Oxfordshire: 130 year old sports ground closure is ‘greed’

Members at Oxford University Press Bowls Club, which was founded in 1896, were told in May to immediately vacate the grounds.

Oxford University Press told the Bowls club the ground was no longer economically viable to keep open.

The ground in Jordan Hill in Banbury Road also houses a cricket, tennis, and football club.

These actions have garnered significant reactions from players, whose season is not over until the end of summer.

Jim Ruddick, chair of Summertown Stars AFC, said: “The claim that demand for these pitches has diminished is simply not credible. I chair Summertown Stars AFC, the largest grassroots football club and youth sports provider in Oxfordshire.

“Our home of football is Five Mile Drive, immediately neighbouring the OUP site.

“We serve around 900 young footballers and we still have 200 children on a waiting list, for one reason only: there are not enough pitches and facilities in North Oxford.”

The move comes amidst growing developments across the area in Oxford North, Priory Grove, the Canalside development, the North Oxford Golf Course site, the Frideswide building and the ExOn project at Stratfield Brake

These developments will bring thousands of new residents to this corner of the city, many of them families with children who will want to play community sport.

Mr Ruddick said: “Approving housing on this scale while allowing the sports grounds those families depend on to close is madness, and it flies in the face of Parliament’s recent Game On report, which identified facility closures as a primary barrier to children’s participation, and of the £400 million the Government has just committed to grassroots facilities.”

“The health consequences of inactivity are now a recognised NHS crisis (the 10 Year Health Plan says as much) and every lost ground is another nail in that coffin.”

Summertown Stars AFC is the largest youth football club in Oxfordshire, an FA charter standard community club and has 66 teams, including a disability team.

File image of Summertown Stars (Image: Oxford Mail)

Mr Ruddick added: “The council’s planners must enforce the Local Plan and require genuine replacement provision before anything happens to this site.

“And if OUP is open to offers, our club would be willing to explore purchasing the ground to keep it in community sporting use.

“We would be very interested in multisport use of the pavilion and grounds, working alongside the bowls, cricket and tennis clubs being displaced.”

Speaking on the closure of the sports ground, an Oxford University Press spokesperson said: “We recently conducted a review into the management and use of the OUP sports ground at Jordan Hill.

“Following the review, we have concluded that given use of the site is limited to a small number of colleagues and external parties, it is no longer viable for OUP to continue to upgrade and maintain it in the long-term.

“We are considering our options for future use of the site and cannot comment further at this stage.”