As you will have seen in the local press, the revised application for the new Library and Student Building of Brookes on Headington Road received permission from the Full Council on Thursday. The vote was 24 in favour and ten against the application.

You will also remember that Ruth, as an employee of Brookes, was not eligible to take part in discussions of the application. David, meanwhile, was able to and has this comment on the debate:

For most of the time, the discussion concentrated on planning aspects of this application. The pros and cons of having a large student population in the city are live issues, but not ones which could be taking as planning reasons in making a decision on this application. I must say that through the debate I felt the planning arguments were finely balanced: there are many positive elements to the application, including its frontage onto Headington Road and  the intention to be as eco-friendly as possible, but there do remain problems in terms of the impact on the nearest neighbours on Headington Hill. That said, what we had to bear in mind was if the application was refused by councillors, what would a planning inspector decided if, as was likely, it went to appeal. I could not, in the end, convince myself that an inspector would see the single reason of overbearing as sufficient grounds for refusal and so I voted for the application. What I argued is that we have to make sure that the conditions are as full and as water-tight as possible, so that significant post-permission changes occur. That point was broadly accepted and I think what we must do now is move forward and look at ways of further improving the engagement between Brookes and the rest of the community — something which I believe the university is keen to do.

I talked to some of the objectors afterwards and, while disappointed, they certainly felt their concerns had had a fair hearing. I know some people would had preferred the decision not to have been made by all councillors but I stand by my belief that an application as important as this is best decided in as open a way as possible, and that is what happened on Thursday.