THE latest development in controversial plans to build a university campus on green belt land is set to take a step forward this evening following a five-year saga.
The proposals include 60 student bedrooms, a 200-seat lecture theatre, library, dining hall, cafe and gym.
The application itself relates to the buildings and grounds of the historic Grade II listed Foxcombe Hall in Boars Hill.
Vale of White Horse District Council’s planning committee is recommended that authority to grant planning permission is delegated to the head of planning.
READ AGAIN: Controversial university campus plans removed from council agenda
In July, the plans were removed from a meeting agenda at the last minute when the application was withdrawn so that a council report could be updated and provide ‘points of clarification’.
The district council’s planning committee had been set to give the green light to proposals in July.
The former Open University site at Boars Hill was sold in 2017 to Peking University HSBC Business School (PHBS), as the Chinese institution aimed to make the 15-acre plot its first base in the UK.
The new campus could see the creation of 32 full-time jobs, while the economic contribution from student expenditure per year would increase to £1.6 million per year by 2024.
Community group Friends of Boars Hill has long been against the plans, while other organisations have also objected.
READ MORE: Plans for university campus set to be approved – despite hundreds of objections
Countryside charity CPRE objected to the proposals, saying: “The plans and information received still do not address the issues of inappropriate development in the green belt, negative impact upon the character of a semi-rural location and change of use resulting in high levels of student activity which will irreparably harm a green belt site internationally renown.”
Oxford Green Belt Network added in a March consultation: “The proposed development is inappropriate in the Oxford green belt and there are no valid very special circumstances which could justify the grant of planning permission.”
A district council report says the positive elements of the application negate the disadvantages.
The report states: “Officers consider that the identified harm is outweighed by identified very special circumstances, namely the local, regional and national economic benefits and educational benefits of the proposed development, and the lack of realistic or feasible alternative options for accommodation off-site or suitable less harmful options on site.”
In October 2020, plans to open a B&B opposite the campus were refused as it was ‘considered to cause harm to the character of the area and to the purposes of the green belt’.
That scheme was designed to house visiting academics.
The application for the new campus can be viewed on the district council’s online planning portal, using the application number P21/V1376/FUL.
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This story was written by Liam Rice, he joined the team in 2019 as a multimedia reporter.
Liam covers politics, travel and transport. He occasionally covers Oxford United.
Get in touch with him by emailing: Liam.rice@newsquest.co.uk
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