February 2026: We realised that the government is consulting on changes to the National Planning Policy Framework that would make it easier to build on well-used recreation grounds. Please sign our petition here:
February 2026: OCC published more documents, including a response to police and community comments, and started a 3rd consultation. We submitted a response on behalf on the campaign.
8 December 2025: Thames Valley Police posted a strong objection to the proposals to build on Bertie Park. Full version here. Brief summary:
- The MUGA is located very close to residential properties creating a risk of noise having a negative impact on residents, neighbour disturbances and community tension… If houses are to be built here then neither the current location or the previously suggested location in site B are appropriate locations for such a facility.
- Site B does not have any clear function or purpose, and significantly lacks surveillance, creating significant concern that there will be opportunities for crime and antisocial behaviour to flourish in this area.
- The singular access route into and out of site B via a footbridge 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. This space … is highly likely to be a significant attractor for crime and antisocial behaviour. Careful (thought needs to be given to) how legitimate activities will be promoted in this space and crime/ASB prevented/discouraged.
November 2025: OCC published new plans for Bertie Park. They want to shrink the recreation ground down to 14% the size. They want to provide a new Multi Use Games Area and playground. The MUGA would be 4m shorter. The recreation ground is also smaller. Only a small part is used for play equipment. There would be nowhere for free play. More details here. Oxford City Council completed a second consultation on these plans. A total of 3 people support the proposals. There are now 357 objections.
October 25: We are still waiting. Just treading water. If planning permission is granted, we will start raising money for a judicial review
August 25: “Preferred Options” consultation on the new 2042 local plan. We seem to go from bad to worse. The new plan doesn’t mention re-providing the MUGA. OXplace has said “The loss of the MUGA and play area will be fully compensated for within Site A.” The land behind Wytham Street is not mentioned. OCC is now pulling the site boundary well away from the River.
This would solve any problems with the Environment Agency, but it would leave even less space for any sort of a recreation ground. For the very first time, we were asked if we agreed or disagreed to building on Bertie Park. Lots of campaign members registered their strong disagreement!
14 July 25: We talked to council and were told that proposals would go to planning in the autumn. Find the blog here.
March 25: When asked OCC for permission to clean up the moss, they finally agreed to jetwash the play ground surface for us!
2025: The council has not been able to respond to objections from the Environment Agency see blog: Bertie development could make flooding worse ….. and so we are still campaigning! Our plans include a work session to clear moss on the surface of the playground (we have asked so many times for OCC to clear this) and a music event. Watch this space!
October – November 2024: We decided not to carry out a judicial review of the decision to appropriate. Our lawyers advised us that it would be better to wait and appeal any decision to award planning permission.
16 October 2024: OCC cabinet decided to appropriate the land on Bertie Park.
June 2024: OCC is kicking the can down the road. The latest we have heard is that Bertie Park will go before Cabinet and the planning committee in June … but that could change again! They SAY that the plans have not changed since the consultation in November 2022. But we have been told many times that the plans and artists drawings we were shown at the consultation are only “indicative”.
18th March 2024: We talked to council because that is usually the only way we find things out. We wanted to find out how the plans had changed. They refused to comment because they said they had heard it all before.
Early 2024: The council need to prepare a new report and the cabinet will again have an opportunity to decide whether to appropriate the land on Bertie Park.
Meanwhile, consultation on the new local plan 2040 is also on-going. The new local plan says that the land behind Wytham Street is no longer available. It no longer requires reprovision of Bertie Park recreation ground. But this means that the plan is not consistent with government guidance, giving us grounds for challenge!
24 January 2024: We have been told that the Bertie Park development is expected to go to planning committee in January – before the appropriation. This will be confirmed one week before… Could this be so that we can’t leaflet the area and get people to go and watch them make their decision? Hmmm ….
