The Oxford Post is an independent news and information site for the city of Oxford. We work from public records, we link to them, and we are not connected to the council, the universities or anybody else we report on.
The city
The centre and the colleges are a small part of it. Our patch is the whole city: Cowley and Blackbird Leys in the east, Headington and Marston to the north east, Summertown and Wolvercote north, Jericho and Osney by the canal and the river, Iffley, Rose Hill and Littlemore south, and the streets off the Botley and Abingdon roads. Housing pressure and traffic are the two subjects that turn up in almost every set of committee papers, and both are decided on paper long before anyone notices a change on the street.
Who is responsible for what
Oxford City Council: planning, bins, licensing, housing, parks. Oxfordshire County Council: roads, schools, social care, traffic schemes and parking enforcement on the highway. That division causes more confusion here than in most places, so we name the authority in every story.
What we work from
The city council’s planning register and committee papers, licensing notices, police.uk crime data, HM Land Registry sold prices, Food Standards Agency hygiene ratings, Environment Agency flood warnings for the Thames and the Cherwell, and company filings in The Gazette. Flooding along both rivers is a standing local subject and we report the official warnings rather than the version going round.
Reorganisation
Local government in Oxfordshire is being reorganised, with a new Ridgeway authority due in April 2028 covering the Vale of White Horse, most of South Oxfordshire and West Berkshire. Arrangements for the rest of the county, including the city, are part of the same process. We will report what the published documents say as the detail is settled rather than predicting it.
Tips and corrections
Email hello@theoxfordpost.co.uk with a tip, an event worth listing, or a correction. Tips are treated in confidence, and corrections are made quickly and noted on the page.
The Oxford Post is published by Future Business Media.