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Multiplex Cinema Planning Application
Supporting Information
Executive Summary |
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Introduction |
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Overview of FOUL organisation |
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Aims of the report |
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Oxford United FC - Background |
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Ownership History |
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Financial History |
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Original Stadium Plan & Collapse |
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Current Situation & Stadium Reality |
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FLA and Football League Requirements |
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Leisure as Enabling Development for the Stadium |
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Professional Football in Oxfordshire |
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Football at the heart of the community |
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Role in the local economy |
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Developing local talent |
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Important local leisure provider |
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The Oxford sub-regional cinema requirements |
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Additional Research |
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Other Oxon applications |
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Minchery Farm |
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Description of the site |
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Existing infrastructure |
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Oxford Population Distribution and Dynamics |
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Sequential Test |
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Current Leisure Journeys |
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Blackbird Leys regeneration |
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Thames Valley Police Comments |
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Local Residents Views |
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Council Surveys |
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Residents Meetings |
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FOUL survey |
This report has been prepared by FOUL an Oxford United supporters group with over 1200 members.
Oxford United is over £13 million in debt and its current stadium (The Manor Ground) has only been given a certificate for the next season by the FLA on condition that a new stadium is built for the following season.
The only way that OUFC can survive and clear its debts is to sell The Manor and move to the half built stadium at Minchery Farm.
The football club has negotiated a land deal with Oxford City Council in which planning permission for a multiplex cinema will be sought on land adjacent to the stadium. The proceeds from the sale of this land will finance the completion of the stadium.
Oxford United plays a vital role as part of the wider community in Oxfordshire and would be a great loss should it cease to exist. PPG17 suggests that special consideration should be given to planning applications that enable all seat stadiums to be built.
There is a clear need for up to 16 additional cinema screens in Oxfordshire and this need can only be met by including some multi-screen facilities.
Oxford as the only city in the county and at the centre geographically is the best location for such a facility. Within Oxford, Minchery Farm is the best place for this for a number of very compelling reasons
1. The football stadium provides all of the required infrastructure.
2. It is adjacent to the biggest concentration of population in the county.
3. No other suitable sites have been identified in Oxford City Centre.
4. Oxford's unique nature means the usual requirements for planning and inner city regeneration are not relevant.
5. Oxford City and Oxfordshire residents currently travel long distances to use leisure facilities. A development at MF will cut these journeys.
The development is a key part of the regeneration of Blackbird Leys and will provide much needed jobs and services for local people.
The vast majority of local residents are in favour of the development. City Council opinion polls, public meetings and a FOUL residents survey all show there is at least 80% of the local population in favour of the development.
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FOUL (Fighting for Oxford United's Life) is an independent supporters
organisation dedicated to publicising the real danger of closure that is facing
Oxford United Football Club and working to ensure its continued survival. FOUL
was formed by a meeting of supporters on 10th November '98 at Oxford Utd.
Supporters Club. The original FOUL committee that was set up at the first
meeting was endorsed and formally agreed on by a meeting of FOUL members on 2nd
December 1998.
As of 1st June 1999 FOUL has 1208 members. The membership reflects the support base for the football club and as such the majority are residents of Oxfordshire. See Appendix 1 for a detailed analysis of the FOUL membership.
Within 3 weeks of being formed FOUL had organised a supporters meeting at Oxford Town Hall. This meeting attracted almost 1,000 people and was the biggest meeting Oxford Town Hall had seen for many years.
FOUL is run on a purely voluntary basis and receives no outside funding. It is financed from donations and its own merchandising and fund raising activities. The FOUL main committee is as follows:
| Name | Position | Day Job |
| Steve Hanks | Chair | Finance Director |
| Mark Mallinson | Marketing Officer | Software Product Mngr. |
| Martin Brodetsky | Press Officer | IT Support |
| John Evans | National Coordinator | IT Support |
| Rob Hedges | Secretary | Management Accountant |
| Michele Rodriguez | Membership Secretary | Subscriptions Manager |
| Paul Beasley | Treasurer | Auditor |
| David Pryor | Committee Member | Company Director |
| James Schall | Committee Member | Computer Software Mngr. |
In addition to the main committee FOUL has two sub committees working on Media Awareness and Fund raising.
