JERICHO ECHO ARTICLE
February 1981
For years now we have been complaining about Castle Mill House having been taken over by St. Aldate's College and the Oxford Academy of English for student accommodation (term time only) instead of being used to house Oxford residents who want to live and work in the area. Banging our heads against a brick wall it seemed. Times change though and now its the Council who have the headache and not just the unfortunate residents who live around Castle Mill House. Its these Government cutbacks so that the Council find themselves short of housing and they cannot afford to go on building and building.
Now they want to stop residential houses and flats being filled up with students from outside. Not University students who have to come to Oxford but students attending all these Language Schools and Sixth Form Colleges who think that Oxford is a good address and looks imposing on their prospectus. After all you can take 0 and A-levels anywhere. Haven't we always said this would happen. Haven't we complained time and again about houses being converted to multi-occupancy and used by students. Haven't we raised the question of planning permission being flouted at public meetings and no one wanted to know. Till now.
Now the Council are trying to prevent Lucy's from letting out 41 Walton Well Road as a student hostel and they are asking for local support. Strictly speaking its in Walton Manor territory but they are our neighbours and we have got the same problem, only more so, in Castle Mill House and the houses in Juxon Street so let's help them. If the Council are at last ready to face up to the fact that over the last 10-15 years they have allowed hundreds of students to dispossess Oxford residents and want to reverse the position they are going to need all the help they can get to make up lost ground. So come on Walton Manor. You are in on this too. Come to the meetings. Write to your Councillor. Speak up.