Residents' joy as homes plan for fields ruled out (From The Oxford Times)
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Residents' joy as homes plan for fields ruled out
6:00pm Thursday 10th January 2013 in News
Veronica Hurst
HEADINGTON residents have been celebrating after a planning inspector emphatically ruled Ruskin Fields should not be developed.
Ruskin College, based in Old Headington, was trying to build 150 homes on the land and hoped to have it included in one of Oxford City Council’s documents earmarking sites for development.
But now Dr Shelagh Bussey has ruled that the land should not be included in either the Barton Area Action Plan, which sets out plans to build about 900 homes in north east Oxford, or the city’s sites and housing development plan.
Veronica Hurst, pictured, who is a member of the Friends of Old Headington and lives in Stoke Place near the fields, said: “We were very pleased to see the case against building on this centuries-old pasture land validated in this way.
“We worked hard over many months to demonstrate that development, no matter how sensitively designed, would inevitably have an adverse impact on the distinctive character of the Old Headington conservation area.”
Audrey Mullender, the principal of Ruskin College, said: “Obviously we are disappointed but we feel it was a very thorough and fair process and we respect the inspector’s decision. There are no other plans for the site and there is no avenue of appeal for us. We are still digesting the decision but we remain acutely aware of the housing need in Oxford.”
Comments(5)
NinjaBiscuits
says...
9:39am Fri 11 Jan 13
alu355
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1:02pm Fri 11 Jan 13
NinjaBiscuits wrote:This will self correct. If no one can afford a house, no one can have kids, the population will reduce and prices will reduce. A natural self levelling mechanism.
Thank goodness that with a national shortage of new houses being built, a growing population in UK, and the lowest rate of mortgage approval in years pushing the average age of first time buyers to 30, that another housing development in Oxford has been ruled out.
We can't go on building houses and increasing population indefinitely.
Andrew:Oxford
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1:13pm Fri 11 Jan 13
Grunden Skip
says...
3:52am Sat 12 Jan 13
grumpyofwhitecross wrote:What village is that then? But hey lets have working families in private rented houses, with rents of £1,250 PCM that you pay out of your taxes in Housing Benefit, rather than build council houses where they will be able to pay the rent themselves and contribute. Do you know that Housing Benefit runs into £billions across the UK, all of it going into £millionaire slum landlords pockets. So the next time your council tax rises, and services are cut, do not complain, as people like you across the UK are the reason.
Thank goodness for common sense. The impact on the infrastructure of the village location would have been disastrous.
grumpyofwhitecross says...
7:19pm Thu 10 Jan 13