The campaign to save Dorset House from demolition was mentioned briefly in yesterday’s Oxford Mail , click here for the link.
Five residents from Latimer Grange and McMaster Court attended yesterday’s site meeting with the demolition company, along with the Latimer Grange manager and Ruth.
The project supervisor’s name is Eric and he will be present on the site at all times during demolition. The work is scheduled to start on Monday 8 June and the hours of work will be between 8.00 and 18.00 Monday to Friday, and 08.00-13.00 Saturdays, this was agreed with approval of residents. It is scheduled to take 8 weeks and all access will be from London Road.
The dismantled materials will be recycled as much as possible – bricks, roof tiles, timber. In the unlikely event that contractors’ machines will damage the pavement outside (making it difficult for the elderly with buggies), the demolition firm will make good the damage. Asbestos is present on the site but appropriate safety precautions are being taken. Some of the trees have a protection order on them and ‘crowd barrier’ style fencing will be placed around them with signs to warn demolition staff to keep clear of them. A map was produced which shows which trees have TPOs and which not (the majority along the London Road boundary). There will be no burning on site. Dust will be damped down as much as possible. The site will be locked up as now during the project, and the side gate to Latimer Road may need to be strengthened. Contractor parking will be on site.
Representatives from Quintain arrived towards the end of the meeting. They said that they would shortly be approaching Oxford City Council for pre-application advice regarding development of the site but they didn’t know what would be in the application. (They withdrew their previous application four years ago which was for student accommodation) One person from Quintain said that in his view there was only one tree on site worth keeping and that was a copper beech at the rear of the site opposite Latimer Grange, but that was diseased. It also turned out that this particular tree is in the way of the demolition. I rang the Tree Officer immediately to ask him to do checks on this, and also the Head of Planning Control and Development at the City Council. To be frank, I am concerned that trees may be lost, although there is no evidence to back this up, and I have already arranged that an enforcement officer keeps a close watch on the project
The local residents have been invited to visit the site at any time and raise any issues they may have with Eric the supervisor. If any resident from Latimer Grange needs Eric’s contact number I suggest they contact Andrew the manager, and I have it too.