Council has approved Westgate development in Oxford so we can have more chain shops selling shit plus polution, congestion, lack of housing and hurting local traders. Write now and perhaps we can stop it. Full details below.
Last Chance to stop Westgate madness!
Please circulate far and wide - letters have to be with Yvette Cooper MP by
20th November!
Urgent action to stop massive shopping centre in Oxford!
The City Council has just given planning permission to a massive expansion
of the Westgate shopping centre and a new multi-storey car park in the
centre of Oxford ON LAND OWNED BY THE CITY (ie our land)! The new Westgate
will be as big as the Reading Oracle - too big for a town the size of
Oxford.
The land should be used for housing to relieve pressure on the greenbelt!
If implemented, the plans will lead to more air pollution, increase carbon
dioxide emissions, add to traffic congestion, result in the demolition of
the Abbey Place affordable housing, impact on small local traders, and give
us a smaller city centre library. It won't give us the promised
pedestrianisation of Queen Street or a new 'bus hub'. It will cut through
the East/West City Centre cycle route. It will effectively privatise more
public-owned land!
The 6,000 page Westgate plans should be decided independently at a Public
Inquiry, rather than being left up to planning officers who have been
working closely with the developers for years and Councillors who have
strong party lines on this issue.
The shopping centre will attract more traffic to the City Centre, using
mostly Botley Road and Abingdon Road to get in. It will have yet more chain
stores sucking money out of the local economy. It will have a staff
training and benefits programme that will lead to staff being poached from
small, locally owned shops (threatening areas like Summertown, Cowley Road
and Headington).
The shopping centre will lead to more pollution, not just in the City
Centre, but on roads in to the centre.
The new multi-story car park is being built on the Abbey Place surface car
park off Oxpens Road - it will mean the demolition of 14 housing units (some
City Council-owned) purpose built for disabled residents.
The shopping centre barely meets the City Council's own high environmental
standards so it won't do nearly enough to help stop climate change.
The City library will be replaced by a refurbished BUT smaller library!
If you stand on the top of St Georges Tower or the Castle Mound, a quarter
of the full circle view will be the new shopping centre!
If you do nothing else this week, please write to Planning Minister Yvette
Copper MP requesting a call-in of the Council's decision to approve plans to
massively expand the Westgate.
Write to: Yvette Cooper MP, Minister for
Planning c/o Mark Newman, Thames Valley Planning
Team, Government Office for the South East, 1
Walnut Tree Close, Guildford, Surry, GU1 4GA.
Please circulate far and wide - letters have to be with Yvette Cooper MP by
20th November!
Urgent action to stop massive shopping centre in Oxford!
The City Council has just given planning permission to a massive expansion
of the Westgate shopping centre and a new multi-storey car park in the
centre of Oxford ON LAND OWNED BY THE CITY (ie our land)! The new Westgate
will be as big as the Reading Oracle - too big for a town the size of
Oxford.
The land should be used for housing to relieve pressure on the greenbelt!
If implemented, the plans will lead to more air pollution, increase carbon
dioxide emissions, add to traffic congestion, result in the demolition of
the Abbey Place affordable housing, impact on small local traders, and give
us a smaller city centre library. It won't give us the promised
pedestrianisation of Queen Street or a new 'bus hub'. It will cut through
the East/West City Centre cycle route. It will effectively privatise more
public-owned land!
The 6,000 page Westgate plans should be decided independently at a Public
Inquiry, rather than being left up to planning officers who have been
working closely with the developers for years and Councillors who have
strong party lines on this issue.
The shopping centre will attract more traffic to the City Centre, using
mostly Botley Road and Abingdon Road to get in. It will have yet more chain
stores sucking money out of the local economy. It will have a staff
training and benefits programme that will lead to staff being poached from
small, locally owned shops (threatening areas like Summertown, Cowley Road
and Headington).
The shopping centre will lead to more pollution, not just in the City
Centre, but on roads in to the centre.
The new multi-story car park is being built on the Abbey Place surface car
park off Oxpens Road - it will mean the demolition of 14 housing units (some
City Council-owned) purpose built for disabled residents.
The shopping centre barely meets the City Council's own high environmental
standards so it won't do nearly enough to help stop climate change.
The City library will be replaced by a refurbished BUT smaller library!
If you stand on the top of St Georges Tower or the Castle Mound, a quarter
of the full circle view will be the new shopping centre!
If you do nothing else this week, please write to Planning Minister Yvette
Copper MP requesting a call-in of the Council's decision to approve plans to
massively expand the Westgate.
Write to: Yvette Cooper MP, Minister for
Planning c/o Mark Newman, Thames Valley Planning
Team, Government Office for the South East, 1
Walnut Tree Close, Guildford, Surry, GU1 4GA.
