The Government has dropped a heavy hint that it wants to include Swindon in the region of the new Thames Valley mayor. A new consultation on spatial development strategies (SDS) includes Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Swindon, and potentially Buckinghamshire in a single area.

The Nut Tree in Murcott, near Bicester, is Oxfordshire’s only Michelin-starred restaurant this year following the closure for refurbishment of Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons. The pub offers a six-course tasting menu for £125pp or a Valentine’s menu for £150pp. nuttreeinn.co.uk

Huge thanks to the brilliant @oxfordclarion.bsky.social for featuring us as a long read this week- please do have a look to find out more about what we do here at ARCh and how you can join us in supporting children all over Oxfordshire 📚

Oxford has the fourth largest concentration of “star scientists” outside the USA and China, according to a new analysis. London, Toronto and Paris were higher. When the USA and China are included, Oxford is 17th in the rankings, ahead of Cambridge in 21st place.

Cash machine network Link have announced plans to open a “banking hub” in Didcot, following the closure of Lloyds, the town’s last High Street bank. The hub will offer counter service for withdrawals, deposits, and bill payments by customers of any bank. Over 200 such hubs are already in operation.

A planning application has been lodged to bring a vacant unit on the High back into use. Independent womenswear chain Busby & Fox want to open their 12th branch at 114 High Street, which was occupied by Space NK until 2022 and has been vacant since.

A farmer-led initiative has been launched to restore the landscape of the Evenlode valley, which runs through West Oxfordshire from Kingham to Charlbury and Eynsham. Participating farms are committing up to 15% of their less productive land to the project, to restore and improve riverside habitats.

A holiday development of 51 ‘eco-cabins’ is underway in a derelict Formula 1 team headquarters near Charlbury. Leafield Technical Centre – home to Arrows, then Super Aguri, then Caterham – is being turned into Cabü in the Cotswolds, a 25-acre site with Cabin Club, indoor pool and saunas.

Across Oxfordshire a small army of volunteers help children find joy in reading. In this guest post from Emma Orton of ARCh Oxfordshire, we find out more. oxfordclarion.uk/arch-oxfords...

Cherwell District Council has rejected a proposal for a battery box micro energy storage facility. Battery boxes store energy from the network at periods of low demand to be used at periods of high demand. Officers stated it would be a ‘Visually incongruous and obtrusive form of development’

The Environment Agency says that recent rainfall has delayed the clearance of the illegal waste tip near Kidlington, but that the sandbags installed to keep waste out of the River Cherwell are working well. The main clearance is now likely to start next month. www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrCg...

Are you a tea person or a coffee person? Covered Market specialist tea and coffee merchant Cardews has extended their shop, with separate, bespoke tea and coffee areas. It takes over the space formerly occupied by Oxunboxed who are relocating.

Local firefighters are to vote on industrial action. At a meeting in the Said Business School today, next to Rewley Road Fire Station, the Fire Brigades Union announced a “consultative ballot” on striking against Oxfordshire Fire & Rescue Service’s plans to consider closing three fire stations.

We are re-posting this as a light lunchtime read in case you haven’t, err, read-it yet?! 🐸

Dr Richard Whittington, Oriel alumnus, Christ Church volunteer steward, coroner whose inquests included serial killer Fred West, and, latterly, Deputy Assistant Coroner in Oxford, has died. Obituaries have been published in the Times and the Telegraph, although he died in November 2025.

Chiltern Railways have sent back one of the trains that was to be used for East West Rail services to Milton Keynes. With services from Oxford to Milton Keynes still not underway, one re-liveried train has been returned to the West Midlands with its new Chiltern Railways branding covered up.

Oxford University Hospitals have been awarded £4.5m by the government to upgrade their lighting to energy efficient LED lighting, which is estimated to save £2m a year in energy bills and over 2000 tonnes of CO2. www.ouh.nhs.uk/news/article...

Buckingham Palace is being refurbished, meaning state events are increasingly taking place in Windsor, which is placing a strain on police costs that is unfunded by the Government, say Thames Valley Police. They calculate the shortfall is around £900,000.

A new portrait of Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai has been unveiled in her Oxford college, Lady Margaret Hall. Yousafzai studied philosophy, politics, and economics at LMH from 2017 to 2020. She came to the UK after campaigning against religious misogyny.

The weather is warm(ish) and it’s nearly Valentine’s Day. Which means, for the Oxfordshire toad population, at least, it’s baby-making time. Which is hazardous, for toads. In this short read, we look at what's up with toads right now, and how volunteers are protecting them. 🐸

Twisted Tree microbrewery in Bicester have launched a new beer -'Midnight Oak' a gluten free, "rich and velvety porter with layers of roasted malt, smooth caramel sweetness". Previous releases from this family owned craft brewer have won prizes at the Regional Beer Awards. Shop indie, buy beer? 👇

The decision on Botley West Solar Farm has landed on the desk of Secretary of State Ed Miliband. After the promoters lodged their application in November 2024, and the examinations meetings started in May 2025, the planning ‘examining authority’ has submitted its recommendation to Government.

The Oxfordshire County Council budget debate is underway and the Labour amendment has been voted down: 11 for, 45 against, 6 abstentions. The vote largely went along party lines with the Greens abstaining. The meeting is now breaking for lunch.

Lunchtime light reading? There are jokes and extended metaphors…

Tuesday already and that means the midweek Oxford Clarion newsletter! Today: 🌊 Water, water everywhere 🚆 Trains are back ☕️ College opens a cafe… 📚 …while another closes a bookshop 🐛 Liam Walker × Colin the Caterpillar Read online or subscribe: oxfordclarion.uk/the-clarion-...

