Primary school children will be getting safety lessons in the run-up to Halloween and Bonfire Night. Banbury street warden Joanne Hayes will be visiting schools to warn pupils of the dangers of trick or treating and setting off fireworks. She said: "The
Leading Oxford academic Dr Bryan Wilson, who was one of the world's top sociologists of religion, has died, aged 78. Dr Wilson, the former Reader of Sociology at Oxford University, and a member of All Souls, set new standards in his published works for
New signing Richard Major will make his debut for Chinnor in their Powergen South West Division 1 trip to Clifton tomorrow. Major, who who has moved from Pertemps Bees, will turn out at full back. In the second row, skipper James Borgnis returns from
There is no question that urgent action is needed to ease congestion on the A40 west of Oxford. Traffic holdups are bad now for much of the day -- and are bound to get worse. But we cannot say that we are optimistic that Oxfordshire County Council's immediate
Four months ago, the man in charge of the Royal Mail told us that from then on, the post would be delivered efficiently and on time. Area general manager Michael Stockdale predicted in June that there would be "a stark improvement in the service". He
We knew it was never going to be easy to reclaim Oxford streets from young revellers. The Nightsafe initiative, to curb excessive drinking, was launched on Saturday night by police, fire and council officers. The Yates's chain has already responded by
The Princess Royal impressed workers at Countax with her in-depth knowledge of garden machinery when she opened the company's factory extension. She was welcomed to the Great Haseley garden tractor factory by 10-year-olds Joe Isaacs and Abigail Farrell
Let others speak first. Here is Bill Townend, PG Wodehouse's contemporary at Dulwich College and a pal (and good cause) ever after: "The trouble with PG," he told a friend, "is that he has always lived in a kind of unpractical dream, taking little interest
Mystery surrounds the disappearance of an pensioner, who was eventually found days later unconscious in her own back garden. When Irene Brewer was reported missing on Sunday night, Thames Valley Police launched a search operation. Dog handlers were called
Defending champions Redefield A are the early leaders after they beat Windrush 139-75 in the opening round of matches in Division 1 of the Five Disciplines League. Windrush's Amber Barrett and Catherine Evans won the women's doubles 15-5, 15-14 against
COCA COLA LEAGUE TWO Macclesfield v Oxford Utd. SOUTHERN LEAGUE Premier Div: Banbury Utd v King's Lynn. Div 1 West: Brackley v Taunton Tn, Clevedon v Thame Utd, Oxford City v Sutton Coldfield. FA VASE 1st round: AFC Wallingford v AFC Newbury, Slade Green
A campaign is underway to get safety improvements on a road where schoolboy Tomas Ryan Vig died. Parents, teachers and councillors met at Blessed George Napier School in Banbury to call for action. Tomas, 13, died when his school bus was in collision
GLS Hellenic League: Wantage Town will have to make do without young midfielder Matty Bown for their trip to Almondsbury Town in the Premier Division. The former Forest Green Rovers player turns out for Wiltshire in an inter-counties representative match
Didcot Town boss Stuart Peace faces a strikers crisis ahead of his team's first round derby clash with fellow-form side Abingdon United. Ian Concannon is out for up to a month as he recovers from an appendix operation, Matty Jack who can play up front
When Minnie Driver was a little girl she was glued to the TV every week watching Top Of The Pops and dreaming of her future. A few weeks ago, she realised her dream, appearing on the cult BBC music show with the likes of Bryan McFadden and Marilyn Manson
We may have a world famous seat of learning in our midst, but when it comes to GCSE exams, we struggle. Only 50.8 pupils achieved the benchmark five or more GCSEs at grades A* to C, well below the county council's target of 56 per cent. Although our figure
Fun, funky and fuss-free, Fiat's new Panda pushes all the right buttons to make it a super-successful supermini. The little newcomer got off to the best possible start by being voted European Car of the Year before it went on sale. The judges certainly
Benefits and Jobcentre staff in Oxford are expected to join a nationwide walk-out on November 5 after civil servants voted to stage a one-day strike. More than 260,000 members of the Public and Commercial Services union have backed a nationwide walk-out
Thieves who stole seven motorbikes from an Abingdon youth centre have deprived the town's vulnerable teenagers of a vital support project, say its organisers. Members of the Abingdon Motorcycle Project (Amp) say they are disgusted at the burglary, which
Oxford City Council has employed the services of a high profile barrister in London's High Court to stop the development of a housing complex on the edge of the city - because it does not feature enough affordable homes. Controversial plans for 38 two
