IT seems there are big changes ahead at the Town Hall. Oxford City Council is planning to sell off city centre office buildings to generate £5m in capital and save £500,000 a year in costs.

Its plans also include a proposal to vacate one of the city council’s two depots – at Marsh Road, Cowley, and Horspath – and house a merged City Works and City Homes service on one site.

Hundreds of staff will be affected by the shake-up and we would urge the council to offer all support necessary in what will undoubtedly be an unsettling time for them.

For the wider public, generating capital and cutting costs is to be welcomed in the present economic climate.

Times are tough and the new Government is keen to keep council tax rises low at the same time as cutting local government grants.

But the council must secure a good market price for its assets.

Otherwise, should it need to expand and buy new premises in years to come, the taxpayer will only end up spending more money in the long term.

  • “GRACE is in my mind almost every single moment of every day as vivid memories constantly bombard me.”

There can be no greater loss than the loss of a child.

Every parent will sympathise with the thoughts of mother Carol Hadman, whose daughter Grace would have turned 19 today.

Just over a year after the teenager’s tragic death in a crash on the A34 her parents and brothers say her memory lives on as strongly as ever.

We wish them all well at this poignant time.