Oxford Brookes University have put forward a plan to South Oxfordshire District Council to sell their Wheatley campus and use the 52.7 acre plot for a new housing development.
The campus is currently being used for the Business School and Engineering Department which would be moved to Headington.
Bob Price, Oxford City Council leader, calls the move, which has been in discussion since 2002, “overdue”.
According to the Strategic Housing Market Assessment, up to 32,000 new homes are needed in Oxfordshire before 2031. In light of this, Councillor Price said the university’s proposal would be a “very welcome addition to help meet Oxford’s housing needs” as the proposed houses would be affordable homes and aimed at those who work in Oxford.
Despite concerns regarding potential pressure on Wheatley parish’s infrastructure, Councillor Price insists that the current road that connects the campus to both the East and West-bound A40 will take the strain of any extra traffic. He says there must be talks about the effect on schools and local facilities in the “very active community life in Wheatley.” The South Oxfordshire District council have said that they will collaborate with all involved parties in order to create a “quality redevelopment scheme”.
The move would involve displacement of facilities for future students although Councillor Price, who was also the HR director at Brookes University, insists this will be advantageous as it will concentrate the university’s facilities around the city centre.
A second year engineering student from Brookes commented, “They propose to move everyone in 2021, but they haven’t started building anything yet. There are so many components of Wheatley like stress labs, electronics labs, formula student […] so transporting it all is going to be a hard task in just one summer.”
The Wheatley site is situated within Oxford’s Green Belt which was established in 1997 in order to stem urban growth.
Councillor John Cotton, leader of South Oxfordshire District Council, has said, “Our study, carried out in 2015, suggested that this area no longer meets any of the five purposes that Green Belt land should serve and, given the suburban nature of the proposed development, we are considering whether to remove it from the Green Belt.”
At this stage, the plans are referred to as a ‘scoping opinion request’ and it is likely that the move, if accepted, will not be completed until 2022.
