Rail station campaign hots up (From Witney Gazette)

Rail station campaign hots up

4:13pm Tuesday 29th July 2008 in Witney By Tom Shepherd

A campaign to save Woodstock's old rail station from demolition is gathering pace.

Berkeley Homes is seeking permission from West Oxfordshire District Council to build 30 apartments and houses, a new GPs' surgery and shops on the site.

But Woodstock Town Council is objecting to the plans on the grounds they do not include provision for affordable housing and the proposed health centre would not be large enough to replace the town's surgery in Park Lane.

Youngs Garage, the site of the proposed development, includes the former Blenheim and Woodstock station building, which would be demolished if the scheme went ahead.

Town councillor Colin Carritt said the council wanted to see the site redeveloped but the plans were unsatisfactory as they stood.

He said: "We are delighted to see things moving forward. It's a derelict site and the town's health centre is bursting at the seams.

"But we object to the design brief.

"There's no affordable housing included in the plans and the size of the site is not big enough to meet the Government's expectations for the future - with much more treatment offered at local surgeries rather than at front-line hospitals."

He added: "We believe the old railway station should be protected as a historic building and we have been in touch with English Heritage to see if we can get it listed.

"The developers may not be able to meet every single one of the town council's objections, but there's an awful lot more they could do to improve the plans."

Last week, Brook Hill resident Charles Stiller wrote to The Oxford Times to encourage people to fight to protect the old station, which saw its last train in 1954, when the branch line off the Oxford-Banbury route was closed.

In principle, senior doctors at Woodstock Surgery, in Park Lane, welcome the idea of moving, but have concerns about access problems and parking at the new site.

Andrew Saunders-Davies, the chairman of Berkeley Homes, said a conservation architect had told the firm the station was not worth keeping, and including affordable housing would make the development unviable.