Oxford University’s plans for two large new buildings on their land next to Old Road gained planning permission last night. The application was heard by East Area Planning Committee: there were several concerns raised by local residents and an eloquent address by Prof. James, Pro-Vice Chancellor at the University, describing the research benefits of the new buildings. It was eventually passed by five votes to two; I was one of the two members who voted against the application.

As I explained at the meeting, I strongly support the principle of the development and the boost it would bring to Oxford’s reputation as a world-leader in research. Our city’s future is closely entwined with the success of our Universities. It was a disappointment to me, then, that in central aspects, the application was seriously flawed, as became increasingly clear during the meeting. There were two issues: it was clear from the Officers’ Report that the University’s traffic assessment was naively optimistic, claiming that none of the new staff would wish to travel to work by car. The Highways Authority had noticed this and called for developer contributions for work to provide more Controlled Parking Zones (CPZs) — but the amount they were requesting would not cover even that work. As there are no other funds, it would make it unlikely that the Zones will be in place any time soon. But what’ s more, those measures would not be enough in themselves: increased enforcement of existing CPZs is also likely but there is no sign of where the money for that would be found — presumably from local residents already overcharged for parking outside their houses. There was also talk of the need for a cultural shift in practices with people getting out of cars and using buses and bikes to get to work. We have heard that before and I’m all in favour of it — except there was little sign from the application that the University had committed itself to such a radical change, and there are question marks over whether Old Road or Windmill Road would have the capacity for the extra buses that might be needed.

This was a significant issue but it paled in importance besides the other concern raised by residents like Hilary Rollin. That was the issue of the visual impact of the new buildings. These will be high, prominent and close to the road. At the moment, Old Road has a fairly sedate aspect because the University maintains an attractive set of trees as screening by the road, behind which presently sits the car park. The trees will remain — but very few of them are evergreen so there is screening only for part of the year. I asked whether further screening was possible and was told that arboricultural advice that it was not in  the space available. In other words, the buildings will be highly visible for at least some of the year. Some of the members of the Committee considered this a price worth paying for the benefits for buildings would bring to the city’s economy. My own view is that we needed to be convinced that there was no other option before turning one side of Old Road into something like South Parks Road and we did not have before us enough evidence that the University had thought through the implications of what is was doing.

What now? I could not convince the members of East Area Planning of the need either to visit the site before making the decision or of rejecting the application in the form we now have it. But at least I was able to get agreement to reviewing the level of developer contributions so that they can better reflect the work needed to have a sustainable travel solution — frankly, I think the figure quoted — £218,000 — should be doubled. We will see what the County Council decides. More broadly, I and Ruth will, of course, work with the University to make good their proclaimed commitment to travel planning and to encourage them to do more to shield Old Road from the impact of the buildings. At the Committee, we were told that we were taking a long time to reach a decision; to be honest, I don’t think we took long enough or delved deep enough into the issues. I hope we have chance now to make good some of that, late in the day though it is.