Archive

  • Calls for traffic lights to be axed

    IT IS one of the busiest junctions in Oxford and a gateway to the city centre. So when Frideswide Square’s traffic lights failed at rush hour, you may have thought it would cause an outcry. But what you might not have expected was motorists

  • Residents fight for village green

    NEIGHBOURS are fighting plans to build on a patch of land they call their village green. A planning application has been submitted for seven houses opposite Grosvenor Terrace, between Warmans Close and Naldertown, in Wantage. Father-of-three Neil Townsend

  • Hole-ly cow! What a way to raise cash

    ONE Oxfordshire resident is set to raise money – and eyebrows – with an unusual stunt for Comic Relief. Duncan Wileman, 29, plans to get a few more additions to his 25 piercings and countless tattoos. The window cleaner, from Carterton, said: “For Red

  • Bare Facts

    KATHERINE MACALISTER meets Australian Emma Powell, the woman behind sell-out show Busting Out! which is coming to Oxford Emma Powell calls Busting Out! her “little bitty titty show”. Either way she and Bev Killick get their boobs out on

  • Sugar Plump Fairies

    The Big Ballet dancers are as happy to show off their 100 kilo plus figures as their steps. Katherine MacAlister tracks down these Russian heavyweights to find out just why Big Ballet requires a very special sort of discipline. Apparently

  • Liam's Flex Appeal

    UNKNOWN (12A) Action/Thriller. Liam Neeson, Diane Kruger, January Jones, Aidan Quinn, Bruno Ganz, Sebastian Koch, Frank Langella. Director: Jaume Collet-Serra. It’s never too late to become a Hollywood action star – just

  • Tempting Fate

    THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU (12A) Sci-Fi/Action/Romance/Thriller. Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Anthony Mackie, Terence Stamp, John Slattery, Anthony Ruivivar, Michael Kelly. Director: George Nolfi. Every minute of every hour of every day

  • Dawn Chorus

    Reggae star Dawn Penn tells TIM HUGHES she’s enjoying being back in the limelight. DAWN Penn is a reggae legend. Her 1967 recording of the classic You Don’t Love Me (with its haunting refrain of ‘No, No, No’) was a massive hit and a formative

  • Universal Appeal

    KATHERINE MACALISTER ezxplores the wealth of fascinating events on offer at Oxford Science Festival Making slime, getting up close and personal with wildlife, creating your own fossils, concocting ice cream using liquid nitrogen and extracting

  • Being Rango-ed

    RANGO (PG) Animation/Western/Comedy. Featuring the voices of Johnny Depp, Isla Fisher, Abigail Breslin, Ned Beatty, Ray Winstone, Bill Nighy, Timothy Olyphant, Alfred Molina. Director: Gore Verbinski. Computer-animated heroes

  • Hot Topic

    ANDREW FFRENCH delves into our latest Book of the Month – Solar, a climate change tale by Ian McEwan. THE BOOK: SOLAR, Ian McEwan’s latest novel, takes a look at the hot topic of climate change. In the hands of less able

  • Love Shy

    TIM HUGHES enters the gentle, unassuming world of Peter Scott and his acclaimed band Exlovers. ASK most bands about their wickedest and wildest times and you’re inevitably regaled with lurid tales of backstage debauchery and late night hi-jinks

  • Local share prices (PM)

    AEA Technology 4.9 BMW 5025 Electrocomponents 273.4 Nationwide Accident Repair 99 Oxford Biomedica 6.4 Oxford Catalysts 83 Oxford Instruments 613.5 Reed Elsevier 544.75 RM 148.8 RPS Group 204.8 Courtesy of Redmayne Bentley

  • Self-build ideas on show

    Inspiration on how to design your dream home through to tips on saving energy can be found at the National Housebuilding and Renovating Show next month. The event, which runs from March 24-27 at the NEC in Birmingham, will include more than 500 exhibitors

  • Red Bull Rookies support AirAsia British Grand Prix

    Silverstone has secured the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup, the Red Bull Matadors and legendary trials rider Dougie Lampkin as part of the support package for the AirAsia British Grand Prix (June 10-12). The Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup will

  • Chance meeting led to 60 years of marriage

    SIXTY years after their first chance meeting at a dance in Barton, Jean and Arthur Taylor celebrate their Diamond Wedding anniversary today. Despite living close to each other in Sandhills and Barton for the first 20 years of their lives, the couple

