After 20 wasted years of developer greed and incompetence, the City Council must step in to compulsorily purchase the Jericho Wharf site and secure the site in the interests of Oxford and of Jericho and its surrounding communities -- to deliver a much-needed new community facilities, a boatyard and affordable housing. 

The faded and tattered banners alongside the canal in Jericho are a shameful testimony to planning failure. The opportunity presented by one of the city’s most iconic locations has been squandered by a sequence of speculative developers and land traders holding the Council and the community to ransom and trying to profit by inflating the site value.

These delays have been deeply damaging. As the weeds have flourished, houseboats have been sinking along the Oxford Canal, deprived of the working boatyard that can help keep them afloat.  At the same time, the Jericho Community Centre has been creaking and crumbling, depriving local residents of the 21st Century facilities they deserve and leaving many disabled users out in the cold. Much needed affordable housing and residential development have been stalled.

Oxford City Council should step in and secure the derelict Jericho Wharf site for Oxford. A compulsory purchase order can be followed by an immediate sale to a chosen developer who will commit to a boatyard, a community centre, and a public square along with much needed housing.

Without Council intervention we will see even more speculative planning applications. It is time to bring this dismal cycle to a decisive stop.  Thirty years ago, the site was owned by a public corporation. High time to re-exert public control over this critical site, in the interests of Oxford and of Jericho and its surrounding communities.

Let’s Save Jericho Wharf. Please sign our petition for the City to make a compulsory purchase order.

Further details are set out on the Jericho Wharf Trust website

Please also ask your neighbours to sign the petition and contact your councillors directly. These include:
Carfax and Jericho
cllrahollingsworth@oxford.gov.uk
cllrldiggins@oxford.gov.uk
Walton Manor
cllrjfry@oxford.gov.uk
cllrlupton@oxford.gov.uk