Flooding in Oxford: could be worse?

Long online queues are being reported for the release of ‘Phoenix Fest’ tickets which went on sale today. The children’s festival is a spinoff of the popular Oxford comic. Users report queues of up to 1000 with many events already sold out. Perhaps the bagels swiped them all? phoenixfest.co.uk

The West Oxfordshire village of North Leigh has erected an illustrated village sign reminiscent of the style popular in East Anglia, showing the 1833 windmill and village church. Funding came from developer cash (Section 106) for public art.

The Oxfam Bookshop on St Giles, the charity’s first ever dedicated bookshop, could be closed. Landlords Regent’s Park College have applied to convert the premises into a Middle Common Room for graduate student use.

A 37-year old Oxford man has been arrested on modern slavery grounds, following a police swoop on a road where 1000 parking tickets have been issued in under five years. Thames Valley Police targeted automotive businesses at Pettiwell (Garsington) and Littleworth (Wheatley).

Using AI to make medical decisions can risk your health, according to the largest ever study on the subject by the University of Oxford on large language models. They found LLMs tended to provide inaccurate and inconsistent information. www.oii.ox.ac.uk/news-events/...

Today is Budget Day for Oxfordshire. As councillors travel in to County Hall to agree the year’s spending, we look at both county and city budgets, and ask – is it a case of deckchairs on the Titanic? oxfordclarion.uk/budgets-2026...

A new facility to develop and test electric propulsion for satellites has opened at Harwell Campus. The £3.8 million Disruptive Experimental Electric Propulsion (DEEP) Lab is jointly funded by the UK Space Agency and local space propulsion company Magdrive. www.gov.uk/government/n...

The Conservative opposition on Oxfordshire County Council has proposed funding flags on lamp-posts. An amendment to the OCC budget, to be debated tomorrow, would “introduce a £50,000 funding pot […] for the provision of flags or banners on highway street light columns through an approved supplier”.

Friends of Grandpont Nature Park say that recent weather has proved that the new Oxpens Bridge will not provide a “safe dry route” to the Osney Mead development. They argue “users will need to cross a section of towpath which regularly floods” in order to reach the paths that will be constructed.

Local charity Autism Family Support Oxfordshire, has announced that it is to close as a registered charity on 31 March, unless a funder, organisation or benefactor steps forward. The charity provides parent support, youth groups and holiday clubs for over 4,000 families. www.afso.org.uk

Campaigners against Peking University taking over the former Open University HQ at Foxcombe Hall, Boars Hill, say they have served notice on Vale of White Horse District Council. The site was given planning permission in 2022, but the Friends of Boars Hill have raised security concerns.

Following a consultation on spending a penny, West Oxon District Council is to close half its toilets, & upgrade the remaining half to include 'a modern, gender-neutral layout with individual cubicles, improved disabled access, and better lighting and ventilation.' Payment will be by coins or card.

Know anyone who would like to get going on a bike but need a bit of help? avanticycling.co.uk/newriders/ offer support for adults who are new to cycling or want to build confidence.

There's a grave situation in Banbury.* The Town Council has applied for planning permission for 3000 more plots on farmland next to the existing Hardwick Hill Cemetery. The site is adjacent to a proposed development of 150 homes. *We will keep using this pun until it dies of exhaustion.

Trains are running south of Oxford again following installation of the new Botley Road bridge. The first passenger train to cross was the southbound 0520 to London Paddington, followed by a northbound freight train a few minutes later.

Once more for the weekend long read crowd....

A cyclist has died after hitting a low-hanging branch on a public footpath just outside Whitchurch-on-Thames, in South Oxfordshire. One of the members of the group ride described it as a “freak accident”. road.cc/news/mountai...

A separate developer has applied for 475 new houses at Heyford Park, the new town being built around a disused airfield in North Oxfordshire – over and above the 9,000 homes already proposed for the site. Richborough are putting forward a site to the southeast of the existing settlement.

The ‘Ridgeway Council’ proposal to merge Oxfordshire’s southern districts with West Berkshire has again been disputed by neighbouring Reading, whose council wants to take over parts of West Berkshire itself. It has designs on Tilehurst, the suburb that is the last stop before Reading station.

The walkway under the Botley Road bridge has reopened, meaning pedestrians and cyclists no longer need to divert via the station. Network Rail says that this week’s bridge works are still running to schedule and that trains will resume on Monday morning as expected.

Another Oxford college is opening a visitor cafe. St Edmund Hall, on Queen's Lane, is open to the public 10-4. Its gardener's store will reopen as a cafe this spring, joining Magdalen's Riverside Terrace, Wolfson's cafe, and Mansfield's Crypt, among others. www.seh.ox.ac.uk/news/new-hal...

The former Director of the Ashmolean, and Emeritus Fellow of Worcester College, Sir Christopher White, has died. Under his leadership, the Museum’s first education officer and volunteer lecturers were appointed, and he oversaw the creation of the Ashmolean's lecture theatre.

Once more for the weekend long read crowd....

In this weekend’s edition of Oxford’s best informed newsletter: 🌻 Net zero village to go ahead ⚽️ OUFC stadium one step closer 🎤 Amplified buskers could be banned 🐟 Veggie pub goes pescatarian 📚 Books! Events! Indie media! Occasional snark! Read online or by email: oxfordclarion.uk/clarion-week...