Oxford United have issued an open letter detailing how the Club’s proposed new stadium will help address local challenges.
The letter outlines how the Club have used community feedback to create a vision that respects the stadium’s surroundings, the community and their needs, and explains how community focused facilities and services can tackle societal needs in the area.
The stadium will help reduce NHS waiting lists and provide services to support mental health and physical wellbeing. It will deliver up to 1,000 employment and apprenticeship opportunities, with 20 per cent of jobs created ringfenced for those living locally, to help address the county’s youth employment and hospitality labour shortages.
The letter also confirms the Club have created an approved transport strategy following consultation by Thames Valley Police, Oxfordshire County Council Highways, Chiltern Railways, Oxford Bus Company and Stagecoach to promote trains, buses, cycling and walking. The strategy targets achieving 90% of travel to the stadium via sustainable means.
A new Health and Wellbeing Centre will improve access to healthcare, delivering thousands of NHS diagnostic appointments annually, and a proposed new pharmacy will replace the one closed in Sainsbury’s.
A community gym capable of supporting 250 people daily, plus an accessible public plaza and cafe, wellbeing gardens and walking routes linking to the Woodland Trust Wood at Stratfield Brake forms part of plans to boost physical and mental health provisions too.
The open letter reconfirms the Club’s commitment to investing in Stratfield Brake’s sports pitches for five years, protecting vital grassroots clubs including Kidlington Youth FC and Gosford All Blacks.
It also details the climate benefits it will bring as the UK’s first all-electric stadium and a landmark Oxfordshire green development, powered by on-site renewables and 100% clean energy. New tree planting, green roofs, beehives, ponds, rain gardens, and wildflower meadows will be delivered on site, with a 20% net biodiversity improvement for the benefit of the community provided off-site, double a development legal requirement.
In a further boost to local communities, the Club outlined it is committed to providing additional benefits including free venue access to local schools, charities and community groups, regular community sessions and discounted event hire for non-profit organisations.
The stadium would provide the Club’s charity, Oxford United in the Community - which currently delivers around £1M in social value annually - with facilities enabling it to upscale its impact.
Jonathon Clarke, Development Director at Oxford United, said: “We’ve listened to and implemented feedback, and are committed to delivering something with genuine local value.
“We understand there are existing challenges in the community and have created a plan to help alleviate them. The stadium is about more than football and will deliver huge value to our local communities and beyond.
“We appreciate there are questions about the new stadium and the open letter aims to address them. We’ve also published extensive FAQs on our website and, if anyone has any additional questions, we’re happy to answer them.
“Without the stadium the Club and its Charity cannot survive. The stadium will safeguard both and create a hub that serves the community and helps address local needs.”
Alongside the letter, the Club has published Frequently Asked Questions documents on transport, the green belt and ecology on its website.
To read our Community Open Letter, please click here.
