Oxford: More heat for Sandy Lane housing plan on pitches

A plan to build 331 affordable homes on council land at Sandy Lane Recreation Ground has been met with backlash since the project was approved last month.

The £97.6million scheme would see the four football pitches on the grounds, a site chosen for its proximity to the upcoming Cowley Branch Line development, transformed into a 100 per cent affordable homes development of council-owned housing.

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Conceptual view of the future Littlemore Station on the Cowley Branch Line (Image: Foster + Partners / Ellison Institute of Technology)

Even though the council has promised to provide ‘new and improved’ football pitch facilities to be ready for community use before any construction work begins, football clubs and other locals have condemned the proposal.

Nick Duval, of the Kidlington Recreational Trust, said: “In my view Linda Smith should be ashamed of both herself and her colleagues on the city council.

“What right has she got to dispose of a recreation ground created to benefit the very residents that would elect her council.

“Were these asset stripping councillors not elected to serve and preserve the community.

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“If selling these green spaces from under their feet is not a stab in the back to the residents, I really do not know what is.

“Sending these people down the road to Herschel Crescent sets a deplorable precedent for others to follow, and they will.”

He said that the plan will make “disposing of further community public spaces” a possibility for future councils to pay for projects.

Oxford City Councillor Linda Smith, for Blackbird Leys, said: “This is not the sale of an asset to generate income, it is part of Oxford Labour’s plan to alleviate this city’s housing crisis through using the city council’s wholly owned housing company to build homes.

Linda Smith (Image: Andrew Walmsley)

“These 331 new affordable homes will include 261 new council homes for social rent, taking local households in priority need directly off our housing register, and improving the housing situation for approximately 1,200 local people.

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“Around 300 children will have the benefit of moving into a safe, secure, efficient to heat and affordable council owned home here, with brilliant football facilities just a stones throw away.”

She added that planning policy and law gives council’s a ‘robust process’ for assessing whether a site is suitable for development – one which Sandy Lane went through when it was allocated for housing and a new Cowley Branch Line station in the 2016-2036 Local Plan.

As well as re-providing the existing football pitches 150m away at Herschel Crescent, the new development will create a ‘high-quality green space’ using existing trees and hedges around the edge of the site, for dog walking and exercise, plus new informal recreation areas.