Elmswood, No 26 Lathbury Road
The rejected development proposal inserted
The trees on Lathbury Road
Page 4 (Click here for other pages)
The contribution of this house and its garden to the special character and appearance of the conservation area.
The garden boundary wall
A number of favourable comments have been made to the City Council about the garden wall, such as "handsome" (Oxford Civic Society, see page 6). The wall is unusual in that it is so long and, importantly, it has survived unbroken. A similar wall was built to echo it on the south side of the road so as to make a proper entrance into Lathbury Road. Such return walls an important feature of the pattern of the conservation area that was recognised by HM Planning Inspectorate when refusing an appeal for the development of 109 Banbury Road in 2003 ( click here to see the appeal decision – see in particular paragraph 12 – and click on the thumbnail below for a view.)
The garden wall in Rawlinson Road, where an application to make an opening in it was refused on appeal.
The most recent proposal was to breach the wall of 26 Lathbury Road so as to turn the garden in front of the house (including Bishop Herford's baptismal font) into a car park. But it appears that if a breach was to be made (which would be regrettable), a condition would have to be made that it also includes wide visibility splays. The designed new opening is 3.2m wide. A 2x2m visibility splay would add 4m to this width. This is a recommendation that the County Council made to the City as local highway authority on the last application, and renewed by referral on this – to see the proposed condition, click here.
If consent had been given, then such a splay would be in the interest of the safety of pedestrians particularly as there is a crèche in Lathbury Road. However, in order to fulfil this requirement, several metres of the length of the wall would have to be demolished, probably 7.2m.
Although this may be an obvious stumbling block, the City Council frequently allows applications with this requirement added as a condition of consent. But here, the contribution of the wall to the character an appearance of the conservation area was considered so important it was a consideration in the refusal of the application.
This is page 4
The heavily pruned oak tree on Lathbury Road
The arched gate and the roofscape
The front garden, seen through the gate, will be lost.