KIDLINGTON motorsport science company Drayson Racing Technologies has broken the World Electric Land Speed Record. An electric car driven by Lord Paul Drayson achieved 204.2mph along an airbase runway, smashing the previous record of 175mph.
The A41 at Ambrosden was blocked today following an accident between a people carrier and a van. The accident, which happened just before 8am, involved a red Citroen Xsara Picasso and a white Ford Transit panel van. Police said the road was
Residents in Woodstock Road, Oxford, escaped a fire involving four cars parked underneath their flats yesterday morning. Two fire engines were called to Russell Court at approximately 2am. Thick smoke entered residential flats through windows
THE controversial plan to build a block of 40 flats in Cowley was last night approved at the second attempt. The scheme for Barns Road, spearheaded by Grand Designs presenter Kevin McCloud, was initially rejected by Oxford city councillors earlier
The famous Eton Dorney roar was heard again as Great Britain won four gold medals, five silvers and two bronze, in last week’s World Cup Regatta, writes Mike Rosewell. Two of their golds came via two well-known Oxfordshire performers, Frances Houghton
PEOPLE are being urged to nominate a local hero to get the Hollywood treatment. As part of the opening of the new Vue cinema in Bicester’s £70m town centre re-development, the handprints of “worthy” residents will be immortalised in concrete at
USUALLY the bane of lives, a section of roadworks near Wheatley has provided some relief for residents living nearby. A temporary speed limit on the A40 has cut noise and congestion, say those living near the area and using the road. Oxfordshire
AN Oxford man has pleaded guilty to neglect after leaving five baby rabbits to die. Graham Dunn, of Church Hill Road, Cowley, appeared at Oxford Magistrates’ Court on Monday. An RSPCA officer who attended the scene said the dead animals looked
A STALWART at an Oxford credit union has praised the role they play in helping out the city’s needy. Despite being a medical photo- grapher by profession, Geoffrey Richardson spent more than 13 years working as a clerk at the Blackbird Leys Credit
IF the truth is out there the Government has just made it harder to find, according to Oxfordshire’s UFO experts. Declassified files from the National Archives revealed the Ministry of Defence’s decided to shut its UFO desk and hotline in 2009
GYMNASTS are appealing for help to find a temporary home while repairs are made to Bicester’s sports centre. Later this year, the main hall at Bicester Leisure Centre will be closed while new flooring is laid. Bicester and District Gymnastics
DETAILS of the 100 extra homes that will be built at Stockham Farm, Wantage, will soon be made public. Permission for 200 houses on the same site, off Denchworth Road, was granted last year. The new homes would be built next door. Public consultation
FOUR STARS Longborough Festival Opera has since 2007 been steadily unveiling compelling productions, under conductor Anthony Negus, of the four operas that make up Der Ring des Nibelungen in the theatre built beside his Gloucestershire home by
Headlines about the plight of honey bees and the drop in numbers of garden butterflies are more than bald statistics. These insects, and others such as bumblebees, hoverflies and wasps, are vital to the pollination of fruit and vegetable crops.
THREE STARS Working to the principle that you don’t mess with a winning formula, directors Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud deliver more warm-hearted thrills and slapstick spills in the action-packed sequel to their delightful 2010 computer-animated
Oxford Philomusica SUMMER BAROQUE Sheldonian Theatre n Saturday, 8pm Tickets: 01865 980980 oxfordphil.com Oxford Philomusica launches its popular Summer Baroque series with music by Stravinsky, Dorman, C.P.E. Bach and J.S. Bach. They
Theatre THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW New Theatre, Oxford August 27-31 Box office: 0844 871 3020 atgtickets.com/oxford Let’s do the Time Warp again. Get ready for a night of fun, frolics and frivolity in this new 40th anniversary production
THESE Cranford House school pupils may look like they’re having fun pretending to be bats. But there is a serious point behind the game. Construction work on the school’s £1.5m sports hall development has ground to halt because of two bats.
