Oxley Woods Living

Life in an Oxley Woods eco house

 
 

Posts Tagged ‘Architecture’

 

Success!

February 27, 2012

Great news from earlier this evening – Milton Keynes Partnership voted unanimously to refuse the Taylor Wimpey planning application!

Committee members had visited the estate this afternoon before the meeting. They made positive reference to this in their comments, stating that the experience of seeing the site had made the case for refusal even stronger.

The Taylor Wimpey representatives asked for a deferral in order to have more time to negotiate about aspects of the application, but the committee didn’t accept this. Instead they agreed with us and the planning officers present that a fundamental revisions of the designs and a whole new planning application would be required.

A big thanks to all the residents of Oxley Woods and our neighbours from elsewhere in Oxley Park who submitted letters of objection – it was worth the effort!

So what next?

Residents continue to want to see a high quality completion of the site. RSHP are willing to do the work and the sub-contractors are here on site at present. We are ready to play our part in making this option a success.

Could Taylor Wimpey yet change their minds and agree to complete the original scheme? Let’s hope so.

If not, perhaps Homes and Communities Agency should look for another company to do a better job?

 

{guest post by Chris}

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Winning!

February 17, 2012

So now it is official.

Planning officials at Milton Keynes Partnership have today recommended that the Taylor Wimpey / CMYK proposals for the completion of Oxley Woods be refused planning permission.

Milton Keynes Council Development Control Committee will give their views of the proposals on Monday 20th February, and we expect them to back the recommendations of council officials. [Warning: 6Mb file]

The MKP committee will then reach a decision at its meeting on Monday 27th February. The report for that meeting is now available here.

Residents from Oxley Woods have been joined by neighbours from elsewhere in Oxley Park in opposing these plans – over 40 objections were submitted.

So what comes next?

We will certainly look to continue our dialogue with Homes and Communities Agency, MK Council and MK Partnership to try to secure a high quality completion for the Oxley Woods estate.

But the big questions now lie with Taylor Wimpey. They took a decision back in 2009 that they didn’t want to complete the site with the award-winning RSHP designs. That’s a real shame, and a waste of three years.

If Taylor Wimpey wants to reconsider we will be willing to give our input. Residents here have great ideas on how our homes could be further improved. And we’ve already shown our willingness to help sell them. How about it?

 

{Guest post by Chris}

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RSH+P back Oxley Woods residents

January 12, 2012

Oxley Woods residents had a busy time over the Christmas break, scrutinising the new Taylor Wimpey proposals and spotting many inaccuracies and omissions.We also met with planning officials to ask questions about the planning process.

In the course of our discussions, we picked up that it had been suggested to planning officials that the original architects Rogers Stirk Harbour and Partners (RSHP) didn’t want to be involved in completing the site.

Now that just didn’t chime with what we knew from our positive engagement with RSHP over the past year. We’ve worked with them to host visits to Oxley Woods from interested architects, BBC Radio 4, a TV company, and the mayor and councillors of Tower Hamlets council. We knew first hand the passion and commitment that RSHP have for their Oxley Woods scheme.

And now we have that confirmed in writing from RSHP themselves. Ivan Harbour has once again taken the trouble to write to Oxley Woods residents to share RSHP’s views on the designs put forward by Taylor Wimpey. He also reconfirms their continued willingness to develop alternative designs for the site based on the original concept.

All Taylor Wimpey has to do is ask… how about it?

Attached are Ivan Harbour’s letters to Oxley Woods residents from March 2011 and January 2012.

110309_Ivan_Harbour_Oxley_residents_letter

120109_Ivan_Harbour_Oxley_residents_letter

{Guest post by Chris}

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Residents respond to Taylor Wimpey

March 31, 2011

Following Taylor Wimpey’s first direct communication regarding their plans to scrap the multi-award winning eco homes development at Oxley Woods, a number of residents held an impromptu meeting to discuss our response. A number of us already making it clear we wish to see the development completed as proposed by Wimpey, as awarded and as highly acclaimed by others.

The letter gained around more than 35 signatories in a number of days, and was emailed to Taylor Wimpey. The following is a word-for-word copy of the combined response to Taylor Wimpey.

Dear Ms Moffat,

RE: Oxley Woods

I write on behalf of the residents named below to provide a formal and collective response to your letter dated 23rd March.

We welcome the fact that your letter provides the first direct communication on the part of Taylor Wimpey regarding the future of the Oxley Woods site, albeit to a limited number of recipients. Please be assured that, as residents of this ‘truly innovative and outstanding development of sustainable homes’, we are keen to be involved in ensuring the successful completion of the site.

Following discussions amongst ourselves, we have however concluded that we cannot agree to your proposal for a two person committee to meet with you to identify a preferred alternative design to be pursued on the remaining undeveloped areas.

Given that the Oxley Woods development is of national significance, and that all of its residents have therefore been pioneers, we must underline that any consultation on the future of the site should be open to all residents. Any proposed changes in the design of the homes still to be built must be carefully considered within the context of the original aims of the project, the existing design and layout, and the overarching concept which residents bought into when they made the decision to live here.

It would therefore be inappropriate on our part for any of us to circumvent a full and proper consideration of the available options, either via an open public consultation or via a formal planning process. As such we will not be nominating representatives, nor seeking to view the revised alternative designs as per your proposal.

