Archive

  • Good trade-off for young jobless

    A training centre to give young jobless people a chance of running a business has opened in Witney. The Synolos Centre in Corn Street is already working with 10 16- to 18-year-olds who have left school and failed to find a job. Director

  • Cooking with gas

    Work has started on a state-of-the-art headquarters for up to 1,000 British Gas staff. The multi-million pound 81,000 sq ft base on the Oxford Business Park in Cowley has been praised for its green technologies. The workers, employed by British Gas

  • Scales of Justice

    People convicted of offences at Magistrates' courts around the county recently BANBURY Juliet Cavanagh, 57, of Lyneham Road, Bicester, admitted shoplifting two bottles of white wine, a packet of Nurofen and a leg of lamb valued at £12.65 from Tesco

  • Community cuppas

    Village life in Wolvercote is about to get better with the launch of a new community cafe. The volunteer-run project in the new parish room at St Peter’s Church will offer residents cakes, snacks, tea and coffee, and a place to have a chat. It opens

  • Gypsy family's site set for approval

    A family of gypsies who hope to create a better life for their children look likely to get planning permission to set up site on Green Belt land. Two sisters-in-law, who do not want to be named, and their 12 children moved on to land off Woodstock Road

  • More student flats in the pipeline

    Three plans involving almost 150 student flats should be approved according to council planners, despite concerns from residents, a school and conservationists. Oxford City Council planning officers are urging councillors to back the East Oxford, Osney

  • COMMENT: New scheme is a reason

    IT MAY be a cheaper scheme, but thousands of people can only be relieved and rejoicing that the rebuilding of Frideswide Square is seemingly back on. The current traffic set-up is a nightmare. Granted it is hardly the easiest traffic scenario to try

  • Debate on card

    Wantage's new loyalty card scheme will be discussed at a meeting of Wantage Joint Economic Forum on Thursday. Representatives from Wantage Town Council, Vale of White Horse District Council, Grove Parish Council and Wantage Chamber of Commerce will meet

  • Nursery is praised

    Farmhouse Nursery in Church Green, Witney, has received a good rating from Ofsted. Children at the nursery were described as “happy and confident”, and staff as calm, caring, enthusiastic and motivated. There are 130 children at the nursery, which is

  • Elderly lose a travel subsidy

    Discounts for the over-60s and disabled people on coach travel ended yesterday. Until now, senior citizens enjoyed a 50 per cent subsidy, but Government cuts mean they now face paying full adult fares. Age UK Oxfordshire chief executive Paul Cann last

  • Ex-Cherwell pupil tells of Thai floods

    A teacher from Oxford has been flooded out of his Thai home during the heavy monsoon rains. But Hamish Chalmers, a former Cherwell School pupil, has kept his family and friends updated on the crisis with an internet blog. Monsoon rains

  • Hospital boosted by Waitrose collection

    The Abingdon Community Hospital League of Friends has been handed £518 after a collection in Waitrose in March. The group is holding its Annual General Meeting at 7pm on Friday, November 18, at Lady Eleanor Court in Drayton Road. It will discuss how

  • Hopefuls audition for Keira movie

    About 400 movie fans queued at an East Oxford church for the chance to star as an extra in Keira Knightley’s new film. They waited at Cowley Road Methodist Church for a chance to be immortalised on the silver screen in an adaptation of Leo

  • Banbury agent shortlisted for national award

    A Banbury estate agent has been shortlisted for a national property award. Maria Lucas, managing director of Let Lucas, is a finalist for the Women Business Owner of the Year Award at the Innovative Property Show which takes place this week. The awards

  • ‘It targets my dream customers’

    IT’S a tough world on Britain’s high streets, but 79-year-old Witney businessman Derek Henderson is not lying down on the job. His family business, The Furnishing Centre, is holding its own in the modern world, despite the economic downturn. Set up

  • Local share prices (PM)

    AEA Technology 2 BMW 4903 Electrocomponents 207 Nationwide Accident Repair 88.5 Oxford Biomedica 5.1 Oxford Catalysts 52.25 Oxford Instruments 769 Reed Elsevier 524.75 RM 68.1 RPS Group 179.7 Courtesy of Redmayne Bentley, Abingdon

  • The green alternative this Christmas

    IF the glut of Christmas marketing is beginning to sit heavily in your stomach, a more environmentally-friendly approach might appeal. This weekend will see the annual Green Fair at Oxford Town Hall, St Aldate’s, which will be taking place for the 31st

  • Festival proves a hit with faithful

    A MAJOR faith festival has been hailed a “complete success” after its first year. Crowds flocked to St Mary’s Church, Bloxham for the Bloxham Faith Fest at the weekend. A 200-strong audience saw East-Enders writer Tony Jordan cry during a screening

