Sunday, 5th June. The park with the ponds and oak tree at the end of Lorre Mews.
Setting up for those wanting to take part starts at 12pm. Festivities begin from around 12:30pm.
Bring your own food/BBQ/drink… Anything you’d like to contribute. All residents should have had a leaflet through the door from the organisers.
Let’s hope the weather is good! 
Discussion, as ever, in the Oxley Woods forum.
Plans are afoot in Oxley Woods, and this time not of the scheming house-builder kind. Residents are clubbing together to organise an Oxley Woods Big Lunch.
If you’re interested in joining in, please make a visit to the residents’ forum and see what you can do to take part, even if it’s just a case of bringing yourself along to join in!
We all knew it, despite claiming to appreciate and understand the residents of their very special development, Taylor Wimpey have confirmed in writing to residents that they are “unwilling to complete the build of the RSH&P homes”.
So then residents, English Partnerships (Homes and Communities Agency), ODPM (Office of the Deputy Prime Minister), RSH+P (Rogers, Stirk, Harbour + Partners) RIBA, Manser Medal awards panel, Milton Keynes Partnerships, Milton Keynes Council, Innovative Housebuilder of the Year awards panel and everyone else who’s put their faith, their time, their money, their awards into Taylor Wimpey, the Oxley Woods development, the 60k homes (design for manufacture) competition, our community, all that this site apparently stood for. “Screw you”. That certainly appears to be the message from Wimpey. They’re not budging, and they are not willing to carry out the plans we all bought in to.
Dear Mr **********
Thank you for your email and attached letter. I appreciate you taking the time to write on behalf of your neighbours, and for responding within the timescales in my letter.
It was not our intention that only the two representatives would see the three options, I was planning to give the three options to the two representatives to distribute to and discuss with their community and then those two representatives would feed back the views of everyone to enable us to chose together which of the three option, or a combination of the three, would be progressed through planning. It is very difficult to design a site with a large number of people which is why I suggested two representatives.
Taylor Wimpey is unwilling to complete the build of the RSH&P homes for the reasons in my previous letter. We did want input from the existing residents before submitting a planning application. However it is now likely that Taylor Wimpey will choose which of the three designs to proceed with, and you will be able to make representation during the planning application in the usual way.
Regards
Stephanie
By the way, the “reasons stated” I’ll try to dissect at a later date. I believe there are more holes in their arguments than an old pair of fishnet stockings. They just want to maximise profits, and be damned anyone who doesn’t agree.
Ivan Harbour from architects RSH+P, designers of the Oxley Woods housing we all know and love, has written an in depth, interesting, and somewhat encouraging letter to all concerned with the future of Oxley Woods. The letter is addressed to residents, but contains information and points of view I am sure will be of interest to many.
The letter, in its original PDF format is attached to this post. Ivan Harbour Letter to Oxley Woods Residents
Building Design have today run a story by architecture journalist David Rogers featuring Oxley Woods, and the removal of RSH+P in favour of CMYK.
The article, which is currently their lead story on the BD Online website, focuses on what many of us believe are among the core issues of the proposals made by CMYK and Taylor Wimpey to drop the multi-award winning Oxley Woods development prior to completion.
Among the subjects touched upon is Wimpey’s decreasing debt and increasing profits, countered by their statement these houses (award winning £60k homes and all) are too expensive to build in tough times.
Wimpey’s statement from Peter Gurr, Regional Managing Director reads:
I can confirm that we are in the process of exploring new designs for the final two phases of 29 homes at Oxley Woods with CMYK (Design and Planning) Ltd, a company with whom we work regularly in the design of our more traditional property types.
This process is being carried out with the full knowledge of Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, and we are also seeking feedback from residents on the new designs, which are still at the conceptual stage.
The reasons for our decision are twofold: firstly, the cost of housing formed of prefabricated building components becomes expensive in a period of economic hardship, when you cannot predict a steady flow of sales; and secondly, demand for these properties during this current climate has not met with our expectations.
We hope residents realise that this is not a decision which has been taken lightly, and that they understand why it has had to be made. We are committed to building sustainable homes and communities and all Taylor Wimpey homes are highly energy and water-efficient.
Being an architectural publication, the issue of community does not feature so heavily, and while the text makes no mention of cohesive design, placing images of the proposed CMYK housing next to the RSH+P homes we all know provided enough visual evidence of that situation.
The only glimmer of hope to be drawn from any of this at this stage is that RSH+P appear more than happy to continue working on the site, the virtues of which they too have been very vocal about in the past. RSHP director Ivan Harbour, project director for Oxley Woods is quoted by Building Design as saying:
If Taylor Wimpey changes its mind, we would be happy to work together to complete the designs for those homes planned for the final part.
For our part, we have contacted many of the interested parties in the Oxley Woods scheme, from the Milton Keynes Partnership to the local MP and the Homes and Communities Agency, and we’ll be sure to keep residents updated on anything we hear as soon as we can.
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