Addressing long-standing health inequalities through better placemaking
Barton Park
Oxford, UK
Selected as one of ten sites across the UK, Barton Park in Oxford is an exemplar of the National Health Service’s Healthy New Towns Programme which launched in 2015 to explore how the development of new places could provide an opportunity to create healthier and connected communities with integrated and high-quality health and social care.
Like other city regions, parts of Oxford have significant health inequalities, with Barton, a north-eastern suburb of the city, a key example. The wider City also faces significant problems with availability and affordability of housing, as well as connectivity and environmental challenges.
Prior + Partners took a new approach to these twin challenges – of housing delivery and health – in the creation of Barton Park, while also exploring how to engage the existing community with the new development. In an opportunity that began over a decade ago, our town planning team have since worked closely in partnership with developers Grosvenor and landowner Oxford City Council to unlock this strategic site as a community-focused new settlement that would stand the test of time.
With several phases now complete, Barton Park is well on its way to delivering 885 homes, of which 40% are for social rent, alongside major new community assets – from a new primary school which opened in 2020, to a sports pavilion, allotments, community hubs and a ten-acre park. Tying all this together is a robust green infrastructure network which naturally prioritises pedestrians and cyclists.
Alongside appropriate planning parameter plans, Prior + Partners has also authored the Outline Planning Application Design Code. Here, our focus was to develop wording and controls that could be easily understood and implemented under Reserved Matters Applications, and help provide greater certainty in the planning process to streamline development control.
Our team also led the Section 106 negotiation as part of the Outline Planning Application preparation, enabling simultaneous planning permission and S106 signing on the same day. This saw site-wide infrastructure construction commence early, which in turn allowed construction of the development to take place quickly – with multiple housebuilders on-site building in line with a coherent design code, including Hill, Redrow, and Vistry Group.
The selection of these delivery partners at Barton Park was informed by our town planning team’s advice to the client who subsequently required each bidder to produce a benchmark document that demonstrated how interpretation of the Code would be approached. This ensured that housebuilders teamed with quality architects (Pollard Thomas Edwards, Alison Brooks Architects, CZWG) and has resulted in a development well regarded for its unity yet distinctive quality.
Prior + Partners’ advice to deliver the new park in full ahead of other commencement has since provided an immediate and maturing sense of place with increased attractiveness and value of early phase development parcels. We also led negotiations to secure a Community Access Agreement for the Primary school to deliver leisure and cultural provision alongside the early establishment of community hubs in locations easily accessed from the existing communities. These initiatives have promoted integration with the new development and the principles of delivering early community benefits are something that defines our approach towards a design and delivery led town planning ethos.
Throughout our decade long journey on Barton Park, Prior + Partners have collaborated closely with key stakeholders, communities and developers to shape and deliver a comprehensive vision for sustainable urban growth. The development, set to complete in 2027, contributes to a long-term strategy aimed at providing much needed new homes for the City whilst fostering social well-being, environmental stewardship, and economic accessibility for current and future residents of Oxford.
