Once again it has been suggested that houses should be built (1,300 of them) on Oxford Golf Club land at Southfield, near the Lye Valley.

Thank you very much district councils of Cherwell, Vale of White Horse and South Oxfordshire. Do you really think development there has not been thought of already – and discounted on excellent grounds?

Documents explaining why this would certainly not be a ‘sustainable’ development are still available on the city council’s website: one of them is my ecological report, the other is a hydrological report on the implications of building such a large number of houses on the Lye Valley wetland fen Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and on the Local Wildlife Site, which together cover a good part of the golf course. Links to these documents can be found at judithwebb.weebly.com

The Lye Valley habitat is a rare, alkaline, spring-fen, wetland. Recent studies have shown that only 19.1 hectares (less than the area of South Park in Oxford) of this kind of habitat remain in the whole of England and 1.5 hectares of that total are here, in the Lye Valley.

It is a European Priority Habitat. Oxford City Council has a duty of care to such a nationally/internationally important wildlife habitat and it recognises this.

Furthermore, the proposed development would have hydrological implications for people living in other parts of the city. The Boundary Brook runs through the golf course and already receives much road run-off from urban areas, resulting in flooding in the Florence Park/Campbell Road area.

Covering the golf course with hard, impermeable, surfaces would result in more run-off, and consequently houses near the lower reaches of the Boundary Brook would be at even more risk of inundation.

JUDITH WEBB
Blenheim Road
Kidlington