  • Alfred Lee: Nicknamed Gypsy Lee

    A POLICEMAN whose rapport with travellers gave him the moniker ‘Gypsy Lee’ has died at the age of 76. Alfred Lee was given the nickname because he was the only officer that travellers at The Slade Camp, Headington, Oxford, would welcome on to their site

  • Heritage plan for historic Sapa site

    PLANS to redevelop a former factory in Banbury have been revised to “protect the heritage” of the site. Planning permission is being sought by owner Standard Life Investments for six buildings at the 53-acre former Sapa factory site in Southam Road.

  • Parents tell of ‘appalling’ care

    THE parents of a baby, who died in the care of a midwife who was last week struck off, have spoken of their child’s “appalling” treatment. Teresa, 41, and Richard Wood, 51, said they did “not for one moment” expect problems at the May 2007 birth of their

  • Launch of dog-mess clampdown

    A COUNCIL is preparing to take its first pet owner to court for refusing to clean up after their dog. Cherwell District Council fined two people this year for failing to clear up excrement after their dogs fouled in the street. One has already paid

  • Dance company faces cash crisis

    AN award-winning dance company for people with learning disabilities faces imminent closure unless it can raise £50,000. Anjali Dance Company, has just five weeks to raise the cash or it will be forced to shut its doors for good. The charity, based

  • Stolen jewellery to be put on show

    Police have recovered suspected stolen jewellery after finding three stolen cars. The cars, a black Audi S5 Quattro found in Old Grimsbury Road, Banbury; a black Volkswagen Golf found in Warwickshire, and a gold BMW, found in Slough, are all suspected

  • Dentist and wife involved in NHS fraud case

    A husband-and-wife team who ran a dental surgery have been found guilty of defrauding the NHS. Peter Wedge, 42, who ran the Castle Street Surgery, Banbury, was found guilty by jurors at Oxford Crown Court of one count of fraud. His 43

  • Burglars fail in attempted Rose Hill shop break-in

    Police are appealing for witnesses following an attempted burglary in Rose Hill, Oxford. Thieves attempted to break into Rose Hill stores on Courtland Road at 3am on Saturday. They damaged the skylight on the roof of the shop but did not steal anything

  • An Oxford treasure trove

    A Victorian house in East Oxford is a treasure trove of period features. Linden Lodge, in St Mary’s Road, was a labour of love for the late Reverend John Reynolds, a keen historian and theologian. When he bought the property 25 years ago, the house

  • Antisocial behaviour

    I HAVE been puzzled by the difficulty there appears to have been in clearing St Peter’s Road, Wolvercote, of Mr Kravchencko’s collection of vehicles (Oxford Mail, February 22.) Surely, this has been a classic instance of the antisocial behaviour which

  • Anyone else wonder?

    did any other readers wonder if Labour councillors were really skiving off the North East Area Committee to meet Gordon Brown? Or was it really for a chance to win a copy of Tony Blair’s book? Chris Shipton, Headington, Oxford

  • Doubling up on what was there in north Oxford

    A 1930s semi has been completely reconstructed and the amount of space inside almost doubled. Work on the house in Five Mile Drive included an extension to the side and back and a loft conversion. The property is arranged over three floors and includes

  • The big delusion

    When the idea was put forward that volunteers should run essential services as part of a Big Society, the first question that came to my mind was, where are these volunteers to be found? From my experience, they do not exist. Both Betty, my wife, and

  • Mind your manners

    County Council leader Keith Mitchell (Oxford Mail, February 25) ignores my question about the council using our money to employ helpers for the main political parties. Instead, he asks who I would really like to run the council. The answer is simple:

  • Nowhere to turn

    I WRITE with reference to your story about the parking chaos in Marston (Mail, February 23). I often find it almost impossible to get around the corner at the top of Rippington Drive in the daytime because cars are parked on both sides of the road.

