In 2013, I submitted comments about the proposed demolition of the petrol station at Seacourt Retail Centre. This is from 28 Feb 2013:

It’s understandable that residents don’t want to lose the last remaining petrol station within miles. It’s also understandable that this is a commercial decision and beyond the control of the planning department. However, it points out a policy problem: that in this day of green concerns and over-congestion of our roads, the removal of this petrol station has a large and negative impact on the community. Such an impact *should* be part of the concern and responsibility of Planning. That it is not is a policy problem. I agree with the resident who points out that this project and the West Way redevelopment are an example of a failure of joined up thinking. When I spoke to Doric about it at their open house, they were unaware of the Seacourt Retail property vacancies and plans. Is this something that, had we had an effective neighbourhood plan in place, could have been managed better? Could we have identified the petrol station as a vital community service? Anything the Vale can do to encourage the developers to keep the petrol station would be gratefully looked upon by those of us who will have to drive miles out of our way on the A34 or Botley Road to buy petrol
once it closes. There’s been no opportunity from the developers for a community consultation on the loss of this service, which is too bad.

To my knowledge, no action has been taken to consider, in policy terms, the impact of the loss of the last petrol station, and its effect on miles driven to fill the tank. There is still no joined up thinking across Botley in terms of retail offer. Our next planning application for West Way will probably still have development suggestions that could be better positioned at Seacourt Retail, with its ample parking and site remote from people’s houses.