Anti-housing campaigners want city 'not to become Swindon' (From Oxford Mail)

Anti-housing campaigners want city 'not to become Swindon'

3:35pm Tuesday 12th January 2010 in

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CITY planners have been urged to drop ideas for large-scale housebuilding across Oxford at a meeting of angry residents.

About 60 people effectively passed a motion of no-confidence in the city council’s planning department when they met at a Town Hall rally on Monday.

The motion was passed at a meeting called to discuss the council’s controversial core strategy – the city’s planning blueprint until 2026.

The strategy contains plans to build thousands of homes on land south of Grenoble Road in Greater Leys, the Northern Gateway, near Pear Tree, and by Barton.

However, they are on hold while a High Court judge runs the rule over the Grenoble Road idea.

A legal challenge was made by the Campaign to Protect Rural England, which argued not enough consideration had been given to building homes elsewhere in Oxfordshire before that chunk of Green Belt land was identified as ripe for development.

But people representing different residents’ groups from across Oxford called on the council to rip up its core strategy and start all over again.

They complained insufficient consultation had been carried out and urged planners to redraw the strategy after consulting them first.

Jonathan Gittos, chairman of Engage Oxford – a pressure group set up to fight the Northern Gateway proposals – said: “There is a fundamental difference of opinion between the council and the people of Oxford.

“The council’s vision is to double the size of the city by 2026.

“Historically, Oxford has been one of the most beautiful cities in the world – it is not Swindon, Reading or Luton.

“The council needs to consult and discuss its vision with the people of Oxford. I am opposed to any development that is not sympathetic to the characteristics of Oxford.

“Development should meet the needs of the people of the city, it should not meet the needs of Government or multinational developers.

“The key point is we want a city that is beautiful. I might be a snob, but I don’t want to live in Swindon, Reading or Luton.”

Large numbers of those at the meeting, which was chaired by Oxford West & Abingdon Liberal Democrat MP Evan Harris, claimed they knew little or nothing about the city council’s house-building plans.

Sean Feeney, of Victoria Road, said: “I think councillors knew in detail what was happening with the core strategy.

“It was their duty to tell people what was happening and they failed to do so.”

Last night, a spokesman for Oxford City Council said: “These concerns have already been expressed by local residents to the planning inspector who held the core strategy examination (or public inquiry) in the summer last year.

“The city council has vigorously defended both the policies in the core strategy and the extensive consultation that it undertook during its preparation. We are now awaiting the inspector’s report.”