City may consider compulsory purchase of canal wharf

Campaigners for developing new community facilities at a city centre derelict wharf have welcomed a council's plans to consider options for the site.

Ed Turner, cabinet member for finance and deputy leader at Oxford City Council, said he has requested a cabinet paper for the local authority's options to develop new commercial and community facilities at Jericho Wharf.

Plans for the land by the Oxford Canal include a working boatyard and affordable housing.

But Carys Bruns, owner of the operating boatyard College Cruisers said there were "other ways of doing it without having to build such a huge industrial unit in the middle of a residential area".

Plans for the land have been through several developers over the past 30 years and seen protests, but the project is yet to be delivered.

The amenities should include a new working boatyard, affordable housing a community centre, public open space and crucially for local residents a potential new bridge crossing.

In December 2024, the Jericho Wharf Trust (JWT) requested the city council secured a Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) for the wharf.

JWT trustee David Edwards said it had last met with the council and current landowner Hong Kong-based Cheer Team Corporation in September 2025.

"[They]made it clear that they didn't in fact have a scheme for the site and that they were not going to come forward with a planning application," Edwards said.

In a statement on Thursday, Turner called the wharf "a critical development site".

"The land is allocated in our Local Plan, with a clear policy framework setting out how the site should come forward," he wrote.

He added the council was "extremely frustrated" by the lack of progress.

"I have asked officers to bring a cabinet paper forward as soon as possible to consider and seek a steer on the City Council's options to intervene in this matter, including exploring the option of CPO as a last resort," Turner said.

Edwards said campaigners were "very pleased" to see the council recognising the site's importance.

He said there were about 400 residential boats in and around the Oxford area.

"The boatyard is, along with the community centre and the public square, really critical because they have nowhere at the moment to get their boats repaired, and in particular to get the boats lifted out and the hulls repaired.

"Without a local facility they can't move the boats very far and they can't move them in winter because the state of the river, the current is too great, so it really is important and boats have been sinking."

He said that although College Cruises had been "very successful" and offer some servicing to boat owners, but did not do hull repairs.

"In the past years, they used to bring in a mobile crane, but that is no longer possible and if you look at the streets of Jericho, you can see why.

"When College Cruises needs to repair or to maintain the hulls of their boats, they have to take the boats up to another boatyard."

Edwards said that every three to five years, boats had to be lifted out and their steel hulls re-blacked to ensure they did not corrode.

"And whilst you've got the boat out of the water, then you can do other maintenance like gas servicing, heating and engines, so you can do it all at the same time.

"Importantly, too, these boatyard docks could be used by College Cruisers, so it would be a win-win for them as well."

Edwards said the trust was "ready and is willing" to work with the landowner, the council and other partners to make the development happen.

But Bruns said there were "a lot of boatyards between Oxford and Banbury and all are very professionally run".

She said her family business had been an operating boatyard and hire base in Jericho since the 1960s and had featured in the first episode of Inspector Morse.

Their core business is a hire boat fleet but Bruns they provide services such as fuel, gas, coal, recycling and car parking facilities.

"We class ourselves as the Oxford Canal hub where we try and solve all canal boat issues so people ring us up with all kinds of questions," she said.

"If we can't solve it for them we usually know somebody who can."

She said her conversations with the campaigners become "difficult" and that she would not speak to them "unless there is a representative from Canal and River Trust there".

"Jericho and its canal are very unique and we, no different to anybody else, want to see it preserved ... but it's got to be done in a way that is sympathetic to the people who live in the area.

She added that if the development came to fruition, they would use the dry dock but "that's the only thing if it would benefit".

Community events organiser John Mair said questions around the development would be discussed at St Barnabas Church on 10 February.

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