FOUL has held three public meetings at Oxford Town Hall since it was formed. In addition to the meetings FOUL mails a regular newsletter called FOULMouth to its membership and this is also distributed to an additional 4000 Oxford United supporters at home games.
FOUL has its own internet web site at www.welcome.to/foul. This site has regular updates to keep members with internet access up to date on events. FOUL also operates an email distribution list which anybody can send electronic mail to at foul@egroups.com.
FOUL has also formed strong links with the local media. In particular The Oxford Mail, Thames Valley FM Radio, FoxFM Radio, Central Television and Comtel Channel 10 (cable). FOUL has also featured in all the major national newspapers, on the BBC's Grandstand and various Sky Sports programmes. Appendix 3 is a compilation of newspaper cuttings relating to FOUL and the events surrounding the football club and its recent attempts to put together a rescue plan.
This report aims to provide supporting evidence that:
1. Oxford United Football Club can only survive as a professional football club if the multiplex planning application is successfully gained without any undue delays.
2. A multiplex cinema and other associated leisure facilities are desperately needed in the Oxfords sub-region.
3. There is overwhelming local support for the leisure development in the local community
4. There are sufficient exceptional circumstances attached to this application that mean it should be passed even if some aspects may be in contradiction of Government planning policy.
In order to fully understand the special circumstances in Oxford and the great need for urgency it is necessary to spend some time looking into the history of Oxford United (OUFC) and how it got itself into its current predicament.
Over the last 15 to 20 years OUFC has passed through a number of owners. In each case the majority shareholder has held 89% of the company with the remaining shares split between approximately 200 minor shareholders. The late Robert Maxwell bought the controlling influence in the club in 1982 and saved it from almost certain collapse at that time. When Robert Maxwell died and his estate went into receivership the club was sold to Energy Holdings. Energy Holdings appointed Keith Cox as managing director who then remained with the club when it was subsequently bought in 1994 by Robin Herd a local business man.
Robin Herd resigned as Chairman of the football club in 1997 and spent the next 2 years trying to find a buyer for his 89% holding. In April of 1999 Firoz Kassam, a London based hotelier bought Robin Herd's shares and now is the majority shareholder.
Oxford United for many years has been financed by long term debt rather than on a more usual equity basis. The football club has consistently been running at a trading loss with any profits recorded being due to player sales rather than football spectator or merchandising related revenues. Robert Maxwell, Energy Holdings and Robin Herd all loaned money to the football club in order to bridge these operating losses. The vast majority of these loans are still in place and along with bank borrowing are estimated to be in the region of £5 million. This debt financing has plagued the football club for many years and has been the biggest single factor in hindering its development.
For almost 50 years OUFC has been attempting to relocate from its current stadium, The Manor Ground, Headington to a purpose built facility. For many years it struggled with the local authorities to find a suitable site and the required planning permission for a new stadium. Eventually after many false starts (30 different sites and 12 planning applications) it gained planning permission for a new stadium at Minchery Farm in Littlemore adjacent to the Greater Leys estate on the South Eastern edge of Oxford.
Originally the stadium was to be funded by commercial leisure developments on adjoining land to be purchased from Oxford City Council and from the proceeds of the sale of The Manor Ground in Headington for redevelopment. (Once debts secured on that site had been repaid). This plan excluded a multiplex cinema plan because of the (then current but now failed) proposal to build a multiplex cinema at the Oxpens site nearer to the City Centre. The lack of a multiplex cinema in these plans being a major reason why ultimately a suitable funding package could not be put together.
With a cost of over £20 million the leisure developments, proceeds from the Manor sale and Football Trust payments would only cover half of the stadium development cost. It was therefore planned to generate additional funding through a stadium and stand sponsorship and business partner funding plan. This was to be managed by Cornhill Commercial Services and a specialist company called Stadi Various.
CCS and Stadi Various were unable to deliver the funding they had promised and the stadium developers, Taylor Woodrow suspended work on the development in early 1997 with approximately £7.5 million of work carried out but not paid for.
Since then a number of potential rescue packages backed by various individuals and consortia have failed to get the project restarted. That is until Firoz Kassam came forward in February 1999.
As stated above the Minchery Farm stadium is currently only part constructed. Three of the four proposed stands are currently partly constructed with all of the steel superstructure and much of the concrete seating decks in place.
