© 2021 Friends of Boars Hill
May ‘21 Foxcombe Hall Application
Friends’ Updated Comments
18th June 2021
We believe that everyone would wish to defend the policies
that have served so well to protect Oxford’s Green Belt and
its open spaces; which have been valued for many
generations as Oxford’s and Boars Hill’s “community lungs”.
The problems we have seen during the pandemic have
highlighted the importance of these rural escapes and
open spaces.
As you may already know, for the last few years Peking and
HSBC Business School (PHBS) has been trying to open a UK
campus at a listed building, Foxcombe Hall, right in the
heart of Boars Hill the site of which forms the backdrop to
the classic view of the Oxford spires. The application has
been posted on the Vale’s website. The details are here. It
is, sadly, everything that a development in the Green Belt
should not be. However, PHBS is not only influential but
has very deep pockets and has employed a top of the range
team to advise it how to navigate the ever-weakening
Green Belt regulations. As the Friends of Boars Hill, we
are a group of entirely unaffiliated individuals who have
come together to present the case against these proposals.
We would greatly appreciate your support in continuing
that fight.
Using donations received from local residents, we are
taking expert planning advice and present a summary for
your information below. Specific planning points in brief
are here in PDF form.
A change is proposed from a Class F1(a) (non-residential
institution) to C2 (residential institution). This is critical
because the Government’s own planning regulations (as
revised in 2020) recognise the very clear difference
between a quiet, non-residential institution and a full
university campus with 24/7 live-in students and hugely
enhanced activity, both on-site and in the vicinity. The
plans do not adequately consider the implications of
population growth that this would cause in a rural
community which currently has a total population of
around 600 adults. The proposal involves at least a further
150 plus students attending on a daily basis. It would
increase the local population by 25% during the day and
15% overnight. The impact will be large, damaging and
irreversible.
Public Consultation
The proposal is somewhat disingenuous, because although
PHBS has quite properly been conducting a public
engagement process, the full details of the change of use in
the redevelopment of Foxcombe Hall were never made
clear. Instead, emphasis has always been placed upon what
was going to be built with no opportunity provided to
address the question of how the change from non-
residential to residential would impact on the local
environment. For example, although no expense has been
spared on mock-up landscapes giving attractive visual
impressions, no consultation has centred on the crucial
problem of what the increased weight of people numbers
and concomitant activities will do to this quiet corner of the
Green Belt. It might reasonably be said that there has been
no meaningful public consultation on the main issue in the
proposal
Openness of the Green Belt
National and Local Policy on a Green Belt site such as this is
governed by a general presumption against development
except for agriculture, forestry or certain recreational uses.
Redevelopment of existing uses is permitted provided the
result causes no greater impact than currently exists and is
not disproportionate to the original building (in this case
defined as that which existed in 1948). At Foxcombe Hall,
PHBS argues that redevelopment will cause no greater
harm and is thus not inappropriate, despite a proposed
80% increase in volume and the significant impact of 24/7
residential occupation by students.
We believe that:
•
The proposed scale and intensification of the
development are still too large and will harm the Green
Belt. Subterranean work cannot be off-set against
volumetric increases and a 43% increase of floor area is
excessive in this location.
•
Whilst The Friends accept that PHBS means well in
presenting the transport proposals together with rules
of student conduct, we do not accept that after a few
years of operation, these arrangements and rules will
still be rigorously enforced. The resulting, gradual
degradation of best intentions will then impose a high
environmental burden on one of the most sensitive and
renowned Green Belt sites in Oxfordshire.
•
The excavation that the development requires is
equivalent to 390 loads of the largest earth moving
lorries to take the spoil elsewhere. The environmental
impact of this has not been determined and the
resulting 780 traffic movements that it implies would be
a disaster for the narrow country lane upon which the
site is located.
No case for very special circumstances
National and local Green Belt policy states that such
development should not be approved except in “Very
Special Circumstances (VSCs).” The applicant put forward
social, environmental and economic arguments suggesting
that these represent VSCs. The view of the Friends is that
there is not sufficient public benefit that would outweigh
the harm that would be caused to Oxford’s very narrow
Green Belt. Furthermore, there is no evidence of economic
benefit that would accrue by virtue of the location of the
residential accommodation within the Green Belt. Rather
there would be greater benefit if the students lived closer
to Oxford with its existing student support network..
Great play is also made by PHBS of the need for the
Planning Authority to support education uses.
Unfortunately, the regulations quoted are being misused.
It is fallacious to take national guidance intended to
encourage primary and secondary school provision and
equate it with support for higher education. The Local
Plan does cover the tertiary sector but stresses the
importance of “local need”. The non-compliance with the
Local Plan is evident from a simple reading of PHBS’s own
description of itself (Statement of Need paras 1.6ff).
“The business School has been set up to advance Peking
University’s ambitions in the sectors of global economics,
finance, and management research. The vision of PHBS is
to foster and enable visionary international business
leaders for the new global economy by offering a global
education with in-depth Chinese and Asian perspectives.”
This is not a local organisation acting to promote local
benefit. Developers will keep trying to chip away at the
planning constraints but should not be allowed to
undermine the Green Belt with spurious claims of need.
We hope that you can make a strong representation to the
Vale that reinforces what we all hold dear.
Our analysis: this is not a local organisation acting to
promote local benefit.
Friends of Boars Hill will continue to defend the Green Belt
policies which have served so well to protect our open
spaces; valued for many generations as “community lungs”.
The problems we have seen during the pandemic have
exposed not only the importance of these rural escapes
and open spaces also the inadequacy of country lanes to
cope with excessive traffic that this dramatic development
will bring.
Thank you for your strong support of Boars Hill’s interests.
Please go to the Vale’s Planning Portal and lodge your
comments there.