Protestors demonstrating against Oxford City Council ’s Westgate area expansion plan claimed partial victory over Bonn Square Sunday after successfully halting security guards and police’s second attempt to evict protestors by squaring off the grass area with steel barricades.
The protest began when Gabriel Chamberlain, 34, decided to camp in Bonn Square’s threatened tree on January 4th to protest Westgate Partnership , the £1.5 m Westgate area redevelopment plan that will uproot the sycamore and remove the patch of grass with rock pavement. Since Chamberlain’s encampment, contractors and security guards have surrounded the reportedly 100-year-old tree with security fencing.
About 50 people gathered at Bonn Square for a peaceful protest Saturday afternoon when contractors started surrounding the area to install new barricades around the grass patch. Protesters then in response joined arms and swarmed inside the square chanting and waving flags and placards. With police intervention barriers were removed and without threat of arrest Chamberlain’s supporters were granted permission to remain on site for protest. A spokesman for Thames Valley Police said the fences were removed because contractors ran out of steel barriers.
After thwarting fence additions protest organiser Danny Chivers, 29, seemed hopeful about the prospects putting enough pressure on the council and halting the development project all together.
Protester Brian Melling, 43, felt the partial victory signified the public’s disapproval of the project. “It’s not often you get a partial victory. The council said they have consulted the public but you can see how many people are here and what they think of what they are doing,” commented Melling to the Oxford Mail.
Tree protester Chamberlain expressed his further support for the 50 campaigners while calling down from his tree, “I think what these people have done is great. It’s not just about saving the tree but about saving the planet. This is the last bit of grass people can sit in Oxford and they are going to turn it in to stone. Why don’t they just leave the grass?"
Over the course of the weekend another, who Chamberlain identified as Eddie Beaumont, joined the tree encampment demonstration.

Chamberlain's mother Josephine Knight-Jacobs said, "I think what he is doing is brilliant. I am very proud of him. Too many people don't stand up enough in this country. I don't understand why they have to cut so many trees down."

Over the next few weeks you will be seeing a lot more multimedia content on Cherwell24. We have hugely expanded our broadcasting team and will be bringing you regular video features and news-in-depth investigations, as well as podcast news roundups.
27/1/08
Helena Zaba and Rachel Williams present C24's first gigging and clubbing roundup . Also, see Cherwell24's first video theatre preview . 24/1/08Our video team further explored the condition of the flooding in Oxford. 13/1/08
Our first releases have just been published – a look at busking and the Cornmarket Bagpiper , a report on the soon-to-be closed Greyfriars PPH and 'Oxford's Most Haunted ', where we go on the hunt for local spooks…We also have a podcast, a roundup of the news over the vac.Happy viewing and check back regularly!

C24 Editorial Team

Jack Pitt-Brooke, Rachel Williams, Helena Zaba and Tom Carpenter report on the Cornmarket buskers, including the famous Bagpiper and new regulations surrounding their trade.
 

Tom Carpenter, Sarah Karacs and Amelia Leeson report on the soon-to-be-closed Greyfriars PPH.
 

Sarah Karacs, Stephanie Illingworth, Christopher Allen and Rob Dacre dare to go hunting for local spooks…

To mark last week's panel discussion on online journalism, held by the German Union of Journalists:(Hat tip: Spreeblick) Cherwell 24 is not responsible for the content of external links

BILDBlog catches Bild out… It draws up from the vault nine bits of speculation about the future of Jürgen Klinsmann, all from the pages of the German tabloid.Apparently he was going to go to one of:

Chelsea
Liverpool
Tottenham
LA Galaxy
England national team
USA national team
Mexico national team
Germany national team
Australia national team

He went to Bayern Munich. Hmm. Cherwell 24 is not responsible for the content of external links

St. Annes?
or Lincoln?

