Westgate
Well, I promised a proper post, and here it is. Apologies as ever for my sporadic blogging habits - but I hope that the last post but one explains why things have been quite hectic and difficult with me lately! As usual, when I am busiest with council work is exactly when I have least time to blog....and so appear like I'm not doing anything...
Lots of stuff has been happening in the last month, including the resignation of the Council's Chief Executive, the reordering of the Green Group's 'shadow portfolios' and the usual whirl of campaigns and motions. HOwever, without a doubt the biggest thing that I have been involved in has been the application to massively expand the size of the Westgate shopping centre. I have been purposefully keeping quiet on this one, so that I could have my say having considered all the evidence in the Officers Report - but now that I have voiced my opinion in the Area Committee (I was the only councillor to vote against the application in the final vote, which was 4-1 in favour of the plans due to the barring of my fellow Green Sushila Dhall) I can explain my reasoning.
I think that approving the Westgate expansion (the binding vote is due to be taken on 30th october by the Strategic Development Control Committee, and it is then sent to the Secretary of State for her approval) would be a strategic blunder of the highest order for Oxford. Simply put, we are a medieval city, with historical charm and historical infrastructure to match - we are not Milton Keynes, nor are we reading, and 'competing' in simple retail terms with them is insanity. THis might seem obvious, but believe it or not such arguments of 'the need for competitiveness' (shades of WTO advocates, writ local) are the main drivers for the Westgate development.
There are literally scores of reasons to oppose this development, but my objections really centre around three areas - the transport implications, the environmental implications, and the housing implications. Needless to say, all of these are underpinned by my belief that ever increasing retail and never ending economic growth is counterproductive.
1) Transport implications. As mentioned above, Oxford is a medieval city, with infrastructure to match. It is already creaking at the seams, and anyone who regularly travels around Botley Road, Abingdon Road, or Magdalen bridge, will be able to tell you that. Trying to cram in tens of thousands more people to service this massively expanding retail centre (three times as big as the current site!) is insanity. Botley Road will completely grind to a halt, the railway bridge will become all the more dangerous, and life actually *living* in the city centre will be made miserable. This is not to mention the fact that the application makes it almost impossible to ever remove buses from Queen Street - a stated goal of the City Council, but one that other councillors seem able to simply forget when the juicy apple of the Westgate is dangled in front of them.
2) Environmental implications. Well, where do I start? Air pollution, perhaps - we have a statuatory obligation to reduce the appalling levels of NO2 in the atmosphere....so, of course, approving an application which will increase bus and car movements in the city centre is the move of a genius. Places like Tennyson Lodge will become almost unliveable. And then there's climate change - the topic that I spent most of my speech at Area Committee talking about. This application drives a coach and horses through our recently adopted NRIA policy (which regular readers will know I spent years helping to push through the Council). The *first* application that we consider with the new NRIA, and it doesn't even come CLOSE to meeting the renewable energy requirements. It fails on all scores - it doesn't meet the overal minimum score, it fails individual elements of the NRIA completely - the approval of this application reveals the support of other councillors for our radical NRIA policy for what it really is. A sham. When it comes to putting their money where their mouth is on climate change, non-Green councillors have failed, pitifully.
The officers reply to this rant was that such a development cannot be made environmentally sustainable under the terms of the NRIA and 'remain economically viable'. Other councillors seem to accept this - while my reply is, if it cannot be made environmentally sustainable then IT SHOULD NOT BE BUILT.
3) Housing implications. As if the above wasn't enough, the application will demolish 18 purpose built homes for elderly and vulnerable people in Abbey Place - a community that has been built and developed over decades. In return, on this massive site in the city centre, worth tens of millions of pounds and largely owned by the City Council, the application will deliver just over 120 homes...only half of them 'affordable units', owned by housing associations (not the council). This will not be enough even to meet the housing need of the people coming into Oxford to *work* at the Westgate - far from alievating housing need in the city, the development will make it even worse, and tear apart one of the few functioning housing communities remaining in the city centre.
Overall, this application is a disaster. It is a disaster not because the Westgate Partnership are a particularly evil example of rapacious capitalists - but because of what it is. It is an attempt to build a massive, unsustainable retail behemoth in the middle of a medieval town - and it will not work. If SDCC approve the application, they will be doing Oxford an enormous disservice.
