July

£600m KNOWLEDGE PARK

A VISION to transform a ‘run-down’ industrial estate in the heart of Oxford into a £600m Knowledge Park was unveiled by Oxford University at the start of July. The plans revealed how Osney Mead, off Botley Road, could change over the next 20 years. The new development would feature a riverside promenade, public square and 600 homes for graduates and university staff. Oxford University hoped the revamp, which it said could start by 2019, would turn the site into a top centre for scientists and businesses, creating thousands of hi-tech jobs. The scheme was hailed as a ‘great opportunity’ by Oxford City Council leader Bob Price, who called for formal plans to be presented speedily.

UNITED FOR SYRIA

COUNCIL leaders said Oxfordshire had a duty to care for more than 40 refugees from camps near war-torn Syria. The county council would eventually resolve to join the government scheme to relocate unaccompanied child asylum seekers from areas such as Kent, which were being ‘overwhelmed’. A report to senior councillors had warned the scheme would cost £1m a year, despite extra money from Whitehall, which it has not yet found funding for. But council leader Ian Hudspeth and cabinet member for education Melinda Tilley led the calls for cabinet to approve the county’s participation in the scheme. Mrs Tilley said: “They are children who have no-one and we cannot just leave them.”

THERESA TAKES OVER AT NO.10

DAVID Cameron handed over the keys to Downing Street as he resigned from his post after failing to persuade British voters to stay in the EU. The Witney MP left No.10 for the final time as Prime Minister praising his eventual successor Theresa May, who grew up and went to school in Wheatley, in his departing speech. Addressing the media, an emotional Mr Cameron – accompanied by his family – said he left the country in a ‘much stronger’ position than when he entered office six years ago. He initially announced his intention to resign following the EU referendum result in June and handed over to Mrs May who emerged the winner of a short Conservative leadership contest.

SECONDARY SCHOOL DELAY

THE opening of a new 880-pupil secondary school in Oxford was delayed by at least a year because nowhere suitable could be found to build it. The River Learning Trust – formerly the Cherwell School Academy Trust – had hoped to open The Swan School in September 2017. But the trust’s chief executive Paul James said a limited number of sites in the city, combined with complexities over land ownership, meant the government’s Education Funding Agency – who have led the hunt for a location since September 2015 – were not able to reach an agreement with the trust and Oxfordshire County Council in time. More than 200 parents had signed a petition for the school to be located in Osney Mead off Botley Road, following speculation it may be built in Marston.

2020 VISION FOR BARTON

AN £8m cash boost was revealed towards transforming the Barton estate by 2020. As builders on the site of the Barton Park development began to dig the foundations for the first of 885 homes, the Oxford Mail revealed plans to revamp the existing estate. The estate’s shops, flats and community centre were all part of the 2020 vision for the area. The Oxford City Council proposals also included the demolition of Underhill Circus, along with refurbishment to 46 blocks of flats over the next four years.

August

HOUSING CO-OPERATIVE

A FIGHTBACK against Oxford’s ‘medieval’ private rental sector began in a quiet Cowley street at the beginning of August with the arrival of the city’s first housing co-operative for 16 years. Six professionals in their 20s and 30s banded together to launch the Kindling Co-operative as a fresh take on ways to live in the UK’s most unaffordable city. In just over six months the group, who met through work, gathered £271,000 from 14 investors and bought a six-bedroom house in Church Hill Road, off Between Towns Road. The model, which saw the house re-fitted and rented at £400 per month, has been described as an alternative model for affordable housing and is embraced in other European countries such as Holland.

IT’S WOODSTUCK

THOUSANDS of excited punters were left frustrated as a combination of rail chaos and roadworks marred the Countryfile Live event at Blenheim Palace. Drivers queued for hours on the first day of the four-day event, which saw traffic disruption throughout, as delays were worsened by rail closures between Oxford and Banbury and the start of Wilderness Festival. Motorists described it as a ‘traffic disaster’ as more than 80,000 people tried to get to the palace over the course of the weekend. Families were left disappointed after paying more than £50 for a day ticket and then spending half the day stuck on the county’s roads.

A34 TRAGEDY

A HORRIFIC crash that killed a mother and three children sparked fresh calls to make the A34 safer. Campaigners repeated calls for safety measures on the county’s main trunk road, after the crash involving four lorries and four cars, at East Ilsley, on the Oxfordshire border. Tracy Houghton, 45, died alongside sons Ethan, 13, Josh, 11, and her partner’s 11-year-old daughter Aimee Goldsmith. Twelve others were injured, one seriously. Motorists and politicians repeated demands for lower speed limits and better provisions for lorries.

But less than two weeks later three-year-old girl Isla Wiggins died in hospital following a crash involving a lorry and seven other vehicles.

HIKE IN RAIL FARES

COMMUTERS lambasted an ‘insane and ridiculous’ hike in rail fares. Regular passengers of the ‘delayed, overcrowded and cancelled’ train services were told to expect to pay an extra 1.9 per cent on some fares from the start of 2017. Research by the TUC and the Action For Rail union campaign showed fares have risen by double the rate of wages since 2010. Between June and July 2.8 per cent of Great Western Railway trains were cancelled or significantly delayed by more than 30 minutes and 1.8 per cent were cancelled on Chiltern Railways.

Workmen returned to Frideswide Square just months after its £6.7m revamp as traders vented their frustration at the county council.

Businesses and residents slammed the road design that had forced vehicles to mount the kerb outside the Royal Oxford Hotel and cut corners, causing newly-laid paving slabs to crack and crumble. Motorists were again frustrated by delays along Botley Road as the two-week repair job – expected to cost about £30,000 – to make ‘minor repairs and alterations’ to the kerb got under way. The council would later admit to the Oxford Mail that the roundabout outside the Royal Oxford Hotel had been made ‘too tight’ for vehicles to negotiate.

September

SPIDER INVASION

AS SPIDER season gave Britain the heebie-jeebies, one Witney household found themselves invaded by no fewer than eight poisonous false widows. The Bradbury family discovered a cluster of the large spiders in their conservatory, forced indoors by the onset of chillier weather. The uninvited lodgers are known as Britain’s most venomous spider and their arrival coincided with a spate of reports of ‘giant’ spiders across the UK. But the unflappable Janet Bradbury said: “I’m not bothered about them. I keep on the lookout every day to see if they’ll come out.”

BACK TO SQUARE ONE

BUSINESSES were thunderstruck when the £6.7m Frideswide Square piazza was dug up again just months after completion.Cracks had begun to appear in paving stones all around the renovated square, prompting developers Drayton Construction to drill down and rebuild them all over again. It was suggested that flagstones were already being worn down by lorries carrying building materials to the Westgate site, or the soil underneath had ‘shifted’ before work was finished.

WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE

FLASH floods wreaked havoc across Didcot as the county was battered by howling winds which saw three weeks’ worth of rain fall in just three hours. A maternity unit in the town and a number of schools were forced to shut and trains at parkway station were cancelled. Residents also reported water gushing from the street and into their homes.Pregnant women were turned away at Wallingford Community Hospital amidst the deluge which battered the country throughout the day.

GIANT LEAP FOR MANKIND

ASTRONAUT Major Tim Peake called for more affordable housing and better infrastructure to keep attracting “brilliant minds” to Harwell Campus when he visited Oxfordshire.Major Peake was visiting the campus to talk about the 25 biological experiments he performed during his six-month mission aboard the International Space Station. Speaking to the Oxford Mail, the 44-year-old said in order for it to remain at the forefront of space exploration and discovery, more investment was needed in the area.