The football club is currently only surviving on a "hand to mouth" basis. The bank overdraft of £1.55 million cannot be extended any further and player and staff wages are only just matched by the clubs turnover. (Approx. £3 million). On three separate occasions over the last 12 months the club has been unable to pay players wages and has had to be supported by a loan from the PFA (Professional Football Association). In addition to this non playing staff were not paid for nearly three months towards the end of 1998 when the club almost went into receivership. The sale of players contracts managed to rescue the situation at that time but the club continues to, at best, survive on a month to month basis.
The situation has now become so serious that the football club's directors have recently appointed corporate recovery experts, Buchler Phillips, to seek a Creditors Voluntary Agreement (CVA) in an attempt to reduce the unsecured debts and allow the club to continue trading.
The FLA (Football Licensing Authority) has recently granted a special dispensation to the club to allow them to use their current stadium for the 1999/2000 season on the understanding that work will soon restart on the new stadium. This special dispensation was necessary because the Manor Ground (which has less than 3000 seats in its 9,500 capacity) fails the new standing terrace standards required by the FLA. This dispensation is unlikely to be extended in the future unless the stadium is almost completed.
The Football League has expressed concern that a number of its member clubs are not in a position to be able to guarantee that they will be able to fulfil all of their fixtures in the new season. Unless the club can convince the League that a credible rescue package is in place before the start of the next season in August 1999 OUFC may be expelled from the league.
The new stadium is crucial to this rescue package.
As referred to previously the club has long term debts in excess of £5 million pounds not including those related to the new stadium development. These debts are all secured on the Manor ground. Without the new stadium plan going ahead it will not be possible to pay off these debts and the servicing of these debts and creditor pressure will almost inevitably lead to the collapse of the football club. The Oxford City local plan states that the Manor should remain as a sports ground until Oxford United has a permanent new facility. It is anticipated that once the new stadium was available for the club to occupy then the Manor ground could be sold for residential development (subject to the required planning permissions being granted). The value of the site for this purpose being approximately £6 - £7 million.
The new stadium is also critical to the long term survival of the football club due to the extremely limited capacity and facilities available at the Manor ground. Although the capacity is rarely reached even in the First Division the main home areas of the ground invariably sell out to their allowed capacity. The layout of the ground (open terraces) mean that it is impossible to segregate the ground to allow for more home supporters. Similarly there are almost no facilities available for corporate hospitality and sponsors entertainment at the Manor ground. This type of revenue stream has become extremely important for the vast majority of professional football clubs in recent years. A new stadium will allow the club to generate enough income from gate receipts and sponsorship/hospitality to be able to meet its fixed monthly outgoings.
We believe that the use of a leisure development such as a multiplex cinema is entirely consistent with other football stadium developments around the country and conforms to Government advice in PPG17 which states:
"Local authorities are asked to give sympathetic consideration to development proposals designed to achieve the aims of all seated accommodation at football grounds".
It also states:
"Local Planning Authorities should also have regard to the extent to which proposals incorporating multiple use and non-football leisure facilities will be of benefit to the community as a whole".
The new stadium is crucial to the survival of Oxford United and the multiplex cinema development adjacent to the stadium is the only way the stadium can be financed.
Oxford United is the only professional football club in Oxfordshire. As such it is a very important community asset and its loss would be felt throughout the county.
A football club like Oxford United is very much a focus for civic pride and identity with a city and region. The whole community benefits from and shares in a football club's success. No other sport can have this impact on a community.
Beyond the feel-good factor that a successful football club can bring there are also some more tangible benefits to the local community. Through the clubs excellent award winning football in the community and Educational activities it reaches out to many people throughout the county. Carrying out invaluable work with schoolchildren, youth, elderly and disabled members of the wider community.
Oxford United is the only major professional sports club in Oxford. As such it is the one team that most residents can identify with. The football club is one of the very few unifying organisation in the city. Due to Oxford's status as a University city and a tourist resort many residents find it difficult to think of the city as belonging to them.
The 30 year struggle to find a new ground has left the club operating from a stadium that is economically not viable and that offers its supporters facilities that are simply not appropriate to a modern football club. The supporters of this club go to the ground in spite of the facilities. The development of the stadium with the council taking a 20% share in the development company means the stadium will in part belong to the city. The city will have a modern sporting facility of which it can and will be proud.
