University fights Port Meadow flats changes

Pressure is building on Oxford University on the Port Meadow flats. The City Council’s own independent report into the University’s Environmental Impact Assessment was not convinced by its case for making only minimal changes, and has demanded that they do more work on the costs of the other options. On 10 February the University’s governing body Congregation will debate a resolution to reduce the height of the blocks. The University Council (the Administration) has announced its intention to oppose the resolution, on grounds of cost. Disgusted University insiders appalled at the way the University is handling this. University officers are now spending day and night lobbying members of Congregation, with their scare story on costs. The University’s scaremongering as even reached the student body. The Student Union has come out opposed to lowering the height, as reported in this weekend’s Oxford Mail, on the grounds of cost and disruption to the lives of students. The University has told them costs of any mitigation will have to come from budgets for graduate scholarships. The University continues to bandy about the £30million price tag. Senior University officials admit the figure is wrong and includes double-counting, but are using it anyway. They have not done any proper costings of the mitigation options at all, which is why the City Council has demanded that they do. The University wants people to believe reducing the height of the buildings would be “a scandalous waste of money” – money they should spend on their educational remit. What is scandalous, of course, is that the University has caused immense harm to Oxford’s heritage. What is scandalous is that they built these buildings in the first place without doing an Environmental Impact Assessment and proper public consultation that would have shown the damage their would do to protected heritage landscapes. What is scandalous is the University’s failure to take responsibility for its mistake. Institutional accountability means stepping up and paying to put right make mistakes, not making the case that you are too important to do so. Concerned residents can email Oxford University Vice Chancellor Andrew Hamilton, to urge the University to be accountable and take responsibility - vcweb@admin.ox.ac.uk.

• Urge him to bring forward to the Council’s planning committee nothing less than reducing the height by one floor.
• Tell him that scaremongering to avoid taking responsibility only damages the University’s reputation further.
• Encourage him to now do the right thing, rather than have the University further damage its standing in the city by waiting to be dragged reluctantly to the same end by the City Council.

For a detailed review of the options please check this Jericho Online article The Oxford Mail is running a POLL in which you can vote now for or against reducing the height. Click HERE