Protesters disrupt council meeting where rail project was approved
The Cowley Branch Line, a £175 million scheme which will see stations built at Cowley retail park and near Priory Road in Littlemore
Protesters have disrupted a city council meeting where £2.5 million in development funding raised in “Oxford’s most deprived communities” was approved for a rail project.
The Cowley Branch Line, a £175 million scheme which will see stations built at Cowley retail park and near Priory Road in Littlemore, reopening the railway into Oxford to passengers for the first time in 60 years.
Oxford City Council cabinet voted to ringfence £2.5m raised from future developments in a 1.5km radius around the new stations to fund the project amid a £14.5 million shortfall.
The funding gap follows the Government announcing £120 million for the project and £35 million from the private sector, including science park and Ellison Institute, before investment discussions stalled.
To fill the shortfall, the county council is borrowing £12 million in business rates, expecting to recoup £10 million, and the city council will put up the remaining £2.5 million over the next ten years, through the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL).
This levy charge is taken from developers and can be allocated to county, city and parish councils to fund infrastructure across the city and localised areas following development projects.
This can include works on roads, public transport projects, the expansion of schools, parks, health centres, and community spaces.
Protesters, including Littlemore residents, city and parish councillors, repeatedly interrupted the meeting and were asked to stop and leave, at which point around 10 people left the premises
One remained and continued to speak in the meeting, and was then also asked to leave.
County and city councillor David Henwood (Independent Oxford Alliance), was a part of the protest and spoke at the meeting.
He said: “Developments in Rose Hill, Littlemoor and Blackbird Leys generate CIL money intended to help mitigate the impact of development.
“So why should that money simply be siphoned off to fund the Cowley Branch Line rather than addressing the infrastructure pressures generated by the developments in those communities?”
Mr Henwood questioned why the BMW Mini plant and Oxford University’s colleges were not “contributing a single penny towards” the project.
He said “there is no guarantee on future fares, and inadequate parking is proposed”, adding “if we are asking some of Oxford’s poorest communities to contribute millions of pounds over 10 years, there should be clear, evidence-based justification – and clear guarantees about what those communities receive in return”.
Council leader Susan Brown (Labour) said she expects tickets into Oxford would cost the same as those from Oxford Parkway to the city centre station, saying this is approximately the same as a bus fare.
She said the line “will enable good connections, really fast connections between some of our communities who are furthest away from the city centre to get into the city centre and to the railway station within about 10 minutes, which is fantastic – at a reasonable price.”
Littlemore city councillor Anne Stares (Independent Oxford Alliance) was also part of the protest and said: “We can all see that the Cowley Branch Line will be of great benefit to this city’s future-but that is the point – this is a benefit to the city, its science parks and local business.
“Its intrusion, both in construction and operation, into the life of Littlemore far outweighs any benefits to that community and its residents.
“Littlemore has been plundered for decades with no meaningful return to its infrastructure.”
She added that the area has “no doctors, no dentists and an aging 70-year-old community centre” and questioned why the decision was being made without a “full impact assessment” on Littlemore, and “rushed through” during the council’s recess period.
Ms Brown said: “It is quite surprising to me that people who were in the past in support of it have come, at a point where we’ve done what no one thought was possible and what everyone said to us was impossible, which is actually get government, private industry and local government to put their hands in their pockets, bring together a very large sum of money in order to make this happen.”
The funding decision was passed unanimously.