On the only occasion that Oxford United reached a Wembley final (1986) it was supported by over 40,000 people from the area. Many residents of the city and county support the club from afar, some because the popular home areas of the ground are sold out for most matches and many others because of the poor facilities offered at the current ground, particularly for families with younger children. The development of the stadium will give the city and its residents both a team and a stadium in which they can be proud and probably visit on a more regular basis.
Oxford United has invested heavily in its community links and a move to Minchery Farm will enable that process to be enhanced. The club has employed a Football Community Officer since 1991. Annually 2500 young people visit the club as part of the school curriculum linked education programme. The education programme has developed strong ties with over 70 schools, mostly in Oxfordshire. Additionally the club has established a larger network of schools, involving them in a wide variety of activities both at the existing ground and within the school environment.
The soccer courses offered by the Football in the Community scheme cater for up to 5000 boys and girls during the half term and full holiday period, and have become an integral part of life in Oxfordshire. The clubs commitment to its Centre of Excellence caters for outstanding young footballers in Oxfordshire from the ages of 9 to 16. This scheme has produced some outstanding players for the club and a number have gone on to play professional football at the highest levels. The community links are supported by players and staff who welcome children to the Manor and who freely give time visiting schools, fetes, soccer courses and other events in the community. Oxford United's community links are widely recognised as being better than many larger and more affluent football clubs.
An indication of the Club's standing in the community has been the winning of 4 EBP Investor in Education awards and winning the Oxfordshire Business of the Year award in 1998.
Oxford United under the control of the clubs Education Officer have developed an academic extension to the highly valued community programme. The aim of the programme is to provide enhanced academically relevant visits, supported by high quality differentiated learning resources. The clubs mission statement is to provide innovative, motivating and quality educational resources for the community.
The programme develops links with local schools, colleges and universities by offering the club as a resource or case study for a variety of curriculum work at all levels. This ranges from primary schools through to degree level courses. Students are encouraged to come to the club individually, in small groups or as part of an organised school visit for a half or full day. A class room environment is created where the students can study the components that make up a football club, tour the ground and the training ground. The visit can be used as a stimulus for cross curricular topic work whilst education students can focus on such topics as marketing and promotion, health and safety, environmental issues. The students benefit from the expertise in the club in these areas. During the course of the 1998/99 season the club was visited by over 2,000 students under this programme.
In a new stadium both the community and educational programme can be improved and extended. The package offered can be more attractive and stimulating and a purpose built classroom will be available.
The football club is a focal point of the community of Oxford both in terms of providing a major sporting and leisure facility and by providing an educational and community resource that is used by the community at large. This programme has developed the concept of the football club being an integral part of the community and the community being an integral part of the football club.
Oxford United has an important part to play in the local economy. Not just in terms of the amount of money it can bring in from its direct activities but also through the indirect turnover of other companies. Hundreds of businesses, both small and large, benefit from their association with the club both directly and indirectly. Local print and broadcast media, catering, printing, commercial, transport, professional and other services all benefit directly as suppliers to the club. The football club also acts as an advertising, promotional and hospitality opportunity for many more local businesses.
Football is our national game and many young people aspire to play professional football. A local football club with a healthy youth team policy is extremely important in providing an opportunity for local footballing talent. Oxford United has developed many local boys into professional footballers who have broken their way into the first team. Mark Wright who played for Liverpool and England was a player who came through the youth team ranks at Oxford before going on to play football at the highest level and for his country.
Football is a major leisure pursuit in this country. The loss of a professional football club to a county like Oxfordshire would leave a large percentage of the population with no local provision of this leisure pursuit within easy reach. This would almost certainly mean that large numbers of Oxfordshire residents would be forced to make far longer journeys outside the county to watch live football.
While Oxford is reasonably well provided with theatres, the existing commercial cinema facilities in the catchment area of the City are not adequate for the population.
As well as the quantitative inadequacy, the existing Cinema facilities are of poor quality. For example, of the 2 commercial cinemas in the City showing mainstream films, one has 3 screens and 1,092 seats and the other has one screen and 866 seats. They are both very dated in appearance and internal layout, and have poor access facilities for the disabled, elderly, and parents with young children.
