A private company have applied for permission to build new student accommodation near Port Meadow, very close to University graduate accommodation that has been recently criticised for obscuring the views of Oxford’s spires.
Plans have been submitted for a three-storey building on Roger Dudman Way that, if permission is given, will provide nine new student rooms. The building will be situated on the riverbank, near the University’s contentious Castle Mill development that sparked uproar among local residents when its four and five-storey buildings blocked off Port Meadow’s view of Oxford’s dreaming spires.
The Campaign continues to call for the Castle Mill buildings to be lowered at the cost of the University, with a protest held outside the Town Hall this Wednesday. However, they have said that “the new planning application is not an issue for us.” A representative from the campaign pointed out that they have “always tried to emphasise that we are in favour of more student accommodation being made available in Oxford” and that their protests over the existing Port Meadow buildings centred around the negative visual impact that did not take into account the heritage of the area. The spokesman also noted that, since the controversy over the Castle Mill development, councillors are taking “special care” when considering new plans, leaving the Protect Port Meadow campaign “very confident that there is no reason for any anxiety at all.”
The University, which is currently refusing to lower the existing Port Meadow buildings due to the suggested price tag of £20 million that it believes would be “a waste of charitable funds”, said that it could not comment on the new plans since they were not affiliated with the University, but that it is “committed to providing accommodation for as many of its students as possible in order to ease the burden on Oxford’s rental market.”
The hope that the University would be able to provide more student housing in future was echoed by OUSU Vice-President for Graduates, Christopher Gray. However, he said he recognised the “inevitable role” that private providers play in student accommodation and hoped if the scheme was built it would provide affordable rooms of a standard in which students were happy to live.
The permission has been applied for by Tariq Khuja, the director of Lettings and Property Management, an Oxford letting agency that rents properties to students and the general public. Mr Khuja was contacted for comment, but did not respond. However, a statement released with the planning application said, “This proposal represents a sensible, well-balanced use of the site which positively responds to the context is inclusive of the proposed footbridge at this location.”
