Residents in west Oxford fear their lives will be significantly disrupted by construction traffic for 140 new flats.
On Valentine’s Day in 2017 part of Gibbs Crescent was reduced to a flaming pile of rubble after an explosion tore through numerous flats and rocked nearby buildings.
Investigations found fuel stored in the flat of resident Guido Schuette had ignited and the 48-year-old died in what a coroner ruled was likely to have been an accident.
Now housing provider A2 Dominion is preparing to start work on
site to build a mix of one, two and three-bedroom flats which have been granted planning permission by the city council.
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Hywel Roberts, spokesman for A2 Dominion, said work was expected to start in the autumn and be finished by winter 2023/24, dependent on an autumn 2021 start date. Of the 140 flats, 97 units (67%) will be affordable housing.
On behalf of New Osney residents’ group, Andrew Chapman has written to Labour city councillors Colin Cook and Susanna Pressel, and Oxford West and Abingdon MP Layla Moran, suggesting that about 300 residents will need ‘protection’ from disturbances caused by construction work, including construction traffic at certain times of the day.
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Mr Chapman wrote: “There will undoubtedly be enormous local upheaval and inconvenience from this development. This will include noise, pollution, congestion, diesel fumes, and building debris. Mill Street in particular is singularly vulnerable as being effectively a one-way street which is now very wearied of the continuous redevelopment and building on what is a densely populated urban area.
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“That said, it is fully accepted that this project will proceed.”
The letter added: “The community will need some protection from this traffic if it is not to create substantial misery for the residents.
“Other developments in similar small residential areas have insisted on no lorry movements before the end and beginning of the school run/ rush hour in the morning and afternoon and have agreed times post 9.30am and before 4pm.
“The community would want no movements at all at weekends or bank holidays. Please could you confirm that we will have some input into these hours with the ability to veto any we think unreasonable.”
The letter concluded by requesting ‘a set of rules that A2Dominion and their contractors have to abide by.’
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Mr Cook said in an email to Mr Chapman: “The whole point of the planning condition requiring a Construction Traffic Management Plan is to prevent A2 Dominion doing ‘precisely what they want when they want.’ I have never seen a CTMP which delivers everything a developer wants, nor have I seen one that delivers everything local residents want.”
Jim Smith, head of land and planning (West), for A2Dominion, said: “The redevelopment of Gibbs Crescent will bring much-needed housing to Oxford. We are aware of the concerns of some local groups about the impact of work itself and we are putting together plans to communicate with them throughout the project, in line with our commitment to show consideration to neighbouring residents on all of our development sites.”
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