Matt
Lots of stuff has been happening in the last month, including the resignation of the Council's Chief Executive, the reordering of the Green Group's 'shadow portfolios' and the usual whirl of campaigns and motions. HOwever, without a doubt the biggest thing that I have been involved in has been the application to massively expand the size of the Westgate shopping centre. I have been purposefully keeping quiet on this one, so that I could have my say having considered all the evidence in the Officers Report - but now that I have voiced my opinion in the Area Committee (I was the only councillor to vote against the application in the final vote, which was 4-1 in favour of the plans due to the barring of my fellow Green Sushila Dhall) I can explain my reasoning.
I think that approving the Westgate expansion (the binding vote is due to be taken on 30th october by the Strategic Development Control Committee, and it is then sent to the Secretary of State for her approval) would be a strategic blunder of the highest order for Oxford. Simply put, we are a medieval city, with historical charm and historical infrastructure to match - we are not Milton Keynes, nor are we reading, and 'competing' in simple retail terms with them is insanity. THis might seem obvious, but believe it or not such arguments of 'the need for competitiveness' (shades of WTO advocates, writ local) are the main drivers for the Westgate development.
There are literally scores of reasons to oppose this development, but my objections really centre around three areas - the transport implications, the environmental implications, and the housing implications. Needless to say, all of these are underpinned by my belief that ever increasing retail and never ending economic growth is counterproductive.
1) Transport implications. As mentioned above, Oxford is a medieval city, with infrastructure to match. It is already creaking at the seams, and anyone who regularly travels around Botley Road, Abingdon Road, or Magdalen bridge, will be able to tell you that. Trying to cram in tens of thousands more people to service this massively expanding retail centre (three times as big as the current site!) is insanity. Botley Road will completely grind to a halt, the railway bridge will become all the more dangerous, and life actually *living* in the city centre will be made miserable. This is not to mention the fact that the application makes it almost impossible to ever remove buses from Queen Street - a stated goal of the City Council, but one that other councillors seem able to simply forget when the juicy apple of the Westgate is dangled in front of them.
2) Environmental implications. Well, where do I start? Air pollution, perhaps - we have a statuatory obligation to reduce the appalling levels of NO2 in the atmosphere....so, of course, approving an application which will increase bus and car movements in the city centre is the move of a genius. Places like Tennyson Lodge will become almost unliveable. And then there's climate change - the topic that I spent most of my speech at Area Committee talking about. This application drives a coach and horses through our recently adopted NRIA policy (which regular readers will know I spent years helping to push through the Council). The *first* application that we consider with the new NRIA, and it doesn't even come CLOSE to meeting the renewable energy requirements. It fails on all scores - it doesn't meet the overal minimum score, it fails individual elements of the NRIA completely - the approval of this application reveals the support of other councillors for our radical NRIA policy for what it really is. A sham. When it comes to putting their money where their mouth is on climate change, non-Green councillors have failed, pitifully.
The officers reply to this rant was that such a development cannot be made environmentally sustainable under the terms of the NRIA and 'remain economically viable'. Other councillors seem to accept this - while my reply is, if it cannot be made environmentally sustainable then IT SHOULD NOT BE BUILT.
3) Housing implications. As if the above wasn't enough, the application will demolish 18 purpose built homes for elderly and vulnerable people in Abbey Place - a community that has been built and developed over decades. In return, on this massive site in the city centre, worth tens of millions of pounds and largely owned by the City Council, the application will deliver just over 120 homes...only half of them 'affordable units', owned by housing associations (not the council). This will not be enough even to meet the housing need of the people coming into Oxford to *work* at the Westgate - far from alievating housing need in the city, the development will make it even worse, and tear apart one of the few functioning housing communities remaining in the city centre.
Overall, this application is a disaster. It is a disaster not because the Westgate Partnership are a particularly evil example of rapacious capitalists - but because of what it is. It is an attempt to build a massive, unsustainable retail behemoth in the middle of a medieval town - and it will not work. If SDCC approve the application, they will be doing Oxford an enormous disservice.
Matt
posted by Matt Sellwood at 4:27 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home