VALE council leader Jerry Patterson will lead a renewed bid to stop the Bodleian Library from building a giant book depository in Osney Mead.
With the controversial scheme going to Oxford City Council on Monday, the Vale leader will warn that a unique view of Oxford would be ruined if the university scheme went ahead. Mr Patterson said he was taking the unusual step of addressing the city council because he believed the depository's impact would be felt by people living outside the city.
He said he would be challenging councillors to travel up to the Hinksey Heights golf course before reaching a decision. "They should go up there and then tell me whether putting up something even bigger than the existing Oxford Mail/Times building is acceptable. This view needs to be protected by Oxford City Council. It is something that is unique in the world. People in Oxford should take a view of Oxford from outside the city, then see if it is reasonable."
The Vale's Lib Dem leader said he would not be speaking for the Vale of the White Horse District council, but as the councillor of the Kennington and Hinksey ward. Plans for the £29m depository, capable of holding 8m books, was narrowly approved by the city council's strategic development committee by six votes to five last month. But days later, 14 Oxford councillors signed a petition to ensure the scheme goes before the full council.
In a final bid to stiffen opposition a joint statement has been signed by the chairmen of Oxford Preservation Trust (Sir David Yardley), Oxford Civic Society (Tony Joyce), Oxfordshire CPRE (Bruce Tremayne) and Oxford Green Belt Network Dr Ian Scargill). It accuses the university of seeking to destroy views of Oxford's dreaming spires that "have inspired artists, authors and poets across the centuries".
The statement says: "It has chosen a site at Osney Mead, an industrial estate on the western edge of the city beside the river, which has never seen anything on this scale before. What is proposed is an enormous warehouse with windowless walls, designed to house the bookstacks, rising in parts above the city's upper height limit for tall buildings. It will measure around 118,000 cubic metres, about the size of five Oxford Ice Rinks. It will cover an area of around four-and-a-half football pitches. Sadly, their photomontages hide the true impact. Other views commissioned tell a different story. In reality the effect would be even more powerful and overwhelming."
The statement warns that if city councillors approved the plan, its "international significance" should see the scheme being called in by the Secretary of State Hazel Blears.
The Bodleian says the depository is needed because it is running out of space to house books, with its collection growing by 170,000 books a year. University spokesman James Worron said: "In advance of submitting a planning application to the city council, the University undertook a rigorous and extensive site search, examining all possible sites within Oxford. "The Newsquest building in Osney Mead is an obvious precedent."
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