JERICHO WHARF

Questions and answers

Key information about the proposed compulsory purchase

The Jericho Wharf Trust has asked the City Council to step in and secure the Wharf site for Oxford. A compulsory purchase order can be followed by an immediate sale to a chosen developer who will commit to deliver a boatyard, a community centre, and a public square along with much needed housing.

The chosen developer should implement the scheme designed for SIAHAF by architects Haworth Tompkins. This was approved nearly a decade ago, was confirmed as viable, and had widespread support. This offered a fitting setting for St Barnabas Church, a public open space, and a vibrant canalside and canal corridor, with pedestrian and cycle links and a potential bridge across the canal.

Nothing much. The site remains largely derelict – as it has done for around 20 years.  The previous developer SIAHAF, whose name adorns the fading banners, has now been put into compulsory liquidation by Court Order, following a petition from His Majesty’s Revenue & Customs. And the current developer, Cornerstone Land, which received planning permission in 2022, now refuses to communicate. We were told that both of their schemes were viable but now it seems that the site is being hawked around to yet more speculative developers, and so the cycle continues.
 

Until 2000, most of the site was a working boatyard using land leased from the British Waterways Board. Since then, for most of the last 30 years, the land has been been in the hands of speculators. In 2013, the Hong Kong-based Cheer Team Corporation, outbid the JWT and bought the site for £2.6 million. It paid too much. In 2022, the Government Planning Inspectorate agreed with the Council, and the developer, that the value of the land was just £1 million.
 

Cheer Team has so far appointed two developers to negotiate speculative planning permissions: first SIAHAF and then Cornerstone Land.  To boost their profits the developers aim to chip away at the Council’s planning policies, notably for affordable housing, and shrink community facilities. Both developers got planning permission, but did nothing.

Community interests are represented by the Jericho Wharf Trust which is a registered charity formed in 2012 by four local groups.
•    The Jericho Community Association - which runs the current community centre;
•    The Jericho Community Boatyard - which represents the boaters;
•    The Jericho Living Heritage Trust - which promotes  Jericho’s distinctive heritage and legacy;
•    The St Barnabas Parochial Church Council - which represents the interests of the Church.
The Trust’s Board members live in and around Jericho, or are boat dwellers. They have a wide range of experience and expertise, and have the vision, passion and skills to deliver what is needed in this unique location. The Trust has been working quietly and patiently with the Council and the developers to try to secure development of the site. The Trust supported the SIAHAF scheme. We also proposed a funding mechanism  for the Cornerstone scheme but they failed to respond. 

Quite the reverse. The Trust is committed to the delivery of development, but the landowner is not. Over the past 11 years, the landowner has engaged two developers; first SIAHAF and then Cornerstone. In each case, JWT  worked proactively and pragmatically with the developers to arrive at schemes they said were financially viable. Both developers achieved planning permissions and signed Section 106 legal agreements with the City Council, but then did nothing. 

Why? It seems Cheer Team’ strategy is to achieve successive planning permissions that  successively chip away at community interests and planning policy, and then hold tight. Sorry, a smaller square this time. Sorry, no social housing next time. These cumulative gains make the land steadily more valuable for selling on. 

Their next ploy will be to entirely rid the site of the boatyard and the community centre. Instead of the community boatyard we have the threat of large cranes regularly trundling down Jericho’s streets to the shaky ground of the current boat hire business. Instead of a viable and financially sustainable community centre in which people young and old can meet and learn all manner of healthy activities and sports at affordable prices we must put up with the existing cramped footprint in Canal Street.

Then the developer can fill the sited with market housing, and adding further years of delay during which he hopes house prices will continue to rise. Meanwhile, the community and the Council are being held to ransom. 

In addition to private housing there should be affordable housing, a DIY boatyard, a Community Centre, and a public square. There is also the option of a bridge across the canal. The requirements for the Jericho canalside site have been established in the Local Plan and confirmed by a series of decisions by the local community, the City Council and the Planning Inspectorate. So developers know what is expected of them.

