Park development recommended despite objections
A meeting was held
Plans to build 31 homes on an Oxford park described as a “lifeline for many families” have been recommended for approval despite more than 215 objections, including from the police.
Oxford City Council is planning to build “affordable” homes, including 22 council properties, on Bertie Park, which serves south Oxford residents in North Hinksey and beyond.
It says the location has been “earmarked for housing development” since 2013 – the current plans were submitted in May 2023, and in 2024 the council agreed to appropriate the land.
Now, the application is set to come to committee on Tuesday, June 23, where councillors have been recommended to greenlight it by the local authority’s planning officers.
Campaign group, Save Bertie Park, which has been fighting the proposals for close to six years, is set to protest ahead of the meeting, outside the town hall at 5.30pm.
A council report says: “Officers would advise members that, having considered the application carefully, including all representations made with respect to the application, the proposal are considered to be acceptable, when read as a whole, in terms of the aims and objectives of the National Planning Policy Framework, and on balance against the relevant policies of the Oxford Local Plan 2036, and that there are no material considerations that would outweigh these policies.”
It also notes over 215 objections were received to the original planning application in 2023.
These included fears about “overdevelopment”, “cramped” housing, “loss of open space”, the historical status of the park which has been “maintained as a public recreation ground dating back to the 1920s–1930s”, an “unsafe” new park and “failure” to comply with planning restrictions.
Since then, the council has made amendments and carried out new consultations which received 95 objections and then three.
Police objections and comments take up three pages of the 88-page council report.
It says Thames Valley Police has “concerns with the proposals in terms of the potential for crime and disorder, and for that reason unable to support this application”.
This is, in part, linked to the location of a new smaller games area created in the plans, with warnings of “negative impact on residents, neighbour disturbances and community tension” and “no clear solution”.
Further, it outlines a “risk of inappropriate parking and highway obstruction, and the creation of demand on the local authority/police to monitor and enforce unauthorised parking of vehicles”.
If planning permission is approved at the meeting next week, Save Bertie Park intends to continue to “fight” it, according to spokesperson Kaddy Beck.
The campaign group cites “problems” with plans stemming “from the fact that one of the project design principles is to ‘upgrade a currently underused site’.”
It says: “There is no evidence to support this.”
Previously, the city council responded to this, saying “as the application is currently live, we cannot comment in detail, but officers have assessed all comments received, including those from Thames Valley Police, local residents and other consultees, and their conclusions will be set out in the report to the planning committee.”