Changelog

A reader asked for somewhere to find when Catholic Mass is on, shown on a map like the playground finder. So here it is: the city's Catholic churches on a map and grouped by area — North Oxford, Headington, Cowley, the city centre and South Oxford — each with its Sunday, weekday and confession times, checked against the parish's own website. Times can change for holy days and, at the University Chaplaincy, with the term, so each church links to its own page to confirm. Thank you for the suggestion.

A resident asked for Mass times on a map, like the playground finder. Planned — the build is straightforward; the work is verifying each parish's current Mass schedule and committing to keep it true, so it will come through Oxford's town review.

A new board shows where Oxford's main Park & Ride buses — the 300 (Pear Tree to Redbridge), the 400 (to Thornhill and Thame) and the new 600 (to Thornhill and the hospitals) — are right now, in plain words: how far each one is from the city centre and which way it's heading, so you can tell a bus is coming before you queue. The positions are live from the Department for Transport's Bus Open Data Service; the timetable frequencies are listed for each route, with Water Eaton and Seacourt described honestly (Seacourt's link is disrupted by the Botley Road works until August 2026).

Tell it how long you're staying and how many of you are in the car, and it ranks the cheapest way to park — Westgate or a Park & Ride — by what it really costs. Right now a whole day for up to five people is £2.50 by Park & Ride, versus up to £38 at Westgate.

Which of Oxford's markets are on which day — Gloucester Green, the East Oxford farmers' market and the daily Covered Market — each with its days, hours and source. Built from a resident suggestion.

A resident asked for a way to put in an address and see routes to the nearest playgrounds, with a bit of information about each one. That's now live: type your postcode and you get the five nearest playgrounds — how far away, a rough walking time, and a short note on what's there — plus a link that opens directions in your map app. Walking is the default, with cycling and driving a tap away, just as the suggestion asked. Your postcode is used once to find what's near and is never stored — the same rule as our other address tools. The directions link doesn't carry it either; your map app routes from wherever you are. The list is a verified starter set: 18 playgrounds checked against Oxford City Council's park pages this week, from Cutteslowe Park down to Blackbird Leys, with locations from OpenStreetMap. The council runs 87 play areas across the city, so some smaller greens aren't on the map yet. If your local one is missing — or we've described something wrong — the report link at the bottom of the tool reaches us.

The congestion charge, the traffic filter trial, the Botley Road closure, the Zero Emission Zone and the East Oxford LTNs, each with its current status and what it costs — plus a timeline of what changes when Botley Road reopens in August 2026. Every fact checked against the county's own pages.

Three starting tools for England's most argued-about transport tangle and its floodplain: a flood watch reading the Environment Agency's live river gauges for Osney, Botley Road, Abingdon Road and the Cherwell; plain answers on the congestion charge, traffic filters, bin days, the tip and NHS dentists; and a who-to-call page sorted by which of the two councils owns the problem.