Archive

  • West Oxfordshire District Council candidates

    Chadlington and Churchill Amanda Epps, Liberal Democrats David Heyes, Labour Brigitte Hickman, Green Neil Owen, Conservative Charlbury and Finstock Liz Leffman, Liberal Democrats Rory MacArthur, Conservative Chipping Norton Robert

  • Cherwell District Council candidates

    Adderbury Derek Evans, Labour Mary Franklin, Green Nigel Randall, Conservative Banbury Calthorpe Alastair Milne Home, Conservative Mary Ross, Labour Banbury Easington Michael Beal, Labour Fred Blackwell, Conservative Katie Chandler

  • Man rescued from burning flat

    A MAN had to be rescued from a burning flat in Barton, Oxford this afternoon. Fire engines were called to the ground floor flat in Bayswater Road at 4.13pm. The man, who has not been named, was suffering from smoke inhalation and received treatment

  • 'Danger' crossing set to be made safer

    NEIGHBOURS in Oxford divided by a busy main road are hoping their 20-year campaign for a new pedestrian crossing is set to finally succeed. People living in the Donnington Bridge area say they have been living in fear of accidents on busy Weirs

  • Local share prices

    AEA Technology 0.25 BMW 5440 Electrocomponents 231 Nationwide Accident Repair 64.5 Oxford Biomedica 2.98 Oxford Catalysts 48 Oxford Instruments 1146.5 Reed Elsevier 540.25 RM 77.75 RPS Group 229.6

  • Following the Thames Path

    Abingdon’s move to rename itself Abingdon-on-Thames has provoked opposition and mild hilarity, but to me it seems a splendid idea. In summer, the town’s riverside is packed with boaters and other holidaymakers from all over the world, but its attractions

  • Driver dies after suspected heart attack

    An 80-year-old driver collapsed behind the wheel of his car from a suspected heart attack as he drove in The Moors opposite Helwyns Close in Kidlington. He was taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital where he later died. The man, who was from the local

  • Boy escaped horror crash, inquest told

    A SEVEN-YEAR-OLD boy escaped a car crash in which his mother was trapped in the burning wreckage, an inquest heard. Coroner Ann Bember was told Jack Purves managed to get free after the crash but his mother Claire died. The inquest heard it was likely

  • A420 shut after two car crash

    THE A420 is closed both ways near Buckland due to a collision between two vehicles there. A police spokesman said the crash between a blue Toyota Yaris and a white Mitsubishi Canter happened at 11.51 this morning near Buckland and no-one was injured.

  • Coach gives boxing club home appeal extra punch

    AN OXFORD University boxing coach has given his support to a Blackbird Leys club searching for a new home. The Blackbird Leys Amateur Boxing Club is desperately hunting for a place to call its own, after outgrowing its current home in the local community

  • Runner on a mission to help cousin

    MARIA Keenan is one of many runners getting ready for the Oxford Town and Gown race who has a personal reason for taking part. Ms Keenan’s cousin, Denise Horrocks, has a type of muscular dystrophy called limb girdle and has received help from the Muscular

  • FOOTBALL: Witney victory moves them off the bottom

    Witney Town moved off the bottom of the Uhlsport Hellenic League Premier Division with a 3-1 win at Abingdon Town, with goals from Andy Younie, John Rixon and Tom Austin. Mark Janes had levelled. Leaders Oxford City Nomads drew 0-0 at home to Slimbridge

  • All about Alpacas

    OXFORD: The World Alpaca Conference kicks off at Keble College today. Experts from 18 counties will host lectures and workshops until Thursday. About 150 delegates from around the world are due to attend.

  • Burglary charge

    OXFORD: A 23-year-old man has been charged with trying to burgle a house. Michael Murphy, of Hemley Hill, Princes Risborough, is accused of burgling a garden shed in Five Mile Drive, Cutteslowe, and attempting to burgle the house at the same address

  • Bee Gee Gibb’s Titanic premiere

    THAME: The world premiere of Robin Gibb’s Titanic Requiem takes place tonight. The music by the former Bee Gee, from Thame, and his son RJ, commemorates the Titanic’s disastrous voyage. The Titanic Requiem, their first classical work together, will be

  • FOOTBALL: Hole double boosts Millers' hopes

    Stuart Hole scored a double as North Leigh boosted their Evo-Stik Southern League Division 1 South & West play-off hopes with an easy win against ten-man Thatcham. The result puts Mark Gee’s men five points behind sixth-placed Hungerford Town. On 13

