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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/oct/24/how-oxford-is-going-the-same-way-as-bath
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| Version 1 | Version 2 |
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| How Oxford is going the same way as Bath | How Oxford is going the same way as Bath |
| (about 1 month later) | |
| Ken Loach’s “lamentation” about how Bath has been and is being overdeveloped (Report, 21 October) could be echoed in Oxford, where in the 1950s Mr Loach studied law at St Peter’s College. Had he been in Oxford today he could walk the short distance from his old college and witness the opening of the new Westgate shopping centre, 800,000 square feet of retail and leisure “glory”, touted by Oxford city council, the Land Securities Group and the Crown Estate (the Westgate Alliance) as a world-beating development which could draw in a footfall of up to 16.5 million per annum in what Bob Price, Labour leader of the city council, describes as “a significant increase in the city’s retail footprint”. It’s expected that these happy shoppers will then spill over into the rest of Oxford city centre, already subject to chronic congestion. | Ken Loach’s “lamentation” about how Bath has been and is being overdeveloped (Report, 21 October) could be echoed in Oxford, where in the 1950s Mr Loach studied law at St Peter’s College. Had he been in Oxford today he could walk the short distance from his old college and witness the opening of the new Westgate shopping centre, 800,000 square feet of retail and leisure “glory”, touted by Oxford city council, the Land Securities Group and the Crown Estate (the Westgate Alliance) as a world-beating development which could draw in a footfall of up to 16.5 million per annum in what Bob Price, Labour leader of the city council, describes as “a significant increase in the city’s retail footprint”. It’s expected that these happy shoppers will then spill over into the rest of Oxford city centre, already subject to chronic congestion. |
| With one or two exceptions, all the businesses in Oxford’s new Westgate will be national chains, with, at its heart, a 125,000 sq ft John Lewis. Meanwhile, television ads for the new centre feature a contemporary Alice, asleep among Oxford’s buildings, before dashing from Hertford College’s Bridge of Sighs to the Radcliffe Camera, where she takes off the top of the dome to reveal a swarm of leaping lipsticks. What fun! | With one or two exceptions, all the businesses in Oxford’s new Westgate will be national chains, with, at its heart, a 125,000 sq ft John Lewis. Meanwhile, television ads for the new centre feature a contemporary Alice, asleep among Oxford’s buildings, before dashing from Hertford College’s Bridge of Sighs to the Radcliffe Camera, where she takes off the top of the dome to reveal a swarm of leaping lipsticks. What fun! |
| As with Bath, Oxford is being overburdened on the presumption that all growth is good growth, without any countervailing assumption of constraint and consolidation. In Mr Loach’s time as a student, the site was part of Oxford’s working-class housing, Victorian mostly, spread across the parishes of St Ebbe’s and St Thomas’s, all swept away in the slum clearance frenzy of the early 1970s. The new Westgate does include some housing; luxury flats from £500,000, but not a single social housing unit in a city deeply wounded by housing deprivations. | As with Bath, Oxford is being overburdened on the presumption that all growth is good growth, without any countervailing assumption of constraint and consolidation. In Mr Loach’s time as a student, the site was part of Oxford’s working-class housing, Victorian mostly, spread across the parishes of St Ebbe’s and St Thomas’s, all swept away in the slum clearance frenzy of the early 1970s. The new Westgate does include some housing; luxury flats from £500,000, but not a single social housing unit in a city deeply wounded by housing deprivations. |
| So here we have it: the biggest city centre development in Oxford’s history, which looks like a cross between a penitentiary and an aircraft hanger. As for traffic and air pollution, Oxford is already suffering mightily, but growth is growth and the rest will look after itself, won’t it?Bruce Ross-SmithOxford | So here we have it: the biggest city centre development in Oxford’s history, which looks like a cross between a penitentiary and an aircraft hanger. As for traffic and air pollution, Oxford is already suffering mightily, but growth is growth and the rest will look after itself, won’t it?Bruce Ross-SmithOxford |
| • John Harris reports in “Owning a car will soon be a thing of the past” (Opinion, 23 October) that “only 10 days ago Oxford announced that it is set to be the first British city to ban all petrol and diesel cars and vans from a handful of streets by 2020”. Is that the same Oxford City Council that today opened the brand new Westgate development? | • John Harris reports in “Owning a car will soon be a thing of the past” (Opinion, 23 October) that “only 10 days ago Oxford announced that it is set to be the first British city to ban all petrol and diesel cars and vans from a handful of streets by 2020”. Is that the same Oxford City Council that today opened the brand new Westgate development? |
| Westgate is already undermining plans for a zero-emission zone to combat Oxford’s dire air quality problem. There is already evidence of increased traffic – and associated pollution – related to the site. Despite talk of encouraging shoppers to use the park-and-rides, signs have been going up around the city directing drivers to the city centre. And linked to the Westgate development, the city council agreed to increase parking capacity in the city centre and reduce car parking charges. Another case of talking green – and doing the opposite.Liz ReasonCharlbury, Oxfordshire | Westgate is already undermining plans for a zero-emission zone to combat Oxford’s dire air quality problem. There is already evidence of increased traffic – and associated pollution – related to the site. Despite talk of encouraging shoppers to use the park-and-rides, signs have been going up around the city directing drivers to the city centre. And linked to the Westgate development, the city council agreed to increase parking capacity in the city centre and reduce car parking charges. Another case of talking green – and doing the opposite.Liz ReasonCharlbury, Oxfordshire |
| • Ken Loach laments the lack of shops for local people in Bath’s city centre. He should travel to my part of the city, where he will find not only a greengrocer and ironmonger but also a butcher, deli, chemist, post office and more, and not a scented candle in sight. See you in Larkhall, Ken.Mike ParrBath | • Ken Loach laments the lack of shops for local people in Bath’s city centre. He should travel to my part of the city, where he will find not only a greengrocer and ironmonger but also a butcher, deli, chemist, post office and more, and not a scented candle in sight. See you in Larkhall, Ken.Mike ParrBath |
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