Bicester inclusive café appeal, rail changes, eclipse night and local plans

A £2,000 fundraising appeal launched on Wednesday 5 August aims to equip a new inclusive café at Bicester Community Support Service on Launton Road, giving people supported by adult social care an opportunity to gain practical experience working behind the counter.

The service already has an industrial kitchen. The next step is to add the things needed to operate it as a café, including tables and chairs, coffee-making equipment and panini makers, alongside licences, training and other resources.

Bicester Community Support Service is used by adults with learning and physical disabilities, mental health needs and dementia. The café is intended to create a real work-like environment where people can help prepare and serve lunches, snacks and drinks while building confidence, independence and social connections.

That makes this more than another fundraising target. If it works as planned, an existing council facility becomes somewhere people can practise skills in a genuine customer setting rather than only through simulated activities.

The longer-term ambition is for income from the café to help sustain the operation and eventually allow it to grow. There is no confirmed opening date yet, so the immediate job is raising the money and completing the equipment, licensing and training needed to get started.

For a relatively modest fundraising target, it is a project with a very tangible outcome: a working café and more opportunities for people who already use a Bicester service every day.

If you are travelling late towards Oxford this week, allow extra time. Overnight engineering work continues between Bicester North and Oxford through Friday 14 August.

After 11.59pm each affected night, London Marylebone–Oxford trains are diverted, with replacement buses running from Bicester North to Oxford via Bicester Village and Oxford Parkway. National Rail warns that replacement vehicles can be busier than normal, so check the journey planner before setting off.

Nominations have now closed for the Chesterton & Launton county division by-election on Thursday 3 September. The official list published on Friday 7 August names Sandy Lewis Dallimore for the Conservatives, Gregory Michael Fish for Labour, James Henry Dean Hartley for the Liberal Democrats, Ian Richard Hodgson for Reform UK and Meri Mosharrafa for the Green Party.

The next practical deadline is Monday 17 August at 11.59pm for anyone who still needs to register to vote. Postal-vote applications or changes close at 5pm on Tuesday 18 August.

A national shortage of specialist fridge and freezer recycling capacity has led Oxfordshire County Council to temporarily stop accepting those appliances from people who live outside the county.

For Bicester households, the useful part is what has not changed: Oxfordshire residents can still dispose of fridges and freezers through the county’s household waste recycling centres. A slot must be booked and proof of an Oxfordshire address should be taken to the site.

Final-check update, Tuesday 11 August: the Met Office has issued an amber extreme-heat warning covering Oxfordshire from 9am until 11.59pm on Thursday 13 August. The current forecast for Bicester has temperatures potentially reaching around 37°C on Thursday.

The Met Office advises drinking plenty of fluids, limiting strenuous exercise during the hottest part of the day and checking travel before setting off. Older people, those with underlying health conditions and people living alone may need extra help keeping cool.

A public Bicester community post has been circulating details of Wednesday evening’s solar eclipse, and this one is worth marking in the diary. Bicester should see a substantial partial solar eclipse on Wednesday 12 August, beginning at about 6.16pm, reaching maximum eclipse at 7.12pm and ending at roughly 8.06pm.

The Royal Astronomical Society says this will be the most impressive solar eclipse visible from the UK since 1999. The Sun will be low towards the west or north-west, so somewhere with an unobstructed horizon will help.

The serious bit: do not look directly at the Sun, even through ordinary sunglasses. Use eclipse glasses meeting the ISO 12312-2 standard or an indirect method such as a pinhole projector or colander projection.

Some useful local services are easy to miss because much of their work happens quietly inside people’s homes.

Home-Start Banbury, Bicester & Chipping Norton supports families with at least one child under five by matching them with trained and supervised volunteers who already have parenting experience. The support can be very practical: helping someone get organised, reach appointments, get out to a family group, find specialist help or simply cope with a difficult period.

Home-visiting volunteers normally commit two to three hours each week and complete preparation training before being matched with a family. Out-of-pocket expenses such as mileage, bus fares and parking are covered.

The organisation says it is continuing to recruit volunteers across Bicester and the surrounding area. There are also less regular opportunities for people who cannot make the weekly commitment.

Oxford Parkway park and ride: From Monday 17 August, the current offer is due to change to a £3 combined ticket covering up to 16 hours of parking and return bus travel for up to five people. We will check that the change goes live as planned.

Gavray Drive: The long-running outline application for up to 250 homes north-east of Gavray Drive remains listed as “Under Consultation”, with a current due date of 20 August. We will watch for a decision, committee movement or another change to the timetable.

That is it for this week. If you spot a new shop, useful service, neighbourhood project or something changing in your part of Bicester, send it our way.

What local place, group or service should HelloBicester take a closer look at next?

HelloBicester is Bicester's free weekly community newsletter. Share it with a friend who loves this town. And if you hear about a new Bicester‑area good news story, send it to HelloBicester ([email protected]) so we can share it with the whole town next week.

See you next week.

Cheers!!