Compulsory purchase now a powerful threat

At the meeting on March 18, the Cabinet of Oxford City Council unanimously adopted a recommendation from the planning officers for the City to intervene in the long-running saga of Jericho Wharf. Councillor Ed Turner, Deputy Leader of the Council and responsible for Finance and Asset Management, expressed his frustration that after so many years nothing had been achieved. “After recent interactions with the owner of this site, my patience is at an end. We simply have to crack on”.  

Councillor Alex Hollingsworth, who has lived in Jericho for more than 30 years, spoke of the unique character of Jericho which often feels like a village. He argued that a lively Community Centre contributes customers to other local businesses. He also spoke of the need for a boatyard for the hundreds of people whose residential boats on Oxford’s waterways represent a low-income housing solution, and “whose homes cannot be maintained.” He hoped the threat of a CPO would have desired effect. “What I want is some action.”

Councillor for Carfax and Jericho, Alex Hollingsworth

Both Councillors gave credit to the people and groups such as the Jericho Wharf Trust who have voluntarily given huge amounts of time, in some cases for 20 years, on this issue.

The Council Cabinet then voted unanimously in support of the officers’ recommendation. This means that they have delegated to officers the task of seeking a development partner with a viable business plan, to try to acquire the Jericho Wharf site by agreement. Failing that, as a last resort, they will embark on a compulsory purchase. Either way, this is a major step forward. 

View the meeting on YouTube

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For the Jericho Community Association, Peter Stalker, Treasurer of the JCA addressed the meeting to argue for a new community Centre.

I am speaking as Treasurer of the Jericho Community Association which is one of the members of the Jericho Wharf Trust, along with the Jericho Community Boatyard and the Jericho Living heritage trust.

As someone who has lived in Jericho more than 50 years, I can speak from experience about the unique value of the Jericho Community Centre – and of the way it has been run. This has always been a people’s initiative. In the early 1980s, the Vicar of St Barnabas, working with the City Council, transformed the old Church Institute into a centre for everyone in Jericho and the surrounding neighbourhoods. From the start, it was to be run by local people and financially self‑sufficient. We would have to pay our way.

To make that possible, he set up a volunteer management committee. This has since evolved into the Jericho Community Association. He also recruited me to take on the community newspaper — then the Jericho Echo, now Jericho Online.

Since those early days, the Community Centre has remained a neighbourhood focal point. Today some residents know it through our many voluntary groups from Biscuits and Babies meetings at one end of the age spectrum to Alive and Kicking session at the other. Others know it through the weekly Jericho Pantry, which provides free food to those who need it.

Some will have heard the Jericho Brownies dashing around the downstairs hall or have attended one of the many children’s parties. There are also more soothing tones of the piano from the ballet classes, or the rhythms of the two Indian classical dance groups. In total, our hired rooms now host 16 regular activities.

And that is only part of what happens there. Several other upstairs rooms contribute directly to our mental and physical wellbeing. We have three low‑cost counselling services, and a consulting room for alternative health practitioners, and that is in addition to strength‑and‑balance classes. We also have a strong presence for the arts: a life‑drawing class, a wood‑carving workshop, and a thriving pottery studio.

JCA Treasurer, Peter Stalker

These activities may be located in Jericho, but they draw in people from across the city — who also become customers for other local businesses. It is no secret that the Oxford Morris Dancers after a couple of thirsty hours practising with bells and sticks, have been known to patronise several nearby establishments.

I am speaking today as the Treasurer of the Community Association. Our task has always been to balance the books: using income from the paying users to subsidise free or low‑cost activities, and securing steady revenue by renting out offices, consulting rooms, and studios upstairs. That is the business model we intend to replicate in the new centre. To do that, we need enough halls and rooms to sustain all these activities and get the income they provide. The new centre too must also be financially sustainable.

The Institute building has served us valiantly for more than 40 years. But it is showing its age. The fabric is deteriorating. It cannot be adapted to be fully accessible. Part of our financial juggling in the current building has been to keep up with essential repairs while setting aside funds for emergencies — all the while planning for a new centre. Whilst we make do and mend, we cannot continue indefinitely, and we are reaching a position when major repairs will be needed.

Over a decade ago, the Council declared the Centre not fit for purpose and established the policies for a replacement on the Wharf site. With this prospect on the horizon, the Community Association has engaged positively with landowners and developers to secure planning permissions for new facilities – but they never materialized.

And over these long decades. new centre has become even more vital. Jericho and the surrounding areas have evolved with much more housing. We have fewer shops and pubs. Hundreds of new homes have appeared along the canal and beyond. Yet where are the new community buildings to match this growth? They are sadly missing. For the many more people now living in and around Jericho — on land and on water — there is only the Jericho Community Centre.

Whether as developers, community organisations, or as a City Council, we now need to work together to provide the facilities that support a healthy society – diverse and lively community, and an economically vibrant neighbourhood. I won’t be here in another 50 years — I suspect few of us in this room will be — But I hope we can sustain our shared and realistic vision and create a Jericho Wharf Development of which we can all be proud.

Summary of other speakers is available on the Jericho Wharf Trust site