URGENT - tomorrow! Protest Council’s threat to tenants to facilitate University land grab

Protest Council’s threat to tenants to facilitate University land grab

Wednesday 16th Sept, 5.30pm 

Outside town hall

St Aldates, Oxford City Centre 

Come and show your opposition to the City Council’s sell-off of publicly-owned property to the University and underhand, contemptuous treatment of three local businesses! 

Tomorrow, Wednesday 16th Sept, Oxford City Council are set to rubber stamp a decision to sell off 11 New Road, currently occupied by American Nails, Castle News and Classy Barbers, to St. Peter’s College. These much-loved local businesses, serving thousands of people each week, were only informed of the plans last Thursday at 3.09pm - less than two hours before the deadline to register to speak at the Cabinet meeting which will be deciding on their future! 

The Council’s plans to sell their premises to the College were apparently well advanced long before this. An article had appeared in the Oxford Mail earlier that day outlining detailed plans by the College to turn the nail bar into student accommodation, complete with an architect’s visualisation of the property (needless to say, with none of the three businesses anywhere in sight!). Yet all of this had been kept quiet from the current tenants of the building. Just last month, American Nails had taken on new staff, including a couple with three young kids who had relocated from London to run the nail bar. They had also installed two new spa chairs on the premises. All of this was happening whilst, behind their backs, the Council and the College were plotting to turf them off the site at the earliest opportunity. 

Regular visitor to Castle News, Viviane Fallah, said: “Everybody comes here, the homeless, bus drivers, people from the University. I talk to the youth who come in here, fifteen, sixteen years old, tell them to keep out of trouble. It’s like a community centre. I’ve seen every nationality in this place. But they want to disperse everyone out of the city centre. It closes at 1am, not like Tesco that closes at 10 or 11. I’m so shocked they’ve been doing all this behind the backs of the business owners here. They have worked so hard to build up these businesses. Where are they going to go?”  

A spokesperson from Save Our Spaces said: “Once again, the City Council is selling off community space to serve the University’s land grab. These three businesses serve thousands of local people and are much loved by the local community. But they have been treated with total contempt by the Council and St Peter’s College, who have been drawing up plans behind their backs to kick them out. It is also an incredibly short-sighted strategy, permanently losing a community-owned property which brings in well over £100,000 per year in rent in exchange for a single, one-off payment. The Council seems to prioritise the University’s needs above those of everyone else in the city.”