While we appreciate that the housing market has been difficult over recent years (indeed it has been a personally painful experience for a number of us), it is our belief that there would be sufficient demand for the remaining houses if they were to be completed as per the original design. Our own anecdotal experience is that, over the last couple of years, inquiries to the Oxley Woods sales office into the likely availability of homes in the undeveloped areas have been rebuffed rather than actively pursued as an indication of customer demand. More positively, we infer from the recent closure of the sales office that the remaining homes on Holden Avenue have now been sold, and understand that this is already the case for the three further homes that will soon be built by Wood Newton.

We must therefore reiterate our previous individual responses in support of the completion of the site as per the original RSH+P proposals, and respectively ask for this option to be reconsidered. If the site were to be completed in line with our original expectations we are confident that residents would be able to play an active role in promoting the site to potential homeowners. We would be pleased to discuss this possibility further.

Yours sincerely,

The undersigned

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The future of Oxley Woods? Part Two.

January 12, 2011

This article is a follow up to the recent post: The future of Oxley Woods?

What’s prompted this?

On Monday, some residents of Oxley Woods received a letter from CMYK (Design and Planning) Limited, proposing dramatic changes to the remaining 16% of the original Oxley Woods development, famously designed by world renowned architecture firm RSH+P.

Letter? Proposed changes? What?

If you were not among the select few to receive this information, you can download PDFs of their proposals here: Proposal PDF and their questionnaire here: Questionnaire PDF.

Confusion, and trying to clear things up.

There has been some confusion and a certain lack of clarity in some fields as to what is being proposed. I just wanted to try and clarify a little in this post, especially for those who have not had the documents, or who struggle to get their heads around the very idea that RSH+P have been replaced by CMYK.

If there are any errors or omissions, or if you can add further to the detail of this post/documentation, then please get in touch or post on the forum and I’ll try to update the data ASAP.

For those who need some clarification, Oxley Woods is a multi-award winning site of 145 homes, designed by RSH+P, and built and sold by Taylor Wimpey (originally George Wimpey). The main sub-contractor building the RSH+P homes is Wood Newton.

What was proposed originally, what’s changed?

Originally Oxley Woods was sold, awarded, shown and promoted as a development of 145 RSH+P designed eco-homes. At the time of writing, it is still being sold as such on the official OxleyWoods.com website.

So far, 119 of those properties have been built. According to word of mouth, three more of those are still to be built as per the original plans and RSH+P design.

That makes 122. 23 to go.

The letter from CMYK (Planning and design) Limited shows proposals to replace those 23 award winning RSH+P designed homes, with 26 brick built homes, very much like those we can see being built by Taylor Wimpey on the other side of the Oxley Park estate.

Let’s illustrate that

Let’s put up some pictures to show what we have, what is planned, and where it is planned. It is being proposed that 16% of the original RSH+P homes proposed for Oxley Woods be replaced with 26 brick built houses. Here’s some illustrations, sourced from a combination of CMYK (Design and Planning) Limited, RSH+P and Taylor Wimpey.

Some of the current housing, on Milland Way, which will be directly opposite the area where the RSH+P homes scrapping is being proposed. Source, RSH+P.

On the other side of the road, on the Oxley Woods site, replacing more RSH+P housing, CMYK are suggesting the following properties.

We’ll let your own eyes decide if they go together gracefully and will help form a cohesive community of eco-housing.

Here are a couple of pictures cobbled together from the official Oxley Woods site, and the letter from CMYK (Design and Planning Limited) to show where the changes are being proposed to take place:

Of the original plans (and those still being shown on the Oxley Woods website) you can see how CMYK are suggesting replacing 23 RSH+P eco-homes, with 26 of their designed properties. The original plots 123 through to 145 being scrapped.

Where things appear to be.

The Parish Council apparently have had no plans submitted yet, rumour suggests that RSHP left the project last summer, and CMYK appear to be going full steam ahead with their plans (on behalf of Taylor Wimpey) to build their brick homes in place of the remainder of the original Oxley Woods plan we bought in to. IF they can get permission to do so.

While the letter they have sent to residents implies this is a formality, I quote “As Outline consent already exists on this land, we are not seeking comments on the principles of development but would appreciate feedback on the appearance of the dwellings” such a dramatic change to the proposed Oxley Woods development, which has been highlighted and promoted so heavily as a wonderful, groundbreaking project, must surely at the very least come under the most severe scrutiny possible?

For now, suggestions and debates are going on in the residents’ forum. Some people have asked for contact details for planning and parish council. The following may be of some use if you wish to find out more about the plans, or raise any concerns or objections. Please contact me if you can help or would like have any details amended or added to this list.

Possibly useful links and contacts.

Residents, please use the forum, or knock on each others doors if you wish to discuss this. If you agree or not with the plans to change the shape of the Oxley Woods development, you cannot deny the change is dramatic and will have an impact on the community.

For planning this appears to be the correct contact:
South Area Development Control Team Leader: Andrew Horner andrew.horner@milton-keynes.gov.uk

Assistant Director of Planning: Nick Fenwick nick.fenwick@milton-keynes.gov.uk

For the Parish Council, there is a contact page on their website:
http://www.shenleychurchend-pc.co.uk/contact.html

Our local MP is Iain Stewart: http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/iain_stewart/milton_keynes_south http://www.parliament.uk/biographies/iain-stewart/31728

CMYK (Planning and Design) Limited: http://cmykuk.net/

Homes and Communities agency: http://www.homesandcommunities.co.uk/ContactUs.aspx

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