  • Permanent tributes in aid of hospice

    TATTOOISTS are offering a permanent reminder of people’s generosity to charity with a special fundraising day. Staff at Acreedo Tattoos in Abingdon, are offering designs for as little as £20 in aid of Oxford’s Sobell House hospice. All

  • GP suspended during inquiry

    AN OXFORD doctor who has admitted using Christian beliefs as a ‘complementary therapy’ for patients has been suspended by a medical watchdog. The General Medical Council (GMC), one of the highest medical authorities in the land, has suspended Dr Mark

  • Alcohol duty peace plan

    The experts and converts to the Government’s increase in prices of beer, brandy, whisky, lager, cider and so on, are quite right to say these beverages in excess are a major cause of violence. Look how peaceful life is in Muslim countries, where such

  • Give taxpayers a veto

    I read that sets of traffic lights costing £150,000 each are costing another £2,000 to install. UKIP policy is to provide local taxpayers with the opportunity to veto or approve major projects sanctioned by councils, offering them a binding referendum

  • POINT-TO-POINT: Hill's in groove with a fab four

    Aston Rowant trainer Alan Hill ruled the roost with an across-the-card four-timer on Saturday, including a treble at the Kimblewick Hunt meeting at Kimble, near Aylesbury. This was topped up by a winner at the Essex & Suffolk fixture at Higham

  • Getting to grips with nature

    YOUNG Mitchell Blackman got to grips with a Harris Hawk at a birds of prey demonstration yesterday. The eight-year-old volunteered to take part in the show at the Cotswold Wildlife Park near Burford. Mum Louise Blackman, 30, from Calne in Wiltshire

  • Thanks for nothing, Mr Cameron!

    Prime Minister David Cameron seems to think that this year he’s done well by giving the pensioners another £5 per week. However, in reality, he hasn’t given us anything. Council rents have gone up by £7 per week – £28 per month. So we are £8 per month

  • POINT-TO-POINT: Young Alfie is up and running

    Alfie Bradstock celebrated his first success as a trainer with runaway winner Chouromanesco at the Old Berks Hunt meeting at Lockinge, near Wantage, yesterday. The 17-year-old son of Letcombe Bassett National Hunt handler Mark Bradstock was

  • City forums 'damage local democracy'

    OXFORD’S controversial area forums are not working, it was claimed last night. A year on from the creation of the forums, in place of the city council’s former area committees, a review has found problems with the new system. The forums have been criticised

  • Hair-raising history

    Do you have a photo of yourself and your fabulous hair? Maybe from 30 or 40 or 50 years ago? If so, perhaps you can help me. I have written a book, Me and My Hair – a Social History, which will be published in the autumn. I want it to be nicely illustrated

  • COMMENT: Leaving the people out of the politics

    WHEN area committees were scrapped by Oxford City Council a year ago, there was much debate about the effect it would have on local democracy. Some raised concerns that scrapping the six monthly area committees and replacing them with quarterly area

  • Air ambulance passes safety test

    THE air ambulance which covers Oxfordshire has passed a safety test after a national scare. An inspection was carried out on Thames Valley and Chiltern's air ambulance after a fault - which could have caused a fatal crash - was found in a helicopter

  • Beach rescue pair recovering

    A 22-year-old man and a 15-year-old girl from Faringdon are recovering after being rescued from a Cornish beach. The pair were in a group of four holiday makers cut off from the tide at Porthcurno beach on Saturday. Three of them were airlifted from

  • Titanic author to sign books in Oxford

    THE great-nephew of Charles Lightoller, the most senior officer to survive the sinking of the ocean liner Titanic in 1912, will visit Oxford on Saturday. Valentine Palmer will sign copies of his new book Titanic: And the Strange Case of Uncle Bertie

  • Personalities or parties?

