Frontier Estates in OX3: a timeline

Developers Frontier Estates have been actively looking for sites to develop in this area since at least 2014. They have earned a reputation for failing to comply with planning conditions designed to minimise nuisance to residents during construction of Beech House on Latimer Road. Their speculative development proposals for a care home on Pullens Lane have  been rejected by the City Council. Their latest plan is for another speculative development of student accommodation behind Jack Straw’s Lane, where they have been criticised for the way in which they have put pressure on local residents to sell their homes (see for example this post on the local e-democracy forum, and this Oxford Mail article from June 2017).

I have mentioned them many times on Headington Headlines. This page collects all those brief items in one place, together with individual blog posts about them. I will do my best to keep it up to date, though please note that some of the older links may not work any longer.

3 April 2019
HH412
The planning application for the Jack Straw’s Lane development, reference 19/00779/FUL was published on the City Council’s website. Comments may be submitted until 2 May 2019.

4 March 2019
HH407
Frontier Estates showed an outline of their plans for residential accommodation for 160 students on a site between Jack Straw’s Lane and Marston Road. See my separate blog post about it for more information. The thread on the same topic on the Headington & Marston e-democracy forum is also worth reading.

3 March 2019
Jack Straw’s Lane: the new Frontier

18 February 2019
HH406
It seems Frontier Estates, who attracted much local criticism over the development of Beech House, are at it again. They apparently want to build student accommodation on the corner of Jack Straw’s Lane and Marston Road. This post on the e-democracy forum says there will be a public exhibition on 28 February from 5 – 8pm at the United Reform Church on Marston Road.

12 November 2018
HH393
Frontier Estates failed to get planning permission for their care home at 1 Pullen’s Lane, but the JR got permission to extend the A&E facility.

5 November 2018
HH392
The same meeting (East Area Planning Committee) is being recommended to refuse an application by developers Frontier (they of Beech House notoriety) for permission to build a 55-bed care home at 1 Pullens Lane. The relevant report is 36 pages long, but I’ve extracted the ‘Reasons for Refusal’ section which you can read here.

21 May 2018
HH370
@oxcivicsoc recommends that Frontier Estates’ planning application for a care home at 1 Pullen’s Lane should be refused. To summarise their comments; “It was refused before and nothing’s changed”.

14 May 2018
1 Pullens Lane care home timeline

14 May 2018
HH369
The expected planning application by Frontier Estates, locally notorious for their Beech House development, to build a 55 bed care home at 1 Pullen’s Lane has been published on the City Council website, ref: 18/00870/FUL. I’ve updated my timeline of this proposal, and a there is a location map here – the boundaries of the site are not accurate but are the best I could do on Google maps.

20 August 2017
HH331
@LeonardoLoredan has been mounting a one-man twitter campaign pointing out continuous breaches of agreed working conditions by Frontier Estates and their contractors Winvic on the Beech House site, Latimer Road.

23 July 2017
HH327
My favourite Headington-related tweet:

12 June 2017
HH321
Oxford Brookes has denied any involvement with Frontier Estates on the developer’s attempts to acquire land at the top of London Road / Barton Road for a speculative student accommodation scheme.

5 June 2017
HH320
The anger at the way Frontier Estates has been trying to acquire land to build more speculative student accommodation has been growing. Cllr Alex Hollingsworth has become involved, and apparently the draft new Local Plan for the City which will be out for consultation in the next few months includes an intention to curb such developments. The Oxford Mail ran the story, and to follow the local debate you need to go to the e-democracy forum.

22 May 2017
HH318
It looks like Frontier Estates are still in the business of turning Headington into a Student World Theme Park. They have apparently been trying to find people interested in selling their houses at the east end of London Road and in Barton Road. The story is on the e-democracy forum.

7 November 2016
HH290
Locals are getting fed up with Beech House contractors’ vehicles parking on double yellow lines in Latimer Road. Concillor RuthWilk has taken up the case with the developers Frontier Estates, who have come down hard on the contractors. Hopefully things will be better this week.

19 September 2016
HH283
Frontier Estates (the developers building the Beech House student accommodation on the corner of Latimer Road) are resurrecting a new version of the planning application they withdrew earlier this year to build a 55-bed care home at 1 Pullen’s Lane. I’ve drawn up a handy timeline of the ups and downs of this potential development.

16 May 2016
HH266
The application by Frontier Estates to build a 55-bed care home on Pullen’s Lane (see HH249) has been withdrawn. An earlier application by another developer in 2014 was turned down.

9 May 2016
HH265
Frontier Estates, the developers of the student accommodation in Latimer Road, have submitted an appplication to vary one of the conditions for the building to go ahead. They now want permission to “enable the student accomodation to be occupied by cultural and academic visitors and by conference and summer school delegates outside of term time”. It’s worth noting that unless this is called in by Councillors, the decision will be taken as a delegated decsion by the Planning Officer for the case. Given the controversial history of this development we can only hope it gets fully considered.

18 January 2016
HH249
Back in August 2014 (see HH175) a planning application to build a care home for dementia patients at 1 Pullens Lane was turned down by the East Area Planning Committee. Now another developer – Frontier Estates (they of the Latimer Road student accommodation proposals) – has put in a new application (ref: 15/03611/FUL) for a 55 bedroom care home on the same site. The Oxford Mail report is here.

16 November 2015
HH240
Local residents staged a protest in Latimer Road against the proposal by developers Frontier Estates to build student accommodation on the corner with London Road.

2 February 2015
HH199
On Tuesday Frontier Estates exhibited their revised proposals for student accommodation on the corner of Latimer Road and London Road.

26 January 2015
HH198
Developers Frontier are mounting a new public exhibition of their proposals for the corner of Latimer Road. It’s on Tuesday 27 January from 4 – 8pm in the St Clement’s Family Centre in Cross Street. See their invitation for more details. No planning application has yet been submitted.

23 January 2015
Latimer Road Development

10 November 2014
HH188
After deciding not to appear at the Headington Ward focus meeting last week, Frontier Estates organised a public meeting on Friday. They were represented by a consultant. Frontier are the people who want to build student accommodation on the corner of Latimer Road and also have their eye on other land in and around Windmill and Kennett Roads. Here is their Team, presumably too busy to turn out on a Friday night.

3 November 2014
HH187
The developers who want to build student accommodation on the corner of Latimer and London Roads – Frontier Estates – changed their minds about presenting their proposals at the Headington Ward Focus meeting on Tuesday and decided not to attend. The same people have been actively looking for sites in the Windmill Road/Kennett Road area but have not endeared themselves to local residents. There’s no indication on their website that they have any experience of delivering student accommodation, and their non-attendance at the meeting last week won’t help them win support for their Latimer Road scheme.