There are around 400 narrowboats in the Oxford area – half of them moored on the canal or river within the city ring road. The vast majority have steel hulls, and every four years need to be taken out of the water to be ‘blacked’ – coated with anti-rust paint. Otherwise their hulls will be thinning by around 1mm per decade. 

It is 20 years since facilities for taking out boats have been available locally: the hire company College Cruisers has no facilities to take boats completely out of the water, not even their own fleet. The nearest boatyard is five hours away in Eynsham – the equivalent of a car having to go all the way to Lands End or Gretna Green –  and for this many boats would need a tow. If the boat springs a leak on the way the owner loses everything. Many boats have been neglected and some have sunk. These are people’s homes, remember.

In a city like Oxford, where house prices are so high, residential boats are a rare, affordable option, and hence a popular one, the demand for which must be met with appropriate repair and maintenance facilities. 
 

Because the current Community Centre in Canal Street is not fit for purpose. It is too small for most sports activities. The location is unsuitable for a viable daily cafe, and there is no disabled access.There have been suggestions to renovate the existing centre, but the footprint is too small to accommodate what is needed. Jericho residents deserve a centre fit for the 21st Century. 

Their hopes were expressed in  a 2021 Council Needs Survey with responses from over 500 households. They asked for a centre with wheelchair access and which was dementia friendly. They also wanted larger multipurpose spaces, particularly halls for sports, exercise and dance and flexible multi-media facilities for young people, along with safeguarded space for young children. Unlike other community centres the Council requires the Jericho centre to be large enough to fund its own operations without a grant.

Developers have steadily shrunk the proportion of affordable housing, and in the latest approved plan there is no affordable housing at all. The JWT and its and partner community groups believe that a major opportunity is being lost in failing to deliver affordable housing in this high-cost location where there few other opportunities.

Through a sequence of plans, developers have steadily allowed housing to encroach upon the space for a public square. We need a substantial public space in the  beautiful setting between the canal and the Grade 1-listed St Barnabas Church. This should form the heart of the development – a focal point that hosts a wide range of community activities.

The Local Plan supports a new crossing into the square. The alternative of upgrading the Mount Place bridge to modern accessibility standards is impractical as it requires ramps which cannot be fitted into the gardens. The CRT has issued new design standards that would allow a pedestrian and cycle crossing into the square. This would be a superior alternative, bringing more life to the development and the community centre. The design and funding for the bridge could, however, be addressed separately from the rest of the development. 

Because patience has run out. Thirty years ago the site was owned by a public corporation.  Since then, there have been three landowners, four planning applications by different developers, three planning appeals and two planning permissions; and the developers collectively have ultimatively done nothing. All contact between Cornerstone, the Church and CRT ceased in July 2024. Cornerstone have also ceased communications with the Council and the JWT. 
High time to re-exert public control over this critical site, in the interests of Oxford and of Jericho and its surrounding communities.

We know the Council's finances are tight. But this proposal is affordable. Indeed it will end the drain on City planning budgets from further speculative planning applications, refusals and appeals. The City should now buy the site for current market value of £1 million, but secure re-payment with a ‘back-to-back’ sale to a pre-selected developer contracted to build urgently needed housing and deliver community needs. 

This is a common CPO arrangement. The Council has considered CPOs before, for example at the Oxford Stadium. The initial costs can be covered from the Council budget for developing Jericho community facilities. The Council also previously promised funding for social housing in Jericho from the sale of Grantham House.

The CPO process typically takes 12-18 months at which point the chosen developer will have the necessary consents to start on site.

Sign the petition 
Please support the CPO proposal and the campaign to Save Jericho Wharf at www.change.org/jerichowharf

Email councillors
You can urge your City councillors to to support a CPO.
Carfax and Jericho
cllrahollingsworth@oxford.gov.uk
cllrldiggins@oxford.gov.uk
Walton Manor
cllrjfry@oxford.gov.uk
cllrlupton@oxford.gov.uk