  • We value committee

    AS one of the Labour councillors who attended the dinner with Gordon Brown (Oxford Mail, February 22), I would like to make some points in response: Councillors who chose to attend the dinner paid for it entirely out of their own money. I myself only

  • Our area committees are in need of reform

    Mick Haines (Oxford Mail, letters, February 21) is a regular attender at the city council’s North East Area Committee (NEAC) and is contentious in his pursuit of action on local issues in New Marston and beyond. As its chairman, I am used to Mick’s inevitable

  • Cinema listings March 4-10 Correction

    We published the wrong set of cinema listings in this week's The Oxford Times. We apologise for the error. The correct listings are below. Cineworld, 27 Station Road, Didcot: Rango, PG, Sat-Sun 12.30pm, daily 3, 5.30, 8pm. The Adjustment Bureau, 12A

  • TV show property near Witney

    A spiral staircase is one of many character features in a house chosen to appear on TV series Escape To The Country. The five-bedroom house is spread over three floors and overlooks the village green in Leafield. The Old Store has slate-tiled flooring

  • Faringdon burglars escape with £10 note

    Burglars escaped with a £10 note after breaking into a home in Pye Street, Faringdon, through a rear window. The break-in happened sometime between 9.50am on Friday and 9.30am on Saturday, but details were only released today. PC Fran

  • Date is set for roadworks

    Work is due to start next week on a long-awaited perimeter road aimed at reducing congestion at a Bicester trouble-spot. Work will start on Wednesday to build a roundabout to link the new perimeter road from the A41 to Howes Lane. The link road, aimed

  • Burglars steal cash from Blackbird Leys pub

    Police are appealing for witnesses after a burglary at the Bullnose Morris pub, in Watlington Road, Blackbird Leys, Oxford. Thieves broke into the pub at approximately 1.30am on Tuesday by forcing open the front entrance. During the burglary, the

  • Thief ‘has local links’

    Police said this suspected purse thief could have links to Banbury and Bicester. He is shown here on CCTV in an Argos store in Stratford-upon-Avon. A bank card stolen along with a purse in Calder Close, Grimsbury, Banbury, was used in the store, police

  • Loyalty card offers corking deals

    WITH Mother’s Day and Easter coming up, make sure you use your Oxford Mail Loyalty Card to get a great deal from the Oxford Wine Company. Only Oxford Mail readers who pay to have the paper delivered six days a week receive the free Loyalty Card. Among

  • Fashion show off its Gaga side

    DESIGNERS whose clothes have been worn by outlandish pop queen Lady Gaga featured in a show of unusual designs for Oxford Fashion Week. Designers Yvonne Lau and Ara Jo were among the designers who brought the unusual side of the fashion world

  • Six charged after drugs raid

    Six men were due to appear before magistrates this morning charged with conspiracy to supply cocaine. Nicholas Dean, 45, from Roman Way, Bicester, Jason Dean, 43, from Ash Grove, Headington, Roy Davis, 62, from Franklin Close, Haddenham, near Thame,

  • Three city men make UK squad trials

    THREE Oxford men have scooped the chance to represent England in the Homeless World Cup. Darren Lavin, 38, Adrian Bottley, 22, and 17-year-old Sheldon Evans will have further trials with the squad after try-outs in the city last month. More than 60

  • "Fifth Beatle" gets honorary degreee

    BEATLES' producer George Martin is to get an honorary degree from Oxford University. Sir George is sometimes referred to as the “fifth Beatle,” thanks to his work producing all but one of The Beatles’ albums. A former Head of EMI’s Parlophone

  • S-MAXimum cool

    Thirteen long, and sometimes hard, winters of two-wheeled travel teach you a thing or two about respecting the dangers of snow and ice. You quickly learn that a winter wonderland of glistening trees means it’s just as likely that the road will

  • Police question drug ring suspects

    NINE people were still being questioned last night and others were bailed and cautioned after police targeted a suspected drugs ring. Tens of thousands of pounds of cannabis and cocaine was believed to have been seized by officers in 22 raids during

  • RUGBY UNION: Trio called up

    Abingdon School pair Thomas Kynge and Peter Moore, plus Cokethorpe pupil Joshua Poole have been named in a 70-man England Under 16 training squad. Alec Hepburn (Henley College) came off the bench to help England Under 18s defeat Italy Under 19 64-0.

