Developers set to press ahead on Nuffield Club housing (From The Oxford Times)
When It Happens Panel Get involved: send your photos, videos, news & views by texting 'OXFORD NEWS' to 80360 or email
Developers set to press ahead on Nuffield Club housing
9:30am Saturday 27th October 2012 in News
DEVELOPERS hoping to build houses on land forming part of the Lord Nuffield Club site have said they will continue with their plans despite objections.
Cantay Estates has purchased the land and club house with the intention to sell off the building for a free school and building 40 homes on the land.
But Bob Timbs, a former member of the club before it went into receivership, said there had been an attempt to develop the land before.
The former city councillor said: “To try to save the club they asked for planning permission to build a block of flats on that site.
“But Michael Crofton-Briggs, the head of city development, stated to them that under no circumstances would there be any further development on that site.”
Mr Crofton-Briggs said a planning application had not yet been submitted and it would be decided at a later date.
But he added: “There is a policy in the local plan which seeks to protect against the loss of open space.
“I drew the club’s attention to that policy and I would draw anyone else’s attention to it as well.”
The Lord Nuffield Club was founded in 1919 as the Morris Motors Athletic Club.
It went into receivership in 2009 just two years after moving into its newly constructed clubhouse.
The building has stood empty since then but now Cantay Estates has said it is negotiating with the group behind Tyndale Community School which is set to open next September as Oxford’s first free school.
Tony Nolan, of Cantay Estates, said last night: “It doesn’t change our view and we are still aiming to develop the land.
“There is no public access to that field at the moment and we are seeking to bring it into use.”
A planning application for the development is expected to be submitted to the city council in the next few weeks.
Comments(17)
Geoff Roberts
says...
8:23am Mon 29 Oct 12
Hollow Way is going to fun after they build the houses and the school has moved in fully. Apparently the school is already pretty much a done deal and they've already moved stuff in.
Currently Hollow Way is a nightmare, possibly one of the worst small roads in Oxford for traffic. An entire community divided and ruled by a road. Once those houses and flats are built and the school is up to 400 pupils hopefully it'll start putting people off driving down the road because they won't be able to, it'll be grid lock. The downside is that there's a fire station on Horspath Driftway which regularly needs to use Hollow Way along with Ambulances and police. They already have difficulty getting down the road. Even making it an urban clearway doesn't work and that is unfair on residents but stuff the residents, they are second class.
Geoff Roberts
says...
11:24am Mon 29 Oct 12
Geoff Roberts
says...
11:29am Mon 29 Oct 12
Basilisk
says...
10:42am Tue 30 Oct 12
How many parents, rather than stagger up and down the steep incline in Barracks Lane twice a day - let alone in rain or snow - will pile into their cars to ferry their children to and from school? Barracks Lane is a cul-de-sac, so anything that goes down must come back up the same way. That's potentially a lot of traffic movements and 3-point turns etc. Pretty dangerous for the projected 400 or so young children PLUS parents massing outside the school. And what of safety for cyclists on the Designated Cycle Route, or for pedestrians and other school children exiting the track straight onto the lane just where cars will most likely be turning? Quite frankly, I can't think of a more dangerous place for a primary school to be sited.
Will the new houses be accessed from Barracks Lane or Crescent Road? Barracks Lane in particular - it's a lane, for heaven's sake! - is hardly fit access for more houses than are there already.
There are numerous terraced houses on both sides of Hollow Way who have nowhere else to park their cars than in Barracks Lane. Their front gardens are too small to take a car; parking on Hollow Way itself has been greatly restricted in recent years; Marshall Road is chocca already; and Horspath Road near the lights is double yellows. So I hope that parking restrictions won't be imposed in the Lane to try and get round the congestion and dangers that are inherent in Cantay's and the school's proposals. That would be highly unfair on local residents.
And by the way, the Oxford Local Plan 2001-2016 designates both the old football/cricket pitch and the bowling green as SR2 Protected Open Space. Does that count for nothing after all? I suppose it also counts for nothing that both had been well used for years until the rise and fall of the Lord Nuffield Club, and have been sports grounds for well over 100 years.
Geoff Roberts
says...
