January 2013

London Road Improvements (2)

TonyOX3

After the public meeting organised by Cllr Roz Smith in December (see my report) the County transport planner has released more details of the revised scheme which will go out for consultation. You can read the statement on @RuthWilk’s website.

The key features are:

  • an inbound bus lane around the outside of the roundabout from the A40 into the A420 London Road as far as a relocated first bus stop.
  • no further inbound bus lane provided and the existing outbound bus lane unchanged.
  • limited road widening needed, but only for a short distance to the east of Northfield Road.

To my great disappointment there’s nothing about improving provision for cyclists or pedestrians along this stretch of the main road. The statement even says the scheme “minimises the impact on cyclists and pedestrians”. In other words, “we shan’t be doing anything for them”.

Cyclists on the cycle track on the north (Bury Knowle) side of the road have to weave their way past lamp-posts, road sign posts, trees and a bus stop. Westbound (inbound) cyclists have a choice of the busy road and then a bus lane or an unmarked shared pedestrian and cycle path again with a variety of obstacles.

It seems the growing movement to give higher priority to designing roads and streets with cycling in mind hasn’t got through to Oxfordshire transport planners yet. Which gives me the opportunity to share this article showing some innovative thinking about bicycles and bus stops (with thanks to @ParadiseOxford for the original link).

Headington Headlines #94

TonyOX3

Here’s my weekly round-up of local news for 7 – 13 January.

Police appealed for information about a burglary and an attempted burglary in Headington the week before last. The incidents happened in Peat Moors and Dene Road.

The Fire Service was called to Foresters Tower, Wood Farm late on Tuesday afternoon to attend to a small kitchen fire.

@TVP_Oxford are appealing for information or sightings of a black Range Rover LX08 YJH stolen from Merewood Avenue, Risinghurst Sandhills [corrected] on Wednesday.

The Headington Heritage blog carried an impassioned plea to prevent Bury Knowle Barn and Stables being transferred to private ownership for development. History of the buildings on headington.org.uk.

@Oxford_brookes has restricted parking at its Gipsy Lane site to visitors only. It used to be for staff as well.

@Ruskin_College‘s plans to develop Ruskin Fields for housing have been rejected by the government’s Planning Inspector.

Formal consultation has opened about @WimdmillOxford school becoming three-form entry. @RuthWilk explains why it’s important to let your views be known (again).

@RyeStAntony school has submitted two planning applications, one (12/03283/CAC) to demolish the existing bursary building, the other (12/03240/FUL) to build a two-storey classroom building, a single-storey extension to the Randall Building and a new entrance courtyard.

Oxford City councillors have approved Oxford University’s plans for a major new research complex on the Park Hospital site.

William Hill has submitted a planning application (ref. 13/00023/FUL) for a betting shop where Cartridge World used to be. The Oxford Times carried a story headlined “Anger over plans for betting office” implying that local traders were less than happy about the idea. However only one trader is quoted, saying the idea is “ridiculous” and wishing for a retail unit instead. Hardly evidence of widespread anger I suggest. There are already two bookies in Headington and for this application to succeed a change of use will be required.

I’ve started a new page on this blog specifically for planning matters: I’ll try to cover the major developments in the area. The first new entry is about the Haboakus developments in Northway.

Quite a busy week on the Headington & Marston e-democracy forum. Active topics this week:

  • Scout Hall in Quarry
  • MISSING – Grey Long Hair Cat (Millie)/li>
  • Should Windmill School grow to over 600 pupils?
  • Volunteers needed to help with type 2 diabetes research
  • Good homes for used carpet?
  • Empty shops in Headington
  • Long-stay charging to begin at Park and Ride
  • Save Bury Knowle Barn and Stables!
I try to cover news from the OX3 postcode in Headington and out as far as Barton, Sandhills and Risinghurst (see map). To feed into next week’s summary you can comment on this article, or tweet either with the hashtag #ox3 or @mentioning @TonyOX3.

Northway Developments – Haboakus

TonyOX3

Developers Haboakus have finally submitted planning applications for three developments in Oxford. Two of the them are in Northway, the third in Cowley. The applications were submitted at least a week ago (week beginning 31 December or before) but as I write this they still haven’t appeared online.

Who’s Who?

Haboakus is a joint venture. The ‘Hab’ part is TV celebrity architect Kevin McCloud’s company. Hab stands for Happiness, Architecture, Beauty.

Oakus is a trading name of housing asociation GreenSquare, which incorporates what used to be the Oxford Citizens’ Housing Association. OCHAs, presumably pronounced Oakus. Neat, eh?

Tenure

The developers say that most of the accommodation will be affordable housing for rent or shared ownership, with a small proportion for sale on the open market.

On Display

These developments have been much delayed: I first wrote about them in Headington Headlines #3 back in March 2011. I learned that the final proposals were on show at GreenSquare’s offices in Cowley so I went to have a look. I was disappointed, but perhaps not surprised, to find the display consisted of only two small boards on the wall in Reception. There were no plans or technical drawings, only a few rather sketchy artist’s impressions. For what it’s worth I’ve copied the text relating to the two Northway sites.

Westlands Drive

The [project] sits on the corner of Westlands Drive and Sutton Road, next to the Northway Evangelical Church and Plowman Tower. The proposed building is a three-storey mansion block containg 21 one- and two-bedroom flats. The block is in fact two blocks split on either side of a central ‘winter garden’ which allows more daylight and cross-ventilation to all homes and creates opportunities for residents to meet and chat.

Dora Carr Close

[The development] will provide 47 new homes including 15 three-bedroom houses, 4 four-bedroom houses and a four-storey mansion block containing 28 one- and two-bedroom flats. As at Westlands Drive the mansion block has an enclosed winter garden running down its centre. The proposal also provides new state-of-the-art community facilities including a mulit-use hall with improved sports changing rooms, social and café areas, local business units, education and learning space and outdoor areas for growing food. This new venue will have the capacity to host social occasions such as weddings, conferences and sports events.

These are the best pictures I could get of the drawings. There should be better ones once the planning application goes public. You can see the location of the two sites on this map.

The precise boundaries may not be right and I’ll adjust them once the plans are available. [Update 9 Feb 2013: The boundaries shown correspond with the plans published in the planning applications.]

My Thoughts

It’s a bit early to get any real idea what these developments will look like and what impact they will have on the local area. An Oxford Mail report suggested there may still be local opposition. Purely as a first reaction I rather like the idea of the ‘winter garden’ (I would call it an atrium) to bring light and air into the ‘mansion blocks’ (or ‘blocks of flats’). The idea of residents meeting and chatting is the kind of worthy idealism we might expect from Kevin McCloud. It will be great if it happens, but it remains to be seen how realistic it turns out to be.

Apparently the City Council say it takes a long time to get ‘big developments like this’ into the online planning enquiry system. I hope that doesn’t mean the time comes out of the statutory consultation period, but I fear it might. If you know please leave a comment!