15th November 2023: There was a cabinet meeting to finalise appropriation. We submitted a speech on the Monday. We said that the appropriation was not legal. Tuesday morning, they agreed we could speak. On Wednesday, 3 hours before the meeting, they pulled the item from the agenda. Campaign members who went into the meeting were told that the council needed more time to consider legal issues. Our blog has the speech that we think stopped the council in their tracks. Read/listen here.
21st September 2023: OCC placed an advertisement in the Oxford times stating their intention to appropriate the land, and asking for objections to its sale. These were the campaign objections, which were signed by nearly 100 people.
August 2023: There was a cabinet meeting to agree to appropriate the land on Bertie Park and to authorise the development and the signing of the contract with Oxford City Housing. This is what we said:
They won’t sign the contract or agree the development until they have appropriated the land. OCC acknowledge that the appropriation may not succeed!
17 July 2023: The campaign addressed a full council meeting:
Click here for the response from Cllr Linda Smith.
9 May 2023: The planning application was submitted. We were told that it would go before planning committee in August. Roughly 270 people commented. 2 people commented in favour of the plans, the majority objected. The campaign set up a go fund me to pay for planning consultant support to help prepare an objection. Click here to read the objection.
7 February 2023: The community was given 4 days’ notice of the second consultation event concerning play equipment for the park. This was held during the half term holidays at a time of day when many children of working parents were still in play schemes.
January 2023: We are carried out a door-to-door survey. We asked everyone just 3 questions:
868 people from 489 households responded. See the results here.
5 May 2022: In the run-up to the local elections, we sent out this leaflet (click here). This suggested three questions to ask candidates on the doorstep. We did not take sides. The election was not a referendum on Bertie Park.
9th November 2022: There was a meeting at St Luke’s Church, Canning Crescent from 8.00 – 9.00 to discuss issues raised at by the consultation and produce a community response. Here is the community response.
1st November 2022: The Bertie Park consultation will be held at the South Oxford Community Centre, Lake Street from 3.45 – 8.00 p.m. Here is the leaflet which was delivered. It does not mention that it is a consultation, or that they want to hear what people think! The Save Bertie petition hits 1,000 signatures. Here are the consultation materials. Here are comments posted on the “your comments” board during the Drop-in consultation. Here is the BBC report on the consultation. Government guidance states that “Existing open space, … recreational buildings and land … should not be built on unless … the loss resulting from the proposed development would be replaced by equivalent or better provision in terms of quantity and quality in a suitable location”. This table summarises what we have now and what will replace it.
September 2022: We were told that the consultation would be at the end of September. The resignation of Marie Tidball meant that there was another delay. Campaign members organised a Hustings at St Luke’s Church. Many issues were raised. Candidate Anna Railton did not attempt to defend the decision to build on Bertie Park.
18th July 2022: Martin and Lilian talked to the council again about their lack of communication. We were told that the consultation would be in the Autumn.
4 January 2022: We asked for an update. We are still waiting!
7th December 2021: Second demonstration in town. Blog here
29 November 2021: Our Second address to council is here. We took the opportunity to challenge what Cllr Alex Hollingsworth has always said in response to our campaign. In stead of a discussion or explanation, Cllr Hollingsworth simply said that he stood by what he had said.
2nd October 2021: Members of the campaign stood up for Bertie Park in front of the Town Hall followed by a picnic at the top of Queen Street. The article in the Oxford Mail is here. For the blog on the event, please see here.
October/November 2021: The council at one time said that they were not carrying out maintenance work on Bertie Park as the bulldozers were due Christmas 2020. There were many dates proposed for consultation during 2021. All of these dates came and went. January 2022, we are still waiting.
