Public addresses relating to matters of business for this agenda, up to five minutes is available for each public address.

The request to speak accompanied by the full text of the address must be received by the Director of Law, Governance and Strategy by 5.00 pm on Thursday the 12^th of March.

Cabinet received four addresses from members of the public.

Address to Cabinet from John Mair, local resident of the Jericho area.

I have lived in Jericho for ten years. I invented My Jericho (myjericho.co.uk)and in that time have put on approximately 350 speakers, visits and more.£8000 in gate money has been passed on to local charities.I have put on five or six (virtual and  in person)events to discuss the Jericho Wharf site, the latest in February

Without being over dramatic the lapse in planning permission for the site gives the City Council an opportunity to provide a vision and to think holistically about a whole Jericho Canalside development. It will not come round again. From Hythe Bridge to Mount Place an integrated scheme. That will be all our legacy beyond 2026

It means starting about on how to use the land. There are five pockets owned by landowners. South to North.

a.Towards Hythe Bridge owned by Worcester College with money to develop student accommodation there.

b.The Jericho Wharf site which has been derelict for two decades, maybe longer. No boat has been repaired there in all of that time,maybe longer. It is overgrown and currently used by Cheerteam to dump builder’s rubble

c.The College Cruisers site owned and operated by them. Maybe rented or owned?.They have a small boatyard to repair the insides of narrowboats.It thrives.

d.The Council owned garages in Dawson Place, the apartment block that is Whitworth court and Mount Place, recently restored by Greening Jericho and today used for irregular community events like the musical Lazy Saturdays. Bands playing live with  beer and german sausages on tap.I run them.

Together these five packets of land are enough to make up a significant development.

Jericho wharf/the boatyard site. The yard is an albatross that hampers most schemes. There is little evidence of demand. Just 16 residential boats comprise the ‘Jericho boating community’ .The figures of ‘200’,or even ‘800’,boats are mythical and used to bolster a very slim case, Restoring the boatyard and building a three dry dock  construction is creating a noisy, not so small factory in a tight residential area. A reversion to inner city industry. The price? Somewhere north of £20million pounds. If the Boatyard/  Albatross were lifted out of the site  there would be plenty of land for mixed housing development. One local architect is already working on plans

Next Door, College Cruisers has moorings for their fleet of 20(?) narrow boats. The business is profitable and also serves as a repair yard and has for many  years for the small local community.

These would all be linked by a canalside boardwalk from Hythe Bridge street to Mount place.

Whitworth Court is problematic, A 25(?) flat development now used by the City Council for ‘challenging’ tenants.I t could be refurbished but maybe better razed to the ground and rebuilt more upscale. Revenue from any sale used for badly needed social housing in the Wharf site .

Likewise the community centre in Canal Street. Freehold owned by St Barnabas operated by the City Council and the Community Association. It has been allowed to descend into a very poor state. I use it regularly. Withe love and affection and funds  it could easily become user friendly again. A brand new community centre with an indoor sports pitch is simply not needed. Not enough demand from the demographic. The current users are a popular food pantry/soup kitchen,various exercise classes and some outre alternative classes.It needs shaking up.Badly

What Jericho canalside needs is not looking back to a supposed golden utopian past. That was then this is now. The Jericho Wharf Trust,depleted now that St Barnabas Church has left the committee, has shown sheer intransigence on their aims and attempts since  formation  in 2006 to attempt to force their ‘vision; through bullying, never changing position and,as a result, driving away four developers to date. Dis-satisfaction is their default position –‘not enough this’, ’not enough that’.for each plan.

It has lead to dereliction and no way forward. The JWT have achieved nothing positive.The site is still derelict and and abandoned. Jericho still left with an eyesore. Opposition is not a vision.

The time is ripe for the City Council to use the CPO (which I support unless Cheer Team comes up with a new workable development) take back control and spearhead a brave new world to leave Jericho and Oxford a lasting legacy. It just needs imagination and public support.

Address to Cabinet from Peter Stalker, Treasurer, Jericho Community Association

As someone who has lived in Jericho more than 50 years, I can speak from experience about the unique value of the Jericho Community Centre. This has always been a people’s initiative. In the early 1980s, the Vicar of St Barnabas, working with the City Council, transformed the old Church Institute into a centre for everyone in Jericho and the surrounding neighbourhoods. From the start, it was to be run by local people and financially self?sufficient. We would have to pay our way.

