Botley District Centre would harm Green Belt
24th June 2014
The proposed Botley District Centre would visually intrude on the Green Belt and harm the setting of a number of Oxford’s Heritage assets including St George’s Tower, Castle Mound and Carfax Tower.
CPRE Oxfordshire has today filed a response to the Environmental Impact Assessment of the proposed re-development of Botley District Centre by Doric Properties Limited.
Our concerns are that the size of the development is too big for the site and out of character with its surroundings.
The developers themselves state that the development is only of local importance, ‘not of regional or even district-wide significance’. Therefore we do not believe that the development provides the ‘very special circumstances’ that would justify the harm to the Green Belt, or the ‘substantial public benefit’ that would outweigh the harm or loss to Oxford’s nationally and internally important heritage.
See details of the planning application (Vale of White Horse District Council website)
See our response in full below.