  • Fright club

    Families have been enjoying monster fun in the spirit of Halloween. Visitors helped raise community spirit and cash for their village at the first Clanfield pumpkin competition. The event at the Carter Institute in Main Street on Saturday

  • Charity needs 1,000 volunteers

    OXFORDSHIRE volunteers are needed to help find a cure for Parkinson’s. Charity Parkinson’s UK needs to recruit 1,000 volunteers from across the Thames Valley to take part in a series of tests to look at better ways to diagnose the disease at

  • Firefighters find a tree-mendous way to train

    WHEN Cheney School needed to fell a tree, firefighters did it in style, staging a spectacular mock car accident. Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue joined forces with the county council’s tree felling team to carry out a unique training exercise while the Headington

  • HOCKEY: Oxford Hawks take sweet revenge

    Oxford Hawks took their revenge for two defeats at the hands of Ashford (Kent) last season by winning their South League Premier 2 encounter 5-1. James Ward got them off the mark and Charlie Ellison made it 2-0, Ashford pulling a goal back shortly before

  • HOCKEY: Cockshott leads Oxford romp

    Lyn Cockshott grabbed a hat-trick as Oxford hit seven goals without reply against Marlow in the EHA Trophy first round. Rachael Lammey, Caitlin Bailey-Williams and Cockshott put their side 3-0 up at half-time. Cockshott was on target

  • GOLF: Watkins cleans up at Bicester

    Laura Watkins collected five trophies at Bicester’s ladies’ presentation night. The Oxfordshire player received the Bradbury Cup, Dean Salver, Humphris Trophy, Ladies’ Winter Trophy and the Phipps Pairs with Carly Bosher. ROLL OF HONOUR Bisque Cup:

  • MP aims to derail HS2 alternative line

    PROPOSALS for an alternative route for the planned £33bn High Speed Rail link (HS2) which would run closer to Oxfordshire towns have been attacked by MP Tony Baldry. Shadow transport minister Maria Eagle told the Airport Operators Association yesterday

  • DARTS: Kidlington eye glory bid

    Kidlington Green Social Club twice fought back as they reached the George Pegram Cup final with a thrilling 4-3 victory against Cowley Workers. The Kidlington side won the opener when John Russell beat Phil Cook, hitting two legs of 11 darts

  • THE BIG STRIKE: A different anger

    EVEN the lock keepers were on strike. Boaters were left to navigate their own way along the Thames, as a small group of GMB members who man the locks joined the 6,000 strong protest yesterday. They were symbolic of many other professions hardly associated

  • Gravel extraction ‘targets too high’

    A CAMPAIGN group says Oxfordshire County Council’s sand and gravel extraction targets are too high and will lead to unnecessary destruction. The county’s branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) yesterday said County Hall’s goal to dig

  • RUGBY UNION: Spencer shines in derby romp

    Round-up DAN Spencer scored a hat-trick of tries as Bicester defeated Gosford All Blacks 43-21 in the BB&O Premier Division. No 8 Spencer powered over for Bicester’s opener on 12 minutes, then converted the first of a debut double from wing Jamie

  • RUGBY UNION: Smith stars for Wallingford

    Southern Counties North A SUPERB first-half display earned Wallingford a 36-22 victory over Slough. Wallingford led 33-5 at half-time after scoring five tries, but it was followed by a lacklustre second period. A well-worked line-out move eneded

  • RUGBY UNION: Gilbert brace leads Chinnor rally

    National 3 South West CHINNOR recovered from a sluggish start to defeat Amersham & Chiltern 39-16 at Kingsey Road and make it nine wins from nine. Chiltern led 16-0 by the half-hour mark and a major upset looked on the cards, but Chinnor came on strong

  • RUGBY UNION: Hawks bounce back

    National 2 South HENLEY Hawks bounced back from two straight defeats to beat Dings Crusaders 35-8 at Dry Leas. Dings had started well, but Henley took the lead when wing Christoph Bart set up centre Danny Wells to sweep in. Two penalties from fly

  • Man accused of dangerous driving

    A 22-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of dangerous driving after a Ford Focus crashed into three parked cars in New Yatt Road, North Leigh. The car collided with a row of vehicles outside The Woodman Inn at about 1.30am on Friday. The man has

  • RACING: Knight eyes King Goerge for super Somersby

    Henrietta Knight is eyeing a third victory in the King George VI Chase at Kempton after seeing Somersby make a winning return at the Sunbury track yesterday. The West Lockinge trainer saddled her triple Gold Cup hero Best Mate to land the Boxing Day

