The University of Oxford proposal to develop a new three-storey lab in Headington has been labelled “selfish and short-sighted” by Headington Heritage regarding its environmental impact. The new three-story labs building is proposed to be part of Oxford University’s Old Road Campus in Headington, including a substation building, cycle storage building, and associated landscaping.
The Old Road Campus is a University of Oxford site in Headington dedicated to biomedical research and includes buildings such as the Nuffield Department of Medicine Research, the Big Data Institute, and other lab buildings and for research on childcare, tropical diseases, and rheumatology.
Highfields Residents Association (HRA) and Headington Heritage have objected to the plans, fearing that building works will disturb residents and that the height of the labs building may “impinge visually on the residents” and cause light pollution. Fears of traffic build-up and flooding in the area have also been raised.
Headington Heritage told Cherwell that “the endless expansion of facilities with no mitigation and addition of staff is selfish and shortsighted, and environmentally unfriendly to the extreme.” It holds the University and Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (OUHT) responsible for “a traffic and housing nightmare” and “environmental damage” because they are using land for “car parking” rather than “to provide housing and alleviate the housing crisis.”
In 2013, the campus had planning permission granted for 48,000sqm of research floorspace over five building plots with a car park with space for 459 cars. The scheme’s planning and consultation statement said: “The application clearly demonstrates that the quantum of development is in accordance with the previously approved details, and consistent with national and local planning policies, as well as other material considerations.”
The HRA have said that they welcome the project to facilitate and consider creating a labs building to house a research centre for pandemic sciences, but they are concerned about the effects it may have on the quality of local residential living conditions.
Thames Valley Police also submitted an objection citing security measures of the labs building and other potential vulnerabilities for residents.
No plans to adjust the labs building proposal or address these residential concerns have been announced as of yet.
