Friends of Old Headington

Ruskin Fields

In August Ruskin College invited City Councillors to consider a revised proposal for the fields: a development which they call “Headington Meads”.

That plan would see 150 homes built on the two fields nearest Northway, and would essentially constitute an extension of the Northway estate but within the conservation area. This – unlike the original proposal – would leave the field next to Stoke Place bridleway undeveloped. The density of housing on the two fields would increase, and would include a 4-storey block of flats in the north-west corner. All access for vehicles would be via Foxwell Drive. The local impact of the traffic generated by the 150 homes was described as “negligible”, and Ruskin have also said that there would be “absolutely no vehicular access through to Old Headington from the proposed development under any circumstances” which would clearly not be the case.

There were strenuous objections from both Northway and Old Headington, and in late October Ruskin College released another version of the proposal, in which two options for access were presented:

Option 1: Access via Foxwell Drive

This, as described above, is based on the assumption that the Council would be willing to make available the green buffer between Northway and the ring-road, which is used for a children’s play area and for dog-walking, and is much loved by the residents as giving them a belt of grass and trees which screens them surprisingly effectively from the northern bypass.

plan for Option 1

Option 2: Access via the A40

This revives an earlier idea for a ‘left in/left out’ access point for traffic, and would involve creating a way for vehicles to turn left off the bypass into a gap between buildings on the new estate, and left out of it again to rejoin the traffic moving west away from Green Road roundabout.

The gain over Option 1 is that Northway’s green buffer remains untouched; the loss is that a second 4-storey block is built to make up for the ground space used for access to the A40. The practical difficulties would be considerable, and there is no guarantee that the County Council’s Highway Dept. would approve the scheme.

plan for Option 2

The Ruskin Fields Group has written to all Councillors and to planning officers pointing out that in their view the College’s proposals remain absolutely unacceptable, and that there would be a disastrous increase in vulnerability for all of Oxford’s conservation areas if this development is allowed to go ahead.

The Group has also written to Michael Crofton-Briggs (Head of City Development) asking that the Ruskin proposals be excluded from the Barton Area Action plan with immediate effect, since the revised versions were both submitted after the public consultation period closed, and therefore belong – if anywhere – within the normal planning process.