I don’t want to pre-empt the report-back that will occur this evening at our Ward Focus Meeting in the Baptist Church but Ruth and I expect that there will be many who want to have a summary of what has happened on these sites as quickly as possible. What follows is the short version (and still quite long!). Here it is:

There was a marathon meeting of the full City Council last evening where final decisions were made on the two contentious issues of proposals to build on Headington car-park and on Ruskin Fields.

In fact, the first of these did not even get mentioned. It had, as all of those on this forum know, been excluded by the officers from their recommendations. It is worth reading their explanation for the exclusion:

the potential loss of car parking and the effect on
trade at shops in Headington was of considerable concern to the local
community with a petition received of nearly 3,500 signatories against any
development on this site. The site is surrounded by the Old Headington
Conservation Area and for development to be viable it would most likely need
to be built over a number of storeys which could adversely affect the
conservation area. At this stage it is difficult to know whether this is deliverable
and achievable and if it could retain sufficient car parking. For these reasons it
should not be allocated.

As there was no debate on it, their recommendation stands, and so residents can really now celebrate.

On Ruskin Fields, there were representations from both local residents opposing the building on this part of Old Headington Conservation Area and the Principal of Ruskin in favour of it. Again, it had been excluded by officers and what Ruskin wanted was it for it to be re-inserted at this late stage. There was, in fact, an amendment moved to that effect — moved by Stuart Craft (Independent Working Class Association, representing Blackbird Leys) and David Williams, leader of the Greens (who represents the area around Iffley Fields). Stuart’s argument was on the basis of the need for housing anywhere, the Green leader’s was that these ‘two soggy fields’ did not deserve saving. The arguments against, though, remain strong: despite further reports from their agents, Ruskin had not shown a viable access route which would not have done damage to Northway. And these fields do sit in the Conservation Area and are an integral part of it. The amendment was overwhelmingly defeated and so that too has been excluded from development.

HOWEVER, Ruskin may choose at the next stage of the process to press for their site to be included by the Inspector. It would be a costly option for them — and they have already spent over £150k on their proposals — and it is hard to see how they could overcome the natural constraints of the site. But the story may not be over yet.

Of course, two sites — one which would almost definitely have been for student housing and one which would have had 50% affordable housing — have been excluded. There is a housing crisis in Oxford and we do need to build more homes. It is pleasing that at the meeting the plan for an extension to Barton got the green light, but that in itself won’t be enough. Small developments like the social housing element on Manor Ground are now coming to fruitition (how long we have had to work to get that!); our challenge is to find more developments, while protecting the communities that exist.