THERE have been several plans for significant developments that have been approved and submitted this year.

Oxfordshire continues to undergo a housing crisis, with more than 2,000 people on Oxford City Council’s wait list alone.

Plans to develop the county, for homes and for economic viability, however, have been controversial – with many of the concerns being routed in the ongoing climate crisis.

Here are the biggest and most controversial developments of the year:

Multi-million-pound housing development

DEVELOPERS were given the green light to begin the construction of a multi-million-pound housing development.

In August, building works on land owned by Oxford University’s wealthiest college, St John’s, began marking the start of development of the £15 million Oxford North development.

The new site, located on the fields centred around the A40, A34, and A44 north of the Wolvercote Roundabout.

The development was approved by Oxford City Council and will create 480 new homes – with 35 per cent set to be affordable.

On top of this, the site will create a new ‘science district’ – set to rival the likes of Silicon Valley in the US.

The development will also have offices for start-ups and Government departments.

In total, the college plans to create 4,500 jobs.

More student accommodation

AFTER a troublesome three years plans to knock down and rebuild twelve student accommodation sites were finally approved.

Oxford Brookes University first submitted its application to Oxford City Council way back in 2018.

The first planning application wanted to knock down the existing blocks at Clive Booth student accommodation and replace it with eight modern blocks.

If approved, this would have seen over 1,000 students housed at the site – however, in 2019 the council unanimously rejected the application.

In 2020 the university submitted a new plan revising the height of the buildings, by creating 12 smaller blocks, housing a total of 1,800 students.

The application was recommended for approval in October of this year.

However, it was rejected after members of the public who attended the meeting voiced concerns, including loss of biodiversity, the height of new blocks, and the worries that residents’ views were being ignored by a ‘powerful institution’.

After an appeal was submitted on behalf of the university, however, the application was finally approved.

Works began at the site in December.

3,000 homes on greenbelt land

AN APPLICATION to build more than 3000 homes on what was previously greenbelt land has been approved.

The development would see thousands of homes, new schools, and a new park and ride created off Grenoble Road, on the southeast edge of the city, close to the Kassam Stadium.

The land is owned by Oxford City Council, Thames Water and Magdalen College – but the land is under the administration of South Oxfordshire District Council.

The site, which was given the green light to start initial plans in October, has already received considerable criticism from environmentalists.

One environmental campaigner said the site, which lies between the A4074 to the west and an electricity substation to the east, is the ‘opposite of what is needed in the city’.

South Oxfordshire District Council agreed to allow the greenbelt land to be developed in December 2020, however, required that half of the new homes are of ‘affordable tenure’.

City councillor Alex Hollingsworth, who is the cabinet member for planning and housing delivery, said: “It’s been a longstanding ambition of the city council to develop its land at Grenoble Road, to provide some of the homes needed to meet the demand for affordable housing.

“The council’s partnership with Magdalen College and Thames Water, the other landowners in the area, allows that ambition to be realised.”

Fight over the fields

PLANS to build homes on green fields have been a point of contention for over a year now.

Oxford City Council announced it would buy grazing meadows in Iffley Village to build 29 new homes in November 2020.

The council bought the land for £4.5 million off Donnington Hospital Trust – the housing plans have since sparked division within Iffley Village.

Friends of the Fields of Iffley, a campaign group created to stop the development, argues that the homes would destroy a nature corridor and lead to more congestion in the leafy village.

Others, however, have said that they are in support of the development, calling those opposing the housing plans as ‘rich NIMBYs’ who should be helping to meet Oxford’s housing needs.

The land was earmarked for development as part of the council’s Local Plan 2036 – a development plan that will see more than 10,000 homes across the city if all plans are approved.

The council said that developments such as the one at the fields in Iffley are needed to help provide affordable housing for over 2,000 families on the council housing waitlist.

Oxford City Housing Ltd (OCHL), the council’s housing developer, is currently running its second round of public consultation about the plans.

Multiple developments in Marston

MARSTON has quickly become the location for several housing developments.

In May Oxford City Council gave approval to a 159-home development called Hill View Farm.

The development will sit at the end of Mill Lane to the northwest of the village, next to the northern bypass.

The plans were approved by the planning committee with a slim majority after there had been several objections made by residents.

Friends of Old Marston also objected to the plans, describing how the extra homes would cause a huge amount of traffic through the village, which already suffers from congestion.

Questions were also raised about whether more shops would be needed – to reduce the need to travel to supermarkets.

In October, plans to build a further 80 homes on Mill Lane were also approved - the development will feature 13 one-bedroom flats, 28 two-bedroom, 35 three-bedroom, and four four-bedroom houses.

Do we need the Oxford-Cambridge arc?

THE OXFORD-Cambridge Arc is the name given to an area identified by the Government as a key economic priority.

New plans aim to boost the economic output of Oxfordshire, and counties such as Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, and Northamptonshire to £200bn a year by 2050 – a strategy akin to the Northern powerhouse.

The scheme would aim to build one million new houses, create 1.1 million additional jobs and see the East-West Rail being built between Cambridge and Oxford.

Campaigners, however, have called the Government to rethink the multi-billion-pound project.

Stop the Arc campaign group and Planning Oxfordshire's Environment and Transport Sustainability (POETS) conducted a survey of over 3,800 people, which revealed nine out of 10 people rejected the plans.

South Oxfordshire District Council also asked Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities, and Local Government, to pause the project, calling it an ‘arbitrary geographic construct’.

The department for levelling up said the Ox-Camb arc is a ‘globally significant area’ and the plans will ‘help build a stronger economic future for the area and protect as well as enhance the environment.

There will be more two more rounds of public consultation.