used to the new name "Barton Park", even though it is not universally popular,
and there seems to have been very little consultation about it: see blog by
Tony OX3:
http://www.tonyox3.com/2013/11/barton-park-overwhelming-exemplar.html
There was an important front-page article in the Oxford Times of Thursday 14
November, but curiously it never reached the web version of the Oxford Mail &
Times. I will list the main points made in it below, as they are rather
important:
(1) The first stage of the Barton Park development is likely to start in July
2014 with the creation of a major junction on the A40 between the Green Road
and Cutteslowe roundabouts
(2) The developers Grosvenor have announced they will be applying for planning
permission for the road infrastructure of Phase 1 of the scheme in early
January.
(3) As well as the junction in (1) above, this will include a crossing of the
A40 into Northway. The latter would have pedestrian crossings and be controlled
by traffic lights, Only buses and emergency vehicles would be allowed to cross
the ring road between Barton West and Northway. (Grosvenor have stated that
they are hopeful that the Town Green application for land in Foxwell Drive
where the new road would enter the Northway estate will be unsuccessful.)
(4) The speed limit would be permanently lowered to 50mph between the Marsh
Lane flyover and the Green Road roundabout. A speed camera would be set up, and
landscaping would be done to encourage motorists to slow down
(5) Grosvenor put out to tender 8.75 acres over four separate plots in the
western part of the site in week ending 15 November 2013, and builders have
until early December to bid for the land, which would take up to 237 homes.
(6) The first planning applications from house-builders will probably be
submitted in summer 2014, and foundation work on the first homes is expected to
start in early 2015, with the first residents likely to move in during
September that year.