8:54am Wednesday 14th March 2007
By Giles Sheldrick
Green campaigners believe Oxford City Council has shot itself in the foot by admitting more homes could be built in the city than first thought.
The Town Hall has long campaigned for a so-called urban extension - a large housing development on Green Belt land south of the city boundary.
But council officers told a public inquiry into housebuilding across the South East that they could squeeze 10,000 new homes into Oxford by 2026 - many more than originally thought.
The comment by the chief planning officer, Michael Crofton-Briggs, has been seized on by environmental campaigners, who claim it has undermined the council's case for an urban extension.
Mr Crofton-Briggs told Government planning inspector Mary Travers that already-identified sites in the city could provide 7,150 homes, with the rest coming from so-called "windfall" locations, which become available for development.
Ultimately, the council wants the Government to order a review of the Green Belt and release land around Oxford for housebuilding.
But Andy Boddington, the Campaign to Protect Rural England's Oxfordshire spokesman, said: "A review presumes change and, given our policy, we would prefer not to encourage a climate of change. I'm not terrified of a review.
"The fact it (the Green Belt) has survived for 50 years adds strength to our argument, not weakens it.
"It's quite clear the city doesn't need the land south of Grenoble Road to meet its housing needs.
"The city council is a landowner on the Grenoble Road site and the suspicion must arise that its main interest is in the financial gain it will receive when the site is developed. It's not the pressing need for more housing that's threatening the Green Belts, it's the failure to make best use of the land in urban environments."
The city council said it wanted to keep workers close to the city, instead of encouraging people to commute from neighbouring towns.
But the threat to the Green Belt does not just come from the Town Hall. Thames Water and Magdalen College want to build an 8,000-home development on land they own off Grenoble Road.
Land off Oxford Road, Garsington, owned by Brasenose College, has also been offered for development.
Mr Crofton-Briggs said: "We said to the (inquiry) that we think Oxford ought to be providing at least 12,000 (houses by 2026). Therefore, if one was to take the top-end figures, we're 2,000 short of our 'at least' figure.
"Oxford isn't just saying 'please can we have a review of the Green Belt', we're not wanting simply to grab land from the Green Belt and not seriously within the city.
"Going into the Green Belt is not an either/or - it's as well as everything in the city.
"I fully appreciate the panel would need to be convinced by the city's argument that there are extreme circumstances that warrant a significant change of policy."
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