  • ON YER BIKE: We can do more to ensure cyclists are much safer

    ‘Cyclist dies after collision with lorry’ ran the Oxford Mail’s headline and I felt sick to the stomach. Joanna Braithwaite, 34, died after she was involved in a crash with a cement mixer lorry last Friday. It is thought she was riding along Polstead

  • 'I had no option but to evict Belcher'

    Landlady Eileen Shayler who lived with a man with an antisocial behaviour order (Asbo) for more than two years, yesterday told of her decision to evict him. Mrs Shayler, 78, had known the troubled alcoholic for years after her son became friends with

  • UPDATE: Teenagers in stable condition after crash

    Two teenagers left fighting for their lives after the Mini they were travelling in crashed are now in a stable condition. A police spokesman said a 16-year-old girl was in a critical but stable condition at the John Radcliffe Hospital where she was taken

  • Help settle this debate

    l COULD your readers settle a problem which has arisen between a group of we oldies at our local day centre? Like most of the group, I was conscripted in 1948 to do 18 months’ National Service, but shortly after call-up, the Government of the day extended

  • Calling all Taylors

    MY great-great-grandmother, Joyce Taylor, was born 1796 in Shipton-under-Wychwood, had five children – Charles, George, Reuben, Hannah, Harriet Taylor. George married Elizabeth Ann Wiggins in 1847, in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, and had 12 children

  • A poor excuse

    LEAVES partially obscuring a set of double yellow lines is mitigation, not an excuse, for parking in a no parking area (Oxford Mail, October 12). The people who arrived in response to your correspondent’s request probably spent more time making excuses

  • Iranian misconceptions

    WITH regard to Kenneth Mitchell’s letter (Oxford Mail, October 25) speaking out in favour of state’s censorship of the media. From what I understand from his letter, state-run TV channels are bad, unless of course it’s the BBC. Women wearing clothes

  • Failing the young

    I FEEL that our Prime Minister, David Cameron, is growing out of touch with young people and should show more concern about their future. Mr Cameron, a word of advice, because our young people deserve better than this? It’s about time you see it from

  • Extreme naivety

    SEPTEMBER was interesting for Western-Muslim relations. For just a few days the myths of 9/11 tended to overshadow all else. The other ‘big one’ was the Palestinian bid for UN membership. One speculated over whether Labour Party Conference delegates

  • RUGBY UNION: Witney turn on the style

    Witney 35, Reading 13 A STRONG all-round performance saw Witney take all five points in their South West 1 East clash at Hailey Road. The match was preceded by Wasps wing Tom Varndell and acting RFU chairman Paul Murphy officially opening Witney’s

  • THE QUIZ LEAGUE: How the mighty have fallen

    THE second week of fixtures in the Oxfordshire Quiz League saw the Blue Boar (Chipping Norton) from the North Division become the first team outside the elite group of sides to claim the scalp of Premiership opponents when running out 81-78 winners against

  • Act of eco-vandalism

    I DON’T know much about badgers, but I feel very sad when I walk along the Thames adjacent to Cripley Meadow. Where there was once a thriving wildlife corridor there is now land scraped bare, like a building site, and the few remaining trees cut back

  • A sharp point on loos

    SO, for nine months, experts at Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum have been using a hypodermic needle and catheter tubing to slowly restore a single 2,750-year-old sarcophagus (Oxford Mail, October 26). I was wondering, as it isn’t too far away, if they could

  • Above the law?

    SINCE the publication of my letter headed ‘Will hospitals face the law?’ (Oxford Mail, October 26), I have heard that, in future, wards containing the elderly will be subject to spot checks with a view to prosecuting offenders. Would anyone care to

  • Lack of hospital care for the elderly

    AT A recent committee meeting of Oxfordshire Pensioners’ Action Group, we discussed the Care Quality Commission’s report on hospitals and the JR. We were shocked to hear from a member, a former Lord Mayor of Oxford, that when after a fall in her home

  • COMMENT: Tough decisions

    Anti-social behaviour orders don’t seem to work. Today we report on two men given Asbos who both flouted their terms. Let’s be honest, neither of these men are hardened criminals. They are, though, professional pains the backside. Judges have a tough

  • RUGBY UNION: Coaches praise display

    WITNEY’S coaching team reflected on a job well done after their victory over Reading. Head coach Phil Harper said: “We are pleased. It was a very good performance. “We were a bit more clinical today. “We have let a few teams get back into the game

  • Wilder and Clarke are up for awards

    Oxford United boss Chris Wilder has been nominated for the npower League Two manager-of-the-month award for October. He is short-listed with Crawley Town’s Steve Evans, Southend United’s Paul Sturrock and Cheltenham Town’s Mark Yates. U’s goalkeeper

  • Man breaches Asbo 14 times

    A serial drunken offender breached his antisocial behaviour order (Asbo) for the 14th time just hours after being released from prison. Howard Russell was given an Asbo in July 2010 after a catalogue of incidents, including attacking paramedics

  • Power cut hits Jericho

    Electricity to 450 homes in Jericho was cut off for eight hours this morning after an underground cable fault. The homes lost power at 1am but Southern Electric engineers worked through the night and were able to restore the supply at 9am.