Recent years have seen a substantial growth in most sectors of the leisure market. Available statistics, by Dodona Research, indicates that the recent growth in expenditure in the UK on leisure will continue and pressure will be placed on the property market to provide new, better quality facilities in easily accessible locations.
The multiplex cinema is normally the anchor for comprehensive leisure developments which are now starting to appear in the UK. Multiplex cinemas have stimulated and benefited from the re-growth of interest in cinema going.
The film industry itself has become much more productive, with Government assistance in the UK, and an increasing number of screens are needed to show films coming onto the market. Where a town's facilities are limited to 4 screens such as in Oxford, there may be up to 100 films shown annually in a large scale multiplex which would not have had a showing in Oxford.
There can be no doubt therefore that the local catchment population is currently denied the range and choice of film viewing available to residents in other parts of the country, except by driving significant distances to other centres.
Operators have their own approaches to estimating the capacity for new multiplex screens, but a relatively cautious approach to an industry standard was set out in 1996 in the principal publication of factual data relating to cinema visits and capacities, "Cinema-going 5" by Dodona Research. From this, the national average rate of cinema going is 2.5 visits a year, with 4 visits a year being a fairly common mid range frequency in urban areas, rising to 6 visits in some areas. Oxford and Cambridge are specifically referred to by Dodona as the sort of cities, with large populations of students and other culturally active people, which are capable of sustaining far more cinema screens than towns with different demographic characteristics.
A rate of 4 visits per person per annum is now often taken as appropriate to multiplex facilities, in addition to visits to existing smaller cinemas. Applying this rate in Oxford to the 1996 catchment population, not counting students, tourists, and other visitors, would generate some 1.16 million visits a year to multiplex cinemas. The standard rate of turnover for such cinemas is 300 persons per seat per annum, which generates a capacity for 3,875 multiplex cinema seats for about 16 multiplex screens. Looking at the same issue in a different way, the 2 existing commercial cinemas offer 1,958 seats. Even if they were to achieve 300 visits per seat a year, that would suggest only 587,000 cinema visits in Oxford a year, i.e. about half that which might be expected in other cities. Whichever ways the levels are assessed, there is no doubt that Oxford is significantly lacking in modern cinema facilities in both quantitative and qualitative terms.
In summary, the absence of modern built cinema facilities in Oxford denies residents the choices and opportunities available to residents in other towns and is also likely to have the effect of generating trips to cinemas in other towns less accessible by public transport. Provision of facilities at the application site would have the great benefit of meeting the needs in a sustainable manner. They would support the local economy and contribute to the vitality and viability of the Oxford area.
If the proposal were not allowed the likelihood is that the need would be met elsewhere at a location less favourable placed in respect of public transport, such as Abingdon or Didcot, and the potential benefits for Oxford and its residents would be lost.
In April 1999 Oxford City Council carried out a public opinion surveys that looked into the specific issue of the leisure development at Minchery Farm and also more generally explored local residents opinions on leisure facilities in Oxford. The survey was carried out in order to understand public opinion on the proposed land deal with Oxford United rather than in relation to the multiplex cinema application itself. However the survey referred to a multiplex cinema in the questions it posed.
The following statement was used:
"The Council proposes to exchange an area of land with a developer at Minchery Farm in Littlemore.
In return the developer will complete the new Oxford United Football Stadium at Minchery Farm and provide Oxford with new commercial leisure facilities, such as a bowling alley and multiplex cinema. He will also support Oxford United"
602 Respondents were then asked
"Do you agree or disagree that this is a good idea from your point of view"?
The responses were as follows:
Agree 80%
Disagree 6%
Undecided 14%
Whilst this survey covered a broader issue than just the multiplex it is clear from the response that there is very little opposition to the proposed multiplex cinema development, particularly as it is seen as a way of enabling the completion of the new stadium.
The full results of this survey and the City Council's "Talk Back survey of 515 residents on leisure facilities in general can be found in appendix 5.
There have been a number of applications for multiplex cinema developments throughout Oxfordshire but to date none have been successful. We believe that this is because until now a suitable site had not been found. Obviously a development of this nature will draw in people from a wide area and the lack of such a facility in Oxford would if sited outside Oxford create journey's out from the city to wherever it was eventually built. The survey (appendix 2) of local residents carried out by FOUL clearly shows this to be the case with large numbers currently travelling approximately 20 miles to High Wycombe's UCI cinema.