  • Local share prices (AM)

    AEA Technology 4.9 BMW 5016 Electrocomponents 273.6 Nationwide Accident Repair 99 Oxford Biomedica 6.35 Oxford Catalysts 84.5 Oxford Instruments 613.5 Reed Elsevier 540 RM 149 RPS Group 202.4 Courtesy of Redmayne Bentley, Abingdon

  • Students brush up on human rights

    A FREE festival of films about human rights is celebrating its 20th year in Oxford. Arts groups and Cheney School sixth formers have helped produce artwork to advertise The Human Rights Film Festival, which runs until Friday, March 11. The festival,

  • Sex game went wrong, murder jury told

    A MAN accused of murdering his partner strangled her in a sex game that went wrong, his barrister told jurors yesterday. Sean Freaney, 51, denies murdering Lisa Consterdine, 48, at their Purslane Drive, Bicester, home on February 28 last year. David

  • Leys stabbing victim making good recovery

    A MAN stabbed behind shops in Blackbird Leys was making a good recovery last night. The 48-year-old victim was stabbed in the stomach with a double-pronged weapon at Top Shops in Knights Road at about 12.15pm on Tuesday. He was in the service road behind

  • Vital cancer details go unrecorded

    VITAL information about the severity of cancer is not recorded in three-quarters of Oxfordshire cases, an investigation has found. Doctors are not recording enough information in about 1,875 out of 2,500 cancer diagnoses in Oxfordshire every year, according

  • Brewery steps in to save popular pub

    AN EMPTY Oxford pub that locals feared could be demolished is to be refurbished and reop-ened. The landlords of The Rusty Bicycle, in Magdalen Road, will take over the running of The Radcliffe Arms, in Cranham Street, Jericho, in April after

  • County footpaths map goes online

    A FULL legal record of the county’s rights of way has been published online. Oxfordshire County Council has provided a “definitive map and statements” to help buyers check whether 2,600 miles of public routes cross property. Paper maps can still be

  • Top school chefs use their noodles

    FRESH ingredients, strong flavours... and not a Turkey Twizzler in sight. The future of school dinners was laid bare yesterday as cooks from across the South East went head-to-head to see who could whip up the best meal. Cuisine ranged from Moroccan

  • ATHLETICS: Hannah eyes up Euro medal

    Oxford City’s Hannah England goes into this weekend’s European Indoor Championships in Paris with a medal on her mind as she continues her build-up to London 2012. After posting an indoor personal best of 4mins 7.24secs in the 1500m to finish

  • RUGBY UNION: Chinnor’s rally downs Henley

    Chinnor 23, Henley Hawks 16 Whatever head coach Jason Bowers said to his players at half-time seemed to do the trick as Chinnor reached the Oxfordshire Cup semi-finals. Chinnor trailed 8-6 after a lacklustre first half at Kingsey Road

  • Six charged after drugs raids

    Officers from Thames Valley Police's Serious and Organised Crime Unit have charged six men after 22 drugs raids in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire on Tuesday. A total of 17 people were arrested. The six men have all been charged with conspiracy to

  • RACING: Whittington's joy at first winner

    Harry Whittington is on a high after Mount Benger – the only point-to-pointer he trains – gave him his first National Hunt winner with a thrilling success at Huntingdon. Whittington, 30, who runs a satellite yard at Sparsholt, near Wantage, for Lambourn

  • ATHLETICS: Waknell makes national final

    RADLEY youngster Lois Waknell came of age as she reached the final of the Under 15 200m at the Aviva England Athletics Open Under 15-20 Indoor Championships in Birmingham. Waknell clocked 26.84 secs in her first heat, before booking a place in the final

  • ATHLETICS: Naylor edged out by Olympian

    WOODSTOCK Harriers ace Steve Naylor continued his remarkable winter season with a superb second place at Sunday’s Bourton 10K. Only Great Britain Olympic athlete Dan Robinson got the better of Naylor, who crossed the line in the silver medal position

  • ATHLETICS: Ahmet rolls back the years with double

    LYN Ahmet, of Radley, returned with a gold and bronze medal from the British Masters Indoor Champ-ionships at Lee Valley in London. Competing in the Vet 55 age group, Ahmet claimed a gold in the triple jump with a leap of 7.18m to add to the bronze

  • ATHLETICS: Swindon to host final round

    THE 2010-11 Oxford Mail Cross Country League draws to a conclusion in Swindon on Sunday. Woodstock Harrier Steve Naylor will go for glory in the senior and overall men’s competition, while Newbury’s Susie Bush goes likewise in the women’s event. In

