21/01695/FUL

Councillor Upton stated that as a member and trustee of the Oxford Preservation Trust, and as a member of several of the other organisations which had responded to the consultation (including Cyclox and the RSPB), she had taken no part in those organisations’ discussions regarding the application. Councillor Upton said that she was approaching the application with an open mind, would listen to all the arguments and weigh up all the relevant facts before coming to a decision.

Councillor Clarkson stated that she was a member of Cyclox, which had responded to the consultation, but that she had taken no part in that organisation’s discussions regarding the application. Councillor Clarkson said that she was approaching the application with an open mind, would listen to all the arguments and weigh up all the relevant facts before coming to a decision.

The Committee considered an application (21/01695/FUL) for demolition of The Cottage; partial demolition and alterations to Forest Lodge; erection of 402 apartments (Use Class C3) and a 133-bed hotel (Use Class C1); employment provision in the form of offices, with additional mixed use accommodation to include gym, café and restaurant (all within Use Class E); public open space; associated landscape, bicycle and car parking and the provision of a new vehicular access onto the A40.

The Planning Officer gave a presentation and highlighted the following:

·       The quantum of housing development had been requested by the Local Plan examining Inspectors within their main modifications report during the examination process.  The main modifications report had been subject to public consultation, during which time local residents had had an opportunity to comment on the proposal;

·       The proposal sought to erect 10 blocks of residential flats, varying in height from 3 storeys to 6, providing a total of 402 build to rent units, 50% of which would be affordable.  A four storey hotel would be located to the north, comprising café and gym facilities on the ground floor.  The Forest Lodge building would be altered internally, and partially demolished, to provide flexible office use with accommodation available for use by the local community (referred to within the application as ‘The Innovation Centre’).  A new main vehicular access would be created from London Road between the proposed hotel and the Innovation Centre, with the existing access open only to pedestrians, cyclists and emergency vehicles;

·       The site would provide private amenity space for residents, and public open space which would be accessible 24 hours a day;

·       The application proposed a low level of car parking across the site, with 95 unallocated spaces for the 402 residential units (including 20 accessible bays and 2 car club bays).  The hotel, with 133 bedrooms, would be served by 26 parking bays including 2 accessible bays.  25% of all parking bays would be fitted with EV charging points (with potential to provide additional charging points in the future).  The Innovation Centre would be car-free;

·       The proposal would provide 928 cycle parking spaces for residents, which was in excess of the Local Plan requirement.  Sufficient spaces would be provided for the non-residential uses and for visitors;

·       The internal roads would not be offered for adoption by the County Council, and in order to ensure that the low level of parking provision would not lead to informal parking within the site a parking enforcement plan would be conditioned.  The applicant would deliver, and contribute towards, improvements to sustainable transport infrastructure.  The site was anticipated to become the subject of a Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ) from 2025, as part of the commitment to city-wide CPZs within the Local Plan.  In the interim, double yellow lines would be laid within the vicinity of the site access, subject to public consultation.  It was considered that these mitigation measures would be sufficient to address overspill parking in surrounding streets and unauthorised parking within the application site;  ...  view the full minutes text for item 52.

Recommendation: to approve the minutes of the meeting held on 18 October 2022 as a true and accurate record.

The Committee resolved to approve the minutes of the meeting held on 18 October 2022 as a true and accurate record.

Items currently expected to be considered by the committee at future meetings are listed for information. This is not a definitive list and applications may be added or removed at any point. These are not for discussion at this meeting.

The Committee noted the list of forthcoming applications.

Future meetings of the Committee are scheduled at 6.00pm on:

24 January 2023

21 February 2023

21 March 2023

18 April 2023

The Committee noted the dates of future meetings.