Application for Town Green Status Temporarily Frozen
Early in 2010 SENDRA agreed with Oxford City Council and Oxfordshire County Council to temporarily freeze the process of application for town green status so that the City Council officers could prepare a paper for the Executive Board on the implications if the City were to apply for town green status for the greater part of the Meadow. (See the Town Green Application page of this website for a summery of the sequence of events.)
The officers reported that town green status would be incompatible with flood remediation works on Oxpens Meadow which were thought necessary to improve the development potential of the adjacent British Rail land. This land is to the west of the coach park next to the Ice Rink and is currently fenced off as undeveloped scrub. However, it is part of the site at Oxpens scheduled for development in the West End Area Action Plan.
Because of the perceived incompatibility, the Council officers recommended an alternative approach namely, the establishment of a Community Land Trust to own and manage the greater part of Oxpens Meadow. This would allow the flood remediation works to be carried out while safeguarding the area as a public open space.
Unfortunately this proposal also turned out to be a non-starter and instead Councillor Bob Price proposed a ‘simple Trust’ analogous to the one which oversees the South Oxford Adventure Playground off Whitehouse Road. This too was rejected. On behalf of SENDRA, FOM proposed the idea of creating a Town Green on that part of the Meadow which would not be required for any possible flood works.
The City Council turned this down as well. Their concern is that any of these management arrangements still leaves open the possibility that some other group or individual would in the future apply for town green status for the land on which flood remediation works might be thought necessary.