A local planning review committee has decisively rejected a 74 room housing development on Osney Lane, intended for students of Bellerbys College, a local education institution. This has possible ramifications for University housing.
Amanda Whiting, resident of nearby Mill Lane, said, “It’s a normal Victorian street, and we would have had a massive monolithic structure which would not have been in keeping with the rest of the street. I don’t have any problems with students at all, it was just too big.”
This is the latest in a line of disputes concerning the expansion of student housing developments outside the city centre.
An agreement between Oxford City Council and both Oxford Brookes and the University of Oxford states that each university may only expand its research facilities if it manages to keep the number of its students in private accommodation below 3,000.
This is because of a widespread desire to maintain ‘balanced communities’ and to ensure there is sufficient housing stock for local families. Oxford has met this target, but Brookes is still working towards doing so.
Brookes Communications Officer Edward Reed told Cherwell, ‘It clearly makes sense for the council to draw up and implement guidelines for development across the city to ensure a balanced community, whilst enabling the number of students living in the private rented sector to be reduced. Oxford Brookes University is supportive of measures to achieve this, for the benefit of both our students and the wider community.’
Halls of residence are seen as one solution to the problem of students taking up much of the city’s limited housing stock. Oxford City Council is leaning on the universities to cooperate with this.
Councillor Joe McManners, Executive Member for Housing Needs, said that the proliferation of halls is a good idea because doing so “frees up private housing and takes students away from residential streets, something residents wanted.”
There are no plans to push the number of students living out of college in private accommodation any lower.
