Someone wants to build a house between Stratton Way and Withington Court on amenity land. This area is privately owned but has been used by the public for 50 years.
The part on Stratton Way has a bench and flower bed maintained by the council.
It is separated by a wall from the other part that was wild and green. The owner has cleared this area already, but the picture shows what it was like.
The Vale of White Horse District Council will decide and are open to public comments. Web comments can be made until 20th January 2024. See https://data.whitehorsedc.gov.uk/java/support/Main.jsp?MODULE=ApplicationDetails&REF=P23/V2848/O#exactline.
I thought that the law was that if someone uses land for over 15 years then they have right of ownership? I don’t think that anyone should build a house here. Does this person have links with the counil (one thinks).
I am interested in your statement regarding the planning applicant having links to the council. Have you any evidence to back up your assertion Janet?
I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone use the bench here, and It’s normally only used as a cut through from the Firzharris estate. it’s not exactly an attractive public space. Is it really an issue if someone uses the land for a purpose?
Oh no! Somebody who owns a piece of waste ground that nobody ever used or cared about now wants to turn it into a productive space……Quick let’s make sure we find a reason to stop them!
Shame to lose a flower bed, but otherwise it’s pretty tatty, can’t see a need for a bench there. Much bigger planning issues to get uptight about. And Janet’s statement is verging on libellous.
I wouldn’t pay much attention to Janet, she won’t be happy until the Tories are running VWHDC again.
If you look at Google maps over the past 10 years, you can see how this piece of land, the flower bed and the bench used to look. It just hasn’t been maintained for the past few years. The land when I first moved here, was a lovely green space, then it was fenced off and left to ruin by the previous owner. However this did become a home to much wildlife which unfortunately has now been destroyed.
You might need to bear in mind that the reason part of it looks like wild land is because the owner let it get like that. However, that did benefit the foxes and hedgehogs. In 1969, the council originally designed that estate with this plot to provide light and open space. They even expressly stipulated this in the agreement with the developer! Why did they let it get to a point where the whole look and feel of the estate could be ruined along with the quality of life for the residents?
Councils do not have the resources to go trawling around the town looking for planning breaches. This is not new. Since 1979 successive governments have cut council funding and promoted a system based just on money. I do not place all the blame on this government though. Somehow many people vote for minimal public expenditure but expect maximum intervention…especially if it affects them directly! I suspect the country will vote for the status quo in the general election and give the establishment the opportunity to grind our public services in to the ground in due course. But then they will moan of course. Too many people “want their c as me, and want to eat it.”
Fair point and well said. It seems to be a British disease. The Scandinavian countries seem to have the right balance
Apologies- I meant to say that people want their cake and want to eat it!
This space was intended to remain open from the inception of the street in the 1960s, providing a break in the built-up environment to allow for light and nature. It was allowed to go wild which, though it might not be horticulturally ‘aesthetic’, provided a lovely little oasis for wildlife which was regularly spotted and enjoyed by residents, including regular visits from hedgehogs. The planting in the flower bed on Stratton Way has been exceptional over the years, and brightens an otherwise quite grim and utilitarian stretch of road. The argument that ‘no one uses the bench’ is false as I often see people, including older folk unable to drive, resting their with shopping bags. This was even captured on the Google Street View in August 2022.
We all know that the country needs more houses, and the large developments in Abingdon and more broadly across Oxfordshire are key to achieving this. This proposed development of a single house, squeezed unthinkingly into this precious green space, accounts for 0.02% of the 5,400 houses that the Spatial Strategy for Abingdon-on-Thames and Oxford Fringe Sub-Area says are needed. Meanwhile, it poses a demonstrably negative impact to Withington Court and Stratton Way.