Madeleine Evans
Oxford Times May 29 2025
CAMPAIGNERS against the Environment Agency’s plans for the new Oxford Flood Alleviation Scheme have said they will consider legal action.
The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has approved compulsory purchase orders for land in West Oxfordshire to complete the scheme.
This means Oxfordshire County Council is now free to consider the wider planning implications of the £176 million project, to be brought before the planning committee.
The defences, which would create a new, 5km stream fed by the Thames through the existing flood plain to the west of Oxford, is designed to protect more than 160,000 homes.
Objectors say the scheme as it stands would damage envionmentally sensitive land, cost millions more than it needs to and disregards residents' concerns.
But a public enquiry held in December 2023 and January 2024 concluded with a recommendation to the Secretary to approve the purchase orders.
In her recommendations issued in March last year, Inspector Joanne Burston said: “On the basis of the evidence put before me, I recommend that, in terms of the overall scheme, the public benefits would clearly outweigh the adverse impacts identified.”
Project director Robbie Williams said the approval was a “major step forward for the project, ensuring we can bring this vital flood protection to the city.”
Responding to the enquiry conclusion, campaigner Brian Durham from New Hinksey,said:"The inspector had recorded a lot of important testimony, but intriguingly none of it made it through to her conclusions. There is a growing consensus amongst campaign groups that we should challenge this report, and/or the planning process that runs in parallel.
"Throughout the enquiry the inspector seemed to be in touch with the arguments she was hearing.
“If this is the report she submitted 13 months ago to the then Environment Secretarv. it’s not clear why it was kept back in this time of climate change and, with high river levels again last year.”
Campaign groups objecting include the Ferry Hinksey Trust, the Oxford Flood and Environmental Group, and the Hinksey and Osney Environment Group.
They stressed that they do not object in principal to a flood alleviation scheme, as many of them have been victims of Oxford flooding in the past. However, they expressed frustration that the agency has not considered alternatives they submitted for the project which, they claim, would protect the environment and reduce cost.
Mr Durham added: "This whole scheme has taken so long from design, planning and the CPO steps.
“The estiJnated £176 million pound budget has increased by 33 per cent. We’ve been offering lower-cost alternatives for years - but with no response.”
He said the campaigners are “keeping all legal options open.”