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Oxley Woods 2.0?

January 29, 2013

Oxley Woods continues to receive frequent visits from folk keen to see first hand its innovative design and award winning construction approach. Today was the turn of over 40 students from the University of Birmingham’s Centre for Urban and Regional studies. They braved the wet and windy conditions to view the wider Oxley Park estate, before finishing with a tour of Oxley Woods.

But it isn’t just students keen to learn about Oxley Woods. As well as featuring in the media (everything from Radio 4 Moneybox to Flog it!), residents regularly host visits from councils and companies interested in pursuing similar approaches to the panellised construction used here. In recent months, we’ve fielded repeat visits and many questions from architects and bankers keen to learn more about building performance:

Can you hear the neighbours? (No)

Is it cheap to heat? (Yes)

Aren’t these massive windows fantastic? (I see you are thinking aloud, but anyway: yes, they are)

What would you change if you could? (More storage space, please)

Do residents really get together for picnics and planning application battles? (Yes, and yes)

The list goes on…

Which makes it such a shame that Taylor Wimpey seem set on not wanting to complete our internationally award winning Oxley Woods estate. Their latest plans are a tweaked version of the scheme rejected by planners last year. Once again they are proposing to use traditional building methods and would only meet the minimum environmental performance and liveability standards. Anything that could be conceived of as innovative design or an attempt to match the standards set by the existing homes was rejected behind a claim of ‘viability’.

But viewed from our perspective, it looks like Taylor Wimpey are failing to move with the times. We know they decided years ago they didn’t want to complete the site as originally proposed and have continued to seek ways of wriggling out of their commitments. Meanwhile, other housebuilders are increasingly looking at alternative methods of construction.

Furthermore, the techniques used here at Oxley Woods have themselves been improved. Now part of the SIG group, the Insulshell panel system achieves even greater building performance while maintaining the simple and speedy build times of the original design. But don’t take our word for it. Have a watch on YouTube:

So how about it, Taylor Wimpey? You may not want to finish Oxley Woods properly, but we residents do. And if you really don’t want to take up our offer of assistance, we’ll gladly work with anyone else interested in securing a positive solution for the estate. Because it’s our home, and a great place to live – both inside and out. We already have brilliantly designed houses, and a friendly community of neighbours. It doesn’t seem unreasonable to want that for the remainder of the site too.

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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?

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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?

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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

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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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