The City Council is progressing plans to deliver 43 new homes, including 18 for social rent and 25 for low cost home ownership, at two sites in Rose Hill.
Detailed planning applications for the two sites – the old community centre on The Oval and the advice centre and scout hut on the corner of Carole’s Way and Ashhurst Way - have now been submitted following public consultation in the summer. This scheme will be using funding from the Housing and Growth Deal.
The functions previously provided at both locations were relocated within the new Rose Hill Community Centre nearby. The £4.6m flagship building features a gym, meeting and conference facilities, social club, community library, advice centre, youth suite, changing rooms, health facility and ballroom.
The Council aims to be in a construction contract before the end of the 2018/19 financial year, with work starting in spring 2019 and lasting 18 months. The new homes will be designed to help combat fuel poverty for future residents.
At the old community centre site, the Council plans to create two buildings that positively respond to the prominent site facing The Oval, open green space and Desborough Crescent. It will achieve a mix of family homes, flats above ground level and private and communal amenity space, with parking sensitively integrated so as not to impinge the character of the site.
On the old scout hut site, the Council will create a scheme that successfully integrates new council housing, amenity space and parking while providing privacy from surrounding uses. The scheme will promote an active residential frontage to Ashhurst Way, providing continuity to the character of the street.
Both sites are well served by the number 3 bus service to Oxford city centre via Iffley Road.
Councillor Mike Rowley, Board Member for Housing, said: “The Rose Hill scheme is part of the Council’s ambition to deliver more housing of different kinds and tenures as required to meet housing need in the city, crucially including new social housing. The need for housing in Oxford continues to be higher than the capacity for new homes inside the City – we have space for just over 8,000 homes. The Council is committed to maximising housing delivery on available sites to meet local needs, and this scheme at Rose Hill is guided by that approach.”
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