  • MOTORSPORT: Smith given green light to ride

    Oxfordshire's Bradley Smith has been given the all-clear to ride in the final round of the Moto2 World Championship in Valencia on Sunday. The 20-year-old, from Forest Hill, near Oxford, suffered a cracked left collar-bone and bruised lung when he

  • Holly makes an amazing recovery

    EVERY parent feels a surge of pride as they wave off their child to their first day at school in September. But, for Holly Manfredi’s family, the momentous occasion this year had special significance. Just three months earlier, doctors had taken her

  • SUSPENSIONS: Numbers are increasing

    THERE were more than 1,000 suspensions of Oxfordshire pupils last year because of threats and abuse towards staff, new figures show. Today, the Oxford Mail reveals a school-by-school breakdown of suspensions which show the level of disruptive and unruly

  • Crash teen driving ‘a little too fast’

    A TEENAGE motorist who died in a car crash was “driving just a little too fast for her own capabilities” on a wet road, a coroner ruled. Oxford High School student Olivia Jefferies’ Peugeot 107 veered into an oncoming car in Adderbury on June 12 and

  • Wilder issues challenge to strikers

    Chris Wilder has laid down a challenge to his strikers to step up to the plate, following the departure of hot-shot loan star Rob Hall. The U’s were hoping to extend the 18-year-old’s spell from West Ham, after he scored six goals in nine starts

  • Bid to stop linking library and care cuts

    OXFORDSHIRE County Council will today debate whether library cuts should be linked to reductions being made to social care. Last month, council leader Keith Mitchell labelled library campaigners “well-heeled worthies” in a letter to The Guardian newspaper

  • COMMENT: Extreme measure can work

    Getting suspended from school would put the fear of life into most pupils. It is an extreme measure aimed at only the most disruptive of classroom louts. In Oxfordshire, suspensions were handed out 3,471 times in the last academic year. Worryingly,

  • COMMENT: Extreme measure can work

    Getting suspended from school would put the fear of life into most pupils. It is an extreme measure aimed at only the most disruptive of classroom louts. In Oxfordshire, suspensions were handed out 3,471 times in the last academic year. Worryingly,

  • Family tell of grieving after death crash

    THE family of a teenager who died in a car crash spoke of their continuing heartache yesterday as the vehicle’s driver was sentenced. Callum MacKinnon was a backseat passenger in a car that hit a tree on the B4020 Shilton Road between Burford and Carterton

  • The Oxford Mail launches its rogues calendar

    CHRISTMAS is a time for giving, so this month the Oxford Mail and Thames Valley Police are asking you to give criminals a hard time. We’re running our Badvent partnership again, when every day we will open up a door on our calendar of criminals

  • Man stabbed himself in shop

    A man waved a knife in an Oxford convenience store before stabbing himself in the leg. Ziyad Mahmood, of Courtland Road, Rose Hill, appeared at Oxford Crown Court yesterday and admitted affray and having a bladed article. The 22-year-old Iranian national

  • Jim fixed it

    Sir Jimmy Savile, who died at the weekend at the age of 84, will be fondly remembered for “fixing it” for kids across Oxfordshire. A dip into the Oxford Mail archives reveals just how many young faces the tracksuit-wearing eccentric lit up with a smile

  • Trading places and helping charity

    BUSINESS people are being urged to put themselves in the shoes of the unemployed and help a charity at the same time. The Oxfordshire branch of the Fredericks Foundation is running a Trading Places initiative which is designed to challenge

  • ‘My life was saved by a youth centre’

    A TEENAGER who credits Oxfordshire’s youth service with saving his life after he got heavily involved in drugs has expressed his fears over the future of the service. Jordan Rolfe, 17, said he was concerned about changes in how the Oxfordshire

  • Supertrust link-up means start of new NHS era

    OXFORDSHIRE’S four largest hospitals will begin life today as part of the newly created Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust. Patients and staff walking through the doors of the John Radcliffe, the Churchill, the Nuffield Orthopaedic or Banbury’s Horton