PARENTS in Benson and Cholsey who won an appeal over free bus travel are being warned they will have to fight their corner again. Last year Oxfordshire County Council officers reassessed walking routes to Wallingford School from the two villages
THOUSANDS of people are learning about Abingdon’s history, thanks to a teenager who has set up a Facebook page featuring old photographs of the town. Tom Hutt, 16, who lives on the Tithe Farm estate, set up the Facebook page in February and it
RESIDENTS in Didcot could lose their leisure pool if they fail to take part in the latest consultation on new facilities, a leading councillor has warned. Under a proposal by South Oxfordshire District Council, the popular Didcot Wave in Newlands
HE said he would gladly have it hang on any room in his house. Unfortunately for Keith Burnage, he has had to make do with staring at the photo art on the walls of Oxford Heart Centre. Young photographers from Magdalen College School were given
THE body of the biggest private donor to Oxford University in its 900-year history has been found floating in the sea off a Bermudian island. In the last eight years James Martin has given £150m to Oxford University, which remains the largest single
FOUR STARS A quarter of a century passes in a little over three hours during the National Theatre’s compelling revival, under director Simon Godwin, of Eugene O’Neill’s 1928 Pulitzer prize-winning Strange Interlude. That this passage of time
The Dawn of the Stradivarius, held to mark the launch of the Ashmolean Museum’s exhibition, had special stamped all over it. Canadian violin virtuoso James Ehnes has played regularly on Stradivari violins for nearly two decades, so he was ideal to
TIDDINGTON will host Rockhampton in the first national round of The Davidstow Village Cup on Sunday. Rockhampton, who are known as the Rams, beat Painswick in Sunday’s rearranged Gloucestershire final. The club are expected to bring a decent
A 45-year-old man has admitted causing death by dangerous driving after a crash last year. Andrew Myers, of Hazelwell Crescent, Birmingham, was involved in an accident on the A40 near Witney on September 5. A passenger in his car, Herve Bakundukize
A RARE first edition of TS Eliot’s famous poem The Waste Land raised £5,625 for Cowley-based charity Oxfam yesterday. The charity sold the book with Bonhams auctioneers at Shipton-on-Cherwell near Kidlington after it was donated to its specialist
A gang which preyed on vulnerable young girls will return to the Old Bailey today as they face long prison sentences. The seven men will be sentenced tomorrow after their barristers put forward arguments in mitigation today. The Oxford men
RADLEY College’s Andy Wagner, the Sky Sports ECB coach of the year 2012, attended a masterclass given by England team director, Andy Flower, at Lord’s. Wagner, who also coaches Middlesex’s under 17 and 19 sides, was at the home of cricket with
JONNY Cater fired Oxfordshire to a five-wicket victory over Cornwall at Truro yesterday with a six that brought up his second century of the match. Cater, who finished unbeaten on 102 to follow up his 109 not out in the first innings, was the star
A 24-year-old man is to appear at Oxford Crown Court on Monday following an alleged attempted robbery at Sainsbury’s Heyford Hill store. Daniel Townsend, of Daubeny Road, Oxford, was remanded in custody.
A 32-year-old motorcyclist suffered serious injuries after a crash with an Audi TT on the A40 near the village. The biker, who was on a red Honda, was last night in a critical condition at Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital after the crash at about
Former Time Team presenter and archaeologist Prof Mick Aston, who died on Monday aged 66, was a tutor in local studies at the Oxford University External Studies Department in the 1970s. Prof Aston, pictured, also worked at the Oxford City and County
THIRTY years ago, Michael Stamp watched as a machine was switched on in Culham, hopeful it would become the answer to the world’s energy problems. Yesterday the 55-year-old from Didcot celebrated the 30th anniversary of what is still the world’
ANOTHER hurdle for the £130m rail link between Oxford and London Marylebone has been cleared. The deadline for appealing the decision to reject a judicial review bid against the project has passed. It means work on the Chiltern Railways project
OXFORD University duo Will Rowlands and Sean Morris will play in a curtain-raising match before the third Lions Test in Sydney. They have been selected in a World University Barbarians team to face Sydney University FC, who are celebrating their
HENRY Purdy completed a dream season by winning the Junior World Championship with England Under 20s. The 19-year-old Leicester Tigers player, from Milton-under-Wychwood, helped En-gland defeat Wales 23-15 in Sunday’s final at Stade de la Rabine
Port Meadow is one of the most special places in the country which has inspired artists, poets, writers and people in general who want to participate in its natural beauty. Many people experience epiphanies there precisely because of the timeless
A FEW weeks ago, on an X90 entering London Road, after the Hamburger, the gentleman I sat next to had what I can only describe as a look of alarm when we hit the bus lane surface. I explained it was the road surface, and not the bus falling apart
I AM sorry Michael Dowsett (ViewPoints, June 21) finds my comments about David Cameron “deeply unpleasant”, but I fear Mr Dowsett is regarding the Prime Minister through rose- tinted spectacles. Unfortunately, David Cameron has a track record of
So Owen Paterson, Environment Minister, thinks the public should embrace GM foods and that they are safer than commercial foods. What tosh. The reason that politicians wish for us to have GM crops is that their GM pals would reap enormous profits
SO Mr Cameron says he got a better deal for the UK from the EU, yet we still have to throw fish back, and pay billions in taxes to a corrupt and unelected parliament. He says the position will be put to the vote in 2017. Why wait that long?
