The battle for Jericho

The Jericho Boatyard on Oxford Canal, which features in the first episode of Inspector Morse, is at the centre of a fierce planning battle between community members and developers.

On 12 August a planning inquiry begins into the fate of proposed luxury apartments. It will settle the developer’s appeal against an earlier decision to deny planning permission to the project.

Spring Residential, who bought the site from British Waterways, have planned a 50 apartment development on the land on which the boatyard stands. They are not commenting on their appeal.

But those opposing the plans say it will destroy the community of some 150 boating families who live around the boatyard and until recently relied on it for the maintenance of their narrowboats.

Members of the community occupied the boatyard after its sale in 2005 in an attempt to keep it running but were later evicted and the boatyard is currently unused.

The campaign to save the boatyard, which features in Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, has received the support of Pullman as well as actors Kevin Whately and David Suchet.

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