Residents angry at ‘shameful’ derelict Wharf site

On February 26, more than 160 people attended the screening of two films celebrating Jericho’s unique heritage and community – both produced by local resident Maggie Black. The first was a BBC documentary from 1974, the second a complementary 2019 film ‘Our Jericho’ produced with Nicola Josse of Film Oxford

Both films show how this community has faced down destructive threats in the past. Now we are now overshadowed by a fresh round of speculative development on the Jericho Wharf site. 

The screening was followed by a discussion chaired by Maggie with Jericho Wharf Trust representatives David Feeny and David Edwards. They explained that last December the Trust asked the Council to acquire the site and transfer it to a new, more responsible developer. 

Councillors initially welcomed the Trust’s initiative and proposed a meeting, but the Council has now gone disturbingly quiet. There has been no progress in the last three months. Worse, planning officers have apparently briefed Councillors against the initiative arguing that they have other priorities, while also seeking legal advice to justify continuing inertia. 

The Jericho Wharf Trust represents a partnership of four community groups. The Jericho Community Association, the Jericho Community Boatyard, the Jericho Living Heritage Trust, and St Barnabas Parochial Church Council. They have launched a ‘Save Jericho Wharf’ campaign for the City Council to take decisive action – to end 20 years of canalside dereliction and deliver on the Council’s planning commitments for community facilities and a boatyard on the site. This community cares deeply about Jericho’s canalside heritage and future: in just a few weeks a petition for the compulsory purchase campaign gathered 1,600 signatures. 

In a lively Q&A. The JWT trustees explained that the landowner is a speculator, based in Hong Kong, who overpaid for the site. He bought it for £2.6m but, taking into account the community requirements, its real value has been determined by the Council at around £1m. Now he is seeking recover his costs and boost his profits at the community’s expense.

There is even alarming talk of a ‘compromise’, removing all the community facilities from the wharf site and covering it with student housing, as happened at Castle Mill alongside Port Meadow – a prospect which drew a collective groan from the audience. The Community would be confined to its existing small Canal Street site and there would be no facilities for the residential boat community. 

There is a clear and positive alternative. The Council can end the years of dereliction by acquiring the site. It could do so through negotiation or, if necessary, by compulsory purchase, based on the actual site value – not the inflated £6m that the landowner wants to get by packing the site with housing. 

The purchase would cost the Council nothing, since it would immediately be reimbursed in a ‘back-to-back’ transaction by a pre-selected partner developer who would build canalside homes while also delivering the community facilities – a scheme whose viability has already been established in two planning permissions. 

A new boatyard will provide the essential facilities for the boating community and continue Jericho’s living canal heritage. The Canal and River Trust, working with JWT, has already identified several potential locations for a new bridge crossing. There also would be a new, fit-for-purpose community centre along with a vibrant public space – all of which would strongly deliver on Council’s declared strategy for ‘Thriving Communities’. This scheme is not just about bricks and mortar but about sustaining the heart and soul of Jericho – a community who whose needs have been ignored for nearly two decades.

Audience members wanted to know how a CPO process worked, and whether it would put a financial burden on the City Council. They also wanted to know who was the mysterious landowner whose demands for profit had so escalated during the past 12 years? 

They also volunteered their own suggested actions for the campaign. A common theme was that we should increase public awareness of the landowner’s greed and of the council’s failure to act. This might be done through creation of powerful video material a la Bates / Post Office; or possibly – suggested one veteran boater who achieved the loudest applause of the session – by a new occupation of the site as in 2006. 

Encouraged by the endorsement from this stimulating session, the Trust and the community campaign will continue to press the Council for action – to implement an agreed scheme and end the continuing blight from speculative planning applications and land trading. The City can no longer ignore Jericho. The Trust intends to broaden its campaign through the media and, if there is no progress will seek independent legal advice on options for compulsory purchase.