By Nadya ThormanOxford and Cambridge have rejected a government attempt to forge stronger links between universities and academies. The government has appealed to universities to sponsor academies in order to raise educational standards in deprived areas. However Oxford and Cambridge Universities are not among the 20 universities currently signed up to the academy scheme and refuse to commit to sponsorship of local schools. The Universities Secretary John Denham intended university sponsorship of academies to help bridge the gap between universities and disadvantaged communities. He said, “It is clear that the universities that recruit the vast majority of students from a small minority of society are missing out on a huge amount of talent. Widening participation in higher education should be seen as talent spotting by universities.” The North Oxford Academy, which opened last month to replace Drayton school in Banbury, relies on charity funding. Martyn Maker, project manager for the school, said he would welcome a partnership. “We are keen to build links with different agents in the community. Cooperation with [the university] would encourage young people into further education.” A spokesperson for Oxford University said, “Oxford attracts able students from all across the country and we feel that it is important that our access work broadly reflects this national role.” The University maintains that it participates in numerous access schemes, both locally and nationally, which aim to improve application numbers from a range of different backgrounds. They added, “We would be reluctant to be formally associated with a single school.” OUSU Access Officer, James Lamming expressed his support for the University’s decision. “Oxford should reach out to talented students in every school, rather than focusing its efforts on one particular academy. Sponsoring a school also prevents a minefield of difficulties, including creating potential conflicts of interest in the admissions process and distorting local education provision.” Oxbridge has often faced criticism in the past for its low state-school intake, with only 54% of students at Oxford and 57% at Cambridge being drawn from the maintained sector.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the Christ Church undergraduate who has been made leader of the Pakistani opposition, returned to Oxford on Wednesday nignt.Following the assassination of his mother Benazir last month, the 19 year-old history student must transform from a normal, down-to-earth student into a world politial figure.Bilawal has assumed the position of Chairman of the Pakistani People’s Party, whilse his father Asif Ali Zardari will run the party on a day-to-day basis.As the profile of Bilawal increases, police and University staff have been drawing up new plans to ensure his safety. Thames Valley Police are known to be conducting meetings with MI5, and there are reports that they may assign Zardari a personal security officer from Chequers, the Prime Minister’s second home.Bilawal has been moved to new accommodation in Christ Church, and students have been warned not to talk to journalists, several of whom were evicted from college premises last weekend.Speaking for the Thames Valley Police, Toby Shergold said, “We have had suitable security plans in place since Bilawal Zardari began his studies at Oxford University. A threat level is decided, and can change, according to the environment in which the protected person is at any time and also the capability of any group to carry out an attack. Therefore, in light of developments in recent days, the force is liaising with national security services in order to review the arrangements if and where necessary.”The University refused to discuss whether they or the Government would be funding the security of Bhutto Zardari. A spokesperson said, “We take the safety of all our students, including high-profile or high-risk students, extremely seriously. We cannot discuss individual students or arrangements but we keep security under review.”Speaking in London at a press conference on Tuesday, Bhutto Zardari appealed to the media to respect his privacy as he completes his degree, after which he will take up full-time leadership of the party, saying that he feared for his privacy more than his life. He said, “My immediate priority is to return to Oxford to continue my studies. Unless I can finish my education and develop enough maturity I recognise that I will never be in a position to have sufficient wisdom to enter the political arena. When I am at Oxford I hope I can be left alone.”Last term, Bhutto Zardari had been using the pseudonym ‘Bilawal Lawalib’ on his Facebook profile (Lawalib is Bilawal spelt backwards) but revealed his identity if asked. He uses his real name in college, and his parents came to help him unpack at the start of last term like any other student.One Christ Church student said that his background was unknown to many. “I didn’t even know that he was Benazir Bhutto’s son,” said Flo Graham-Dixon. “I had no idea who he was. A down to earth nice guy.”Unlike his mother, who was a social butterfly during her time at Oxford, Bilawal is said to be relatively uninterested in the world of university politics. However, before coming up to Oxford he interned with Alan Duncan, Shadow Business Secretary and friend of his mother.Duncan said of him, “He seemed to me quite reserved, dutiful and steeped in the cause of the family. There are moving echoes of what happened to Benazir when she was at Oxford, when her father was deposed and hanged. She rose to events and I have no doubt that Bilawal will do so too.”