TEENAGERS completing work experience at branches of McDonald’s across the county are to be awarded a qualification equivalent to a good GCSE. Mike Heapy, who owns the franchise at restaurants in Didcot, Witney and Benson, is to become the first
BEER is to be brewed in Abingdon for the first time since the Morland brewery closed a decade ago. A new brewery, Loose Cannon, is set to pour its first pints in May. When it open, it will be the first time since 2000 that a town once famous for its
Thérèse Raquin, Émile Zola’s classic novel, will be part of the Abingdon Arts Festival next week. The psychological thriller will be performed by Abingdon Drama Club. The play is set in a district of Paris in the 1870s and tells the story of the secret
SINGER-songwriter Beverley Craven is enjoying “a rebirth” almost 20 years after her first hit single Promise Me. Beverley loves being back on tour again following a lengthy break to raise her family — and is once again delighting audiences with songs
Sir, As parents of an 11-year-old daughter Katy, who we believe was the last child to be operated on at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, on Wednesday, March 3, prior to the temporary cessation of procedures at the paediatric cardiac centre, we would
Sir, In the run-up to local elections in 2009, a leaflet on ‘How Conservative Councils are helping in the recession’ boasted of Tory councils’ local ‘partnerships’ with Citizens Advice Bureaux up and down the country. Party leader David Cameron was full
Sir, Councillor Bill Service, leader of Didcot Town Council, wrote to you last week about an error of fact in your article the previous week. In doing so he made statements about Didcot CAB which we feel we need to correct. He states that the town council
Troops based at Didcot will parade through the town next month in a homecoming parade following recent tours of duty in Afghanistan. Many of the Didcot-based troops have been undertaking some of the toughest work in the war zone — the detection and disarming
Sir, Well, here we are again, I had naively hoped that Persimmon homes had foundered in the recent financial crisis. Wrong and, worse, the Government and the Vale are helping them — to the tune of £30,000. Will the Vale, from our exceedingly expensive
Sir, The fact the Conservatives wish to dispense with the CAB should be of no surprise (Herald, March 3). Volunteers helping ever-increasing numbers of working class, elderly and poor people through the mire of big business and impatient, intolerant
Sir, Councillor Louise Chapman must be very naive to believe that. . . ‘If (young people) appear to be under the influence of alcohol, then they should be banned from the centre’. This is the perfect pantomine scenario: ‘You’re drunk!’, ‘Oh, no, I’m
Didcot Town grabbed a hard-earned Zamaretto Southern League Premier Division point with a 1-1 draw against in-form Truro, despite having keeper Matt Trott sent off. A smart goal from Michael Bartley two minutes before the break put the home side ahead
BLIND schoolgirl Paige Rowe said a new Braille machine to help her write would “make such a difference to my life”. The seven-year-old, of Greenacres Drive, Wantage, was delighted at being given the device by a local charity fund. It replaces
A councillor who suspended a popular Friday night youth club in Wantage has agreed to hold a crunch meeting with community leaders on Friday. Louise Chapman, Oxfordshire County Council’s cabinet member for children, young people and families, said she
A TEENAGE girl who battled cancer is to be the face of a national campaign to raise money to fight the disease. Sophia Steinsberg, of Radley, was diagnosed in December 2008 with bone cancer, but following months of chemotherapy treatment she
A DIDCOT musician says he has “lost everything” after he was left for dead in a hit-and-run crash. John ‘Baby John’ Horgan, who has run Didcot’s only music shop since 1996, was found lying unconscious on the B4494 at Chain Hill between Wantage
A MAN left temporarily paralysed by a rare medical condition has vowed to complete a mile-long walk for the Sport Relief charity. Graham Chapman, 64, of Cholsey, was left helpless when he developed Guillain–Barré syndrome on his birthday in June 2008
