The Developer may have been furious that his scheme to build on the William Morris recreation ground was refused, but local residents are breathing a sigh of relief. 

Traffic conditions on the nearby crossroads of Barracks Lane/ Hollow Way and in Hollow Way itself are already intolerable. 

An additional 72 plus vehicles using those already overloaded roads, especially in rush hour, would have made the nightmare even worse.
The developer claims this development would have provided affordable homes for key workers. 

Unfortunately that claim does not survive scrutiny. Key workers visiting the exhibition at the site asked about part rent part buy. They had obviously already quite correctly calculated that they couldn’t afford the flats. 

The developers own worked example showed that only a couple, already earning average health workers wage or more could possibly obtain any mortgage at all. But the proposal was for an interest only mortgage with a five per cent deposit.

These are highly dubious. They are strongly advised against because they put all the risk of repayment on the borrower. Responsible lenders will only give these mortgages with a 50 per cent deposit – because of the risk of non-repayment involved. Do we really want to drive health workers into unsustainable debt?

Similarly, the suggested legal provisions to keep the flats in the hands of key workers can be undermined in many ways: the proposed covenants may not be legally enforceable. 

If they are they will only apply for a limited time. Anyone living in or near the flats could apply to have the covenant overturned.
Therefore these proposed flats are neither affordable, nor will they necessarily remain in the hands of key workers – really not a good enough reason to relax existing planning policy that developments should have some social housing, and certainly not a good enough reason to build on precious open space in our City.

Dr HAZEL DAWE 
Oxfordshire Green Party
Bulan Road, Oxford