Proposal:
Application number 24/02547/OUT. Outline application (seeking approval of access and layout) for the demolition of existing car dealership, workshop and 2no. flats and the erection of a two storey building providing 9no. residential units. Provision of car parking, bin and cycle storage and alterations to landscaping.
300 Abingdon Road Oxford Oxfordshire OX1 4TE
Our Response:
Oxford Preservation Trust (OPT) welcomes the opportunity to comment on the above outline planning application, detailing the access and layout for a proposed development on the site of 300 Abingdon Road.
OPT are in full support of the residential redevelopment of commercial sites to provide urgently needed housing within the City, and agree with the applicant that high quality sustainable design should be preferred when redeveloping sites.
OPT would also like to note the strategic location of the application site. 300 Abingdon Road is located on a prominent corner, along the primary historic route in towards Oxford from the South. OPT would like to urge the applicant to consider this during the design stage of their proposal, and would hope when these reserved matters are addressed that the proposed scheme would demonstrate sympathetic scale, massing, heights and use of materials.
OPT would further like to add the importance of sustainability in all new development, noting that this should be a core principle for a scheme which seeks the demolition of a number of existing and functional buildings. The Trust would hope that the whole life carbon impact of the site will be considered, as well as the provision of an embodied carbon assessment when the time does indeed come to advance what is an exciting new proposal.
OPT look forward to monitoring the progression of this application, and would be very keen to engage with the applicant in a pre-application consultation if they so wish to do so.