Appeal:
Appeal number APP/G3110/W/24/3350155. Installation of 4no antenna apertures, 4no 600mm dishes and 7no equipment cabinets with associated ancillary works.
St Aldate's Chambers, 109 - 113 St Aldate's, Oxford
Our Response:
Oxford Preservation Trust (OPT) welcomes the opportunity to reconsolidate comments previously submitted in regards to 22/01510/FUL, which proposed the addition of a number of antenna, dishes and equipment cabinets on the roof of 109-113 St Aldates, Oxford.
Oxford Preservation Trust maintain the view that the addition of the above equipment to the application building would have a detrimental impact on the highly sensitive historic roofscape, with the potential to cause substantial harm to views out across the city from several publicly accessible elevated viewpoints (such as Carfax Tower), in addition to the Central (City & University) Conservation Area, as well as the settings of many nationally significant listed buildings.
Whilst OPT understands the importance of investing in new connectivity infrastructure within the City, The Trust does not believe that this should come at the cost of causing harm to Oxford’s highly sensitive roofscape.
OPT would ask the Inspector to refer to our previous comments under applications 22/01510/FUL and 22/03016/FUL, and consider whether, in such a central location, St Aldate’s Chambers is the most appropriate site to locate this technical equipment, or whether a more suitable, and less potentially sensitive, alternative can be found.