Bellinger, the car dealer, moved from their Ock Street site on 7th October 2016.
Churchill Retirement Living then put in a planning application during February 2017 for 39 one and two bedroom apartments on the site.
The application was initially turned down by the Vale of White Horse District Council planning committee. The council officer judged that the benefits outweighed the concerns, but Councillors disagreed. Reasons for refusal were ‘…the scale, bulk and close proximity of the proposed building to existing dwellings, the proposal will cause an undue loss of light, sunlight and privacy to neighbouring properties…‘
So the site has had a couple of years to return to nature. I once took a picture of a young fox on the site.
The plan was then granted on appeal on 3rd October 2018 by a planning inspector, and so building work cannot be far off now.
For some it’s time to reflect and remember holocaust day?A letter written by a Jewish woman to her husband and son in the moments before she was taken to the gas chamber at Auschwitz retains its stunning impact more than 70 years later — and according to museum curators, the document may be the only remaining one of its kind. Vilma Grunwald had quickly jotted down 10 lines on a piece of paper before she, her eldest son, and hundreds of other Jews entered the gas chamber at the notorious concentration camp on July 11, 1944. Her husband, Kurt Grunwald, was also a prisoner at the camp — a licensed physician, he was stationed at a work camp where he was made to treat prisoners so they could return to work. Remarkably, a guard agreed to pass Vilma’s note to her husband — who survived the camps and eventually offered to share the letter with his younger surviving son, Misa, who now is known by the name Frank.
“I didn’t want to see it, I was too upset,” recalled Frank, who was 11 when his father first spoke to him about the letter in 1946. Frank didn’t see the letter again until his father’s death in 1967, when he came across it in a desk in his father’s bedroom. For more than two decades, he read and reread it privately but showed it to no one — not even his wife, Barbara. In the 1990s, he shared it with his family before gifting it to the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., five years ago.
“”I thought, ‘Why not expose it so that others can see it?’” Frank, now 85, said. “One of my biggest concerns has always been, ‘Once I’m gone, who will remember my mother?’ Now I believe that fear is neutralized.”
A full transcript of the letter, translated from its original Czech, is below.
You, my only one, dearest, in isolation we are waiting for darkness. We considered the possibility of hiding but decided not to do it since we felt it would be hopeless. The famous trucks are already here and we are waiting for it to begin. I am completely calm. You — my only and dearest one, do not blame yourself for what happened, it was our destiny. We did what we could. Stay healthy and remember my words that time will heal — if not completely — then — at least partially. Take care of the little golden boy and don’t spoil him too much with your love. Both of you — stay healthy, my dear ones. I will be thinking of you and Misa. Have a fabulous life, we must board the trucks.
Into Eternity, Vilma.
Thank you for posting that sad, horrifying and significant note.
If it wasn’t for the sacrifice of so many people in Britain and elsewhere, my wonderful sister and I would not be here and my wonderful twin sisters would not have been born.
Nearly sixty years ago, I visited Belsen. As long as memory remains, I shall remember.
The surrounding residents of the old Bellinger site are concerned about the lack of proposed parking spaces at the site. They believe that the streets around the site wi ll be used for parking so that residents will not be able to park. It is very difficult to park if there is an event at the Trinity Church in Conduit Road at present.
Did you make your comments to the planning inspector, Janet?
…comments to the planning inspector rarely, if ever, have any effect.
Meanwhile…The Last Survivors on BBC2 last night, for HMD, was compelling, poignant viewing.
It may well be that comments to the planning inspector have little effect. Why?
Is it because the comments do not address the requirements that Parliament laid down in statutes and which are the grounds upon which the inspector is require to act?
One thing is for sure: complaints rehearsed here certainly have no effect upon the outcome.
The site is becoming a real mess, so it will be good to see it put to a productive use.
We’re going to need a lot more of this type of accommodation for elderly folk in future. Generally people at that stage of life don’t have a car, but of course the care workers and visitors probably will.
There’s seldom enough parking in modern developments. It’s as though simply by not providing parking, the architects and planners think the cars will magically go away.
Great photo of the fox!