Oxford Brookes Gipsy Lane Campus
New Student Centre
Application 09/00695/FUL

 
Artist's impression given in brochure distributed by Brookes.  The faint red line at the top of the building indicates its original height.

To see visualisations of the proposed building prepared on behalf of Headington residents on the basis of Ordnance Survey Super Plan Data and dimensions taken from Brookes's amended Application Architectural Plans click here for short video and here for aerial photo with indication of proposed building.

Planning Consent Refused

At the meeting of Oxford City's Full Council on Thursday, 17 September, at Oxford Town Hall, planning consent for the new student centre was refused. 

City Councillors for Headington Hill & Northway were divided in their opinions: Roy Darke voted in favour but Mohammed Altaf-Khan voted against.  Both the Marston City Councillors, Mary Clarkson and Beverley Hazell, voted against. Neither of the Headington City Councillors, David Rundle and Ruth Wilkinson, was present at the meeting; Ruth felt she could not vote, as she works for Brookes, and David was on leave following a bereavement.

For notes made on this meeting by Marilyn Cox, Secretary, Jack Straw's Lane Association, click here

See Oxford Times website article reporting on the meeting.

There is a statement, dated 17 September, on Oxford Brookes University's website

Oxford City Council's Strategic Development Control Committee had given its backing to this application on Thursday, 26 August 2009.  For notes on this meeting, click here.

A letter was sent on behalf of JLSA to Cllr Mary Clarkson, who chaired the meeting of the Full Council on 17 September, advising her that the Association shared the concerns expressed by other Headington residents' associations about the allocation of time to applicant(s) and opponent(s) to express their views at planning meetings. To see this letter click here.

The Oxford Times published an article on 11 June 2009 on the petition signed by over 1,000 residents protesting against the application.

In a letter published in The Oxford Times on 30 July 2009, Mr John Power, a former Mayor of Oxford, explained why he believed Brookes should 'adopt a policy of retrenchment'.

See also Oxford Times article 1 September 2009.

*  *  *  *  *  *

In the same week that the Council circulated its letter of 10 August giving details of how this application would be dealt with, two applications by Brookes for banners (one at Headington Hill Hall, the other at the Gipsy Lane site) were turned down for the following reasons:

Having regard to the overlarge, dominant and intrusive nature of the proposed banners, the proposals would be detrimental to the Headington Road streetscene and to the Gipsy Lane Campus. The banners would not therefore be appropriate to their visual setting in terms of scale and appearance and would neither preserve nor enhance the character or appearance of the Headington Hill Conservation Area in which they are located, contrary to policies  CP1, CP7, CP10, RC14 and NE7 of the Oxford Local Plan

   One Headington resident commented:
 
   "The planners don't seem to see the
   elephant in the living room".

Background information:

As a result of concerted opposition put forward by Headington residents' associations, Brookes offered to reduce the height of the proposed building by one storey, which would take about three metres (10 ft) off its height.  A basement would be added to compensate for the loss of the top floor.

However, as was clear from  addresses made by representatives of residents' associations at a meeting of the East Oxford Area Committee on 17 June 2009, concerns relate not only to the size of this specific building but to the extent of Brookes's expansion over the last 10 years and the effect of vastly increased student numbers on the local community.

Brookes invited representatives of local residents' associations to a presentation of the revised plans on Thursday, 25 June.  In response to concerns raised at this meeting about the university's expansion, Vice-Chancellor Rex Knight said that student numbers had grown by 10% since 1999. 

He said some of the statements published relating to the university's expansion had been based on ‘a misleading use of figures’.  He also said that a decrease had been forecast in the number of 18-year-olds wanting to study at university, partly due to demographic reasons,  partly as a result of the recession and restraints imposed on public expenditure.   However, as the number of UK students declined, there would be some growth in the number of the university's overseas students.  Growth overall would be mainly in post-graduate study.

Private Eye article

Quite a lengthy article on Brookes's development and its plans for the new student centre appeared in Private Eye (No. 1238, 12-25 June 2009, page 14).  The author was very critical of the design for the student centre. 

The design was produced by the Winchester-based firm, Design Engine, whose principal partner is Richard Rose-Casemore of the post-graduate department of Oxford Brookes's School of the Built Environment and who, as the Eye pointed out, is also a South-Eastern representative for the Commission for the Built Environment (CABE), one of whose 'Regional Partners' is the Government-funded South East England Development Agency (SEEDA).

The author of the 'Eye' article ('Piloti') did not feel that the development proposed by Design Engine was in keeping with the surrounding area and referred to it as an 'overweening, anti-social project'.

At that same time, the architect Lord Rogers, who, according to The Eye, is Mr Rose-Casemore's former employer,  was also in the headlines following Prince Charles's objections to his plans for a series of modern glass and steel blocks on the site of the former Chelsea Barracks, a £1 billion project of the Qatari Royal Family.

To see the letters sent on behalf of JSLA objecting to the original and the revised application, click here.

Oxford Core Strategy 2026 - Hearings

Expansion of Oxford's universities was one of the matters dealt with in the Oxford Core Strategy.  For notes on this, click  here.