Councillors have unanimously approved plans for 212,000 sq ft of labs in Oxford.

Oxford City Council’s planning committee approved plans by Forge_Kn & Partners to demolish the 97,000 sq ft Beaver House office building in Hythe Bridge Street and a neighbouring commercial building at Nos 39 – 42 for the new development, to be known as Bridge Labs, at its September 17 meeting.

The development, which will be car-free but have ample cycle spaces, will have a ground floor with three/four storeys above and two below. A café will be created on the ground floor.

A neighbouring building, Boatman’s Chapel, a single-storey former chapel and one-time school, most recently used as a restaurant, will be refurbished for use as community space. Later additions to that building will be removed and a garden created behind. The community uses will be managed by the developer.

Cllr Louise Upton called it ‘a fantastic location’ for the expected 810 new jobs and welcomed the secure basement cycle parking.

However, she highlighted one of Oxford’s increasing infrastructure issues with new development, which was reported in the conditions for the proposal.

She said: “This is one of the first ones we’ve had now where they are saying that the water network and the sewage network are going to have to be upgraded before this thing can be occupied.

“So I’m glad to see these things are actually now making their way into planning permission conditions because this is this is a huge problem for us now and I’m glad it’s being acknowledged.”

The team on the project includes Savills on planning, Purcell on architecture and Velocity on transport planning.

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