ANDREW Linzey, Professor of Divinity at Oxford University, has called on the RSPCA to prosecute those currently slaughtering our badger population, since this is in contravention of the Bern Convention. This criminal ‘cull’ was opposed in a letter
TODAY my article is about justice. How many times have we heard the phrase “it’s not fair”? Children say it all the time, as we did when we were young. In the dictionary it says it means – among other things – that punishment should be appropriate
SIX Oxford United fans have been handed curfews and football banning orders for clashing with police outside the Kassam Stadium. Trouble broke out near the ground’s east stand before the match between United and League Two rivals Bristol Rovers
Oxfordshire will be looking to crown its first world champion on Saturday. The third World Aunt Sally Singles Championship takes place at Charlbury Cricket Club from 12noon. And the first two titles have gone to players from players from outside
Holders Kevin Baker and Philip Adams (Cricketers B) were given a scare before reaching the pairs semi-finals. They opened up by beating Dave Leopold and Simon Somerscales (Black Prince) 2-0 in the second round. After winning the first leg,
Nicole Nordblad, who is based at Kingston Lisle, near Wantage, added to her impressive record at Brighton with victory on Beacon Lady yesterday. The 17-year-old took her tally to five wins from just six rides at the seaside venue with an easy six
They began at 4.30am, cawing so loudly that within minutes of first light breaking, the entire campsite was awake, and cursing. As I held my pillow around my ears the phrase ‘stone the crows’ suddenly began to make sense. Shooting them would
WOULD anyone be able to help me locate the whereabouts of a black Morris Minor, registration number WFC 288? My father, who turns 90 soon, owned this car from new in 1954 until the early ’90s and it would be great if I could arrange for him to
WITH reference to David Diment’s letter (ViewPoints, June 20): come on, David, don’t be so pompous. For a start, I wasn’t complaining about the “Police operation” notice. Just found it amusing. I am not an insinuating sort of person. My few
THE Secretary of State for Health proposes that those allegedly responsible for the mind-boggling layer upon layer of apparent incompetence with respect to the CQC scandal should face sanctions, such as the forfeiture of their pensions. Big deal
LONDON Welsh’s first match of the new Championship season will be on a neutral venue. The Exiles will take on Bedford at Saracens’ Allianz Park on the weekend of September 13, 14 and 15. This is part of an extra round introduced by organisers
Sir – The behaviour of the county council concerning the Magnet scheme is hard to understand. It commissioned the architects Insalls to produce a report arguing against the listing of the Register Office, which the Secretary of State, in deciding
Good morning. Our coverage of the Bullfinch sentencing is due to start at 11am today Child sex ring members are back in the dock. Mohammed Karrar was earlier refusing to come up from his cell, the Old Bailey heard. Girl 1's dad statement: "These
Sir – Hugh Jaeger of the Bus Users UK Oxford Group believes (Letters, June 13) that taking buses out of Queen Street would be a mistake. Some 50 years ago Queen Street was completely closed for roadworks and I could see this from my office window
AS scandals engulf the Metropolitan Police and our own force admits failings over the Bullfinch child sex ring, it is timely to report the heroism of former Wantage man Pc Adam Koch. He received a commendation for saving a boy from a knife-wielding
A masonry firm stands accused of committing corporate manslaughter after the death of one of its employees in 2010. Yesterday a representative of Cavendish Masonry Limited appeared in Oxford Magistrates’ Court. The Bristol and Bath-based company
A decision on Kevin McCloud’s “grand design” for Cowley is set to be made tonight. The Barns Road development of 40 flats was initially thrown out by Oxford City Council’s east area planning committee earlier this month. But a group of city
TRAVELLERS were yesterday moved on by police after parking at an Oxford recreation ground. Thames Valley Police were called at 9.30am to Oatlands Road Recreation Ground, off Botley Road, after 11 vehicles arrived. There were concerns the caravans
Sir – Hugh Jaeger (Letters, June 13) is right. Buses and pedestrians co-exist surprisingly well in Queen Street. The drivers are careful and considerate. On the approach of a bus, pedestrians move aside with good humour. Please could the bus companies
POLICE officers being honoured for their bravery and saving lives is not uncommon. Adam Koch’s parents Gill and David, though, had two reasons to be proud of their son last week because as he picked up a commendation for rescuing a child from a
Sir – I read with interest about Oxford City Council’s new signs, to encourage cyclists to use Oxford’s north-east cycle route that will make it safer and easier for cyclists to get to and from the city centre. The council has spent £12,000 on
Sir – Councillors maintain that the £70,000 work on Jack Straws Lane is an improvement for cyclists. I use this road daily on my cycle and find the opposite. Cars try to avoid the centre strip by straddling it which is no help to cyclists.
