230 homes approved in Oxford for former ‘super dump’ site

Plans for the affordable housing development and new ‘riverside neighbourhood’ at Redbridge Paddock, next to Redbridge Park and Ride off Abingdon Road, was approved at the city council cabinet meeting on Wednesday (March 18).

Described as a former landfill and brownfield site, the 8.9-acre field by Weirs Mill Stream was once described as a ‘super dump’ in February 2017, caused by unknown fly-tippers who cost taxpayers thousands in a major clean-up operation.

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The site’s historic use as a landfill in the 1960s and 1970s, with operations ceasing in 1972, remains a major constraint of the new scheme.

Fly-tipping near the site in 2017 (Image: Jon Lewis)

Major resources will have to be deployed for ‘significant remediation’ and ‘contamination enabling works’ which will identify and remove hazardous materials before housebuilding can start.

Dave Scholes, the council’s corporate lead on affordable housing supply, said at the meeting that because of the contamination works, the scheme is only ‘viable’ with grant funding.

Mr Scholes said: “It’s a viable scheme if we can pull in public subsidy to help with the contamination works. Without that, it doesn’t stack up as a scheme we can move forward at the moment.”

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A grant will be applied for from the Government’s National Housing Delivery Fund, a pot of £5billion in capital grant funding for infrastructure and land, to be available from April this year.

The council officer that Homes England have been ‘very positive’ on the plans for the site and they’re engaged in discussions on the business case.

If all goes to plan, an initial hybrid application will be brought forward later this year, with housebuilding expected to start in 2029 and handovers to new residents from 2031 onwards.

Artists impression of the new riverside neighbourhood proposed at Redbridge Paddock (Image: Oxford City Council)

Councillor Linda Smith, cabinet member for housing and communities, said the Redbridge Paddock project, along with the scheme for 330 affordable homes at Sandy Lane which was discussed at the same meeting, are “real gamechangers”.

She said that although private developers contributions and housing associations are “an important part of the equation, it’s not the whole picture”.

Councillor Linda Smith (Image: Oxford City Council)

“We’re going much further and doing everything we can and actually building council homes using our wholly owned development company OX Place,” Cllr Smith added. “These two reports tonight are a key part of that plan.”

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Of the total 237 homes to be built on the brownfield site, 118 will be affordable homes, split into 93 for social rent and 25 for shared ownership.

The development will be brought forward by OX Place, the council-owned development company, and more than 860 people are expected to have their housing improved in the scheme.

It will include new landscaped areas and communal spaces, a ‘safe streets’ approach, a cycle route and proposals are being ‘explored’ for riverside moorings.