Spare boatyard, Philip Pullman tells developers

Bestselling author Philip Pullman yesterday called for a property company to give up trying to develop a historic Oxford canal boatyard into luxury flats after a public inquiry inspector rejected its plans as "sterile" and "uninspiring".

The author called for a totally different style of development of the Castle Mill site, which was the inspiration for the boat-dwelling Gyptians in the His Dark Materials trilogy. One of the books was turned into a Hollywood film, The Golden Compass, last year.

A government planning inspector, Ava Wood, on Wednesday backed Oxford city council's refusal to allow Spring Residential to build 54 luxury flats. She said the design impacted badly on the adjoining Italianate St Barnabas church, which is mentioned in works by Sir John Betjeman, Evelyn Waugh and Thomas Hardy. Furthermore, she said, the nearest alternative boatyard was far away.

Pullman said that he and others wanted to see the site around the 160-year-old canal boat repair yard developed into social housing and workshops. Castle Mill in the Jericho district of central Oxford was the last public boatyard on the Oxford canal and was essential to the 120 families who live on boats in Oxford.

This was the second public inquiry which has refused permission for luxury housing. The developers said yesterday that they would revise their plans in line with the inspector's comments.

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