Houses may be built at Cowley depot (From The Oxford Times)

Houses may be built at Cowley depot

10:00am Wednesday 8th September 2010 in News By Chris Buratta

A COUNCIL depot in Cowley could be a future housing site as councillors seek to meet the city’s chronic shortage of homes.

Oxford City Council’s core strategy, a planning blueprint for city development over the next two decades, goes back under the microscope next week when a Government planning inquiry resumes.

But the council has admitted the 8,000 homes it promises would not meet predicted demand and more sites would be needed.

Yesterday, deputy leader Ed Turner refused to rule out the council’s Cowley Marsh depot being used for housing in future.

The authority has drawn up plans to merge its City Works and City Homes operations and move all staff to one location to save money.

If that goes ahead, the Cowley Marsh site could become available for redevelopment.

Mr Turner said: “If the council vacates any large site then clearly we look at potential housing. We would be mad not to look at it.”

He added: “Housing would be one option on Cowley Marsh and we would have to look at that carefully, talk to the Environment Agency and we would be interested in public comment.”

But he said there were many issues – such as whether its “one depot” plan would work in reality – that would need to be resolved before any plan could be put forward.

The core strategy says 8,000 new homes should be built in Oxford over the next 20 years, but the city council has stressed this is a minimum figure and it would seek to bring forward sites as and when they become available.

Latest predictions from the Office of National Statistics show Oxford growing by 13,000 households over the next two decades.

And the planning blueprint only details some sites, such as the 1,000 home Barton West site, the Northern Gateway employment and 200-home development near the Pear Tree roundabout, and new housing as part of the West End regeneration.

In parallel, council officers are working up a more detailed “site specific” document that would identify additional housing land in the city. Asked if Cowley Marsh depot had been considered by officers as part of that work Mr Turner said: “It would be strange if they had ruled it out.”

Head of city development Michael Croften-Briggs said its suitability for housing was being reviewed and it would be included in future public consultation of potential sites.

Pressure on city development land increased earlier this summer when the Government scrapped the South East Plan and handed control back to local authorities.

It has all but ended the city council’s hopes of building 4,000 homes south of Grenoble Road as the land lies within South Oxfordshire District Council. SODC has vehemently opposed building there.

The Government’s planning inspector Stephen Pratt will resume his inquiry into the core strategy on Tuesday and the plan would need his approval before it could be adopted by the council.