Oxford Mail printer Stephen Adams has breathed without the aid of a ventilator for a whole day for the first time since his quad bike accident a month ago. Stephen, 23, has been in intensive care, at the Kat Hospital in Athens since the smash on the Ionian
Children at a special school in Oxford who were moved by the recent massacre at a school in the Russian town of Beslan have raised more than £200 for the survivors and victims. Teenage pupils at Iffley Mead School organised a screening of the film Scooby
Julian Alsop has decided he will not appeal against his sacking from the Kassam Stadium this week. The 31-year-old striker was dismissed by Oxford United following a lewd prank with a banana, and trained with Northampton this week. Alsop rejected a move
All customers purchasing Mitsubishi's new Colt supermini or new Grandis MPV up to the end of December will get a Smartnav navigation system installed by their dealer free of charge. Produced by Trafficmaster, Smartnav is an advanced navigation system
Land Rover has announced that the all-new Land Rover Discovery 3, which goes on sale from November 1, will be priced from £26,995 to £46,995. Gideon Hedley, at Hartwell Land Rover, said: "We have no doubt that the Discovery 3's market-leading combination
The Polo Twist, Volkswagen's high-value version of its popular supermini, is now even more appealing to cost-conscious buyers, with a starting price of £8,495 -- a further reduction of £690. Since its launch last year, the Twist has proved very popular
BMW has bought nearly 200 robots in the past three months to work at its Cowley factory where the Mini is assembled. The robots are made by German multinational Kuka which has a British subsidiary in Halesowen, West Midlands. A spokesman for Kuka said
The cost of dealing with asylum seekers in Oxfordshire has more than doubled in the past six years, Home Office figures show. This year it is projected those seeking asylum will cost the county council £3.9m - more than double the £1.57m spent in 1998
SIR -- Thank you for covering the first of our multi-agency inspections under the Nightsafe scheme for Oxford City centre on Saturday (Oxford Mail, October 18). The inspections are only one part of the scheme, which aims to reduce violent crime and binge
A team of runners hope to have raised £3,500 after completing the Abingdon Marathon to raise money to help realise the last wish of a young sailor who died of cancer. The day before he died in February last year Daniel Newton, 20, made his father David
Oxford writer and don Tim Binyon, who last year won Britain's premier award for non-fiction, has died at his Oxfordshire home aged 68. Dr Binyon took the Samuel Johnson Prize, for his biography of the Russian poet Pushkin. It described how Pushkin's killer
A Festival of Light is being organised to lure youngsters away from the 'dark unhealthy' side of Halloween. Churches Together in Wallingford hopes to discourage young people from trick-or-treating. Town councillor Simon Harrop said Yobwatch patrols would
Lorraine Brownlee was awarded £2,250 compensation by a court more than five years ago. So far, she has received a paltry £235. Our advice to her is -- don't hold your breath. Stories of compensation orders not being met are legion. Courts happily issue
A woman was the victim of a sex attack as she was walking through a popular open space near the centre of Witney. The 21-year-old, who has not been named, was walking alone on a path in Langel Common when the attacker rode past on a cycle and grabbed
GCSE results in Oxfordshire have fallen for a third year running -- leaving the county lagging in national league tables and well below its own targets, provisional figures reveal. The number of pupils achieving the benchmark five GCSEs or more at grades
South League: City of Oxford were brought down to earth after their promising start to the season when they lost 5-2 at home to Henley in the Regional division. City dominated early on and it was a shock when Henley went in front, but the home side equalised
Overcrowding remains a serious problem at an Oxfordshire prison despite improvements highlighted in a report. As part of a follow-up to a damning report in 2002, inspectors turned up unannounced at Bullingdon Community Prison for a three-day inspection
Jude Law bears a uncanny resemblance to the young Michael Caine in a remake of the cockney lad-about-town comedy drama Alfie (15). Lewis Gilbert's 1966 original was such a shocker for its time, the likes of Terence Stamp and Anthony Newely rejected the
Headington Roadrunner Gary Harris was crowned Oxfordshire champion, after a fine display at the 23rd Akzo Nobel Abingdon Marathon on Sunday. Harris, who last week won the Hanney 5 county title, was in superb form once again as he clocked 2hrs 43mins 58secs
Oxford City manager Andy Sinnott wants a positive reaction from his team when they host Southern League Division 1 West rivals Sutton Coldfield Town tomorrow. On Tuesday, the league's form away side crashed 4-1 at Cinderford, leaving Sinnott furious.
