AN OXFORD City Council officer warned a controversial student development would have a “harmful impact” on Port Meadow, it has emerged.

Councillors on the committee that approved Oxford University’s Castle Mill scheme have expressed anger they were not made aware of the serious concerns before deciding.

Nick Worlledge, leader of the council’s heritage team, warned the historic skyline “is fragile” and would be harmed by new buildings.

His report was submitted just 19 days before the West Area Planning Committee approved the five- and four -storey accommodation blocks in February 2012.

Campaigners, who used a Freedom of Information request to obtain the report, said it should have sent alarm bells ringing in the Town Hall, triggering an environmental impact assessment.

The planning committee’s vice chairman John Goddard said he was “horrified” to discover the extent of Mr Worlledge’s concerns.

Mr Goddard said: “Setting aside the issue of timing, I find the shift in major opinion from seriously harmful to acceptable to be surprising given it is claimed to follow from the reduction of no more than 1.2m. It would be good to know whether the anodyne words used in the report sent to the committee were written by Mr Worlledge.”

With the final officers’ report to committee recommending approval, questions are now being raised about the apparent change of heart.

The report seen by councillors said: “The pre-eminent spires on the skyline from Port Meadow are not impacted to any great degree by the current proposals.”

This contrasts greatly with Mr Worlledge’s previously undisclosed report. In it, he said: “Port Meadow is an ancient area of open, grazed meadow (and common land), which has changed little since prehistoric times and allows for unimpeded views to the skyline of Oxford.

“The expansiveness of the view means that the spires, towers and domes appear relatively small and could be easily dominated or obscured, compromising their pre-eminence.

“The assessment of the view explains that the skyline is fragile and its significance harmed by new building that would compete by virtue of their scale and form or by obscuring views...this would be a harmful impact that on its own would erode the heritage values the views hold.

“There is no justification for this harm.”

The city council yesterday said Mr Worlledge’s report was overtaken by events, with the university cutting 1.2m off the height of the blocks, effectively producing a new scheme. The blocks now reach 17.2m.

Oxford City Council spokesman Louisa Dean said: “The comments of the heritage team leader relate to the proposals for Roger Dudman Way as originally submitted.

“Revised plans were submitted to address the concerns raised. In the officers’ report to the West Area Planning Committee the heritage significance of the Port Meadow view and the predicted impacts of the amended proposal are addressed.”

But committee member Elise Benjamin said: “I abstained because I felt I had not been given sufficient information. The seriousness of the heritage officer’s views did not come to councillors. You do not get such strongly worded opinion from officers very often.

“You have to question what is going on. It is disgusting.”

 

Port Meadow development timeline

2000: Outline planning permission was granted for student accommodation at Roger Dudman Way on former railway land known as North End Yard
Nov 2011: The university submits an application for 312 graduate study rooms and flats in eight blocks on four and five levels
Jan 24, 2012: City council heritage officer Nick Worlledge submits report on “harmful impact of the scheme”
Feb 9: University submits revised bid, reducing height of highest 18.36m blocks by 1.2m
Feb 15: Revised plans for 17.2m blocks approved by Oxford City Council’s West Area Committee on officers’ recommendation. The Worlledge report was never seen by the committee
Sep: Oxford University ancient history professor Sir Fergus Millar describes the impact on views from Port Meadow as “scandalous”
Oct: 1,000 people back an online petition
Jan 2013. Protesters use Prince of Wales’s visit to Oxford to raise the profile of the campaign. Campaigners call for the blocks to be reduced by two storeys.
February: Councillors say they want to reopen negotiations with the university as 100 campaigners attend meeting of the West Area Planning Committee. But officers warn the council could have to pay £1m in compensation to the university if it attempted to force the university to take action
March: Campaigners prepare for legal challenge against the granting of planning permission