Flawed concept

It says that this “would improve response times and release sites in the West End and elsewhere for future development.” But how valid is this case? There is already a fire station at Kidlington.

It is surely necessary to keep a fire station in the city centre with its concentration of world-famous and vulnerable buildings.

The present local police headquarters in St Aldates is at the historic and commercial heart of the city near the proposed West End development and reasonably accessible by public transport. At Pear Tree it will be out on a limb.

Nor should the present police station be treated just as a development site.

The main part was erected in 1936 when Oxford still had its own chief constable and force.

It is one of a group of stone-clad neo-Georgian buildings erected between the wars and intended, following the creation of Christ Church’s War Memorial Garden, to improve St Aldate’s.

Others are what are now the Crown Court and the Music Faculty. It is therefore of historical and group value. The planners also want to include in the development area land that was deliberately kept in the Green Belt to protect Wolvercote and prevent further urban sprawl along the A40.

It is far from clear that it is sensible to try to plan the area before the main road pattern has been agreed and to allocate now for employment a large area away from where any substantial new housing is planned.

The Northern Gateway seems a fancy name for a flawed concept.

Mark Barrington-Ward, Oxford