Humphries Garage

And the future development of the existing CO-OP shop

It is assumed that, if/when the Co-op move to the ex ‘King of Prussia’ pub site, Humphris Garage will wish to take over the present Co-op premises which are situated next door to them.

Humphris has a long history of incremental development. Each addition in itself would appear unremarkable, but the cumulative result over a period of years has not only had a negative effect upon their resident neighbours on three sides, but it also affects the wider community. More recently, their expansion is causing a serious safety hazard for traffic on the Rose Hill Road. Giant transporters regularly off-load another batch of new cars. This, combined with air pollution from their paint spray booths, noise pollution for Annesley Road residents from vents at the rear of the garage, banging from the workshop, and light pollution for their neighbours opposite, gives understandable cause for concern in the neighbourhood. This time, if they were to extend into the vacated Co-op premises, they would be expanding by about 30% at a stroke. It has occurred to many residents that this could mean 30% more for the neighbourhood of all the problems mentioned above.

An observation from one resident:

‘They’ve just got too big!’

This suggestion was made:

‘What Humphris should do with newly acquired space is use it to create a bay for the big transporters. The transporters are always holding up the traffic, especially the buses. One day there’ll be an accident.’

Humphris have tripled their dealership in the past twelve months. This appears to have tripled their turnover of motorcars which means many more transporters to keep up with demand. These double-storey transporters arrive daily, at all times of day, to off-load all the new cars right on the main thoroughfare in front of the garage. There are three bus stops very close by. One is immediately opposite the garage and the other two approx. at distances of 30 yards and 100 yards in either direction on the same side as the garage. ‘It can be a terrifying sight to see the buses and cars trying to manoeuvre their way around those great big transporters, especially when a cyclist comes along’.

Testimonies from long-standing residents in the neighbourhood know it wasn’t always like this. ‘You can’t point the finger at any one individual in authority for the damaging effects of an overdeveloped garage in the middle of a residential area, but let’s hope lessons have been learned.’

There was one compliment: ‘The showroom is pretty posh inside’. It came from someone outside of the neighbourhood.

Paint Fumes from the garage: For some years there has been a great deal of concern in parts of the community about paint fumes emitted from the spray paint business at the garage, particularly in Annesley Road, which backs onto the garage, and Rose Hill Road. Complaints, a petition, meetings, letters and phone calls have been made to the environmental health department to try to put an end to the problem. Some residents felt they couldn’t complain because it might jeopardise the sale of their house, others have moved. Some residents say they have now given up complaining. Some of the residents affected live just a few feet from the garage and it is a puzzle in the neighbourhood how permission was ever granted for spray-paint booths in the first place. Tests were done a year ago by Environmental Health and it was revealed that fumes could only (only?) be detected 12 times out of 16 occasions. The official conclusion by Environmental Health at Oxford City Council was that this did not constitute a nuisance or a health hazard.

Even in compiling this report, three residents, one with a baby in a buggy, could smell the fumes quite strongly by the entrance to Villiers Lane.

Residents request that frequent checks will be made by Environmental Health to monitor these emissions and to monitor the quantity of paints used containing VOCs. The community is aware that there are government guide-lines for permitted emissions of paints containing VOCs. However, it has been difficult to ascertain guide-lines for paint-spray businesses situated as close to houses as this (some just a few feet away). Residents hope that the Department of the Environment will advise.

An obvious solution, which would spare the community from paint fumes, is for Mr. Humphris to move his spray-paint business from his Rose Hill Road branch to his trading estate branch on the Waltlington Road in Oxford.

‘If you live near a big garage what can you expect?’

But nearby residents protest:

‘The houses were built long before
the garage existed.’

Some residents who live very close to the garage are angry because their home lives have been seriously diminished by the seemingly uncontrollable force of incremental development at the garage.

Two suggestions from residents:

‘It would help if they provided
their own staff and customer parking’.

‘Why can’t they off-load their cars from the transporters at their trading estate branch and ferry them to Rose Hill individually?’.

The problem appears not to be what the garage is, but where it is. There are houses next door to it, houses opposite it and houses to the rear.

Residents hope that a strategy for regeneration of this neighbourhood will give rise to ways of phasing out some of the problems caused in the community by the garage. This will require voluntary co-operation by Mr. Humphris. They also hope that Oxford City Council planners will exercise greater control over incremental development and ensure that things don’t get any worse for the neighbourhood than they already are. Commercial lighting at the garage will be covered under a separate heading which is about lighting in the general neighbourhood.