Sir — The proposed City Deal for Oxford and central Oxfordshire is more city-driven than we may at first realise. Because specific areas of Oxfordshire are also being targeted for development, it serves to mask Oxford’s own rather ambitious expansionist policy out beyond its boundaries into the Green Belt.
Predictably there is a re-emergence of plans to build on land at Grenoble Road: the subject of much debate over the past few years being contrary to both SODC core strategy and Green Belt policy. The City Deal would effectively give this the go-ahead.
Oxford could then redraw the map to absorb other parts of the Green Belt without public consultation. This constitutes a virtual ‘land grab’ by the city council.
The universities have similar ideas of developing land on the edge of Oxford, just outside city limits.
The draft refers to ‘simplified planning’. What exactly does this mean? Alarmingly, there is no mention of the Green Belt anywhere in the City Deal draft. This is of great concern to the surrounding villages and will be detrimental to Oxford itself long term.
Nibbling away at the Green Belt by filling in open spaces, annexing perimeter land for enterprise zones and expanding transport hubs will not make Oxford a better place to live and work: it will make it less desirable.
The danger is that Oxford would become overdeveloped and ubiquitous, then a victim of urban sprawl, like so many other towns in Southern England.
The Green Belt was set up in order to keep land free from inappropriate development, to keep land primarily agricultural and open, and settlements separate. Oxford’s size, scale and setting are unique, and it is the Green Belt which has helped achieve this. Tread carefully.
Nicola Mallows, Gresswell Environment Trust, Stanton St John