First application submitted
- 29 June 2000: “Manor Ground plan proposed”
First application refused
- 27 July 2000: “Manor hospital plan rejected”
Second application submitted
- 22 December 2000: “Hospital plan for the Manor”
St Andrew’s School on Manor Ground?
- 20 January 2001: “School may transfer to the Manor Ground”
- 8 March 2001: “Public get say on Manor site school”
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Kassam snaps up the Manor
- 23 March 2001: “Settle it by Wednesday”
Firoz Kassam said, “It is vital that people understand The Manor Ground has already been contractually sold with possession in August…. The club will not have a home to play in if the new stadium is not completed”. The next press report revealed that he had bought it himself…. - 4 May 2001: “Football: Kassam snaps up the Manor”
The Bowls Club sell their covenant
- 5 May 2001 : “£40,000 paid in Manor deal”
Traffic implications of second application
- 26 June 2001: “Hospital plan ‘will increase traffic’”
Rejection of second application
- 5 July 2001: “Acland Hospital Manor plan rejected”
The Appeal, September 2001
- 5 September 2001: “Manor Ground plan would be overbearing”
- 6 September 2001: “New site will help hospital services”
- 21 November 2001: “Opposition to new hospital dropped”
The end, March 2002 to March 2003
- 27 March 2002: “Hospital buys Manor Ground”
- 19 April 2002: “Hospital project worries residents”
- 1 May 2002: “Manor ground sold for £12m”
- 19 September 2002: “Manor sale price under scrutiny”
- 4 January 2003: “Heavy rain fails to halt progress on Manor site”
- 18 March 2003: “Hospital takes up position on pitch”
The following article by Victoria Owen appeared in the Oxford Mail of 26 January 2001
Anger over appeal on Manor site
Residents are angry that managers of Oxford’s Acland Hospital are still fighting to move the health centre on to their doorstep.
Plans to develop a new two and three-storey building at Oxford United’s Manor Ground off London Road, Headington, were thrown out, but the developers have now launched an appeal.
Oxford City Council blocked the scheme because of concerns about the increased traffic it would bring to the area.
Nuffield Hospitals and Bellway Homes also wanted to build 90 new flats at the football ground site and a total of 162 surface and underground parking spaces, which would have been accessed from Beech Road.
They have now asked the Deputy Prime Minister and Environment Secretary John Prescott to intervene over the plans.
Headington Residents Association chairman Tony Joyce said: “I am very surprised by this move.
“I would have thought from the public consultation, the very strong objections against the plans were made very clear.
“We are extremely worried about the over development and the quite impossible levels of traffic that would be generated by this scheme.”
As well as the appeal, which will go to a public inquiry later this year, the Acland managers have also submitted a revised application to city councillors.
In the new plans, the hospital would be in the centre of the site, allowing traffic to be divided between Beech Road, Osler Road and London Road.
The revised plan has been drawn up in a bid to answer residents’ concerns about traffic.
But Mr Joyce said he hoped city councillors did not give the second application the thumbs-up because they were worried about the consequences of the impending appeal. “I would be very disappointed if councillors took a weak view which would let down the locals,” he said.
A city council spokesman said no date or venue had yet been set for the public inquiry which would be held over the appeal.
She said: “We have received a second application which should go to committee in March.There have been around 50 letters from residents about this new application and all of them make objections concerned with traffic issues.”
