Traffic jams fear (From The Oxford Times)

Traffic jams fear

10:06am Thursday 16th July 2009

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Work on the controversial Northern Gateway development in Oxford could start in as little as two years, according to the lead developer.

Richard Cutler, director of strategy and planning at property developer Goodman, believes the business park scheme on college-owned land between the Wolvercote and Pear Tree roundabouts will provide a major boost for the city’s economy.

But his plans could be hit by opposition from campaigners, since the proposals include two pockets of green belt land.

Mr Cutler said: “It is a fantastic site and the only one available on that scale in the city boundaries.

“Oxford is probably the best market outside central London because of the universities and its global brand. It is special but it has not done as well as it should because growth has been dispersed to the county towns. This will enable Oxford to catch up with Cambridge. We have been working with the city council for three years on the proposed development and it is very exciting.”

Mr Cutler believes the development could create up to 5,000 jobs over the next five years Goodman wants to develop the land owned by Worcester, St John’s and Merton Colleges and Mr Cutler is confident concerns over the green belt can be overcome.

He added: “I would be the first to back down on the green belt. We are not going to put the central site in jeopardy.”

But Mr Cutler is set to face major opposition to his plans by local residents objecting to having a business park on their doorstep, as well as environmental and transport campaigners.

Resident Edward Williams of Woodstock Road, has helped form a pressure group called Engage Oxford which has been set up to fight the plans.

He said: “The council has said it has contacted residents but we have had no communcation at all — we have been kept in the dark.

“This will be a clossal development. The traffic already backs up from the Pear Tree roundabout to the Wolvercote Roundabout.

“Having up to another 10,000 cars would break the road system entirely.”

Hugh Jaeger, chairman of the Bus Users UK Oxford Branch, said: “The Northern Gateway would attract jobs that Oxford does not need and workers that Oxford cannot house. The resulting congestion would be no gateway but a ‘Northern Roadblock’.”

The Campaign to Protect Rural England is opposed, saying the use of the area for commercial development, housing, and retail would “suburbanise this rural approach to Oxford”.

CPRE city district chairman Christopher Gowers said: “The area may have to accommodate major road improvements at the convergence of three trunk routes, but this should be against a background of protecting the Oxford Green Belt and green lungs around and within the city.

“Development of this site, on the city boundary, would have a negative impact on the narrow gap between Oxford and the surrounding villages of Yarnton, Begbroke and Kidlington, all of which lie within the Oxford Green Belt.”

Debbie Dance, director of the Oxford Preservation Trust, said: “The suggestion they should take green belt land does not have any credibility at all. We recognise the arrangement whereby there is safeguarded land for development — there is nothing we can do about that. But there is no precedent for developing the green belt.”

This week the debate about the Northern Gateway took another step forward, with a three-week planning inquiry into Oxford’s Core Strategy opening at the town hall.

Asked about the timescale, the head of city development at Oxford City Council, Michael Crofton-Briggs, said: “It’s true that we have been in discussions for about three years, but I think the notion of the scheme starting in two years is a little optimistic.

“At the moment we are in a recession, but large developers like Goodman have to plan over a five to ten-year time horizon and look to the next upturn and beyond.”

He added: “If the inspector approves, then we move forward to more detail about how the plan would be delivered. And only after that would we expect planning applications.

“But it’s important that local authorities make provision for further economic development. There are some who maintain that Oxford could become the science capital of the country.

“The vast majority of the land is not in the green belt, though some is green field.”

If it is given the green light, it is hoped to provide a new base for police, ambulance and fire services with a hotel and research centre creating hundreds of new jobs.

Goodman, who took over property developers Arlington in 2005, own the Oxford Business Park, which has seen the creation of 4,000 jobs at 45 companies on land formerly occupied by the Cowley car plant.

But the business park will be completed in about five years, according to Goodman, which wants to continue developing in another area of the city.

Mr Crofton-Briggs added: “The emergency services would not be considering moving if they didn’t think the move would help them improve.

He said: “There are three legs of the stool underpinning Oxford’s economy — university, medical, and spin-out companies — and I think that many academics would like to see the city develop so that they could perhaps deliver a lecture in the morning, and visit a spin-out company in the city in the afternoon, rather than be forced to drive further afield.”

He denied that the council had kept residents in the dark about the Goodman proposals. “It is true that we did not write to all 52,000 household in Oxford.

“But we consulted all the residents’ groups at the time of the consultations and we held prominent public exhibitions in places such as the station, the Westgate Centre, and libraries.”

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