To make that possible, we set up a management committee that has since evolved into the Jericho Community Association. We also recruited me to take on the community newspaper — then the Jericho Echo, now Jericho Online.

Since those early days, the Community Centre has remained a focal point in the heart of Jericho. Some residents know it through the voluntary groups that run all along the age spectrum: from Biscuits and Babies at one end to Alive and Kicking at the other. Others know it through the weekly Jericho Pantry, which provides free food to those who need it. Some will have heard the Jericho Brownies dashing around the downstairs hall or have attended one of the many children’s parties. Others may recognise the more soothing tones of the piano from the ballet classes, or the rhythms of the two Indian classical dance groups. In total, our hired rooms now host 16 regular activities.

And that is only part of what happens inside the building. Several other upstairs rooms contribute directly to mental and physical wellbeing. Two are used by low?cost counselling services, another by alternative health practitioners, and we have two strength?and?balance classes each week. The arts also have a strong presence: Saturday life?drawing, a  wood?carving workshop, and a thriving pottery studio.

These activities may be located in Jericho, but they draw in people from across the city — who also become customers for other local businesses. It is no secret that the Oxford Morris Dancers after a couple of thirsty hours practising with bells and sticks, have been known to patronise several nearby establishments.

I am speaking today as the Treasurer of the Community Association. Our task has always been to balance the books: using income from the paying users to subsidise free or low?cost activities, and securing steady revenue by renting out offices, consulting rooms, and studios upstairs. That is the business model we intend to replicate in the new centre. To do that, we need enough halls and rooms to sustain all these activities and get the income they provide. The new centre too must also be financially sustainable.

The institute building has served us valiantly for more than 40 years, but it is showing its age. The fabric is deteriorating. It cannot be adapted to be fully accessible. Part of our financial juggling in the current building has been to keep up with essential repairs while setting aside funds for emergencies — all the while planning for a new centre. Whilst we make do and mend, we cannot continue indefinitely, and we are reaching a position when major repairs will be needed.

Over a decade ago, the Council declared the Centre not fit for purpose and planned for a replacement on the Wharf site. With this prospect on the horizon the Community Association has engaged positively with landowners and developers to secure planning permissions for new facilities – but they never materialized.

And a new centre has become even more vital. Jericho has continued to evolve. We have fewer shops and pubs, and hundreds of new homes have appeared along the canal and beyond. Yet where are the new community buildings to match this growth? They are sadly missing. For the many more people now living in and around Jericho — on land and on water — there is only the Jericho Community Centre.

Whether as developers, community organisations, or as a City Council, we now need to work together to provide the facilities that support a healthy society and an economically vibrant neighbourhood. I won’t be here in another 50 years —I suspect few of us in this room will be — but I hope we can sustain our shared vision for a diverse and lively community and be justly proud of what we create next.

Address to Cabinet from David Edwards on behalf of the Jericho Wharf Trust

Councillors-thank you for the opportunity to speak briefly in support of the officer’s report and recommendation to seek a developer/operator for the Jericho Wharf site and if resolution cannot be achieved by negotiation seek a Compulsory Purchase Order to unlock the site.

The Jericho Wharf Trust includes all Jericho’s main community groups and is in partnership with St Barnabas Church. We are Our Jericho and represent a very broad and inclusive community- we have low income housing, Council housing, our residential boating community and foodbanks as well as the advertised tourist hotspots and the scourge of AirBnB.

You will have heard that the community has been waiting for over 20 years for a new community centre which is promised on the Wharf site. The Victorian building fabric is well passed its useful life and is not capable of being refurbished and brought up to date.  The Council reported it was not fit for purpose over a decade ago and ended its lease of the property. It is not sustainable. The building not only serves the local community but is a focus for groups from across the city. Jericho is a community with few community assets-little open space and a crumbling community centre but facing pressures  which undermine community cohesion such as high house prices and development pressures.

Similarly Oxford’s residential boating community has been waiting for over 20 years for the boatyard to re-open and allow boats to be maintained, repaired and kept safe. The Council has the survey information which shows that there are around 200 residential boats in Oxford and a further 200 on the boundary. This part of our community is often marginalised-kept out of sight and out of mind. Yet the community comprises young and old, families and single persons including professionals, skilled and unskilled. Over three quarters are in work in Oxford-but on low incomes. This is affordable housing where we have a housing crisis-not just a lifestyle choice. Residential boaters are on low incomes and have to have access to facilities where they can undertake their own repairs rather than face expensive commercial rates-and this model is common in many boat yards. Some of these boats were last repaired 20 years ago when the Jericho boatyard closed. As the condition of boats has declined the risks to health have increased. The cost of removing derelict and abandoned boats is substantial.

