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The new railway line will connect South Oxford to the city centre. Image credit: Oxford City Council
Change.org petition has been launched in response to the Museum of Oxford’s proposed entry fee. Starting from January 2026, visitors to the Museum of Oxford will have to pay £4 for entry. The Oxford City Council approved the new entry charge in the Cabinet’s October 22 meeting, citing a decrease in footfall as its key consideration. The museum welcomed 55,000 visitors in 2024-5, significantly lower than the 100,000 anticipated in its redevelopment business plan.
While the Council has agreed to spend £152k a year on subsidising the museum, annual financial reports showed the cost of running the museum to be closer to a quarter million pounds yearly. This led to an overspend on the museum, which the new entry charge aims to remedy. Commenting on the fee, Councillor Alex Hollingsworth, Cabinet member for Planning and Culture, said that it would “help visitors to have a more meaningful experience at the museum, while providing an informative and fun experience.”
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fter over 60 years with no passengers, the Oxford Cowley Branch Line is set to reopen, creating new opportunities, connecting South Oxford to the city centre, and reducing congestion. The new train line will deliver to two new stations: Oxford Littlemore, which covers Littlemore and The Oxford Science Park; and Oxford Cowley, covering Blackbird Leys and ARC Oxford. The line will allow South Oxford to be better connected to the city centre, North Oxford, and London Marylebone - with a twice-hourly service to the capital. The campaign to reopen the line was spearheaded by the MP for East Oxford, Anneliese Dodds, who says: “I’m delighted that after years of campaign-
ing for the reopening of the Cowley Branch Line, alongside local residents, this is finally going to become a reality.” She added: “The reopened branch line will make a massive difference to local residents. Slashing travel times and reducing congestion.” The leader of the Oxford City County Council, Susan Brown, said: “Today marks a major milestone in our campaign… something that has been a priority for us for over a decade.” She furthered that this project is the “single most important piece of infrastructure” in ensuring businesses and communities in south and east Oxford are well connected. She predicts that the new line will give “access to more amenities and jobs, help to cut congestion, meet our climate targets, and unlock new homes and jobs.”
Most of the funding for the reopening of the Cowley branch has come as part of the government’s Oxford-Cambridge ‘Growth Corridor’ scheme. This is the government’s investment of £500 million geared towards ‘regional growth’ in both cities. £120 million was approved by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, with a view to improving the “public transport, affordable housing, and infrastructure” that both Oxford and Cambridge need in order to prosper and continue with the “globally renowned science and technology” research that occurs at both universities. Professor Irene Tracey, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford said: “This investment reconnects people with opportunity...”
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herapists are notoriously hard to get hold of. Chatbots, at least, never cancel appointments and are always available. In the UK, nearly a quarter of patients wait more than 12 weeks to start treatment, and some wait up to a year. 1.7 million people are currently on mental-health waiting lists. As demand continues to outpace supply, many are swapping the therapist’s
couch for a chat window instead. But how effective is this new form of therapy? Proponents of AI-chatbots like the idea of free, on-demand psychological support available to anyone with a working internet connection. These tools can offer anonymity and accessibility, qualities that traditional therapy sometimes struggle to provide.
Continued on page 20. Read more at www.oxfordstudent. com.
AI has transformed therapy. Credit: Wikimedia Commons