  • GOLF: Oxford ladies destroy Frilford

    OXFORD Ladies saw off local rivals Frilford Heath 4½-½ in round two of the Mail on Sunday Classic. Played in very damp conditions at Frilford, wins from Dee Chappelle (2&1), Maggie Findlay (3&2), Clare Fox (4&3) and Maggie Edwards (5&4) saw Oxford cruise

  • BOWLS: Watts hit by double woe

    OXFORD & District’s Howard Watts suffered a double disappointment in the area finals of the English Indoor Bowling Association National Championships. Watts’s side of Eddie Pilgrim, Paul Comley and Nick Rae-Welsh were pipped 16-15 by skip Simon Jones

  • Fears over rent levels

    FANCY setting up shop in Oxford’s Covered Market? You may think again after hearing about the going rate for one of the landmark site’s empty shops. Palm’s Delicatessen has been empty for a year and is available for rent at £40,000-a-year

  • COMMENT: Shoddy service

    SOME companies really need to examine their approach to customer service. The ordeal suffered by Paul Smith, which left him off work for six months and on medication for life, has been made significantly worse by the four-and-a-half year battle he has

  • BAR BILLIARDS:Vikings maul Masons to march on at top

    Vikings increased their lead at the top of the Premier Section to four points with a 5-0 win over Section 1 leaders Masons B at Didcot Conservative Club, writes PETE EWINS. Alan Oliver (4,260), Mike Jones (6,710), Ian Moss (5,980), Bob Allsworth and

  • AUNT SALLY: Players wanted

    WEST Oxford Democrats Club are looking for new players for their Greene King Oxford & District League side. Contact Marcus Cornish on 01865 247806. INDOOR RESULTS Kidlington Indoor League – Triples Competition prelim round: S Smith, D Leopold, T Denton

  • ICE HOCKEY: Stars rally to scalp Redskins

    Oxford City Stars bounced back from a 9-3 defeat at home to Invicta Dynamos to win 6-3 at Streatham Redskins in their South Division 1 double-header. The latter result sees Stars leapfrog Streatham into sixth place to boost their hopes of finishing

  • CRICKET: Cherwell EGM to be fixed

    A DATE for the next MP Sports Cherwell League extraordinary general meeting is set to be fixed tonight. The meeting is required to vote on proposals for members of chairman Clive Ricks’s new management team. It comes after Ricks quelled a rebellion

  • RUGBY UNION: England enjoy scene change

    England's RBS Six Nations squad have added star quality to Oxford’s rugby scene this week as they stay and train in the city. Martin Johnson’s men have been put through their paces in the gym and on the pitches at St Edward’s School during a three-day

  • Bookbinding 'bible' is sellout

    FAME came late,and in a faraway country to pensioner Tony Clark. An Indian publisher decided to produce his book, first published in Britain 14 years ago, in India — and queues of people clamouring for copies stretched around the hall at a publishers

  • COMMENT: Can traders afford £40k?

    OXFORD City Council is in a tricky position as landlord of the city’s iconic Covered Market. Today we once again report traders’ complaints about the level of rent the city sets. On one hand the council has a duty to maximise the return on its assets

  • Oxford Utd 9, North Leigh 3

    Oxford United stormed into the semi-finals of the Oxfordshire Senior Cup by seeing off North Leigh 9-3 at Thame United’s ASM Stadium. Fielding a strong line-up including first-teamers Jack Midson, Alfie Potter and Simon Hackney, the U’s outgunned

  • Local author John Powell

    John Powell travelled to Ghana in 1971 to lecture in mechanical engineering. Now retired and living in Witney, his novel The Colonial Gentleman’s Son (Book Guild, £17.99) tells the story of Kwame Mainu, born in Ghana in 1957, just four days before independence

  • Interview with Nicholas Evans

    When writer Nicholas Evans travels to Oxford from his home in Devon for the Literary Festival next month, the trip will be meticulously planned. Not because the author of the best-selling novel The Horse Whisperer is some sort of control freak, rather

  • Strict injunction

    Sir – I write with reference to your correspondent’s restaurant review (February 24). Such a stickler for standards and good grammar as Mr Gray must surely regret the omission of a comma from his parenthetical remark: “Regular readers (including

  • History round-up

    The End of Byzantium John Harris (Yale, £25) The assault on the bastions of Constantinople in 1453, with its attendant rape and slaughter, is one of the pillars of East-West conflict that never fails to attract historians. Harris is fully in command

  • Greener travel

    Sir – I would like to suggest a campaign (proposed to be financially supported by Oxford Tube and Oxford Bus Company) to improve secure bicycle parking arrangements adjacent to stops for services to London, so as to encourage “greener” travel options

  • Moving moment

    Sir – Your many readers who left shell-shocked after watching Journey’s End at the Oxford Playhouse last week may like to know that the stunning final curtain was not (as many national critics assumed) the work of director David Grindley.

