City council's decision to sell property to Oxford University upheld
Business owners learn of property sale through media
A controversial decision to sell off a publicly owned city centre property to an Oxford University college has been upheld.
On Wednesday (30 September), a ‘special’ scrutiny committee debated the ‘disposal’ of 11 New Road, a block of shops and an HMO, owned by the council in the city centre, around 80 yards from the Westgate.
Part of the meeting was held confidentially, with a ban on press and public seeing documents or hearing about information, in part due to its relation to financial affairs.
St Peter’s College is attempting to purchase the building to expand its student accommodation down into the first floor and to extend it, quadrupling its student rooms at the site.
The sell-off, originally approved by Oxford City Council’s Labour cabinet on September 16, was called into the committee by Green Party councillors.
Lead councillor for the call-in and area representative Sushila Dhall said: “I called this in for a number of reasons – the first one was the lack of consultation.
“I recognise that selling council property does not mean that you have to consult with the people who are affected.
“But the small businesses who are affected found out about the decision through the media, not because they were told by the council, who is their landlord, and I thought that was poor, poor behaviour, unkind, unfair and frightening.
“I have heard from the people who run the small businesses about how frightening it is to get news that your business is about to be closed through the media and without a time leading up to it. ”
She described how they had “no chance to make any representations about what this might mean for them”.
Ms Dhall also described a “loss” of independent businesses across her ward of Carfax and Jericho and described the nail salon which will be lost in St Peter’s plans for 11 New Road as “popular”.
Ms Dhall called for the committee to ask for secure tenancies for Castle News newsagents and Classy Barbers “so that we don’t lose more small businesses in this ward and so that people’s livelihoods are not threatened, and they are not so frightened by a decision of the council which is meant to look after all of our interests, not just those of large, wealthy landowners.”
City council finance chief Ed Turner spoke and started by saying a significant amount of what he would have to say would be confidential.
He said: “We as a council have a significant property portfolio and the focus of that is commercial, and it brings in around £13m of income a year.”
He suggested that if it was less commercially focused, services, such as advice centres, would be lost.
Mr Turner described the portfolio as “under review” and said that sometimes, when a property may need major works or an offer comes in, “then it makes sense to dispose”.
Emma Gubbins, the council’s head of corporate assets, said the reason the businesses did not hear from the authority earlier was that it was not yet confirmed by the cabinet.
She said “I really have some sympathy with the tenants”, but described inaccurate information as being shared.
Ms Gubbins reassured councillors that the ground floor tenants of the building would have security in their leases, and that a five-year lease had been offered to a business currently on an insecure agreement known as a tenancy at will.
She added that these terms would be “a more flexible lease to take into account” future plans for the property.
The committee voted to support the cabinet’s decision, with councillor Simon Ottino (Labour) saying this was based on the confidential report, how the sale could support the council, and because there is “absolute security” for the ground floor tenants.
Councillor Max Morris (Green) noted that “the University of Oxford’s colleges own a substantial amount of property in the city center” and suggested this factor should have an impact on consultation.
The committee recommended that the council’s offices get in touch with the business owners following the vote “as quickly as possible to in very clear terms express the outcome and its effects on them”.