BUILDING new homes on golf courses and car parks in Oxford has been suggested as a solution to the city’s housing crisis by the Green Party.

The party set out its policies at an event in St Giles on Wednesday [29/4] which saw its Oxford East candidate Ann Duncan discuss the housing crisis alongside housing expert Prof Danny Dorling and Green peer Baroness Jenny Jones.

Baroness Jones, who is the only Green Party representative in the House of Lords, also ruled out building on the Green Belt.

She attended the event at the Quaker Meeting House in St Giles in place of the party’s leader, Natalie Bennett, who had to cancelled due to illness.

Baroness Jones said: “I absolutely reject this policy of building on the Green Belt.

“It is a lung for all of us.

“The concept of the Green Belt is to preserve a green link around towns and cities.

“Let’s build on some golf courses, let’s build on a few car parks.”

Ms Duncan suggested affordable housing also could have been built on space earmarked for the expanded Westgate Centre.

She said: “I think Labour-run Oxford City Council has been following the wrong strategy.

“It has been following a market-led strategy and bowing down to developers.

“As for the development of the Westgate shopping centre, Oxford does not need more shops bringing in more traffic and air pollution. It needs more affordable housing. We could have had affordable housing there.”

She also said there are 800 empty homes in Oxford, which could be brought back into the housing market by a combination of compulsory purchase orders and higher council tax.

But Prof Dorling, who made it clear he is not aligned to any political party, told the meeting that building on the Green Belt was necessary.

He added: “We need a Green Party to say they are happy to take a chunk out of the Oxford Green Belt. You can protect the Green Belt around London because you can build up.

“Oxford cannot build up so you have to go into the Green Belt – and at some point I will watch the Green Party say this.”

City council leader Bob Price criticised the suggestion that golf courses should be built on.

He said: “We want to keep green spaces so I am surprised that the Green Party would want to build over golf courses, which are green spaces.

“It is interesting that they have now come up with this so late in the day.

“The land the Westgate is being expanded into is not owned by the city council so its owners can bring forward what they wish.

“The land is earmarked for commercial use, not for housing.

“Oxford is an important regional shopping centre.”