transport failure in the Warneford Park development
Oxford University's proposed Warneford Park redevelopment of the Warneford Hospital site is potentially an appropriate intensification of the site, but as it stands we object to it on transport grounds. (We are also concerned that the addition of so much employment without any housing will increase the pressure on Oxford's housing market, raising costs for both renters and buyers and offloading the negative effects of that onto both residents and other employers, but we do not address this here.)
Our primary concerns are in two domains:
1) The traffic from the planned increase of 186 car parking spaces would undermine safe and sustainable transport across Headington, both by directly increasing road danger and by taking space and time that should instead be reallocated to other modes, most obviously for safe junction redesigns. It would also increase air and noise pollution across a wide area, and in the longer-term require more drastic restrictions on car use by other organisations and individuals.
2) The walking and cycling schemes proposed in the area around the development have significant problems and major omissions. They fail to provide for safe and inclusively accessible cycling even to the Warneford Park site itself. And the designs have been drawn up without consultation with stakeholders, most obviously without talking to either Cyclox or Cheney School.