In today’s meeting with planning officers, I posed the question that’s been on everyone’s mind for awhile now, is West Way a Local Service Centre, as is claimed in all the Local Plan docs? Or is it a ‘District Centre’ as is broadcast in all the Doric docs?

Stuart Walker said, ‘In planning terms, there is no difference between a Local Centre and a District Centre. It’s just terminology that means nothing.’

Esssentially, they are both ways of describing a town-center-type retail or mixed use area.

In their application, Doric list the address of the development as ‘Botley District Centre West Way Botley’. This will be changed to (I think Stuart said), West Way Centre. Stuart thought it had already been changed, but it hasn’t yet. Let’s keep an eye on it.

To my mind, calling it a District Centre was unnecessary to the success of the panning application approval process, and has served to divert local people’s attention from more material concerns.

Let’s trust the planning officer when he says that what Doric call it makes no difference to what it is.

Let’s also continue to encourage Doric and the Vale to encourage proper naming so as not to mislead people.

As I posted yesterday, The Vale has decided that an Environmental Statement is required from Doric as  part of their planning application. Doric have three weeks from the decision date, so until the 5th of March, to either agree to provide it,  or lodge an appeal with the secretary of state. If they do nothing, the planning application will be refused.

During these three weeks, consultation on the overall application proceeds. So keep studying it, and keep lodging your material objections.

The Environmental Statement could take weeks or months to produce — it rather depends on how much of that work Doric had already done. If they did much of the work last year, it may take only weeks to provide the formal statement. If not, well, it could be months. We should know more once Doric decide what they’re going to do.

If the environmental statement and its assessment reveal changes that must be made to the application, there will be amendments and a re-consultation.

Any questions? Contact me or leave a comment, and I’ll do my best to answer it.

Oxfordshire County Council, in their opinion on whether Doric should be required to submit an Environmental Statement, had this to say about the way Doric change the nature of West Way to suit their needs. They saw what we’ve been noticing for months. (Click on the text to make it bigger and easy to read):

You can read all the opinions sent in under consultee replies, and the decision (as soon as it’s posted), on the Vale website, here.

(By the way, I was just notified that the decision is that an ES is required. Applicants have three weeks to appeal.)

I know I’m supposed to put a photo with every blog post, and keep them short. But I don’t have many photos, and I do have a lot of information! I hope you’ll read this post anyway.

Doric seem to have begun a charm offensive. I was invited to two meetings with Doric and their reps this week. The first, Weds 8 Jan 14, was about communications and community relations. Partially in response to the letter written by Cllr Matthew Barber encouraging Doric to meet with community representatives, and probably partially a planned part of their after-filing PR machine, we will see approaches to West Way Community Concern, local traders, local councillors and the media to increase and improve communications.

This morning, Fri 10 Jan 14, their planning consultant met with some councillors and Vale officers from the property team at the Vale offices. We had a chance to see some of the detailed plans for the first time. Not all, though. There are a lot, and we had two hours with them this morning.

The plans are expected to be available for public viewing early next week. (It’s taking a bit longer than expected for the planning team to check everything.) Consultation will begin after that.

Here’s some of what I learned. As on X Factor, these are in no particular order.

1. Parking isn’t underground. It’s at street level with buildings above it. It won’t be visible from West Way. It backs up to houses on east end of Arthray Rd.
2. Height has been reduced from the original plans by as much a four storeys. One remaining 7 storey building is in the corner nearest Westminster Way and is the student accommodation and hotel. The other is somewhere near the centre of the development, but I didn’t catch the details.
3. There is a 100 room hotel, envisioned to be something like a Premier Inn. It’s in the same area as the student accommodation, facing Westminster Way.
4. The ‘medical centre’ could be GPs, or a satellite office of a Beaumont St practice, or dentist, or combination of them.
5. There are small, medium and larger shops.
6. There are flats for elderly in the west end near the church and community hall (in cooperation with Sovereign, discussions in progress.)
7. There are offices. They might be something ala Regis, with shared administration or meeting rooms for public hire.
8. Food store is 48k net square feet. 76k gross.
9. Parking to increase from 380 to 560 spaces. (The 380 includes spaces at Grant Thornton.)
10.  There is a gym overlooking West Way. Above the shops.
11. They moved shops back off the road (West Way) and staggered the line so it looks less like a prison and more like different buildings. It’s an improvement, IMO.
12. Main access is up at the western-most end. Community buildings and care home facilities and Baptist Church are there.
13. Pedestrian access via Church Lane (is that the right road name?) off Arthray Rd. Next to no 32.
14. Construction would be phased to minimise loss of local services.
15. They expect a planning decision late summer-ish.
16. Construction would take about 16 months.

From some answers that were not given very clearly, I surmise:

• They haven’t entered into firm partnerships agreements for food store, student housing manager, hotel, occupiers of shops, gym, restaurants. The only firm name given is CineWorld.
• They haven’t been overly successful at discussions with current traders. They say, “We’ve offered, but not much take up.”  Some local traders report they haven’t been approached.

All in all, Doric have made significant changes as a result of community lobbying. (Well done WWCC, all letter-writers and petition supporters!) They still, however, plan to move the vicarage further away from the church, replace Field House flats, and demolish Elms Parade. And their poor image in the community has left them with a big mountain to climb to get to any sort of good will.

There will be several hard copies of the plans, one set is earmarked for the WWCC shop. Another will go to each parish council; I don’t know where those will be displayed. I expect these will be distributed next week.

We requested two things today:

1. An Executive Summary document, one that would be a good summary and starting place for people who want to understand what’s proposed without going through the detailed docs.
2. A 3D model. The photos you will see with the application are from a fly-through software package, but are still 2D and it’s difficult to know where you’re ‘standing’ to get the view before you. (I don’t fully understand where a 3D model would be displayed — another question to ask.)

Those were the highlights. Today’s briefing was two hours.

Some people reported seeing a poster outside Field House announcing plans to redevelop the area that could lead to demolition of Field House. Similar messages came by letter to some Elms Parade traders. These messages were confusing and upsetting.

The notices contained misleading information; the deadlines given were wrong.

I asked the Vale officers about them. The notices didn’t come from the Vale. They said perhaps it was a legal notice required by the applicant, Doric. I spoke to Doric’s planning consultant, and indeed, that was the case.

Notices are required to be sent to all freehold parties and those with leases longer than 7 years. That’s why some traders had a letter and some didn’t.

At the time they were sent or posted, the deadlines were correct. Now that it’s taken a bit longer than expected for the planning officers to check all the documentation, the dates have moved along.

Consultation will begin the day the official letters to residents and local businesses are sent out, and will last for 6 weeks. Everyone will be notified, and I’ll post it here. Even after 6 weeks, you can still send in your comments. There will be more info about the consultation later, probably next week.

I have just had word from the Vale planning officer for West Way. They are still checking the documents and expect to have them up on the website by the end of this week.

Patience….

At a little after 2pm today, the Vale received Doric’s planning application.

This will be checked on Monday and put up to the web as soon after as is possible. I’ll put out a message when it’s available to see online. A paper copy of the application’s attachments and plans will take longer to arrive in Botley, but I’ll let you know about that too.

Consultation begins on the 6th of Jan.

For info, the applicants previously filed this notice, which mentions a hotel and gymnasium (for the first time, as far as I know) but doesn’t mention a community hall: http://www.thisisoxfordshire.co.uk/archive/2013/12/20/10890840.Botley_District_Centre/

West Way Community Concern gathered over 2200 signatures on the petition they presented to the Vale of White Horse council last Wednesday. Many local residents came along to show their support. The intention is to get a development that’s right for the people of Botley, and not just the pocket book of the Vale and its developers.

In the days preceding the meeting, I worked to see if we could come up with a realistic motion that would urge Cabinet to do something to help. I wanted to find some way to get a motion passed, so it had to overcome party political interests (which would just have a critical debate and a vote along party lines, so that wouldn’t help).

In collaboration with West Way Concern and the Leader of the Vale Council, we got this motion tabled:

Council acknowledges the strong local opposition to the proposals outlined by Doric Properties for the redevelopment of the West Way area, Botley, on the grounds that residents feel their scale is inappropriately large and completely out of character for a suburban residential area.

Council urges Cabinet to do all they can to persuade Doric Properties to meet with residents and work in partnership with the local community of Botley to find a way forward.

I proposed it, the Leader seconded it, and the council approved it.

I spoke about the responsibility the council has to consult the people who are affected by council decisions. (You can read what I said here.) The Leader said he (and therefore, Cabinet) would do all they could to encourage Doric to address local concerns about the plans and work with local people for a solution that works for Botley.

I intend to follow this up with public questions at future council meetings about what Cabinet have done to so urge Doric, and what results have they had.

Doric’s planning application is expected on Friday. At a meeting earlier this month,  we learned that the consultation clock starts ticking after the planning application has been checked and it’s been verified that all the required documents and plans are included. I will be notified when the plans are received by Vale Planning Department. Planning Officers will put  them straight up onto the planning site so we can see them over the holidays. There will be also hard copies, but I’m not sure when or where. (I think West Way Concern are instrumental in that.)

We will have at least 6 weeks to lodge objections, and possibly more (as many as 16). We’ll know more details when the application is received at the Vale.

To keep absolutely up to date, please be sure to check West Way Community Concern’s website or their Facebook page.