The Trust has the skills and experience to manage the community facilities. It has a successful track record in managing the existing community facilities. It has a long term relationship with Tooley’s boatyard in Banbury to manage facilities at Jericho Wharf. If you go to Aylesbury you can see the model of a successful modern community run boatyard with docks and event and conference facilities above which are let for external functions

The Trust has worked constructively and pragmatically with the Council and successive landowners/developers. However, despite assurances that the new community facilities and boatyard will be delivered once planning permission has been received these promises have evaporated and the site is put up for sale at a higher price and the community is held to ransom. We have seen this cycle repeated and the community is tired of empty promises or yet another speculative scheme. Our petition in support of a CPO continues to grow and we have over 2,200 supporters. We have had substantial discussions with potential partners who have the capacity and capability to deliver the necessary development on the site. We would prefer a negotiated way forward but unless there is a resolution within a reasonable timescale a Compulsory Purchase Order is the only way forward.

Thank you. Please support the officer’s report and recommendations.

Address to Cabinet from Toby James, local resident of Oxford.

I’m Toby, I live on a narrowboat on the Oxford canal. The canal was built in the late 18th Century, as a freight route. It runs from Coventry down to the Thames. It used to have a large basin near Hythe Bridge Street – this is now a car park.
It is a really important part of our country and city’s industrial heritage, and to a lot of us, it’s home.
There are probably a few hundred boaters in Oxford, living on the canal, in private Marinas, and on the Thames. And many more who stop off on their way through. We’re a welcoming community, no different to those in many other parts of Oxford. We’re teachers, pensioners, engineers, gardeners, whatever. I work for a trade union.
For us, a boatyard in Jericho would be transformative. Currently our nearest boatyards are in Heyford or Witney. There is an obvious issue here. If my engine packs it in, I could punt down to Jericho. I certainly don’t fancy punting 13 miles up the canal to Heyford. Boats need regular repair, and when things go wrong, it can be hugely damaging. A tankful of diesel leaking this close to the Thames would clearly be a disaster.
Most narrowboats are significantly longer than the canal is wide. Currently, to turn a boat around, you need to drop into the Thames at the Isis lock. When the Thames is high, fast, or in flood, this is potentially dangerous. Developing the Wharf would give a space to turn a boat without doing this.
I recognise that a lot of what I’m mentioning may make you question why anyone lives on a boat at all. The answer, for the vast majority of us, is because it is wonderful. Hire a narrowboat for a weekend. You’ll get it. And for many of us it is the only housing option in Oxford that is affordable.
I would also recommend you go to the boatyard at Heyford. It’s 15 minutes by train – or two days by boat. You can see why the railways replaced the canals! The boatyard there is beautiful. Sit outside, have a bottle of local cider, have a cake, watch the ducks and the colourful narrowboats drift by. We can have this in our city. Just think how beautiful it could be. Jericho is the perfect place for it, in the shadow of the wonderful St Barnabas church, a quick walk from the station. And instead we just have an eyesore. It would be a boon for boaters, a wonderful asset to the local community, and a destination for the rest of Oxford. Thank you.

Councillor Ed Turner provided Cabinet’s response to the addresses from the members of the public.

Councillor Turner apologised for arriving late and missing the presentation of the first few addresses. We welcome the range of support for the report. We agree that there is a need to bring forward a workable development and this report makes clear that the City Council is not prepared to see the current situation continue. Any development will need to comply with planning policy, including bringing forward community facilities. However, it will be for the developer to demonstrate the scale and type of community facilities that are both necessary and viable to meet these needs. We also absolutely recognise the adjacent boatyard is an asset to boat owners.  We also agree that there is a need to ensure that the community can have new fit for purpose facilities on the site. The existing planning policy set out in the current Local Plan as well as the proposed new policy in the Local Plan 2045 continue to require these facilities as part of any development proposals. This report allows the Council to start the process of finding a new development partner.  We will leave no stone unturned with the aim of achieving a deliverable development sooner rather than later.

Councillor Turner arrived during this item at 18:39.