Cllr Upton is chair of the planning committee. She summed up before the vote: “I actually think, having grown up in the countryside, I love having wild space to go around that’s not actually a MUGA or a playground. I think having a nature trail around Site B could be actually rather nice, especially as climate change happens and the world gets hotter. Being out on the MUGA or out on an open playground is going to be perhaps less attractive … than walking around Site B.”
What is a nature trail?
Our “wild space” is accessed by a footbridge that the police say “will be very narrow and constrained, leaving users of this space at greatly increased risk of crime, with no option for escape should they be approached by a hostile actor.”
Makes me wonder if there were county lines when Cllr Upton was growing up? So Bertie Park will be going to the planning review committee. Watch this space.
MP Tom Hayes (Oxford City Councillor 2014-2024) says: “Play isn’t a luxury—it’s essential for children to enjoy themselves, build friendships, get away from screens, and forge stronger communities…. Few things sit at the heart of a community like a playground.”
Save Bertie Park Oxford 