for consultation earlier this year will be going to City Council meeting on 19
December for approval. The document does not include the Headington Car park
site as a potential housing development site. The City Council consulted on
the draft document and has noted the views expressed and has listened to the
many views that came from the consultation. In particular, the majority
administration has listened to the residents and businesses of Headington who
have made a strong case for not including Headington car park as a development
site.
It is worth saying a few words about the reason for the S&HDPD and the overall
development plan for Oxford. The affordable housing position in Oxford is
desperate and, this week's statistics show, as it is in the country as a whole.
The number of affordable housing units built in one English regions in the
2010/11 is zero and other regions have built only a handful. Oxford has built
social housing units this year (but not enough) and will do so in future
through innovative schemes such as Barton. It would like to build many more.
6000 households on the Housing Register look to the Council to help them find
affordable housing. The Register is the tip of a larger problem in the city.
Homelessness is rising. The topography of Oxford with the tightly drawn Green
Belt and the two rivers makes developable land within city boundaries very
scarce and difficult to find. It would have been irresponsible for the
majority adminstration not consider every possible site that could help
overcome this overwhelming demand for housing. The Council has to take a
strategic view of housing demand and need, and not play politics with basic
houshold needs.
The decision on Headington car park was not easy. There was strong argument
and opposing views but the majority administration took local residents' views
very seriously in the broader context of strategic housing need in order to
come to decision after a closely argued debate. All factors were taken into
account and there was definitely no politicking.
Roy Darke