RE: Botley and ‘competitive’ redevelopment. In your excellent article on the proposed over-development of Botley, Matthew Barber of Vale of White Horse District Council suggests that the city council objects “because of its own retail developments”.
This is a very telling statement and he appears to regard this as a competition between developments.
That is precisely what we wish to avoid. The redevelopment of Botley as a local service centre should meet local needs and not be about maximising income for Vale and for Doric Properties. The restructuring should be, as the Vale themselves have said, ‘in keeping with scale and character’ of what exists in Botley — a quiet suburb of Oxford.
There is a wider issue: developers appear to believe that there is no end to the number of out-of-town retail developments that can be built.
Beyond Retail, the new Town Centre Task Force report, shows how the UK is starting to have ‘white elephant’ developments that are failing to attract people. More significantly, too many of our town centres are losing out as well.
It is in everyone’s interest, perhaps with the exception of Doric, to have a vibrant city centre in Oxford. That needs planning that addresses the long-term interests of the whole city, not excluding Botley simply because we are outside a line on a map.
We need a strategic approach, not competition, and Vale needs to recognise that Botley is not their ‘north-east corner’, it is part of Oxford.
CHRIS CHURCH
Crabtree Road
Oxford
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