How to object to the OUFC Planning Application: April 2025

The headline above is from the Oxford Mail 18th Jan 2024

The deadline for comments is 17th April 2025.

It doesn’t matter if you have commented before, you can do so as often as you like!

WE RECOMMEND that you email your comments to: planning@cherwell-dc.gov.uk making sure that you include the reference (24/00539/F), your name, address and a statement that you OBJECT along with the reasons why.

Alternatively, responses can be submitted by going to the application on the Planning Portal clicking on the ‘Comment on this application’ button. You can either type comments directly into this form, or save your comments as a PDF to attach.  To avoid losing partly completed comments you may want to draft them on a Word document and then copy to the form.

If you want help, please email stratfieldbrakefriends@gmail.com

OUFC stated in early documents: “The landowner has confirmed that they are not willing to

allow continued use of the stadium.”

However, the planning officer wrote in November 2024:

“The Council has received numerous representations on this matter, including from FoSB.

….. they state that the landowner has publicly stated that he is willing for OUFC to remain at

the Kassam Stadium, providing a link to a newspaper article (Oxford Mail). There is a very

clear inconsistency with the content of the ASA and the information within the public domain

on this matter. The Council therefore requests further information be provided by the

Applicant as to whether the Kassam Stadium could be available as a continuing home for

OUFC, for further investigation and consideration.”

The planning officer knows that the club is being evasive on this issue and has asked for

more information. We need to keep going on this point.

Please write a comment, in your own words (this is very important).

The key points are:

• OUFC still hasn’t provided any evidence that it can’t stay at the Kassam Stadium or even that it has tried to stay.
• There is no evidence of any negotiations to stay long term.
• There is no evidence of any recent offers to purchase the Kassam Stadium site.
• There is no evidence that the stadium owner has said that OUFC can’t remain
• there.
• OUFC fails to mention that the Kassam Stadium is protected in the Oxford Local Plan which says “The football stadium should remain (unless it has been replaced elsewhere…). This means that the site can’t be developed for housing unless Oxford City Council agrees to this.

Also include (in your own words) some or all of the points below, to make your response

unique

• OUFC has claimed that it will be homeless from 2026 but have provided no proof to show that they have even tried to negotiate to stay at the Kassam Stadium.
• OUFC has provided no proof that it has approached the land owner with a reasonable offer to buy the Kassam Stadium site.
• The facts that OUFC’s current lease expires in 2026, and that OUFC doesn’t have a right to remain, and doesn’t have a right to renewal, are all irrelevant because none of these mean that they can’t renew the lease.
• OUFC is currently negotiating a two year extension at the Kassam Stadium. If they can negotiate two years, they can negotiate for a longer term.
• OUFC provides no evidence that it has asked Oxford City Council for assistance in negotiations. We know from Freedom of Information requests that the council previously got involved with negotiations.
• OUFC provides no evidence that it has approached Oxford City Council to ask it to consider a Compulsory Purchase Order. Instead it says “[this] would have a number of very challenging hurdles to overcome, including financial viability”. The club’s finances are not the concern of Cherwell District Council as the planning authority. OUFC must look into a CPO, and Oxford City Council should assist.
• We are aware that the land on which the Kassam Stadium is sited has been put forward for development. This would be expected in a scenario where the club might move and it does not prove that the club can’t remain there, or that the land owner won’t sell to OUFC.

We know that OUFC doesn’t want to stay at the Kassam Stadium for a variety of reasons, but that is not a valid justification for building a new stadium on a Green Belt site.

The club’s owners are very wealthy and willing to commit to £130m or more for a new stadium. Why then can’t they instead purchase the existing stadium?

A link to the relevant document is below - look at pages 12 and 13 which cover the Kassam Stadium site: 

• Alternative Site Assessment (ASA) Addendum ISSUE March 2025
  (uploaded to the planning portal 11th March 2025)

If you want to see FoSB’s full response on this, read Section 4 (page 4) of the document below:

• FoSB's response to Very Special Circumstances

This includes a copy of the Notice of Termination - which OUFC brought upon itself.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and respond to this consultation.