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Campaigners claim victory over Green Belt housing

11:40am Tuesday 29th September 2009 in News

THE Oxfordshire branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England has claimed victory in its battle against plans to build 4,000 homes in Green Belt land south of Oxford’s Grenoble Road.

The development was included as part of the South East Plan, which was approved in May, but the CPRE and South Oxfordshire District Council had opposed the plan and launched a judicial review of the decision.

Thame CPRE chairman Michael Tyce said this morning that the Secretary of State had conceded insufficient consideration had been given to alternatives, which would “almost certainly” mean the scheme would not go ahead.

Comments(12)

Andrew:Oxford says...
12:02pm Tue 29 Sep 09

Michael Tyce must be joyous at being able to deny 10,000 people the chance to have a decent home on the city boundary. Hope the next review brings the 4000 homes to just outside Thame.

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Peat says...
12:39pm Tue 29 Sep 09

I join Michael in his delight then Andrew.

The green-belts should not be desecrated for the sake of a population that can't keep thier trousers on...

There is plenty of housing around if you are willing to look for it, and dare i say it, AWAY from Oxford?? But no, people think they are somehow 'owed' a roof over thier heads.

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dhorspath says...
12:51pm Tue 29 Sep 09

Thank you Peat. Andrew, Oxford entirely misses the point as there is more than enough land available within the city. The fact is that the supporters of this 'urban extension' have been denied their opportunity to make billions, to the detriment of the eastern villages. It is a great victory for the residents of those villages, (the Baldons, Garsington and Horspath) CPRE, OGBN and SODC and it is equally a massive smack in the teeth for Andrew Smith and Ed Turner, who (given the amount of taxpayers money they have wasted trying to get this development approved), if they had any integrity at all, should both now resign.

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Lord Palmerston says...
1:27pm Tue 29 Sep 09

" deny 10,000 people the chance to have a decent home on the city boundary. "
What does this mean? There appear to be numerous houses for sale in Oxford. Are the estate agents all pretending, or what?

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Joe Cooke says...
1:32pm Tue 29 Sep 09

Oxfordshire Nimby's at it again, I have never known so many Nimby's that moan at everything. Build on Grenoble Road, Oxford people want to sta in Oxford!

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Andrew:Oxford says...
1:44pm Tue 29 Sep 09

There are 314 properties listed under £250K on rightmove in Oxford... I would add that it would be preferable if the Southfield Golf Club were turned over to car-free high density social housing with the land south of Grenoble Road being converted into a large golf course instead - but I just can't see that ever getting past the Green NIMBYs in Oxford either.

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Niko Bellic says...
5:16pm Tue 29 Sep 09

I just wanted to say that with mine and my partners combined incomes (both full time, both based in central Oxford) we are only eligable for a mortgage of up to £185k dependent on lender, and with excellent credit history.

We commute to Oxford every day for work, and dependent on time of day this can be upwards of an hour. I simply cannot afford decent accomodation within the city and therefore have to lose out on up to 10 hours a week sat in traffic contributing to the pollution and conjestion problem as well as the problem in my wallet.

I assume that those protesting against the much needed development already have well located housing?

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Lord Palmerston says...
6:48pm Tue 29 Sep 09

"social housing "
Translation please.
Could you mean "subsidised housing"? Well you subsidise mine and I'll subsidise yours.

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Green123 says...
7:19pm Tue 29 Sep 09

I spend ten hours a week on buses communting along the A40 into Oxford.

If I wanted to sell my house in Witney and buy a house in Oxford that was walking or cycling distance to the city centre, I would have to downsize to a flat, and probably not a very nice one at that.

My choice, though. I feel very sorry for people who cannot get onto the property ladder at all, and I feel equally sorry for people who are squashed into unsuitable homes. Oxford needs more houses, simple as that, and the land south of Grenoble Road is just one suitable site that could be used. I love Andrew:Oxford's idea about the golf course though!!

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Patrick in Devon says...
11:05pm Tue 29 Sep 09

The alternatives are presumably more housing beyond the green belt, or to use every available open space in the city? Surely this site is a better option. Providing housing near to where the jobs are is common sense.

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Grundon Skipp says...
11:34pm Tue 29 Sep 09

I fear that most of you are missing the point and have been duped into arguing amongst yourselves. Don't feel bad though- you're not supposed to know the real reasons behind the need for such huge expansion and you'll be called nasty names if you do.

Western European nations haven't 'failed to keep their trousers on' (PEAT) and the '10,000 people deined a chance to have a decent home' (Andrew) wouldn't have been local, or even British. While we collectively squabble over these erroneous points, another migrant will have arrived every minute and a new home will have had to have been built to house migrants every six minutes. You can check the facts on migrationwatchuk.com
, or simply walk around East Oxford and beyond. Now you may or may not agree with concreting over England to provide a 'better life' for people overwhelmingly from the Third World where the population is expanding unsustainably year on year- but let's not kid ourselves that such developments are to provide decent housing for the indigenous local or even English population that has seen stable or falling birth rates for decades.

Do you sacrifice your garden to build an extension for your kids who share a room to have more space and then invite the neighbours to live in it? Doesn't make much sense to me...


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nobbycheysa says...
11:46am Wed 30 Sep 09

Some people would have us build all over our green and pleasant land until there was nothing green or pleasant about it.
I was fortunate enough to have grown up in the Baldons watching Oxford grow ever closer. I would have loved to be able to afford to stay there as an adult but not at the expense of joining it up to the grey suburbs of a major city. I do sympathise with those looking for affordable housing near to a place of work so they can raise a family and have decent life. Unfortunately it all seems to be occupied. I can live with being called a Nimby Andrew! Too right mate...NOT IN MY BACK YARD (well garden actually)!

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