Oxford is by far the largest urban centre within the sub-region and its position geographically at the centre of the county means that it is the obvious location for a multiplex cinema development so clearly needed by the local population.
In the following section we will explain why we believe the Minchery Farm site to be very different to previous proposals throughout the county and why it is the perfect location for such a development.
Minchery farm is located on the south eastern edge of Oxford City. It is adjacent to Blackbird Leys and Littlemore wards and close to Temple Cowley & Iffley wards. It is between the Oxford ring road and a new link road which already serves the large housing development of Greater Leys and the Oxford Science Park.
The stadium and proposed adjoining leisure development are bordered by the science park to the west and a new housing development to the east. To the north is the Blackbird Leys estate and a primary school and its adjoining sports fields. The southern boundary of the site is Grenoble Road which forms a link road between the A4074 and the B480. To the south east across the link road is a Thames Water sewage treatment works.
The land itself was original owned and used by Thames Water in association with its sewage treatment works. Because of this the land has been contaminated with human waste for many years. The stadium site has since been cleared of contaminated soil which has been dealt with in accordance with the required environmental regulations. Currently the leisure site is overgrown wasteland that is used as a dumping area for amongst other things, stolen cars.
All of the required infrastructure for a multiplex cinema will be in place at Minchery Farm because of the adjacent football stadium. The parking, access, public transport provisions etc. to serve a 15,000 seat stadium will be used on average on 3 to 4 days per month throughout the football season. These facilities are therefore available to support additional leisure development at all other times.
The stadium plans include provision for car and coach parking for 1,950 vehicles. This is believed to be the largest parking facility for any new football stadium built in the UK in recent years. This, we believe, is more than enough to support the multiplex cinema. Special arrangements will have to be made on match days when parking demand will be at its peak but we believe many football match attendees are likely to use the leisure facilities themselves or these will be used by other family members arriving in the same vehicle. It is a condition of the existing planning permission that the leisure, stadium and hotel parking is shared.
The site is served by the new Grenoble Road which already serves the Greater Leys housing development and Oxford Science Park. The section 106 agreement contains many provisions for financial contributions to parking controls in adjoining residential areas, new sign posting, part time traffic signals at the eastern end of Grenoble Road (if required) and a financial contribution to improvements to the Sandford interchange at the western end of Grenoble Road. The development as a whole can also contribute to the overall traffic management in Oxford in that the section 106 includes an option to use the parking for an overflow park and ride facility.
The access and traffic provisions at Minchery Farm are suffficient for a 15,000 seat football stadium where a large proportion of journeys to and from the site will take place at the same time. Multiplex cinema and associated leisure use will produce peak traffic flows that are far less than this even in the unlikely event of every screen showing the same film at the same time to a sell out audience.
There is an issue of the possibility of the compound traffic flows from football and cinema audiences at peak times. This would only be a potential problem if and when the stadium was at capacity and in percentage terms would not be a great additional burden. Saturday afternoon and Tuesday evenings (when football is mostly played in the Nationwide Football League) are not considered to be peak times for cinema attendance. Arrangements could be reached with any potential cinema operator as a condition of the land purchase/rental to ensure that start and finish times of films on the larger screens do not coincide with the peak football traffic flows.
In addition to this it is anticipated that the leisure development will have the impact of spreading the football related traffic flows over a longer period as people take advantage of them before and after football matches.
The section 106 agreement provides for a financial contribution to a rail/GTE halt immediately to the north of the stadium on the existing Cowley Works branch line from Oxford City Centre.
The stadium plan already includes provisions for the extension of existing bus services and special new bus services. The multiplex could also take advantage of the stadium related bus halt and extension of the services to cover leisure use.
There is currently just one bus service between the Greater Leys area and Oxford City Centre. This service does not operate after 6:00pm and this is seen as a major concern for local residents. The leisure development is expected to act as a catalyst to bring a permanent and regular bus service to this whole area which would not otherwise exist.
The stadium will include the provision of cycle track to allow the large number of nearby residents to approach the area on bicycles which are already a very popular mode of transport in Oxford compared to their use in other towns and cities. This is not only true of the student population in the city centre but also as a popular mode of transport for local residents in the east of the city near the Rover car works at Cowley.
