THE housing ‘pressure’ that Oxford City Council leader Bob Price refers to is entirely self-imposed and unnecessary.
The Strategic Housing Market Assessment, is based entirely on unrealistic projections of growth which are based purely on unspecified, arbitrary and unsupported, targets.
A simple, totally viable, revision of this document will reduce the ‘pressure’ at a stroke.
Naturally the ‘many landowners keen to help us to achieve our ambitious housing targets’ will be upset as their £1,000/acre land will not appreciate to £50000/acre+ but I suspect Magdalen College will avoid bankruptcy despite that.
Of course Oxford has a fundamental housing issue at starter level but simply building more unaffordable houses on Green Belt land will not alleviate this.
Instead of blindly following some extravagant egotistical unsustainable growth target the councils should question why, for example, the West End site around Frideswide Square/Ice Rink are even being considered for further commercial development when it could readily support low cost housing development with ultra sustainable transport links to support existing city enterprises desperate for staff!
Time to take the blinkers off and challenge the fundamental, unjustified, assumptions that are driving destruction of the environment in and around Oxford for no good reason.
PETER GORE
Lower Radley, Radley
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