Oxford City Council’s planning review committee (PRC) is set to examine the redevelopment proposed at Warneford Lane this evening, with the expectation of approval and delegation in order to finalise a Section 106 agreement.
The application was previously approved in April by the planning committee; however, the application has been called into the PRC by 12 councillors, requiring it to now be approved by the PRC for it to progress.
Proposal details
The proposal is comprised of two applications, one outline and the other full.
The outline application covers the demolition of existing buildings on-site, and the erection of a graduate college for the University of Oxford, comprised of student accommodation, college buildings, and landscaping and other amenities.
The full application is for the erection of a hospital building, a research building, a hospital research link building, a POWIC/SANE building, and a pavilion building, alongside parking and other amenities.
Recommendation details
The proposal is being recommended for refusal as it is acceptable across both national and local development plan policy terms, and after assessment the increase in parking it would provide is considered to have no adverse impacts that would warrant refusal.
Additionally planning officers have highlighted the public benefits of the scheme, across social, economic and environmental factors, such as:
- A new mental health hospital for the area
- A new mental health research centre
- Potential for the development to be a leading mental health campus in Europe
- The retainment and repurposing of the existing hospital (which is a listed building) as a graduate college
- New cycle and infrastructure connections
- Improvements to biodiversity at Warneford Meadow
- Highway improvements to the local highway network in Headington
The approval recommendation is accompanied by the requirement of completion of a Section 106 agreement, which will be achieved by delegating to the director of planning and regulation, who will seek amended plans for specific pedestrian routes and other amended technical documents.
Additional information
This development was spoken about at our OxPropSummit event in March, which you can read about here.
Image: Cityscape Digital for Eric Parry Architects
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