UKPF consultant Hugh Blaza is a long-time advocate for the re-opening of Oxford’s Cowley branch line. He says recent events have served to make the benefits even more obvious.
Was the Cowley Branch line the star of OxPropSummit? The re-introduction into full service of a rail line which is already there seemed to receive pretty much universal support – the Oxford ‘no-brainer’ – and there can surely be no case against it.
But it’s not in the bag yet. Quite some way off, in fact. Private developers have said they will contribute money towards the costs of delivery but we need to hear that Network Rail and Central Government are full square behind the scheme.
A couple of things in the last week or so have brought the case for the branch line very much to the forefront of our minds.
First, one of the major housing development schemes to the east of Oxford is now out for public consultation. The Government, through the offices of Robert Jenrick MP, ensured that the South Oxfordshire Local Plan would be adopted, and with it the removal from the Green Belt of a large area of land between the Unipart building in Cowley and the neighbouring village of Garsington.
Now, L&G Estates, working on behalf of landowner Brasenose College, plans to create Northfields, a ‘significant urban extension’ on what is at present 583 acres of farmland.
Some 1,800 homes will be delivered, along with a primary school, community hub, shops and new road layout. L&G have ‘committed to service the development with strategic, site-wide infrastructure, which will deliver a high-quality public realm incorporating schools, public open spaces and a country park around the existing flood plain of the Fox Brook’.
On closer examination, it all looks rather good. But then the questions begin. How does the new development connect to the surrounding services? What does ‘site -wide infrastructure’ actually mean? Specifically:
- Can Thames Water deliver the water and sewage services the development will require?
- How will the new inhabitants get about? The roads between Cowley and Oxford and the adjacent section of the ring road are frequently congested. Will the village of Garsington become a rat run for those heading to and from the M40?
- Will there be a train service to carry inhabitants from one part of the city to another, and beyond? A railway branch line, perhaps…
Further and better particulars to follow, we would hope. Nobody (well, mostly nobody) is saying we don’t need more homes in Oxford but we have heard over and over that they have to be done right. Let’s make sure they are…
Which brings us to the other related event. BBC’s Question Time a couple of weeks ago came from Cambridge. As we all know, our rival university city is at least 10 years ahead of Oxford.
That includes the delivery of new ‘urban extensions’. Members of the (as you’d expect) highly articulate audience were most keen to point out that the new settlements around the city perhaps hadn’t delivered all that they’d promised.
Teenagers complained ‘there was nothing to do’. Shops, doctors’ surgeries, dentists which had been promised (the provision of which, presumably, had been recorded in s106 Agreements) had simply not materialised. The QT audience members were clearly less than impressed.
We must hope that the Oxford developments will show Cambridge how it can be done. The alternative is unthinkable.
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