7:14pm Fri 9 Nov 12
The organisation behind Oxfordshire Community Churches, one of the 2 partners behind the proposed school is called The Evangelical Alliance. They are the world's oldest and possibly largest Evangelical organisation. Here's what The people behind the proposals for the school think on the topical subject of same-sex marriage:
"we will be promoting a continued vision for marriage that has consistently served society well. Marriage is between a man and a woman, and shouldn’t be a political tool at the behest of a few, or be subject to the principles of consumerism. It is a distinctive and vital building block for society as a whole."
The source is from the EA's own website.
It looks like they teach creationism, intelligent design along with evolution. The brochure for the proposed school states that it will have religious teachings. It will not be inclusive in terms of political and religious views in it's teachings.
Basilisk
says...
4:47pm Sun 11 Nov 12
Without him I think many of us would have been unaware of the meeting, as I don't recall any similar notification being distributed, if only as a courtesy to local residents, by either Cantay or the school.
Geoff Roberts
says...
7:05pm Sun 11 Nov 12
Geoff Roberts
says...
7:07pm Sun 11 Nov 12
Basilisk
says...
12:34pm Mon 12 Nov 12
Geoff Roberts
says...
12:48pm Mon 12 Nov 12
The final meeting listed is December 3rd.
Unfortunately I suspect many people won't have noticed the next 2 meetings so it could be a low turnout. I think the meeting starts at 5pm (which can make it difficult to attend at the start for some). The first meeting wasn't an organised meeting, more of a show of the plans.
Joe Chapman
says...
1:06pm Mon 12 Nov 12
I have started a blog about this and have some ideas which I'd like to share at the meeting.
Here's the link to the blog:
http://savethelordnu
ffieldclub.wordpress
.com/
It probably won't be clickable here. If not you could try copying and pasting it into a browser, failing that a google search for Save The Lord Nuffield Club should show the blog on the first page of results.
Basilisk
says...
1:33pm Mon 12 Nov 12
There's interesting official traffic flow data to be found online using a google search on Annual average daily traffic flows oxford . There are some very useful comparisons to be drawn.
It was suggested to me at the meeting on 6th November that concerned parties could/should write to their MP and local councillor even in advance of planning applications.
Btw Joe, your blog web address given in your Comment needs a bit of tweaking - there are some formatting characters that somehow creep in using copy/paste, but nothing too problematic.
Joe Chapman
says...
1:51pm Mon 12 Nov 12
The traffic flow point is very interesting.
I noticed there was a recent Traffic Survey a month or so back on Hollow Way when the road was terrible (which isn't unusual) I would like to see that data and be able to present it.
The local city councillors from both sides of Hollow Way were at the meeting on the 6th and both appear to be opposed to the plans.
I think a petition is in order. It would need at least 1,500 signatures (online or hard copy) and could be presented for full council meeting (December) 2 weeks in advance. The full council meeting may be after the last club meeting though.
Andrew Smith MP has been involved previously.
One of my concerns is in opposing plans without having a longer term plan for the site. The risk is that a chain of development proposals are successfully opposed but eventually we end up with something worse than when we started or not what the community wants, needs or can sustain.
Joe Chapman
says...
5:24pm Mon 12 Nov 12
I went to the club, no-one there. Phoned the number for the school which gave 2 new dates.
Friday 13/01/2012. 7.30pm. Regal.
Friday 27/01/2012. 2pm. Asian Cultural Centre.
However! I think they've used the wrong calendar and used a 2012 calendar instead of 2013 because both of those dates are a Sunday in 2013 but on a Friday in 2012!
Doh!
No mention of cancellations.
Joe Chapman
says...
10:21pm Mon 12 Nov 12
I have told Tyndale Community about the lack of communication regarding meetings and they have replied (on Facebook)
"Sorry. This is a failure of communication on our part. We shifted the dates back to allow more time for people to hear about them. The next public meeting will be at Oxford Spires Academy on Fri 23 Nov, and then again on Thu 6 Dec.”
I have requested more information and clarification. I'd also like to know why the club isn't being used this time.
Joe Chapman
says...
10:24pm Mon 12 Nov 12
wobbler says...
12:22pm Sun 28 Oct 12