People are being asked for their views on a multi-million pound scheme for Oxford which will create 3,000 new jobs, 300 new homes, two new hotels and an amphitheatre.
The opportunity for Oxpens – a 15-acre site between Oxpens Road and the river – to be a ‘new quarter’ for the city, with emerging ideas for how this could happen will be put on show at consultation events this July.
OxWED, the joint venture between Oxford City Council and Nuffield College, will be sharing its plans and proposals through a combination of public exhibitions, site tours, a dedicated consultation website, and community briefings.
Planners say the site has the potential to deliver both homes and new employment, opening up the riverside and creating improved public space and a stunning new amphitheatre – the ‘Oxpens Amphitheatre’.
The scheme includes the potential for: up to 3,000 jobs, new public space, approximately 300 new homes, 650,000 sq ft of offices and laboratories, and a new hotel, or pair of hotels with approximately 350 bedrooms.
It is also part of the ambitions for the £1.5bn wider-scale regeneration, investment and improvement of the West End of the city.
Kevin Minns, managing director at OxWED, said: “We want Oxpens to be a vibrant and exciting new quarter for Oxford, which contributes in many different ways to the city and the people who live and work here.
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“It’s hidden away at the moment and does little to benefit the community. So it’s time to open up the conversation so that, in turn, we can open up the site in the best possible way.
“We’re sharing our emerging ideas and what we’re asking for is feedback on our indicative proposals and views from the community to help us shape the scheme as we take it forward.”
The community and stakeholders can get involved by attending the drop-in public exhibitions taking place in the Westgate Centre’s Leiden Square by John Lewis on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, all between 10am and 3pm, signing up for escorted tours of the Oxpens site taking place on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, visiting the consultation website at oxpensoxford.uk and completing the feedback form.
People can also join events at West Oxford Community Centre, Botley Road on Tuesday, from 4.30pm to 6.30pm, or at St Ebbe’s Primary School, Whitehouse Road on Wednesday from 6.30pm to 8.30pm.
Booking is via eventbrite – details and links at www.oxpensoxford.uk.
OxWED is working with masterplan architects Hawkins Brown, landscape architects Gillespies and a team of urban design specialists to prepare an indicative masterplan for the Oxpens site.
Making Oxpens Meadow a more accessible space is a core principle within the emerging masterplan.
Improved walking and cycling links will be helped by the new ‘Osney Bridge’ which is scheduled to connect Oxpens to Osney Mead.
The emerging ideas are also based on designing for sustainability, with a strong focus on energy and resource efficiency to help address climate change.
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Careful attention is being paid to water management and how to integrate the proposed development into the riverside and meadows, recognising the role the meadows play within the flood plain.
The ambition is to submit an outline planning application in 2022.
City councillor Alex Hollingsworth, cabinet member for planning and housing delivery, said: “Oxpens is a key regeneration site which sits at the heart of our wider ambition to develop a world-class space for research, development and innovation – one that will create sustainable jobs for the future of our city.
“This means it’s important everyone can understand the emerging thinking and participate in the design process.
“From office space and new homes to better public space, from the highest standards of sustainability to enhanced connections across the city, it’s vital that we get these aspects of Oxpens right.
“Hearing from the community will help with that process.”
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Sir Andrew Dilnot, Warden of Nuffield College: said: “Oxpens has the potential to support Oxford’s long-term economic growth and to provide new housing and public spaces for the city.
“ It is exciting to have reached this stage of the design process for the site and now to be in a position to invite views from the people who live and work and spend time in the city so that we can understand what people most want to see achieved on the site.
“We hope in turn that these conversations and this consultation will help to make the proposals even better.”
The closing date for submitting responses to this consultation is July 31, 2021.
Feedback from the consultation will be used to shape the emerging masterplan designs.
Additional consultation will then follow so that the community and stakeholders can comment on more detailed proposals before the planning application is prepared and submitted next year.
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