Sir – I had never driven in Oxford before, so quite understandably I was totally unfamiliar with the ‘lucrative trap’ that the council have decided to impose on unsuspecting motorists. I had been driving around and around the city, becoming increasingly
Sir – We have received a letter from Thames Water. It is addressed to “The Occupier” at our address. But on the back of the envelope we are asked: “Is this addressed to someone who has moved?” Well, no, “the occupier” has not moved . . . s/he wouldn't
Sir – The concerns of Keith Beckingham (Letters, June 6) with regard to sewage flooding are shared across the district. In addition to Brize Norton there have been problems in Carterton, Finstock, Standlake and Tackley. So far, Thames Water
Sir – With the floods in Central Europe, it is quite likely that we will have another flood this summer. Rather than lurching from crisis to crisis, it would seem time for businesses, residents and the council to work together to create defences
Sir – Jaycee Higgens, however tongue-in-cheek he may be writing, makes the common mistake of assuming that the ‘olde Englishe’ spelling and pronunciation of the definite article were ‘ye’, with the letter ‘y’ as in ‘you’ (Orlternativ spellin, Letters
Sir – I was disappointed to discover at the recent Oxfordshire School Forum evidence of the collective failure of schools in the county to spend the taxpayers’ funds allocated to them. Despite promising in their draft budgets submitted in 2012
Sir – I am inclined to agree with Daniel Emlyn-Jones (Letters, June 13) that, aside from a healthy debate of opposing ideas, the believer/atheist relationship is otherwise too polarised. In many of my letters I have made a point of saying that I don
Sir – It is quite alarming to watch ‘local democracy’ at work. Take the Port Meadow flats fiasco, for example. This is just the tip of the iceberg, what lies beneath the water is far worse; the closing of streets for ‘fun day’ activities go ahead
Sir – In one of the halves of the Headington roundabout, there is a curious enclosure or stockade, railed off for some uncertain purpose. It currently contains a spare traffic light. On one side of this enclosure there are set of cardboard tubes
Sir – I wanted to thank all the friendly helpers and especially the farmer at Southdown Farm, near Witney, for a fantastic open day on Sunday, June 9. It was a truly inspiring day for young and old alike with an array of chickens, geese, ducks,
Sir – Mr M. Hugh-Jones does not think that referenda are a necessary or even useful part of democracy (Letters, June 13). But they are, particularly when voters’ interests conflict with the interests of politicians, as they do in the case of electoral
Sir – Recently I paid a visit to Abingdon. After going to the bank on the Market Place, I turned the corner into High Street, only to be faced with a lycra-clad, helmeted cyclist on a racing bike riding on the pavement. Then another similarly-clad
Sir – Where is the democracy in Oxford City Council? Meetings for ‘consultation with local residents’ and a planning committee of specialists considered the Barns Road project is not suitable for purpose, yet the decision is not accepted, so that
Sir – I feel so sad that the city council is not doing more to protect the livelihoods of small shops in Headington. There will be either a Tesco or Sainsbury’s store on every corner soon. I am totally in support of both stores and use them
HOSPITAL bosses are ramping up the cost of parking by up to 87 per cent. Oxford University Hospitals Trust (OUHT) initially said it was due to rising costs and that it did not want to spend healthcare cash on parking. But figures showed costs have
THERE will be widespread shock at the large increases in parking charges planned by Oxford University Hospitals Trust. Yesterday, the justification put forward by the trust was far from clear, especially after it went back on its original claim
ANDY Whing is hoping a new training regime over the summer will help him avoid the injury problems which hampered the midfielder last season. The 28-year-old reported back for pre-season 12 months ago with a groin injury, which kept him on the
A television and a handbag were stolen from a house in The Homestead last Thursday. Police said the burglars were disturbed by the occupant and locked the door on their way out to stop anyone following them. Call police on 101 if you have any
STAFF at a Bicester bank may be forgiven for causing a stir after police were spotted in the branch. But no crime had taken place at Santander – staff had donned police uniforms to help raise cash and donations for Bicester Foodbank. They came
A “FUNDAMENTAL shift” in how the county’s NHS cash is spent will see services based on quality not quantity, bosses say. The new body responsible for 65 per cent of NHS spending plans to introduce “outcomes-based commissioning” which, it says,