Oxford has a unique history and make up compared to almost all similar sized cities in the country. The central area is taken up almost totally by the University colleges and associated buildings (Theatres, Libraries, Museums etc.) The main residential area is to be found at the eastern end of the city (around the proposed stadium and multiplex development) in the Temple Cowley, Littlemore and Blackbird Leys wards. These residential areas are centred around Cowley which is effectively a large town in its own right with its own employment areas (Rover and Unipart) and shopping centres (Oxford Retail Park and Templar Square Shopping Centre). Because of this we believe Minchery Farm to be a far better location for a multiplex cinema than anywhere near the actual centre of Oxford.
Oxford city centre is visited by large numbers of tourists and the vast majority of the population are students. Oxfordshire County Council population projections estimate the permanent population in Central Ward to be 440 people in 288 households in 2001. (1993 - 432 in 288 households). A leisure facility such as that proposed for Minchery farm is targeted very much at the local population. There are sufficient leisure facilities currently in the city centre to cater for the student and tourist needs.
According to Oxfordshire County Council population and household forecasts every ward within the city of Oxford has had and will continue to have only very slight growth between 1993 and 2001. Every ward that is except for Blackbird Leys which according to the same data has a population forecast for 1993 of 9,045 rising to 10,315 in 1996 and 13,188 in 2001. This means that by 2001 (the likely time scale for a multiplex to be occupied and operating) some 26,835 people will live within walking distance of the proposed development. With a total population projection for 2001 of 110,003 this represents almost 25% of the population.
Because of this we believe the best location for a multiplex cinema in Oxford to minimise car journeys and maximise non vehicular traffic is on the south eastern edge of the city where population densities are by far the highest.
We understand the need to satisfy the sequential test in PPG6 but realise that planning professionals are far more capable to explain this however the following points should be noted.
The only town centre or edge of town site that has been proposed for such a development in recent years was the Oxpens site. This plan was rejected by the government department after a public enquiry highlighted its inaccessibility. No other site has come to light nearer the centre of Oxford
Oxford's unique architectural and historical situation and development mean it is very difficult to see how any such site could easily become available. Even if such a site could be found it is very hard to see how this could fit in with the very special architectural and historic buildings in the centre of Oxford.
Access to the centre of Oxford has always been, and will remain a major problem for cars and via public transport due to geographical features (River Thames/Isis/Cherwell) and the unique histroical buildings in the city. Its role as a world leading university and one of the major tourist destinations in the UK makes it very difficult to accommodate the local population's needs. Siting a new leisure development in the city centre would only add to these problems. The Oxford transport strategy is very much based on park and ride where people are encouraged to drive to the edge of the city and take buses into the centre. Whilst this may work for city centre workers and shoppers it is not thought to be suitable for leisure journeys where the visit is over a much shorter period. In addition to this even if all visitors were to use the park and ride facility a multiplex cinema whether in the centre or at the edge of the city would generate the same amount of traffic to the city as a whole.
One of the aims of promoting town centre retail and leisure developments is to help regenerate town centres. Oxford is a special case and has no need of such regeneration for the reasons stated above.
FOUL's survey of local residents in the Blackbird Leys/Greater Leys and Littlemore areas of the city (Appendix 2) showed that a large number of Oxford residents are currently making long journeys outside the city and the county in pursuit of leisure facilities.
Of those who attended a cinema at least once a month 30% currently travel to a multiplex cinema outside Oxfordshire. Far and away the most common destination being High Wycombe over 20 miles away. A further 39 people who occasionally went to the cinema chose not to go to Oxford as their first choice. In addition, 33 out of 48 people who gave a second choice destination went outside Oxford. Taken together, 106 of the total sample (370) specified a non-Oxford location as one of their two choices of cinema destination. All except nine of these people specified High Wycombe.
Currently the majority of the cinema going population of Oxfordshire outside the city of Oxford and a large proportion of those within the city are making long journeys to visit cinemas. We firmly believe the net result of such a cinema development at Minchery Farm would be an overall reduction in cinema related car journeys. The number of journeys being reduced slightly (by being located to the densest area of population in the county) but the overall length of journeys being reduced by a much larger amount.
