The Assessment

The draft Core Strategy sets out the overarching policy for development of Oxford for the next twenty years. Details of specific sites for housing are contained in the Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA). This assessment does not set policy, but provides a shopping mall where developers can parade their sites in the hope that the will be included in subsequent the Site Allocation Development Plan Document (SADPD). Work on the SADPD begins in September 2008 on the current timetable.

In preparing the draft SHLAA the City Council has rightly decided to ignore guidance in PPS3, which strongly discourages planning authorities from taking any account of windfall sites. City planners are expecting 200 dwellings a year through windfall sites; 4,000 over the twenty-year Core Strategy period.

The SHLAA is weak in protecting open space and biodiversity. The current Local Plan requires that 10% of development is allocated to public open space (policy H.22), but the SHLAA suggests that this could be waived if there is public open space nearby. The SHLAA only allows for 10 metre buffers zones between development and sites of importance for nature conservation. In the period 2016–26, the City Council is looking for 810 dwellings in the green belt within the city boundaries. The City says that these developments will be after 2016 because a review of the green belt will be needed. And city planners have rejected Natural England's request for nature conservation to be taken into the account in the SHLAA.

The SHLAA is only a provisional list of sites; the City Council is working to find more development sites for the final version of the SHLAA. It has kept 13 sites confidential in the SHLAA but CPRE has obtained details of these through the Freedom of Information Act.

Greenfield sites of concern in the SHLAA

Click on links for maps and further details.

Summertown safeguarded land. 17 ha owned by Summerfields School, Wadham College and St Johns College. Includes 5.4 ha of public open space (playing fields), which the City Council says could be moved to the adjacent Cherwell floodplain, and 2.2 ha of floodplain. The SHLAA suggests that 540 dwellings could be built on the site.

Barton safeguarded land. 33.8 ha of greenfield, including allotments, sports areas and public open space. The site is owned by Worcester College and Arlington Securities. Includes 8.8 ha of public open space, 3.0 ha of floodplain and 1.5 ha of Site of Local Importance for Nature Conservation (SLINC). The SHLAA suggests that 1,180 dwellings could be built on the site.

Marston village. Three developments of 1050 houses are planned. 450 houses on Court Farm allotments and adjacent fields, and 600 houses in the green belt north of the Victoria Arms.

Headington Quarry Glebe. Hives Planning acting on behalf of the Oxford Diocesan Board of Finance have put forward this conservation area for development. 72 dwellings could be built on 2 ha. The SHLAA says that development could only be permitted if an equivalent corridor of equal or greater ecological value could be secured as part of the proposal.

Southfield Golf Course. The City Council has itself proposed to development of the golf course, which we believe is owned by Magdalen College. The 31.2 ha site is protected open air sports space, floodplain and a Site of Local Importance for Nature Conservation. The development will sandwich the SLINC, to the west of which there may be 1,260 dwellings and to the east 380.

Ruskin College. West Waddy ADP is proposing development of 4.7 ha of greenfield in a conservation area for 150 dwellings.

Green belt sites. The City Council is putting forward three sites that it owns within the green belt inside the city boundary:

• Wolvercote, Godstow Road. 1.21 ha in a conservation area. 60 dwellings.
• Marston, Mill Lane. 16 ha of which 3.26 ha is in the floodplain and 2.76 ha of this is a SLINC. 600 dwellings.
• Marston, Marsh Lane. 2.99 ha which is in a conservation area and a view cone. 150 dwellings.

Allotment sites. The City Council is putting forward three of its allotment sites:

• Minchery Farm, Priory Road. 1.3 ha on disused allotments. 35 dwellings.
• Wolvercote, Ulfgar Road. 1.26 ha of which 0.6ha in floodplain. 40 dwellings.
• Marston, Court Place Farm. 5.9 ha of allotments. 300 dwellings.

Oxford Brookes halls of residence. The university is pressing for development of Warneford Meadow for student accommodation. Yet in the SHLAA, developers West Waddy ADP on behalf of the university suggests that Couit, Paul Kent and Crescent Halls should be developed for 163 dwellings. They currently house 544 students. Rowan House adjacent to Paul Kent Hall is also slated for potential development.

Confidential sites

Three greenfield sites, totalling 5.2 ha, which include "various types of protected option [sic] space" may take 215 dwellings. The City Council decided not to publish details of these sites as part of its SHLAA consultation but CPRE has obtained the list under the Freedom of Information Act.

• Cowley Marsh Playing Field, Marsh Road. 2.20 ha for 118 dwellings in 2012-16. Site owned by the County Council. Map.
• Northway Playing Field, Marston. 2.0 ha for 90 houses in 2012-16. Site owned by the County Council. Map.
• Grandpont. 1.0 ha for 30 dwellings in 2017-206. Site owned by the County Council. Map.

The confidential document also lists 11 brownfield sites that the County Council is considering might be allocated for housing. These include four residential homes for elderly people, a special school and council offices.

• Full list of 14 "confidential" sites
• Maps of the 14 "confidential" sites

Further information

• 177 acres of Oxford's green fields will be lost by 2026
• Oxford Core Strategy
• Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment
• Oxford's green spaces are under threat