors: “Please do touch.” But then, if I started

Lucy Askew enjoys some unexpected time off by... going to the theatre, which never feels like work For a variety of largely not particularly interesting reasons, we decided not to put on a spring show this year. This has left the Creation team

Katherine MacAlister talks to Richard Hawley, the ace of Dealer's Choice, a play set in the gritty world of amateur poker It’s a creative name, Richard Hawley. There’s Richard Hawley the Britpop guitarist, Richard Hawley the Commodores saxophonist

OXFORD City president Thomas Guerriero has backed the club’s new management team to be a big success – expecting next season to be “something special”. The American businessman was behind the decision to sack Mike Ford and appoint Enrique Guillen

MORE than £2m of public money is being invested into a renewable energy company despite Oxford City Council’s finance boss admitting it might not get all the money back. It is loaning £2.3m to community-based social enterprise Low Carbon Hub ,

A LOST canary is enjoying a new friendship while the woman who found it tries to trace its owner. Ania Rybacka discovered the bird in Albert Street, Jericho, Oxford, on Monday, while walking her labrador Gustaw. The two animals are getting

Hedgehogs have fascinated humans since antiquity. It’s no wonder that this prickly creature still rates as one of our favourite animals. What other animal defies its enemies, not by running away, but by curling itself into a ball? Of course

It’s not really surprising that fictional stories set in the First World War have many common themes. In reality, many couples who were ‘stepping out’ before the war were separated when war actually arrived. Some of the men returned; many did not

WHAT a relief that Oxford University’s Professor Valerie Beral has defended bacon after US researchers said it increased the rate of breast cancer. For everyone who enjoys a Saturday sarnie, let’s hope she’s not telling.... porkies.

A HEALTH boss brought in to turn around a troubled NHS authority was paid up to between £105,000 and £110,000 for less than four months’ work, the organisation has confirmed. Ian Wilson received the money as interim chief executive of Oxfordshire

THE revelation that the interim chief executive who had to ride in to rescue the Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group picked up more than £100,000 for less than four months’ work is another worrying development at this fledgling organisation.

Trespass is a favourite metaphor for writers, but the poet TS Eliot took the word more literally while on a walk in the Cotswolds. He was visiting his friend Emily Hale in Chipping Campden when they strayed into the garden of Burnt Norton House

Giles Andrae, creator of the Purple Ronnie character, has written a second rhyming adventure with Oxford illustrator Korky Paul, best known for Winnie The Witch. Sir Scallywag and the Deadly Dragon Poo (Puffin, £6.99) tells of the six-year-old knight

Oxford-based charity Leys Community Development Initiative (CDI) has been successful in getting a grant of £499,078 from the Big Lottery Fund. The Leys CDI, founded in 1995, works with young people and over-50s in the Leys community to live healthier

MORE than £400,000 was raised by this year’s Blenheim Palace Triathlon on Sunday, organisers have revealed. The event at the stately home in Woodstock saw thousands of competitors, including Radiohead musician Colin Greenwood, take to the scenic

NINETEEN people in Oxfordshire subject to football banning orders have handed their passports into police. Thames Valley Police confirmed yesterday that they had all surrendered their passports ahead of the World Cup in Brazil, which starts today

THE cost of a kebab in Oxford could go up as traders face a new ban on plastic packaging. Oxford City Council’s general licensing committee wants to force street food traders to use biodegradable or recyclable boxes and utensils, instead of those

FIREFIGHTERS in Oxfordshire will join a national strike over pension reforms today. The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) is taking industrial action for 24 hours from 9am. Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service has pledged to respond to every 999 call

5:08pm This week's featured artists are Oxford's rising stars Glass Animals. Here they are with their tune Pools from debut album Zaba, out this week. 4:13pm

A MAN has been taken to hospital with a leg injury after his motorcycle was involved in a crash with a car in Wallingford this morning. South Central Ambulance Service and police were called to the scene at the junction of Moses Winter Way and

Headington A strengthened their grip at the top of Division 1 of the Oxford & District League, sponsored by Yarnton Nurseries, with a 6-0 home whitewash of Oxford City & County A. Howard Watts’s rink led the way again with a 31-11 win over

A PARKINSON’S disease sufferer has praised city research which it is hoped will lead to earlier diagnosis of the disease. Sally Bromley, 65, said she is very excited about the Oxford University study. It suggests MRI scans can study connectivity

TWENTY is plenty for Middle Barton Primary School pupils, who took part in the national Giant Walking Bus campaign to get cars to drive more slowly through their village. Armed with home-made 20mph signs, the children from the Church Lane school

Oxford City Stars will again host some of their greatest players when the fourth Norman Elliott Memorial Game takes place on Sunday. Elliott worked at the Oxpens Road ice rink for more than 20 years until his death in 2011 and was a hugely popular

Banbury Central’s Carole Galletly and Oxford City & County’s Donna Knight have qualified for the National Two Wood Singles Championships at Leamington Spa in August. Knight squeezed past West Oxford’s Maggie Alderson 15-14 in the Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire Ladies let a slender lead slip away as they were beaten 115-104 by Middlesex in the John’s Trophy at South Oxford. Oxon won on just one of the six rinks, with Jeanette Berry skipping her four to a resounding 30-10 victory. It was

Oxfordshire team manager Steve Gilkes has backed his Middleton Cup side to keep their hopes alive by bouncing back from their opening defeat when they face the Isle of Wight at Shanklin on Saturday (1pm). Gilkes has named an unchanged line-up following

Katherine Hawes faces a journey into the unknown after being given a late call-up by holders England for the British Isles Women’s International Series in Jersey, starting on Sunday. The Oxford City & County star, who was in the team as England

