JERICHO ECHO ARTICLE
December 1980
We have a bone to pick with you. An old bone niaybe but not one to be dismissed as something to be buried and forgotten. This is no dry bone but one with a lot of meat on it and a very nasty smell. Something you cannot go on pretending it not there. Castle Mill House, houses in Juxon Street and now 44 Walton Well Road. All bloc let to foreign students. You know the terms of your planning permissions and so do we. Residential means for Oxford people, who work in Oxford not a temporary pad for students for six months.
You must know of the many complaints that have been voiced about late, noisy parties, indiscriminate parking, squalid surrounds and inconsiderate behaviour, even to the point of throwing eggs at doors. Then there are some very worrying stories of indirect pressure on people living in Juxon Street to get them out. Know anything about those? Well, what are you doing about these problems? Have you been to see the places and hear the tales, first hand, from the people themselves. They are not afraid to speak out so are you afraid to listen? Do you know it looks as if you are a bad case of British disease. Fumbling, inept and out of date management. When did you last really look at Jericho and Walton Well Road?
Ten, fifteen years ago Jericho was a depressed area, a near slum falling into disrepair which the Council wanted to get rid of and replace with a modern road system, car parks and offices, remember? Remember too what happened? The fight, the enquiries, the planners forced to rethink? Then Jericho was made a General Improvement Area and if you want to see what difference that has made compare Walton Well ixoad, under your care, with Jericho. The City Council get the hell of a kick out of having UNESCO teams to come and see what they have done and the Ministry of the Environment sending people from other areas to see how it was done. People even write books about it. Civic pride has also had its cash benefits. Jericho is getting to be a fashionable area to live in and the absolutely latest thing is to move in from the suburban estates to the inner city.
So property values are rising in this area, but not next door to a squalid, noisy and run-down student hostel. Bit short-sighted aren't you? The student bonanza is not going to last much longer and you. will be left with a row of clapped out houses and the Council is not going to have the money for rehabilitation grants. Not now. That part of the rehabilitation is over, gone. You may have made a quick killing with the 'Cash now' lets but you have got to go on living with the neigbourhood long after tne last student has packed and gone and you are not popular.
Author: Christine Cowham