TRAFFIC, school places and Green Belt worries remain after North Oxford residents were given the first glimpse of a major business park scheme that will go to an inquiry next month.

The Northern Gateway Consortium staged an exhibition on Friday and Saturday at the Oxford Hotel, off Godstow Road, to ask people for their views.

The scheme would create thousands of jobs and includes up to 500 homes, a hotel and a 90,000 sq m business park on land bordered by the A40, A34 and A44.

Oxford City Council is set to have its blueprint for the development – the area action plan – scrutinised by a planning inspector next month.

At the exhibition the consortium provided experts in planning, transport and environmental issues to take questions from residents.


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Teacher Mary Kinnear, of Mere Road, said: “I am not yet convinced that what we are planning at the moment amounts to anything more than crisis management.”

More school places would be needed for families who move to the area, the 60-year-old added, but there was little room at existing schools in Wolvercote and Cutteslowe. Plans by Oxfordshire County Council have also been put forward for a new A40 to A44 link road, to help ease traffic around the site.

Mrs Kinnear said: “These are things that need to be looked at before we put 500 homes there.”

There is also concern about plans to remove land from the Green Belt.

The city council has proposed building homes on a strip of land south of the A40 on the approach to Wolvercote Roundabout, as well as to the east of the A44.

But to build on the land south of the A40 the authority must first convince planning inspector Christine Newmarch to allow it to remove the land from the Green Belt.

Ms Newmarch will look at the plans from March 10 to 19, at the Catholic Chaplaincy, in Rose Place, off St Aldate’s.

First Turn resident Nick deCourtais said the Green Belt was “non-negotiable”.

The retired surveyor said: “It is an important principle and once you start nibbling away at it then it is just the thin end of the wedge.

“The land they are talking about is also somewhere that people enjoy walking.

“I can see why they want to develop the rest of the area but I would object very strongly to building on the Green Belt.”

David Jackson, head of planning at Savills, said a “comprehensive” series of studies would be done as part of an environmental impact assessment for the development.

His firm is advising the Northern Gateway Consortium, which is comprised of St John’s College, Worcester College and Kier Ventures Limited, a construction firm.

The city council and Merton College also own small parcels of land at the end of the development site.

Mr Jackson said: “The first phase of development will be informed by transport analysis and that will give us a more clear understanding. It will be more detailed.”

The consortium hopes to submit an outline planning application for the scheme by the end of August, with construction beginning as early as 2017.