December showdown

The planning application for Spring Residential’s canalside development will be considered at a special meeting of the Central South and West Area Committee, which is chaired by one of the councillors for Jericho, Colin Cook. This has been provisionally scheduled for Wednesday December 12 at 6.00 p.m in the Town Hall. You can check nearer the date at [url=http://www.jerichocentre.org.uk]http://www.jerichocentre.org.uk[/url].

Spring’s proposal must be one of Oxford’s most unpopular planning applications. The Council has now received over 600 letters of objection. This includes one from George Ferguson, former president of the Royal Institute of British Architects. Mr. Ferguson said: “The current application is based on the false premise that this is just another canalside residential scheme. It is a special site with its special history and activity as a working boatyard. The proposed development and its uninspiring public space totally fails to reflect this or to incorporate the sort of uses that will attract the traditional waterside activity that this site calls for.”

One of the main sticking points remains the replacement of boatyard facilities. Spring and British Waterways seem to have presumed that the owners of several sites would be willing to provide such facilities without actually asking them. There has however been one publicly declared change in the plans. This concerns the new bridge. Spring now proposes a lift bridge. Everyone seems to agree that this is an improvement on the awkward and ugly structure it had originally planned. But some people have expressed concerns about the technical viability, including suggestions that Jericho’s more daredevil youth might be tempted to use it as an adjustable skateboard ramp.

There are also doubts about the value of placing it at the bottom of Great Clarendon Street. The best location would clearly be at the proposed mini public square – generating more traffic through what would otherwise be a fairly dead private space. Meanwhile, protesters have been busy keeping the issue well and truly in the public eye. On September 10, following an imaginative suggestion from Emmett Schlueter, there was a demonstration to ‘Keep property sharks out of Jericho’, with lots of inflatable sharks, and Adrian Arbib in a full-sized shark costume. Author Philip Pullman too has been helping keep up the pressure. On September 29, he renamed the boat belonging to campaigner Esther Pozzani, as ‘Lyra’s Defiance’ after the main character in his novel, His Dark Materials.