Two restaurants were targeted by would-be thieves in separate incidents. Burglars drove their car through a field to reach the back of the Windmill Restaurant and Carvery near Asthall on the A40 at about 2.20am on Friday. Nothing was stolen, but

An Oxford University professor has defended bacon after US researchers said it increased the rate of breast cancer. Prof Valerie Beral, director of the university’s Cancer Epidemiology Unit, dismissed research from the Harvard School of Public

It is clear that one way or another Oxford is going to have a review of its Green Belt and the suitability of parts of it to accommodate more housing. It is tempting to believe, judging from our page one report, that we have already had such a

DILAPIDATED benches in Wallingford High Street will be replaced to mark the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the First World War. Two wooden and metal benches on the edge of The Kinecroft park, opposite the library, will be replaced later

Sophie Carter enjoyed her first victory as a veteran athlete when winning the Potters ‘Arf Half Marathon at Hanley, near Stoke. Carter, from Woodstock, who turned 35 last month, was the first lady home and 23rd overall. The Belgrave Harriers

Some scenes leave a lasting impression, but it's safe to say that one particular image in Icelander Benedikt Erlingsson's directorial debut, Of Horses and Man, is likely to prove indelible. Given that this is a picture with several standout moments

Something of a musical companion to the cinema-centred Barton Fink (1991) and a folk cousin to the country-inflected O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), Inside Llewyn Davis is a darkly droll snapshot of the East Coast music scene in the early 1960s

RED wine and cigars aren’t the usual prescriptions for cancer sufferers. But after Bruce Shelton was warned he had only 18 months to live in 2002, he decided he wanted to live life to the full. To enjoy his time left, the father-of-five has

Wines with plenty of fruit compliment the relatively strong smoky flavours from the grill, especially when you are eating outside. Spicy wines in particular do the job very well and are brilliant with marinated meats or just plain juicy sausages

THE locations of two new homes to protect vulnerable young children have been revealed. Oxfordshire County Council wants to build an assessment centre in Thame, off Chinnor Road, for up to six children at risk of coming into the care system, and

Oxford Saints suffered the first defeat of their BAFL Conference National Central Division season when losing 26-6 at Shropshire Revolution. A flying start by the hosts saw them lead 26-0 at half-time, and although Saints produced a much-improved

Witney Road Runners’ Tegid Jones stormed to victory in the Chiltern Chase 10K. Jones triumphed by more than a minute in the multi-terrain event, which started and finished in Ewelme. The 38-year-old crossed the line in 35mins 48secs ahead of

Funding for extremist organisations must end, Oxford West and Abingdon MP Nicola Blackwood said in the Commons in the wake of concerns about Islamic influence in schools in Birmingham. Home Secretary Theresa May agreed and said that the Government

Oxford University has said there is still no date for when an environmental impact assessment of the Castle Mill student blocks will be submitted. Campaigners tried to force the unviersity to produce the report seven months ago through a judicial

Professor Sir David Yardley, former chairman of Oxford Preservation Trust, has died aged 84. He was chairman of the group from 1989 to 2009. An Emeritus Fellow of St Edmund Hall, where he also taught law from 1953, he was a government ombudsman

FORMER Cowley car worker Joe Beardsley paid his respects at the grave of a friend at the D-Day 70th anniversary commemorations. A member of Kidlington Royal British Legion, the former Royal Marine went to Normandy to lay a poppy at the grave of

A SCHOOL that was in special measures 18 months ago has seen an “incredible” turnaround. Bicester Community College has not only been taken out of special measures but ranked good by Ofsted inspectors in its latest report. When it was put into

RAIL passengers across Oxfordshire are being encouraged to share a lift to the train station as part of a new initiative. First Great Western has teamed up with car pooling company Liftshare to help cut down on the number of vehicles travelling

A BUSINESSMAN wanting to build nine student flats in Oxford’s Roger Dudman Way has lost his planning appeal. Tariq Khuja appealed against Oxford City Council’s refusal of planning permission to build on land next to Thames Wharf. The plans

THE number of people looking for work in Oxfordshire has fallen to a six-year low as firms take on more staff. Latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show there are 3,813 people in Oxfordshire claiming job seekers allowance, the

THE woman accused of murdering two children in a house fire attacked members of their family in the months leading up to the arson, a court heard yesterday. Sisters Shahnaz Akhtar and Nazmeen Khan told Oxford Crown Court about two fights involving

A BATTLING 80 from Matt Winter held up Middlesex before the first-class county completed their predictable victory over Oxford MCCU in The Parks yesterday. The students were never going to make the 528 needed, but they stuck to their task manfully

CARS in Iffley Fields will soon be bearing posters saying ‘My owner lives on this street. Do you?’ in an attempt to stop commuters parking in the area. The Iffley Fields Residents’ Association parking action group is giving the leaflets out for

THE Diocese of Oxford has warned “unjust” government policies are pushing people in Oxfordshire into food poverty. A report by the Trussell Trust this week revealed more than 1,800 county children had received its food parcels in the past year.

Darrell Bellinger powered to a dominant victory in round two of the Mota-Vation Series at Bletchingdon. The Oxford City athlete improved on his third place in round one to take victory by almost 30 seconds. But it was same again in the ladies

FRIENDS of a teenage girl who died from cystic fibrosis have unveiled a memorial at her former school. The tribute to Leah Graham at Fitzharrys School, in Abingdon, where she attended includes a plaque and a pink blossom tree, in memory of the

POLICE officers, builders and business owners will drive for six days through two African countries in memory of a five-year-old boy. The boy, known only as Livingstone, died of malaria after his mother was unable to get him to hospital on time