Will the boatyard operations disturb residents?
Has the JWT been blocking development?
For answers to these and other questions on the compuslory purchase proposal, please click HEREWhy a community boatyard ![]() The CPO can be based on an approved planning designs, such as this one from 2015. |
Residents angry at ‘shameful’ derelict Wharf site ![]() David Edwards, Maggie Black and David Feeny |
Save Jericho Wharf. ![]() This site has be unused for 20 years. High time for the City to move in. |
Now that there is planning permission…. |
Cornerstone appeal allowed |
Newly uncovered documents obtained by the Save Jericho Wharf campaign reveal that Hong Kong-based landowner Cheer Team is attempting to sell the Jericho Wharf site with plans for up to 230 student flats—a move that would allow them to avoid planning obligations for affordable housing, a new community centre, and a boatyard.
Banners protest about narrow developer objectives for the site
Posted June 08 2025
Sources indicate that the landowner has already engaged with City Council planners and Worcester College regarding the proposal.
Last December, the Jericho Wharf Trust urged the City Council to intervene by compulsorily purchasing the site—with funding from a development partner—to deliver a mixed-use scheme for housing, a new community centre, and a repair boatyard, all of which already have planning permission. The site has lain derelict for over two decades, passing between investors and developers since its sale by the British Waterways Board.
Cheer Team claims their student housing plan would more than double their development’s value, increasing their site’s worth by two to three times. The Save Jericho Wharf campaign is now calling on the Council to take decisive action to uphold local planning policies and its commitments to the community.
Council commitments for the site include housing, affordable housing, a new community centre, and a boatyard. The Council reported that the existing community centre was unfit for purpose as far back as 2005 when it withdrew funding. Meanwhile, Oxford’s 400 residential boats have lack proper dock repair facilities for over twenty years, a pressing issue highlighted by four boats sinking last winter.
The campaign will be highlighting the lack of progress by the Council with banners on the canal frontage and the community centre to coincide with the Jericho Street Festival. Without intervention, the landowner’s latest proposal will sideline vital community needs in favour of profit-driven development, and risks repeating the Castle Mill student flats planning failures.
Click here to read the SIAHAF marketing document
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Oxford Mail coverage of this story
The Jericho Wharf Trust is responsible for all aspects of the campaign to develop the Jericho Wharf canalside site in Oxford on behalf of the community
For a visual history of the Jericho Wharf project, please click HERE for our image gallery