TWO years ago, on seeing the skeletons of the Oxford University Roger Dudman Way buildings starting their terrible rise over Port Meadow I started a petition, which thousands of Oxford’s residents flocked to sign.

The petition signatories were so numerous that a meeting of Oxford City Council was filled to more than overflowing when it was presented, and in December 2012 the Campaign to Save Port Meadow, bringing together campaigners from all walks of life, was launched.

Since then the Save Port Meadow Campaign has exposed numerous failings in the planning process and last October took Oxford City Council and Oxford University to the High Court in Birmingham. The result of that was Oxford University offering to the judge to do a ‘voluntary’ EIA in line with normal procedures (the country’s first retrospective Environmental Impact Assessment), which of course should have been done in the first place.

This process would usually take a few weeks; however a year on, as yet we have seen nothing. Summer trees have done nothing to soften the impact of the blocks, conditions are still not signed off (meaning that OU is occupying the buildings illegally), it is not known if the badgers fenced off by Oxford University at the far end of Cripley Meadow allotments have survived, and the planning process as well as the buildings have been widely denounced as a disgrace. Whilst we do not object to building on this brownfield site, we await the Environmental Impact Assessment with hope.

Sushila Dhall (For the Save Port Meadow Campaign), Stable Close, Rewley Park, Oxford

 

Today’s letters

 

  • Do you want alerts delivered straight to your phone via our WhatsApp service? Text NEWS or SPORT or NEWS AND SPORT, depending on which services you want, and your full name to 07767 417704. Save our number into your phone’s contacts as Oxford Mail WhatsApp and ensure you have WhatsApp installed.