  • Hospital food

    Sir – With reference to your report Hospital’s food features in TV documentary (February 24), Oxfordshire LINk has provided a small grant to Patient Voice to investigate both the quality of the food and accessibility of feeding, as provided for

  • A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

    A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness Vampires and witches in Oxford’s Bodleian Library? Whatever next? According to Diana Bishop, heroine of A Discovery of Witches, vampires prefer science labs (particle accelerators, decoding the

  • Shopkeepers' plea for help

    In the run-up to the Budget later this month, retailers report that customers are spending less — thanks to inflation and fears about public sector job cuts. This week the herbalist chain Culpeper has been put into administration. Its Oxford branch will

  • 1,200 applications for Asda jobs

    ABOUT 1,200 job hunters have applied for 70 positions at the new Asda 'mini department store' on Templars Retail Park in Cowley. Store manager Mike Doidge was delighted with the response, which followed articles about the new Asda Living store in The

  • Leave pool alone

    Sir – I was amused by the council’s spokesman, Louisa Dean, who at the Save Temple Cowley Pool protest said that retaining the pool and gym, ‘is full of risks as more serious issues may be found with the building’. The council has continuously

  • Time for revolution

    Sir – As Martin Thomas and Rosanne Bostock have already indicated (Letters, February 17 and 3) it is time for a shake-up of our local government system and a restructuring of local authorities to provide a fairer and more representative system. Never

  • Young Romantics by Daisy Hay

    YOUNG ROMANTICS: THE SHELLEYS, BYRON AND OTHER TANGLED LIVES by Daisy Hay (Bloomsbury, £20)The tangled and tragic lives of Byron, Shelley, his wife Mary and most of those who got involved with them are well known — and at first I wondered whether there

  • Excellent state schools

    Sir – I was delighted to read Anne Furtado’s letter (February 24) describing her positive experiences of Cherwell school, and the inspired mentoring scheme there. My own experiences of state education in Oxford (many years ago) were dire, and it brings

  • Cambridge in the lead

    Sir – A shame on you Oxford since, in my experience, even the Third World and post-communist Eastern Europe have nothing comparable to offer. Changing coaches at Gloucester Green bus station last week, my wife and I needed to use a toilet. It was only

  • Pride in the city

    Sir – Could I thank the hundreds of volunteer litter pickers who will be out in force at the weekend (March 4 and 5) to give Oxford a good spring clean? OxClean, run by the Civic Society and backed by The Oxford Times, does a fantastic job. This is the

  • Open but sceptical

    Sir – County council leader, Keith Mitchell has enthusiastically used your publication to praise and “puff” LSSI as a potential contracted-out manager for Oxfordshire’s libraries. All-for-profit LSSI’s reputation is not distinguished by universal praise

  • Lasting damage

    Sir – In a letter to your paper (February 24) Mr Feasey referred to councillor Mitchell’s rejection of the option to keep all libraries open for shorter hours being based on ‘clear professional advice that (this) would damage the whole service long term

  • Cut senior posts

    Sir – None of your correspondents have mentioned that Southampton City Council, despite 25 per cent funding costs and the need to find £25m in savings, have agreed a budget which protects all its libraries and leisure centres, increases its budget for

  • Time to get nasty and horrible, says Oxford United boss

    Chris Wilder has reminded his Oxford United players that they have to do the horrible things in football to be successful, as well as playing pretty football. It follows their 3-1 defeat at Lincoln on Tuesday night, a second successive League

  • Divisive indoctrination

    Sir – Bob Forster intemperately makes it clear in his letter this week that he disagrees with my wish for state-supported schools to be free of divisive religious indoctrination and that he does not agree that it is good that the theme of this year’s

