JANUARY

BICESTER SHOPPING PARK

WORK on a £40 million retail park set to transform shopping in Bicester finally began.

Next and Marks & Spencer Simply Food are both set to move into the site as well as EE and Nike.

The park, being built off the A41 next to the Kingsmere housing estate, aims to save people in Bicester from having to travel out of town for high street brands.

It was supposed to open in time for Christmas but due to delays in planning and construction, it will now open in Spring.

FEBRUARY

NEW FOOTBRIDGE

A DANGEROUS stretch of 70mph road on which a man died when his car careered into a bus stop is to get a major safety improvement.

An £850,000 pedestrian bridge will be built over the A41 just outside Bicester.

It is hoped the new bridge will provide a safer route over the A41 which currently has no pedestrian crossings despite bus stops both in and out of town.

MARCH

'SUPER SURGERY'

FOUR GP surgeries in Bicester were announced to close in plans to run all their services under one roof.

Tens of thousands of patients will be forced to go to a new 'super surgery' on the edge of Bicester as health bosses propose to create two new 'health hubs’.

Alchester Medical Group made the announcement on February 28 that Langford Medical Practice, Victoria House Surgery, Montgomery-House Surgery, and Ambrosden Surgery will all close.

The Bicester Health Centre, the only other local GP practice, will stay at its current site at Coker Close and has plans to expand there.

APRIL

PRISON DRUG RISE

DRUG-SOAKED letters penned to prisoners have been blamed for the 'significant rise' in drugs and violence at Oxfordshire's troubled prison.

Inmates at HMP Bullingdon, near Bicester, were caught smuggling letters soaked in the notorious drug 'spice' from friends and relatives.

Prison governor Ian Blakeman revealed it has been the main source of drug supply in recent years.

MAY

GP CRISIS

A GP recruitment crisis forced Montgomery Surgery to start turning away new patients as it suspended all new registrations as it was too short-staffed.

A statement from the practice, in Piggy Lane, said the strain from Bicester's rapid expansion in recent years was to blame.

It said the surgery was growing by more than 1,000 patients every year and already had 16,000 patients on the books.

JUNE

GLIDING CLUB FEARS

MANAGERS of Bicester Gliding Club have said they were concerned about its future, with Bicester Heritage continuing to develop plans for the airfield.

In its latest masterplan to regenerate the site, to be known as ‘automotive resort’ Bicester Motion, Bicester Heritage has published an artist’s impression which the gliding club says appears to show a race track on the airfield.

The gliding group, which has operated from the airfield as a civilian club since 2004, teaches young people how to fly gliders and powered planes.

JULY

BOY FINDS KNIFE

A BOY of 10 was praised for handing in a dangerous knife he found in the park to police.

Samuel Collard, from Bicester, had been playing with friends in Spider Park, off Keble Road, on June 23, when he stumbled across the blade.

Confused at what he had found, he immediately called his father, Andy, who told him to put the knife in his bag and come home

Samuel, with his father, handed in the knife at Bicester Police Station, where an officer at the desk praised him.

AUGUST

BABY SAVED BY MUM

A ‘TERRIFIED’ mum told how she saved her three-month-old daughter when she suddenly stopped breathing.

Emily Lamburn-Atkins from Arncott, near Bicester, was awoken by her husband, Chris, at 5am after he discovered baby Penny was in respiratory arrest.

The mother did mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and Penny started breathing again.

SEPTEMBER

PREFERRED GP SITE CHOSEN

BICESTER reacted after health chiefs identified the site for a £15 million ‘super surgery’ in the town.

Graven Hill, in the south of Bicester, was announced as the ‘preferred choice’ for the purpose-built hub by Alchester Medical Group GP Dr Toby Quartley at the Langford Village Community Association AGM.

A rival site at Kingsmere was found to be unable to fulfil a number of the ‘must have’ criteria and to be of ‘insufficient size’ for future expansion.

Graven Hill was chosen as it fully met all the requirements.

OCTOBER

BICESTER GRAVES CRISIS

BICESTER Cemetery is running out of burial plots, but the town council has found a way to provide more while it looks for a new site.

The cemetery at Old PlaceYard has about 4,475 burial and cremation plots in total, but has almost reached capacity.

Bicester Town Council approved the removal of 16 trees from the cemetery to make space for graves.

NOVEMBER

COUNCIL MYSTERY

ALARM was raised after Bicester Town Council held a private meeting, excluding press and public, to discuss a payment allegedly worth tens of thousands of pounds.

The meeting was held to ‘consider the approval of a payment’, but that is all the information the council would give.

This paper was told that the payment was £22,500, or the equivalent of six months’ salary, to be made to an employee at the council who has resigned.

DECEMBER

SPORTS GROUND PLANS

Residents said expansion of a sports ground outside Bicester would make sport inaccessible for the town’s young people, residents have claimed.

Bicester Sports Association (BSA) wants to improve its facilities in the village of Chesterton.

Chesterton residents opposed, citing the impact on traffic, taking sport away from Bicester.