The Friends of Quarry

Friends of Quarry are celebrating the 50th year of the establishment of the Conservation Area in 1971. To celebrate this, the illustrations on the 1971 leaflet, which was produced by the City Council, and describes the reasons for founding of the Conservation Area, are being used as the front and back pages of our Autumn newsletter. The Conservation Area leaflet is also on our website.

In that leaflet the Council described the principles of conservation to be used which included:

1. The Council will use their powers under the relevant Acts to ensure that the character of the area is maintained.
2. Where new development is involved, the scale of the new buildings and material used, shall be sympathetic, and in keeping, with the existing development.
3. Where change is considered necessary, it should be carried out by adapting existing buildings (with possible exceptions) in a manner which will be in keeping with the scale, materials and character of the area.

Friends of Quarry have worked with the Council to apply these and other principles to the development within Quarry over the last fifty years. This approach has generally worked well but as explained in the last newsletter we have had our differences with the City Planners over the egregious development at 1 Quarry High Street.

Following two years of intensive lobbying and discussions of this development the Planners have accepted that what is built does not accurately reflect what was proposed in the original application. Following our persistent representations, they have asked for a retrospective planning application and if this is not forthcoming have indicated that they will then take appropriate enforcement action.

We were also heavily involved in the campaign to prevent the installation of a 20m high 5G mast at the entrance to Quarry. Planning permission for the mast was eventually refused. These cases highlight both the need for careful scrutiny of planning applications within Quarry and the need for an organization like Friends of Quarry.

If you are interested in protecting the character of the conservation area, please consider joining the Friends of Quarry and joining the committee.

Owing to the high infection rates of covid at present we have decided to have the AGM on line again. It will be on Monday 22nd November at 7:30pm. A Google Meet link will be sent out closer to the time.

The major agenda items are to elect a new treasurer and co-ordinator and confirm the committee members who wish to continue. Anyone interested in joining the committee can be voted onto it during the AGM.

The Treasurer’s and Co-ordinator’s report will be presented.

Please remember that you need to be a member of FOQ to vote at the AGM. All annual membership fees are due in November. Details of how to pay and how to contact us with any queries are on our website.

Holy Trinity are holding a series of Teatime Recitals during November. They will take place at 1500 in the Church on the following days:

Saturday 6th November, 3pm: Dominic Scott (Piano), Laura Biron-Scott (Clarinet).
Saturday 13th November, 3pm: Quarry Wind Quintet (debut performance!)
Saturday 20th November, 3pm: Rosie Tweddle (Organ)
Saturday 27th November, 3pm: Dvorak Wind Serenade, with members of the Oxford Sinfonia.

They are free, with a retiring collection to raise money for the church building fund.

Each recital will be followed by refreshments in church. More details are available on the Holy Trinity Website

Headington Action are encouraging residents to light up Headington’s residential streets through November, December and into early January.

To encourage you, a free set of LED battery lights (with batteries included) can be obtained by emailing them.

More information is available on their poster.

The County Council have started consultation on Resident’s views on their proposal to amend various parking restrictions within the Headington Quarry (east) area of Oxford.

The proposals are being put forward following concerns raised by local residents & the local County Councillor, and will see:

a) the introduction of and removal of sections of ‘No Waiting at Any Time’ (double yellow lines) in parts of Gladstone Road, Trinity Road & Quarry High Street

b) new sections of ‘Two-hour parking bays (No Return in 2 hours) Mon-Fri 9am to 5pm’ introduced on Green Road, Pitts Road & Trinity Road, creating approximately 8 new parking spaces in the area. 

The following consultation documents are available on the consultation website:

• Public Notice,
• Statement of Reasons
• Consultation Plan(s),
• Draft Traffic Regulation Order.

The proposed Traffic Regulation Order was scheduled to be advertised in the Oxford Times on Thursday 14th October 2021.

As stated on the notice, any objections or other representations on the proposal should be submitted by Friday 12th November 2021.

The Co-op has decided to sell its single-storey premises in London Road, and it is part of the Co-op’s policy of changing its estate by renting smaller supermarkets.

Cantay Estates, the new owners of the Co-op Supermarket site in London Road, are holding a public exhibition on Wednesday, 20 October at St Andrew’s School, London Road, Headington, between the hours of 5 pm and 8 pm.

Once the new building with a ground floor supermarket and “limited” service hotel on three and five-storeys has been built, the Co-op has agreed to re-instate the Post Office (which is now effectively Headington’s only bank).

A leaflet with further information has been circulated to 2,000 households and businesses in the central area of Headington.

We will be holding another bulb planting on Saturday 30 October from 1000. We will be planting 500 tulip and daffodil bulbs in the Beaumont Road green area.

All members of the community and membership are welcome, together with your children. Please bring a spade and dress appropriately for the weather.

We hope that you are able to join us on the day.

Headington Market is returning to London Road with a celebration market from 0900 – 1400 on 18 September 2021. More details are available on the attached poster.

Headington Action, with support of residents groups such as Friends of Quarry,  is promoting a ‘Neighbours Day’ in Headington on 18/19 September.

We wish to encourage residents to organise street events such as street parties, informal street meets in gardens, plant swaps, artistic displays, or anything which captures the imagination.

More details are available on the flyer.

Oxford City Council has started the process of producing the Local Plan 2040. OCC are offering an early opportunity to get involved in the development of the Oxford Local Plan 2040. 

The Local Plan can help tackle many of the issues that the city faces, such as our environment, inequalities and climate change.  It will set out where and how new development can happen. It will look at what development is needed in the city and try to provide for that. At the same time it will try to keep hold of the things that make Oxford a special place, and see where things can improve to make it a better place to live, work and visit.

OCC have begun to identify issues that they think the Local Plan could help to address. These are set out in an Issues Paper, supported by a series of topic papers containing more detailed background information. The Issues Paper and topic papers are on the OCC website.

In addition, OCC have prepared a Sustainability Appraisal Scoping Report, a Duty to Cooperate Scoping report and are running a call for sites exercise. Details are on the webpage as above.

Comments can be made using the questionnaire, which does not require reference to any other documents, or using the Issues Paper Questions to help guide your responses to the issues paper. Links to both are on the webpage as above