Sir – Thanks to Bev Clack for pointing out that she and I represent St Clements on the city council, not the Greens (Letters, Aug 30).
The vote to refuse the revised plans for student flats on St Clements car park was
5-4, the five being two Lib Dems (myself and John Goddard), two Labour (Bev and Anne-Marie Canning), and David Williams, Green.
The 8-1 refusal over insufficient parking followed John’s opposition only on that issue, leaving the rest us, with wider concerns, short of a majority. Otherwise, the application would have been refused also for mass, overbearing, impact on amenity, and the character of the conservation area — the reasons the previous plans were rejected.
As Anne-Marie observed, students in
self-contained boxes can suffer severe loneliness. Foreign students, likely occupants here, are among those most at risk.
This is still an unneighbourly application for residents of Anchor Court, St Clements, and Alan Bullock Close. It disregards the character of the conservation area, and the entrance to the meadow.
St Clements deserves investment in the public realm, including improvement of its open spaces, not closing them off and filling them up. Ideally the city and Queen’s, owner of the Florey Building, should get together to redevelop the area as one.
The back of the Florey is brutal, the architect literally turning his back side on artisan Oxford.
This ‘60s building has major problems. Insiders say few in the college would weep if it went the way of the Birmingham Bull Ring. But it’s listed, admired by many. The chances of it being shipped off in pieces to be rebuilt in the Nevada Desert are slim.
There may still be ways of including it in a joint scheme, generating revenue, parking, neighbours’ amenity, and a conservation area enhanced with the long-awaited riverside walk.
Graham Jones, Oxford city councillor