    Largely echoing my own sentiments, Colin Smith further wonders: “How a man like John Tanner can keep on making a laughing-stock of himself?” (Oxford Mail ViewPoints, March 27). Perhaps this will ultimately be a question for certain professional or quasi-professional

  • Digital world leaves us nowhere to hide

    I wouldn’t normally support national newspapers’ interests but consider the following: The ‘powerful few’ have a ‘need’ to control everything. To ensure this, all transference of information is required to be done electronically/digitally but to ensure

  • LIFE LESSONS: Polly Gibson

    WHAT I’M CALLED: Polly Gibson. MY AGE IN YEARS: 31. WHAT I DO: I’m currently the centre manager for the Footsteps Centre in Dorchester. We provide intensive physiotherapy for children with neurological disorders. We also

  • FOOTBALL: Derby defeat drops Banbury into relegation zone

    Banbury United slipped into the Evo-Stik Southern League Premier Division relegation zone after a 2-0 home defeat by derby rivals Brackley Town at Spencer Stadium yesterday. Brackley’s clinical finishing proved the difference. Early

  • Family fun marks life of U’s fan Jack

    THE life of a loyal Oxford United supporter was celebrated next door to the club’s home at the Kassam Stadium yesterday. Lifelong fan Jack Hatton, 19, lost his battle with leukaemia in October last year. Despite his illness, the Carterton teenager did

  • The C-word

    The present coalition Government is just a mouthful of letter ‘C’s and the Conservative Party will become known as Cameron’s Carbuncle with a Coalition of Clegg’s Clowns and Cowboys who have been given Carte Blanche to Cut, Cut, Cut, in Catastrophic fashion

  • FOOTBALL: Abingdon take derby honours - again

    Abingdon United stopped the rot as they secured their Evo-Stik Southern League Division 1 South & West status with a derby-day victory over ten-man Didcot – their first win in 16 games. The last time Abingdon won in the League was on Boxing Day when

  • Night work will keep A34 fit for traffic

    PLANS for a facelift of the A34 to keep it in good condition through Oxfordshire have been announced. The Highways Agency has been given permission to impose traffic restrictions on the busy trunk road through Oxfordshire over the coming

  • Screen debut

    OXFORD: Hollywood stars are expected on the red carpet at the London premiere of a film by an Oxford screenwriter tonight. The screenplay of Salmon Fishing in The Yemen, which stars Ewan McGregor, Emily Blunt and Kristin Scott Thomas, was written by

  • Comic deals up cash for Helen

    OXFORD: Comedian Jimmy Carr won £750 for Helen and Douglas House Hospice in a celebrity episode of television show Deal or No Deal. Mr Carr, who has taken part in the East Oxford hospice’s fundraiser Childish Things for a number of years, turned down

  • Jon is voice of sat nav and iPhone

    MOST people hate hearing the sound of their own voice. But for Jon Briggs – who hears himself on his own sat nav and iPhone – it’s virtually inescapable. The 47-year-old from Oxford is the voice of the new iPhone, as well as a string of sat navs and

  • Young vet ‘was ray of sunshine’

    SHE was a ray of sunshine who lit up the lives of everyone around her. That was just one of the many tributes to a newly -qualified vet killed in a crash last week. Flowers have been laid at the scene on the A420 where 25-year-old Rachael Jackson died

  • Wilder unhappy as late goal denies Oxford United victory

    CHRIS Wilder bemoaned Oxford United’s inability to kill games off as they drew 2-2 at home to Torquay United yesterday. For the second game in a row the U’s were hit with a late goal, as goalkeeper Ryan Clarke – struggling with a rib injury – could only

  • Man kicked in face at bus stop

    BEN HOUGHTON was waiting for a bus to go to see his girlfriend when a stranger kicked him hard in the face. The 39-year-old from Greater Leys suffered four facial fractures and has nerve damage. Now police are appealing for help in tracking down the

  • Man injured in collision dies in hospital

    A MAN who was seriously injured in a car crash in Kidlington has died in hospital. The 68-year-old from Yarnton, who was a passenger in a silver Subaru Impreza, died at Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital on Saturday. Police were called to the A44 Woodstock

  • Round the world cyclist gets a big cheer home

    AFTER four years cycling more than 45,000 miles around the world, Matthew Blake had earned a celebratory pint or two. The 25-year-old arrived home in Chacombe, near Banbury, at 5.30pm on Saturday after his epic adventure. He was greeted by more than

  • Office lease bill

    An extra £300,000 needs to be spent by Oxford City Council so it can rent out its offices in St Ebbe’s Street. Council workers vacated the Ramsay House building earlier this year and the building has since been marketed on a long leasehold and ‘to let

  • Peppa and George pop in to the palace

    They say you should never meet your hero, but that did not deter children at Blenheim Palace this weekend. Dozens of delighted youngsters queued up to meet cartoon character Peppa Pig and friends at the palace. Among them was four-year-old Robyn Hulme-Cross