'Alternatives to the Ox-Cam Arc' Conference, 17th November 2021
The ‘Alternatives to the Ox-Cam Arc’ conference, jointly organised by Stop the Arc (STARC) and the Buckinghamshire Environment Action Group (BEAG) ran to a packed house on the 17th November 2021. At very short notice, experts in several key fields, from house-building to climate change, agreed to give up their time to share their expertise with us. We thank all of them for this.
Following are videos of most of the talks on the 17th (with apologies for the rather poor sound quality on some of the recordings).
The talks are given here in the order of presentation on the day itself
Peter Bill spent a decade working for a major housebuilder before turning to journalism. A former editor of Building Magazine and Estates Gazette, Peter is the author of one book, ‘Planet Property’, and co-author with Jackie Sadek of ‘Broken Homes: Britain’s Housing Crisis - Faults, Factoids and Fixes’ (2020, Matador)
Peter’s LinkedIn profile is here and his Twitter handle is @peterproperty.
Riki Therivel is one of the Oxford POETS (Planning Oxfordshire’s Environment and Transport Sustainably) a group of planning, environment and transport experts that produces brief Reports on many aspects of planning and transport, with a particular interest in the Ox-Cam Arc.
Riki is a partner with Levett-Therivel Sustainability Consultants and a Visiting Professor at Oxford Brookes University's School of the Built Environment. She is the co-author of ‘The Practice of Strategic Environmental Assessment’ (1996, EarthScan) and ‘Strategic Environmental Assessment’ (1992, Taylor & Francis). She is also Founder and Trustee of Food for Charities.
Jon Reeds runs Smart Growth UK, a National Coalition pursing Sustainable Communities, Planning and Transport. The Smart Growth approach emphasises compact and accessible urban communities and opposes urban sprawl and car dependency. Jon and his coalition have produced many Reports on all aspects of planning, transport, housing and Government planning legislation and Jon himself has written three Reports specifically on Ox-Cam Arc plans under the title ‘The Overheated Arc’ Parts 1, 2 and 3, dealing respectively with the history of Arc plans, alternative Arcs in England and the economics of the Ox-Cam Arc. A recent blog post likens Ox-Cam Arc plans to Acts of Enclosure. Jon is author of the book ‘Smart Growth: from Sprawl to Sustainability’ (2011, Green Books).
Video Shorts. November was an exceptionally busy time for our MPs who had to be in London for Parliamentary votes. Several had agreed to produce videos especially for our meeting but, in the end, were unfortunately unable to do so. So we showed again the comments of Anneliese Dodds (Lab, Oxford East), Richard Fuller (Cons., NE Beds) and Layla Moran (Lib-Dem, Oxford West and Abingdon) that they gave us during our Parliamentary event in September that coincided with the Government’s Arc Spatial Framework Consultation..
Mike Barlow is Chair of Bedford for a Re-Consultation (BFARe), a group campaigning for a better route through Bedford for East-West Rail. BFARe includes Parish Councillors, Bedford Borough Councillors and concerned residents who all believe that East West Rail’s 2019 public consultation was flawed and that the resulting preferred route is not the best East-West / Oxford to Cambridge rail route for Bedford.
Roger Carey is Chair of the Buckinghamshire Environment Action Group (BEAG) which believes that “centrally driven, rapid economic growth in one of the most populated and wealthiest areas of the country – destroying farmland, woodland, villages and heritage in the process – would be fundamentally wrong” and quoting Nick Bano (a barrister who specialises in housing and homelessness cases) that “the call to build more housing is not a call that serves our interests (let alone the interests of the environment).”
Greg Smith (Cons. Buckingham) kindly prepared a video especially for our meeting that you can see here.
Jonathan Gorham is a Senior Planning Policy Adviser at the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) and has developed specialisms in economic development, regeneration and strategic inward investment, regional spatial strategy, climate change mitigation and development management policy. The NFU sees in Ox-Cam Arc development both opportunities (increased digital connectivity, improved water and transport infrastructure and access to affordable rural housing) and threats (to the viability of many farm businesses due to large infrastructure projects impacting agricultural land; and to increased pressure on valuable resources such as water and waste management facilities). Jonathan’s co-author Georgia Craig is an NFU Policy Adviser who has also given tractor driving lessons to Jeremy Clarkson in Amazon’s ‘Clarkson’s Farm’!
Jonathan opted not to have his talk video-ed but has kindly agreed to share the slides from his presentation (click on the image, right).
Charles Secrett, author and broadcaster, was CEO of Friends of the Earth (FoE) from 1993-2003. He was a member of the Labour Government's Commission for Sustainable Development, and sits on the Advisory Boards for The Ecologist magazine, the Environmental Law Foundation in Britain and the Environment Programme of the University of North Carolina in the United States. He is also a campaigner and advisor for the Climate and Ecological Emergency Alliance (Zero Hour), promoting the Climate and Ecological Emergency (CEE) Private Members’ Bill in Parliament. Drafted by scientists, legal experts, ecological economists and environmentalists, the CEE Bill is designed specifically to reverse the climate and ecological breakdown we are facing.
Alan James is Chair of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE). The CPRE branches across the Arc, frequent challengers of many aspects of Ox-Cam Arc proposals, collaborated with the national charity to respond to the first of three proposed consultations on the Government’s Ox-Cam Arc Spatial Framework proposals that ran from July to October 2021. The resulting document is in three parts i) CPRE’s overall critique of the Oxford-Cambridge Arc as it has emerged so far; ii) CPRE’s agenda for what it would wish to see the Spatial Framework do; and iii) Detailed comments in response to the consultation questions.
The CPREs of both Cambridgeshire & Peterborough and Bedfordshire were active supporters of the Stop the Arc/Oxford POETS’ Alternative Spatial Framework Consultation that ran from August to November 2021, asking the difficult questions that the official Government consultation failed to address. The results of that alternative consultation are on our website here.
Chris Church was a member of the UK branch of Friends of the Earth from a very early stage and, with Joe Weston, ran one of its first successful UK campaigns - to re-route in the 1970’s and 80s the proposed M40 motorway around rather than through Otmoor, a precious wildlife area near to Oxford City and home to many wetland birds. The area also includes parts of the Bernwood Forest Ancient Woodlands complex. Only after Otmoor was saved from this threat did the RSPB establish its Bird Reserve on Otmoor that has recently seen cranes breeding successfully for the very first time in over 500 years in Oxfordshire.
Chris remains an active member of Oxford FoE and was instrumental in that group creating the No Expressway Alliance (NEA) that successfully campaigned against the Ox-Cam Expressway which was finally cancelled in March 2021.
Chris is a Founding Director of Community Environment Associates (CEA) that works for stronger communities, healthier environments and social justice. CEA now focuses primarily on supporting local responses to the climate crisis.
David Rogers, Secretary of Stop the Arc, was Professor of Ecology in the Department of Zoology, University of Oxford until his retirement in 2012. He was involved from a very early stage in the Horton-cum-Studley Expressway Group that formed when that village became aware of the Ox-Cam Expressway plans in early 2018. In 2019 the group expanded its geographical range and changed its name to the No Expressway Group (NEG). When the Expressway was finally cancelled in March 2021 the group changed its name once again to Stop the Arc, to reflect the continuing threat of over-development in the five Arc counties.
There was a Panel Q&A session during the afternoon with (on the podium, from the left) Charles Secrett, Chris Church, Jonathan Gorham and Alan James.