  • Crass approach

    Sir – I am pleased that the county council appears to be having a rethink on its proposals to close half of its libraries. These proposals lacked coherence and logic and failed to convince the people of Oxfordshire. In most cost-cutting exercises it

  • Ridiculous blustering

    Sir – It seems that councillor Keith Mitchell, when writing to the people he is supposed to be serving, cannot help himself and feels that he simply must insult their intelligence. In his latest letter to The Oxford Times, (I do not want to see county

  • Police need to be seen

    Sir – A few days ago we were told that a disaster had struck the police effort in Bayswater Road, Oxford, when the speed camera allegedly failed to work, apparently because the battery was flat. However all was not lost, according to the senior

  • Oxford man charged over London student fees protest

    A 24-year-old East Oxford man is one of eight people charged following a student protest at the Conservative Party headquarters last year. Paul Sheppard, of Iffley Road, Oxford, was bailed to appear at City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court on March

  • Squaring up

    No one thinks that the Frideswide Square junction outside Oxford Rail Station is fit for purpose. It is awkward and it causes more problems than it solves. The question is how much you need to do to ensure that traffic can negotiate it without delay,

  • Parky at the Pictures (In Cinemas 3/3/2011)

    On 7 October 1955, Allen Ginsberg got to his feet in the Six Gallery on Fillmore Street in San Francisco. The words he spoke over the next few minutes changed his life forever and significantly altered the course of American literature. However

  • 'Doctors and nurses' put best foot forward

    The staff, volunteers and friends of John Masefield House will be walking a section of the Thames Pathway from Friday 25th March 25, until Sunday, March 27, in an effort to complete the fundraising for a ‘Biometric Computer System’ and start fundraising

  • Parky at the Pictures (DVD 3/3/2011)

    Around the time he was making Mon Oncle (1958), Jacques Tati started work on a scenario about the avuncular relationship between a French magician and a young Czech girl who believed he could conjure anything out of thin air. His grandson Richard

  • 'Switch off traffic lights'

    CALLS have been made to turn off the lights at one of Oxford’s busiest junctions, after the traffic ran more smoothly when they failed. The traffic lights at Frideswide Square, outside the city’s railway station, were not working last Thursday

  • Giving time and expertise

    Youngsters who help older people learn computer skills have urged teenagers to support The Oxford Times’s Give An Hour volunteering campaign. We have teamed up with charity Age UK Oxfordshire to call on county residents to give 10,000 hours to

  • Hall opening floored by legal wrangle

    COUNCIL chiefs are seeking legal advice over a wrangle with builders which has delayed the opening of a £900,000 community hall. Witney Town Council is locked in a dispute with Cheltenham-based Beam Construction Ltd over the opening of Madley Park Hall

  • Teens write own songs to save youth club

    YOUNGSTERS wrote, recorded, designed, and marketed a charity CD in a day in a bid to raise £3,000 for their under-threat youth centre. The 30 teenagers from youth centre Sweatbox in Wantage teamed up with music recording firm Musikscool to make the six-track

  • A wine from Canada that packs a surprise

    Tasting all of the world’s wines before I die is an impossible feat. It is not that I worry about not having tasted everything but I do fret about missing out on the lesser known but hugely exciting ones. At a tasting last week, I was trying

  • Moving with the Times: Pegasus Theatre

    This is an interesting and very varied collection of pieces by professional choreographers living or working in Oxfordshire. Miranda Laurence was surprised by the number of applications she received. “You’re never sure, when you send out a call that’

  • After Troy: Oxford Playhouse

    Troy has been sacked, and many men killed. Written in 415 BC, Euripides’s tragedy Women of Troy tells the story of the grieving widows left behind. In a separate play, Euripides focuses on Hecuba, the Queen of Troy. Now award-winning poet Glyn Maxwell

  • The Tempest: Oxford Playhouse

    The basic story is quickly told. Declan Donnellan met Nick Ormerod at Cambridge and 30 years ago they set up a theatre company, naming it Cheek by Jowl. They started small, at the Edinburgh Festival, with a production of Wycherley’s The Country Wife

  • Muscari: Friend or foe?

    When I was a young teacher I once foolishly volunteered to clear a piece of ground for a school garden without realising that lurking beneath the soil were thousands of small bulbs, each with several babies clinging to its skirts. It was the Grape hyacinth