We believe the number of additional journeys created by any expansion in the overall cinema attendance market would be minimal and would be restricted mainly to those who are very close to the development. In the FOUL survey many local residents said they would be likely to use the new facilities but a large percentage of this expected use is in relation to the the overall leisure and stadium development.
Minchery Farm is on the edge of Blackbird Leys and the stadium and leisure facilities proposed form part of a much broader program of regeneration for the area.
Blackbird Leys was an area of urban deprivation, unemployment and poverty, with resulting high crime levels, vandalism and "joy-riding". The area was rapidly gaining a notoriety which compounded all it's problems. With over 100 acres of council owned land along the southern edge of the existing estate, there was an opportunity to put together a comprehensive scheme which would address the needs of the community.
As well as providing the infrastructure, a major commitment was also made to address broader community needs in terms of social and recreation facilities. Thirty acres of land was provided for £1 and the rest was sold at a discounted rate. The scheme resulted in;
The four year SRB project addressed the following areas;
Record of an interview conducted between Police Superintendent Bunce, and John Evans of FOUL on May 14th 1999.
Superintendent Bunce is second in command of the Oxford Area Police Force. He has been a Police Match Commander at Oxford United's home games since 1994, and is Head of Crime and Operations.
He is also a member of the Advisory Committee for Oxford United, a board chaired by Mr. John Kelly, Oxford County Council's Chief Emergency Planning Officer, and on whom Mr. Jim Chambers, a member of the Football Licensing Authority, also sits.
In the view of the Police the effects of Oxford United's proposed relocation, and the construction of a Multiplex Cinema at Minchery Farm are as follows:
Local residents views have been sought on the proposed multiplex cinema in varying ways on at least 4 occasions in recent months. Initially via a telephone based city wide opinion poll, secondly by a survey of residents in Blackbird Leys and Littlemore carried out by FOUL and finally at two public meetings in Blackbird Leys and Littlemore that were arranged by Oxford City Council. None of these produced a result of less than 80% in favour of the proposals.
The City Council survey gave an 80% result in favour of the land deal between the council and Oxford United in which a multiplex cinema was specifically referred to. This has previously been discussed and is included in full in appendix 5.
On Friday 16th April the City Council held the first of its public consultation meetings on the proposed land for leisure deal with Firoz Kassam. The meeting took place at Blackbird Leys Leisure Centre with approximately 250 attendees. John Tanner, Leader of Oxford City Council, opened the meeting with a short summary of the proposal and an explanation of why the council supports the deal. He then took comments and questions from the floor which he answered directly or passed on to John Arnold, Head of Property & Leisure at Oxford City Council.
The club was well supported by local residents and FOUL members who put forward their arguments as to why the deal should go ahead. Most people focussed understandably on the need to save the football club but also highlighted the very real requirement for modern leisure facilities such as a multiplex cinema. A number of local residents who live close to the development expressed their opposition and concerns. Most of these were answered and centred around parking problems on match days, the reinstatement of the children's play area and BMX track and blocking vehicle access from Littlemore to Minchery Farm. All of which John Tanner explained were addressed in the planning process.
At the end of the meeting a vote was taken by a show of hands. Firstly amongst the residents of the local area only. This vote was very much in favour of the development with approximately a 5 to 1 majority. Amongst those from other areas the vote was almost totally in favour.
The second public consultation meeting took place at Peers School, Littlemore on Tuesday 20th April. Despite terrible weather the meeting went ahead with a good turn out of local residents and Oxford United supporters/FOUL members. The meeting was far less heated than the Blackbird Leys meeting most of the local residents concerns being answered to their satisfaction. The need for a gate across the Minchery Farm track coming out as the local residents biggest single concern. The Council explained how this was fully addressed as part of the conditions attached to the existing planning permission.
As at Blackbird Leys a vote was taken firstly of just the Littlemore residents. The results of this were a resounding yes, with only 7 people opposing the plan and approximately 80 people in favour. Of the remaining 60 or so people from outside the area the result was a unanimous yes vote.
FOUL organised its own opinion poll by means of a door to door survey in Littlemore, Blackbird Leys and Greater Leys. This survey was carried out primarily for FOUL's own research purposes to gauge public opinion ahead of the city council's public meetings. The overwhelming positive reaction to the scheme came as something as a surprise as we had anticipated more opposition. The full results of this survey are to be found in appendix 2.
Here is a summary of the key findings:
