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.

 

 

Here’s the motion I 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.”

And here’s what I said to Council in support of the motion:

“I was once given some great management advice: “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.”

“In this case, isn’t the main thing to provide a redevelopment that works for Botley? I’ve heard everyone say this. So, who knows best what’s best for Botley?

“There was an expectation that a decision to sell off all our local shops and services would be consulted upon – that didn’t happen. There was an expectation that developers would hold a genuine consultation, taking feedback from local people into account – that didn’t happen either. Now there’s an expectation that some open discussion and collaboration could find a way forward with all of us working together – I’d like to see that happen.

“So, if the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing, then we all need to remember what the main thing IS.  We have to ensure a redevelopment meets the needs of Botley. Who should decide that? The Vale thinks Cabinet is best placed to decide. Botley thinks local people and businesses are the ones who should decide.

Even when we don’t have a statutory or constitutional duty to consult, we should consider whether we have an ethical duty to do so. Does it help? Will it mitigate risk? Can it build good community relations?

“In the past few months it’s been made very clear to us that decisions affecting people’s everyday lives matter a whole lot. People deserve a say in what happens to their community, to their lives, to their sense of well-being. I think members have a moral responsibility to the people who’ve elected us to ensure they DO have a say in what happens to them.

“I’m very proud to be a member of the Botley community, and of how the people of Botley have come together to work for the betterment of the whole community.”

Last night about 50 Botley area residents and supporters of West Way Community Concern came along to the Vale district council meeting to present their petition to stop the current plans for a massive redevelopment of West Way shopping area.

The Oxford Times covered it here: http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/news/yourtown/oxford/10871151.West_Way_petition_is_2_000_strong/?ref=rss&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

The motion passed unanimously. Here is what it said:

“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.”

This gives us a platform to hold Cabinet to account for doing all they can to get Doric to work with Botley to get the development that’s best for the community.

Confusion exists over just who is doing what to whom, in the West Way Doric deal.

Until there is a planning application submitted to the Vale Planning Department, this is only a land sale. There are two sites involved currently.

Site 1: Comprising Botley Baptist Church, Co-op car park, back half of the Co-op store, Seacourt Hall and public toilets, the empty Grant Thornton building, and the building that houses the Library, Andrews Dry Cleaners and Elm Court.

Site 2: West Way Shopping Centre (that’s the precinct, or The Square) including the front half of the Co-op and the multi-storey office building at the other end. And the larger car park behind Tesco, off Arthray Road.

Site 1 has several landowners. They entered into a joint agreement in 2011 to sell this land with a mind to developing a food store and replacement community hall, church and library facilities, all to complement West Way shopping centre. The Vale owns only a portion of this land; the agreement splits the proceeds proportionately. The Vale intended to use some of their proceeeds to improve West Way Shopping Centre.

Site 2 wasn’t originally offered for sale. But Doric expressed an interest in developing all of this land (and a bit more) so the Vale decided to sell it.

Doric is the buyer for both Site 1 and Site 2. The Site 1 seller is a consortium that includes the Vale. The Site 2 seller is the Vale.

Doric has expressed their intention to also develop land currently occupied by Elms Parade, the Vicarage, and Field House. These three properties are not owned by the Vale, but by three other, spearate owners.

A planning application can be for any land, even land that you do not own. Yes, you read that right. I could apply for permission to build a skatepark on the land where your house sits. I wouldn’t, but I could. If planning permission is subsequently granted, then it is up to the developer to acquire title to that land before development can commence.

So Doric will seek planning permission that includes Site 1, Site 2, Elms Parade, Vicarage and Field House. If they get permission, then Doric will need to acquire the land from the Howse Family (who own Elms Parade), the Church of England (probably a diocese, I’m not sure), and Sovereign (owners of Field House). I would expect that negotiations are already taking place, but I have no knowledge of this.

So, who’s the one wants to flatten frail and vulnerable elderly people’s homes, demolish Elms Parade and obliterate the Sykes’ home? Well, that would be Doric. Not the Vale. Some people have mentioned that Doric plan to offer replacement housing for Field House residents. I didn’t see this in their plans; did I miss it, or wasn’t it there?

On Thursday 21 Nov 2013, the Vale Scrutiny Committee had a close look at the sequence of events that led to the sale of Westway Shopping Centre (WSC) and its interest in the land nearest the corner of West Way and Westminster Way, referred to as Site 1.

Site 1 has several landowners who jointly offered their land for sale. Site 1 comprises the vacant Grant Thornton Building, Elms Court and the building housing the library and Andrews Dry Cleaning, Seacourt Hall and the public toilets, Botley Baptist Church and the car park next to the Co-op. Oddly it also includes the rear half of the Co-op store.

Here’s the timeline:

1967: Botley Shopping Centre is built, “with its attractive variety of modern shops”. See the newspaper article.

2000: Vale buys WSC for about £5,800,000.

Nov 2010: The Vale Executive, having consulted with Botley community, decides to join with other landowners to offer Site 1 for public sale, with the aim of achieving the best terms, subject to delivering a development within 5 years that complemented the existing WSC. Parties had in mind a large food store with a replacement community hall and Baptist church, with space for a new library (subject to OCC as libraries authority). Food store was envisioned to be slightly larger than Abingdon Waitrose, with 450 parking spaces. Some proceeds from the sale would be used to improve WSC.

Feb 2011: land offered for sale under a marketing and co-operation agreement (MCA). There were 13 firm offers. A shortlist of 6 bidders were reviewed closely, and two bidders came top: Doric was one of those.

May 2011: Tories win the election and take over management of the Vale. They start to expand the scope of the West Way redevelopment from the smaller scale original development, to a much larger scale regeneration: demolition of Site 1, West Way Shopping Center, and other areas (Elms Parade, Vicarage, Field House) to build the High Street Botley never had. This is all done with no communication to the people of Botley, until the first Doric consultation in Feb 2013.

May 2011- approx Apr 2012: Extended negotiations with the other bidder, which ran into (unspecified) trouble and the parties to the MCA decided to go with Doric. Dates not clear.

Feb 2012: North Hinksey Parish Council hosted a public meeting about the West Way Redevelopment. Vale officers attending introduced the concepts of Site 1 and Site 2. They expressed their view that it was too early to discuss specifics of the potential proposals. We learned later that only the sale of Site 1 was then being negotiated. Nonetheless, public feedback was solicited and captured.

Apr-Nov 2012: Doric produced proposals  for a comprehensive redevelopment of WSC, to widen the catchment and presented their ideas at Cabinet briefings (these are secret; no details are available to the public).

Dec 2012: Cabinet agreed they should use ownership of WSC to facilitate the regeneration of Botley. Contracts exchanged with Doric for Site 2. (Contracts already exchanged for Site 1 at some unspecified earlier date.) All done with no consultation with local community. Contracts are conditional, so there are get-out clauses, but the specifics of the conditions are secret.

Feb 2013: Doric’s first consultation, with high level proposal showing zones of activity.

April 2013: West Way Community Concern’s survey, which had 720 responses.

22 May 2013: West Way Community Concern public meeting to share results of their survey. See these results here.

Sep-Oct 2013: (Originally planned for spring, then July, but delayed). Doric’s second consultation with a ore detailed proposals for Land Usage.

Oct 2013: Liberal Democrats launched a petition in support of community opinion to tell the Vale to Drop the Doric Deal. In 10 days it got over 900 signatures. At Council meeting, Lib Dems proposed a motion to Vale to drop the deal, which resulted in agreement from Tory leader to bring the decision to scrutiny.

18 Nov 2013: Over 300 people come to St Peter’s and St Paul’s Church for a standing-room-only public meeting about West Way redevelopment. Several speakers, Q&A sessions and tea and cakes made for lots of conversations and suggestions for strategy.

21 Nov 2013: Scrutiny Committee meeting well attended by public, with many questions and some answers. Feeling is disappointment at the attitude of Tory Leader that this deal is going through no matter what the local opinion is.

23 Nov 2013: nearly 600 people gather for Arms Around Elm’s Parade, to protest the Doric proposals to demolish Elms Parade.

11 Dec 2013: West Way Community Concern has over 1200 signatures (as at 25 Nov), enough to get their petition onto the Vale full council agenda, where members may debate it.

Nov -Dec 2013: Planning application expected from Doric.

To see everything, check out the West Way Community Concern website: click here

Feb 2012:

Bovis Homes have just provided the Construction Management Plan (CMP) for the Lime Road development site.

I’ve published it online; you can access via this link: Lime Road CMP

(When it opens, you’ll likely have to scroll to the top of the doc. Sorry – techie thing I haven’t been able to fix. Also consider downloading it to your machine so you can more easily read it. )