People living in the Headington and Marston areas of Oxford will soon have a new guide listing entertainment and services in their area.

The new OX3 Guide for 2008-2009 is complete after months of hard work, and will soon be wending its way to 17,000 homes.

The Headington Action Group chairman James Bloice Smith said he hoped residents would find the new one as useful as the last.

He said: "This year, we have made quite a few changes to the guide, updated it where we needed to and changed the appearance.

"We hope people won't just throw it away as I think they will find it useful, and keep it next to their phones.

"It's full of useful information and it gives people quick access to lots of useful numbers for various people, societies and organisations across the OX3 area."

Mr Bloice Smith said they had learned a lot of lessons from producing the guide last year, the first year they had run the project. But he added that there had been unforeseen problems.

He said: "We thought we would find it easier to find advertisers for the guide this year, as we had a past edition to show people.

"But it did take us longer than we would have liked to raise the money and it would seem there are still a number of local concerns that aren't aware it exists.

"That is something we want to change over time."

He also said that they would provide online updates for any information that changed over the course of the year.

He added: "One thing we would ask is that if anyone is aware of any changes over the course of the year, please let us know."

Mr Bloice Smith was also quick to thank the north east area committee for its support and the help given by the local area co-ordinators.

He said: "They provided us with a significant sum to make it possible and have been an enormous help in pulling everything together."

Volunteers from various residents' associations will now be helping to deliver the guides to homes across Headington and Marston.

However, Mr Bloice Smith said more volunteers would be welcome to help. For more information, on how to provide updates or to get involved with delivering the guide, go to hcda.org.uk