Recent press reports have given a misleading impression of the status of Oxford United’s stadium proposal. This is a result of poor communication from Oxfordshire County Council (OCC) and disingenuous PR output by the club.
OCC’s press release can be found here. The statement that all other legal documents have now been agreed by both parties is unhelpful. The lease for the Triangle has not been signed!
We believe that Oxford United’s PR strategy is a calculated attempt to make the proposal look more advanced than it is, thereby putting pressure on OCC to sign the lease.
There are conditions which must be fulfilled before the lease can be agreed. One of the most challenging of these is planning permission. Oxford United are required to submit revised traffic modelling but have not yet done so. When this is submitted there will be a further consultation period of at least 30 days. So a decision at the June planning meeting is virtually impossible! We don’t believe that planning permission can be granted with the proposal in its current form.
OCC have also said that the Oxford Road can’t be closed on match days, yet the transport assessments describe travel plans based around road closures. Where is the footbridge that featured in earlier plans? Meanwhile, the Oxford Mail is reporting that Thames Valley Police have lodged significant objections to the stadium. Following an online article (paywall), their front page headline on May 15th was "POLICE OBJECT TO STADIUM SCHEME".
This is not a done deal. The fight goes on