Oxford City Council and its housing company OX Place were two-time winners at the recent Oxford Preservation Trust (OPT) Awards. 

The OPT Awards recognise the contribution projects make to the "city's character, streets and green spaces". 

OX Place was awarded a certificate in the new buildings category for its development of 10 council homes in Warren Crescent. 

The council was also awarded a certificate in the Small Projects category for Women on the Walls, which celebrates equality by increasing the visibility of women in the town hall’s art collection. 

OX Place completed this development of 10 three-bed council homes at Warren Crescent in July last year. All have been let to households on the housing register. 

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Built on a former garage site, all 10 homes are adaptable and energy efficient. 

Women on the Walls, at Oxford Town Hall, features past and current prominent politicians from Mary Sophia Merivale, Oxford’s first woman councillor, to Lubna Arshad, the first woman of colour to hold the post of lord mayor of Oxford. 

The project also includes pictures of Baroness Frances O’Grady, first woman secretary general of the TUC, and Icolyn “Ma” Smith MBE, founder of the Oxford Community Soup Kitchen. 

Nigel Chapman, city council cabinet member for citizen focused services and council companies, said: “OX Place delivers the affordable, sustainable and high-quality homes Oxford needs. It’s a pleasure to see the OPT recognising the valuable contribution our housing company makes to making Oxford a better place to live.”

Nigel Chapman Nigel Chapman (Image: Oxford Labour) City councillor Katherine Miles, project leader in delivering Women on the Walls, added: “Women have always played a significant role in the social fabric of Oxford, but you wouldn’t have known this by looking at the town hall’s artwork until now.

"Women on the Walls celebrates and inspires women’s participation and leadership in civic and public life by bringing more women to the walls of the council chamber – the heart of local democracy.”  

OX Place and the city council also received letters of commendation for two projects. 

OX Place’s development of 36 low-carbon flats at Bridges Cross in Speedwell Street was commended in the new buildings category. Completed in November last year, Bridges Cross includes 18 council homes, eight shared ownership homes and OX Place’s first 10 homes for market sale. 

The Oxford Needs Homes hoarding for housing development sites was commended in the temporary schemes category.

The hoarding features a timeline of council housing from 1920 until the present day and was first installed at the former Northfield Hostel site off Sandy Lane West. 

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About the author  

Toby is a senior reporter who has a particular interest in covering planning and local government. 

He joined in September 2024 having been a reporter at the Hampshire Chronicle for three years. 

Toby studied at the University of Brighton and can be found on X through the handle @JournoToby