West Oxford for Affordable Housing: inaugural meeting
- 11 hours ago
- 2 min read
Mary Town Room, West Oxford Community Centre, Wednesday June 24th @ 7pm
All West Oxford residents welcome
Why a campaign for affordable housing in West Oxford? Why now?
As the Botley Road retail sheds close down, we are in danger of getting an unwanted ‘Science Park’ to replace them instead of desperately needed affordable housing.
Oxford City Council are about to rubber-stamp a Local Plan that designates the retail park as “largely in an area of functional flood plain that precludes residential development”. As residents of West Oxford, we know that does not wash. From the roadside, we look upwards to the car park that services Currys, Tapi and the former Jewson warehouse.
This brownfield site, comprising several acres of high ground, could and should be put to better use for affordable housing so our children can stay in their home area when they grow up.
An imminent threat
Meanwhile, the Oxford Growth Commission, set up by Chancellor Rachel Reeves, is mulling its final report, to be delivered within months. It is likely to demand much more commercial development in our already crowded medieval city.
We must reject the reflex that sees vacant land as an opportunity for profit and insist it remains available to meet human needs.
Independent experts, Planning Oxfordshire’s Environment and Transport Sustainably (POETS) have warned that local infrastructure cannot support further large-scale business growth.
Our votes
Both councillors for Osney and St Thomas, Lois Muddiman (Green) and Susanna Pressel (Labour) have been invited to this meeting.
At the recent Oxford City Council election, both Green Party and Liberal Democrat manifestos called for land use to be tilted towards housing and away from commercial development.
What happens to the Botley retail park is an early test of that mandate.
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