Oxford United’s planning application is now available on Cherwell District Council’s planning portal (https://planningregister.cherwell.gov.uk/Planning/Display/24/00539/F#undefined).
The reference is 24/00539/F and the closing date for comments is 22 April 2024.
We will be providing some guidance on how to respond and hope to email you with this in the week commencing 8 April.
Please wait for our guidance before responding!
Meanwhile if you have expertise in any area of the application and are willing to assist us please email stratfieldbrakefriends@gmail.com. For example you could help by highlighting particular issues for us to look
at or, ideally, writing a draft response for us to incorporate into our comments.
Road closures
The planning application includes details of road closures although they are now referred to as diversions! The leader of Oxfordshire County Council, Cllr Liz Leffman, has expressly stated that the County will not support any proposal which includes closure of the Oxford Road on matchdays [download the four parishes letter]. Why then has Oxfordshire County Council, as land owner and highways authority, allowed this proposal in its current form to progress to planning?
We are told that a planning application for a footbridge is in progress but believe that various factors including the cost will be prohibitive.
Oxford United has misled the public for over two years
We have written [download letter] to all county councillors, parish councillors and other community groups and organisations to make them aware that Oxford
United has misled the public by claiming that it has been made homeless and there is an existential threat to the club. In fact, it was the club’s
own actions which have made it homeless. This means that the entire premise on which the County Council agreed to lease the Triangle to Oxford United
is flawed.
We have therefore written to Cllr Liz Leffman to request that this decision be rescinded. Cllr Leffman’s reply was an unsatisfactory: “Thank you for your letter. I have noted the contents”. We don’t think this is good enough from the leader of an Oxfordshire Council which is proposing to lease publicly owned land to a privately-owned football club.
Thank you for your ongoing support.
Best wishes
Friends of Stratfield Brake