22nd March 2021: There was an address to council that referred to a suggestion from sound engineers that building a 3m wall between houses and MUGA would solve any noise issues. Here is the address: link. Here is Cllr Alex Hollingsworth’s answer: link
March 2021: We were told that a MUGA would be reprovided on the current site. If you stand on Bertie, it is easy to see just how close a MUGA would be to the proposed housing. The current recreation ground was obviously designed to ensure that the MUGA was exactly 40m away from all dwellings to avoid noise issues. This is how we measured this: Link
5th April 2021: We now have confirmation that the council has to re-provide the existing facilities. There can be no reduction in the size of the MUGA or the playground, but the council intends to shrink the recreation ground to less than 10% of its current size by reproviding all of the public open space on the wasteland in the form of a nature trail of an equivalent area. The area will not be replanted. This will protect the existing biodiversity. A new path around the area will “provide additionality”. The wasteland is not overlooked and so has a history of antisocial behaviour. The police have said that they are not happy with any play facilities on the waste land, but are OK with a nature trail. They say this would not be safe for young children to run round unsupervised; parents would need to accompany their children.
April 2021: The election edition of the Labour News says that there will be an “adequately sized replacement playground and a MUGA defined as “a kick-about area with goal nets and a porous surface”. The refurbishment of Fox Crescent, instead of being compensation for the loss of Bertie, is now “a long overdue improvement scheme for this small but highly valued play area.” Bertie Park is now referred to as a brownfield site.
February 2021: We sent a letter Link to Stuart Moran and Alex Hollingsworth arguing, among other things, that Fox Crescent can’t be considered as a replacement for Bertie as it is not considered by the council to be within walking distance. Council’s map showing area within walking distance of Bertie is here: Link. In 2022, we are still waiting for an answer to this letter. We set up a second petition which now has over 1,200 signatures.
February 2021: We were told that a new recreation ground would occupy the area between the path and the stream. There would be playground of a size to be agreed and a kick-about area. Space for supervised free play is to be replaced by a grassed area on the waste ground which would not be visible from the playground. The council have always planned to put a nature trail for families on the wasteland. There were suggestions again that the MUGA could be replaced on the waste land.
February 2021: We learned unofficially that the area behind Wytham Street, has still not finished settling. Constructing of any sort of flat surface would be prohibitively expensive.
June 2020: Oxford City Council agrees current plan in which it states that approval will be given for development of Bertie Park if the recreation ground, including the MUGA, are re-provided on the wasteland behind Wytham Street. You can find the section which refers to Bertie Park here: Link
10th March 2020: The South Oxford forum held a meeting at which it was suggested that there would be facilities for older children and a MUGA on the wasteland behind Wytham St. A MUGA is, by definition, a steel-caged games area with a hard surface. Residents were told that they couldn’t object as development of Bertie Park had been on county plans since 2001.
26 November 2019: Carole Thorne set up the original petition to save the Bertie Park recreation ground, followed by the first article in the Oxford Mail: Link
November 2019: The council announced its intention to “increase play opportunities” by building on Bertie Place and replacing the recreation ground with a smaller, more modern playground, re-furbishing Fox Crescent, and planting new trees and shrubs on the wasteland: Link
2005: The developers of flats on the Rivermede site were exempted from the need to provide a play area because of the close proximity of Bertie Park. We understand that the developers provided funding for St Luke’s. Moving the recreation onto the land behind Wytham street would make the park more than 400m away and (according to OCC) no longer within easy walking distance for families living in the flats.
2001: Development of Bertie Place first appeared on the local plan, on the condition that the existing recreation ground be replaced on the land behind Wytham Street: Link Apologies- the text is difficult to read as this plan has been superseded by the current plan.
1967: The housing committee proposed putting garages on Bertie Park. The Parks and Recreation Committee informed the housing committee that it was not prepared to release any part of the recreation ground for the purpose.
1960: Oxford City Council decided to raise the level of the land behind Wytham Street by 4 feet 6 inches to become South Oxford Recreation Ground. They decided to use hardcore, soil or other clean materials. It must have included a lot of domestic waste because the land has never finished settling.
1947: Bertie Park was ploughed and sown with grass. They installed a drinking fountain and there was new access from Wytham St.
Second World War: Bertie Park was converted into allotments.
October 1935: Oxford City Council agreed to install play equipment worth £50 on the field next to Bertie Place
Save Bertie Park Oxford 