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Date is set for town green review

5:38pm Wednesday 13th January 2010


THE decision to designate Oxford’s Warneford Meadow as a Town Green will go to the High Court next month.

A judicial review, challenging Oxfordshire County Council’s decision to register the meadow as a Town Green, will begin on February 25.

In April last year, County Hall backed a planning inspector’s recommendation that the 18-acre green site should be given the protected status.

Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Mental Health NHS Trust, which owns the land, wanted to dispose of the site near the Warneford Hospital for development.

Hundreds of local residents formed the Friends of Warneford Meadow to preserve the green space and to secure Town Green status, which would prohibit future development.

Julie Waldron, chief executive of the mental health trust, said the decision to proceed with a judicial review had only been taken after legal advice.

She added: “Selling the Warneford Meadow would release much-needed funds to upgrade our current in-patients’ units in Oxford.

“Without these funds, the trust will have to borrow money to upgrade our wards, which would result in us having to pay interest on the loans, diverting money away from patient care.”

She said the land had been marked for development in Oxford City Council’s Local Plan.

Andrew Carter, of the Friends of Warneford Meadow, said that the area contained a rich variety of wildlife and any development would threaten this.

He added: “The trust has chosen to spend many thousands of pounds of public money to prolong the uncertainty about the future of the meadow and impose substantial legal costs on the council and on residents, when the factual and legal issues have already been thoroughly considered by the public inquiry.”

County Hall said the council had received a recommendation from the planning inspector that the meadow should be given Town Green status.


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Your Say YourOxford

Foxy Lady, Oxford says...
5:52pm Wed 13 Jan 10

This Green without doubt is rich in wildife, the local ducks that used to live on the now Churchill cancer Centre siteb actually still nest at the Churchill, only thie time 3 floors up and in flower pots. This site serves as an invaluable green lung for all of us patients, inpatients and locals. The hospital need to look at other ways of improving - after all they have just built the new childrens centre, the new cancer centre etc - all of which costs millions - keep this green, its what a local mental health professor should state - it is nature that keeps us sane.

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RJ, says...
11:18pm Wed 13 Jan 10

Come on. I used to work in NHS finance. As a rough guide, 75-80% of funds was spent on SALARIES. The remaining 20-25% for capital projects and supplies, is therefore pretty much pocket change.

‘Patient care’ then, mostly means salaries. Now I’m not suggesting NHS people should work for free – far from it. But since most ‘funding’ is spent on salaries, a recurring expense, fresh funding is very quickly exhausted.


Thus I’m afraid that the argument about ‘much-needed funds’ and ‘diverting money from patient care’ looks pretty spurious.


Moreover, there is little point in the govt bleating on about climate change, and biodiversity, when every available green space is built on in the name ‘health’ or ‘education’ (or 'housing, stupid...!).

I would ask those involved in this expensive High court action (which is also taking public money away from patient care) - take full responsibility for what you are doing, realise what it is costing, and examine your consciences carefully.

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