The endearing exhibition occupying the Eldon and Macalpine Galleries until January 2 (admission free) is happily titled The Pissarro Family at Home. So it is. But that doesn't mean parochial; there were quite a lot of them, and they had quite a few homes
The boys from Hadden Hill, Didcot were crowned English Junior Champion Club after a nail-biting final afternoon at the National Golf Centre in Woodhall Spa. With the best two scores from three to count in each round, Hadden Hill, representing Berks, Bucks
The Oxfordshire drew level with Frilford Heath at the top of the Shaw & Co Oxfordshire Foursomes League following a 2-1 win at Hadden Hill. However, Frilford remain favourites for the Section 1 title - with a game in hand - after their match away
Staff and parents have vowed to fight to keep Didcot's Park Pre-School open. Leaders of the children's group found out they could lose their building in Queensway, when they read about South Oxfordshire District Council's strategic property review in
Poet Pam Ayres was at Buckingham Palace to collect her MBE from the Queen yesterday. The 57-year-old writer and broadcaster, born in Stanford-in-the-Vale, received the award for her services to literature and entertainment. She began reading her verses
Former Henley MP Michael Heseltine was among the panellists on Question Time last night, which came from the Oxford Union. He was joined by broadcaster Sir Clement Freud, gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, Home Office minister Caroline Flint, journalist
Residents say an area of Oxford where a man was murdered has become a "ghetto" for drug dealers and people watching others having sex in public. Anthony Holder's killing was described as the "final straw" by residents who have been calling for a crackdown
Four students were saved by a smoke detector when a faulty electric blanket caused a fire at their lodgings in Oxford today. The Oxford Brookes University students were woken by the sound of the alarm shortly before 5.30am and smelled smoke coming from
DVLA Personalised Registrations is running an on-line game for motorcycle enthusiasts with the opportunity to win pairs of tickets to the International Motorcycle and Scooter Show at the NEC this November. The easy-to-play game, which involves matching
Winter's approach spells bargain time for used car buyers, according to a new survey of used car dealers. It reveals November and December as two key months for snapping up high-quality cars at knock-down prices. Researchers for CAP Black Book -- the
Caravans have been attracting a bad press lately, but manufacturers are still vying to get their cars in front of them as the tow vehicle. Slow and traffic-forming caravans may be, but their numbers are on the increase, with a corresponding boost in business
Nothing fires the motoring imagination more than a little nostalgia, and there's the chance to take a massive trip down memory lane soon. Car enthusiasts everywhere will welcome the return of the Classic Motor Show, which is back at the NEC, Birmingham
SIR -- After reading your review (Oxford Mail, October 8), I would like to share my experiences of the Harvester restaurants. I took my 10-year-old daughter to the Harvester at Kidlington as a treat, and as I had to drive, I ordered a jug of water to
SIR -- Disquiet grows at proposals to vandalise the classical setting of Bury Knowle Park at Headington, Oxford, in the cause of modern art, by the creation of a carved totem pole based on a pastiche of Tolkien and CS Lewis themes (Oxford Mail, October
SIR -- I was appalled to read that Grayline Coaches had left young children in outlying villages to fend for themselves (Oxford Mail, October 16). I dread to think what could have happened to them. You read terrible accounts. It's all right saying we
Sir -- I have been interested to read your almost daily reports of our failing postal service, especially in Oxford. It is by no means isolated to these areas. I live in Eynsham, and within the last three months, 11 items of post have not reached their
SIR -- The futility of trench warfare has long been demonstrated, and where the Green Belt is concerned, we have lived with the current battlelines, Battlelines drawn in Green Belt fight (Oxford Mail, October 14) for half a century. During this time,
The county council has admitted that "lessons have been learned" after some school children were left stranded on roadsides because their bus passes had not been sent out in time. The council began enforcing the 'no pass, no ride' policy earlier this
